A second press conference of the 2020 Smart China Expo Online was held Wednesday morning, further revealing the heated-discussed specifics like how virtual technologies will be used and how audiences will attend the event.

The Smart China Expo (SCE) is an annual grand gathering for international enterprises, industry leaders, scholars and experts, and government officials to share and explore the latest developments in the fields of smart technology, smart industry, smart manufacturing, and smart application. It was held in Chongqing for two consecutive years before and has attracted worldwide attention to the city’s smart industry potentials.

Holographic Projection

Unlike the event’s previous editions, this year’s SCE features a series of summits, exhibitions, competitions, forums, and releases, and almost all of which will be taken online. And since the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t been effectively brought under control in most other countries, holographic projection technologies will be adopted to guarantee the virtual participation of all guest speakers.

“Nobel Prize and Turing Award laureates, heads of international organizations, representatives of foreign governments, and mayors of Chongqing’s sister cities will all be addressing the SCE virtually via holographic projection technologies,” said Chen Jinshan, director of the SCE’s organizing committee office and director of the city’s economic and information commission.

Online Exhibition Hall

With the expo taken online this year, audiences won’t have to be present in person and could just easily keep track of all the exhibitions on SCE’s official website, app, WeChat official account, mini-program, Weibo, or HTML 5 page. Chen revealed that an online exhibition hall incorporating six virtual sub-venues and a total of 551 enterprises, which covers all products for commercial, civilian, and government uses, will open to the public at the time of the opening ceremony,

These sub-venues include Chongqing Online, Smart Products, Smart Manufacturing, Smart Applications, Smart Technologies, and Regional Cooperation, some of which use Virtual Reality (VR) to help enhance the visitor experience.

Competitions & Forums

This year’s SCE has seen unprecedented popularity in its intense competitions, with all 18 matches already started and over 20,000 contestants eyeing for the ultimate championship. New items such as the Self-Driving Simulation and the 5G Remote Self-Driving are added to the i-VISTA Self-Driving Challenges.

The 41 online forums also attracted more than 400 guests of honor in the political, business, industrial, and academic worlds, including over 30 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering. Apart from the ones focused on 5G, blockchain, industrial internet, industrial design, and smart health care, forums about emerging industries like semiconductors, ultrahigh definition videos, digital disaster preparedness, and intelligent prefabricated building are also introduced this year.

Online Releases

What’s more, the 2020 Smart China Expo Online will also hold 116 online release events for the latest products and technologies in smart industries. Chen said that some 100 international and domestic enterprises such as Huawei, Suning, Haier, Chang’an, Mitsubishi, CSIC, and Hikvision will showcase their latest achievements in technological innovation and application at the release events.