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The annual Consumer Electronic Show returned to Las Vegas in 2023 as a full-fledged trade event. Like before the pandemic, the show floors were crowded with people, booths, and gadgets. Some digital leftovers from the virtual interregnum broadcasted daily events from the show, streamed keynotes and panel discussions from the conference, and offered an expo space with digital company profiles and product portfolios. A

Formerly known as VR Days Europe, the annual European XR convention moved from Amsterdam to Rotterdam under the new title of Immersive Tech Week. The program structure did not change too much. You got the same tracks for lectures and panels, trade exposition, art work installations and special events like before, all centered around the latest trends in XR research and applications. The 5 days started with 2 days of

IFA came back to life in 2022 on the Berlin fair ground after a cancellation in 2021 and a digital edition in 2020. The pandemic worries now make way for other critical developments in global trade reorganization. The fair ground was not as busy as in pre-pandemic years, although the program made quite a complete impression. In general, the whole show was shifting from a consumer event to a more concerted trading con

The reenactment program of the world’s most popular game event was surprisingly complete in comparison to the original editions before the pandemic break. Gamescom 2022 warmed up with the developer conference Devcom, launched as a business event on media day with the Opening Night Live Show, restarted the next day with the political discussion platform Gamescom Congress and continued the consumer show until the

Hybridity makes it possible to seamlessly slide from virtual into real presence and vice versa. My embarking at this year’s Devcom gave a perfect example: I started the developer’s conference on the virtual platform while sitting in a train to Cologne. Upon my arrival at the conference’s site, I had already followed this day’s lectures in the live video stream, and I now entered the lecture ro

After two virtual issues, SIGGRAPH went back to reality in Vancouver this year with a hybrid edition. The Vancouver event reconnected to the pre-pandemic traditional show formats. The online edition focused on the tracks with proven broadcast eligibility throughout the pandemic period. Especially, the immersive sections could refill the exposition and convention spaces with art installations, emerging tech demos and

Last year’s digital E3 accumulated a collection of streamed video game publications to conserve the annual presentation window through pandemic conditions. This year, the publisher streams spoke for themselves without the support of an overarching business platform. The promotion cycle could be maintained with a constant flow of game announcements for immediate summer release, previews for the holiday season

Berlin’s annual art festival for indie games and playful media came back in a triple package this year: lectures and workshops were accessible online in streams and on meeting platforms, the game exposition could be visited with your flamingo avatar in the multiplayer online world of A Maze Space, and an onsite event in Berlin featured a display of installations as well as a celebration party in real life. For

‘Fear of missing out’ is a habitual feeling at the annual Game Developer Conference, with all the many parallel tracks of exciting topics. But this year’s GDC was especially fearful due to the scheduling in a hybrid format. After last year’s digital edition, GDC 2022 went back to normal – somehow – by maintaining digital accessibility – somehow. Portal jumps between different