HIE 2025 Italian Session

 The Italian session this year was dominated by educators and what a thrill to hear them speak with such optimism and enthusiasm about their passion for teaching and for technology.

The Italian session was moderated by Lorenza Colicigno, who is herself an educator and whose sim NoiLab on craft is a magnet for any thoughtful hg traveler.

Our first speaker was Luciana Mattei. She teaches primary school in Latina, Italy. Her project unAcademy is an absolute joy - she is teaching children not only science, and English, but also all about their digital identity. Luciana's joyful approach to her work is infectious, and the whole audience felt the thrill of seeing how she has combined the virtual school in Craft-world, with the concrete school, in the real world.

If you missed her talk, remember you can watch all the sessions of HIE on our Youtube channel, HIE Expo. Use the Settings button to get the auto generated subtitles for your language.

Ready to Party at HIE 2024 !

  This year, the Expo Park that surrounds the auditorium, where the main conference takes place, is even bigger!

Just over 100 booths fill the three regions with color, humor, information, and art. Many of the stands have freebies - some exclusive to this event! and just about all of them have notecards, landmarks, and weblinks so you can learn more about the people and places they showcase.

The HIE event begins on Friday April 19 at 11am SLT with a kick-off party in the park, a good excuse to get out and see the sights. Entertainment will be by Zoree Jupiter, DJMarlon Wayne, and Zeno Stark. On Saturday April 20, following the conference, there will be an opportunity to revisit the park with your friends as while listening to some great rock'n'roll by Wolem Wobbit. 
Come see the regions for yourself, land on craft-world.org:8002:HIE Welcome and walk through the portals to get to the Expo Park.

Xirana's HIE Adventure

All the participants at the Hypergrid International Expo have a story to tell - and in some cases it's not just a story but a storybook! That's true of our Spanish moderator, the lovely Xirana Oximoxi, in real life Catalan author and illustrator Nuria Vives. 

In September, over on SL, Xirana's drawings were the subject of an exhibition called 'The Undefined' at the gallery of Aneli Abeyante - there's a picture of that - but even though she's a busy lady, both in RL and in the virtual, she was able to make time to become an integral part of the preparation and of course the main event at this year's HIE Spanish session.

Xirana had been part of the first edition of the Hypergrid International Expo back in 2017 when she was one of our speakers, this time her duties were different. Each section of the conference has a Moderator who introduces the speakers, and they take on the responsibility of getting to know the people they will be introducing, so as to be able to give the best biographical information possible. It's also a good excuse to better know fellow opensimmers! 

First question for Xirana... being moderator, it can be a bit of an adventure, so much can go wrong... so was it difficult? was it scary? was it fun?

Xirana Oximoxi

Xirana Oximoxi: Being a moderator was not scary...just nervous about everything working fine and also the artists, and you hope that Internet the day of the event is ok and no storm outside etc,_) ... It was also fun all the process of preparing the sessions...talking with all your team every week... you are a nice team, very gentle and interesting. people :)

Pixels at HIE

Jessica 'Lifted' Pixel is a long-time gamer who enjoys the madcap unpredictable, creative aspects of opensim. Lifted, with an immediately recognizable  ring avatar,  is a techie, explorer and a frequent filmer of the hypergrid tours, HG Safari - you can see her videos here on Youtube.

 During the recent HIE event, Lifted was part of the team that filmed the event. How did she get involved?

Sunday at HIE 2023: Spanish Session

 Crossing continents with our last session, we were delighted to have with us Victoria Logan, Nazirah Avro, and Tosha Tyran. This Spanish Session gave lovers of languages the chance to sample four different accents, and three different windows onto the world as seen through Spanish-speaker's eyes.

From pure virtual art, to a personal testimony, to a RL monument made into mesh, it was a whirlwind of emotions.

Xirana Oximoxi was the Moderator for this session. Xirana is a writer with an extraordinary talent also for illustrations. She has published several books for children, and also has this really beautiful and moving blog full of her art - please do not miss it. Xirana lives in Catalonia, while Victoria is in Argentina, and Nazirah in Venezuela. As you can imagine, getting everyone to the event on time, with so many time zones involves, was something of a challenge! But Xirana's calm and kind demeanor and her good sense of fun got us through the trickiest bits of the planning and execution of the event!  Virtual worlds pulling our global community together all on one stage!

Saturday at HIE 2023: Italian session

 The second session of Saturday's Hypergrid International Expo, 2023 was dedicated to Italian speakers Lorenza Colicigno and Gianni Spada,  plus one long-term resident of Craft Grid and so an 'honorary Italian', CapCat Ragu, really from Portugal, who performed the art section of the session. We hope in future editions of HIE that we can have a full session in Portuguese, or in Dutch or other languages.

Perhaps you know someone who would be a perfect candidate to give a talk at the next event. If so, get in touch on Craft grid! Use the Mail Box on HIE Welcome to leave your details. 

The session was moderated by Snowbody Cortes. To make life a little easier for our presenters, Snowbody developed a handy tool for people with rigged mesh heads - it allows you to speak in various ways, with different 'mouth styles' possible, as well as the option of pulling faces. You can either press to talk or just turn your mouth on and leave it... for those long conversations.

Saturday at HIE 2023: German session.

 The first session of the 2023 Edition of the Hypergrid International Expo began with a ... well let's not deny it, a few teething problems!

 Lots of moving parts, to this complicated machine called HIE. 

But within minutes of getting started the event was already attracting a nice mix of audience both inworld, on Craft Grid, and on our YouTube channel, where the event is streamed Live. That's where you will find the archive of presentations, in the weeks following this event, so it's worth Subscribing to the channel so you will not miss out. Please Comment, Like and Share, too of course!

The program for the first session began with greeting in five languages - just to get you in the mood!

