Agenda

Description

Gamers explored virtual worlds long before the term Metaverse was coined.
Festival goers understand the nuances of what makes an experience incredible- why they go back year after year to make new memories that last a lifetime.
Music of each era is an indication of where our culture is going before we even realize it.
As these core pillars of culture collide in the Metaverse, we’ll hear from panelists who come from deep inside the music, gaming and the broader world of entertainment to learn how fandom is evolving, and how understanding it is key to building a successful business in the Metaverse.

Speakers

Marisol Segal

Head of Digital Partnerships , AEG

Vickie Nauman

Founder , CrossBorderWorks

Danielle (Dani) Tran

Associate , Konvoy

Anne McKinnon

Cofounder & CEO , Ristband

Description

With promises of the metaverse making headlines around the world and consumer spending on video gaming in the U.S. totaling over $60.4 billion in 2021, defining where you fit in this rapidly evolving landscape is more important now than ever before. In this session, join Joanna Popper, Global Head of VR, Go-to-Market at HP and Roblox VP of Product Bjorn Book-Larsson for a fireside chat exploring the keys to human co-experience in digital worlds in an effort to empower aspiring developers and brands as they seek to define their entry path, zeroing in on the importance of identity and a shared fabric.

Speakers

Joanna Popper

Senior Media, Ent & Emerging Tech Exec , Consultant

Bjorn Book-Larrson

VP of Product , Roblox

Description

Electrocuted, shot with a nail gun, falling off buildings, Joe has found numerous ways to kill or seriously injure users SAFELY! Joe Millward shares the work he has developed in virtual and augmented reality to train users in areas from construction to hospitality to childcare. Learn how he evaluates industry processes to determine which would be most effective to deliver in an immersive environment. Discover the best immersive production practices to ensure that quality and training effectiveness is maintained. Joe will also share his thoughts on the growth and maturation of immersive technology and how this will impact the future of learning and training. Takeaways from this session include how to evaluate, develop and implement effective immersive training which delivers measurable outcomes.

Speakers

Joe Millward

Innovation Manager , *

Description

The potential of virtual worlds are limitless, but working with VR content has its challenges, especially when it comes to recording or recreating a virtual experience. Unlike the real world, capturing an immersive scene isn’t as easy as taking a video on your phone or hitting the record button on your computer. Learn how NVIDIA VR Capture and Replay enables developers and users to accurately capture and replay VR sessions for performance testing, scene troubleshooting and more. What started as an internal project to allow for VR performance testing across NVIDIA GPUs is now available as an early access SDK.

Speakers

Peter Pang

Senior Product Manager , NVIDIA

Description

Designing a wearable AR device that is wearable and comfortable for extended periods of time requires deep understanding of users, including how and where they will be using it. Within the global population we find many differences in the factors that drive fit & comfort in AR, which presents a substantial challenge to design. Danny will discuss several aspects of human anthropometry, along with the concepts of Fit Mapping and Fit Testing as they apply to designing wearable devices for a global audience.

Speakers

Danny Carson

Sr Director , Magic Leap

Description

AR already powers compelling ways for shoppers to visualize, try on, and experience products before buying them – helping to increase sales and reduce returns, benefitting both shoppers and businesses alike. In this workshop-style session, we’ll show you how you can create and publish AR Try-On Lenses, whether you’re a beginner, brand or business, or an experienced developer. From external body mesh to cloth simulation, you will see how the Snap AR platform is reimagining retail and fueling some of the most advanced, realistic experiences on mobile today.

Speakers

Description

A discussion of the emerging digital frontier of the Metaverse, and how it will change the way we use and interact with computers in both our personal and professional lives.

Speakers

Louis Deane

Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer , VISR Dynamics

Description

Advertising and marketing is evolving. Marketers today need to find new ways to engage users wherever they are, especially new strategies to offer a personalized experience that drives results. AR experiences are intrinsically personal as they put the user at the center of a story and make them an active participant with branded content. AR drives engagement with demonstrated results across the marketing funnel including dwell time and lift in purchase. In this session, you will learn how AR is changing advertising and marketing, the massive opportunity of web-based augmented reality, and review case studies and key success metrics of in-market AR experiences.

Speakers

Tool Callif

President , Tool of North America

James Giglio

CEO and Founder , MVP Interactive

Jason Yim

CEO , Trigger Global

Diana Mendez

Marketing Manager , Niantic, Inc.

