SPEAKERS

AWE USA 2026

Ziad Asghar
SVP & GM of XR
Qualcomm
Shelley Peterson
Founder | XR Industry Pioneer
Wizard Wells
Alvin Graylin
Author | Chairman
Our Next Reality | Virtual World Society
Leslie Shannon
Vice Chair
Virtual World Society
Ted Schilowitz
Entertainment Industry Futurist
Charlie Fink
Forbes Columnist, Producer, Podcaster & Author
Forbes, AI/XR Podcast
Ori INBAR
Co-Director, Co-Founder
UnitedXR & AWE
Bilawal Sidhu
Creator & TED Technology Curator
TED Conferences
Sydney Hamilton
Sr. Project Management Specialist & Cost Account Manager
The Boeing Company
Norman Chan
Editor
TESTED
Jamie Barras
VP, Head of Emerging Tech and Spatial Incubators
Fidelity Center for Applied Technology
Zachary Quemore
Location Manager/Scout
Lucasfilm
Dr. Sandhya SANTHOSH
Senior Engineer - Virtualization Demonstration
Collins Aerospace - Applied Research and Technology
Andrew Lowe
Chief Advanced Visualization Engineer
Rolls-Royce
Loretta Chen
Founder & CEO
Smobler
Scott Stein
Editor At Large
CNET
Louis Rosenberg
CEO and Chief Scientist
Unanimous AI
Athena Demos
Co-founder & CEO / Executive Producer
Big Rock Creative & BurnerSphere
Kevin WILLIAMS
Founder
KWP
Gergely Kovacs
Head of XR Centre of Excellence
VIKI - Védelmi Innovációs Kutatóintézet - Defence Innovation Institute XR Centre of Excellence
Lynn Welch
Principal Advisor
The Lion's View
James Cooper
Chief Technologist
Raytheon | An RTX Business
Susan Persky
Associate Investigator
National Institutes of Health
Andy O'Sullivan
Senior Innovation Consultant
Liberty Mutual
Erik Fuentes
VP: Learn Innovation Lead
Chase Bank
Eve Weston
Experience Design, Strategy & Storytelling Consultant
Exelauno
Alex Goldberg
Sr. Technical Product Manager
Blue Origin
Victor Aghulon
CEO
Targo
Emily Daviss
Co-Founder/Chief Clinical Officer
AVRwell Inc
Leon Pietschmann
Head of XR
THW
Briar Prestidge
CEO & Founder | Award-Winning Doco Producer
Prestidge Group
Chase Walker
Senior Simulation Engineer
Astec Industries
Kent BYE
Producer
Voices of VR Podcast
Jacquelyn Morie
Founder, Chief Scientist
All These Worlds, LLC
Arturo Perez
CEO
Kluge Interactive
Karen Alexander
Executive Director
XRconnectED / XR Women / Academy of Immersive Arts & Sciences
Mallesham Dasari
Faculty
Northeastern University
Tanvi Agrawal
MBA Student and Founder
UCLA and RealityCheck
Luke Wilson
CEO/Founder
ManageXR
Will Roberts
Founder and Lead XR Designer
Augmented Pictures
Nathan Miner
Research Fellow
Massachusetts General Hospital
Caitlin Krause
Founder
MindWise
Ben Erwin
Creator, The Poly Awards
Academy Immersive of Arts and Sciences
Leah Rubin-Cadrain
Creative Director
Tim Ventura
Managing Director
VOR Advisory
Ashley Crowder
CEO, Co-Founder
VNTANA
Cody Nowak
SoCal Organizer / Regional Representative USA
AEC Hackathon
Jason Kao
Associate Professor
University of Inland Norway
Julie Smithson
CEO
METAVRSE and XR Women
Yohan Baillot
CEO
ARCortex Inc.
Jaime Pichardo GARCÍA
Chief Strategy Officer
Odders Lab
John Racine
Creative & Technical Director
Rogue Labs
Sophia Moshasha
Co-Founder
XR Women
Matthew Celia
Co-Founder
Light Sail VR
Karl Smink
CEO and Senior Researcher
VRTechs
Finn Staber
CEO
Chicken Waffle
Evo Heyning
CEO
Realitycraft
Richard Waltman
Software Engineer
OpenBCI, Inc.
