I am an XR creator and I teach AR storytelling at my alma mater, Stanford University. I participated in EUCL's development lab and it was such a defining experience for me. Coming from Budapest, I didn't have many XR creators around me. But at EUCL I suddenly felt I was part of a broader European XR community and I still keep contact with people I met there. The access to mentors and top industry representatives was A++, and because of this, it would just happen naturally that one day I am putting together a prototype with a pan-European team, and the other day I find a top producer to support my personal XR project. It's an environment full of warmth, knowledge and support, it's the growth community that European XR needs. I wish I could participate every year!

To show up on a Monday morning and leave the lab five days later with a toolbox brimming with practical storytelling tools, has been a wonderful and unique experience.

I learned to identify what a good story consists of and acquired a language to express myself as a storyteller. It was like being equipped with a large magnifying glass that you could hold up against the world, and suddenly see the wealth of material that exists out there, that you can be used for the creation of narratives in a spatial format.

The Lab alternated between group work, brainstorming exercises, hands-on experiments, prototype development, and presentations from extremely skilled and kind experts who also acted as our mentors throughout. There was a dynamic that was utterly unique, and everything was followed up on, evaluated, and debated in an informal and warm atmosphere. Before we left, our organizers and mentors made sure to give us all a few pieces of advice, tips, and tricks to continue working when we got home. And our journey didn’t end here, for EUCL has continued to follow us after completing the lab, with an Alumni program that helps us keep in touch with each other, as well as keeping us informed whenever something new happens on the international scene that we should know about.

Since coming home, I have landed exactly where I have dreamed of since childhood. I have made an active choice to write books, and I have published my first book: ‘The Fashion Toolbox for the Metaverse: Use of AI, Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality in the Fashion and Textile Industry’. It has been released both in the Danish book market and in English on Amazon, so the rest of the world can also read along. Right now, I am almost ready with book number two, which is a fictional story for children, where I combine the narrative with 3D models that children can assemble, after which they can expand on the story with Augmented Reality.

Since I came home, I have also received invitations to give lectures, as well as teach others in the use of immersive technologies and AI, amongst others at the Danish Crafts & Design Association. I really found my inner voice at the EUCL Lab, and since then I have just been curious to find out what that voice can be used for. I am still full of admiration that EUCL could nudge me in that direction, make me believe in myself and dare to venture out into deep water.