Fuckup Nights have happened in unexpected places - why not in the uncharted territory of virtual reality?
It's hard to predict people's behavior in the months, and even years to come. Maybe we'll become germophobes and avoid all socializing, or maybe we'll say fuck it all! and be the new hippies, peace and love. It's hard to imagine a Woodstock in the midst of this 2020, the future of the event industry looks very whimsical.
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On May 13-14, 2020, around 300 visitors from 45 countries joined the first Fuckup Nights augmented reality event. The long-awaited edition was faithful to the face-to-face Fuckup Nights events. Virtual reality helped to maintain the advantages of the format. The audience was entertained, asking questions, laughing and clapping. Later, everyone was teleported to the Fuckup Nights terrace to mingle with each other, have meaningful conversations, share what their experience was like and some laughs at the speakers' stories.
We considered the idea of a Fuckup Night on Zoom, but we had already used that platform along with Skype for calls with friends, family and work meetings. Even in pre-COVID-19 times, it was already part of our daily routines.
But Fuckup Nights are something special. There's a strange magic that happens between the speakers and the audience. It's so satisfying to see people stay for the networking after-parties and have fun. Laughter and deep talks triggered by stories of failure. We were afraid all that fun would be lost.
The idea to do something in augmented reality came from our friends at Arloopa AR/VR. We have collaborated closely with them on other occasions for Fuckup Nights Armenia. They designed our Talking T-Shirts with augmented reality and we even organized a Fuckup Night at their premises.
"Serendipity is one of my favorites. It's when you find something valuable while you were looking for something else, and sometimes, something that was always there waiting for you.
Fuckup Nights have been organized in unexpected places around the world. An abandoned church in Germany, a tent in Mongolia, on the shores of one of Armenia's highest lakes, why not do it in the uncharted territory of virtual reality with the help of some friends?
We looked for the best platforms that could support an event of our size and specifications. Although this is all very new and there are still limitations, we finally decided on Altspace VR. The Armenian and augmented reality developer community share that dreamy vision for technology, they are always one step ahead. And dreamers are known to have the juiciest fuck ups. This fact makes us feel welcome.
There are challenges. The platform does not support Apple products. It also has its tricks and requires time and patience to learn how to use it. This created the need to practice with the speakers and organize a rehearsal party for new guests a day before the event and test the hardware and software.
We must admit that it was a great learning experience so far, and although sometimes things don't work out as planned (they usually do), we are happy to have found this new world, and we hope our guests are too.
Arkadi Jeghiazaryan Entrepreneur, founder and CEO at AMLOGY
Meruzhan Danielyan Co-founder and CEO at Teamable
Taron Lizagub Builder
Entrepreneur, Wand maker, Founder & Chief Scientist at Knoxlabs
Read the original post by Fuckup Nights Armenia on Medium.
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Let's transform our perception of failure and use it as a catalyst for growth.
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