The Wild: VR Travel, Plus

Over Coffee® | Stories and Resources from the Intersection of Art and Science | Exploring How to Make STEAM Work For You

Over Coffee® is on Easter-week hiatus! Please enjoy this update of one of our favorite VR episodes of 2020 as we look forward to the second annual VRARA Global Summit, in June, 2021! (Photo courtesy of The Wild, and used with permission.) Maybe you can't physically travel, right now. But with The Wild's virtual and extended reality, you can go anywhere. And once you're there, you can play, collaborate and even host a party! In June, 2020 The Wild Founder/CEO Gabe Paez gave a keynote, "The Virtualization of Transportation", at the VR/AR Association's first-ever all-virtual global summit. He offered some exciting ideas about reimagining travel, collaboration, education and even play, courtesy of extended reality. But Gabe didn't simply discuss these concepts. He demonstrated them--as The Wild hosted the 2020 VR AR Global Student Design competition! Here is our interview with Gabe, recorded just a few weeks prior to the VRARA's 2020 Global Summit. For 2021, we can't wait to see what else The Wild will come up with! On this edition of Over Coffee® we cover: How a unique professional challenge ultimately led to Gabe’s interest in working with immersive technology; The immersive-software insights that led Gabe to create The Wild; How The Wild mirrors the physical world; Why XR may provide a preferable alternative to physical travel for creative collaboration; How virtualized transportation could be beneficial in the educational and medical fields; A look at some possible personal-use scenarios of virtualized environments. Something new that Gabe and his team had, literally, just added to The WIld, at the time of our conversation. AND--some milestones that have occurred for The Wild, since we spoke! Who else is "going" to the VR/AR Association's Global Summit? They're actually hosting TWO virtual events. Their summer edition, Wednesday, June 2 through Friday, June 4, will be in accordance with the North American time zone. Then, their autumn edition, happening Wednesday, September 29th through Friday, October 1, is on the European time zone. From experience, it's well worth setting an early alarm clock to attend!