Ross Finman

Ross Finman was previously Co-founder and CEO of Escher Reality, acquired by Niantic Labs early 2018. He is a current Forbes 30 under 30 and previously spent a decade working in computer vision at MIT and CMU. He has worked at NASA and SpaceX, after growing up on a llama farm.

Nathan Pettyjohn

Nathan is the Commercial AR/VR Lead at Lenovo, working on product, partner and business strategy for commercial augmented reality and virtual reality hardware and software solutions globally. Lenovo is a Fortune Global 500 company with 50,000+ employees and $43B in global sales in 160 + countries. Nathan previously worked at Quantum Capture, a leader in the field of virtual digital humans powered by AI, and led a venture-backed start-up which worked on computer vision based AR navigation experiences with the team at Google running their VPS (visual positioning system) Tango solution.

Alex Godin, Senior Program Manager at Microsoft

Alexandre Godin is a Senior Program Manager for one of Microsoft’s newest Mixed Reality business application, Dynamics 365 Guides, announced in conjunction with HoloLens 2. Alexandre oversees product management and strategy, working with some of the biggest companies in the world on deploying Dynamics 365 Guides.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Alexandre spent 8 year at Airbus, a global leader in the aerospace industry. At Airbus, Alexandre led the design and implementation of Mixed Reality solutions, serving various business units from marketing to manufacturing and training. Alexandre background is in new technologies, ergonomics and biomechanics.

Cezara Windrem, Innovation Catalyst and Head of VR at AARP Innovation Labs

Cezara Windrem is an innovation and product executive employing immersive media and spatial computing to create valuable solutions that span generations. She heads up the work in virtual reality at AARP Innovation Labs, and is the creator and producer of Alcove - the VR platform that brings together the intergenerational family connection and the VR ecosystem.

Alcove is a platform of curated content, built in a way that is simple, accessible, and that takes into account the needs and considerations of an ageless consumer. It includes content from multiple artists and developers around the world, and it aims to grow over time with unique and relevant experiences and content that intergenerational families will enjoy.

Cezara's professional background is at the intersection of media and technology. She has over a decade of experience applying design thinking and human centered product management principles to create, lead, and scale products that enhance people's lives at work, and at home. Her educational background includes an MBA from Georgetown University, and Global Management studies at the University of Oxford. She is a frequent speaker at various national and global industry events including SXSW, VRX, MAVRIC, Games4Change, Smithsonian Digitization, AdWk, AWE.

Diego Medina, Vice President (Advanced Advertising Products) at Viacom

Diego J. Medina moved to NYC to pursue a career in music & engineering. Naturally, he found himself working in media as an early employee of a digital content distribution technology startup. He has since lead digital advertising and product operations at traditional mixed media publishers (Maxim) and managed business product & technology teams at digital pure plays (Gawker Media). Since 2014, he has worked at Viacom where he champions the charge for unique digital ad products and the creation of custom digital advertising experiences as Vice President, Innovation Products in Viacom’s Advanced Advertising division. Lately, he’s particularly interested in applying mixed reality and emerging ‘IOT effect’ driven capabilities to ad sales and marketing.

Cathy Hackl

Futurist, speaker and author, Cathy Hackl, is a globally recognized augmented reality, virtual reality and spatial computing thought leader. She’s the #4 Top Technology Voice on LinkedIn (the highest honor on the platform) and the futuristic tech videos she shares there have garnered close to a million views.

She currently works as part of the Enterprise team at Magic Leap where she helps drive Magic Leap's enterprise go-to-market strategy as the company engages and provides solutions for enterprise verticals such as Manufacturing, AEC, Automotive, Education, Healthcare, etc.

Prior to that, Cathy was the lead futurist at You Are Here Labs, where she led agencies, brands and companies in applying Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality for marketing and training and worked with brands like AT&T & Porsche.

Cathy is currently working on her second book The Augmented Workforce: How AI, AR, and 5G Will Impact Every Dollar You Make. She’s co-authoring the book with John Buzzell and the book is slated to be published at the end of 2019.

Hackl worked as a VR Evangelist for HTC VIVE during the launch of their enterprise VR headset and during the company’s partnership with Warner Brothers’ blockbuster, Ready Player One. She's the co-author of Marketing New Realities, the first VR AR marketing book ever written. She also worked as Chief Communications Officer for cinematic VR studio Future Lighthouse, where she collaborated on projects with Sony Pictures Entertainment, Oculus, Beefeater, and William Morris Endeavor.

Hackl has been featured in media outlets like Forbes, Barron’s, Salon, VentureBeat, Digiday, Tech Target, CMO.com, and Mashable. She is a global advisor for VR AR Association and was recognized in 2016 by NBC News as one of the top Latina women working in VR.

Before working in spatial computing and technology, she worked as a communicator at media companies such as CNN, Discovery, and ABC News and was nominated in 2007 for an EMMY Award for her storytelling work. She's also the creator of the world’s first holographic press release and loves all things spatial computing, artificial intelligence and futurism.

Amy Peck

Amy Peck is the founder of EndeavorVR, a global VR/AR strategy & consulting firm. Amy travels the world speaking about and evangelizing Enterprise VR/AR. She also is the Co-chair of the VRARA Enterprise Committee. Her own personal mission is to see VR/AR fundamentally improve every aspect of our lives with the goal of making this technology accessible and transformative for everyone.

Travis May

As Director of Learning Technology & Innovation at Mastercard, Travis May is leading the conceptualization and application of Virtual Reality (VR)/Augmented Reality (AR) concepts in entirely new ways for the company. Focusing on fully immersive, real world business interactions, Travis is truly globalizing Mastercard’s interactions among employees, rapidly scaling the technology programs and giving employees on opposite sides of the world the opportunity to learn from each other, collaborate, and role play in innovative ways that is revolutionizing the way Mastercard approaches training and business development.

Recognizing the power of VR/AR, Travis is taking Mastercard’s training into the future and with fully immersive development for “soft skills” – negotiations, influence, and presentations. Leadership and management skills are also being enhanced and evaluated via fully immersive VR, where employees from around the world will meet in various multi-player environments – such as being stranded together on an island – and learning influence and negotiation concepts to react in real time, think strategically, and find solutions to problems. Additional VR/AR initiatives of enhancing the onboarding experience, future of operations, virtual tours, team collaboration sessions, and artificial intelligence integrated experiences are in various stages of exploration, development and scaling across the enterprise.

Mastercard teams from around the world are now collaborating and training together in ways that budget constraints hampered in the past. Travis’ innovative initiatives now allow real time, multi-site interaction and the sharing of global perspectives among employees from Sydney and Singapore to St. Louis, helping improve enterprise-wide thought leadership and collaboration. Travis is passionate about translating future technologies from the workplace to communities and is working closely with local universities and innovation ecosystems to tie entrepreneurs, companies, schools, and government together to connect cultures and thought.

Jimmy Vainstein

Jimmy Vainstein leads the Interactive Media Program of the World Bank Group in Washington, DC. His efforts brought the deployment of immersive tools across the development organization in order to virtually transport stakeholders and audiences to areas of focus and connect them with issues affecting people living in poverty and engage. His initiative of implementing Augmented and Virtual Reality throughout the organization has found a place in enhancing communications efforts, support field operations and decision making for true impact. Jimmy has a Bachelor in Economics and a Master’s of Science from the School of Media Sciences from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).

Heidi Buck

Ms. Heidi Buck joined the Naval Information Warfare Center, Pacific (NIWC PAC) in 2002 after receiving her Master’s Degree from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in Electrical Engineering with a focus in Signal and Image Processing. She spent 13 years of her career at NIWC PAC working on computer vision systems to support the warfighter, focused primarily on automatic target recognition systems. In 2008 she received a Navy’s Top Scientist and Engineer Award for her work in these fields.

In January 2015 she founded the Battlespace Exploitation of Mixed Reality (BEMR) Lab, a space for innovative thinkers to leverage low cost commercial sector technology in the mixed reality (virtual and augmented reality) space for collaboration between warfighter, researcher, government, industry and academia. Since then the lab has received national attention, including visits from the Secretary of Defense, Congressmen, Fortune 500 CEOs, military leaders and numerous other VIPs. It has handled visits and demonstrations to nearly 11,000 people, including numerous STEM and outreach events, and has been the recipient of two Secretary of the Navy Innovation Awards for technology that began in the lab as warfighter concepts.

Leo Chan

Leo Chan is the Worldwide AR/VR Tech Leader at AWS. He leads technical, creative and design communities to show the AR/VR possibilities at the intersection of immersive 3D computer graphics, machine learning and globally distributed content. He thrives in the dialog created when Art calls and Technology answers. He is a 3D graphics pioneer, coding seminal industry tools such as Maya and Houdini, and a production proven leader, leading teams at Electronic Arts and Pixar.

Leo and his family live on a small Gulf Island near Vancouver, B.C. where they grow vegetables and continuously forest bathe.

Sam Trevino

In his current role, Sam manages products and services for 30+ training courses on 5 Unmanned Aerial Systems used in 6 schoolhouses, globally. Insitu certifies more than 3,500 students per year, and is implementing new instructional technologies that assist their SMEs in surging information flow. Sam’s efforts include implementing a flipped-classroom variant, growing the use and implementation of AR/VR, agile end-to-end product development, providing custom curriculum options, and supporting two programs of record while maintaining compliance with various industry standards.

Sam has also served as an Infantry man and Sniper during OIF1 and OIF2.

Dr. Sinem Güven

Dr. Sinem Güven leads a global team of researchers, engineers and creative artists, whose mission is to create intelligent AR and VR experiences with particular focus on technology support and education domains. In addition to her research leadership role, Sinem also serves as the Global Technical Lead for the IBM Technology Support Services (TSS) AR Program, where she defines the Augmented Reality strategy and technical agenda for IBM TSS, and drives differentiating technology innovations.

Tom Caruso

Dr. Caruso is a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatric Anesthesia at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. He is the co-director of the Chariot Program, which aims to reduce pediatric patients’ anxiety and pain by utilizing immersive technologies, including mixed spatial and virtual reality. Dr. Caruso has published and presented internationally on the utilization of virtual reality in the hospital setting. Software developed by the Chariot Program can be found in over 150 hospitals and their customized VR hardware solutions are widely used by researchers in the field.

Dan Schneider

Dan Schneider is the virtual reality evangelist for HP Americas. He is a 10-year veteran of HP, with a long-time focus on virtual experiences. Dan regularly speaks about commercial VR emphasizing key verticals, training and simulation, product visualization, location-based entertainment, and healthcare. Dan has a passion for helping companies find great VR solutions for every industry. Prior to HP, Dan was an IT consultant for six years. He is a graduate of Western Illinois University.

Patrick Costello

Patrick leads North American partnership engagement for Qualcomm’s XR business and works with OEM’s, ISV’s, operators, enterprises, content providers, and sports and entertainment brands in the region to advance the mobile XR ecosystem and drive adoption of Qualcomm’s broader technology portfolio. Prior to joining Qualcomm, Patrick led business development for Kyocera Wireless in emerging markets in EMEA and SEA.

Patrick holds an International Relations degree from the University of San Diego and an MBA from San Diego State University and serves several Boards of Directors and committees including the Advanced Imaging Society, Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission, Fine Arts Film Festival, and Infinity Festival Tech Awards Committee.

Sergio Paolantonio

Sergio Paolantonio, Director of Design and Development for Hasbro, is an Experienced innovator, HCI Specialist, Experience Designer. As part of the iPlay Design & Development group, Sergio leads the creation of technology-infused experiences for Hasbro’s core and partners brands such as Disney’s Star Wars, Marvel, Transformers, Nerf, My Little Pony, Monopoly.

With his team, Sergio develops new and exciting ways to play by fusing physical and digital and give life to products such as Marvel Avengers Iron Man AR and Transformers AR Bee Vision.

Before joining Hasbro, with more than 40 patents, Sergio successfully demonstrated how to identify, assess, and design products such as HoloLens, Cortana, Kinect, Xbox one, using bleeding-edge technologies, such as Augmented Reality, Speech recognition, Gesture Interactions, Biometrics in Hasbro, Microsoft, Panasonic & Hitachi.

