(Photograph courtesy of Heather Dodds, and used with permission.)

Virtual events allow lots of room for creativity, says senior XR researcher, designer and author Heather Dodds.

Heather, who has a Ph.D. in virtual worlds, creates and produces events in VR and XR.  In June, she co-chaired the 2020 Immersive Learning Research Network conference.  She and her staff had just over three months to take the conference completely virtual, due to the pandemic!

They did it--and ILRN 2020 was available as a fully-online, free conference AND in 360-degree virtual reality.

Heather talked about her background, the experience of taking the ILRN conference virtual, and offered guidance for anyone who's similarly looking at hosting a conference, special event or class in virtual or mixed reality.

On this edition of Over Coffee®, you will hear;

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How Heather was first introduced to virtual worlds;

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Her story of creating this year's completely-virtual ILRN conference;

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Where to start, when you're planning a virtual event;

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Differences to keep in mind, between creating an onsite event and one in XR;

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Some of the "mechanics" involved in creating the ILRN 2020 all-virtual conference;

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Heather's advice on adding the "fun" element to virtual events;

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Mistakes to avoid, when hosting new virtual events;

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Some of the platforms Heather recommends for classes and other virtual events, and why.