Digital Sports & The City of Science

Do you live near Paris?  Or will you be traveling here anytime between now and September 28?  Then you may enjoy going to the Digital Sports exposition (link to French-language website)at the Cité des Sciences.   

You’re reading this post so you’re probably at least a little geeked-out about the innovations and technologies driving the world of sports.  And as a bonus for your interest, I’m going to give you some inside skinny on the below Digital Sports teaser.  But please watch it first. 

There are several references to Dassault Systèmes in the video.  Insiders’ info #1:  Mehdi Tayoubi (director of interactive strategy & marketing) is the person closing the VirtuSphere.  I’ll sprinkle more insider tips throughout this post. 

Here are some photos taken at the exposition’s opening that feature current and former French government officials . . . testing the Virtual Cardio™ Bike (even the ministères are into VR!):

I tried to indicate with Paint the names of the government representatives (see scribble in red; you may need to double click on the photo to see it well). 

Photo factoids:

1. François d’Aubertis president of Cité des Sciences.  Previously he was mayor of Laval, France and one of the founders of Laval Virtual, and he even once had a run as French ministère of research.  
2. Eric Besson, among other government roles, is France’s secretary of state for digital economic development.
3. Fabrice Lourieruns the Cité des Science’s media center, and since the Cité is part of the governmental portfolio, I guess we can count Fabrice as a government rep. 

Here’s a shot of François and Eric getting on the bikes.

And here they are in action. 

If you go to the expo, you too can ride the Virtual Cardio™ Bike.  But there are also interesting workshops, round-table discussions and special events planned for you.  Some of the themes that interest me the most are:
• E-sports
• Handisports
• “From Pong to Today, 30 Years of Sports Simulation”

Parfait for 3DSports, non?

But back to the teaser.  Remember the guy running inside the VirtuSphere?  I run into him frequently at Dassault Systèmes, and he was even at the V+R Challenge kick-off event March 7.  His name? Ray Latypov.  His role?  He’s the inventor of the VirtuSphere and one of our partners. 

Last teaser factoid- but this one’s for YOU to answer!  The digital runner is running in a digital environment.  Remember the buildings?  Now here’s the question:  how are those buildings linked to Dassault Systèmes, and where are they “located?”  (This is a trick question, so stay tuned to see who gets it right!)

–Kate

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