Creating New & Immersive Realities Together: CreaTech in the West Midlands

The Innovation Alliance for the West Midlands (IAWM) is an alliance of organisations active or interested in science and technology based innovation across the West Midlands and has two key objectives:Build and maintain a thriving innovation ecosystemStimulate and catalyse a pipeline of innovation activityTo find out more about the variety of ways you can join the Alliance and get involved with our work please visit: https://innovationwm.co.uk/

Innovation Alliance for the West Midlands

Join us for our July Smart Places Working Group event where we will explore Immersive, CreaTech, and the Metaverse in the West Midlands.

STEAMhouse (Birmingham City University)

With the rise of virtual production methods, the UK--and the West Midlands specifically--has the opportunity to become a global leader in the Virtual Production space.Digital and Creative businesses are growing rapidly across the West Midlands with 3 regional businesses listed on the <a href="https://www.thecreativeindustries.co.uk/ones-to-watch/2021" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Creative Industries Council's Ones to Watch List</a>. These businesses fall within the category of "CreaTech," which is a public sector word that encapsulates such technologies as VR, AR, Virtual Production, Games, AI, 5G, and the metaverse.We've partnered with regional partners (STEAMhouse, Create Central, The Creative Scale Ups Programme, the West Midlands Growth Company, Coventry and Warwickshire LEP, WM5G, and Our Smart Brum) to create this highly interactive event. This session is designed to give entrepreneurs, innovators, and creators an opportunity to hear from regional business leaders who are working locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally in the CreaTech fields. We will then hear about some live opportunities before we break into workshopping time.This event will be especially relevant for anyone who is currently working in--or interested in--any of the technologies mentioned above.Full speaker details will be shared shortly, and an agenda is included below.Please get in touch with Devon Geary (devon.geary@wmca.org.uk) with any questions. We look forward to seeing you on 7 July!Agenda:<ul><li>12:15--Lunch</li><li>13:00--Welcome + Elsewhere in the Innovation Alliance</li><li>13:05--Welcome from STEAMhouse</li><li>13:15--Business Panel featuring regional businesses</li><li>14:00--Overview of live opportunities</li><li>14:15--Break</li><li>14:30--Workshopping time (around live opportunities)</li><li>15:15--Feedback from breakouts</li><li>15:30--End of meeting</li></ul>