Parm Sandhu

Parm is Director of Network and System Operations at TELUS, the fastest growing telecommunications communications company and the #1 health IT provider in Canada.

He has more than 25 years of product development, network engineering, and operations management experience in the telecom and IT industries. Parm is a seasoned leader, experienced in managing mass market product development initiatives and large scale network operations.

He is a graduate of Simon Fraser University, holds a Masters of Engineering in Digital Communications , a BASc. in Electronics Engineering, and a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from the Beedie School of Business.

Dirk Frese, Ph.D., Vice President of Sales, Marketing & Service, JULABO USA, Inc.

Dirk Frese, Ph.D., uses his passion for science, sales and communication to help organizations and employees thrive. Dr. Frese is a scientist and a sales leader with an uncanny ability to demystify complex ideas, information and processes. He applies his experience as a scientist and his interests in sales, marketing and communication to make complex information accessible and exciting for others. His enthusiasm for what’s possible, in science and business, makes him an inspirational and effective leader for technical, sales-driven organizations.

Currently, Frese leads sales, marketing and service for JULABO USA, Inc., founded in 1993 and headquartered in Allentown, Pa. JULABO is an international company with global headquarters in Seelbach, Germany and operations in 11 other countries. The company is a leading expert in temperature control products used in laboratories, research centers, manufacturing and industry. The company’s fusionchef by JULABO division supplies temperature control products to commercial kitchens.

Frese also serves as the Executive Director of WISDOM (Women in Science Demonstrating Outstanding Merits), a nonprofit organization founded by JULABO in 2016 to help empower, support and mentor women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).

Frese was born in Berlin, Germany and received a Master of Science in chemistry and a doctorate in natural sciences and biochemistry from the Technical University of Berlin. He specializes in chemistry, biochemistry, biotechnology, micro-technology and has worked internationally with companies that include CIBA-Geigy Pharmaceuticals, E. Merck, Bio Tek Instruments and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Frese is also deeply committed to breaking down barriers in communication. He understands that the technical and scientific nature of information can limit people’s understanding. As a global sales and marketing professional, he’s also observed gaps in communication between people from different cultures and backgrounds. He believes communication is the key to success and continues to study and share his findings on how to improve communication, including how body language and microexpressions affect outcomes. Frese offers face-to-face and virtual training on how to communicate successfully for JULABO USA, Inc. and WISDOM.

Kevin Carpenter, Head of the Global Operations Training Network at Siemens Energy, Inc.

Kevin Carpenter is the Head of the Global Operations Training Network at Siemens Energy, Inc., responsible for technical training and field service engineer development programs worldwide, with training facilities in Berlin, Muelheim, Charlotte and Orlando. Kevin has over 18 years’ experience in the Energy business, primarily in gas tubine and wind turbine. During his time at Siemens, he has gained vast international experience, having spent 2 years working in Germany and 7 years working in China. In the past two (2) years Kevin and his team have built an extensive library of VR & AR maintenance training applications and deployed them worldwide. Kevin holds a BS in Materials Science & Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from Southern Illinois University -Edwardsville.

Galit Ariel

Galit is a TechnoFuturist and an immersive space explorer. She is passionate about a future that will integrate technology into our everyday lives, but not control it. As a TED speaker and a thought leader in Augmented Reality, she explores the wild and imaginative side of immersive technologies, but also their impact on our cultures, behaviors and ethical issues related to them. Her book ‘Augmenting Alice – The Future of Identity, Experience and Reality’ offers a context and futurescape to Augmented Reality applications, considering its impact on our public, personal and intimate space, that ultimately alters the way we experience reality and our sense of self. Galit’s goal is to bridge the gap between digital, physical, and mental spaces to create tools & platforms that help people experience these worlds in new ways.

Charlie Fink

Charlie Fink is a former Disney, AOL and AG Interactive executive who writes a popular column about XR for Forbes, He is a consultant to some of the leading companies in the space. As a 28 year old junior executive at Disney, Fink famously came up with the idea for The Lion King. In the 90s, he was EVP & COO of VR pioneer Virtual World Entertainment. Variety calls him “XR’s explainer-in-chief.”

In addition to his work as head of story development for Disney Feature Animation during the second golden age of Disney animation (‘85-’92), Fink was SVP & CCO of AOL Studios (‘95-’99) and President of American Greetings Interactive (00-04). His past experience also includes successful exits from several startups.

Fink is the author of the critically acclaimed AR-enabled books Charlie Fink's Metaverse (2018) and Convergence, How The World Will Be Painted With Data (2019). He teaches XR at Chapman University Film School in Orange, CA.

Jeff Meador

Jeff Meador is the founder of JMXR and also serves as the co-chair the VR/AR Association's training committee. He began his career working with Stanford’s Multimedia Laboratory in the 1990s, developing some of the first online interactive experiences for classrooms. He has maintained his passion for leveraging and extending technology to create effective and engaging methods of learning. In recent years, his focus has turned to immersive media such as virtual and augmented realities. He works directly with both enterprise and start up clients, providing a clear, straightforward path to successful implementation and adoption of immersive reality technology. He is a champion of standards, best practices, and the science of learning, having authored or co-authored several white papers for the VR/AR Association in support of using immersive reality to augment traditional training. His proactive, results-oriented approach has led to numerous awards and accolades from diverse sources such as Forbes, Engadget, Time Magazine, and more.

Janosch Amstutz, CEO at HoloMe

Janosch is a university lecturer on the topic of using Augmented Reality for communication and eCommerce, and the founder of HoloMe.

HoloMe, a London based Startup, is a leader in the deployment of Augmented Reality humans over mobile at speed and scale. The company's mission is to revolutionise communications through the use of Augmented Reality humans in both pre-recorded and live form, offering exciting new ways for brands to sell and communicate to their customers and for individuals to communicate with each other.

Norm Li

Norm Li is the founder of Canada's leading architectural visual content studio by the same name. Since 2002, he and his team have collaborated with designers and developers to communicate their vision to the public. They create engaging visual content that take the story of a space to the next level. Norm works to constantly push the boundaries of his team; they are Always Better in all that they do. Best known for their renderings, they also provide animation, virtual reality, and photography services. If it involves design + visual communication, Norm and his gang can figure it out.

Matt Grant

Matt is a creative and marketing multimedia professional focusing on web design, broadcasting, creative production, 3D rendering and virtual/augmented reality.

Matt started his career in multimedia in 2002 as a camera operator for a local news channel in his native New Zealand. After visiting Vancouver he fell in love with the city and has lived here since. Initially working in Vancouver’s film industry, Matt co-founded the Real Estate Channel television network in 2005 and was a founding Partner at LNG Studios shortly after in 2009.

Since then Matt has been the creative force behind these companies, bridging the gaps between marketing, technology and multimedia production. His career has seen him work with established creatives such as Aurthur Erickson, Foster + Partners and James Cheng as well as corporate clients such as Ikea, BMW, Jaguar, Best Buy, DDB, The Four Seasons, the Government of Canada and the BC Lottery Commission.

When Matt’s not in the boardroom, he’s playing music with his band or enjoying the sunshine on his boat.

Marco DeMiroz

Marco is the co-founder and a general partner of The Venture Reality Fund, leading early stage venture fund focusing on Artificial Intelligence (“AI”), Immersive and Spatial (“XR”) Computing. He has extensive experience in executive roles with leading technology companies and in global investments. Previously he was a Managing Director with Evolution Media Capital (“Evolution”), an investment fund under TPG Capital and associated with the Creative Artists Agency (“CAA”). Marco actively advises numerous media and technology startups in AI and XR sectors and has been collaborating with the Women in XR (“WXR”) Fund to ensure balanced gender representation. Prior to joining Evolution, he was president and chief executive officer of the leading mobile game studio, PlayFirst, which he sold to Glu Mobile (NASDAQ: GLUU) in 2014. Marco currently serves on the Boards of the Fund’s portfolio companies Apprentice.io, Phiar, and Virtualitics. Marco holds a Master of Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University; a postgraduate Engineer degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University; a Master’s degree in mechanical engineering from San Jose State University; and a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the United States Naval Postgraduate School. His postgraduate studies at Stanford and research at NASA/Ames focused on parametric modeling and digital control of helicopters, drones, and robotics.

Amy LaMeyer

Amy LaMeyer is Managing Partner at the WXR Fund investing in early stage companies with female leadership that are transforming business and human interaction using spatial computing (VR/AR) and AI. Amy is also on the board of ARVR Academy which promotes diversity in emerging technologies through education. She is the author of ‘Sound and AR’ in the book “Convergence: how the world will be painted with data”. She created EnteringVR.net to assist others to learn about the potential of AR/VR across industries. Amy has over 18 years of experience in a high growth technology industry in corporate development, mergers and acquisitions, engineering and finance.

Martina Welkhoff

Martina Welkhoff is an entrepreneur and early-stage investor. She’s a General Partner at the WXR Fund, a venture fund focused on women-led spatial computing companies, and a Venture Partner at Jump Canon, a San Francisco fund focused on underrepresented founders in emerging tech. She is on the advisory board of the Center for Leadership and Strategic Thinking at the University of Washington, and for over five years was the President of Seattle Women in Tech as well as previously serving on the board of Seattle Angel.

Wilson Tang, founder and CEO of Yumebau Inc.

Wilson is founder and CEO of Yumebau Inc., a “Cultural Augmentation” company based in Vancouver, Canada. We are dedicated to creating the most immersive social AR/VR mobile experiences, with the power to change the way people learn, play & socialize. Over the course of more than 20 years in digital entertainment Wilson has led and built world class teams in video games at Kabam and Electronic Arts, and Hollywood films at Industrial Light & Magic. Wilson is a designer at heart, fluent in the language of architecture, games, technology, UX, films, polygons and code. Even though he is passionate about human-centric technology, he is still pretty handy with pencil and paper, where everything begins.

Terry Sanderson

Terry Sanderson is a Producer with 20+ years’ experience and knowledge in interactive entertainment software development currently producing state of the art VR attractions for global theme park clients with DreamCraft Attractions in Victoria, B.C. Dreamcraft utilizes motion base robotics, haptics, embodiment, and agency to deeply immerse guests into tightly structured narratives and environments in both VR and AR. A graduate of one of the first full-time 3D Animation courses at the Vancouver Film School, Terry has a history in the Vancouver game development scene with high profile companies such as Electronic Arts, Blue Castle Games, and Capcom working on hit console titles such as the SSX series, MVP Baseball, and Dead Rising.

Chris Pfaff

Chris Pfaff is a leading new media and technology producer and strategist. He is renowned for integrating leading-edge technology into the media and entertainment community. He was the first to use IRC for an interactive corporate webcast; produced one of the first DVDs, in March, 1997; produced the first HD animated logo; produced numerous multipoint broadband events in the late-1990s; produced some of the first mobile short films in 2002-2003, and produced the first Twitter Wall in 2011.

His company, Chris Pfaff Tech/Media LLC, provides strategy and marketing services for leading technology service providers, technology firms, and new media companies worldwide. Since founding Chris Pfaff Tech/Media LLC in 2002, Chris has represented a wide range of clients, including strategic ventures from Eastman Kodak, PRIMEDIA, Cantor Telecom, and ASCAP, and firms ranging from mobile content distributor Thumbplay, video encoding firm On2 Technologies (sold to Google), and 3D face and body animation production studio face2face animation. He leads a global team that works with a large, and growing, number of North American and European ventures.

Chris was one of the founders of the Producers Guild of America (PGA) New Media Council East, and served as chairman of the group from 2007-2013. He served as the vice chairman of the national PGA New Media Council from 2011-2013, for which he served as a delegate from 2006-2013, and also served as a delegate on the PGA Board of Directors from 2008-2013.

