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Fuckup Nights happened in unexpected places. Why not in the uncharted territory of virtual reality?
By:
fuckupnights
It’s hard to predict how people will behave in the months—or even years—to come. Maybe we’ll become germophobes and avoid all forms of socializing, or maybe we’ll say “to hell with it all!” and become the new hippies, all about peace and love. It’s hard to imagine a Woodstock in the middle of this 2020; the future of the events industry looks very uncertain.
On May 13 and 14, 2020, around 300 attendees from 45 countries joined the first Fuckup Nights augmented reality event. The long-awaited edition stayed true to the Fuckup Nights events. Augmented reality helped preserve the format’s strengths. The audience was engaged, asking questions, laughing, and applauding. Later, everyone teleported to the Fuckup Nights terrace Fuckup Nights socialize, have meaningful conversations, share their experiences, and laugh at the speakers’ stories.
We considered the idea of a Fuckup Night Zoom, but we had already been using that platform, along with Skype, for calls with friends, family, and work meetings. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, it was already part of our daily routines.
But Fuckup Nights something special. There’s a strange magic that happens between the speakers and the audience. It’s very rewarding to see people stick around for the post-event networking parties and have a good time. Laughter and deep conversations sparked by stories of failure. We were afraid all that fun would be lost.
The idea to create something using augmented reality came from our friends at Arloopa AR/VR. We’ve worked closely with them on other occasions for Fuckup Nights Armenia. They designed our augmented reality “Talking T-Shirts,” and we even hosted a Fuckup Night their office.
“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.
A new format
Fuckup Nights have been held Fuckup Nights unexpected places all over the world—an abandoned church in Germany, a tent in Mongolia, on the shores of one of the lagos in Armenia. So why not try it in the uncharted territory of virtual reality with the help of some friends?
We looked for the best platforms capable of supporting an event of our size and specifications. Although all of this is very new and there are still limitations, we ultimately decided on Altspace VR. The Armenia community Armenia augmented reality developers share that dreamy vision for technology; they’re always one step ahead. And we all know that dreamers have the most memorable screw-ups. This fact makes us feel welcome.
There are challenges. The platform doesn't support Apple products. It also has its quirks and requires time and patience to learn how to use it. This made it necessary to practice with the speakers and organize a rehearsal party for new guests the day before the event to test the hardware and software.
We have to admit that it’s been a wonderful learning experience so far, and even though things don’t always go as planned (which is usually the case), we’re happy to have discovered this new world, and we hope our guests are too.
Trying to cool down the Oculus with an ice pack halfway through the event.
Check out the videos of the talks (in English) in case you missed them.
Arkadi JeghiazaryanEntrepreneur, founder, and CEO at AMLOGY
Meruzhan Danielyan, Co-founder and CEO of Teamable
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