The Polys WebXR Awards Show Returns To Break More Ground
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York, NY - February 11, 2022; The Polys – WebXR Awards returns Saturday, February 12, 2022 to celebrate the pioneers of the Immersive Web. The Virtual Red Carpet with Sophia Moshasha begins at 2pm Eastern followed by the ceremony, hosted by Julie Smithson. WebXR is the next evolution of the web, allowing accessibility to immersive content and world from any 2D or XR device. This awards show will celebrate pioneers and projects building on this new medium. The Polys - WebXR Awards breaks new ground as the first awards show to:
- Broadcast the show to and from watch parties in virtual worlds
- Demonstrate LIVE inter-platform traversing without breaking immersion from VR Land to the XR Women Museum in Frame
- Have a live halftime show presented by OnboardXR with live singing and mocap dance in WebXR featuring Unwired Dance Theater's Clemence Debaig, Brendan Bradley, Michael Morran, Maurice Soque Jr., and Christina Karpodini.
- An After Party in Meta Horizons with a bespoke world created and hosted by Paige Danzinger.
With the innovations this show brings to blend live & virtual production in the metaverse, The Polys has made its name as “the next Emmys” for this new, emerging medium as Emmy winner and Polys’ nominee, Thomas Wallner, describes in this year’s trailer.
This year, The Polys is adding six new awards for a total of seventeen. The new categories are World, Video Experience, Augmented Reality Experience, Creator of the Year, Software of the Year, and the R.O.X. Award – Return on Experience, and a new Community Honor. Winners will be presented with their NFT trophies by an all-star lineup of personalities from the community.
In order to qualify, nominated experiences must be stereoscopic immersive content that runs on the WebXR Device API. Visit The Polys website to experience nominated projects.
Special honorees include:
- Lifetime Achievement Award - Brandon Jones, for his contributions to the WebXR Stack.
- Ombudsperson of the Year - Avi Bar-Zeev for his philosophical contributions to the shaping of the Metaverse, presented by last year’s recipient, Kent Bye.
- The first Community Honor - Trevor Flowers for his work supporting the W3C Community Group, editor of the Immersive Web Weekly newsletter, and host of the WebXR Developer Summit.
The WebXR Summit Series returns in 2022 with three all-new shows: the WebXR Education Summit hosted by Karen Alexander on July 21st, the WebXR Brand Summit hosted by Sophia Moshasha on September 15th, and the WebXR Production Summit hosted by Steve Lewis on October 13th. Futurewei Technologies, sponsors of the 2021 WebXR Summit Series, returns as the lead sponsor for this year’s Polys and Summit Series.
About the Team
The team behind the WebXR Summit series, producers Karen Alexander, Steve Lewis, and Linda Ricci, along with Polys hosts Julie Smithson and Sophia Moshasha and creator Ben Erwin. They produced 10 WebXR events in 2021 to include the first Polys show and movie premiere party, the WebXR Developer Summit hosted by Trevor Flowers, the WebXR Business Summit hosted by Samantha Mathews and the WebXR Design Summit hosted by Kent Bye.
The team also collaborates on other projects, including the annual VR Charity Golf Tournament Ready Player Golf with Richard Ward, Chris Madsen, Sophia Moshasha and Ben Erwin. Julie Smithson, Sophia Moshasha, and Karen Alexander are co-founders of XR Women, which produced 50 weekly events in their first year.