Prior to launching Chris Pfaff Tech/Media, Chris was involved with the early-stage ventures GeoVideo Networks and MobileQ, and previously had helped launch more than 16 ventures with the Lucent New Ventures Group and Bell Labs, including Lucent Digital Radio (now iBiquity Digital), SyChip (sold to Murata), e-Ink, Flarion (sold to Qualcomm), and savaJe (sold to Sun Microsystems), among many others. While at AT&T Corp., he helped launch AT&T WorldNet Service and the AT&T NetWare Connect Service, and also helped launch the AT&T Personal Online Services division. Prior to this, he represented such clients as Sony Electronics; Viacom New Media, Sharp Electronics, and Kyocera, among others. He began his career in the music industry, representing clients including Yamaha Corporation; Hal Leonard Publishing, and working with a wide range of musical artists and producers, including such notable figures as Walter Becker, Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis, and Phil Ramone.

Michael Owen

Michael Owen is the CEO of MediaCombo, a creative agency committed to helping clients tell stories with empathy, clarity and enthusiasm to engage, educate and entertain their audiences. As a freelance producer, Michael Owen has more than 25 years of experience producing documentaries, commercials and music videos.

Michael learned how to use the language of film to tell engaging stories tailored to specific audiences. He has gained a deep understanding of production and post-production technologies, and is able to grasp quickly what a client expects to achieve from a production.

Michael’s career was influenced by producing music videos for The Talking Heads, Television and other bands at the now legendary club, CBGBs, way ahead of MTV. He has also had the privilege of working with directors such as Peter Sellars, Jim Jarmusch, Lindsay Anderson, Michael Apted and Sam Peckinpah on a variety of music documentaries. As a partner in MICA TV in the 1980s he produced a series of short video art portraits of the artists Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, Laurie Simmons and others. These have been shown on the BBC and Channel Four, as well as in museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of and The Whitney Museum.

Anisiuba Uche

Anisiuba Uche is a 3d generalist , with over five years experience creating contents for the animation, game, visual effects and VR industry in Nigeria. Uche believes in the fusing the arts with technology to create mind blowing experiences. 3d animation, AR , VR and mobile gaming are but a few ways he expresses his love for the arts and technology.

Jeff Olm

Proven track record for completing projects utilizing, productions that exceed client expectations. Experience in designing, implementing, and executing a consistent color workflow client experience for digital acquisition projects. Ability to create, training, and maintain high quality training and marketing. Expertise as creative director, director of photography, editor, and colorist.

Krystian Guevara, Co-Founder & Creative Director of Dreamcraft Attractions

Krystian Guevara discovered his passion for creativity at a very early age. He spent much of his youth having adventures taking place in worlds of his own making, and quickly identified art as an outlet that allowed him to create and share his exciting and otherworldly adventures with others.

With a background in both traditional and digital arts, Krystian pushes the boundaries of unique immersive experiences in his work as Creative Director and Co-Founder at DreamCraft Attractions.

Krystian Guevara has over fifteen years experience pushing the limits of art and design through his work in different entertainment industries. He has been at the forefront of new product development for leaders and trendsetters such as Microsoft, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and THQ in the development of video games, film, and animation, and currently in spatial computing and advanced technology for the LBE industry (theme parks) with DreamCraft Attractions.

Srinivas Krishna

Srinivas Krishna is a member of the  VRARA Storytelling Committee  and the Founder and CEO of the pioneering mobile AR studio  AWE Company  (2012) and the mobile AR platform Geogram  (2017). A patented inventor, he has created foundational AR technologies and produced some of the most remarkable mobile AR experiences of the past decade. His work as a digital media innovator has been applauded by Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, as “utterly breathtaking…genius.”   Prior to his work in augmented reality, Srinivas produced and directed feature films that have premiered at Toronto, Sundance and Cannes, and have been distributed worldwide. He launched his career in 1991 with the international hit Masala, which was voted by the British Film Institute among the Top Ten South Asian Diaspora Films of the 20th Century and is a classic of world cinema.

Chanel Summers, Vice President of Creative Development

Chanel Summers joined VRstudios in 2017 as its first Vice President of Creative Development, in which capacity she is responsible for delivering the kind of breakthrough content experiences the industry has come to expect from the leading provider of VR-enabled attractions for location-based entertainment operators. A pioneer in the field of interactive audio, Chanel has been a respected game producer and designer, Microsoft’s first audio technical evangelist, and a member of the original Xbox team, having helped to design and support the audio system for that groundbreaking console and creating the first ever support team for content creators. Prior to joining VRstudios, Chanel was an accomplished touring drummer and founder of the highly regarded audio production and design company Syndicate 17, specializing in sound design, music production, and audio implementation for location-based attractions and virtual, augmented, and mixed reality products. Chanel has consulted for a number of organizations and innovative technology companies, and lectured and educated around the world on subjects as diverse as the aesthetics of video game audio, world-building, and secondary-level STEM education for young women. Chanel is also a lecturer and director of the Experimental Audio Design Lab at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. In 2016, Chanel contributed “Making the Most of Audio in Characterization, Narrative Structure, and Level Design” to the CRC Press book Level Design: Processes and Experiences. In 2018, Chanel contributed “Creating Immersive and Aesthetic  Auditory Spaces for Location-Based VR Experiences” to another CRC Press book, New Realities in Audio: A Practical Guide for VR, AR, MR, and 360 Video.

Alex Snider, Strategy Director at PATIO Interactive Inc.

Alex is the Strategy Director at PATIO Interactive Inc.; a design and development agency specializing in technology-driven business solutions. As a former strategy consultant and deal advisor she has a strong belief in collaborative working and relishes creating engagement and positive cultures that unleash the potential in individuals and organizations. Alex encourages the whole team at PATIO to not only be engaged within the technology field, but to strive for leadership in all their endeavours. With a background in construction, healthcare, energy and natural resources prior to her joining our small but mighty, innovative technology firm, she has a deep understanding of the realities of transferable learning and thriving in male dominated environments. Alex places significant value on sharing her experiences and their ability to support and influence the perception of women in STEM and in the growing cannabis industry.

Charles Bern, founding partner of PATIO Interactive Inc.

Charles is the founding partner of PATIO Interactive, a design and development agency specializing in technology-driven business solutions. He started the company in 2014, focused on enhancing user experiences by combining disruptive technology with business strategy. Now working with a wide range of forward-thinking companies, PATIO has since become a leader in creating immersive and extended reality software that helps businesses "thrive in disruption". The applicability of this body of work to the nascent cannabis industry was an organic evolution that has yielded exciting collaborations and innovative development over the past 3 years, landing PATIO and Charles at the forefront of thought leadership for technological innovation in cannabis. Charles has a passion for sharing his knowledge and has spoken on many panels across a range of industry and media events such as Lift&Co Expo, Digifest, TAVES and CBC Television.

Dilan Shah, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of YUR Inc.

Dilan Shah is Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of YUR Inc.

He is a published author, developer, and creator of immersive experiences for Zeiss, Unity, and USC's Center for Body Computing across ARCore and ARKit, Hololens, Google Daydream, Oculus Go, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Dilan is an early adopter of spatial computing (VR and AR), and an autodidact with a background in Business Administration and Computer Science from USC. His blog and twitter are, thelatentelement.com and @dilan_shah.

John Cunningham

John is the Chief Revenue Officer for the DiSTI Corporation, a leading virtual training and HMI software and solutions provider where he is responsible for global sales, marketing and product management. Since joining DISTI in 2017, he has been focusing on helping Manufacturing and Defense organizations incorporate Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies into their business practices. John also serves as the President of the VR/AR Association Orlando-Central Florida Chapter. John lives in Orlando Florida which is considered to be the Modelling and Simulation Center of the United States.

Luis Martins

Luis Bravo Martins heads the marketing at IT People Group, a corporate group that includes NextReality and BigAR. He is also co-President of the Portugal Chapter of the Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality Association, as well as an author and speaker on AR, MR and Ethics in Technology. Before, Luis worked in several multinationals, created two startups that didn’t work out, one that he actually sold to a bigger company and has a life-long project with a 5-year old sprite named Miguel.

Philip Wogart

Philip Wogart founded HEADGEAR in early 2014 as a VR/AR studio focused on Entertainment, Marketing and Education/Training experiences. Since then it has become a research and development house solely focused on immersive experiences on mobiles and standalone HMDs. Working with the likes of Qualcomm, Epic Games, Google, Oculus, HTC, Pico Interactive, Zappar, 8th Wall, Roccat & Axel Springer.

His varied background includes being a Startup Founder twice over, a Product Evangelist for SaaS online marketing platforms; Games Producer on mobile/social apps; and even Java software development used in Blu-ray discs and pre-smartphone market. For the last couple years, he has also helped develop the Creative Technology curriculum at the Miami Ad School Europe, where he's responsible for teaching the Gaming and Immersive Technologies courses. Philip also holds a Masters of Science degree in Virtual Environments from University College London’s Bartlett School of Architecture as well as co-chairs the Location Based Entertainment Committee for the VRARA.

Pradeep Khanna, CEO of Global Mindset

Pradeep Khanna is Executive Director Asia Pacific, Sydney Chapter President & Global Co- Chair Education for the global Virtual Reality Augmented Reality Association. Pradeep is also founding member of IEEE ICICLE X-Reality for Learning and Performance Augmentation SIG & CEO of Global Mindset.

He has 30+ years of executive experience and has been a leader for IBM Australia/NZ leveraging India, China, Philippines, Vietnam, Egypt, Romania, Brazil & Argentina.

He is Adjunct Professor in Australia, Singapore & India. Pradeep is regular speaker at international conferences including Vancouver, Sydney, Melbourne, Manila, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Shanghai, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Auckland, Seoul, San Francisco, Perth+++. He is an acknowledged Leader in Emerging Technologies especially Virtual. Augmented and Mixed Reality and Education/EdTech.

Pradeep is on Advisory Boards of number of companies. He has MBA from AGSM (UNSW), MSc (Computer Science) from UTS & B Tech from IIT Delhi.

Nancy Basi

As Executive Director of Media + Entertainment, Nancy works strategically to grow and support the digital entertainment and interactive industry ecosystem for the City of Vancouver and regional areas. Included in her portfolio are VFX/ animation, post production, Music, games, virtual/ augmented reality and Esports. Additionally, Nancy promotes the City of Vancouver as a world-class destination for trade and investment and a city where industry talent can thrive in the screen-based entertainment sector. With her move to VEC, Nancy brought with her, 20 years of experience in the film, television and commercial industry in both physical production, visual effects and animation.

Angela Robert

Angela co-founded the company with a vision to transform the way people work by delivering education as an experience. She believes that workplaces can be safer for employees and customers by tapping into Corporate Training opportunities. She leads with effervescent passion and inimitable style – driving an unusual combination of innovation and process efficiency. Over the last 8 years she’s managed to pivot a few times and has two M&A’s under her belt.

Prior to the acquisition of Conquer Mobile’s Mobile Application Services Division, Angela led the team to be the leader in Vancouver in delivering Enterprise Mobile Application Solutions with over 100 projects in various sectors. Angela established her credentials as a software engineer at Scotiabank, IBM and Electronic Arts (EA). At EA she worked on more than 20 AAA console sports simulation video game titles in five years and was the Front End, Progression and Gameplay Development Director for award winning games Skate™ and Skate 2™.

She is an active voice in many trade associations including SSIH, BCTech, BC Technology Supercluster and Surrey’s Health and Technology District which is part of Innovation Boulevard. Angela graduated from University of Waterloo with a Bachelor of Mathematics in Computer Science.

When she’s not inspiring and energizing everyone, Angela has learned Vancouver’s leading pass time, downhill skiing and creating disturbingly healthy smoothies.

Mandy Stobo

Mandy Stobo is a passionate artist, actor and mother. She is dedicated to her community, her family and her artwork while always taking in as many new perspectives, experiences and memories that life can offer.

With a practice honoring the traditional use of figure ground relationship and formalistic approaches to creating solid, successful compositions, her contemporary work merges together a use of text, chalk and highly saturated hues of paint. For Mandy, the process of creating is just as important as the finished product. Her mark making is not left to chance, but rather follows formal elements of design and aspects of composition.

