Enter the world “Through the Looking Glass” in our closing panel. Kathleen Cohen, AUREA’s Jury Chair, engages with Michaela Ternasky-Holland, Christina Lee Storm and Bastian Schutz to uncover insights, to challenge perspectives, and celebrate the ideas defining this year’s AUREA Awards.

Redefining the Journey Through New AR Touchpoints

Stay tuned for an inspiring talk by Joern Schlimm and Antony Neale (ameliorate GmbH) as they step into a world where augmented reality (AR) is transforming the customer journey by creating innovative new touchpoints. In this session, Joern and Antony will guide you through how AR is enhancing the way customers experience brands, products, and events by blending the digital seamlessly with the physical. During the talk, you'll see how AR was used at a major sporting event to create these magical moments for fans, turning ordinary interactions into immersive experiences.

UNESCO World Heritage in Germany

Join Olaf Schlieper to explore Germany’s 55 UNESCO World Heritage Sites through a mixed reality app that delivers an immersive, interactive experience. Featured at international events and available for free on Meta and PICO (China) app stores, the app is thoughtfully designed with accessibility in mind, making this unique journey available to everyone.

The Zoo of The Future

Speaker: Andy van den Broeck

What happens when technology serves the story, not the other way around? At Zoo of the Future, we discovered something remarkable: visitors didn't want less screen time. They asked for more. More VR. More exploration. More time inside the experience.

This is what's possible when you stop treating technologies as competing attractions and start stacking them as amplifying layers. Each one building on the last, deepening engagement instead of fragmenting it. And here's the secret that made it all work: radical simplicity. One finger. That's all anyone needed to navigate an entire world of immersive wonder. No tutorials. No friction. Just pure, intuitive discovery. This is the future we're building. Experiences where the technology disappears and the magic stays.

Next Frontier AI – Europe's Moonshot to Build Frontier AI Labs

Speaker: Mirko Holzer - SPRIND

Europe has world-class AI researchers and groundbreaking foundational research. Yet when it comes to building and deploying frontier models at scale, we've largely been on the sidelines — watching and using, but not shaping. Next Frontier AI is Germany's €125M initiative to change that via SPRIND - the Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation: a competitive challenge to incubate three European Frontier AI Labs, each positioned to raise up to €1B. The goal? Leapfrog to the next S-curve of AI — and bring Europe back to the table.

The Future Of Our Connected Selves

Speaker: Scott Stein, CNET

XR and wearables look ready to transform the landscape of immersive entertainment.

As a long-time explorer and reviewer of new devices and experiences, Scott Stein discusses his biggest questions (and curiosities) for the next immersive age.

The World Beyond - Live Podcast Session

Don’t miss a live session of The World Beyond Podcast with Michael Mack, as he sits down with visionary designer and filmmaker Keiichi Matsuda. Together, they’ll dive deep into the future of AR, AI, and immersive storytelling—exploring how technology, creativity, and architecture collide to shape hyper-connected worlds. Sip, watch, and connect—enjoy the live streaming at Bar Colosseo with your favorite coffee in hand.

Get ready to gather, unwind, and enjoy lunch at Restaurant Antica Roma , a perfect pause in the rhythm of the AUREA Awards!

Scaling Immersive Entertainment: Building Ecosystems for Market Success

How ready is Germany for widespread XR adoption? Industry leaders from Hologate (Leif Petersen) and Stickystone (Luca Forbes) join Bitkom's Sebastian Klos to examine market data, the momentum AR glasses will generate, and the interconnections between entertainment, gamification, and business XR. This panel connects adoption metrics with ecosystem strategies, exploring how partnerships and standards drive the industry from experimental to essential.

The Power of Sound in Immersive Experiences

Ana Monte, Creative Director at DELTA Soundworks, will explore how “immersive” has become a buzzword in today’s media landscape—especially with the rise of XR, virtual production, and Fulldome films—but what does it truly mean to be immersed, and how does sound shape that experience?

From subtle spatial cues that anchor us within a scene to emotional tones that guide our perception, immersive audio plays a crucial role in dissolving the boundaries between the physical and the virtual. When done right, sound doesn’t merely accompany an experience—it is the experience.

Join us as we dive into how immersive soundscapes enhance presence, elevate emotion, and help create more inclusive, compelling, and believable worlds.

Digital Humans in Film and XR: Volumetric Capture and AI Meet Storytelling

This keynote by Sven Bliedung von der Heide explores how XR, AI, and volumetric capture are revolutionizing the way stories are created and experienced and provide an inside look at how digital humans are becoming a powerful creative tool across film, immersive media, and extended reality.

