GENERAL 

What are the VR NOW Awards?
The VR NOW Awards honor and highlight the greatest achievements in VR, AR, MR and 360° video. Every year VR NOW Awards strive to create a fair worldwide competition, where visual reality professionals from multi-disciplinary fields compete for authority, fame and publicity through their projects. Participants can submit to four different categories, while all nominees compete for the Grand Prize and Special category “H@ly Sh1t!”.

Who is behind the VR NOW Awards?
The VR NOW Awards 2021 are an event of the VRBB – The Virtual Reality association in the German Capital Region. The event is funded by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. It’s origin lies in the VR NOW Con & Awards – Europe’s premiere conference for Immersive Media which started in 2016 as a way to bring the international community of VR creatives, business developers, and technological masterminds to Berlin and Potsdam. Since then, each year the VR NOW Awards have highlighted the greatest achievements in VR, AR, MR and 360° video. The online edition of 2021 is organized on behalf of VRBB by Booster Space and Factory-C. 

When will the award show happen? 
We are not only celebrating the winners in the final show in June but will discuss, talk and work with the jury and nominees in a series of events. This year, the main activities of the VR NOW Awards, where business networking meetings and panel discussions are planned, will take place online.

The milestones are:
(all dates and formats may change in due process – it’s still 2021 after all)

• April 14, 2021: Online panel discussion and kick-off with selected VR NOW Awards jury members.
  
• May 19, 2021: submissions deadline (updated on May 3).
• May 27, 2021: Internal review of submissions by the jury members and determination of the nominees. Keep an eye on your social media!
  
• June 15, 2021: Semi-public, online live pitching format: we invite the nominees to defend their submission in front of the judges and get feedback on the project. Based on this event, the winners will be selected. Tweet along!
  
• June 22, 2021: The grand finale, in a live online show with confetti – or at least as close as it gets. Follow along and celebrate! For nominees, judges and partners we will organize an invite only watch party.

Where will the award show happen?
We will run everything online this year! So please follow our social media channels to be the first to know:

• https://www.facebook.com/vrnowcon
• https://twitter.com/vrnowcon
• https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/vr-now—the-tech-biz-art-conference/

How do I get access to the award show?
The final show is streamed on a public site and is open for everyone to watch. Nominees, partners and organizers will have access to an exclusive online event before and during the final show. Check your email inbox!

Where can I find detailed information about the award categories and more?
Most information can be found on our VR NOW Awards page. 

SUBMISSION PROCESS 

Who may apply?
Participants legal entities aged 18 years from all over the world, can submit to four different categories. Entrants must not be an employee, officer or agent of the following entities: board of directors of VRBB (regular members allowed!), or Booster Space, or Factory-C nor an employee, officer or agent of any person or organization involved in the execution of the Award, nor a family relation of any such person.

How to apply? 
Read the VR NOW Awards eligibility rules.

Add your project details and pay the fee in our VR NOW Awards application form. Please pay the fee once per category you want to apply to. (Example: For 2 categories, 2 fees have to be paid)

Which materials do I need to submit in order to take part in the competition for the VR NOW Awards 2021?
For the preselection phase you only need to submit the basic presentation materials we ask for in the submission form. In case our judges select you to be one of the 3 nominated projects per category we will ask you for a build or access-key to your project. If its not usable on a standard device, we will ask you for more materials, such as a walk-through video or more technical background information. Watch your email inbox you used in the submission process for details!

Do entries have to be in English?
While German is also possible, we highly recommend English as the chosen language. It makes life for our international jury a lot easier.

Can I apply to more than one category?
Yes. You can apply with as many projects as you have to as many categories as you see fit. You can also submit one project to more than one category. Please note that for each submission for each project in each category you need to fill out the form and pay the respective fee. 

Can I submit more than one project?
Yes. But please note that the submission fee has to be paid once per category for each entry. Same as for each category.

Can I cancel my submission?
No, but if you want to make changes to it, feel free to contact us before May 05, 2021.

I’m not sure my entry was received. What should I do?
We will send you a confirmation mail, but please note that this might take a few days. If you do not receive a confirmation mail, please contact us at vrnowcon@booster-space.com.

DECISION PROCESS

Who is in the jury?
The submitted projects will be reviewed by an independent jury consisting of renowned authors, founders, curators, journalists, investors and other representatives of the XR, technology and media industries.  

How are the nominees selected?
For each category there is a different expert jury group. Being the first round of the decision process, the jury makes a preselection of three projects per category. This preselection is based on the presentation materials you submitted through our form. All the selected projects, nominees, also compete for the VR NOW Grand Prize.

How are the winners selected?
The jury decides on the final winners per category and selects the winner of the VR NOW Awards Grand Prize. For this the nominees will be invited to present and defend their project and team in a live online session on June 22, 2021. In order to prepare the jury for the best possible decision making process, we will ask you to send in additional materials such as access to your project build, installt keys or walkthrough videos etc. What we need depends on the project. VR ois no one fits all experience, hence we are excited for your extraordinary work. Mark your calendars and check your email and !

On what criteria are the entries evaluated by? 
Projects are evaluated by originality, immersion, overall quality, market potential and relevance. In the online world, projects need to be as self explanatory in their application documents as possible. There is no IRL (physical/offline) event to get hands on an experience, hence the documents, videos and presentation decks you provide are key to success.
We try, but we cannot guarantee that the judges will be able to test your VR experience as such. So please make sure the materials are as self-explanatory as possible. 

How will I know if I am nominated/won? 
We will contact nominees through the emails provided. Winners will be announced during the final award show on June 22, 2021. Nominees should join our Discord server in order to not miss anything. Invite will follow after you are selected. Check your app!

CONFERENCE 

What happened to the Con of VR NOW Awards & Conference?

We want to establish the VR NOW Awards as standalone highlight, hence we decided to not run the conference in parallel. Also due to COVID-19 we do not want to invite people to mingle IRL. So there is no conference planned for now.