AGENDA

AWE USA 2026

Jun 15 Jun 16 Jun 17 Jun 18
09:35 AM - 10:45 AM
Grand Ballroom | Main Stage
Main Stage
Jun 18
Grand Ballroom | Main Stage

Demystifying Visual-Spatial Intelligence and World Models

Bilawal Sidhu - TED Conferences
10:00 AM - 10:25 AM
Room 101A
Developer | Sponsored by Qualcomm
Jun 18
Room 101A

Engineering Empathy: Biosensing, Emotion, and the Next Layer of XR

Richard Waltman - OpenBCI, Inc.
10:00 AM - 10:25 AM
Room 102B
Healthcare & Wellness
Jun 18
Room 102B

From Operating Room to AR Reading Room: Building Trust Through XR

Steven Christian - Iltopia
Patrick Thomas, MD - Children's Nebraska
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Room 101B
Creator
Jun 18
Room 101B

BurnerSphere: Scaling the Spirit of Black Rock City into a Persistent Social Metaverse

Athena Demos - Big Rock Creative & BurnerSphere
Justin Gunn - BurnerSphere
Doug Jacobson - Big Rock Creative & BurnerSphere
Gregory Panos - Persona Foundation
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Room 103B
Creator
Jun 18
Room 103B

Roundtable Discussions: Get Connected with XR Women: Resources and Introductions to Propel You Forward

Karen Alexander - XRconnectED / XR Women / Academy of Immersive Arts & Sciences
Sophia Moshasha - XR Women
Julie Smithson - METAVRSE and XR Women
10:00 AM - 03:00 PM
Expo Hall
Networking
Jun 18
Expo Hall

Expo, Playground, Expo Stages

10:30 AM - 10:55 AM
Builders Stage | Expo Hall
Builders
Jun 18
Builders Stage | Expo Hall

Building Low Power XR/AI Glasses

Mallesham Dasari - Northeastern University
10:40 AM - 11:05 AM
Room 101A
Developer | Sponsored by Qualcomm
Jun 18
Room 101A

Apple Vision Reality Check: Adoption, Friction, and the Road Ahead

Raven Zachary - ARound
10:40 AM - 11:05 AM
Promenade Room 104A
Enterprise
Jun 18
Promenade Room 104A

From XR Vision to the Shop Floor: A Heavy Industry Case Study

Dan Cui - Freelance
Randolph Warnaar - Fabstation
10:40 AM - 11:05 AM
Promenade Room 104B
XR Enablement
Jun 18
Promenade Room 104B

Building Smart Glasses People Actually Wear: A Validation Framework for Product Leaders

Tinku Malayil Jose - Quest Global
Thomas Winkler - Quest Global
10:40 AM - 11:05 AM
Room 102B
Healthcare & Wellness
Jun 18
Room 102B

VR in the Lab: How Digital Worlds Reveal the Science of Memory

Rolando Masís-Obando - Johns Hopkins University
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM
Room 103B
Builders
Jun 18
Room 103B

Roundtable Discussions: Who Makes Decisions and Who Makes Coffee

Phylis West-Johnson - San Jose State University
Tina Korani - San Jose State University
11:15 AM - 11:40 AM
Room 101B
Creator
Jun 18
Room 101B

Your Past, Present, and Future In the Same Room: Self-Dialogue in XR

Shu Wei - Yale School of Medicine
11:15 AM - 12:15 PM
Gaming & LBE | Sponsored by PICO
Jun 18

Speed Networking Session: Investors/Publishers <> Game Devs

11:20 AM - 11:45 AM
Promenade Room 104B
XR Enablement
Jun 18
Promenade Room 104B

Debating the Hardware, Software and Social Implications Driving AR with the Display Skeptics

Karl Guttag - KGOnTech LLC (kguttag.com)
Radu Reit - Display Training Center
11:20 AM - 11:45 AM
Room 101A
Developer | Sponsored by Qualcomm
Jun 18
Room 101A

Toward Evaluating and Securing XR Experiences in Real Time with Large Multimodal Models (LMMs)

Maria Gorlatova - Duke University
11:20 AM - 11:45 AM
Room 102A
AI + XR
Jun 18
Room 102A

The Future of Enterprise Learning: Integrating LLMs, VR, and Agentic AI at Scale

Krista Wharton - Amazon
Harshit Karkani - Amazon
11:20 AM - 11:45 AM
Room 102B
Healthcare & Wellness
Jun 18
Room 102B

Treating Emotional Trauma with XR and AI

Albert Skip Rizzo - University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies
11:30 AM - 11:55 AM
Gaming Stage | Expo Hall
Gaming & LBE | Sponsored by PICO
Jun 18
Gaming Stage | Expo Hall

Beyond WOW! Designing Quality VR Experiences for Kids

Elizabeth Rood - The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop
11:45 AM - 01:00 PM
Networking
Jun 18

LUNCH

12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Room 103B
AI + XR
Jun 18
Room 103B

Accelerating Adoption for AI Wearables: What Do Consumers Want?

