Kevin O’Donovan is a prolific Technology Evangelist who bridges the gap between tech hype and tech reality. His technology advisory company is focused on the intersection of technology and the Energy Industry, Digital Twin, Industrial AI and the Industrial Metaverse. So it was a pleasure to be interviewed by Kevin about Eirmersive’s PRISM summit at DkIT on October 29th.

Over the course of a 12 minute conversation Eirmersive CEO Camille Donegan spoke to Kevin about the purpose and ambition of the event. A few quotes noted by Kevin below -

“PRISM is about bringing together industry leaders, researchers, innovators, and potential adopters to explore and and demonstrate how immersive technologies, so that's virtual reality, augmented reality, etc ... And complementary technologies like digital twins and AI are being applied and adding value in the real world. And that's what makes PRISM special, we believe ... it's not about abstract conversations or hype ... it's very focused on use cases and outcomes."

See the full interview with Kevin…

The final review has taken place of a 12-month pan-European collaboration on advancing new AI modalities in XR for the cultural heritage, with a report of VAARHeT, a pan-European applied research collaboration between Germany, Latvia and Ireland.

Eirmersive member XR Ireland worked with Cordula Hansen, Eva Koljera and members of Āraišu Ezerpils Archaeological Park and XYZ Technical Art Services on integrating new AI in XR and interactive immersive implementations in Āraišu Ezerpils Archaeological Park in Latvia.

XR Ireland’s Head of XR Technologies, Guillaume Auvray issued his thanks to the former Irish Ambassador to Latvia, Eimear Friel, Cēsis deputy Mayor Inese Suija - Markova, Katrina Zarina from the Latvian chamber of Commerce, the Latvian TV, local newspapers and other high level representatives for their presence and feedback to the teams. And he expressed special gratitude to David Toolan, for work that included the video report below.

Earlier this year Eirmersive hosted a members-only Lunch and Learn webinar exploring the vital topic of Intellectual Property (IP) in the immersive technology space. Led by legal expert Gemma Forde of Byrne Wallace Shields (and Eirmersive Director) and entrepreneur Declan Fahy co-founder at HoloToyz (an Eirmersive member) the session offered both theoretical and practical insights into how IP can be developed, protected, and leveraged for growth.

1. Types of IP Explained Gemma Forde broke down the key categories of IP relevant to creative and immersive industries:

• Copyright: Protects original works like code, music, and visual content.

• Trademarks: Safeguard brand identifiers such as logos and slogans.

• Patents: Cover novel inventions and technical processes.

• Industrial Designs: Protect the aesthetic aspects of products.

• Trade Secrets: Include…

'The Next Innovation' podcast from Enterprise Ireland, explores the latest technological and business innovations in Ireland, and how they are making a global impact. The podcast focuses on emerging and potentially disruptive developments across a wide range of sectors including AI, medtech, sustainability, automation and Extended Reality (XR, or as we call it here at Eirmersive - Immersive Technologies)

In a recent episode entitled, ‘Is the Future of Storytelling Extended Reality’, host Samantha Murphy Kelly explored “the immersive world of Extended Reality and how it’s reshaping storytelling, art, and technology”. The episode featured EI client and Eirmersive member Janet Beck, CEO of Glasseye who spoke about the growing industry of immersive storytelling and the impact this technology can have on consumers and corporations.

The episode also featured our own Camille Donegan, who described the power of immersive storytelling to Samantha.

“From empathy-building VR to real-time audience engagement, this episode reveals why XR may be the future of…

In this second spotlight video from the Kilkenny Arts Festival, Eirmersive CEO Camille Donegan chats with Janet Beck, founder of Eirmersive member Glasseye, an XR Studio based in Kilkenny, about her studio’s latest work as well as sharing her impressions of the mixed reality opera “We Who Live Under Heaven” from The Performance Corporation, designed by Ciara Del Grosso (see earlier news story)

🏛️ Glasseye is a creative studio based in Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, known for crafting immersive XR experiences that blend storytelling with cutting-edge tech. The Summer Palace and their upcoming piece Enchanted Garden, feature at the UK's no1 tourist attraction - Outernet London.

