AUREA#1 recap
The inaugural AUREA Awards in November 2018 brought together ten finalists from a pool of 80+ entrants, joined by a community of industry experts from around the world for an exciting 2-day experience in Europa-Park in Southern Germany.
The new hotspot for the AR/VR industry
Bringing together the best. Celebrating the growing VR & AR ecosystem. Making valuable connections. By realizing these demanding promises to the best, the debuting AUREA Award became the new hotspot for the AR/VR industry from its very beginning.
The event brought together global technology and entertainment leaders in order to honor the best products and experiences in this next wave of mass media. By showcasing and awarding state of the art experiences, AUREA showed where the industry is headed and helped its community to flourish – best conditions for the upcoming AUREA Award 2019 starting the call for entries on August 5, 2019.
Kathleen Cohen, a digital experience expert who has implemented successful projects for DreamWorks Interactive and IBM Innovation, led the jury which included co-founder & CEO of VR-Coaster Thomas Wagner, Friedbert Pflüger, Chairman of Internet Economy Foundation, Emily Olman, Co-founder & CEO of Spatial First, Co-President of VR/AR Association SF Chapter and Frank Govaere, VFX Supervisor at UFA Serial Drama GmbH.
Involving all stakeholders from the broader Entertainment sector, be it startups, investors, creatives or corporates, the event has been the kick-off for a lively AR/VR network to come like jury member Emily Olman said: “I feel like we created a community here over two days, that will build upon itself and become a bigger and bigger event and have more and more influence for years to come.” The next community reunion is soon to come.
The submission process for the AUREA Award 2019 starts on August 5st, 2019 and will end on November 1st, 2019. One month later, the finalists will be announced. Nominees can look forward to the AR/VR-related conference and the glamorous award ceremony on January 15-16, 2020.
The first AUREA Award hosted by MackMedia celebrated innovative projects from digital pioneers in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Representatives from across the AR and VR ecosystem came together to shape the entertainment of the future through innovative projects and creative ideas: experience or storytelling producers, game developers, application or service providers, hardware manufacturers, software or platform vendors or others Market players experienced a fascinating event, which made a big difference in terms of professionalism and networking.
Ten finalists pitched a live presentation of their innovations to the panel of judges in the categories of Creativity, Experience, Influence, Innovation and Interaction. The event culminated in a festive Award ceremony held at Europa-Park, Germany on the 30th November and presented by moderator Markus Brock. All of the participants were united in their desire to drive the entertainment industry forward.
What they experienced on site was not only a professionally inspiring conference and a festive evening event finally giving the most exciting innovations the attention they deserve, but especially the opportunity to exchange ideas about the most important issues on equal footing with the experts from the jury and like-minded individuals, and to establish valuable contacts.
Initially, more than 50 companies had submitted their projects, ranking from games and apps to software and Hardware-Tools, which can be combined with AR and/or VR technology. In its first year, the competition encouraged any entrants to vie for an AUREA trophy in order to see the full range of new projects, products and experiences in AR and VR Entertainment. Thus, entrants were not asked to declare a narrow category for their entries. Instead, the AUREA jury selected winners along more general lines.
Finally, ten finalists had the chance to pitch their top-level projects live before the jury. Choosing the best ones in five categories has been a hard job for the jury members, who were deeply impressed by the overall quality of the submissions. After all, the winning companies Aesir Interactive, Kynoa´s, Backlight, headraft and eyecandylab were honored.
