Editor's note: As the first urban area in Shanghai to mention "Metaverse" in the government work report, Xuhui District will integrate and develop the Metaverse with regional advantageous and characteristic industries such as artificial intelligence and cultural creativity, and create a metaverse industry ecology with technology-led, enterprise agglomeration, talent flow, and rich scenarios. With the help of the construction of the Metaverse characteristic industrial park, the holding of flagship events, the co-construction of school-enterprise cooperation and the formation of alliances, etc., the abstract concept of the Metaverse will be concretized, stimulate the extensive participation of all sectors of society, and drive a virtuous cycle of technological innovation and industrial upgrading.
"From the perspective of the whole city, seizing the metaverse track is the strategic direction of Shanghai to build its future development advantages. For Xuhui District, the development of the metaverse industry is an important starting point for Xuhui to take the lead in improving its layout. In our jurisdiction, the agglomeration of metaverse resources is an inevitable requirement for the park to build a metaverse industrial ecology. The relevant person in charge of Hongmei Street said that Xuhui's "Caohejing Yuanchuang Future Metaverse Industry Innovation Park", as the first batch of metaverse characteristic industrial parks in Shanghai, needs to gradually build an industrial ecology and better promote the digital transformation of the metaverse to empower the economy, life and governance. Therefore, the street will carry out competition activities according to the place, enterprise and industry, and create the brand project of the "Yuan Create the Future" Metaverse Design and Creativity Competition in 2022.
The latest "PMC Future" Metaverse Design and Creativity Competition Achievement Exhibition was unveiled in the park of Caohejing Development Zone, which means that the competition has entered the final stage, and it also means that a relatively mature "metaverse industry ecology" has taken shape.
This metaverse industry ecosystem, which is highly concentrated by more than 100 metaverse industry-related enterprises inside and outside the jurisdiction of Hongmei Street, and more than 60 professional colleges and research institutes at home and abroad, has gathered resources from all parties involved in production, education and research, and the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain in the process of platform construction, talent cultivation, and industrial incubation.
The competition is jointly guided by the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions, Xuhui District Government, Tongji University, Shanghai University, Lingang Group, and INESA Group, focusing on the integration of "product + scene + design" to build a chain of industry-university-research transformation of new metaverse technologies at the application level.
As far as the competition topics are concerned, the competition takes the theme of "Meta-Creation Future" and "Virtual-Real Symbiosis", which is closely related to reality, and sets up five core competition topics: New Everything (virtual character design), Unbounded Space (virtual space design), Vowel Rhythm (Metaverse music creation), Hanyu Xingji (Metaverse literary creation), and Virtual and Reality Symbiosis (application scenario design), which comprehensively cover the upstream and downstream ecological chain of the game industry. At the same time, 10 channels for customized competition questions have been opened for enterprises and key regional units in Hongmei · Caohejing Development Zone, covering various application scenarios of existing technologies in the Metaverse in an all-round way, collecting more excellent works, and promoting the innovation and development of the Metaverse industry.
The abstract concept of the metaverse is also concretized into vivid application scenarios and creative works at this time.
"From 1,527 entries in the first competition to 3,109 entries in the second competition, the participation and influence of the competition have continued to increase." Hongmei Street, one of the organizers, said, "We must first stimulate the seeds of metaverse creativity, so that more and more people can understand the metaverse and participate in metaverse design. Then, considering the forward-looking application technology of the entries, the potential of product landing, and the recognition of the market, we will create an application demonstration benchmark in the 'Metaverse Innovation Proving Ground', and use the Metaverse to empower the digital transformation of the economy, life, and governance. ”
The well-supported organizers and instructors of the event, the well-designed competition theme, the talented contestants, the creative entries, and the platform for showcasing outstanding achievements have inspired one creative spark after another to continue to invest in the industrial ecology, giving birth to infinite possibilities, and making the imagination of the metaverse a reality.
Reporter: Yang Yixiu
Poster design: Huang Jiayue, Zhang Yiting
Editor: Chen Haixiao