💬 The conversation dives into the creative energy of Kilkenny, the importance of local XR innovation, and how events like this inspire new possibilities for immersive storytelling.

🔗 Watch the full video to hear Janet’s insights and learn more about Glasseye’s work in the immersive space.

Eirmersive recently attended the Kilkenny Arts Festival to experience the mesmerising “We Who Live Under Heaven”, a ground-breaking Mixed Reality Opera that ran from 7–17 August 2025 at the Old KBC Bank, The Parade.

🎶 This otherworldly fantastical piece featured:
🎤 Live vocals by countertenor Morgan Crowley
🎼 An eclectic score by composer Roger Doyle
🧠 Mixed reality design by Ciara Del Grosso of The Immersive Agency
🎭 Production by The Performance Corporation and Directed by Jo Mangan
🖥️ Hardware support from XR Ireland

🎥 In our spotlight video below, Camille Donegan, CEO of Eirmersive, interviews Eirmersive members Jo Mangan and Ciara Del Grosso about the creative process and the immersive technologies behind the show.

🚀 Following its sold-out run in Kilkenny, We Who Live Under Heaven now travels to Paris for the prestigious NEMO Biennale of Digital Art, continuing its journey of innovation and artistic exploration.

Salesforce, the world's leading cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform, is a client of Eirmersive member Imvizar.

At Eirmersive’s ‘Outward’ event in Dublin last year, Claire Rowley, Global Lead for Employee Engagement at Salesforce gave a wonderful presentation explaining why they used Augmented Reality from Imvizar for employee engagement. As Claire says, “Immersive storytelling brings Employee Engagement possibilities to a whole new level.”

In a recent update Claire notes, “This presentation was last year and I'm proud to say the app has evolved by adding an experience to learn about Agentforce, a Salesforce family app with games and AI facts and an upcoming Life at Salesforce app where employees and candidates will be able to use office 'portals' and walk around our offices from anywhere in the world. I ❤️ innovation”

So do we, and we love it even more when our member companies are the ones delivering it, on a global stage!

See the full video of Claire’s presentation from ‘Outward’ here…

This Member Spotlight is a bit, well,… meta, because it’s about our member company RealSim, getting the media spotlight both nationally and internationally!

First, their Erasmus intern Ignacio get some well deserved recognition for his work with RealSim on local Spanish TV and in the process gave people in Spain a sneak peak at their yet to be launched Cork Digital Twin. The short clip shows the proposed new LUAS travelling along Patricks St and Grand Parade, in ‘the real capital’.

Separately, RealSim CEO Gavin Duffy took the Proptech Hot Seat on the popular iPropertyRadio channel, to discuss ‘How immersive technologies can aid digital planning’. In so doing he covered what they do, why it matters, some proof points / case studies and how adoption hurdles have been addressed.

Our own takeaways were as follows…

Eirmersive member RETìníZE is one of Europe's fastest-growing creative-tech companies. Co-founded in 2019 by Phil & Jack Morrow the company has developed Animotive, “an innovative, easy-to-use VR SaaS product that is democratising the 3D animation production pipeline by removing technical barriers and over 80% of the cost.”

In February RETìníZE secured £1.6m in funding to accelerate the growth of Animotive. The investment came from QUBIS, the commercial arm of Queen’s University Belfast, and Innovation Ulster from Ulster University. The round also included investments from Sure Valley Ventures, Techstart Ventures and Co-Fund NI, with additional backing from angel investors. This was then supplemented with an additional £300,000 in grant funding.

That investment followed an earlier £2 million seed round in 2022, led by Irish-founded VC, Sure Valley Ventures. Other backers included Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri, the multi-Emmy award-winning producers behind the CBS hit show The Amazing Race.

The team at Animotive is often asked, “What are the benefits of VR for mocap?” As they explain it…

Join us for PRISM Immersive Technology Summit — the landmark all-island gathering for innovators, business leaders and researchers working at the intersection of extended reality (XR), artificial intelligence (AI) and digital twins.

Delivered in partnership with Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT), PRISM will showcase how these technologies are already transforming industries and creating measurable ROI.

