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VR Film Festival Production

Venice VR Expanded is the official satellite event for the competition of immersive content for the Venice International Film Festival; organized by the Venice Biennale. 

2020 was the launch year for this new initiative. The Venice Biennale realized they needed to take an ‘expanded’ approach for the prestigious festival to reach a larger audience.

This was the first in their 150 year history that they decided to open the festival to include satellite events.

Nisha and her team were selected to help the Portland Art Museum produce this prestigious event as the only US based location. 

Larege Scale virtual reality
event production

In the late summer of 2020, we asked the question; Is it possible to put over 2,000  people through a catalog of 37 XR experiences for the first time? Furthermore, is it possible to do this safely during a global pandemic? The Portland Art Museum hired and partnered with Reflective for the Venice VR Expanded Film Festival, to do just that.

The Portland Art Museum was selected as the only U.S. host of the Venice VR Film Festival. In support, Reflective was hired to organizing the entire event and safely maintain attendance with a pandemic on the rise. The kicker? We had five weeks to do it!

In the late summer of 2020, we asked the question; Is it possible to put over 2,000  people through a catalog of 37 XR experiences for the first time? Furthermore, is it possible to do this safely during a global pandemic? The Portland Art Museum hired and partnered with Reflective for the Venice VR Expanded Film Festival, to do just that.

The Portland Art Museum was selected as the only U.S. host of the Venice VR Film Festival. In support, Reflective was hired to organizing the entire event and safely maintain attendance with a pandemic on the rise. The kicker? We had five weeks to do it!

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Our team at Reflective devised a plan. We acquired headsets, trained staff, and ensured the utmost care was taken to minimize the potential exposure to COVID.

To start, we implemented the use of CleanBox Technology to sanitize headsets between uses. In addition, we spaced out time slots, required masks, and consistently sanitized everything.

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The result? An in-person event during the peak of COVID where over 1000 people could safely experience VR for their first time! We ended up hosting arguably the largest VR event of the year. Plus, we managed to do so without a single case of COVID!

It was such a success that Venice VR decided to do it again, keeping the Portland Art Museum as a premier venue.

For the second year in a row, we helped the Portland Art Museum be the exclusive U.S. host for “Venice VR Expanded.” This year we upped the ante by more than doubling the event’s capacity to over 2000 people multiplying the number of headsets we had running to 50 an hour.

For Reflective this meant training even more staff. We arranged the purchase of 40 headsets, bringing sponsorship from both HP and HTC Vive to help promote the event. This ensured that everything ran smoothly over the course of three weeks.

The event sold out and numerous participants marveled at the one-of-a-kind experiences they were able to try. For many, it was an exciting and successful introduction to immersive technology.