History
Timeline
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2014
How it all began…
First edition of D2 Conferences launches in Vienna as a niche event focused on architectural visualization, gathering a relatively intimate crowd of around 80 artists and studios. What started as a community-driven meetup quickly established a tone that was more informal, artist-focused, and personality-rich than traditional industry conferences.
Speaker highlights
Factory Fifteen, Beauty and the Bit, Neoscape, and Thomas Dubois
2015
Momentum builds
With strong reception after year one, D2 returns and expands its audience, speaker roster, and industry visibility. We took over the entire ground floor of the Impact Hub in Vienna to accommodate a growing number of attendees.
Speaker highlights:
MIR, Squint/Opera, Paul McMahon and xoio
2016
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New venue, bigger ambitions
After outgrowing our previous venue, the D2 moves to the Metropol Theater, Vienna, reflecting the growing interest in the community for an event dedicated to their craft. This period marks the conference’s transition from promising upstart to firmly established international CG event with the addition of the CGarchitect 3d Awards ceremony.
Speaker highlights:
Brick Visual, DBOX, Victor Enrich and Herzog & de Meuron
2017
International growth years
The Metropol Theater becomes lore within the community. Even the lack of A/C (great idea for an August conference) and no Wi-Fi (pre- EU roaming directives) did not dampen attendees’ mood as they flocked to see their favorite companies talk about the industry. The free beer and grill party certainly helped!
Speaker highlights
Uniform (now Somewhere), Dušan Vukčevič, Tegmark and BEEPLE
2018
The space race
Attendee numbers continue to grow, packing the Metropol to full capacity. The excitement around the D2 has reached new heights, and we were amazed at the response. It was our pleasure to host guests from all around the world and showcase the best of the best of the archviz world in the beautiful surroundings of Vienna.
Speaker highlights
Eric de Broche (Luxigon), Victor Bonafonte (Beauty and the Bit), Nikita Diakur and Sava Zivkovic
2019
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International growth years
D2 continues attracting increasingly high-profile speakers, studios, and sponsors from the global archviz, VFX, and realtime industries, brought together for 3 days in our largest venue yet.
Speaker highlights
Cornelius Dämmrich, Andrei Dolnikov (Binyan), Ash Thorp and Karim Moussa
2020-2021
D2 goes online
Like the rest of civilization discovering webcams, D2 pivots into digital editions. The online format allows broader global participation while preserving the challenge, talks, and community engagement. Thankfully our sponsors remained undeterred and continued to support our mission even without the ability to be physically present. During the initial covid lockdowns, online render challenges were started by one of our founders. In 2021, we integrated them into the main brand under the D2 Challenge name.
Speaker highlights
2020: Chris Do (theFutur), Diorama, Thomas Dubios, Joshua Newman
2021: Elephant Skin, Andras Kaldos (Brick Visual), Jonathan Formento, and Paolo Zambrini (ENGRAM Studio)
2022-2024
Return to physical events
With in-person events returning, D2 regains its live energy while carrying forward lessons from the online years. Community reach, sponsor ecosystem, and speaker diversity continue expanding. The D2 challenge matures into a serious benchmark for digital artists, with submissions growing in quality and visibility.
2025
A new chapter in Budapest
After 11 years in Vienna, D2 moved to the Budapest Jazz Club, opening a new chapter for the conference. The idea was not only to change the city, but to return to the roots of D2: a more intimate, personal, smooth atmosphere, built around community, great talks, and honest conversations.This new chapter was made possible together with Brick Visual, a long-time friend of D2, who joined as both business and professional partner.
Speaker highlights
DBOX, Herzog & de Meuron, Andras Onodi (ZOA), and Eric de Broche (Luxigon)
2026
Back to the Jazz Club
Encouraged by the success of the previous year, D2 returns to the Budapest Jazz Club in September - with even more of the good stuff. From 2026, Brick becomes a permanent organizing and professional partner of D2. Whether D2 became part of Brick, or Brick became part of D2, we leave to everyone’s personal taste. What matters is that D2 continues to represent the same values: an independent professional community, openness, quality, friendship, and a genuine love for the craft.
2022
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2023
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2024
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Speakers throughout the years
Testimonials
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“Been a part of D2, and what I really enjoyed - I could just be myself, super easy vibe. No overthinking, no pressure- just show up, talk and meet absolutely great humans from our industry. ”
Alina Godunova, CEO
CUUB and D2 2025 speaker
Sponsors who supported D2 Events
D2Challenge
This is a creative contest organized as part of the annual D2 Conferences. Participants are given specific creative briefs or themes (often with provided assets) and invited to produce visual work (typically CGI images or animations) that responds to the challenge.