Drawing on high-profile Hollywood productions such as The Matrix Resurrections and Mickey 17, the session offers practical insights into integrating volumetric capture into feature film workflows. It also examines the pivotal role AI plays in the creation, processing, and enhancement of these digital performances.

Beyond cinema, the keynote highlights the impact of volumetric technology in XR and documentary contexts—including the immersive preservation of Holocaust survivors' testimonies. Sven will demonstrate how Voluverse, Volucap’s XR platform, enables the seamless integration of digital humans into immersive environments, opening new frontiers for storytelling, history, and interaction.

Reframing Creativity in the Age of AI

Speakers: Hilmar Koch & Matthew Spremulli, Autodesk

Today, architects, storytellers, and park designers are embracing AI as part of their creative toolkit—but these tools are not yet fully equipped to realize their vision or solve their most complex challenges.

In this keynote, we’ll explore how designers can rethink and redefine their relationship with technology, turning AI from a limitation into a collaborator, and shaping the future of creative practice.

From Motion to Meaning:  The Near Future of Intelligent Virtual Characters

Speaker: Anica Wilhelm, Meshcapade

We are entering a new era of interactive entertainment in which virtual characters will no longer simply move through our worlds, but will increasingly understand, react, and participate in them. This talk explores the near future of AI-driven characters in games, movies, and immersive experiences. It is rooted in what modern machine learning can already do today and in the building blocks that are emerging right now: body understanding, motion as a carrier of meaning, and character behavior models that turn animation into agency. Rather than a distant sci-fi vision, this is about the concrete steps from today’s tools to tomorrow’s intelligent characters.

Immersive Entertainment in Motion: In-Car & In-Flight Experiences

The stage is now set for our panel discussion featuring Nils Wollny (Holoride) and Andreas Ehret (Dolby) and Carolina Schymczyk (Lufthansa) which will be moderated by Camillo Stark (MSM Digital) and followed by a Q&A session.

As passengers spend hours in cars and planes, how can immersive technology transform dead time into engaging experiences? Join industry leaders from Holoride, Dolby, and Lufthansa as they unveil the next generation of in-flight and in-car entertainment. From VR headsets synced to vehicle motion to spatial audio that adapts to your journey, discover how special-purpose devices are redefining what it means to entertain passengers on the move. This panel features live demonstrations of cutting-edge prototypes and insights into the technical and creative challenges of bringing immersive content to mobility.

Agents in the Wild Designing characterful AI for the real world

AI is moving into the physical world - beyond text interfaces and assistants, as embodied companions that understand you and your context. This talk traces a design lineage from Keiichi’s short films HYPER-REALITY and Agents through to Liquid City’s award winning experiments with spatial AI.

This session will demonstrate the potential of spatial agents through projects such as Jade, a local guide developed in collaboration with Niantic, and Wisp World, a context-aware AR glasses game featuring characterful agents that can see into your world. Together, they suggest new ways of blending narrative, environment and intelligence, and present an optimistic path for designing and living with AI.

Through the Looking Glass: Where Layered Realities Unfold

Speaker: Julian Reyes

As an AUREA  Award #8 juror and last year’s Impact Award recipient, Julian Reyes reflects on the theme “Through the Looking Glass: Where Layered Realities Unfold” to explore how immersive experiences can connect people, spaces, and platforms with intention. Drawing from the work of the Virtual Worlds Museum™ and the Teleportal, an interactive gateway to virtual world ecosystems, this keynote presents a vision for the future shaped by collaboration, innovation, and shared meaning.

Welcome remarks to kick off the day’s conversations. Kathleen Cohen, Clark Parsons, and Emily Olman will set the stage!

Please enjoy your arrival and a cup of coffee in the Hotel Bar before the conference begins!

Enjoy your breakfast and get ready for an exciting day ahead!

As the sun sets on the first night of the AUREA Awards, join fellow guests for a lively networking dinner at the Silver Lake Saloon—where great conversations begin over great food!

A Shuttle will bring you to the Saloon and back to the Hotel ‘Colosseo’.

Ready to mingle? Lunch will be served in the Arena of Football.

Don’t miss your chance to visit the finalists at their interactive stands—it’s the perfect opportunity to ask all the questions the jury didn’t and immerse yourself into their projects.

Make sure to make the most of your time at Europa-Park by riding its top attractions, including Voltron Nevera, GRAND PRIX EDventure, and Flow Ryde!

Finalists will have 5 minutes to pitch their idea to our esteemed jury members, it will be followed by other 5 minutes of Q&A with the jury. The pitching competition is moderated by Gabriele Romagnoli.