Mandy’s use of vibrant colours and emotions in her paintings are a direct reflection of her outlook on life. Her vibrant personality is only matched by her vibrant passion for her hometown of Calgary, Alberta. She is a champion for the city and it’s artistic and cultural endeavors. Mandy finds herself involved in various projects from illustrating the children’s book “C is for Calgary”, Grandpa’s Forest, Bee Love and others, to designing brands for various businesses, to working in film and television such as Fargo, Haunting Melissa, Heartland, Young Drunk Punk, Jann, and Hold The Dark, to name a few. She also is a leading artist in content creation in the new media of Virtual Reality, adding empathy to a digital space in a magnificent way. With several VR films under her belt and a few in the making, she hopes to create work in this landscape that holds compassion and has longevity. Her newest shows “ Life” and “Queens” will blend mediums, and utilize Augmented Reality within her new portraits to help illuminate more of each of the pieces stories. She is currently on a speaking tour presenting her work in the digital design field.

It was Mandy’s love for her city that initially sparked the Bad Portrait Project. It started as a humble way for Mandy to celebrate Calgary and its inhabitants through expressive pop-art inspired watercolour and sharpie portraits. However, the project skyrocketed online and past Calgary’s city limits with the help of social media. Bad portraits are now seen internationally and are featured in The City of Calgary Public Arts Program, on Calgary C-Trains, branding for companies, personalities, celebrities and politicians . The project has revolutionized the accessibility of art and connects the viewer directly with the artist, and has garnered her many moments in media, experiments in projects, and awards such as Top 40 Under 40 in 2012.

Mandy’s holds a deep connection with music, theatre and film, as she loves to challenging herself through live performance painting using AR, green screens, projection mapping and more. She is heavily involved in many charities and fundraisers, and is a big advocate for mental health. Her contemporary work has been collected all over the world and is currently working on her new body of work, “We AR all Queens” for shows across Canada.

Stobo dreams of providing a solid world for her son’s through her art, and will never stop the search for great color, joy, healing and community building through creation.

Jason McDowall

Jason is the creator and host of the #1 podcast focused on augmented reality, The AR Show. He’s also the VP of Software and AR Evangelist at Ostendo, which is focused on solving a fundamental challenge of AR smartglasses: the underlying visual engine. Jason invests in early-stage companies at Method Ventures.

Previously Jason was a serial entrepreneur – first in mobile, later in AI-assisted CRM. He also spent several years at Salesforce.com and served as an officer in the US Air Force. He holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson and an MS & BS in Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon.

Julie Smithson

Julie Smithson’s personal mission is to ‘inspire and educate future leaders to think and act in a socially, economically and environmentally responsible way’. It is through this lens, she runs the operations at MetaVRse, one of the world’s leading XR Consulting and product development companies and is Co-Founder of XR Ignite, a community hub and hyper-accelerator that connects startups, studios and developers with corporate clients.

Julie’s passion for education and community has led her to become the Co-President of the VR/AR Association, Toronto Chapter. She is also Global co-Chair of the Education Committees and bridging the gap with the next generation in the Student Education Committee. Julie is also leading the 5G Committee producing best practices and global standards through VR&AR applications.

Previously, Julie was Co-founder of Emulator, the world’s most advanced DJ system, which won the DJ Mag Innovative Product Award. She has been on the hit TV show Dragons’ Den, featured in the Toronto Star, Produced TEDx Toronto (2010), and introduced coding in VR at Canada Learns Code.

Alan Smithson

Mr. Smithson is a lifelong entrepreneur with a vision to bring the best teams and technology together to build the most effective, efficient learning system ever created. Mr. Smithson has started 9 companies including Emulator, MetaVRse, XR Ignite, XR For Business and his 10-year-old daughter invented sandals that leave a heart-shaped tan line on your feet called Love Sandal. Mr. Smithson’s personal mission is to ‘inspire and educate future leaders to think and act in a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable way’.

Kavya Pearlman

Well known as the “Cyber Guardian”, Kavya Pearlman is an Award-winning cybersecurity professional with a deep interest in immersive and emerging technologies. Kavya is the founder of non-profit, XR Safety Initiative (XRSI). XRSI is the very first global effort that promotes privacy, security, ethics and develops standards and guidelines for Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality (VR/AR/MR) collectively known as XR.

Kavya is constantly exploring new technologies to solve current cybersecurity challenges. She has been named one of the Top Cybersecurity influencers for two consecutive years 2018-29019 by IFSEC Global. Kavya has won many awards for her work and contribution to the security community including 40 under 40 Top Business Executives 2019 by San Francisco Business Times, Rising Star of the year 2019 by Women in IT Award Series and Minority CISO of the Year 2018 by ICMCP. For her work with XR Safety Initiative, Middle East CISO Council recently awarded her - CISO 100 Women Security Leader award in Dubai.

Kavya has advised Facebook on third party security risks during 2016 US presidential elections. She currently advises Wallarm, a global security company that protects hundreds of customers across e-commerce, fintech, health-tech, and SaaS for their artificial intelligence powered application security platform as a Global Cybersecurity Strategist.

Kavya holds a master’s degree network security from DePaul University, Chicago and holds many prestigious Information Security certifications including CISM (Certified Information Security Manager) from ISACA, PCI-DSS-ISA (Internal Security Assessor) and PCIP for Payment Card Industry Security Standard Council. Kavya is truly passionate about her work and inspires many around the world including women and underrepresented communities in security and emerging technologies. Kavya gives back to the tech community by mentoring women through “Million Women Mentor” program and is a board of director for non-profit “Minorities in Cybersecurity” as well as advisory board member for “CISO Council North America”.

Kris Kolo

Prior to VRARA, Kris was an executive at Verizon and Toys R Us, applying AR technology to common use cases, e.g., digital in-store initiatives and shopping solutions, incorporating AR from Metaio, acquired by Apple and AR Navigation, Kris was collaborating with Wikitude to integrate AR into Verizon's GPS Navigation. Kris also helped launch the Verizon Developer Program. In addition, Kris was an Advisor, Board Member, to FlyBy Media, an AR tech startup, acquired by Apple. As an entrepreneur, Kris was the Co-Founder of Spime Inc, a Silicon Valley startup working on GPS and geo-spatial products, acquired by Trimble. And, Kris published the ground-breaking book, Local Positioning Systems, on mapping and location-based services, and was granted seven patents. Kris holds graduate degrees from MIT.

Nathan Pettyjohn

Nathan is the Commercial AR/VR Lead at Lenovo, working on product, partner and business strategy for commercial augmented reality and virtual reality hardware and software solutions globally. Lenovo is a Fortune Global 500 company with 50,000+ employees and $43B in global sales in 160 + countries. Nathan previously worked at Quantum Capture, a leader in the field of virtual digital humans powered by AI, and led a venture-backed start-up which worked on computer vision based AR navigation experiences with the team at Google running their VPS (visual positioning system) Tango solution.

Baas Mannarasala

Baas is a Co-founder and CTO of Travancore Analytics. In this capacity Baas takes a lead role in conceptual and architecture design for enterprise solutions and industrial automation applications in addition to heading the innovation lab at TA.

Baas started his career at the premier Indian Space Research Organization and was responsible for design and realization of real-time mission critical software of the Automated Launch Processing System and for Configurable Dynamic Simulation software to validate the Checkout System for Launch Vehicles. After a 7-year stint in Space Research, he moved on to successful stints in the private sector with assignments at Ernst & Young and L&T before co-founding TA in 2007.

Baas has a BTech in Applied Electronics and MTech in Digital Electronics.

Nancy Baker Cahill

Nancy Baker Cahill is a multi-disciplinary artist working at the intersection of fine art, new media and activism. She is the founder of 4th Wall, a free Augmented Reality (AR) public art platform exploring resistance and inclusive creative expression. She initiated “Coordinates,” an ongoing series of collaborative, site-specific AR public art exhibitions, including “Defining Line” along the LA river, and “Battlegrounds” (upcoming) in New Orleans. She is the recipient of an ARC Grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation, and was a 2019 nominee for the Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Grant. Baker Cahill was a featured 2018 TEDx speaker in Pasadena, was recently profiled in a 2019 Bloomberg Media Art and Technology short documentary, and received an “Impact Maker to Watch” award at LA City Hall. She is an international public speaker and was a participating artist in the 2019 Desert X Biennial.

Tony Bevilacqua

Tony is the Founder and CEO of Cognitive3D, which is an analytics platform that gathers data from virtual and augmented reality experiences in new ways, and turns them into actionable insights.

Prior to founding Cognitive3D, Tony co-founded and exited another startup that focused on revenue optimization and data analytics for enterprise customers.

Ellen Wang

Ellen Wang, MD is a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatric Anesthesiology and Medical Director of Clinical Informatics for Perioperative Services at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. She is also Chief of Operations of the Stanford Chariot Program, combining her interest in clinical care, process improvement, data analytics and research with virtual/augmented reality technologies to advance and evolve standards in patient care.

Thomas Wagner

Thomas Wagner is Co-Founder and CEO of VR Coaster, the worldwide leading company for Virtual Reality experiences on real-world ride attractions. He is also Professor for Virtual Design at the University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern.

Working in the Media and Games Industry for over 20 years now, Wagner has won several international Awards for Excellence in Game-, 3D- and Mobile App Design, including Adobe Max Awards, multiple iTunes featured apps as well as the iTunes "Best of" Selection.

He is the inventor of the wireless VR Coaster System that has changed the Theme Park Industry with over 60 installations on roller coasters and drop towers all over the world. Since 2014, the award-winning work of Wagner and his team at VR Coaster GmbH & Co. KG has been transforming ride attractions in renowned theme parks worldwide, and since 2017 also extending into the water park area with real underwater VR experiences.

Wagner has also worked internationally as pundit and Jury member, including the newly founded AUREA Award, where he also serves as Ambassador for the annual AUREA conference event.

Dr. Uma Jayaram

Dr. Uma Jayaram is Managing Director and Principal Engineer at Intel Sports. Intel Sports is revolutionizing the field of sports with groundbreaking technologies that have been delivered to premier events and leagues including Winter Olympics 2018, NFL, NBA, NCAA, PGA, MLB, and LaLiga. Uma brings her deep experience in engineering design, VR, software fundamentals and agile organizations to the work she does as Managing Director and takes pride in the solution-centric and purpose-driven teams she has created and fostered. Intel Sports is poised to change the game of sports and beyond.

Previously, Uma was the Co-Founder and COO of VOKE VR which was acquired by Intel in November 2016. A serial entrepreneur, she has been on the founding teams of two other technology companies. She started her career as a Professor at Washington State University and co-founded the VR lab that was well recognized for the seminal work done in virtual assembly, virtual prototyping, CAD, and AI-based Ontologies for design.

Uma considers each of her students as having shared part of her journey and over a dozen of them have been a part of the start-ups she co-founded. An effective champion of women, Uma has attracted talented women engineers to her teams.

Uma has been inducted as a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for her contributions to virtual reality and engineering and has also earned a “Lifetime Achievement” award by the International Society of Agile Manufacturing (ISAM). One of the first women to receive an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, Uma later completed her MS and PhD degrees at Virginia Tech. She was recently honored at Virginia Tech as a distinguished alumni.

Carlos Lee

Carlos Lee is Director General at EPIC (European Photonics Industry Consortium). He brings with him a background in microelectronics which was acquired through several management positions held at the international association SEMI. He has been responsible in Europe for the SEMI International Standards program, managed technical and executive programs, and together with the advisory board advocated for a more competitive semiconductor and photovoltaic manufacturing industry. Carlos has a BBA in Finance and an MBA in Leadership & Change Management from United Business Institutes.

Aubrey Tucker

Aubrey Tucker is the Director of Innovation and Technology for ETRO Construction, where he offers a focused and thoughtful approach to innovative research, implementation and application of technology across businesses to create efficiencies and amplify the power of ETRO’s people. He is an Enabler, Technologist, International BIM Speaker, University Lecturer and Revit Expert with an extensive career with skyscrapers, hospitals, schools, airports and technology..

