Digital Media students volunteer at FoST Summit

A group of PCA&D Digital Media students took a trip on October 3 and 4th to volunteer at the FoST: Future of Storytelling Summit in New York, one of the leading conferences for emerging new media and virtual reality.

The Future of StoryTelling (FoST) is a passionate community of people from the worlds of media, technology, and communications who are exploring how storytelling is evolving in the digital age and their Summit is an extremely exclusive event, a two-day invitation-only gathering of 500 leaders from the worlds of business, technology, media, and the arts. Unlike a traditional conference, the Summit, with tickets ranging from $2,000 to $4,000, features intimate, speaker-led roundtables; hands-on workshops; and immersive exhibitions.

Student group: Left to Right, front: Ian Williams ’18, Hannah DiGirolamo ’19, Phillip Kieffer ’19, Maria Barba ’20, Jeff Yosco ’20; back: Noah Miller ’19, Symone Saunders ’19, Huy Vo ’19, Lindsay Dawson ’20, Steven Jennings ’18, Kyeir Smith ’20, Chris Morris ’20, Rainey Supple ’20, Dana Timpert ’20.

Most attendees are CEO’s, directors, or established industry members looking to grow their networks and our digital media students and alumni were awarded both volunteer positions and paid leadership volunteer positions which allowed them to attend the summit.

According to Nick LeDonne, digital media faculty member to arranged for the experience for the students, the PCA&D students had interesting stories about trying out the VR (virtual reality) experiences.

Here are a few comments from the students who participated:

Attending FoST as a student volunteer was truly an enlightening experience. One of my favorite exhibits at the event was the HaptX VR, a pair of wearable gloves that provides real-time tactile feedback to a VR experience, allowing the viewer to really feel the objects they interact with in virtual reality. Additionally, FoST was an excellent networking opportunity as I met and connected with a handful of industry professionals and fellow volunteers in the digital media industry. –Chris Morris ’19

I was most impressed by Vestige,. it was a wonderful VR experience of a woman’s story about her husband who passed away. The feelings she displayed as she was talking over this recording were emotional and compelling. You could feel it in her voice how much she cared and the wonderful lights used to show her silhouette in the headset made you feel like you were actually there. I will not lie, I cried when I was watching it in the VR goggles, it was that beautiful. – Lindsay Dawson ’20

One of the first VR films I experience at FoST was The Dinner Party. You would sit inside an egg-like chair and put the VR headset on. As you navigated through the story, the chair would tilt and turn and it felt as if you were moving inside the space. The story itself was interesting, The Dinner Party is about a couple retelling their experience of alien abduction. While the woman’s side of the story was amazing and beautiful, the man’s retelling of the abduction was actually horrifying. It was an incredible experience! – Maria Barba, 2020

FoST was probably the most unique event that I was able to attend. It featured a lot of great stories that are told through the VR technologies. While new technologies are awesome, I had a blast monitoring 3 different workshops full of successful and high status people from all kinds of industries, including the gaming industry that I’m interested in. I get super inspired and motivated just by listening to them exchanging ideas, raise questions, and solve problems. I’ve learned a lot of things that I never knew I needed before. – Huy Vo, 2019