Hie Is Underway!

 Yes, the Hypergrid International Expo 2025 is well and truly launched! Yesterday from 11am SLT we had three wonderful hours of live singers. First up the one and only Zoree Jupiter - follow her on Facebook!  and here's her performance schedule, so you know when and where to catch her concerts inworld. SHe sang a divine set perfect for our international event, with a bit of everything from fado to We Are Family... couldn't have been better. Thank you Zoree!

As you can see we had a great cohort of Dinkies at the party - you can see behind them, the Group joiner boards... what are they for? During our 2 day conference, beginning today, Saturday 5 April, the talks are given in German, French, and then tomorrow in Italian and Spanish. If you don't speak all these languages, no worries, we provide subtitles in English, Italian, Portuguese, French German and Spanish throughout the event, in Group Chat... just join the group for your language, and during the event the subtitles will show up in your IMs. Magic!

Following Zoree, we had a power hour of songs from the 80s with Khiron Ametza as always pumping up the mood of the party and getting us all singing and dancing at home as well as inworld! Khiron, a soprano singer from Brazil, has a great repertoire - a good way to keep in touch with what she's up to is to fave her page on Facebook .

The party continued into a third hour, as people came and went, about 60 plus attended the musical evening, many of them took full advantage of the inworld ability to stay by the singers and dance like crazy, while at the same time camming out into the Expo and pick up LMs, Notecards, and the many many freebies donated by a multiplicity of grids and individuals. We have 130 publicity booths at the HIE Expo this year, and there truly is something for everyone in that wonderful miscellany!

Our final singer was the wonderful Wolem Wobbit - here's his YouTube Channel, be sure to subscribe! A native of Germany, with excellent English, Wolem is a bluesman, a guitarist of great talent, a songwriter and of course a great singer. His original songs are all hits, or ought to be - they have heartfelt, thoughtful lyrics - his latest composition which he played for us is all about the Hypergrid, and the importance of a sense of community and acceptance in this ever more divided and hateful real world. 

Thanks to our wonderful singers, and to everyone who attended the Opening event for HIE 2025 - hope to see you all at the Conference, today starting at 9am SLT (6pm in Europe)  Saturday 5 April and tomorrow 6 April!

HG Address: grid.hgsafari.org:58002:HIE

Testing for HIE

 The past days have been busy on the HIE region as we complete the final run-throughs and tests for our many speakers, artists, and moderators. 

We've been testing animations, talks, slideshows, art experiences, outfits, and NPCs - a whole world of informative entertainment about what it means to inhabit this very special platform.

Practicing the 5 person panel for the opening talk

As you know, the talks are given in a range of languages, not English. If you have been to the OSCC conference, held every year in December and organized by Avacon, you will know that the English speaking community is well served by this opportunity to share their innovations and projects at that event. The idea of the Hypergrid International Expo to give voice - and an opportunity to listen - to opensim residents who aren't English speakers. 

HIE 2025 Schedule at a Glance

The HIE conference is just around the corner, four sessions in four languages with lots of art and pictures and music on the menu as always.

The talks this time will be about a variety of Opensim themes, by people who spend many hours here - working, creating, teaching, playing, and expressing themselves in a vibrant range of ways.

You'll learn so much about how people experience Opensim and in some cases, how their virtual life has enhanced their real life. This virtual platform, with its low prices and its high versatility, has given life to so many projects that wouldn't have been possible in real life.

Four languages, fifteen voices will be heard at this event which counts many more volunteers and advisors who have helped us pull together an event that spans opensim in every way. We hope you ill attend! 

HIE Expo, Something for Everyone

 Freebies are always a magnet at any event and this year's HIE Expo has plenty of them - everything from houses to hats. But there's much more than just a gift or two on offer here. This year we have about 130 booths, representing about 80 different grids, big and small, of every persuasion and point of view, showing just how much there is to love and to learn about Opensim.