Tyler Gates

Tyler is the President of the VR/AR Association, DC Chapter and Managing Principal at Brightline Interactive, an award-winning creative technology agency. He is a visionary for the applications of VR/AR technology for enterprise, branding and government solutions and an expert in transforming client needs into tangible concepts and ideas through the use of immersive technology. Tyler is dedicated to growing the utilization of VR and AR technology through speaking worldwide and hosting the VR/AR Association’s podcast, “Everything VR/AR”.

Regina Noppe

Regina is a Brazilian/Canadian with 20 years of experience at global companies.

She is very active in both tech communities and is helping to foment relations between the two countries. She is involved in a series of initiatives that are making it possible for the Brazilian and Canadian tech ecosystems to become closer.

Regina was awarded the title of “Noble Partner of Canada” by the Canadian Ambassador in Brazil.

She’s also a member of Chamber of Commerce Brazil-Canada Tech committee and the former President of Alumni Canada-Brazil, besides running her own company - DREAM2B, that bridges Brazilian Startups with the Canadian Tech ecosystem through an acceleration program focused on internationalization.

Regina has invested and brought 35 startups to Canada so far and her portfolio includes Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and VR/AR companies.

Currently, she is building an international platform to enable the most promising startups to access global markets, capital & big corporations.”

Melissa Dex Guzman, Director of the Vancouver VR Community aka VANVR

Melissa Dex Guzman is the Director of the Vancouver VR Community aka VANVR, the best in the west inclusive virtual reality collective comprised of VR enthusiasts, evangelists, and creators. She is an accomplished filmmaker and photographer, recently releasing 'Smash Forward', a documentary covering Vancouver esports on the cusp of growth; and lends her media production skillset to various studios focused on the immersive space.

Dogu Taskiran, CEO of Stambol Studios

Dogu Taskiran is the CEO of Stambol Studios, a Vancouver-based creative technology studio specializing in highly immersive content and experiences through Virtual and Augmented Reality.

Dogu is an Expert Software Engineer and a leader with nearly 20 years of experience in high-performance interactive software applications. He started his career building various educational training applications and simulation systems in the defense industry. Following his passion for video games, he later moved to work on several award-winning AAA titles as a Lead Gameplay Programmer at Electronic Arts, and as the Studio Tech Lead and Expert Engine Programmer at Ubisoft.

His love for highly-scalable projects further led him to join Microsoft as a Senior Software Engineer, where he built core graphics components of a large systems incubation project and helped define Microsoft's future technology stack.

He later co-founded Stambol Studios to help their clients innovate by combining creativity with the power of disruptive technologies and build experiences that bridge the gap between physical and digital realities. With decades of experience in creating interactive entertainment applications, inspiring and memorable virtual experiences, Stambol is poised to change landscape in various industries with the power of immersive technologies.

Moe Somani, Vice President, Enterprise Solutions at Atheer, Inc.

Moe has more than two decades of experience in making customers successful with his work in enterprise sales, business-to-business marketing, strategic planning, and customer engagement.

At Atheer, he works directly with enterprise customers and their executive teams to help them explore how Augmented Reality (AR) can help grow their businesses, improve profitability and manage risk in operations. As part of that process, he provides insight on what AR can and can’t do for them, how to align an AR strategy with enterprise business goals and how to build proof of implementation plan that proves a positive return on investment (ROI).

Moe lives in Vancouver British Columbia.

Ibrahim Jilani, M.S.Business Development Director Consumer Technology – Product Safety

Ibrahim Jilani is the UL global product safety business development director for Consumer Technology. He serves UL’s public safety mission and the market needs by ensuring safety is in step with innovation. He has led the successful market introductions of many UL safety standards in the consumer, commercial, and energy technology sectors over the past decade and participates in various industry trade groups including VRARA. Ibrahim has been with UL for 15 years and holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering from University of Illinois in Chicago and a Bachelor’s Degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is based out of UL’s Headquarters in Northbrook, IL USA.

Daniel Seidl, Founder and CEO of Innoactive

Daniel Seidl is Founder and CEO of Innoactive, a Munich-based startup on a mission to scale VR in Enterprise. His entrepreneurial journey started with freelancing during his studies at the Technical University of Munich. Since 2013, Daniel has been empowering his team to deliver more than 100 VR/AR software PoCs and pilots for companies across industries. Today he focuses on establishing the Innoactive Hub, a software platform that was rolled-out successfully by Volkswagen Group, reaching over 10.000 people in 2018.

Renée Stevens, Founder of tagAR™

Renée Stevens is an interactive and immersive designer, educator, author, and speaker. Her creative work focuses on innovative ways AR/MR can help overcome learning disabilities and create more accessible and inclusive learning environments. She is the founder of tagAR™, a tech start-up company that aims to help you never forget a name again. You can find her teaching at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, where she is the Associate Chair of the Visual Communications Department, overseeing the undergraduate and graduate design programs. In 2017, she was named an Educator to Watch by GDUSA. As a public speaker, she has been invited to speak around the world. She is the author of the book, Powered by Design. You can learn more at reneestevens.design.

Jesse Damiani, Editor-at-Large of VRScout

Jesse is Deputy Director of Emerging Technology at Southern New Hampshire University, Editor-at-Large of VRScout, and a Forbes Contributor. He has published about emerging technologies in Adweek, Billboard, Entrepreneur, Quartz, and The Verge; with syndication in CBS News, CJR, The New Digital Storytelling textbook, and REDEF. He was listed as a top global VR influencer in 2017 by Onalytica, was interviewed as an expert source in the AP guide for immersive journalism, and runs "Immersive Writers & Storytellers" and “Blockchain XR." He has served as a mentor in the YouTube VR Creator Lab and worked with Google in their initiative to develop educational content for the VR/AR industry as Curriculum Writer/Editor and on-camera instructor on their "VR and 360 Video Production" and "Introduction to Augmented Reality and ARCore" courses. A regular speaker and host, he has appeared at conferences, shows, and events such as SXSW, Cheddar, and the School of the New York Times. He hosts TECH TOCK, a talk show in Microsoft’s SocialVR platform, AltspaceVR. He was the Curator/Producer for the XR art exhibition, SPATIAL REALITY, at sp[a]ce gallery; Co-Curator of VIRTUAL FUTURES with LACMA for LA Art Show; and Co-Curator of SIM-CINEMA with FLOAT and Wevr. He also curates The Tech Zone at DesignerCon and XR For Change, the XR summit at Games For Change.

Dan Burgar, President of The Vancouver VR/AR Association

Dan is the President of The Vancouver VR/AR Association he's led the growth for the VR/AR ecosystem in Vancouver/BC, he's helped turn Vancouver/BC into a world leading hub for VR/AR and is continuing to build that foundation.

Vancouver VRARA promotes technology adoption, incubate early-stage companies, scale VR/AR companies, facilitate international trade, attract foreign investment and build communities. Dan's also a Partner at Shape Immersive, a leading creative VR/AR agency that build technology for the world leading brands. He focuses on collaborating with companies to understand VR/AR and Mixed Reality technologies and to develop strategies for companies to roadmap for the future of computing and my mission has been to continually advancing immersive technology as a productive tool that will change the world.

Previously Dan has helped lead the growth at Archiact and helped them grow into one of the worlds largest dedicated VR/MR content & strategy studio at the time. He was featured in Forbes, Breakfast TV, BIV (Business In Vancouver), Roundhouse Radio, The Georgia Straight, BC Tech, BetaKit and has spoken at SXSW Interactive 2017, 2019 (Austin, TX), Annecy Festival France, Cambridge House: Extraordinary Future Conference, VR Days, AWE EU and DGC Dubai. I'm also a contributing writer for the VR Scout, VR Focus, BC Business and DailyHive. He was listed as BIV's BC's Top Forty Under 40 for 2018.

Ryan Wang, Co-founder and General Partner of Outpost Capital

Ryan Wang is Co-founder and General Partner of Outpost Capital. Established in 2015, Outpost Capital is a leading cross-border early stage venture fund based in San Francisco and China, focusing on VR/AR, Blockchain, Gaming/Esports and Digital Entertainment.

Having a multicultural background and proven track records, Ryan oversees companies in the US and greater China with solid insights and strong connections in both markets. Ryan has been frequently featured by international technology media, and invited to deliver keynote at numerous conferences globally.

Meanwhile, Ryan is Chief Business Officer of MOAC Blockchain, a high performance Multi-Layered public blockchain and a top 100 CoinMarketCap company.

Prior to Outpost, Ryan was a Venture Partner at CLI Ventures managing its TMT investment arm with over $200M AUM. Early in his career, Ryan has compiled a comprehensive and successful career as an investment banker at Citigroup and Societe Generale in New York City. Ryan is passionate about education and social impact. He is a guest lecturer at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, and is a coach at Nanyang Technology University Startup Case Challenge program. Outside work, Ryan is a snowboarder, world explorer and collector of stylish hats.

Erik Murphy-Chutorian, Founder & CEO of 8th Wall

Erik Murphy-Chutorian is the founder and CEO of 8th Wall, an award-winning platform for building interactive web-based augmented reality (AR) experiences that run on all mobile devices. 8th Wall has powered AR activations for brands across industry verticals including retail, food and beverage, travel and tourism, automotive, fashion, sports and entertainment. Notable customers of the platform include Sony Pictures, Miller Lite, British Gas, Heineken, Swiss Airlines, Toyota, EVA Air, Porsche, Red Bull, Time Magazine, Adidas, COACH and LEGO.

Erik has deep expertise in computer vision, imaging infrastructure, data analysis and full-stack/mobile product development. Prior to founding 8th Wall, he worked at both Facebook and Google as an engineering manager and senior staff software engineer respectively, leading the initiatives behind a number of key projects on Facebook Messenger, Google Images and Google Photos. Erik holds a PhD in computer vision from the University of California, San Diego and a BA in Engineering Physics from Dartmouth College.

Teppei Tsutsui, Managing Partner of GFR Fund

As an active investor for the past decade, Teppei Tsutsui is the Managing Partner of GFR Fund, LP. Having led several key investments and acquisitions in Tokyo, including GREE's acquisitions of OpenFeint and Funzio, Teppei is currently leading GFR Fund in San Francisco. Prior to working for GREE, Teppei was key to advising M&A strategy at Morgan Stanley, where his strength in the Asian market and as an investor grew. He also worked in Japan in business development at Mitsubishi Corporation.

Teppei earned a bachelor’s degree in Law from Hitotsubashi University and MBA from the University of Chicago.

Robert Wong, Vice President at Creative BC

After working for several years in a Vancouver chartered accounting firm, Robert first joined Creative BC when it was BC Film + Media. At that time, he became part of the organization's newly forming tax credit team.

Now Creative BC's Vice President, Robert markets British Columbia internationally as a destination of choice for projects and companies seeking a world class creative industries centre in which to do business. In his role, he leads the administration of Creative BC's tax credit and granting programs, balancing attraction of international business with support for BC's domestic content creators.

During his tenure with the organization, Robert has become the expert on motion picture tax credits, originally helping to launch the BC film and television tax credit program in 1998. He went on to play an integral role in the evolution of British Columbia’s motion picture industry tax policy.

Sophia Moshasha, Director of Immersive Platforms at Brightline

An evangelist in immersive technology, Sophia spends her time educating the community on applications of virtual and augmented reality. She is currently the Director of Immersive Platforms at Brightline Interactive, an immersive technology company that produces custom interactive technology, to include virtual and augmented reality experiences, for brands, agencies and government entities. Sophia is also Vice President of the VR/AR Association (VRARA), Washington DC, co-chairs the Association's Marketing and Defense committees and hosts the Association's podcast, "Everything VR/AR". She is dedicated to promoting the growth of VR and AR technology through hosting events and forums, authoring thought leadership pieces, securing strategic partnerships and speaking at industry conferences.

Eric Wagliardo, Founder of And Pull

Eric founded (Push and) Pull with the focus of creating engaging experiences that bridge the gab between the entertainment industry and innovative brands. He recently launched an AR music video for Childish Gambino in partnership with Google and Unity3D and a 6 minute volumetric short film about homelessness in America. With over 15 years of experience in the advertising and tech space, Wagliardo has worn many hats — creative director, art director, UX lead, iOS developer, and consultant which gives him a unique insight into the goals and needs of brands and users.

