On July 3, Gyeonggi Province revealed the main speakers and lectures of Global Developers Forum (GDF) 2018, which will be held for three days from July 19 to 21 at the International Conference Hall of the Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy and Innovation in Pangyo.

GDF is an event organized to for the exchange of information about new technology and development know-how in the VR/AR industry. It will involve approximately 1,000 VR/AR personnel and industry officials from all over the world.

Under the theme of “Come Together”, this year’s forum will serve as an opportunity to analyze the global VR/AR market with international partners and discuss various cooperation measures for expanding the VR/AR industry.

The forum invites twenty VR/AR experts from around the world and is divided into four sessions: VR-public, VR-commerce, VR-convergence and VR-e-sports.

On the first day (July 19), Professor Timothy Jung, Director of the VR/AR Hub at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), will give a keynote speech on the global VR/AR Market and global partnership, followed by afternoon sessions on VR-public and VR-commerce.

The VR-public session is held in collaboration with Horst Hörtner, co-founder of the Ars Eletronica Festival, the world’s largest digital media art festival, in order to discuss the direction of public values through a combination of VR technology and arts. Won Jun-hui, a representative of Naviworks, a specialist company in the military/public sector VR education/training program, will introduce examples of VR technology applied in social and public sectors.

In the VR-commerce session, Robert M. Bruski, co-founder of Ctrl V, the largest VR arcade company in North America, and Ari Meilich, representative of Decentral Land, the first open VR platform based on the block chain, will present successful cases of VR technology in the market and their commercialization vision for the technology.

Robert M. Bruski, who has led the franchising of VR arcades, will give a presentation on successful cases of VR content experience development with minimum cost and space. Ari Meilich, who attracted USD 27 billion at an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) in 35 seconds, introduces current partnerships between the crypto-currency game industry and Decentral Land-VR contents.

In the VR-e-sports session held in the morning of July 20, Christopher McKelvy, director of e-sports at Oculus, a leading company in the VR industry, will talk about the commercial potential of VR-e sports. E-sports is to be analyzed from a realistic perspective based on the development process of the VR Challenger League launched in July 2017.

In the VR-convergence session in the morning of July 21, Ryan Derluca and Preston Lewis, co-founders of Black Box VR, one of the top start-up companies selected by the CES 2018, will offer a lecture on the application of VR technology to the fitness industry. As an established company, Black Box VR plans to present the implications and future of VR convergence contents, forming a consensus with domestic VR companies.

In the afternoons of July 20 and 21, the first VR-e-sports showcase in Korea will take place. A VR e-sport is an online game that utilizes VR technology, and this showcase was designed to vitalize the VR-e-sports industry. The VR e-Sports Academia, which consists of 20 individuals including officials of Kongdoo Company, a Korean e-sports company, and e-sports and VR experts, will analyze the reaction to and results of the showcase where it releases its interim research achievements, to present a successful e-sports business model.

GDF 2018 is open to anyone who is interested in VR/AR. Tickets are divided into 3-day tickets for both the forum and VR-e sport showcase and tickets for only the VR-e sports showcase. Discounts or free tickets are available with pre-registration through the official website.

For more information, visit the official website (www.gdf2018.or.kr).