The press conference for the 2018 World Virtue Reality Innovation Conference is held in Qingdao, East China’s Shandong province. [Photo/bandao.cn]

The 2018 World Virtue Reality Innovation Conference (WVRIC) is to be held in the Qingdao Interntiaonal Conference and Exhibition Center, East China's Shandong province from Sept 27 to 29.

The conference, jointly sponsored by the Qingdao municipal people's government and the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, will gather more than 1,000 businesses and organizations from across the world to explore the VR industry's current status and its future development.

According to its organizing committee, a total of 21 activities are scheduled for the three-day event, including a main forum, 15 different themed sub-forums and an expo.

The Qingdao VR International Expo - Laval Virtual Expo in Asia- is set to be a highlight. Occupying 10,000 square meters, the expo is to showcase the latest VR products and solutions in multiple fields such as education, news publication, healthcare, firefighting, building and video games.

To date, over 130 companies from home and abroad have confirmed their participation, including some juggernauts in the sector such as s Huawei, Goertek, Microsoft, Intel, HTC, and BOE.

The WVRIC, to be held in Qingdao for the second time, is amid the local government's great efforts to build the city into a national hub of the VR industry.

Up to now, the number of enterprises and research institutes involved in the industry in the Laoshan district of Qingdao is 78, with their business scopes covering VR technology research and development and equipment manufacturing as well as applications in leisure and entertainment, transportation, mining, education and real estate.

In the first half of this year, the VR enterprises in the Laoshan district generated tax revenue of more than 40 million yuan ($5.82 million).