Wagliardo worked with agencies including MediaMonks, Droga5, AKQA, 72andsunny, Ogilvy, BBDO, and BBH.

Sarah Hirx, Manager of Perioperative Education at Stanford Health Care

Sarah Hirx, MSN, RN, CNOR is the manager of education for the interventional platform at Stanford Health Care. She leads a diverse team of educators to deliver initial and ongoing training to employees in the operating rooms, interventional suites, endoscopy, and sterile processing departments across five campuses. Sarah was recognized in 2017 by the Association of PeriOperative Nurses as a Top 40 under 40 nursing leader due in part to her passion for opening the operating room doors to novice clinicians. Her career has centered on perioperative practice and education in major academic medical centers with a focus on interprofessional education. As co-director of InterCEPT, Stanford’s in-situ simulation program for the interventional platform, Sarah works to improve teamwork and communication for increased patient safety, operational efficiency, and employee satisfaction.

Michael Cohen, Strategic Advisor and Board member at UgoVirtual

With over 20 years of solution development and commercialization experience within the global travel and hospitality industry, Michael Cohen is a leading subject matter expert when it comes to bridging the gap between concept/vision and scalability/adoption of consumer, guest, and passenger “front of the house” digital solutions as well as, staff and travel/hospitality brand HQ focused “back of house” technologies.

He has been responsible for bringing a series of emerging and innovative digital solutions to market and successful implementation with a range of global and regional hotel and travel brands. Throughout his career, he has held management and strategic advisor level roles with major enterprise companies as well as angel and venture-funded start-ups and scale-ups.

He is presently a strategic advisor and board member @ UgoVirtual - the Travel and Hospitality Virtual Solutions Company, a leading, vertical market-focused firm delivering virtual industry events, VR hotel tours and AR-related solutions to the global hospitality industry. ugovirtual.com

Bruce Ralston, Minister of jobs, Trade and Technology

Bruce Ralston was sworn in as B.C.’s Minister of Jobs, Trade and Technology on July 18, 2017 after winning re-election as Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Surrey-Whalley on May 9 of that year.

He was first elected as an MLA in 2005 and re-elected in 2009, 2013 and 2017.

The minister’s focus is on building a strong, sustainable economy that puts people first and creates good jobs and opportunity in every corner of the province.

The minister’s portfolio includes economic development, immigration, international and national trade relations, international business development, small business, technology and innovation, and attraction of strategic investment throughout B.C. He also has responsibility for the Consular Corps and BC Stats.

Minister Ralston was born in Victoria and grew up in Vancouver. He has degrees in history and law from the University of British Columbia and a degree in history from the University of Cambridge in England.

Tim Fleming, Co-founder of Future Visual

In 2015 Tim co-founded Future Visual to focus exclusively on building Virtual and Augmented Reality technology for enterprise and partnered with IATA (the International Air Transport Association) speaking at the 2014 IATA World People Symposium in Prague about the potential of Virtual Reality training environment.

In 2016 Future Visual’s product SiPVR (Shopping & Immersion Platform) won the Innovate Uk award to partner with John Lewis developing Immersive Retail.

In November 2017 Future Visual delivered RampVR with IATA the world’s first ground crew simulator trainer. RampVR provides VR training to aviation ground crew and has won the Technological Solutions category of International Airport Review’s 2017 awards programme.

In August 2018 Future Visual launched their first product VISIONxRTM, a platform that allows rapid development of multi-user multi-device environments and for the first time bringing together VR, AR, desktop and mobile to work in the same virtual immersive space.

In 2019 Future Visual has been working with IATA on two new exciting modules for training using Virtual Reality and building VISIONxRTM out into two exciting offerings, VISIONxR^TMplatform and VISIONxR^TMplus.

Shelley Peterson, Prin Investigator – Augmented & Mixed Reality at Lockheed Martin

Shelley Peterson has supported Lockheed Martin pursuits, diving into the rapidly evolving augmented reality and wearables market to integrate emerging technologies into key solutions for Lockheed Martin. Her combined skill and reputation as a thought leader across the augmented reality industry have resulted in repeated demonstration of the potential of this emerging technology across numerous Lockheed Martin programs.

Shelley obtained her mathematics and physics degree at a young age, and taught college math at the University of North Texas at age 21. Early in her professional career, Shelley founded a business focused on emerging technology solutions, including military aircraft distributed mission training and multi-spectral imaging monoculars for SOCOM. Her pursuits have included software development on the B1-Bomber simulator at Dyess AFB, electronic warfare capabilities at E-Systems, and she has served on the Space Based Infrared Systems (SBIRS) satellite program as the first certified Mission Management crew member and instructor.

In her spare time, Shelley teaches college mathematics as an adjunct, enjoys volunteering for and speaking at STEM events, and operates Shotlink Lasers for the PGA.

Gladys Tong, Founder & President of G Creative Productions Inc.

Gladys Tong is the Founder and President of G Creative Productions Inc., a Vancouver based company specializing in interactive motion graphics and visual effects for the film and television industry. For over 20 years, she has worked on Hollywood’s top feature films. Through her work, she has been able to combine her interests in art, design, communications, education, human-computer interaction, and digital technology.

Sonya Haskins, Editor-in-Chief for Ready Hacker One (XRSI Awareness Initiative)

Sonya Haskins is a respected voice and journalist in the field of XR. Sonya discovered virtual reality in 2017 and began spending a lot of time in her headset when she realized that it reduced her pain. She had spent several months in the hospital following the birth of her fifth child and the next decade was incredibly difficult as she had to learn to walk again, go to countless doctor’s appointments, and take medication to stay alive. She was grateful to find something that helped.

Later in the summer of 2017, Sonya became the first female player as well as the first seated player to compete at the VR League North American Regionals. Rather than continue to play competitively, she decided to use her skills as a journalist to promote the technology that was bringing her so much joy and healing her physically.

Sonya has worked extensively with an objective to encourage the growth of positive, inclusive social environments. To further this goal, she serves as a board member for VR Community Builders, LLC, a community-driven platform focused on outreach, an organization she also helped get started.

Editor-in-Chief for Ready Hacker One (XRSI Awareness Initiative) Sonya Haskins has written thousands of articles and eight books. For the past two years, she has specialized in covering XR topics, with a particular focus on VR esports, gaming, and community. She helped launch the VR esports department of VR Fitness Insider and serves as their VR Esports Editor. She believes XR technology can have positive impacts on healthcare, education, mental health, business and every other aspect of our lives, but we must responsibly explore the capabilities and limitations.

Marlo Brooke, Founder & CEO, AVATAR Partners™

Marlo Brooke is a technology visionary with an unrelenting passion for innovating the impossible. Under her leadership for the past 16 years, AVATAR Partners™ continues to innovate disruptive XR solutions that Simplify Complex Systems™ , including heavy-duty, industrial grade Augmented Reality and Holographic training products and services for Aerospace, Construction, Defense, Healthcare and Manufacturing. Her solutions are known for increasing quality, efficiency, sales and profits to throughout the product life cycle and the digital thread.

Hussein Hallak, Founder & Chief Curator of Vest in Canada, VP Strategy & Products at 3 tier logic

Serial Entrepreneur, Strategist, and Speaker.

Recognized as one of 30 tech thought-leaders and influencers to follow in Vancouver. Passion for Blockchain, Education, Emerging Tech, Startups, Products, and Growth. Founder & Chief Curator of Vest in Canada, VP Strategy & Products at 3 tier logic, Founder of Next Decentrum, Evangelist at Launch Academy. Strategic advisor for several successful startups.

Featured in Forbes, BBC, BetaKit, Entrepreneur, DailyHive, and Notable.

Jenna Seiden, Co-Founder of Zambezi Partners

Jenna Seiden is the Co-Founder of Zambezi Partners, an entertainment, emerging tech and social impact consultancy. She advises companies in the XR, video game, esports, telecom, digital OTT and film/TV ecosystems. Her focus is on location-based entertainment, content slate deals and co-productions, as well as content distribution. She works with teams such as Arvore, Baobab, Beat Games, Dark Slope Studios, and SpringboardVR, and serves on the advisory board for Felix & Paul and Y.U.R. Jenna is also an investor and manages an impact fund dedicated to eradicating poaching in Sub-Saharan Africa. Most recently, Jenna was the Head of Content Acquisition & Partnerships for HTC Viveport, managing the home, mobile & LBE storefronts. Prior to HTC, Jenna was the VP of Distribution at Maker Studios, VP of Strategic Partnerships at Xbox, a video games agent at Creative Artists Agency, and began her career at the NBA. Jenna attended the University of Pennsylvania and received her MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

John Blackmon, Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Trivantis

John Blackmon is the CTO and Co-Founder of Trivantis, a company well-known for creating Lectora, the first eLearning authoring tool 20 years ago, which is now utilized by the world’s largest organizations including several Fortune 500s and all five U.S. military branches. As the original developer of the flagship Lectora line, Blackmon is changing the industry once again - this time with CenarioVR, an immersive learning tool that has simplified the VR training process and has made it affordable.

Prior to Trivantis, Blackmon was Co-Founder and Lead Engineer at BocaSoft, which created various software utilities for the OS/2 operating system. He has also worked at Electronic Data Systems followed by IBM, where he was awarded a patent for his work on seamlessly running Windows applications under the OS/2 operating system. As a regular eLearning event speaker, he also has a patent-pending on his work for responsive course design.

Daniel Robinson, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Red 6

Daniel Robinson is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Red 6. The company is revolutionizing augmented reality (AR) for military training applications worldwide. The patented display technology developed by Red 6 augments the joint space through a suite of AR products that support the synthetic training environments (STE). The company is revolutionizing Live, Virtual and Constructive (LVC) training by providing crucial capabilities to advance US Military and allied readiness across the globe. Red 6 brings the Virtual and Constructive assets into the real-world by allowing pilots and ground operators to see synthetic threats real time in dynamic and, critically, high speed environments.

Born in Hartlepool, England, Dan started his career in the Royal Air Force (RAF). After graduating from the Royal Air Force College Cranwell and then completing RAF flying training, he served as a fighter pilot, flying the Tornado F3 fighter, including as part of coalition forces in operations across the globe.

In 2005 the RAF selected Dan as the youngest fighter pilot of his generation to attend the prestigious Weapons Instructor Course, the UK equivalent to the U.S. Air Force Weapons School and the U.S. Navy’s “Top Gun.”

A year later, Dan was selected as the first non-American fighter pilot to fly the most capable fighter on the planet, the F-22 Raptor. As one of the initial pilots on the first operational F-22 squadron, Dan rapidly achieved the F-22 “Instructor Pilot” qualification and went on to teach front-line F-22 pilots, many of whom are still active duty. He was also the first pilot in history to complete a transatlantic crossing in the F-22.

After leaving the RAF, Dan went on to complete his MBA at Georgetown University before moving to New York to work for Franklin Templeton Investments as a director in their private wealth business.

Following the sudden death of his father in 2011, Dan returned to England to take over as CEO of his family’s struggling construction and development firm. During the worst financial crisis in generations, he led the successful restructuring and growth of a business that went on to win numerous regional and national awards, including National Federation of Builders Apprenticeship Scheme of the Year, 2012; Constructing Excellence North East Subject Matter Expert (SME) of the Year, 2014; Leadership and People Development of the Year, 2014; Business in the Community Company of the Year, 2014; North East Chamber of Commerce Apprenticeship Scheme of the Year, 2015; Constructing Excellence Business of the Year, Integration and Collaborative Working, 2015; and the British Chambers of Commerce’s UK Heart of the Community Award.

In 2015, Dan was personally recognized for his leadership by the British Institute of Directors, receiving both the North of England Director of the Year Award and the overall UK Director of the Year Award. This award, given annually, recognizes business leaders and directors across England for their exemplary leadership skills in advancing employment, governance, innovations in new technologies and market expansion for UK-based businesses. With the family business thriving, Dan exited his leadership position in 2018 to start Red 6.

