Industry Roundtable vol 1 – Discussing international expansion

Apr 6, 2022

Introducing our new concept, the HXRC Industry Roundtable sessions: a place for casually meeting peers and colleagues from different parts of the Finnish XR ecosystem, expanding your networks, and tackling industry-specific challenges in a constructive, moderated discussion. Interested? Read below how Industry Roundtable vol 1 went!

Jussi Kajala, CEO of 3DBear, giving a presentation at the HXRC Industry Roundtable vol 1.

Jussi Kajala presenting 3DBear’s expansion into the market in India.

As a part of Assisting XR Entrepreneur’s Forward project (AXE4), we have launched a new series of meetings branded as HXRC Industry Roundtable sessions. The target group of these sessions is XR industry professionals, though by our standards that is a very broad audience – we would rather let people decide by themselves if they feel they may both contribute and get something out of the discussions.

The AXE4 project has twofold goals. On one hand it includes creating a partnership model between HXRC and companies in the industry, providing our services, infrastructure and facilities to a larger pool of companies outside our own Developer Hub teams. On the other hand it aims to develop peer support activities – part of that being these Roundtable sessions.

Kicking off the first session

Industry Roundtable vol 1 was held on 16th of March 2022 at the premises of Helsinki XR Center. For this event, 21 people were in attendance.

The main topic of this first 3-hour session was international expansion, partnership and business. To kick things off, the participants could freely discuss and network over some finger foods, or visit the XR Showroom where 4 participants were holding demos: Varjo with their Aero and XR-3 headsets as well as a Kia use case, 3DBear with their and their customers’ AR/VR simulations, Lapland UAS presenting their upcoming hackathon in collaboration with VRDays Europe, and XR Presence showcasing their world.

Santeri Suominen from HXRC and Jussi Kajala from 3DBear.

The main part of the event was kicked off by our XR curator Santeri Suominen. He introduced the current status of the Helsinki XR Center, as well as the AXE4 project. To set the context, two companies, 3DBear and Varjo held 10-minute presentations on how they handled international expansion, partnership and business.

Currently, 3DBear produces comprehensive VR and AR learning platforms and solutions for educational purposes. Thir CEO Jussi Kajala introduced how they have recently expanded their network to India, which has a huge market for educational innovations. Varjo, in turn, is best known for their human eye resolution XR headsets for industrial usage. Jaakko Wilska, Varjo’s Account Executive, showed off networks and collaborators all over the world.

Jaakko Wilska, Account Manager at Varjo, holding a presentation at the Industry Roundtable vol 1. Opens in lightbox.

Jaakko Wilska from Varjo presenting the company’s international expansion.

After these presentations set the tone, it was time for a moderated discussion – although it was mostly flowing freely around the topics, and beyond them. One of the main points brought up was that Europe was considered highly bureaucratic for expansion purposes: for example getting permission for medical innovations was seen as difficult. Also, cultural conflicts were seen as one factor in slowing down international cooperation and networking. The conversation also touched upon the metaverse and its current fragmented state, and the way investors prefer to see hard numbers and solid technology instead of high-quality content creation – which, for the most part, is what the XR scene is showing right now.

Heading into the future

All in all, the first HXRC Industry Roundtable session was a good starting point for conversations among peers in the XR field, both in our future sessions and beyond. On our part we took note of some improvements for future sessions – such simple improvements as a more intimate setup of chairs and tables, that would arvance the flow of conversation. Going forward we hope to deliver more Roundtable sessions to help the XR industry network and exchange ideas and best practices.

Do you have a topic you would like to see in a future Roundtable session? Please get in touch with us through our Contact page!

HXRC Developer Hub teams before the event.

HXRC Developer Hub teams before the event.

Check out what’s going on at HXRC in the Events section.

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