VENUE The Mirador, CCCB Barcelona, Spain

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

The metaverse concept is that of a large-scale social environment based on the convergence of virtual and physical reality. Participants can take part in the metaverse through virtual, augmented or mixed reality. They can carry out everyday activities together, ranging from entertainment through to education, business, politics, health or even legal proceedings. At this time the metaverse is more of an idea than a reality, but a number of nascent systems exist, and all the technological components, including solutions involving AI, are available to bring this idea into existence.

The metaverse may have a profound impact on the way we live, bringing new beneficial ways of carrying out educational, social and economic activities, but may also introduce problems in the ethical, legal, business, psychological, political and social sphere. There will be opportunities and problems that at the moment we cannot envisage, since each new technology brings with it fundamental changes that are hard to foresee. The mobile phone in conjunction with the world wide web and social media have led to revolutionary changes in society including on the positive side deep connectivity between people, but on the other, a threat to democracy. The immersive nature of the metaverse will have the potential to enhance both the positive and negative impact by an order of magnitude.

The EMRN is a research group that studies these various aspects of the metaverse concept. The 2024 EMRN conference will feature the EMRN members and their work, but we invite other stakeholders from academia, industry and policy to contribute to the discussion.

We invite submission of papers and posters, in order to foster new collaborations, and generate new ideas, moving towards a greater chance of envisaging the future. We are also looking forward to exciting and inspiring keynotes and panels that enable a multi stakeholder dialogue.

By bringing research, industry and policy makers together to engage in an open discussion we can enhance the probability of a ‘metaverse for the good’.

We encourage participation of younger researchers, so there will be special sessions on PhD presentations corresponding to submitted posters.

Publication in the Frontiers in Virtual Reality Journal

Papers submitted will be reviewed and will have the possibility of being published, in an expanded form, for a Research Topic in the journal Frontiers in Virtual Reality.
The Research Topic call is A Metaverse for the Good: Design, Application and Understanding.

Submissions

Details of submission and deadlines (now closed)
There were 50 submissions in total
Registration (essential)

Provisional Program

This programme envisages the topics to be addressed in the conference. However, contributions are not limited to these. Provided a contribution (paper or poster) is in the scope of the conference, contributing to the deployment, practice and understanding of the metaverse, including technical, ethical, regulatory and legal issues, then a new topic area will be included into the conference programme as required. Most sessions will be of the form of the presentation between 2 and 4 submitted papers, followed by a panel. Panel members will be chosen by the EMRN.

9th April, Day 1

09:00-9:15 Opening Session

Welcoming Remarks:

Prof. Joan Guàrdia Olmos, Rector Universitat de Barcelona

Prof. Mel Slater , EMRN Coordinator

09:15-10:45 The Metaverse for Industry: applications, economic impact, the future of work and education

Moderator: Prof. Omar Niamut

09.15-10.15: 2-4 submitted papers

10:15-10:45: Panel Discussion including Xavi Navarrro, Capgemini; Charlie Pearmund, kiin.tech, Gillian Shanahan, Meta, TBC.

10.45-11.15 Coffee break & XR demos

11:15 - 12:45: Towards an Intelligent Metaverse: The use and impact of AI

Moderator: Prof. Doron Friedman

11:15 - 12:15: Paper Presentation Session (2-4 submitted papers)

12:15 - 12:45: Panel Discussion including the impact of the new EU regulatory framework on AI

12.45 – 13.30 Invited Industry Keynote speaker

13.30 – 14.30 Lunch Break, Poster session and XR demos

14.30 – 15.45 Imagining the future: Multi Stakeholder discussion on the future of the Metaverse

Moderator: Michael Barngrover

Invited stakeholders from industry, government, the European Commission, policy makers, and EMRN members including:
Isabelle Hupont Torres, European Commission; Kaj Helin, VTT; Jennifer Cheung, Digital Catapult UK; Juan Bossicard, Meta.

15.45 – 16.15 Coffee break and XR demos

16.15 – 17.00 Fireside chat with Notable Industry Figure

Moderator: Zillah Watson , ex BBC Radio 4 and Commissioning Editor for Virtual Reality & Head of BBC VR Hub, Honorary Professor at UCL, founder of Phase Space.

10th April, Day 2

09.00 – 10.30 Creating the Metaverse: Technical Challenges and Solutions

Moderators: Prof. Sylvia Pan

09.00 – 10.00: Paper Presentation Session

10.00 – 10.30: Panel discussion

10.30 – 11.00 Break, poster presentations and demos

11.00 – 12.30 Neurotechnology, neuroscience and the Metaverse

Moderator: Prof. Maria V. Sanchez.Vives

11.00 – 12.00: Paper presentation (2-4 submitted papers)

12.00 – 12.30: Panel Discussion including: Christoph Guger, g.tec; others TBC

12.30– 13.00 PhD Poster Presentations

Rapid presentations of posters

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch, Poster presentations and demos

14.00 - 15.30 Ethical, legal and political implications of the Metaverse

Moderators: Prof. Matthias Quent

14.00 - 15.00: Paper presentation (2-4 submitted papers)

15.00 - 15.30: Panel discussion including Aurelio Lopez-Tarruella Martinez, University of Alicante; Aki Jarvinen, Digital Catapult UK; Dani Shanley, Maastricht University; Eimear Farrell, World Economic Forum, others TBC

16.00 – 17.00 European Projects

Presentations by ongoing or recent European projects

17.00 – 17.30 Closing session

Nonny de la Peña Founder of Emblematic, Program Director (Narrative and Emerging Media) + Professor of Practice, The Sidney Poitier New American Film School, Arizona State University. "De la Peña has been on the cover of the Wall Street Journal magazine as a WSJ 'Technology Innovator of the Year' and has been called 'The Godmother of Virtual Reality' by Engadget, The Guardian and others. Fast Company named her 'One of the People Who Made the World More Creative' for her pioneering work in immersive journalism, a field she is widely credited with establishing."

Programme Committee

Mel Slater (Chair), Aurelio Lopez-Tarruella Martinez, Doron Friedman, Maria V. Sanchez.Vives, Matthias Quent, Michael Barngrover, Omar Niamut, Sylvia Pan

Administration

Euridice Alvaro (IDIBAPS), Alicia Ferrer (IDIBAPS), Dario Bellido (UB)

Sponsorship

This web site may change from day to day.

The EMRN is being led independently by the constituent research institutions, some of whom had received funding provided through an unrestricted gift by Meta.