Graham Plaster, Vice President for National Security and Intelligence at TDX International and CEO of The Intelligence Community Inc.

Graham Plaster is Vice President for National Security and Intelligence at TDX International and also serves as CEO of The Intelligence Community Inc. moderating a nextgen trade association of over 100,000 National Security professionals online. He graduated from the US Naval Academy and served 13 years in the Navy, including tours aboard ships for Operation Iraqi Freedom. He is a Board Member for the Foreign Area Officer Association, and Editor in Chief for the Foreign Area Officer Association Journal, "International Affairs" which circulates to 2500 military diplomats. He is co-author of the best-selling book "In the Shadow of Greatness" which Tom Brokaw calls it a "must read" - http://usna2002.org/shadowofgreatness Graham curates and edits an email newsletter on Defense Industry Innovation, aptly named, the Defense and Intelligence Innovation Ecosystem (DIIE), and consults on emerging technology for defense.

Adam Rogers, Creative Director at Intel Studio

Adam Rogers is an experienced hands-on Creative Producer having Produced and project managed the full-body, multiplayer virtual reality experience Chorus - designed by Tyler Hurd, presented by Within.

Adam has also Produced Chocolate for Tyler Hurd's VR studio Gentle Manhands, and Beach Body Bros in association with Oculus.

Most recently he has Produced and EP’ed Runnin' with Intel Studios and Reggie Watts. Runnin’ premiered at Sundance’s New Frontiers, and recently took home SXSW’s Best Interactive Award.

Adam is now a Creative Producer for Intel Studios, focussing on bringing innovative Immersive experiences utilizing the world's most advanced Volumetric capture system.

Tyler Wilson, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Innovation at the Vancouver Whitecaps FC

An avid AR/VR fan, experienced CRO in the Blockchain space and industry leader with over 15 years experience in the sports and entertainment sector. He’s been printed in the Sports Business Journal and presented on a global stage for the innovations and partnerships he’s created. Going outside the box and looking how tech can solve problems has allowed Tyler to push new boundaries throughout his career.

Tyler is proud to be Director of Strategic Partnerships and Innovation for the Vancouver Whitecaps FC, an advisor on Esports with the Vancouver Economic Commission and the luckiest dad in the world!

What I do at WFC:At the Vancouver Whitecaps FC, I create strategic partnerships that empower the Club to push new boundaries and drive revenue. I do this by strategically integrating partners and utilizing tech to create rich interactions.

Currently exploring ways to maximize connectivity with immersive experiences across Club development platforms. With over 40,000 athletes nationwide, it represents the largest development arm of the sport in North America. Also exploring ways to grow our emerging Esport platform in a unique fashion.

Tim Wuolle, Volumetric Video Consultant

Tim is a volumetric video consultant and works with clients to help turn their ideas into products & experiences. He has worked on hundreds of pieces of volumetric content for VR/ AR/ XR.

Tim has 11 yrs experience in the field. He got his start working on the Virtual 1st & Ten line for NFL games. He also worked with MLB on their PITCHf/x system, Virtual Strike Zone, and Virtual Ads.

In 2015 Tim contracted with Israeli startup called Replay Technologies where he worked on their freeD technology that created 360-degree replays for the LA Dodgers and the Dallas Mavericks. In 2016 Replay Technologies was acquired by Intel.

In 2016 Tim started working for the New Zealand and Los Angeles-based augmented reality startup bringing celebrity personalities into immersive experiences. He worked as the Lead Capture Engineer on shoots. He also managed the build process of multiple volumetric capture stages and camera rigs.

In 2017 Tim contracted with Microsoft and was the Manager of Microsoft Mixed Reality Capture Studios (MRCS) in Redmond, WA. There he managed & improved operations for their volumetric capture stage product.

Tim enjoys working on emerging tech that enables us to advance the way we live, learn, teach, & tell stories.

Daniel Forest, Manager of Safety Programs at American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers

Daniel Forest is the Manager of Safety Programs at American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers. He has been pivotal in the development of AFPM’s occupational safety programs which include a wide spectrum of knowledge sharing, safety training and development, and industry metric programs. He holds a Master of Science in Systems Technology from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Loretta Todd (Métis Cree), Filmmaker

Loretta Todd (Métis Cree) is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning filmmaker who directed her first dramatic feature film, Monkey Beach, based on the iconic novel by Eden Robinson. She also co-wrote the script and is producing. Ms. Todd has directed over 125 programs, from children's series, like Coyote's Crazy Smart Science Show, to Skye and Chang, a sci-fi martial arts mash-up, as well as web-series (Fierce Girls) and numerous documentaries, shorts and animation. She works as a show runner and has directed over 35 short animations. Recently she created the IM4 Lab, the first Indigenous VR/AR Lab in Canada, in partnership with Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Her films have screened at the Sundance Festival, TIFF, ImagineNative and the Museum of Modern Art. Ms Todd has received the Mayor's Awards for Media Arts – City of Vancouver, Sundance Scriptwriter’s Lab—Sundance Institute, Rockefeller Fellowship—NYU Center for Media, Culture and History and Innovator Award from Women In Film.

Ollie Rankin, Founder & CEO of Pansensory Interactive

Ollie Rankin is a NZ-born virtual reality pioneer who spent two decades working at the forefront of the global visual effects industry, from The Lord of the Rings to Alice Through the Looking Glass. He combines this history of creative achievement with a background in computer programming and AI to develop new narrative conventions for immersive, interactive media. He is the founder and CEO of Vancouver-based immersive content production company, Pansensory Interactive as well as an advocate for diversity, fairness, sustainability and human destiny.

Denny Unger, CEO and Creative Director at Cloudhead Games

Denny Unger is the CEO and Creative Director at Cloudhead Games. Founded in 2012, shipping 4 VR titles (Call of the Starseed, Heart of the Emberstone, Valve Aperture Hand Labs, PistolWhip) Cloudhead Games’ pioneering approach to VR gave rise to two broadly adopted standards; VR Comfort Mode/Snap Turns and Blink Teleportation. Working closely with VR hardware leaders in the space, including Valve, Oculus, HTC, Sony, Cloudhead Games continues to innovate, inform, and entertain. Denny regularly speaks at events, sharing his experience and vision of how VR will impact our daily lives.

Jo Dunlop, Head of Marketing, Business Development and Strategy at Cloudhead Games

Jo Dunlop heads up marketing, business development and strategy at the award-winning VR studio, Cloudhead Games. For the last 6 years she has been instrumental in raising capital, establishing Cloudhead’s market position, and building strategic partnerships with companies like Valve, Oculus, HTC, Sony, and Intel. Jo is passionate about building community and supporting other innovators working within the VR space.

Kurt Busch, Studio Head at Archiact

Kurt Busch is Studio Head at Archiact, one of the longest-standing dedicated immersive reality studios in the world. Since 2013, Archiact's development and publishing teams have released over 35 VR and AR titles on leading platforms across the globe. In 2019, Archiact partnered with Disney, MARVEL, and Lenovo to create MARVEL: Dimension of Heroes, a super hero experience for Lenovo Mirage AR. The company also published the critically-acclaimed FREEDIVER: Triton Down, a gesture-driven VR adventure for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive; and Evasion, an ambitious AAA co-op shooter produced in partnership with SONY and Intel. Kurt is a game industry veteran, starting his video game career in 1991 at the now legendary Sierra On-Line, and holding executive leadership roles at PopCap/Electronic Arts, Konami, Sega, and Atari.

Roch Ripley, Partner at Gowling WLG

Roch Ripley is a partner in the Vancouver office of Gowling WLG and the head of the Vancouver office’s intellectual property department. Roch devotes his practice to intellectual property and technology law.

Roch delivers strategic advice on how to economically procure and enforce intellectual property rights with a view to helping smaller clients position themselves for investment or acquisition, and to helping larger clients establish portfolios that can be asserted offensively or defensively, and leveraged in licensing programs. He has particular expertise and experience helping clients in the information technology (including blockchain and VR/AR/MR), energy and clean technology sectors.

Roch is registered as a patent agent in the United States and Canada, and combines this legal expertise with his degree in electronics engineering to prepare and prosecute patent applications for his clients in key markets such as the United States, Europe, Asia and Canada. He also regularly leads the intellectual property-related due diligence and negotiations for transactions where intellectual property is an important aspect.

Roch spends a considerable amount of time connecting with technology entrepreneurs to learn about their businesses and to stay abreast of trends and concerns relevant to them. Whenever possible, Roch introduces his contacts to each other to help facilitate the next business deal, job offer or product.

A significant portion of Roch's practice is also directed at helping foreign attorneys file Canadian patent applications. In this regard, Roch leverages his knowledge of foreign patent laws to highlight the unique aspects of Canadian patent practice, such as those related to computer-implemented inventions, and is careful to contain costs by deferring to the analysis of an instructing attorney when possible.

Roch is a past chair of the Information, Communication & Technology Committee of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada. He has spoken on intellectual property topics at Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia and SAIT Polytechnic, and for the British Columbia branch of the Canadian Bar Association, the Canadian Technology Law Association and the Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia. Roch is a published author both online and in traditional print media.

Roch practises through RJR Legal Services Law Corporation.

Deb Catalano, CTO at Ignite XR

Deb Catalano is Ignite XR’s CTO and has been with the company for almost 3 years. Deb is an Emmy® Award winning Design Director, 3D Animator, and Software Engineer. She is now specializing in Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality solutions. Deb’s extensive experience in Design, Animation and Software Engineering make her uniquely qualified for these emerging technologies. Deb is the keynote speaker at Women Impact Tech in Denver on Nov 12th. She has degrees from UCLA, Cal State and Savannah College of Art Design.

Daniel Grozdanov, Founder & CEO of Imagine360

After finishing his degree in physics, Daniel went on to travel the world and fell in love with photography. His passion for the art and the desire to capture the places he visited led him to 360 degree photography. After returning to Montreal, he founded Shop360 which evolved into Imagine360 and the rest is history. When he isn’t capturing a moment with his camera, he loves to play and record music and explore virtual reality universes.

Terry R. Schussler, Senior Director, Spatial Computing

Terry works within Deutsche Telekom’s 5G group driving spatial computing research and the creation of immersive products that leverage the value of 5G and edge compute services. He collaborates with vendors of XR devices and enabling technologies to build a future that delivers pervasive and personalized B2B and B2C immersive experiences. While innovating 200+ software products for over 50M users he has focused on making software smarter for users while leveraging technology to enable new forms of communication.

Stacey Wallin, COO & Founder at Numinus

Stacey founded Numinus with a similar passion for holistic wellness after a series of near-death experiences in 2015 related to illness and misdiagnosis, which inspired her to begin studying and advocating awareness for mind-body health.

She previously founded and was CEO of LifeBooster, a tech startup now helping Fortune 100 clients detect and proactively respond to workplace injury risks. She most recently was the Director of Venture Programs at the BC Tech Association with a mandate of solving the largest ecosystem and policy-related challenges facing growth and scale stage technology companies.

James Basnett, Founder of Answer Intelligence

James is the founder of Answer Intelligence, an AI company in Vancouver, Toronto and New York. They build Natural Language Processing technology that powers voice interfaces and media insight engines. He was previously the Chief Strategy Officer at Momentus, an innovation studio that built Verizon's mobile VR platform, Reddit's video engine and Lululemon's AR touch mirror. James focuses on the synthesis of human and technology systems, helping organizations take full advantage of exponential technologies.

Joah Lui (aka Digi Majou), Filmmaker, Media Artist and Facilitator

Joah Lui aka Digi Majou is a filmmaker, media artist and facilitator working within diverse communities to bring forward unique, and underrepresented, media co-creations. Through projections, interactive art installations, mediated live performance, and collaborative documentary-making, Joah brings curiosity, play and creativity into effecting personal and systemic change.

