With nearly all major XR events cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, it’s been a somewhat odd year for the industry. With vaccines starting to roll out in the US, AWE has set a hopeful November date as one of the first XR conferences to return to an in-person event—but offering a money-back guarantee in case things don’t pan out.
AWE is a long running XR-focused conference held annually in Santa Clara, CA. Like many other industry conferences, AWE 2020 had to be moved to an online event last May due to Coronavirus concerns.
With a hope that vaccines will be widespread by later this year, AWE is planning to return to an in-person conference from November 9th to 11th at the Santa Clara Convention Center. As in prior years, the conference primarily consists of speakers & sessions along with an expo hall with booths for demos & networking.
Backing the conference’s enthusiasm that the pandemic situation will allow for a safe in-person event by November is a handful of sponsors already signed on to support the event, including Nreal, Qualcomm, Unity, Meta, PlugXR, 8th Wall, Lenovo, Mad Gaze, Zappar, and others, along with some 80 exhibitors.
AWE says it has also expanded its refund policy, allowing full refunds up to 30 days before the event, or a 50% refund within 30 days of the event. The conference is offering discounted ‘Super Early Bird’ passes through March 31st, starting at $400.
As for running a safe conference, the event’s Health and Safety Guidelines page indicates that attendees will be screened for temperature and masks will be required “for all participants at all times,” among other measures. A vaccine requirement is not mentioned.