World VR conference in Jiangxi boosts innovation, metaverse

The 2022 World Conference on VR Industry held from Nov 12 to 13 in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, has played a key role in promoting innovation, the economy and the country's virtual reality industry, local officials said.

Under the theme of "VR Makes the World More Wonderful — VR Lights Up the Metaverse", the event focused on "internationalization, specialization, branding and popularization" and aimed to be a first-class meeting for the VR industry worldwide.

This year's conference consisted of 16 forums including two major summits on the metaverse and industrial chain supply, 10 parallel forums in such areas as cultural tourism, medical care and health, games and entertainment, vocational education and industrial manufacturing as well as four forums for enterprises covering Huawei, Baidu, China Mobile and China Telecom.

More than 180 representatives from leading companies, industry organizations and well-known universities in the VR and augmented reality industries in China and abroad gave speeches during the conference. Nearly 100 renowned enterprises from 10 countries and regions including the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Austria and domestic leading companies such as Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent participated in the conference.

Yang Guiping, head of the Jiangxi Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, said the conference applied advanced technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, 5G, cloud computing, naked-eye 3D and extended VR and launched a metaverse venue, an AR-powered real scene navigation system, video performances with special effects and live broadcast with multiple application scenarios.

"We strive to create a 3.0 version of the VR conference across the world and take the experiences of our audiences as a priority," Yang said, adding investment promotion this year reached a record high.

"We sorted out 150 VR cooperation projects with a total investment of 138.2 billion yuan ($19.07 billion) and promoted the investment promotion of key projects such as upstream core hardware, midstream software services and downstream applications," he said.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has approved the establishment of the National Virtual Reality Innovation Center in Nanchang, he added.

Zhao Jie, vice-mayor of Nanchang, said that this year's highlights were two major exhibitions — the 2022 World VR Industry and Metaverse Expo and the 2022 China International Communication Electronics Industry Conference and Consumer Electronics Expo — with a total area of 60,000 square meters.

The 2022 World VR Industry and Metaverse Expo held from Nov 12 to 14 attracts about 200 exhibitors with its diversity and innovation. It covers education, film and television, games, industry, sports and other fields and an online platform allowing more people to experience VR technology.

The 2022 China International Communication and Electronics Industry Conference and Consumer Electronics Expo from Nov 11 to 13 has attracted more than 200 companies with exhibitions in consumer electronics and wireless charging.

Xin Qinghua, deputy head of the Jiangxi Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, said: "In 2021, the operating income of VR and related industries in Jiangxi exceeded 60 billion yuan and this year, the figure is expected to reach a new level of 80 billion yuan. The development of the province's VR industry is showing an upward trend."

A total of 435 projects had been signed in previous conferences with a total investment of 265 billion yuan. They attracted a number of leading companies in VR-related fields such as Huawei, Alibaba, Tencent, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Hikvision.

To date, more than 400 VR-related enterprises have gathered in Jiangxi, forming a VR industry chain covering hardware manufacturing, software development and content creation.

"Jiangxi has selected 56 VR application demonstration projects for three consecutive years in such areas as manufacturing, education, medical care and cultural tourism. Nanchang VR Science and Technology Innovation City is listed as one of the top 10 science and technology innovation cities in Jiangxi."

"Jiangxi has selected excellent teams for innovation and entrepreneurship in the VR industry for four consecutive years. In the first three years, a total of 32 teams have been selected and given special funding. The fourth batch of excellent teams were awarded during the conference this year. Nanchang VR Science and Technology Innovation City has gathered more than 3,000 high-end talents," Xin said.

The construction of the national vocational education virtual simulation demonstration training base is accelerating. Nanchang University has established the Metaverse Research Institute, Jiangxi Normal University has opened the master's program of VR technology and application, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics and four other colleges and universities have set up VR undergraduate majors, a number of higher vocational colleges have also set up VR application technology majors, which are the major players in Jiangxi's VR industry, he added.