A current multi-year project, Raising the Curtain, celebrates the voices and creative expressions of 8 residents of the Sunshine Coast living with dementia. Focussing on social engagement, rather than a medical cure, Raising the Curtain brings together researchers, professional artists, and those with the lived experience (of dementia) to create a theatrical production in 2020. In collaboration with the project participants, Joah has been documenting, creating short films, and developing the concept for an immersive media platform titled Inventia.

Joah has a rich history of socially engaged film creation with the Rainforest Circus, Indigenous City Media, West Coast Environmental Law, shishalh7 Nation, City of Vancouver, and the UN World Summit of Sustainable Development amongst others.

David Jones, Founder & President of Quantified Design Solutions

As a founder and President of Quantified Design Solutions, David Jones leads cutting edge technology integration across commercial and government research and development efforts. His work focuses on creating adaptive solutions that optimize training through blended learning approaches that balance VR, AR, mobile, and live training components. The goal of implementing a full suite of training technologies is to quantify what learners need and provide the right support at the right time. Over the past 14 years he has applied this approach to lead advanced research efforts for the DoD, commercial clients, and universities. He has led a team that pioneered the large scale application of VR systems for aircraft cabin crew training as well as the application of VR and AR training in high risk medical training domains.

Jason Radel, Chief Scientist for Imagine 4D

Dr. Jason Radel is the Chief Scientist for Imagine 4D, a Montreal-based company that provides solutions for 3D data creation, collection, and visualization, including the Station IX immersive visual system.  Dr. Radel has over ten years of experience developing new display technologies including optical systems used for nuclear safety training, flight training, and for military simulation and training. Dr. Radel earned his Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Physics from the University of British Columbia, holds seven patents, and continues to develop and present new display and optical technologies.

Chris Bedyk, CEO & Founder of 360˚ Content Creator

Chris is a Cinematographer, Immersive Filmmaker & Educator. He is the founder of Perspective Films a Vancouver based VR/360 production company and Mastering360 an online immersive film school. Over the past 19 years, Chris has worked on every type of production as a cinematographer including capturing branding and marketing content for major TV / film studios. Since 2013, he has created 100's of immersive experiences for studios and brands like Disney, Netflix, and Mercedes Benz. in 2016, he partnered with Vancouver Canucks and BC Lions to create their first 360 ̊ experiences. Chris was hired to handle production and post for the Facebook Watch “Sacred Lies 360˚ Experience” which premiered at 2018 Comic Con. He was contracted by Huawei & Telus to develop a wearable 360˚camera prototype that can utilize the extreme data speeds of 5G mobile technology. Chris developed the first motion controlled timelapse 360˚ camera which he used extensively in his passion project VR Wonders of the World. This travel based documentary series has received numerous festival accolades and distribution deals around the world.

Les birch, Creative Director at J2.Ventures

With a dash of dynamic filmmaking, a slice of consumer engagement, and a splash of team analysis, I assist companies in amplifying their voice, and strengthening their brand/advertising strategies.

Filming documentaries for brands I quickly realized that it was a path that ensured you never had to grow up. Call it ‘Peter Pan syndrome’ or ‘second childhood’ but there’s a healthy allure to refusing to hang up your creative hat. Collaborating with startups, industry leaders, and brands in their infancy means that I'm constantly working alongside those who dare to dream, something inherent for me.

Some say ‘curiosity kills’ but I say it reinvigorates. There's perfection in 'the why'.

With over five years experience in brand consulting/consumer research, I decided to adjust my focus to small businesses and start-ups in the technology sector. It has been my greatest experience to-date, helping these businesses create a unique identity through dynamic visuals and storylines.

Teaming up with trailblazers and helping them better understand their consumers is my main motivator as I look forward to continued growth, and creativity in this space.

Cynthia Feemster, Creative Lead for the Advanced Advertising Innovation Products at Viacom

Cynthia Feemster is a seasoned Marketing Executive with over 15 years of experience with Fortune 500 companies. Cynthia’s digital marketing background stems from creating multiple live stream events, digital websites, and original digital series. She has worked with a wide range of clients stemming from Movie Studios, CPG, QSR, Beauty and Auto.

Cynthia has worked with Viacom for over 10 years in a variety of roles. Currently she is the Creative Lead for the Advanced Advertising Innovation Products group creating custom opportunities including AR, VR, MR, OTT, Virtual Humans, Crypto Currency and more. Cynthia is currently serving as President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the VR/AR association.

Vivian Chan, COO of Eyexpo Technology

Vivian Chan has successfully launched monetization models for 3 waves of disruptive technology: Analytics/Big Data, Cloud - IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and now AR/VR. With experience in both enterprise to startups, Vivian was a member of VMware’s M&A Council, responsible for due diligence on a multi-billion-dollar investment portfolio that funded 11 acquisitions. Currently Vivian serves as COO of Eyexpo Technology, where she has grown sales by 250% and to 40 employees in less than two years. She has been instrumental in Eyexpo’s expansion strategy into US and Chinese markets by establishing strategic partnerships with technology platforms, the Canadian government and Ctrip (China's largest online travel provider).

Daniel Japiassu, CEO of YDX Innovation Corp.

CEO of YDX Innovation, Daniel Japiassu is an accomplished entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience leading innovative technology companies. He is an award-winning producer of digital content and immersive storytelling and an evangelist for Virtual and Augmented Reality.

Daniel has led YDX, previously known as YDreams Global to become a publicly listed company in Canada. Since his start as one of the partners, the company has achieved substantial revenues, expansion from Brazil to Canada and the USA and has delivered thousands of projects for several Fortune 100 companies, such as Coca-Cola, Cisco, Qualcomm, Audi, Disney, Nike, NBA and the city of Rio.

Daniel is passionate about human-centered technologies,gaming, Virtual and Augmented Realities and how the physical world is becoming smarter through digital tech.

Donna Grande, CEO of ACPM American College of Preventive Medicine

Donna Grande has over 25 years of experienced leadership, developing innovative programs and integrative strategies, communicating ideas, and managing/directing campaigns and programs to achieve measurable outcomes. Ms. Grande is a passionate health professional who applies evidence-based principles and cutting-edge strategies to improve people, processes, and health conditions. She has developed and led high-impact campaigns for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health and managed and directed key strategic health initiatives for The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, American Medical Association, and the Visiting Nurse Associations of America.

Donna has led and guided groups to achieve extraordinary results through inspirational leadership, self-awareness, self-management, and enhanced business acumen, both domestically and abroad. She joined the American Nurses Association in 2013 to enhance and expand the ANA Leadership Institute and to provide executive leadership for an expanding portfolio of business. She quickly was promoted to vice president of products and services leading a team of 20 professionals and a portfolio of $17 million in non-dues revenues. In 2018, Donna assumed the role of executive director of the American College of Preventive Medicine fulfilling her passion for prevention and advancing population health with/and for key clinical leaders in preventive medicine.

As a committed volunteer leader, Donna serves on the Annapolis Wellness House Board of Directors, is a volunteer stakeholder for Cancer Drug Discovery with the American Cancer Society, and chairs the Mid-Atlantic Region of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association.

Donna earned a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from the Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and a master’s degree in Marketing and General Administration from the University of Maryland. She completed additional executive coursework in marketing, fundraising, and leadership development with Northwestern University in Chicago and Gallup University in Washington, D.C. She is certified in Assessments with the Center for Creative Leadership and is a Gallup, Inc. certified Strengths Coach.

Ryan Pernia, President of ENTAX

Ryan is the President of ENTAX where his team helps technology companies maximize government tax incentives and funding opportunities for both Canadian Corporations and companies considering Canada as an R&D Center. His area of expertise are IT, Software, Electronics and Interactive industries. Ryan lives in Vancouver and is active in the local technology community as both an investor and advisor to early stage technology companies.

David Moreno, Head of Marketing & Business Development at Virtualware

At this moment, I’m the Head of Marketing & Business Development of Virtualware, one of the pioneering virtual reality companies based in Spain. I’ve been working for the company for the past 13 years, starting as UI/UX designer and programmer. Currently I’m mainly focused on the business development, helping companies drive innovation and create value through XR (Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality).

Currently Co-chair Enterprise Committe at VR AR Association.

Vinay Narayan, Vice President, Platform Strategy and Developer Community at HTC Vive

Vinay Narayan is the Vice President of Platform Strategy and Developer Community for HTC VIVE as well as a Board Member and Advisor for various VR and AR companies. As a customer focused product strategist, he oversees platform strategy that unifies the portfolio of products for HTC including XR, Mobile, 5G and other emerging tech. He's always looking at how to scale teams to build the products to solve tomorrow's problems. Vinay is very active in the XR community including board advisory, keynote speaker and strategy guide.

Adrian Talens, Composer/Sound Designer for Video Games and VR

I am a composer and sound designer for video games and VR. I have over 10 years experience as an audio production professional in recording, mixing, mastering, sound editing, along with a formal background as a multi-instrumentalist musician/composer.

Featured in PC Gamer - Best Game Music of 2016 (Poly Bridge Soundtrack)

Eric Hine

My focus is on building successful virtual reality and mixed reality product teams. I am experienced in design, monetization, social and project management roles. I believe in close integration with analytics, marketing, legal and quality assurance partners.

I always lead by example through hard work, passion and clear communication of the project’s short and longer term goals. I have a proven track record creating high quality titles and scalable innovative features.

I have been playing games for 30 years and have a huge passion for gaming development and problem solving. I am a casual social gamer enjoying board games and prototyping my own designs.

Paul Barszcz, Digital Marketing Manager at FORM

My original career path was intended to be in aerospace and electrical engineering, but I got lured to the wonderful world of eCommerce and digital marketing. While growing up in front of a computer, I quickly discovered that you can make money online. It initially started out with affiliate marketing, then moving to building 6-figure eCommerce businesses, to now disrupting the swimming industry.

I'm so excited and grateful to be part of the team that brought the FORM Swim Goggles to market. It's a pair of swim goggles with a see-through, augmented-reality display that delivers performance metrics in real time. When I first tried them months ago, I was blown away. Every swimmer needs this in the pool.

Peter Wittig, Senior Developer, Co-Founder

Peter has worked in the tech industry for over 15 years. He has applied his software and database skills in games, telecoms, simulation software and more. His extensive travels have driven his passion for location-based technology.

James Williams, Chief Visionary Officer at AVATAR Partners

As the second employee of AVATAR Partners 14 years ago, James is now a shareholder of the company. He served seven years in the United States Air Force as an Avionics Systems Specialist. While at AVATAR he continues to increase corporate revenues by inventing and introducing new technologies into both commercial and military industries. He is a Subject Matter Expert on Augmented Reality, Internet of Things (IoT), Mixed Reality Systems and “Next Gen” high-tech training systems. He has designed a multitude of technology programs, including Value Chain Technology Solutions™ that extend Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in Fortune 1000 companies, as well as architecting nationwide Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) programs that support many thousands of trading partners. Previously, he served as Avatar’s Executive Vice President of Strategy for Department of Defense and Commercial Operations and Business Development where he developed a better solution for utilizing and training of Mission Planning Software that allows that warfighter the ability to increase their combat readiness. Jim served for three years on the Board of Directors for Dollar store Inc.

Eric Ladd, Founder & CEO at Ignite XR

Eric is the Founder and CEO of Ignite XR an entertainment based AR / VR content creation firm specializing in Motion Picture and Television Advertising and Marketing. Eric was the former founder and President of The Picture Mill and had stints at Technicolor, CBS/Lionsgate’s Pop TV, Novocom and was EVP and Executive Producer of the infamous Pittard Sullivan global branding and Identity company. His entertainment based career has extended over 35 years, and started as a programmer and systems analyst at Bank Of America Corporation and Head of Computer Services for Bell + Howell. Eric was the first to make a digital intermediate and was the first Preditor (Producer Editor) when at Fox Broadcasting OAP. He has lectured at UCLA, USC and AFI. Currently, Eric is also producing HarmonQuest (with Dan Harmon of Rick and Morty and Community fame) for NBC and Streams on At&T’s streaming service VRV.

Ignite XR was founded in 2015 and touts Sony Pictures, Marvel, Paramount, STX and Disney as clients.