Danny Stefanic is the creator of the world\’s first metaverse-for-business platform, spawning both MootUp for virtual events and LearnBrite for simulation and training. He is the inventor of the first 3D metaverse ExitReality, founder of the International Virtual Reality Association and chairman of the virtual worlds social network Koinup.
Called a “visionary” by his peers and deemed by Wall Street CIOs and Silicon Valley VCs to be “one of the pioneers in his field”, he has been creating ground-breaking 3D businesses for over 29 years. Danny actively works with young businesses to share his experiences and give back to the community. He has assisted companies with angel investment, international licensing, acquisitions, exits, managing distributed teams and has personally closed IP acquisitions valued at $85MM.
Jason Lovell, PwC UK Head of XR Strategy
Jason\’s overriding focus is on helping clients across multiple industries understand, quantify, and implement the benefits of virtual reality and augmented reality technology, with a focus on deriving clear return on investment.
Passionate about articulating the real business value of emerging technologies, Jason has significant experience across consumer electronics & innovation in a variety of senior roles, including managing VR for Samsung UK, founding his own XR consultancy \’Captivate\’, and managing EMEA brand partnerships for Jaunt XR.
Alina is an Art Director Design Researcher, WebXR Developer; Director of Communications of the Open AR Cloud Association and Managing Director of Open AR Cloud Europe gUG as well as Lead Strategist of the Cyber XR Coalition. With a passion for immersive Tech, Spatial Computing, Spatial Web and creating a human centered future of Computing.
Timmu Tõke is the CEO of Ready Player Me, a cross-game avatar platform integrated with 400+ games and apps across the metaverse. Forbes 30 Under 30.
Christi Fenison is an immersive storyteller, 3D artist, 360 videographer and simulation designer.
Her passion is creating XR experiences that expand perspectives and inspire action. Drawing on principles of narrative transport, cognitive elaboration and the sense of presence, she works to bring big picture ideas to life via the careful interplay of meaningful details.
By day, Christi works as an XR Instructional Media Producer at UNC School of Medicine IT, focused on the research, development and integration of XR training simulations in curriculum. Beyond the classroom, she is also a bespoke World Builder for Social VR events, crafting custom experiences tailored to each client’s vision and goals.
Christi received her Master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Environment and Science Communication program, where focused on Emerging Technologies, 3D Modeling + Unity Development, Green Architecture + Sustainable Design, Geospatial Information Systems, and Immersive Journalism.
Neil is VP Developer Ecosystems at NVIDIA, where he works to enable applications to take advantage of GPUs. Neil has been the elected President of the Khronos Group for over twenty years, where he initiated the OpenGL ES standard used by billions worldwide, helped catalyze the WebGL, Vulkan and OpenXR APIs for portable 3D and augmented and virtual reality, and the glTF run-time 3D asset format. Most recently Neil initiated and now Chairs the Metaverse Standards Forum with over 1,800 member companies.
Tom Ffiske writes about immersive technologies at the Immersive Wire, a newsletter and website dedicated to all things VR, AR, and the metaverse. His goal is to bring a curated digest of the analysis that matters, helping professionals interested in immersive to reach new heights.
Tom has written about the industry since 2016, covering the latest trends and investments while keeping a pulse on the latest innovations. He has spoken in several events, published a bestselling book on the sector, and help connect professionals to help each other soar.
Christina is the CEO of Metastage. Since its founding in 2018, Metastage has completed over 150 productions with major brands and award winning projects, including two Emmy nominations. Metastage is the first North American partner for the Microsoft Mixed Reality Capture technology.
Prior to leading Metastage, Christina was the CEO of VR Playhouse, an immersive content company with immersive projects featured at SXSW, Sundance, and Festival de Cannes. She is a recipient of the Advanced Imaging Society\’s Distinguished Leadership in Technology Award and was named in the Huffington Post as one of 5 women changing the virtual reality scene.
Her writing and research on volumetric video has been published in the textbook, Handbook of Research on the Global Impacts and Roles of Immersive Media (2019), and What is Augmented Reality? Everything You Wanted to Know Featuring Exclusive Interviews with Leaders of the AR Industry (2019).
Gabe is a product manager and developer who has worked somewhere at the intersection of education, immersive technology, and collaborative tools for the past 10 years. He lives in Southern California, creates instrumental music in his free time, and enjoys working with curious, passionate people.
Daniel Meeks is an independent consultant specializing in immersive technology. His current work entails implementing augmented and virtual reality to visualize the battlespace for distributed simulator training with Battlespace Simulations, Inc.
Daniel is a former AC-130U Electronic Warfare Officer with eleven years of service in the USAF, and has ten years of experience designing, operating, and maintaining combat simulators around the world.