How to Turn the World's Most Isolated City into Silicon Valley

Two months ago I changed my life forever.

I broke up with the girl that I loved, moved out of our house, cut out a bunch of my friends and quit a promising career as a management consultant.

I was single, homeless, unemployed, and lonely, all in the space of a couple of weeks.

Why?

There are a few people in history that have changed the world with such impact that they will never be forgotten.

To name a few, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Napoleon, Julius Ceaser, Albert Einsten, Isaac Newton, hell even Jesus all had one thing in common.

They did not fit in.There are two types of people in the world: there are leaders and there are sheep.

Most people are content to work in a comfortable job from 8:30 until 5, go home to their beautiful house, enjoy a delicious meal prepared with their wonderful partner, and fall asleep watching the same television show all whilst they live in the same conformist mould as every other person in their street.

Perth is the most beautiful city in the world and features some of the most incredible natural wonders in the country supplemented by a laid back culture and enough wealth to make Melbourne and Sydney bitter with envy.

But it can be notoriously boring. Everybody takes a well paying job after they finish their studies, purchases a property, gets married in their early twenties and enjoys a life of content.

This model worked perfectly when Asia was buying more iron ore than anybody could mine and the world guzzled oil faster than my friend Scott gulps down a pint of Victoria Bitter.

But Perth is doomed.

China stopped buying iron ore, the oil price fell, and neither the national nor state government had budgeted for such a massive and long lasting shock.

As a consultant I tried to save giants in the mining industry using cost reduction strategies but I watched as they self-destructed, with board members and executives either jumping ship or being scrapped while share prices more than halved. I know of a Managing Director with a wife and 2 children, whose business collapsed and the thought of failure hit him so hard that he committed suicide.

And if we don't act quickly, the thousands of FIFO layoffs will continue to see the economy slide further into the red and the Perth's increased homelessness, violence and crack epidemic will only continue to get worse.

However, as an optimist and a visionary, I like to save people and companies, and I know how to save Perth.

I've only been alive 25 years but I can say with confidence that over the next 25 years advances in technology are going to change the world more than any other revolution in history.

To name just a few, virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, big data (I hate this term by the way) and robotics  are all going to cause such a disruption across all sectors that most of the jobs we consider to be essential today will effectively be completed by computers. I would provide some numbers here but instead I will refer you to Google. Search for any of the above technologies (AI is probably the craziest) and your mind will be blown. I've virtually attended a Coldplay concert as the drummer and watched the fans go wild. I've seen an AI driven robot that within five years will be capable of performing orthopaedic surgery. I've watched a FIFO worker attend the birth of his third child from the other side of the country using virtual reality.

This used to be the stuff of science fiction and within the next decade will change the way we live.

Anyway, let's get to the title of this blog.

Perth faces a situation where we have a very large number of extremely wealthy individuals who reaped significant gains during the mining and oil and gas boom and are now sitting on piles of cash with no idea where to put it. Some are getting into property. Some are putting it back into the dying mining and oil and gas industries because that's what they've always done.

But the very smartest investors are seed funding Perth's entrepreneurs, and if you are one of those, I thank you.

I believe that with a relatively small amount of investment and a large cultural change, Perth can become the technology capital of Asia Pacific.


At the moment, if you are an entrepreneur in Perth, you generally are married with kids and to support your dependants and pay off your mortgage the only way to survive is by working full-time and then burning the midnight oil on your venture after hours.

I tried this for 10 months and it burnt me out.

Working in a stressful consulting job that required me to constantly fly interstate and work 60+ hours per week didn't help and eventually decided that if I was serious about my technology start-up, I needed to end some key relationships that were holding me back and one of these was with my old employer.

It's been nearly 2 months and while I'm still the same person inside I feel like my life has changed forever. I knew that jumping out of the corporate plane and into the entrepreneurial life was a big leap but I never expected it to be as crazy as it has been. I've met literally thousands of people including a number of politicians, international chief executive officers, media leaders and recently have even been contacted by a Hollywood movie director to provide an interview relating to the experience we are creating at Rottnest. Soon I will be flying business to North America, then to Melbourne and Sydney, and eventually to Europe to begin serving international clients, discuss international investment and establish offices in Europe, America and South East Asia.

I feel like one of those overnight child celebrities, who spend their life going to school and being normal then suddenly release an international best seller which leads to their life changing forever. While this certainly hasn't happened overnight, my dream of meeting Richard Branson, Bill Gates or Elon Musk within the next 5 years certainly seems to be getting more and more achievable.

