SingularityU Hosts Africa’s First Global VR Press Conference

Ahead of the second annual SingularityU South Africa Summit, business professionals, technology enthusiasts (including us), Summit organisers and partners, as well as media gathered at Mesh Club in Rosebank, Johannesburg. Together we were joined, in virtual reality (VR), by Singularity University leadership from around the world for a global VR press conference to discuss, in real-time, SU’s global vision and how to #futureproofAfrica.

“Exponential technologies, such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and immersive computing are transforming the way in which we work and network across all industries,” said Mic Mann, Founder of Mann Media and co-organiser of SingularityU South Africa Summit 2018. “It’s changing how we conduct business as well as the workspace. Soon there will be no need to fly across the globe for a face-to-face meeting – unless you really want to. Digital avatars, personalised exoskeletons, beam robots, holograms, and similar technologies will allow for more interactive and human-like business meetings.”

VR is making it possible for business professionals to be transported to Hong Kong, San Francisco and London all in a day’s work. VR enhances networking experiences and makes this possible in a manner that is much more engaging than traditional e-conferencing, such as Google Hangouts and Skype, and at a cost that is exponentially less than what it would be in the real world. Today, with VR-enabled technologies and laser-accurate scaled floorplans, SingularityU South Africa was able to bring this event to life in a way that few other events and conferences have done before. Media entered the VR booth that was set up and donned virtual reality headsets to ask questions in the digital space.

“I’m delighted to be virtually joining today’s press conference in Johannesburg on behalf of SingularityU South Africa,” said Rob Nail, CEO and Associate Founder of Singularity University. “There is no better demonstration of SU’s mission than to use exponential thinking and technologies, such as AR and VR, to discuss in real-time and ‘in-person’ how we can #futureproofAfrica and bring opportunity to everyone. It is only when we engage a global community focused on solving humanity’s greatest challenges with these and other accelerating technologies that we can have the greatest positive impact on our future.”

The conference line-up included local and international Singularity University speakers, who focused on reimagining exponential leadership and disruptive thinking. “The press conference provided African futurists insights into how Silicon Valley conducts business meetings and also allowed them to interact with global innovators about how to resolve various challenges facing the continent,” said Mann.

The impressive line-up of speakers included SingularityU global leadership and SingularityU South Africa 2018 partners:

Rob Nail – Singularity University CEO
Oren Berkovich – co-founder and CEO of SingularityU Canada
Kris Østergaard – co-founder and Chief Learning and Innovation Officer of SingularityU Nordi
Ricardo Marvão – co-founder and managing director of SingularityU Portugal
Belinda Carreira – Standard Bank Executive Head Interactive Marketing
Valter Adão – Deloitte, Head of Innovation
Simon Carpenter – SAP Chief Technology Officer
Herman Singh – MTN Executive Innovation Strategy
David Rozzio – HP Managing Director
Benjamin Marais – Liberty Chief Technology Officer

Join us, these partners as well as other speakers at the 2018 SingularityU South Africa Summit on 15 and 16 October where African and global innovators will enable delegates and their organisations to keep pace with advances in science and exponential technologies. To learn more about the SingularityU South Africa Summit and view the full programme, visit: https://singularityusouthafricasummit.org/. Should be quite a cool futuristic experience, we hope to see you there!

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##futureproofAfrica #SingularityU #SingularityU South Africa Summit #Virtual Reality

Posted By

Thabiso Moloi

With many, many years of PR, digital & influencer marketing work under his belt, Thabiso has worked on a great number of technology, business and consumer brands. In addition, he has become obsessed with most things under the sun including music, series, sports, movies etc which he now regularly writes about. You can find him on Twitter: @Thabz_14