The Decentraland Conference Center was originally proposed by Carl Fravel on Sept 29, 2017, response to Decentraland’s District Proposals invitation. The proposal lists some of the vision and motivations for the creation of a virtual conference center. Other ideas behind this work were captured in some related articles, including
- Are VR and Virtual Worlds a Good Thing?
- Why I’m Glad I Own Property in Decentraland
- Decentraland, Society and Civilization
- Are Avatars Real People
The construction of the Decentraland Conference Center began in early 2018.
Several videos of progress were posted on YouTube
Here is one… https://youtu.be/-6S_Uu5pMjA
Older A-Frame prototype scenes for the conference center consist of the following “entry points” and technologies:
- Main Entrance from the south road. A-Frame.
- Patio and Unity Cafe. A-Frame.
- Lotus Temple. A-Frame.
- Meditation Garden. A-Frame.
- Large Amphitheater. A-Frame.
It is a large model, it can take a long time to load, especially the first time you visit it.. - Small Amphitheater. A-Frame.
These early prototype scenes can still be visited in a web browser, in which case you can use the WASD keys to move, and the mouse to turn. In the A-Frame preview, you click and drag the mouse to turn.
With the advent of the Decentraland SDK, implementation of the Conference Center moved into the Decentraland technology and became an early adopter, often being a showcase and test bed for Decentraland capabilities during the alpha and private beta periods.
In the summer of 2019, Carl Fravel offered a course “Building Virtual Reality Scenes in Decentraland” through the VR Academy of the Decentraland University, which borders the Conference Center on the west. This course was offered both as a service to the Decentraland community, but also to build a cadre of scene builders capable of building new content and experiences across the entirety of Decentraland.
Decentraland opened to the public on Feb 20, 2020, and the Conference held its Grand Opening on the weekend of February 29 and March 1, 2020. We had DJ Rosa Alekseev spinning music for dancing in the Cafe both days, and offered guided tours to show and explain the various facilities and venues in the Conference Center. The Conference Center facilities essentially all existed in at least minimal functional form at the time of the Grand Opening.
Weekends of festive dancing, live streamed music, a history museum, and a series of early conferences and events in the spring of 2020 drove traffic and improvements to the functionality. CoinFest 2020 was our first conference, on April 4, followed by a Fashion Show and a global hackathon by CryptoChicks.