Anyway, the crux of this post is that I honestly believe shifting Perth's economy from its traditional roots in mining and oil and gas to technology will enable us to compete with the likes of Silicon Valley, Berlin, London and Singapore. Here there is so much unused cash to be invested, a huge number of unemployed artists, programmers and suits and some incredibly intelligent and innovative start up companies that, if united, are capable of changing the world.

I'll be meeting the mayor soon to present these thoughts more formally and eventually I'll try Colin Barnett.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this post and if you'd like to here more about Immersia, me, or my plans for Perth city, please continue to follow my blog and add me on Twitter at @AdamJGeoghegan. Immersia can be found at Facebook.com/ImmersiaVR or Twitter.com/ImmersiaVR and our updated website will be available by the end of this week.

I'll end with a small pitch.

Immersia Virtual Reality is a technology consultancy that provides innovative solutions to commercial problems using cutting-edge technology including virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence and data analytics. We have grown from a company of 2 in September 2014 to a team of nearly 20 spread across Perth, Melbourne, London and San Fransisco, and are close to moving into South East Asia. With 5 incredibly experienced board members and 3 of the most intelligent and innovative co-founders in the Perth, Immersia has partnered with firms in the mining (Rio Tinto), tourism (Rottnest Island), government (Landgate), mental health and gaming (Ranger Rhino will be released next month) sectors.

All the best,

AG

The future for Western Australia's virtual reality scene, and a brief lesson on strategy.

It's been 12 months since I last posted here, so there's a lot to cover.

As predicted, I neglected the blog and have failed to provide the weekly updates promised to you all. For that I apologise and can only say that I promise it won't happen again.

So where are things with me?

First things first:

Immersia Virtual Reality is now an ASIC-registered, fully operational business, with it's own vision, strategy, employees and clients. You can check out our online presence at Twitter.com/ImmersiaVR, Facebook.com/ImmersiaVR, or our website (long overdue an update and facelift) at ImmersiaVR.com.

I've also launched WAVR, acronym for Western Australian Virtual Reality Association.

Our first meeting is this Tuesday at 7pm at Bob's Bar in Perth (rooftop bar near the BHP Billiton tower) and I encourage all of you to attend if you are interested in virtual reality.

Here I run the risk of going offtrack, so I'll briefly discuss WAVR before getting back to Immersia.

The goal of WAVR is to make Western Australia's Virtual Reality community as strong as can be. After reaching out to my network and pitching at certain events, such as Spacecub3d, I found that a number of similar businesses to Immersia (such as Jupitech) actually exist in Perth, and there is so much potential for this fragmented market to form synergies and build an incredible community. We can host regular meetings, discussing the latest news and issues surrounding VR, training (Virtual Reality 101) and industry roadshows, including visits to universities.

Now let's return to Immersia.

I've actually taken a step back and had a look at what Immersia can truly be, and I think Immersia Enterprises Pty Ltd can be so much more than just a technology company 100% invested in VR. Long story short, I would prefer to invest in people and innovative ideas, and have the ability to play in several markets (currently looking into such concepts as starting up a record label, an events management company and a self managed superannuation fund, if the opportunities and people we invest in show enough potential).

Having said that, this blog is focussed on VR, so I will return to Immersia Virtual Reality.

What have we been up to at ImmersiaVR?

Lots of things.

I have 2 strategies to potentially turn this into a multi-bmillion(?) dollar company and I am currently executing both:

Strategy 1:

Build an extremely capable team in Perth, travel to investors, obtain investment, and commence operations. I've actually been unknowingly executing this strategy since I launched the company last year, hence the creation of a social media presence (Twitter.com/ImmersiaVR, Facebook.com/ImmersiaVR, ImmersiaVR.com, Instagram: ImmersiaVR a Linkedin company page and this blog). There is additional information that I could include here, relating to the concept of Hacker Houses, recruiting university students, crowd sourcing, and pitching to my networks overseas, but I'd prefer to go into more detail surrounding these actions another time.

Strategy 2:

Personally build an application in virtual reality (develop internal capability), launch on the Oculus Store, and market myself as a VR expert. This approach requires a significantly higher investment of my own time, as I have to teach myself how to use the tools behind VR apps (for example Unity or Unreal Engine) and re-learn the basic coding skills that I was taught during my engineering and computer science days. Having said that, there is one significant advantage to this approach: no matter how bad the final product performs on the Oculus Store, I will always be able to say that I built something from nothing in virtual reality. As such, when I am leading teams of technical experts, it should prove inspiring to even the freshest of recruits that their leader was once in her shoes. As such you can expect Immersia VR's first application (currently an African safari simulation) to be released on the 1st of August 2015.