Becky Lane
Director, Creative Technology Lab at Cornell University
Cornell University
Robert Hughes
Co-Founder
KOO Capital
Ryan Wang
Founding Partner
Outpost Capital
Rita Liao
Advisor / Strategy
Gregory Panos
Founder - Creator
Persona Foundation
Trond Nilsen
Maker / Software Engineer
Reality Frame LLC
Avi Bar-Zeev
Founder, President
XR Guild
José FERRER COSTA
Medical Researcher and Innovation Projects Manager
Badalona Serveis Assistencials | Open University of Catalonia
Kermit Shao
Co-Founder & CEO
CubeVi
Liz Newton-Tanzer
Virtual Reality Software Engineer
Mighty Coconut
Steve Tagger
SVP of Commercial
nDreams Ltd
Lucas Martell
Director/Executive Producer/Owner
Mighty Coconut
Nicole Lazzaro
President
XEODesign Inc
Bob FINE
Executive Director
IVRHA
Rick Beberman
Chief Executive Officer
Sira Medical
Cortney Harding
Founder & CEO
Friends with Holograms
Laura Kusumoto
Consultant
IterationZero
Parisa "Risa" Vatanka
Co-Founder & CEO
Digital.Health
Dr. Walter Greenleaf
Neuroscientist and Medical Technology Developer
Stanford University
Dr. Linda Ciavarelli
Co-Founder and CEO
HouseCall VR
Nathan C. Bowser
Founder / Podcast Host
Awesome Future
Justin Gunn
Senior Creative Producer
BurnerSphere
Phylis West-Johnson
Professor of Journalism & Mass Communication
San Jose State University
Tim Bajarin
Analyst & Contributor
Forbes, Fast Company--Founder Creative Strategies, Inc
Kat King
Founder
CatheXis Films
Gregg Katano
CEO | Founder
Cosmos Collab
Tina Korani
Associate Professor of Digital Media
San Jose State University
Ihar Heneralau
CEO & Co-Founder
ICVR
Sinan AlRubaye
Chief Experience Officer
ICVR
Alison Morano
Founder
Metaverse Chamber of Commerce
Neil Barbour
Industry analyst
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Wagner James Au
Author
New World Notes
Julian Reyes
Director
Virtual Worlds Museum™
Mingus New
Community Manager
Autodesk
Dylan Baker
Founder
Five Squared Interactive
Ines Said
Founder
Tanit XR
Doug Jacobson
Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer / Producer
Big Rock Creative & BurnerSphere
Alicia Yaffe
Co-Founder
Living Album Experience
Bobby Carlton
Head of Global Business Development for Digital Solutions
FS Studio
Georgii Klimenko
VR Developer and AWE Nite Organizer
NCXR
Margarita Johnson
Research and Writing Intern
Tanit XR
Angus Stevens
CEO
Start Beyond
Sean Mann
CEO & Co-Founder
RP1
Isabela MOISE
Product Owner
Aequilibrium
Adrian MOISE
Co-Founder & CEO
Aequilibrium
Ophelia Chen
VR Product Designer
Dreamscape Learn
Danny TAPIA
CEO & Founder
Tap 4 Technologies
Lisa Ann Pinkerton
Founder and CEO
Technica Communications
Pascal Langdale
Director
Collective Intent
Mahsa Nasri
PhD Candidate
Northeastern University
Benjamin Poynter
XR Specialist
Dreamtek
Chaz Moneypenny
Narrative Designer
New Peak Interactive
Zachary Handshoe
CEO
SpatialGen
Ian Harrison
Co-founder/ Head Innovation Dude
SNEAKAR.IO
Dreka Gates
FOUNDER
DrekAI
Charlene Nichols
Founder/Creator
The Omniverse City
Emery Morrison
Founder/President
FR8QU8NCY
Malia Probst
Founding Partner
Scout House
Matthew Wren
Founder
VRAR Chicago
Marc BRINGUIER
President
Augmentalix
Mark SAGE
Executive Director
AR for Enterprise Alliance (AREA)
Thomas Suarez
CEO / CTO
Raven Resonance
Parth Arora
Human Interaction Engineer
Raven Resonance
Natasha Gubernov
Creative Technologist
Raven Zachary
COO
ARound
Jessica Young
Content & World Creator
Dominick Frederick
Game Developer
Edge Of Creation
Omar Abed
CTO
InvenSense, a TDK Group Company
Kathleen Cohen
Tech Humanist, XR Strategist
The Collaboratorium
Emilie Joly
CEO
Zoe Immersive
Juan Manuel Codó
Founder & Director
Studio Soup
Kelly Watt
Senior Management Consultant Digital Transformation / Digital Twins
Digital Twin Consulting
Shu Wei
Associate Research Scientist
XR Pediatrics, Yale School of Medicine
Randolph Warnaar
CEO
Fabstation
Dan Cui
Founder
Shiloh Strategic Marketing
Marbenn Cayetano
IT Business Systems Analyst Sr
City of Austin
Tracy Mendolia
Associate Director Center for Teaching & Learning Excellence
Embry Riddle Aeronautical University
Alice Siu
Associate Director, Deliberate Democracy Lab
Stanford University
Disha Sardana
SARP Coding Mentor
NASA
Nanea Reeves
CEO & Co-Founder
TRIPP
Erica Kleinman
Assistant Research Professor
Northeastern University
Leanne Chukoskie
Associate Professor
Northeastern University
Miguel Carrazza Morales
Product Manager
Abbott
Radu Reit
CEO
DIsplay Training Center
Karl Guttag
President
KGOnTech LLC (kguttag.com)
Gavin Newton-Tanzer
AWE Asia
President
Jeff Rayner
CEO
MXTReality
Meghna SONIE
Product Designer & Developer
Orange
Sam Cole
CEO & Founder
FitXR
Victor Erukhimov
Co-Founder and CEO
Itseez3D
Steve Talkowski
Creative Director
Sketchbot Studios