Elizabeth Strickler is the Founding Director of the Creative Industries Blockchain Lab and Director of Media Entrepreneurship at Georgia State University. She teaches media innovation to undergraduate and graduate students and works with major labels and cultural icons to build web3 and blockchain/nft strategies. Her April 2021 TEDx talk is considered canonical viewing for those entering the nft/metaverse space and she presents regularly on the topic. She holds academic positions in both the Business School and the College of Arts and Sciences, where she has received multiple grants to research innovation and XR in education. Her goal is to help others start businesses, tell immersive stories, and build a stronger cultural economy. She believes most people can learn most things and have fun while doing so. Her eclectic interests can be seen in her academic credentials, holding a BA in Philosophy, BS in Computer Science, and an MFA in Digital Filmmaking and Art.
Andy Stack
Andy has long had a passion for mixing art with business and cutting-edge technology to help artists create sustainable magic. Most recently he was Chief Product Officer for Hanai World, a phygital entertainment company led by Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, bringing the human performance to new forms of XR and LBE experiences. Andy is a founder of Arcturus, a 3D video software company that enables the authoring, editing and streaming of volumetrically captured performances. Prior to Arcturus, Andy was the creator-focused product manager at YouTube responsible for launching monetization, analytics, payments and reporting solutions for YouTube partners. In early 2015 he shifted his focus to creating YouTube’s initial VR content strategy, launching YouTube’s 360 video feature with top creator content, and leading production for the first stereoscopic 360 music videos. Prior to YouTube, Andy was a serial entrepreneur who co-founded, grew and sold 3 media-tech companies after earning his Wharton MBA and Princeton electrical engineering degrees. Andy is also an avid drummer, stage performer, and arts patron: He toured with a jam band in the late 90\’s, was a trained performer in the Blue Man Group in the early 00\’s, and is now an advisor, executive producer or board member to various creator-focused initiatives.
Amanda Pool
Amanda’s recent endeavors have lead her to join forces with the Web3 powerhouse DAO, XLA, as Director of Events and lead in experiential marketing. XLA’s mission is to democratize wealth building and revenue distribution for IP creators, owners, and holders by empowering them through the power of Web 3.0 based technologies.
She is the visionary behind 150+ innovative technological events of the past decade, providing the leading curated event platforms for groundbreaking artists, film, immersive media, blockchain technologies, space exploration, motion capture innovation, and other emerging technologies now converging and evolving to create experiences and brands into the metaverse.
Amanda Pool is the Founder of Imagine Global Marketing and Imagine Events Services, producing and executing over 150 individual events in technology, film and music over the last 5+ years. Imagine was Agency of Record for the IBC Convention, Europe’s largest media trade show (curating the schedule for the Future Reality Zone); Agency of Record for the Advanced Imaging Society (producing and curating “On the Lot” at Paramount Studios for three consecutive years). Imagine also produced Eveleigh Social House, VR On the Mountain, and The Fly Lounge at Sundance Film Festival and the Lumiere Awards. She has produced events at Coachella, EDC, NAB, CES, Toronto International Film Festival, Festival de Cannes, and many more.
Mike Cadoux
Mike Cadoux is the Managing Director of QReal, a company that specializes in beautiful immersive XR experiences and lifelike 3D modeling for eCommerce. QReal just won the ‘Best Use of Technology’ award for Digiday’s ModernRetail Awards 2021 – and they’re pretty proud of that. Instead of a long resume, just know that Mike loves thinking, reading and talking about the future, skiing, running and playing Go.
Bob Bjarke
Bob Bjarke is a creative leader with nearly 20 years of creative development, design and technology experience. Bob is currently exploring the creative potential of the metaverse and AI while @Meta, and has built creative campaigns in digital and traditional spaces for some of the biggest brands in the world. In addition to partnering with the most highly regarded creative agencies in North America, Bob has also developed innovative new mobile ad products with teams of Meta engineers and product managers.
Kiira Benzing
Kiira is a multi-dimensional director crossing the mediums of theatre, hybrid cinema and virtual reality. VR credits include: Cardboard City which won the Samsung Gear VR contest (2016) and premiered at the NYFF in 2016. For her interactive VR experience Runnin’ starring Reggie Watts, she was the first VR director to film on the Intel Studios volumetric capture stage (Sundance 2019, Jury Award for Interactive at SXSW 2019). Loveseat, (VR Theatre – Venice Film Festival 2019) was performed simultaneously before live and virtual audiences. Her latest VR Theatre production Finding Pandora X featured Broadway actors and was recently performed virtually at the Venice Film Festival 2020. She is the founder of Double Eye Studios which specializes in VR Theatre, live events and virtual production.
D.J. Smith
D.J. Smith is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at The Glimpse Group. The Glimpse Group is a platform company for a portfolio of (14) startups focused on the virtual and augmented reality industries. At Glimpse, D.J.’s responsibilities include overseeing the production of all VR and AR content as well leading the effort to locate new subsidiary companies. In addition, D.J. is the organizer of The New York Virtual Reality Meetup (NYVR). NYVR is the (2nd) largest virtual meetup in the world with 6100+ members and is the premiere venue for industry networking and collaboration within New York City.
Rupert Deans
Rupert Deans
Chief Executive and Founder of Plattar
Immersive Reality pioneer Rupert Deans grew up with dyslexia as a child and often questioned why we have so much 2D content in a 3D world. He recognised the enormous potential of 3D & Augmented Reality to solve practical problems and set out to create a tool that would enable anyone to create their own AR experiences with ease. Plattar launched in February 2017, and has worked with Fortune 500 and ASX100 companies including The Warehouse Group, Bailey Nelson, Red Bull, PWC, Air New Zealand, Flight Center, Baby Bunting, Fisher and Paykel, Nespresso, Samsung, Singel, Schneider Electrical, SAAB and Unilever.
Celeste Lear
Event producer, immersive experience designer & music director/artist Celeste Lear is a Los Angeles based XR professional with 2 decades of discipline within the digital entertainment & audio/visual world. She has lead various teams working with DreamlandXR & has worked on ground breaking projects with world renown production crews to turn out consistently well planned & executed futuristic events, including, high tech multi-media installation experiences, video mapping, conferences, immersive festivals & concerts – both physically and in VR in the metaverse. Founder of Boutique Electronique Music, her work is also centered around the most current tech and trends for AV, sound engineering, performance, music curation, music direction and broadcast. She has a special passion for projects around environmental sustainability, human connection & the arts.
Sonya Haskins
Sonya Haskins is a respected voice in the XR industry and Head of Programming at AWE (Augmented World Expo). In 2019, Sonya founded VR Community Builders and she actively encourages positive, inclusive communities through engagement and training. She’s also an avid journalist and has written eight books.