So there you have it: Strategy 101.

Current state: Perth's VR scene could use a serious boost, and Immersia VR, while an incredible concept, needs to focus on delivering it's first product (release date 1 August 2015) while I go about building what I hope will be one of the largest virtual reality software development companies in the world. Target state: one of the strongest virtual reality communities in the world (and based out of the most isolated city in the world), and one of the largest application development companies on the planet.

I hope you enjoyed the read - it's great to be back online!

As always, if you would like to reach out to me, WAVR or Immersia please find contact details below:

Western Australian Virtual Reality Association or Immersia Virtual Reality:

Email adam@immersiavr.com, or visit Facebook.com/ImmersiaVR, or Twitter/Instagram @ImmersiaVR.

Me: Twitter: @AdamJGeoghegan, Instagram @AdamJamesGeoghegan, or Facebook.com/AdamJamesGeoghegan.

Thanks as always for your time and I look forward to meeting Perth's VR community at 7pm on Tuesday at Bob's Bar!

Best,

AG

Momentum

According to my high school physics teacher, Mr Hill, momentum is defined as the product of mass and velocity. Wikipedia uses the example of a large vehicle moving at great speed:

"A heavy truck moving quickly has a large momentum—it takes a large or prolonged force to get the truck up to this speed, and it takes a large or prolonged force to bring it to a stop afterwards. If the truck were lighter, or moving more slowly, then it would have less momentum."

The reason I started my second post with this concept is because momentum is something I've been thinking about a lot for the past week. On Friday I briefly considered how little progress I'd made on the Oculus over the last week and how difficult it would be to find content for my next blog post. Three days later I've made so much progress that I hardly know where to start. The key message - For this project (is that the appropriate term?) to be a success, I need to not only build and maintain a large amount of momentum, but also ensure that the heavy mass is moving with a high velocity in the right direction.

At this stage, I would consider the ideas and actions I have taken so far to be a small but considerable mass moving at variable velocity in a number of different directions.

Before I would continue, I would like to make sure that you, reader, have some understanding of what the Oculus Rift is. If you don't, please, PLEASE do yourself a favour and Wikipedia/Google "Oculus Rift". Watch a video or two. I honestly believe that this is the next stage for the human race, and will be comparable to the release of the wireless radio/television/computer/internet/mobile phone/smartphone/Facebook. If I really think about the range of possibilities that virtual reality opens up, I start to consider the fact that mankind can literally create an entire universe with this technology. The world will change forever when virtual reality becomes a household name.

Anyway, I digress. This post is centred around momentum, and the importance of ensuring that even if you have the best idea on Earth (a large mass), unless that mass is travelling in the right direction, the size does not matter because any momentum is wasted on random, chaotic movement that overall changes very little.

On the other hand - if I can sit down, brainstorm, focus on what I realistically think I can achieve with this thing, I believe that I myself can change the world for good. To say that my friends and I are passionate about the Oculus is an understatement. We have literally spent hours talking about the realm of possibilities and argued relentlessly about different directions we can take. I have had to leave the room or the club we are at because one or more of my best friends and I have had such a heated discussion that we need a break from each other. My girlfriend said today that there is a distinct possibility that she will go insane if she continues to  hear the word 'Oculus' in every second sentence. I don't need to explain any more that I am passionate about this technology - I'm sure you get it.

What I do need to explain, I think, is where I think I am going with this. And this is it: I am in the process of launching a company (name is top secret...for now) which has a vision that reads something like this:

"Company X" - Immersing clients in a better world by using virtual reality to create a new universe.

Tacky, I know. It definitely needs work. But the crux of the vision is there. "Company X" is an application development company. I would like to have a team of application developers that help me to create applications in virtual reality for clients. Clients can be anything from large oil and gas companies that want to create an innovative training platform to high net-wealth individuals that have an idea for a cool game. I have my own ideas for applications that I think can change the world and would like to get developers to invest some of their time working on my own nifty apps.

Anyway, I'm finding myself droning on a little bit too much about concepts and ideas, and I'd like to instead talk about some of the things that happened over the weekend that excite me.

