Bournemouth: VR and immerse technology showcased at university event

More than 200 professional marketers, creatives, business managers and marketing students are expected to attend this year’s Mike Warne event, hosted by Bournemouth University on Wednesday, March 1.

This year’s event will focus on immersive technology and the future of marketing. Three Virtual Reality (VR) industry leaders will be exploring current industry trends, challenges and sharing their first-hand experience integrating these tactics into marketing campaigns.

Accomplished design leader, writer, presenter and BBC tech pundit, Dean Johnson, head of innovation at Brandwidth, will be sharing his thoughts on the future of VR and how we can capitalise on its full potential. Johnson joins ‘rising star’ of the tech industry, Cathy White, founder of CEW Communications, and Samantha Kingston, award-winning client director at Virtual Umbrella, a marketing and PR specialist agency working exclusively in the VR industry.

Final year BA (Hons) marketing students at BU have organised this event with the support of the world’s leading professional marketing body, champion of customer engagement and best practice, The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) South West.

CIM chief executive Chris Daly said: “In today’s digital world, professional marketing has never had a more critical role to play in driving business growth and innovation. Bournemouth University’s students have secured a fantastic line-up of industry leaders to demonstrate this and more specifically how marketers can create measurable results with strategic use of VR and immersive technology. This event is always a highlight of my year - it’s one not to be missed.”

Speaker, Samantha Kingston, client director at Virtual Umbrella, explained: “The Virtual reality industry has grown incredibly quickly in the past couple of years. Starting with an idea and prototype HDMI, to people now being able to buy and have access in their homes to a variety of headsets. Gaming has led VR in so many ways, from the software and development, but VR has branched off and is now embedding itself into a variety of industries including healthcare, education, automotive, engineering and more. VR is changing the way people work every day and it's not slowing down.”

Now in its 11th year, the event was named in memory of CIM regional director Mike Warne, who was a strong advocate of building relationships between aspiring marketers at Bournemouth University with CIM and the wider business community. The event starts at 5.30pm with networking, refreshments and an opportunity to explore the world of VR for yourself. The masterclasses start at 6.15pm.