Over one action-packed day you will:

• Hear from trailblazers at the forefront of XR, AI and digital twin deployment

• Experience live demonstrations of cutting-edge tools from Eirmersive members

• Join sector-specific deep dives tackling challenges and opportunities in construction, manufacturing, health tech, energy and more

• Network strategically with up to 250 decision-makers, innovators, and solution providers from across Ireland and Northern Ireland

The Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan has launched the new Virtual Prison Tour, developed by Emagine in partnership with the Irish Prison Service.

This educational resource is now available online and in VR headsets, offering an inside look at Wheatfield Prison. It aims to improve public understanding of prison operations and support recruitment by allowing potential staff to explore the environment before applying.

”This new initiative follows the Criminal Justice Sectoral Strategy 2022 – 2024 commitment to increase public awareness and understanding of the criminal justice system, develop a structured form of engagement with our key stakeholders to support the development of services and the formulation of policy”

The Minister described it as “an innovative project that will greatly enhance public understanding of how our prisons operate”.

Congratulations to the Irish Prison Service for collaborating with Emagine on this important initiative.

Eirmersive member Carol Tallon, founder at PLACEengage and iProperty Radio, visited Lifesize Plans Ireland to investigate how they use glasses free Augmented Reality (in a form of projection mapping) to help individuals and developers visualise construction plans.

”Walk each apartment type before ever breaking ground on your multi-unit development. John Foley from Lifesize Plans Ireland shows iProperty Radio what’s possible. Beyond a marketing tool, property developers are now using this facility to address potential design issues at an earlier stage.”

Lifesize Plans claims that the ability to do a walkthrough of a real life mock up of your home before you build it can deliver an average home saving of €25,000-€37,000, by trialing different layouts to avoid costly mistakes. It’s definitely one of the more interesting applications of the technology that we’ve seen, so thanks to Carol for sharing this excellent video of her walkthrough interview…

🌟 We’re delighted to announce that Eirmersive is a proud Partner of the TechIreland National AI Challenge 2025!

This August, 300+ developers, startups, and AI enthusiasts across Ireland will tackle real-world problems — from sustainability and health to fintech and immersive tech — inspired by the theme: AI – Here for Good.

Participants will tackle real-world challenges in a variety of sectors and the best teams will showcase their work at the National Meet! 🏆

📅 Key Dates:
Registrations Open: July 1st
Kickoff Webinar: August 11th
Challenge Begins: August 22nd (2 weeks, remote)
Demo Day: September 5th (10+ in-person hubs)

💡Build your dream team. Create real impact.

At the end of June Eirmersive was delighted to bring our Fís Éireann / Screen Ireland supported Immersive Futures workshop to Monagahan. It provided attendees insights into how emerging tools can become part of their workflow with the opportunity to learn about tools such as Animotive, DeepMotion, LUMA AI, virtual production for 2D animation tool sets and AI-powered 2D-to-3D asset creation.

And it was tremendous to hear such positive feedback from participants as this from Billy House, the Industry Engagement Lead in the Department of Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering at South East Technological University (SETU) -

”What a great day at the Immersive Futures Workshop in Monaghan today — a brilliant deep dive into VR, AI, and virtual production tools with the talented team at Eirmersive. Great to explore how emerging tech like LUMA AI, Animotive and DeepMotion can enhance creative workflows across screen, gaming, animation and beyond. Massive thanks to Camille Donegan and to the team for a hands-on, inspiring day”

In early June, Jeremy Dalton, author of Reality Check, spoke exclusively to Eirmersive Members, during a Lunch & Learn webinar. In an information rich presentation he covered XR Industry Trends and Research, including Top regions, Top industries and Top use cases for Immersive technologies.

Jeremy then gave invaluable advice around XR Deployment Models, the Key Drivers of XR Adoption, XR + AI Synergy, and his XR Implementation Framework. Followed by a conversational Q&A with members it really was a fantastic session and we can't thank Jeremy enough for taking the time to share his wisdom.

The full recording of the webinar and Jeremy’s slide deck are available to Eirmersive members. And we're delighted to share a 25% off discount code for 'Reality Check, 2nd Edition (How VR and AR can supercharge your business)' with all in our community - use EIRE25 at checkout here.

