About Meaningful XR

💡About the Conference

The Meaningful XR Conference has roots in the Meaningful Play conference, hosted at Michigan State University (MSU) since 2008, the SPARTIE Lab at MSU, and the NSF-funded Beyond Meet Space project team. MXR was created to bring together researchers, practitioners, and creators interested in how extended reality can support meaningful human experiences and positive social impact—and to create the kind of conference where there is actually time to get to know one another.

The inaugural Meaningful XR Conference (MXR24), held on the Stanford University campus in May 2024, brought together ~90 participants for 2.5 days (27+ hours) of presentations, intellectual conversations, and exciting (but safe!) social events. MXR seemed to hit a sweet spot in size: small enough for sufficiently long convos, but large enough to meet many new people. We also supported remote attendance in a bespoke VRChat world, livestreaming the physical conference room into VR while some in-person attendees joined the virtual space via headset. …sounds about right for Meaningful XR.

MXR 2025 at UC Davis continued that model, with ~80 attendees in person and ~25 virtually. All in-person sessions were streamed both to Zoom and to our VR-accessible Beyond Meet Space world in VRChat, which we built ourselves and made publicly available. Some virtual attendees spent more than 12 hours in VR attending the conference!

In 2026, MXR continued to grow. Our Portland conference featured 96 presentations—more than double the 45 at MXR24—and more than 200 contributing authors. The research itself has expanded as well: early MXR work emphasized foundations such as presence, immersion, empathy, and intergroup contact; subsequent programs expanded into education, wellness, AI-assisted experiences, and access; and MXR26 included emerging areas such as smartglasses and wearables, healing-centered XR, marine conservation, neurodivergent populations, AI avatars, and accessibility. 

Across these first three conferences, the Meaningful XR Community has grown to more than 400 past presenters, co-authors, and attendees. At the same time, we want MXR to retain what made the first gathering special: an intentionally community-focused conference where people have time for substantive conversations, encounter work outside their usual disciplinary circles, and form collaborations that continue beyond the event.

We hope you will consider joining us for the next MXR and becoming part of the growing Meaningful XR Community! 

Thanks,

Rabindra (Robby) Ratan

Director, MXR

Professor, Michigan State University