An update on me, my blog, my trips to China and the US

Hey everyone, it’s been a while since I’ve written an article on this blog, so I thought it was about time to tell you something about my current situation, the direction of this blog, and some upcoming trips that may lead me to meet some of you!

My trips: the UK, China, the US, Germany

Let’s start from my trips, because this is a period of traveling for me. Trips are for me a great occasion for connecting with people: if you will be at the following events, or at least close to them, let me know, and hopefully we can meet and talk about XR, have fun, and discuss possible collaborations!

Pico 10th Anniversary

10 days ago, I was in London for the 10th Anniversary of Pico. It was a fun event, where I met some friends, ate some free food… and I also surprisingly got an award for my work in promoting virtual reality.

I’m very humbled to have received the @PICOXR Spotlight Award at the ceremony for the 10th year of Pico for my work in relentlessly talking about #VirtualReality and promoting this technology that I love with all my heart!

My price was a Pico 4 Ultra headset, which I’m very… pic.twitter.com/7fsi2LeL0P

— TonyVT SkarredGhost (@SkarredGhost) April 24, 2025

For the first time, I’ve also been able to see something of the city of London, which is beautiful, by the way (thanks, Rob!), and meet some very nice XR people.

VR AR Expo China

But I’m not stopping here: next week I will be in China, to be a speaker at the VR AR Expo in Shanghai. I will have a talk about the XR situation in Italy and Europe (basically, I will cry on the stage), and also have a panel about something I haven’t understood yet, but I pretended to to make a good impression with the organizers (my plan is to say “yes yes yes” to whatever they will be saying on stage).

The VR AR Expo is one of the most important events about XR in China, so I’m very happy to be there. It will be an occasion for me to try some new hardware, meet new interesting people in the Far East, and have fun. I’ve also been promised free food, that’s why I’m going there.

After the event, I will also visit Hangzhou, which is a beautiful city, and Shenzhen, which is like the temple of electronics. These are also occasions for me to visit companies and meet interesting people.

AWE

In June, around the 8th, I will travel to the US to attend AWE USA in Long Beach (Los Angeles). There is not always much free food at AWE, but it is the most important event of the year in XR, the place to be… and so I’m going to be there anyway. AWE is a great moment when the whole community comes together, so it is going to be a great occasion for me to meet friends, try XR hardware, and also connect with big XR corporations. I’m a sort of speaker at AWE, but I won’t have a keynote, but more like a private roundtable with enterprise people, where I will try to help them better understand the proper way to do “metaverse” events for their brands.

It’s the first time for me with this enterprise role: I pretended with the organizers that I knew what I was doing (the “yes yes yes” tactic at work again), but actually, I feel more like the dog of this famous meme

In any case, I will do my best to be helpful with the enterprise people who need guidance on how to implement XR in their processes. At the end of the day, this is the most important part of my role there.

After AWE, I will also stay one week in Cupertino, Silicon Valley. As a techie guy, I have the moral duty of going to the Valley at least once a year. I will hope as usual to sneak into some big companies and also meet some interesting startups.

XRCC in Berlin

Me on stage at XRCC last year (Image by XRCC)

After my visit to the Valley, I will be back to Europe, but before returning to Italy, I will go to Berlin, to attend the XRCC hackathon, which will be in the last days of June. I will be a mentor there again, after last year, I had a blast. I also hope to visit something of the city this time, because last year, I just saw the airport, the LIDL discount supermarket, and the event venue. I think Berlin is a bit more than this… so I hope this time to visit at least a few more LIDLs….

My work situation

When people meet me, the first question is: How is your job doing? What are you doing now?

Well, to give an update to you all, I’m mostly doing contract work. Luckily, in the last 7 month,s I’ve been able to get many more projects to do than expected. 2024 had been a bit of a disaster, so I have been very happy that there has been a bit of a rebound. I don’t know how much this phase will last, so I have taken as many projects as I could, and I also did with my team a few proposals for some projects of our own, ending up swamped with work, but for a good reason. Thanks to all the work done in these first months, I can afford to be less overwhelmed in the second half of the year. Let’s say that I’ve been busy, which is good.

The XR situation

Deckard, the headset that maybe is coming this year, maybe in 2046 (Image by Valve, from Upload VR)

Let’s say that I have taken all the projects that I could also because the situation in XR is quite uncertain now. I keep saying that the outlook is positive, but the present is mostly about surviving. The new cycle of XR that came after Quest 2, the one about Mixed Reality headsets, has never taken off, so I guess we need to wait for some new cycle (maybe the one of smartglasses?) to see our sector rise again.

It’s a tough moment: there is some good news awaiting us, like the launch of Android XR devices, but I guess they will need time to make an impact (the first Android XR headset is rumored to be pretty expensive). Anyway, I keep saying that we are in an Autumn more than a Winter: the fact that I’ve been able to get a few good XR projects, and I will end the year paying my bills just doing XR, proves that we are not completely doomed.

The direction of my blog

Looking cool with TCL smartglasses at CES 2025

If I’ve not written many articles in the last couple of months, it is because I’m literally constantly crunching. I’m sorry for having reduced my activity of informing the community, but I literally did not have much time to do that. Plus, let’s say that because of the stasis on the XR space, there was not much to comment on, either. I’ve done my best to at least keep some social activity and my weekly roundups, and for those, I think I’ve done a decent job, though.

For now, I don’t plan to close the blog or reduce it to a bunch of roundups, though. I have in the pipeline a couple of cool interviews, some reviews (I still have to open the Pico 4 Ultra Enterprise that I won at the Pico event…) and especially I’m going for sure to report here all the amazing things that I’ll see in my trips to China and the US. So stay tuned, because there will be some interesting things and also some fun stories to read!

The future

If I’m still here after 11 years working in XR, a technology that, according to journalists, has died 341 times during these years, it means I have some grit and for sure I’m going to use it to do something amazing. I’m not sure what the future will reserve for me, but for sure I’m going to fight to fulfill my XR dreams, and for sure you will be part of my journey.

Let’s go to the moon and beyond, together! But first, let’s go to Shanghai…

(Header image by VRAR World)

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This article was originally published on skarredghost.com