Augmented World Expo (AWE) makes a credible claim to be the world's largest Immersive Technologies / Spatial Computing event, and thus has has long been a key date on the calendar of many Eirmersive members.

Getting to present at such a prestigious conference requires submission of a compelling proposal that goes through a rigorous selection process. So it’s quite the reflection of Ireland’s standing in this global industry that not one but two of our members got to speak at AWE USA 2025 in Long Beach, California.

Read on the learn more about what Dr. Sandhya Santhosh, Senior Research Scientist at Collins Aerospace, and Michael Guerin, CEO & Founder at Imvizar, spoke about at AWE and their general impressions of the event.

Massive congratulations to our member Dora Jean Gillespie, founder of Starilum, who has been announced as the national winner of the 2025 Creative Business Cup Ireland. Dora Jean will now represent her country at the prestigious Creative Business Cup Global Finals in Copenhagen, in September. Starilum will join startups from over 60 countries in a global celebration of innovation and entrepreneurship in the creative industries.

“[Starilum’s] bold vision, innovative approach, and inspiring presentation truly impressed our expert jury and audience alike. From over a month of dedicated mentorship to a standout final pitch, Starilum has proven they’re a rising force in Ireland’s creative economy”, the organisers commented.

Creative Business Cup Ireland is delivered through a national partnership between CREW (Creative Enterprise West), Galway and the Western Development Commission (WDC). The collaboration aims to support and elevate creative entrepreneurs across Ireland by connecting them to global networks, resources, and opportunities through the Creative Business Cup platform.

A report by Eirmersive CEO, Camille Donegan

What a whirlwind we had at SXSW London!

Arriving later than planned (thanks Ryanair!), I just caught the end of the inspiring and rousing presentation on AI by Karen Palmer at EIT Culture & Creativity house. Then to the Barbican Centre for In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats. Loved the 90s rave testimonial storytelling and particularly loved the Bop in the headset! Well done Darren Emerson and East City Films for blazing the trail and running this piece all summer with 4 x 4 simultaneous multi-users per session - a significant technical feat!

On Wed 4th June, Shoreditch Arts Centre was transformed to an epicenter of vibrant conversation on Immersive and Emerging technologies, and bringing creativity to industrial solutions.

Myself, Nigel McAlpine and Fiona Kilkelly were literally flying the Irish flag (check out our outfits!)

The day kicked off with…

Our FREE Immersive Futures Workshop is coming to Monaghan on June 24th! 

Dive into a full-day exploration of cutting-edge technologies, including AI (Artificial Intelligence), Immersive Technologies (VR/AR/MR) and Virtual Production brought to you by Eirmersive and funded by Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland. 

Learn about tools such as Animotive, DeepMotion, LUMA AI, virtual production for 2D animation tool sets and AI-powered 2D-to-3D asset creation.

This workshop will give you insights into how emerging tools can become part of your workflow from a fantastic team made up of Camille Donegan, Sean Burns, Ryan McKenna, Shane Murphy, David Toolan and Jess Harkin.

Whether you’re a professional working in screen, gaming, animation, theatre or a tech-savvy creative or, you’re just curious, this workshop is designed to empower creatives with some of the most cutting-edge tools. Bring your own laptop so you can follow along and gain hands-on experience with the tech! Sign up now via…

Bloomsday Festival 2025 starts this week and it provides a unique opportunity to step into the hidden history of Dublin’s infamous red-light district with Monto AR, an immersive augmented reality experience designed by our member Jennifer Shortall in partnership with another member, Imvizar.

Jennifer says, “For anybody with an interest in the historic part of Dublin known as Monto, if you'd like to see storied old buildings resurrected before your very eyes, or if you're just a bit curious about the notorious red-light district that thrived amongst the poverty-stricken slums of the 20th century docklands, or even if you just want to see how this whole Augmented Reality thing works... then head on over to book your tickets and join me for a lunchtime stroll around Monto AR.”

From the festival website:

”Users can access the experience for free on their personal mobile devices (phone, tablet, etc.) by downloading the Imvizar app and visiting the location. The app uses geolocation to identify when you are near one of its experiences. At…