Tue. Nov 12 Eve　　Wed. Nov 13 Day1　　Thu. Nov 14 Day2　　Fri. Nov 15 Day3

Forum8 held "FORUM8 Design Festival 2019-3Days+Eve" at Shinagawa Intercity Hall and its foyer from November 13 to 15 (with 12th as the Eve of the Festival).
Originally several events had been held individually, which were reorganized and unified in 2009. Since then it has been held in a current form every year for three days in autumn. The framework to add "Eve" which also serves as attraction making full use of state of the art technologies in expression since 2015 is completely settling.

This time, after the Eve, lectures and presentations were held in "the 4th Autonomous Driving Conference", "the 20th UC-win/Road Conference (the 20th VR Conference)", "the 5th State of the Art Technologies in Expression Association / Latest Technology Art Session", "the 12th International VR Symposium", and "the 13th Design Conference IM&VR / i-Construction Session". In addition, public judgement and award ceremonies were also held for events including "the 18th 3DVR Simulation Contest on Cloud", "the 7th Cloud Programming World Cup (the 7th CPWC)", "the 9th Student BIM & VR Design Contest on Cloud (the 9th VDWC)", "the 5th Junior Software Seminar", and "the 6th National Resilience Design Award (the 6th NaRDA)". Then, new publication was shown to the guests with the author's lecture.

The theme of the Eve is "Harmony of Sport with Technology". Produced by Mr. ONI, a DJ, visual expression with focus on technology and sound linked together with stage performance in diverse fields livened up the atmosphere of the venue greatly.

Design Festival Day1 opened up with "the 4th Autonomous Driving Conference" continuing from the morning to the first half of the afternoon session. Following the greetings from the guest-of-honor, 5 members of 4 concerned ministries and agencies explained the latest trend of measures, technologies, and standardization of automated driving, with overseas information. In "Virtual Reality Design Studio UC-win/Road Presentation", our solutions for supporting research and technology development related to automated driving was presented.
In the second half of the afternoon session, prize announcement and award ceremony for "the 18th 3DVR Simulation Contest on Cloud" were held. In advance, 13 works had been nominated out of the entries. Then each prize was decided through popular vote (November 1-10) using VR-Cloud(R) and main judging committee (November 12).
After all of the sessions were over, the brand-new publications of FORUM8 were introduced: "100 Greatest Bridge", "Shade3D Official Guidebook 2020", "Expression Technology Test Official Guidebook (Data Procession / Database)", and "Know about the advanced technology by knowing perspective drawing". Then the authors and editorial supervisors for these books gave lectures. It was taken over to the network party that also served for announcement of the book.

In the morning session of Day2, presentation for "the 20th UC-win/Road Conference" was made about the latest functions of our Shade3D. Then, the final public judgment was made for "the 7th CPWC" (7 works nominated previously from the entry works) and "the 9th VDWC" (11 works similarly).
In the first half of the afternoon session, the special lecture for "the 5th State of the Art Technologies in Expression Association / Latest Technology Art Session" was made, and prize announcement and award ceremony of "the 3rd Hagura Award" by the Association were made (out of 10 works nominated from the entries). Subsequently, in "the 12th International VR Symposium", "World16" members (seven members participated) reported the outcomes of the research and development in the summer workshop held in Paris, France in July, 2019. Following this, FORUM8 staff explained actions about our product development for them.

In the second half of the afternoon session, prize announcement and award ceremony of "the 7th CPWC", "the 9th VDWC", and "the 5th Junior Software seminar" were held, followed by a network party.

In Day 3 (the final day of Design Festival), special lectures for "The 13th Design Conference IM&VR / i-Construction Session" were given and presentations of FORUM8-related solutions were made from the morning to the first half of the afternoon session. In the second half of the afternoon session, following our presentation of FEM analysis solution, the prize announcement and award ceremony for "the 6th NaRDA" (for 8 works nominated previously from the entry works, judges made final judgement on Nov. 12) were held. On the other hand, during the period, the foyer was used to exhibit state-of-the-art VR collaboration systems as well as sell books.

(Written by Takashi Ikeno)