Virtual Reality in Iceland

I learned two very valuable lessons in Iceland that further my confidence Virtual Reality is expanding globally, and fast.

Strong communities/ecosystems of VR developer/entrepreneur/investor/talent is emerging in less populated areas of the world, like Reykjavik Iceland.

VR communities that already exist are willing to travel and helpgrow these high potential VR communities.

A few weeks ago I receive a text from @TommyLeep saying, "Hey, SLUSH PLAY is hosting a VR conference in Iceland. Any interest to participate on a VR investment panel?" I was honored. And, as we took off on WOW Airline from SFO airport, sure enough, it was even better than we expected.

SLUSH PLAY was the most well organized, planned, and executed VR conference I have attended since Vision Summit.

• The SLUSH team went so far out of their way to make everyone enjoy the Icelandic culture. They took the speakers/panelist snowmobiling on a glacier, geyser viewing, and they led us at very late hours of the night into the darkness in order to view the Northern Lights. It was truly magical and I can’t thank Salome, Edda, and Diljá enough for the amount of care and precision that ultimately led to an unforgetable adventure.

Exposing us to this culture was eye opening when it comes to seeing all the awesome Virtual Reality activity around the world.

• Iceland is emerging as a new hub for VR, and it is emerging quickly. Something we did not expect, but as a VR enthusiast, it is truly magical to see this happening.
• The number of VR deal activity in Iceland has grown roughly ~1200% in the past 3 years according to Founder of The Nordic Web, Neil Murray.

This is now the second new and unexpected destination I have visited in the past month in order to research the VR activity. The other - Nevada City, California (read previous article for details). It is really encouraging to see the amount of focus and talent that is building tools, platforms, and web apps for VR all around the world.

Would like to thank those who sat on our "The Business of VR" panel.

CHRISTINA BECHHOLD - Christina Bechhold | LinkedIn

PHIL CHEN - Phil Chen | LinkedIn

HRISH LOTLIKAR - Hrish Lotlikar | LinkedIn

HILMAR VEIGAR PéTURSSON - Hilmar Veigar Pétursson | LinkedIn

HILMAR touched on the importance of a VR company keeping a 5+ year survival budget to protect against downside of adoption delays. He also touched on the importance of designing experiences that user's appreciate. "Read The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine "

And a special thanks to our moderator and my new friend, NEIL MURRAY - Neil S W Murray | LinkedIn

4) I wanted to highlight some of the amazing entrepreneurs that are working on fascinating problems for VR.

These founders are all amazing entrepreneurs working on ideas that push the boundaries of VR and human consciousness:

DIDRIK STEINSSON - MureVR - An Iceland native, and incredibly talented entrepreneur working leveraging VR to increase productivity. LinkedIn

MARSHALL R. MILLETT - AEMASS (tech demo https://youtu.be/Ecgd7kwCJG8)

DAN COOK - EYE MYND BRAINWAVE VR - We even spoke about “Cerebral security.” This was one of the most fascinating topics all conference.

KARLO KANANEN - VIZOR - Allows non-technicals the ability to design VR experience delivered through the web.

4) My favorite keynote of the day came from STEINAR SVALESEN of Beringer Finance.

      Steinar has always had a care for disruptive techs that change how we think about our world. Ai, vr, ar, ed tech, fintech, media tech, medtech, travel tech, software, telco, green tech, food tech, IT, clean tech, etc.

The reason I appreciated this speech the most, is because he said, "THE CAPITAL WITHIN AN ECOSYSTEM IS NOT THE MONEY! IT IS THE REAL-TIME PERSONAL DATA THAT IS EXCHANGED BETWEEN PEOPLE."

This logic is the same reason why we at www.VirtualRealityInvestment.com are so focused on cultivating an ecosystem around VR investors, Corp BD focused on VR, and a network of VR entrepreneurs working on world changing ideas. It is so important to be able to have this real time personal data about needs of the various parties involved. It is more valuable than the funding dollars, because it is this personal data and personal needs that actually enables an investor to know when and where they should be investing according to how much impact those dollars will have.

However, enabling VR might lead to bad just as much as it could lead to good. If we are not careful. Steinar spoke about some UPCOMING CONCERNS for negative impacts VR can have on world.

A) What does it look like to commit to agelessly binding contract in VR?

B) How can you make payments in VR in a secure setting?