It was followed by the German session, introduced by Loru Destiny of ArtDestiny grid, a place full of paintings, 3d art, magnificent Star Trek regions and beautiful Fantasy landscapes, great music events also (Moses Rae is resident there) and of course, Loru Destiny's marvelous freebie 'shops' - she is a fantastic designer of original clothes for opensim, and has been for many years; she began with system clothes and now makes rigged mesh that everyone can enjoy. 

Loru Destiny

Loru is the organizer of Openim's "Modenschau: or Fashion Show events, featuring original creators of clothes in Opensim like herself, check out her youtube channel, it includes vids of her events and some very good tutorials!

Friday HIE !

 HIE 2023 took off today with a fantastic party event on region HIE 4 of Craft Grid. The venue? A piece of art by Nyx Breen the renowned RL photographer and builder on such art-rich grids as Pangea and Alternate Metaverse Grid. 

Hanging in the sky above the Expo park, Nyx's build is a three dimensional treat based on the concept of crosswords, where the letters escape into the night sky. Inside the floor features a trompe l'oeil effect that will make dancers dizzy!

HIE Schedule

Hola!  Coucou!  Hallöchen !  Hi !   Ciao! Oi! 

The multi language HIE event is only days away! 

Come on over to craft-world.org:HIE Welcome and check out the Subtitle Group joiners, and use the portals to get to the auditorium.

Please bookmark our Website, it's got lots of details about this event and about how people can participate at the next event.

Here is the upcoming schedule. for your viewing pleasure...Perhaps you remember from the 2017 event, if you don't speak these languages, there will be Subtitles to help you follow the presentations.

And maybe you or a friend would like to participate at the 2024 event, someone with a tale to tell or an invention to share, but who does not feel comfortable speaking in English in front of a crowd... if so, let us know.

As you can see, during each session there are 3 presentations, two are in the normal 'Talk' format f a conference, and one in each session is an artistic display. It's going to be a colorful and fascinating trip through different cultures, grids, countries, and languages! 

Let your friends know!! 

New Promo Video for HIE

 If you are planning on attending the Hypergrid International Expo, save the date! October 6-8, 2023

n 6 October, from 11am SLT, there is an opening party on craft-world.org:8002:HIE 4  in this custom made dance platform by Nyx Breen.
Musical guests include Zoree Jupiter, and DJ Arianna Nightfire for some unbeatable international tunes.

Then on Saturday 7 October and Sunday 8 October, the main event will be happening - starting from 9am SLT (that's 6pm in Paris) so show up early and tp your friends. 

Here's a promo film for the event made by James Atlloud. This is the official HIE Expo Youtube channel, so don't forget to subscribe, as the conference will be broadcast Live on this channel, and it is where the four language sessions will be archived. What do you think?

Booth Fun at HIE

If you're not presenting or performing at this year's Hypergrid International Expo, you can still be part of the fun. Everyone's welcome to join us as audience members, - and remember,  there will be 'subtitles' for all the talks, no matter the language! 

You can also be part of the Park - it's full of publicity booths! Just for fun, not for profit.
In the background of this photo you can see red and blue pyramids. Those are available spots for booths, the red ones mark older booths from a past event, the blue ones are new places. 

Yes, come and represent yourself, your region, grid or project, with a simple stand in the grounds of the auditorium. There are still a few spaces left, so don't delay!

Meet the Team: Kelso Uxlay

 Kelso Uxlay started to explore virtual worlds via Second Life thanks to his RL partner known inworld as Dabici Straulino. They share a grid that re-creates inworld the magnificent Canadian countryside, in all its changing seasons, the snowy winter, the colorful fall and the greenery of the spring - they show us both the cultural history and the landscapes they both love so much. Kelso speaks German, French and English, so he is the perfect choice for Director of Translations for the Hypergrid International Expo. 

Dabici & Kelso on CreaNovale

Kelso Uxlay: For a while, we had our own SL region. We subsequently moved to OSgrid where we had a region for a few years, until the big OSgrid crash of 2015 in which we lost most of your inventory. This sad event convinced us to start our own private grid CreaNovale in 2017. We work together as a team: Dabici focusses on landscape design and construction while Kelso put magics in the builds via scripting.

The event coming up in October is called Hypergrid International Expo. How important, in your opinion, is that word 'International' in this context?

Meet the HIE Team: Tosha Tyran

 The core organizers of HIE each have their own niche and special skills, and Tosha Tyran is no exception. Well known for her re-creation of famous monuments like the Taj Mahal and Angkor Wat, she defines herself as a "Virtual brick layer with a slight tendency towards gigantonomy". Tosha had been active in virtual worlds since 2005. She speaks three languages, in virtual since 2005, and was one of the first four members when Craft Grid was founded, back in 2010. 

This conference is the Hypergrid International Expo. What does the word 'International' have for you?

Tosha Tyran: I have long since stopped considering myself a citizen of a single nation. My aim is to act and be seen as an internationalist. Therefore this international event for me is great! It helps to overcome national borders and even languages. This conference gives all avatars - and of course the persons behind them -  great opportunity to jump a little higher and see the other side of ones borders. It widens the angle of sight and of mind.

Meet the HIE Team: Mal Burns

Mal Burns is a metaverse news aggregator and broadcaster. He is co-host of two shows on Youtube. MBTV is a news show VR technology, innovation and innovators. Inworld Review, is focused on the latest developments and events in Opensim Both shows are broadcast each Sunday when in season, and you can find previous shows here on Youtube. Mal has been involved in virtual worlds since their inception, in Second Life, Sansar, Sinespace to mention a few of the many he has explored, and these days is mostly to be found in Opensim. He co-created the original HIE event, back in 2017.

This conference is the Hypergrid International Expo. What does 'International' mean to you in this context?