Alice Siu - Stanford University
Omari Hitson - JP Morgan Chase & Co.
12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Promenade Room 104C
Enterprise VIP
Jun 18
Promenade Room 104C

Enterprise Roundtable: Achieving Scalable, Predictable ROI through XR Implementation

Matthew Wren - VRAR Chicago
01:00 PM - 01:25 PM
Promenade Room 104A
Enterprise
Jun 18
Promenade Room 104A

Beyond Pilots and Headsets: Scaling XR in Federal Emergency Services

Leon Pietschmann - THW
01:00 PM - 01:25 PM
Promenade Room 104B
XR Enablement
Jun 18
Promenade Room 104B

AI Integrated XR/Smart Glasses and the Next Human-machine Interface

Omar Abed - InvenSense, a TDK Group Company
01:00 PM - 01:25 PM
Room 101A
Developer | Sponsored by Qualcomm
Jun 18
Room 101A

Knowledge Management, XR, Cognitive Science, Computer Graphics History

Julian Gomez - Computer Graphics History Institute
01:00 PM - 01:25 PM
Room 103C
Entertainment & Media
Jun 18
Room 103C

Why Two Experienced Producers Made the Pivot from Traditional to Immersive Media

Paul Mezier - Acute Immersive
Maura Axelrod - Primary
Kelly Breaks - Blue Frog Studios
01:00 PM - 01:25 PM
Gaming Stage | Expo Hall
Gaming & LBE | Sponsored by PICO
Jun 18
Gaming Stage | Expo Hall

Traversing the XR Landscape in 2026

Arturo Perez - Kluge Interactive
JP Minetos - Hartmann Capital
01:00 PM - 01:35 PM
Builders Stage | Expo Hall
Builders
Jun 18
Builders Stage | Expo Hall

Research Papers - Highlighted Projects

01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Room 101B
Creator
Jun 18
Room 101B

How We Can Preserve Online Worlds and Why It Matters

Wagner James Au - New World Notes
Neil Barbour - S&P Global Market Intelligence
Evo Heyning - Realitycraft
Julian Reyes - Virtual Worlds Museum™
01:15 PM - 02:15 PM
Room 103B
Creator
Jun 18
Room 103B

Immersive Theatre: How to Build the XR Stage for New Audiences

Kiira Benzing - Double Eye Studio
Richard Broadbridge - 4Dviews
Chris Pfaff - Chris Pfaff Tech Media LLC
01:35 PM - 02:00 PM
Grand Ballroom | Main Stage
Main Stage
Jun 18
Grand Ballroom | Main Stage

The View In 2036: How New Headmounted Devices and Always-On AI Will Change the Way We See the World

Cortney Harding - Founder & CEO
01:40 PM - 02:05 PM
Promenade Room 104A
Enterprise
Jun 18
Promenade Room 104A

Using Mixed Reality to Reduce Anxiety and Inspire the Next Generation of Blood Donors

Miguel Carrazza Morales - Abbott Laboratories
01:40 PM - 02:05 PM
Promenade Room 104B
XR Enablement
Jun 18
Promenade Room 104B

How BCI is Removing the Friction from AR and AI interaction

Guy Wagner - Wearable Devices LTD
01:40 PM - 02:05 PM
Room 101A
Developer | Sponsored by Qualcomm
Jun 18
Room 101A

Designing XR UX for the Moment: Mobile, Headworn, and Fully Immersive

Steven Wolpe - Pretty Big Monster
02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Promenade Room 104C
Enterprise VIP
Jun 18
Promenade Room 104C

Enterprise Roundtable: Successful Marketing for Enterprise Projects

Nathan Bowser - Awesome Future
02:20 PM - 02:45 PM
Promenade Room 104A
Enterprise
Jun 18
Promenade Room 104A

Research to Reality: How Experiments Accelerated the First Spatial Trading Application

Jamie Barras - Fidelity Center for Applied Technology
02:20 PM - 02:45 PM
Room 101B
Creator
Jun 18
Room 101B

From Scans to XR: A Practical Pipeline for Cultural Heritage

Ines Said - Tanit XR
Margarita Johnson - Tanit XR
02:20 PM - 02:45 PM
Room 102A
AI + XR
Jun 18
Room 102A

Building a Global Ecosystem for Physical AI

Ryan Wang - Outpost Capital
Michael Gold - Depth Map Ventures
02:30 PM - 03:30 PM
Room 103B
Research & Education
Jun 18
Room 103B

Roundtable Discussions: XR Challenges & Successes at Colleges & Universities

Andrew Martin - Utah State University - Innovation Lab (ILab)
Ludovic Attiogbe - Utah State University - Innovation Lab (ILab)
03:00 PM - 03:25 PM
Room 102A
AI + XR
Jun 18
Room 102A

Notable Lessons from Exploring AI Modalities in Higher Education

Becky Lane - Cornell University
03:00 PM - 03:25 PM
Room 101A
Developer | Sponsored by Qualcomm
Jun 18
Room 101A

No More Flat Sliders: Designing Interfaces in a 3D Reality

Ophelia Chen - Dreamscape Learn
03:00 PM - 03:25 PM
Room 101B
Creator
Jun 18
Room 101B

Tangible Intangibles: How Biosignals Are Shaping the Future of Mixed Reality Art Therapy

Mahsa Nasri - Northeastern University
03:00 PM - 03:25 PM
Room 103C
Entertainment & Media
Jun 18
Room 103C

Building the Infrastructure Behind Live Spatial Experiences

Daniel Zeitman - Spatial Explorer Labs
03:00 PM - 03:25 PM
Promenade Room 104A
Enterprise
Jun 18
Promenade Room 104A

XR at Electric Utilities: Deployments, Lessons Learned, and the Path to Broader Adoption

Julia Uhr - EPRI
03:45 PM - 04:30 PM
Grand Ballroom | Main Stage
Main Stage
Jun 18
Grand Ballroom | Main Stage

AWE USA 2026 Wrap-up and Best in Show Awards

Ori Inbar - AWE & UnitedXR