C) "Not everything is all for the common good” - aka, we are not all going to agree on what is good for society / powerful distributed computing. BOOK recomendation, THE AGE OF SPIRITUAL MACHINES RAY KURZWEIL,

I loved Steinar's speech. It was a breathe of fresh air to hear an investment bank with such a deep understanding of the tech, upcoming concerns, and opportunities in VR.  *audio recording of his speech can be heard if you email me personally, [email protected]*

5) The SLUSH experience was amazing, and the speaker content was equally as valuable. LIST OF SPEAKERS FOUND BELOW https://play.slush.org/on-stage-2016/

1. ATHOMAS GOLDBERG - President at Lifelike & Believable Animation Design, Inc.
2. BEN BOHN -CEO & Managing Director at RVX
3. BRETT LEONARD - CCO of Virtuosity
4. CHELSEA STARK - Games Editor at Mashable
5. CHET FALISZEK - Developer at Valve
6. CHRIS DONAHUE - Director, Developer Relations at AMD
7. CHRIS TRAUB - Chairman and Co-Founder of the SES Group
8. CHRISTINA BECHHOLD - Principal, Samsung Global Innovation Center Co-Founder and Managing Director, Empire Angels
9. CLAUDIO PEDICA - User Experience Engineer at Sólfar Studios
10. DADI EINARSSON - Co-founder and Creative Director of RVX
11. DAN COOK - Founder of Eye Mynd Brainwave VR
12. DAVID JAMES THUE - Assistant Professor at Reykjavik University
13. DAVID REICHELT - Founder of Color Switch
14. DAVID TRAUB - VR Media Producer
15. DENNIS MITZNER - Freelance Tech Journalist
16. DOMINIC ESKOFIER - Virtual Reality Manager EMEAI at NVIDIA
17. DON STEIN -- Virtual Reality Investments, LLC (VRI)
18. KJARTAN PIERRE EMILSSON - CEO and Co-Founder of Sólfar
19. ELISABET GRETARSDOTTIR - Marketing Director Live Services at EA Games, DICE
20. EUGENE KISLYI - Co-Founder of Wargaming
21. GEORGE SCOTTO - Director & Business Development CRYENGINE at Crytek
22. HILMAR VEIGAR PéTURSSON - CEO of CCP Games
23. HRAFN THORRI THóRISSON - CEO & Co-Founder of Aldin Dynamics
24. HRISH LOTLIKAR - Co-Founder & CBDO, The Rogue Initiative
25. IRIS ANDRESDOTTIR -Senior Producer at King
26. JACOB IVSTAM - Business Performance Director at King
27. JANA PALM - General Manager of Stugan
28. JONAS ANTONSSON - Reality Distortionist at Raw Fury
29. JULIE HEYDE - #ChickenBitch at VRUnicorns
30. KARL MAGNUS TROEDSSON - Partner & Game Patron at Raw Fury Games
31. KHAYYAM WAKIL - VR Strategy & Innovation / Creative Partnerships at Live Planet
32. KISH HIRANI - Consultant
33. LEO MIRANI - News editor at The Economist
34. MARSHALL R. MILLETT - Founder & CEO at Aemass, Inc.
35. MARSHALL ROSLYN -VP at Goldman Sachs
36. MASARU OHNOGI - Head of Global Business Development of gumi Inc
37. MIK STROYBERG - Founder & CEO of Lemonsqueeze
38. NEIL MURRAY - Tech journalist and Founding Editor of The Nordic Web
39. ODDUR MAGNUSSON - CTO / Founder of Klang Games
40. OLAFUR ANDRI RAGNARSSON - Technical Visionary and Investor
41. PETER Y LEVIN - President of Interactive Ventures & Games at Lionsgate
42. PHIL CHEN - Managing Partner at Presence Capital & Advisor at Horizons Ventures
43. SARA LISA VOGL - Creative Squirrel & UX Designer at Lucid Trips
44. SEAN LEE - Chief Strategy Officer at Wargaming
45. STEFANIA G. HALLDORSDOTTIR - General Manager at CCP
46. STEINAR SVALESEN - Partner at Beringer Finance
47. STEPHEN JARRET - VP Game Design at King
48. THOR FRIDRIKSSON - Founder of Plain Vanilla Games
49. TOMMY LEEP - Advisor & VC
50. TOMMY PALM - CEO & Game Designer at Resolution Games
51. VIGNIR GUDMUNDSSON - CEO & Co-Founder of Radiant Games
52. WILL FREEMAN - Freelance video game journalist

If you are working on a web VR startup, mobile VR startup, or scalable business solution in VR, please email [email protected] if you'd like help with financing.