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Today’s events for Sunday, Aug. 14

Today's events for Sunday, Aug. 14

August is Peach Month, which means you still have several days left to perfect that peach pie recipe. Remember: Sharing is caring!

The Holy Rosary Catholic Church Festival wraps up today on the church grounds, 2224 45th St. Live music today features Willie Sturba (1 to 2:30 p.m.), The Chevelles (3 to 5:30 p.m.) and Good Vibez (6 to 9:30 p.m.). The festival is open noon to 10 p.m. All the festival food favorites are back, too, including fried dough.

The Sweet Corn Festival is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today at Jerry Smith Farm, 7150 18th St. in Somers. The festival features local food trucks, live music and craft vendors — in addition to all that sweet corn. Admission is free.

Prost! The Biergarten in Petrifying Springs County Park is open seven days, serving up cold beverages and warm pretzels. For more details, check the Biergarten’s Facebook page.

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The Racine Concert Band’s final outdoor free summer concert of this season is 7 tonight at the Racine Zoo, 2131 N. Main St. The program features guest vocalist Darlene Kelsey and flute soloist Beth Kapralian. The zoo’s gates at Walton Avenue and Augusta Street open at 6:30 p.m. for free admission to the concert. A courtesy cart, for audience members who need assistance in getting to the concert site, is available before and after the concert.

The Wisconsin State Fair wraps up today at State Fair Park, 7722 West Greenfield Ave. in West Allis. Free entertainment includes daily free shows by the Kids From Wisconsin and the always popular racing pigs! Did we mention the cream puffs yet? The fair is open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. For more details, go to wistatefair.com.

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Trudeau’s Facebook page must be bilingual for live events: language commissioner

Trudeau’s Facebook page must be bilingual for live events: language commissioner

Official Languages Commissioner Raymond Theberge responds to a question during a news conference in Ottawa in 2019.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

The official languages commissioner says events broadcast live on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Facebook page must be accessible in both English and French.

More than a dozen people complained to the commissioner’s office about the lack of simultaneous translation on Trudeau’s Facebook page during a July 6 press conference announcing the nomination of Mary Simon as governor general.

In a preliminary report tabled last month and obtained by The Canadian Press, commissioner Raymond Theberge found that the Privy Council Office, which provided organizational support for the press conference, failed to meet its obligations under the Official Languages Act.

The investigation acknowledged that no simultaneous interpretation or subtitle service is currently available on Facebook Live, but Theberge suggested a link could be included in the caption of the video directing viewers to another website where the broadcast could be watched in both official languages.

The Privy Council Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Canadian Press.

The nomination of Simon, an Inuk leader and former Canadian diplomat who does not speak French, led to hundreds of complaints to the language commissioner’s office.

For subscribers: Get exclusive political news and analysis by signing up for the Politics Briefing.

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Event firms join metaverse bandwagon to offer immersive experience

File photo: An attendee wearing a VR headset during a concert experience in the metaverse at the Mobile World Congess in Barcelona. (Photo: Bloomberg)

Instead, it purchased digital real estate in Decentraland, a blockchain-based game that allows players to interact with each other through virtual avatars in a 3D virtual world and buy land within this virtual world, and even sell or rent it to other brands or individuals.

The virtual space Atom bought is now the company’s metaverse office, which it hopes to use to reach out to global clients and use as a place for ‘metaverse’ events and interactions too in the near future.

Yash Kulshreshtha, the national creative head of Mumbai-based firm, says those in their early 30s are already too old for today’s internet. He believes that much like how the older generation found the shift from newspapers to online articles drastic, the ‘90s generation is today content with what the present internet, or Web 2.0, already offers.

While the company has four virtual avatars to cater to this virtual space right now, Kulshreshtha says that one day, this facility could become just as valuable as the agency’s physical office – and in fact help the company expand its footprint beyond India. “The thing with the metaverse is that the young generation growing up today will find it completely natural,” he insists.

The ‘metaverse’, as of today, remains a vaguely defined and understood area of technology. While some, such as Meta (erstwhile Facebook), Nvidia, Microsoft and the likes have showcased virtual worlds with avatars that resemble the real person, items scaled to the real world, replication of actual areas, roads and much more, others have often used the ‘metaverse’ as a catch phrase given all the hype and attention around it.

In the distant future, the metaverse is supposed to be a single virtual world which runs parallel to our physical world, akin to worlds imagined in movies like Ready Player One.

Atom is just one among the many event management companies that are exploring this space.

In January 2022, Punjab-based events agency, Cryptic Entertainments, hosted what they claimed to be ‘India’s first metaverse concert’ on Ethereum-based 3D virtual platform, Somnium Space. About 30 individuals ‘attended’ the concert by 23-year-old Indian singer, Sparsh Dangwal. Since then, India has also seen its first ‘metaverse wedding’.

Such events show a rising trend of curiosity among individuals and organisers alike in terms of exploring a new technology. As Gautam Seth, co-founder and director of virtual event company Dreamcast Global, said, “Over the past year or so, there are many event companies in India that are trying to understand how the metaverse can apply to events. Some of the early movers are looking at ready metaverse platforms such as Decentraland and Spatial, and use their non-fungible token (NFT) avatars for their characters to design an event.”

Dinesh Dulhani, founder of Immersive Realities, a firm that develops immersive virtual experiences, adds a similar narrative. Over the past decade, Dulhani has offered virtual reality (VR)-based experiences in events that involve product showcases, or converted an audio-visual clip into a VR one. Today, Dulhani says that there is an increasing volume of attention in this space, for sure. “I have received enquiries and interest from the Singapore-based Publicis Group regarding hosting a metaverse event, and I have pitched such ideas to many of my clients as well,” he said.

Atom’s Kulshreshtha said that as of now, he has received queries from an Indian e-commerce platform regarding creating a metaverse platform, and has also pitched a metaverse concept to an FMCG brand regarding one of their promotional activities. Such plans, though, are still in early-stage conversations – showcasing the flipside of the ‘metaverse’ buzzword.

“Numerous brands are looking at a slightly toned-down solution, or more of a VR experience rather than the full-scale metaverse experience that platforms such as Decentraland provide. These brands typically want more control over what an attendee in their virtual event can do,” said Seth.

Alongside brands being conscious of what these experiences can bring to the table, Seth further said the technology is also a hindrance. “Today, the basic cardboard-like VR headsets are not good enough for metaverse events, because they are not really interactive. As an organizer, I cannot expect all individuals attending a metaverse event to have an Oculus Rift or similar VR headsets, along with a powerful computer, at home,” he added.

Dulhani, in fact, believes that even over the next couple of years, even as more companies express interest in ‘metaverse’ events, the experience will largely remain a non-VR one. “Back when Facebook acquired Oculus, everyone thought VR has arrived. But it still failed to get large-scale adoption from consumers, because of the issues with the headset. Over the past 4-5 years, VR has seen increasing adoption in enterprise use cases and gaming, but for it to become truly mainstream, the hardware has to evolve a lot,” he said.

To sum up, Kulshreshtha believes it is obviously a nascent phase for agencies and companies exploring the metaverse. “It may seem like a small augmentation of the virtual interaction experience that we have today, but for the generation that will follow us, interacting through a metaverse workplace will feel more natural. Such opportunities will let us advertise our products well beyond our present market, and take our agency global,” Kulshreshtha said.

“Look at Nike’s investment in RTFKT. If such big brands are making a push for NFTs and the metaverse, there’s definitely a big scope in the industry,” he added.

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