For the eleventh time, the Europe's no. 1 annual virtual reality fair opened its doors today in Laval, western France. This year's edition, April 22-26, will host participants from 40 countries, and is expected to attract roughly 11.000 visitors.

Laval Virtual is a 5-day (three for professionals and two for general public) gathering of VR enthusiasts from all horizons, mixing exhibition with conferences, competitions and demo presentations. It is a unique occasion for numerous (mainly local) actors and decision makers in the domain to exchange with their peers as well as with potential clients.

The key issues this year will be Town planning and heritage, Industry and Events and Entertainment. Conferences will be held on subjects like "Virtual Reality and Sport", "Virtual Humans in Psychological Science and Therapy" or "Digital Art". Among the exhibitors : Dassault Systemes, who will be presenting it's recently edited products, Renault (with the R-Screen project held by CLARTE), MIT, University of Tokyo, Total Immersion and many (roughly 70) others.