Rochester conference seeks to capture the cool in innovation

One of the lessons that might have been lost in the effort to reshape Rochester's business landscape is the nature of the companies that used to form the backbone of the local economy.

Xerox was born when Chester Carlson invented a method for making photocopies, and Kodak grew out of George Eastman's advances with dry plate film.  But what made each of those companies a giant was their ability to turn those innovations into consumer products, to take those complex technologies and make them accessible to the masses.

"You push the button and we do the rest" was Kodak's slogan, and it could very well have been Xerox's motto as well.

"Rochester's economic might was built on end-product manufacturers like Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch and Lomb," says Paul Ballentine, executive director of the Center for Emerging and Innovative Sciences at the University of Rochester. "It's time we reclaim that leadership."

There are some local companies getting international attention for their cutting edge work  making lenses, computer chips, or other components.  But what really captures the public's imagination are the applications for those pieces, the end products that the average person can use and understand.

To that end, Ballentine hopes that a new conference called Light and Sound Interactive can showcase those applications and bring together the people who will help grow the new Rochester economy.

It's loosely based on the South by Southwest conference held in Austin, Texas each year. That event has not only highlighted Austin's burgeoning tech industry, it's helped create a breeding ground for new ideas. 

Rochester's take on SXSW is the brainchild of Ballentine and Mark Bocko, chairman of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UR.

They believe that a similar festival can have the same impact here in Rochester, not only showcasing the work being done locally but attracting new startups and investors. It's meant to draw a wide range of attendees, from consumers interested in the latest products to the researchers and engineers who develop the underlying technology.

"These are things that are coming and coming fast and coming large," Ballentine said. "We have the resources here to leverage that."

While he's been one of the voices driving the development of the AIM Photonics institute as a platform for growth, he knows that a lot of people don't see how that translates into jobs.  He hopes the conference can help move people past any lingering confusion about the underlying science.

"We want this to be informative, entertaining, and inspiring," said Ballentine. "This is an economic development effort. It's a call to action."

Finding inspiration

The Light and Sound Interactive conference and expo will run from September 12 to 14, and organizers say it will become an annual event. It will consist of a conference, a trade show, and a job fair. It's followed by the Rochester Fringe Festival, which organizers see as a natural tie-in.

"We'll have talks that are quite technical, and we'll also have talks geared to lay people, Ballentine said. "The sweet spot will be 25- to 35-year-old entrepreneurs that want to change the world and get rich doing it, people with the energy to solve problems or to create a product around a talk they see."

Even in its first year, the event is attracting some top-notch speakers.

Among them is Rob Legato, a cinematographer and visual effects supervisor who won Academy Awards for his work on the films Titanic, Hugo, and The Jungle Book.  He was also nominated for Apollo 13, and received two Emmy awards for his work on the Star Trek television franchise.

The technology to create special effects keeps improving, Legato said in a recent TED Talk called "The Art of Creating Awe," but the goal remains the same. It's not simply about making something look real, it's about evoking a specific emotional response from the viewer.

"Once you believe something is real, you transfer everything that you feel about it," he said. "It's totally artificial, totally make believe, but it's not to you."

Other speakers include Ainissa Ramirez, a science evangelist and host of the popular podcast "Science Underground," and Jeff Lieberman, a robotics expert and host of the television show Time Warp on the Discovery Channel.

The conference has eight tracks, each highlighting a burgeoning industry that has a significant local footprint.

LSI will explore virtual and augmented reality, video games and interactive media, cinema, music, imaging, video displays, health care and optics.

Rochester is home to two of the key players in the world of virtual reality. Six15 Technologies produces hardware and software products for industrial applications and the military.  Vuzix has won awards for its consumer products, including wearable displays for video game players and drone pilots.

"Their markets are small now, but virtual reality will be a $100 billion business," Ballentine said.

Video games

Perhaps no field has more promise for Rochester's economy than video games. The industry has taken root here in large part because of the highly regarded School of Interactive Games and Media at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

"In the beginning there was a small handful of gaming development programs," said Chad Weeden, SIGM's assistant director.  "Now there are hundreds."

And RIT's is one of the best. The Princeton Review ranks RIT's undergraduate game development program second in the country — the University of Southern California ranks first — and RIT's graduate program ranks fourth. 

Some of those students go on to jobs with major companies like Microsoft, Sony, and even Disney. But an increasing number are staying in Rochester to start their own game companies or to work for one that has taken root here in the last three or four years. The cluster includes companies like Workinman Interactive, Darkwind Media, Broken Myth Studios, Second Avenue Learning, and Ambrosia Software.

They are among the local game companies who will have a presence at the LSI festival, along with students showcasing their games and international tech companies looking for fresh talent.

Once the domain of computer programmers, Weeden says that developing modern video games requires a variety of skill sets.

"It brings together developers and designers and asset creators, even film and animation students," he said.

In many ways, video games have become more like movies.

"It's not just about making a game," Weeden said "It's about creating environments and worlds in which people feel alive."

Successful games like "Overwatch" and "World of Warcraft" sell millions of copies around the world and attract millions more to play online.

"The market for video games is bigger than Hollywood," Weeden said.

Weeden will also be speaking on a panel at the conference about e-sports, the world of competitive video game playing. Millions of people worldwide watch these tournaments and there's significant prize money at stake. The winning five-person team in the 2017 International Championship earlier this month took home $10.8 million. 

"There's real money here," Weeden said. "It's gigantic in southeast Asia, large in Europe, and just starting to hit the U.S. pretty hard."

RIT is one of the American schools sending teams to compete.  You can't be a filmmaker if you don't watch movies, and you probably can't get far as a video game developer if you're not an avid gamer yourself. 

Helping to bring those disciplines together is RIT's MAGIC Center, known more formally as the Center for Media, Arts, Games, Interaction and Creativity.

"The primary mission of the MAGIC Center is to create game companies here in western New York," Weeden said. "We want to make it the national center for game development."

SLAHMAN@Gannett.com

If you go

The first-ever Light and Sound Interactive (LSI) event, a three-day conference, expo and career fair focused on light- and sound-based technologies and their applications, will take place Sept. 12-14 at the Joseph A. Floreano Riverside Convention Center and Hyatt Regency in Rochester. For more information, visit: www.lightandsound.org.