We're excited to announce the Second Annual DCVR Innovation Panel! This is easily our biggest event of the year as we bring together the DCVR Community for a night of discussions, demos, and fun. This year will be extra special as we are hosting the event in conjunction with the UMD VR Club (http://www.umdvr.com/) in order to bring our two innovative communities closer together.



On the panel we will have a collection of the best and brightest minds from the local area to discuss how we can turn the DMV area into a hub of VR innovation. We will hear from local thought leaders on the best ways to foster development, bring resources to the area, and start VR companies. After the panel we'll get the chance to try out a wide variety of demos from companies like Visisonics (http://visisonics.com/) and members of the UMD VR Club. The VR revolution is just beginning and this is our chance to be on the forefront of it!



Panel 1: The Creators - Starting and scaling VR companies in the DMV



Dr. Monifa Vaughn-Cooke: She is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Maryland and Director of the Hybrid-System Integration and Simulation Laboratory (http://hsis.umd.edu/). Her research focuses on the use of VR simulation environments to empirically evaluate human performance in safety-critical domains.



Sean McBeth: In his varied career in software consulting he successfully bootstrapped and deployed multiple database applications for desktop and web covering workforce automation, data analytics, IoT, GIS, numeric and 3D simulation, and machine vision. He is now CEO and Chief Architect at Primrose VR (http://www.primrosevr.com/), building productive virtual reality workspaces.



Emma Mankey Hidem: She specializes in 360° video and has been working in the VR space since 2013 as the founder of SunnysideVR (http://www.sunnysidevr.com/). Most of her VR work so far has been in the marketing space but she is has a documentary background so she is very excited about the story-telling possibilities in VR, particularly from a journalism perspective.



Panel 2: The Community - How we can bring resources to grow the DMV VR scene



Randy Domolky: He is the Founder and Managing Director for Private Access Network (https://privateaccessnetwork.com/). He is a seasoned technology and venture capital executive with over 20 years of experience in senior management, business development and financial roles. Mr. Domolky has extensive experience building and maintaining over $100 million of venture capital and private equity fund-of-funds for institutional, municipal and individual investors.



Galen Stetsyuk: He is the president of the Virtual Reality Club (http://www.umdvr.com/) at the University of Maryland. He is also co-founder of MPLEX, a new VR game development company based in College Park, MD.



Jason Ganz: He is one of the founders and organizers of the DCVR meetup. He also works as the CEO and co-founder of Agora VR (http://agoravr.com/). He's a frequent contributor to Singularity Hub, a committed futurist, and constantly thinking about ways to use technology to improve humanity.



Our panel moderator will be the esteemed Adam Zuckerman. An entrepreneur, technologist, attorney, and MBA, Adam is the founder of Fosterly, an organization which connects innovators and entrepreneurs as they start and scale their endeavors. In addition to being an active member of the region's community, he serves on the advisory boards of other organizations, mentors entrepreneurs and startups, and has a full time position leading innovation initiatives (such as starting the VR taskforce, which evolved into Discovery VR) at the world's #1 pay-TV provider, Discovery Communications.



Agenda:



6:30: Doors open / networking



7:00: Intro from the organizers



7:10: Panel 1: The Creators



7:55: Panel 2: The Community



8:40: Demos!



See you there!