Description

If you love live performances but have felt frustrated by their virtualized formats, from jury-rigged social VR to not-actually-live live events in Fortnite and various streaming platforms, this is the workshop for you. Come see a future where anyone can customize a show in real time from their browser, then host it live for potentially hundreds of people in the same virtual space.

In this session, Alex Coulombe of Agile Lens provides a sneak peek at the platform his new company Heavenue is building to make putting on a live show in the metaverse easier than ever. Be among the first to see what it looks like to import assets, set up custom characters, establish environments (including time of day and weather), and cue anything from lights to sets to costumes. How do we attain hyper realism? How do we make experiences accessible across browsers and VR headsets? Is it hard or expensive to bring a live actor's performance into a virtual space? All this and more will be answered. Join us to explore the future of live virtual performance.

Speakers

Alex Coulombe

CEO , Heavenue / Agile Lens

Description

The internet can be regarded as a closed-off and isolated environment. People enter the web through devices that conceal or distort their identities, creating a landscape of anonymous users. It is well acknowledged and discussed that much of the physical world, most significantly human connection, is lost in the digital climate. The trajectory of this disconnect is a concern for many, particularly when considering young and future generations are born with internet access in their immediate grasp. And while, for some, this is a daunting prospect, there are tools and devices that will ensure the positive innovations of this beyond belief. Augmented Reality has the power to connect users both in the digital and physical worlds - the technology fuses the two environments, establishing a meeting point in which people remain who and where they are. But how do we reach the point of an entirely augmented reality?

In his presentation, Faisal Galaria will discuss the concept that in order to enable this state, in which communities of people utilise the power of AR, it is essential that they are not only observers and users, but also creators - with the ability to shape their own ecosystems. And while collaboration and sharing are at the core of published AR experiences, it is imperative that these elements are also a possibility in the building stage. At Blippar, the integration of our AR SaaS tools into working team platforms will foster communities of AR creators and pioneers - providing accessible and inspirational innovation environments, both on and offline.

Speakers

Faisal Galaria

CEO , Blippar

Description

Meta’s core hand tracking technology represents a major step forward in bringing natural interaction and input methods to the metaverse. Will and Shannon, Meta Reality Labs product managers, will share more on our latest hand tracking technology offerings and how it works using computer vision and machine learning. Our team will also share our vision for the future of hand tracking for virtual reality and its many applications, particularly in fitness, which we see as a crucial category for the future of VR. We believe that taking advantage of hands-first inputs will allow developers to unlock powerful, more realistic fitness experiences for users. We'll be highlighting current VR developers leveraging our hand tracking tech to create meaningful and intuitive fitness experiences on Meta Quest, while sharing how other developers and customers can do the same.

Speakers

Shannon Hoople

Product Manager , Meta

Will Najar

Product Manager , Meta

Description

Recently, there has been, and continues to be, a flurry of activities around AR and the Metaverse. How these domains intersect and unfold over time is still very much in the early stages. What is clear, however, is that the “on-ramp” or gateways into the Metaverse starts with the ability to perceive the physical and digital worlds simultaneously. Many technologies and devices are needed to enable the true immersion and first and foremost is the ability to overlay the digital domain onto the physical space. In this talk we will discuss these aspects and delve deeply into near-to-eye display technologies that allows uses to coexist in the physical and digital domains.

Speakers

Bharath Rajagopalan

Director, Strategic Marketing , STMicroelectronics

Description

Shopping in the virtual world is still in its early days. Virtual showrooms and Virtual product experiences on the other hand have gradually evolved to a level where consumers can get a realistic shopping experience, even on the Web. Metadome.ai is building a unique Metaverse experience where Auto and Retail brands can host their products and create immersive shopping journeys for their customers. Our experiences empower users to create virtual avatars and have the maximum degree of freedom to interact, configure and play with the virtual world via virtual test drive and other gamification modules. A seamless user journey, with highly optimised load times and programmatic compression, helps us to load 3D content as fast as 2D content, across all platforms and devices.

Come experience with us, as we bring the real world aspects into the Metaverse, overcoming the slips of a disconnected digital journey, and transforming the marketing and sales funnel by pushing the boundaries to make the virtual world more reliable, relatable, and realistic.