With the exception of my second motorbike lesson on Saturday morning, I also caught up with Chris and Liam to spend an hour or two discussing where we think we are going with our own projects and how we can work together to make Perth the best city in Australia for Oculus-related activity. Among some heated but healthy conversations I discussed the business model that I just mentioned along with a number of other strategic ideas and concepts that I won't go into detail with here. The key message is that you can expect to hear and see a lot more from Chris, Liam and I over the coming months if you have any involvement with the technology, social media, gaming or (less likely) virtual reality industries in Perth. Expect to see a website or two coming soon. Any of my Twitter (https://twitter.com/adamjgeoghegan) or Instagram (instagram.com/instagegs) friends can expect to see a many more updates whenever I come across a quote, idea or image that I think is worth sharing.

On Sunday I hosted a BBQ for virtual reality developers to meet and discuss their own ideas and projects. Attendance was low (six showed up) but the discussions and outcomes were as good, if not better, than we could have expected from a higher rate of attendance. For me, the two key takeaways are to leverage existing companies and businesses more, and to start attending existing exhibitions and conferences that may be of relevance to what I am doing. There is no point in me trying to establish a new Virtual Reality community in this small city if there are already enough game/app developer communities to be leveraged. Furthermore, getting a stall set up at relevant expos (or just attending them generally) would be a great way for me to develop eminence in the Perth developer community.

As such, I'd like to finish on this note. If you would like to get involved with anything that I'm doing, please send me a message on Facebook (facebook.com/adamjamesgeoghegan) and I will get back to you as soon as I can. While I'm mainly looking for developers to help me get started on my first app, I can also really use some help with more general business activities - so anything including legal advice surrounding patents and employment law, tax advice, marketing and promotion etc would be of great benefit to me and if you find anything I'm saying interesting and are passionate enough to get involved, I will find some way to involve you.

We'll start by setting a direction and creating momentum.

- AG

Liam, Chris and I long before this whole thing began.

Me during my first motorbike lesson. Some momentum.

Missy taking a break during a morning jog. No Momentum.

First Post

Hi World!

Before I jump into things, I'd like to highlight an inherent risk: there is a high likelihood that this blog will be abandoned at a moment's notice, neglected, and then returned to six months down the track to be deleted forever.

I say this because it has happened before.

I spend 2012 travelling the world. I haven't fully run the statistics but in something like 8 months I travelled 4 continents (Asia, Europe, North America and if you count it as a continent, Australia), countless cities and countries, and had the time of my life. There are 10^x different stories coming out of that trip and one of my only regrets is that I was so immersed in the trip that I neglected to update my blog - so the stories exist in my head, the photos and videos I have shown , and in the memories of the friends I made overseas.

I digress. The point of the above is to demonstrate that there is a serious risk that, should you choose to read this blog, you may find yourself waiting for an update hungrily while I am too busy living life to the yolo'ist (sorry, but it seemed necessary to drop the Y-bomb in there)!

Now to get to the point.

My name is Adam (James) Geoghegan. I am 23. I am a dual Australian and British citizen. I am currently a Consultant at a large consulting company (FYI - all views on this blog and otherwise). I thoroughly enjoy my job, which involves (in the simplest explanation) working with important people at large companies to fix the company's problems and optimise the way they do business, which, in turn, makes the economy better and puts some money in my bank account. I also learn a lot from my job.

I love to travel. I love to eat. I love music. I love sex. I love new experiences, and I live life like it is an adventure novel that could end every time you turn the page.

Aside from my day job, I have a bunch of awesome friends, a good family and a huge range of hobbies and interests that distract and gratify me.

I am a terrible sleeper and am prone to distraction easily. I can be anxious.

I am possibly insane and also quite possibly a genius. I like to think big. I love ending a late night with friends back at someone's pad or a small bar discussing philosophical concepts like economics or politics or even a step deeper - religion, the origins and future of the universe, etc.

Enough. Lets get to the point of this blog:

Do yourself a massive favour and Google "Oculus Rift" or "Introduction to the Oculus Rift". Read a little about what this headset does and if you are interested, continue reading, as the purpose of this blog is to cover my journey from small town 23 year old company man into something much greater.

Because in my view, the Oculus Rift is so much more than a gaming device.

It represents the opportunity to do something that men and women have wanted to do since existence.

It represents the opportunity to create a new universe.

Interested?

Thor, God of Thunder? What a douche!

Wait for my next post.

- AG