Making Social VR Safe, Accessible, and Meaningful

Hosted by: VR Manchester

RSVP

It’s been a hot minute, but we’re back with another event at Colony King Street on Wednesday, 29th April. We’ll have a full news update (lots to unpack there), a talk from Virtuware Founder Hamza Qureshi on Social VR, plus a few demos to dive into.

We’re also very excited to be helping baptise the new Colony King Street co-working space as they once again open their doors to our own particular brand of tech meetup nerdery.

With massive social platforms already dominating the VR landscape, why build a brand-new one? In this talk, Virtuware founder Hamza Qureshi will share the strategic decisions and real-world challenges behind creating his new social platform, StageTime. Drawing on years of experience building massive VR spaces and working inside major social platforms, Hamza will explore the specific gaps he identified in the market. He will discuss how existing platforms often cater heavily to hardcore ‘enthusiasts’ at the expense of casual users, leading to bloated interfaces, chaotic environments, and high user friction. This session dives into the realities of designing a virtual ‘third place’ optimised for standalone headsets, human-centric expression, and healthy community building. Attendees will leave with candid insights into what it takes to build a seamless and meaningful immersive community from scratch.

 

Hamza Qureshi is the Founder of Virtuware Ltd, an immersive technology company based in MediaCityUK. He has been building experiences in virtual reality since 2016, initially making his mark by creating one of the most popular karaoke spaces in VR. After spending several years working internally at VRChat, Hamza took his deep understanding of virtual communities and founded StageTime – a platform dedicated to immersive social experiences. He is passionate about the evolution of the metaverse, community building, and the unique design challenges of social VR.

Demo Details

TBC