Speakers

Kanav Singla

Founder & CEO , Metadome

Description

See how enterprises and organizations are transforming the customer and employee experience to deliver improved business outcomes using an AR/AI-powered platform for live remote solve, self-solve, and training use cases. To meet enterprises' service delivery requirements, levelling up the service experience demands a powerful, scalable, extendable, and secure platform.

Speakers

Kevin Summers

Head of Product Management , CareAR, A Xerox Company

Description

Western Science has a lot to learn from Indigenous Science, it’s a co-evolution of HCI (Human Computer Interaction) knowledge that is so key, right now. We are in the tools building decade. For the past several years LINK (Living Indigenous Network of Knowledge) has been at the forefront building XR tools for global Indigenous communities to create their own stories. At the same time AXRI has been building tools and understanding for neurodivergent communities to participate in virtual worlds/building. At the very core, it's about embedding and/or infusing Indigenous and Neurodivergent values and essence into any object oriented design processes. It's integrated thinking and individualized storytelling at a time where we haven’t yet finished the “proverbial" book on Universal Access & Design. This realtime conversation of what is happening in Russia/Ukraine applies. The LINK of tribal networks can use XR to cross borders and boundaries to help tell stories and be translators when physical access is shut down.

Speakers

Kathleen Cohen

Tech Humanist, XR Strategist , The Collaboratorium

Jon Waterhouse

Research Scientist , University of Idaho

John Anderson

Professor , University of Idaho

Julio Gonzalez

Project Developer , AXR Institute

Description

Apparel, footwear and accessories brands around the world have been hard at work transitioning from 2D to 3D designs with programs like Clo, Browzwear, Keyshot, Modo and others. First this streamlined the design process, then enabled B2B sales without samples, and now we're seeing incredible, immersive customer experiences across eCommerce, social media, NFTs and game-engines (aka the metaverse). Hear from industry leader Safir Bellali, Senior Director/Advanced Digital Creation at VF Corp and Ashley Crowder, Co-Founder/CEO VNTANA on how brands have transformed their digital product creation process to streamline the 3D journey from design to sales and marketing and beyond.

Speakers

Ashley Crowder

CEO, Co-Founder , VNTANA

Safir Bellali

Sr Director, Advanced Digital Creation , VF Corporation

Description

Caitlin Krause and Nanea Reeves discuss how the Metaverse presents an opportunity to expand the human experience through solutions that support personal growth, healthy online communities and corporate wellness.

They will reveal recent key signals that point to the future of the industry, and identify the current state of play when it comes to next-gen wellness that is intentional and impactful.

Speakers

Nanea Reeves

CEO & Co-Founder , Tripp

Caitlin Krause

Founder , MindWise

Description

The joke used to be that "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." In the metaverse, nobody knows who you are.

How do we evolve to the next stage of identity? What does it mean to be human? What do our names mean? How much do we want to look like ourselves, versus look like avatars? Today, we face a new paradigm of online identity. It presents many questions on how we develop for this world.

These are questions to engage the audience in an examination on not only what it means to be human, but how do we evolve to that next stage of identity.

Speakers

Cix Liv

Founder , REK

Description

Due to digital disruption, 52% of Fortune 500 companies have been purchased, gone bankrupt, or ceased to exist since 2000. Digital disruption is only growing in scope, and no industry is immune. Companies are being forced to find their footing in this new Meta world as the Fourth Industrial Revolution approaches. VIRNECT, an Industrial Collaborative XR company, has been working to address the digital transformation gaps that many industrial businesses are experiencing. From large-scale asset digitization to empowering hybrid workforces and increasing operational throughput with robotics and data, the possibilities are endless. In this session, learn how we're enabling impact, speed, and scale at industrial sites spanning Manufacturing, Energy, Mining, and Transportation.

Speakers

TAEJIN PARK

Manager , VIRNECT

Description

Learn how developers have been using the Snapdragon Spaces Developer Platform to bring new and existing AR experiences to life, hear first-hand their experiences and lessons learned using Snapdragon Spaces, moderated by Katie McCort, Product Manager at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Speakers

Dan Flanegan

Founder & CEO , That XR Company

Tom Minich

Co-founder and COO , forwARdgame

Javier Davalos

Founder/Lead developer , Overlay