San Francisco, California

Dear Friends:

In September, I was in lovely San Francisco, California. I was there to attend the Virtual Reality Developers Conference (VRDC). Actually, this was the first assignment for my latest job - an industry analyst. This is someone that offers insight into a particular industry. They may act as consultants to larger companies that may be looking for an expert to review some of their plans - or suggest courses of action. My area is gaming - no big surprise. I also cover virtual reality (VR) content:

I've never attended an industry event as either a member of the press, or as an analyst. From my impression, I was treated nicer than ever before. It's good to have a platform to offer opinions ; )

I attended several sessions on VR, from a variety of perspectives and companies. The session that I really fell in love with, was about the neuroscience behind VR. I was fascinated with the discussion on how VR impacts the vestibular and vision systems. The way that both the sound and graphical images interact with the amygdala in the brain and allows emotion to connect with the sensory inputs from VR.

Side note: I actually wrote my first article for Forbes.com, as a result of attending this session. I noted the emerging use of games and VR as therapy treatment for several disorders. In fact, the FDA is about to approve a game for treatment of ADHD. Can you imagine a world where a doctor could write a prescription for a game? Here's a link to the article:

Take Two Games and Call Me In the Morning - The Age of Digital Medicine

At the conference, there was an "expo" area that had VR demos of all different shapes and sizes. It's still pretty strange to watch someone experience VR...as it's not that exciting for the observer:

I attended other sessions about how the NBA was using VR to interact with audiences, and how Facebook was starting to use VR for people to gather, virtually, online.

Since the event took place in San Francisco, I observed many things that were quite different than Texas. This is just one of them:

A bonus of traveling to the San Francisco Bay Area is that I had the chance to see my oldest daughter and her family. My youngest grandson is a LOT of fun to hang out with:

The next morning, I returned to the conference. Since my daughter also works in SF, we commuted on the train together.  Here's a picture of pure torture as we rode together to work:

Overall, it was a great experience. I learned a lot and connected with my family. That's a win-win for sure!