BUILDING EUROPE’S OPEN XR FUTURE
DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY, OPEN STANDARDS AND SUSTAINABLE IMMERSIVE ECOSYSTEMS

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Tue November 10, 2026 08:00 pm CET

What do digital sovereignty, open standards, and interoperability actually mean for the companies building Europe’s XR ecosystem?

These concepts are often discussed as long-term policy priorities, but their consequences are immediate for SMEs making decisions about platforms, tools, technology stacks, partnerships, procurement, market access, and investment. Dependence on closed ecosystems can affect costs, scalability, access to customers, and the ability to retain control over products and data.

Bringing together SME owners and policy experts closely embedded with industry, this conversation puts these high-level priorities into practical business terms. It explores where open standards, interoperability, open-source technologies, and European policy create genuine opportunities for companies, where barriers remain, and what trade-offs businesses face when choosing between open and proprietary ecosystems.

Closing the journey from identity to infrastructure, the session asks what practical choices companies, industry organisations, and policymakers can make today to support a more open, competitive, sustainable, and sovereign European XR ecosystem.

Format

Panel Discussion

App

Arrival.Space

Location

IMMERSIVE X Hub 2026

Duration

45 min

Access via

Presenter

David Lähner
CEO at MindPort GmbH

David Lähner is a tech entrepreneur dedicated to democratizing immersive experiences. As the Founder and CEO of MindPort, he leads the team behind VR Builder, an open-source authoring system designed to make creating VR content accessible to everyone.

With a background in computer science and mathematics, David focuses on simplifying spatial technology for real-world impact, especially in VR training for enterprises. Driven by values of open access and collaboration, he delivers solutions that help organizations develop immersive learning experiences without high technical barriers or proprietary lock-in.

Christoph Runde
Managing Director at Virtual Dimension Center (VDC) w.V.

Christoph Runde has amassed more than 25 years of industry experience and is a leading figure in the field of professional Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) systems and applications. In addition to his role as Managing Director of VDC, Christoph is Vice President Industry of the European eXtended Reality Association (EuroXR). In 2017, Christoph was awarded an honorary professorship by Heilbronn University. Christoph is Chairman of the “eXtended Reality and Metaverse” working group at the German Institute for Standardization (DIN), chair of StandICT’s “Technical Working Group Virtual Worlds” and Co-Chair of the “Ecosystem Working Group” at the Metaverse Standards Forum.

Thierry Jourquin
CEO at XRintelligence.ai

Industrial systems have become too complex for dashboards and disconnected software.
At XRintelligence.ai, we design Spatial Digital Twins – immersive, connected and intelligent systems that make complex industrial operations visible, understandable and actionable.
Our systems combine three layers that no one else unifies:
XR – high-fidelity 3D environments where your operations come to life
Data – real-time IoT and process data contextualized directly in the twin
AI – anomaly detection, predictive insights and decision support embedded in the spatial environment

Moderator

Luis Martins
Vice-President at XRSI Europe
© APDC - Vítor Gordo, Syncview

Luis Bravo Martins is a senior advisor on XR and Virtual Worlds and he helps business, research and public organizations understand and implement emerging technologies in an effective but responsible manner

He is currently the Vice-President of XR Safety Intelligence – Europe, a Standards Development Organization focused on enabling safety and privacy in immersive experiences and virtual worlds.

Luis is also a published author, his latest are “Metaversed – See Beyond the Hype” (Wiley, 2023) and “Impacts of Sensetech in Society (IGI Global, 2025).

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