Kyle Ashby, founder of StartupSB and Sandbox, speaks at a forum on virtual reality on Feb. 23.

The region’s newest business workspace made its public debut Feb. 23 with the opening of Sandbox, a medium-sized business incubator at 414 Olive  St. in Santa Barbara’s emerging Haley Street corridor.

About 85 people attended a forum on “The Business of Virtual Reality” with VR experts and author Shel Israel. Sandbox is the brainchild of Kyle Ashby, founder of StartupSB, an organization that’s championed the emerging startup culture on the South Coast with a series of visits to emerging companies. Sandbox gives StartupSB a permanent home, complete with office suites and an onsite Airstream trailer for small brainstorming sessions.

“Virtual reality is just getting started,” Ashby said in opening remarks. “This won’t be our last program on that topic.”

Mattias Pusch, founder of Santa Barbara-based VR firm WorldViz, said VR products are now “good enough at reasonable cost.”

Dirk Wallace, a Los Angeles-based director/producer, said that he’s interested in the educational applications for VR.

“It’s a more intuitive way to teach,” said Wallace, head of VR for Ryot, an LA firm acquired by Huffington Post.

• Contact Henry Dubroff at hdubroff@pacbiztimes.com.