There are plenty of dance places and performers are represented on the build, but Opensim offers plenty of other things to see and to do, like Aba Brukh's fascinating regions about Abyssinia - a chance to take a trip in time and space to ancient Africa. 

Most of the booths feature Landmarks so you can go and visit the regions or grids being promoted, although one or two on OSGrid may require a little bit of patience before you'll be able to see them again. 

Other places and groups are as busy as can be, offering a wide range of ways to engage with the community, like VWEC, the Virtual Worlds Education Consortium, or what about some Roleplay with groups like Carima, Candoranien, Starfleet Infinity, Genesis RP Grid, Wyldwood Bayou Grid's two RP groups, and Westeros shown here, a Game of Thrones inspired roleplay group on Wolf Territories.

The Westeros booth is in the blue zone of the Expo park

All this plus Bible Study, Big Art, BDSM, tech tools, scifi, and cultural milestones... the Expo really has something for just about everyone.

Visit the Expo Park any time, and be sure to come along for the Conference during the weekend of 4-6 April. See our Schedule for full details of the speakers!
HG Address: grid.hgsafari.org:58002

The beautiful creation of Lampithaler Artist

Cherry and Morlita at HIE !

 On the weekend of 5 and 6 April, we will be holding the 2025 conference of the Hypergrid International Expo. The program is complete, and we are deep into our preparations!

It's quite a big task to put together 12 different presentations, in four languages. In each section of the event there is an artistic performance, like this one by MorlitaM and Cherry Manga... here is a little hint of it.

These performances involve weeks of work both onsite and on the artists' home grids. Their collaboration is key to bringing about a fabulous inworld immersive experience for our public, so much more than can be expressed in a video - so be sure not to miss the French session of HIE this year, it begins at 12:00 SLT on Saturday April 5.

HG Address:  grid.hgsafari.org:58002:HIE

Tech Talks at HIE

 This year's HIE conference is right around the corner, on the weekend of 5 and 6 April - will you attend? 

The speeches will be given in a variety of languages, but if your native tongue is English, don't worry - we've got you covered! Subtitles in English, as well as French, German,Italian, Spanish will be available again this year so you can follow along.

One of our speakers will be Neo Cortex. In RL a software guy, Neo has been around Opensim since its earliest days, running a small grid of his own and also experimenting with scripting. His talk this year will be about a tool he has developed for the Nara's Nook writing group, led by Nara Malone. Neo's innovations and adaptations of other tools make it easier for them to use the 3D platform to tell their stories, and to engage their readers as part of the adventure of the plot line. 

Neo Cortex

This interesting project will involve some inworld examples of NPCs, and information about how you can benefit from, maybe even contribute, to Neo's Story Sequencer project.

Join us inworld on April 5 at 9am SLT for the German session of the Hypergrid International Expo. You'll be glad you did!

HG Address: grid.hgsafari.org:58002:HIE

Ein Spaziergang übers Expo-Gelände

O schau, da stehen sie wieder

Wie bunte Melodien

Kreativer, schöner Lieder

Aus Opensim Galaxien!

Mein Herz kann sie verstehen,

Denn auf jahrelanger Fahrt

Erwarb es ein Wissen von Wehen

und Freuden höchst virtueller Art.

Ich liebe diese kleinen Kunstwerke,

die an allen Wegen stehn

Als hinreißende Augenmerke

Ihrer Designer leuchtender Ideen.

Das erste, was auffällt, ist tatsächlich das schöne und liebevoll gestaltete Drumherum... Berge, Wasserfälle, Flüsse - es fehlt wirklich nichts. Durch diese Schönheit schlängelt sich ein komplizierter, sich immer wieder verzweigender Pfad und genau in der Mitte befindet sich der Zuschauerraum mit Bühne und Darstellungsfläche für die Vortragenden und die Künstler:innen!

Der Pfad der Ausstellungs-Stände

Ich bin dem Pfad gefolgt, nicht etwa in geordneter Folge, Stand für Stand abklappernd, sondern eher chaotisch (wie es meine Art ist...), mal hier mal da schauend.