Curio shines at Bath Digital Festival 2023 and the SPARKies Awards
We had a fabulous week at Bath Digital Festival celebrating the wonderful XR work happening in Bath and beyond. From showcasing our XR binoculars with the MyWorld team to demoing some of our recent AR and VR projects to the public at TechSPARK’s Immersive Technology Showcase at Newark Works.
Our week ended with the ever-exciting SPARKies award show where we won Best Use of Immersive Tech and were shortlisted for Best Cyber Firm and The Hardware Award.
Read on to hear about our jam-packed and mind-blowing 4 days.
Monday and Tuesday: My World collaboration
At the start of the week our founders Jack and James rolled a pair of our XR binoculars from our Bristol studio all the way over to the MyWorld Creative Tech Space Showcase in Bath.
The showcase was a drop-in event where the public were invited to ‘Discover, Build, and Learn’ by immersing themselves in a room full of demos, showcases and kit to play with.
Several MyWorld partners and projects were featured, including:
- Air Giants
- Bath Spa University
- CAMERA
- Glitch AR
- Smart Internet Lab
- University of Bristol
- And of course Zubr!
We encouraged people to step up and peer through our binoculars to spot different prehistoric animals exploring nearby. Lots of families stopped to chat, as is usually the case with our binoculars! Children always love how simple but effective they are to use, plus they make a great climbing frame!
Wednesday: Techspark's Immersive Technology Showcase
Mid-week we celebrated the practical applications of Immersive Technology with TechSPARK – from healthcare to creative arts, transport to mental wellbeing. Our team took a space at the wonderful Newark Works to allow more people to play with our different Immersive Technology.
Along with an informal panel debate around the application of immersive technologies, we also had a couple of hours to let people engage with the technology in all its forms.
Fom our VR binoculars to AR apps and award-winning VR experiences, we had a lot on offer:
- Afloat & Ashore – A 10 minute VR adventure inspired by the passenger diaries of 19th Century Irish immigrants. Embark on an ocean liner, meet fascinating characters and try your hand at some deck games.
- The Atlantic Institute VR Welcome Experience – This meditative introductory experience is the perfect way to dip your toes into immersive VR. Directed and Produced by Catherine Allen, Limina Immersive. Commissioned by and Creative Direction from Alice Wroe, Atlantic Institute. Developed by Zubr.
- Minny Stynker – Inspired by imaginary friends, we developed an AR interaction that transforms hand drawn figures into pose-able AR characters. Made for young children with chronic illnesses to enjoy augmented reality in a meaningful, social context. Developed with Tomasin Cuthbert Menes, Soap Soup Theatre
Plus a variety of commercial AR demos, including an ESG showcase for InfoSys, Instagram filters for Unite Students, Latin American selfie filters for Las Iguanas and more!
Thursday: SPARKies Awards 2023
For those not in the know, the SPARKies are the biggest tech awards outside of London and celebrate everything tech in the West: from shouting out the Best Place to Work to commending the companies creating a positive impact with the Good Award.
There was a total of 17 awards, and Zubr were shortlisted for 3 categories:
- The Hardware Award for our AR Binoculars
- Best Use of Immersive Tech for our VR project ‘Afloat and Ashore’
- Best Cyber Company for our Cyber Security training made for the University of Belfast
On Thursday night, the best of the South West region’s tech and digital community gathered at Parade Gardens in Bath to celebrate the best startups, designs, hardware, people, and more, and to finally discover who had won!
We were thrilled to win the Best Use of Immersive Tech award, sponsored by MyWorld and Digital Catapult – the cherry on top of a great week! ‘Afloat and Ashore’ is a fantastic project and we’re so pleased it got the recognition it deserves.
Overall, we had a great time at Bath Digital Festival and can’t wait for next year’s! Do let us know if there’s anything in particular you’d like to see from us there, or at the upcoming Bristol Tech Festival, and huge thanks again to TechSPARK and the whole Bath Digital Festival team!
