Agenda

Description

Are you sitting on the sidelines trying to understand what the next decade of fashion and beauty will bring? Get a front-row seat to one of the hottest discussions to hit the AWE runway. Hear from today's most relevant brands and from luxury, fashion, beauty, and culture leaders on why fashion and beauty are leading the way when it comes to Metaverse and Emerging Tech adoption. The panel will explore:

• How brands are using virtual spokespeople to connect with new audiences
• What Generative AI has to do with the metaverse and its impact on fashion and beauty
• How gaming is becoming Gen Alpha’s new social network
• How brands are preparing for a future with AR glasses
• Innovative real-world examples that illustrate why fashion, beauty and luxury are leading the way

Speakers

Maya Kosovalic

VP Digital Innovation & E-Comm. NYX Professional Makeup , L'Oreal

Akbar Hamid

Founder & CEO , 5th Column

Agustina Sartori

Sr Director Digital Innovation , Ulta Beauty

Cathy Hackl

Chief Metaverse Officer , Journey

Description

A fireside chat with Rony Abovitz, CEO of Sun and Thunder (founder of Magic Leap and MAKO Surgical), and his podcast co-host, Forbes tech columnist Charlie Fink. Rony will discuss why he thinks we're in a difficult but necessary middle "Gemini" phase (Mercury-Gemini-Apollo) before a deeper convergence of multiple technologies enables a full flowering of the XR seeds we have been planting for the past ten years, and the five decades before that.

Speakers

Rony Abovitz

Founder & CEO , Sun and Thunder

Charlie Fink

Consultant, Columnist, Author, Adjunct , Forbes

Description

Bridging the gap between the daily utility of laptops with the world-changing technology of augmented reality. In this talk, Tamir Berliner will be joined by executives from Sightful partners Chi Xu (CEO, XREAL), and Said Bakadir (Senior Director, Qualcomm) to discuss the opportunities and challenges in making AR a part of our everyday lives.

Speakers

Tamir Berliner

CEO , Sightful

Said Bakadir

Sr. Director, Product Management , Qualcomm

Chi Xu

CEO , XREAL

Brendan Ittelson

CTO , Zoom Video Communications, Inc.

Description

When is something remotely similar to a 'metaverse' going to actually happen, and when it does, what needs to happen to make it a positive experience for humans and maybe other sentient beings too. Philip looks back on 20 years of Second Life to talk about what is likely to happen next.

Speakers

Philip Rosedale

Founder , Linden Lab

Description

Holo-Light provides XR streaming technology and a platform for enterprises to scale XR use cases. Susanne Haspinger, co-founder and COO will be joined by Michael Hinckley, Senior Manager Manufacturing Technology at Northrop Grumman to discuss the challenges, requirements and a solution approach for enterprises looking to centralize and scale their XR initiatives. In this session, you'll learn what the industrial metaverse looks like, combining XR use cases, simplicity, data security and performance.

Speakers

Susanne Haspinger

Co-founder and COO , Holo-Light

Michael Hinckley

Senior Systems Engineering Mgr (AMT) , Northrop Grumman

Description

"No Man is an Island" - John Donne
Going it alone is certainly doable, if you are very lucky or have unlimited time and money, but for most platforms or products that rely on the number of active users, working with and scaling through partners can drastically improve time to market and enable you to create and deliver value-add for users more quickly. In this session we'll discuss the network effect, why it's important and how to leverage a partner ecosystem as part of your strategy.

Speakers

Lisa Watts

CEO , OneTwenty1

Description

Witness the dawn of a new age of Augmented Reality as Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. addresses some very real pain points to mainstream XR adoption today. See how the latest phase of Snapdragon™ Spaces XR Developer platform aims to onboard and activate an untapped market of mobile developers as well as enabling XR developers with the ease of familiar traditional input models. This talk lays the groundwork for the rest of the Snapdragon Spaces activations throughout the show, you won’t want to miss it.

Speakers

Steve Lukas

Director of Product Management , Qualcomm

Description

It’s a harsh reality that humanity affects life even at the smallest level: microplastics plague our oceans, harming plankton, a crucial food source for sea life and a critical part of Earth’s ecosystem. To understand the gravity of this situation, Philippe and Ashlan Cousteau, inspired by the legacy of Philippe’s grandfather Jacques Cousteau, made A Drop in the Ocean. Created in partnership with Conservation International and developed with Unity by Vision3, Drop in the Ocean is a 10-minute social VR adventure where audiences hitch a ride on a jellyfish and encounter the mysteries of the deep. Most importantly, participants experience the plastic pollution crisis from the viewpoint of sea life. Join this session to understand how a virtual reality experience can bring awareness of critical issues, such as the huge ecological challenge microplastics brings to the global masses.

Speakers

Ashlan Cousteau

Author, Explorer and Ocean Advocate , Journalist

John Riccitiello

CEO , Unity

Nanea Reeves

CEO & Co-Founder , Tripp

Description

Join the "Grandfather of Virtual Reality" and Virtual World Society founder Tom Furness + China President at HTC and VWS board member Alvin Graylin as we discuss the next stage of the XR industry's growth. Sharing their thoughts on the views and learnings from key industry leaders of the VWS' "XR Round Table", find out where Tom's untethered optimism and Alvin's seasoned global business experience intersect.

Moderated by Linda Ricci, this promises to be a lively and action-provoking session featuring leading thinkers in the space.

Speakers

Linda Ricci

Business / Emerging Tech Strategy Consultant , Consultant

Angelina Dayton

Executive Director , Virtual World Society

Tom Furness

Founder & Chairman , Virtual World Society

Alvin Graylin

Global VP of Corporate Development , HTC

Description

In this session, we will release the latest data on the Chinese spatial computing market, and provide an overview of the current market landscape. CEOs of leading companies in the region will share their opinions on the latest trends, biggest challenges, and excitement to come. A taste of AWE Asia!

Speakers

David Weeks

Producer & COO , AWE Asia, Sunrise International

Description

Unlike some people's perception, AI is not stealing the spotlight of metaverse. Instead, the synergistic acceleration of metaverse and AI development is the real trend that is happening, and we are facing the opportunity to make the metaverse industry really take off. Metaverse will lead the next stage of digital transformation, and will provide an effective path to address climate change and other global challenges. We share a vision for accelerating the development of metaverse related technologies, ecosystems and markets in a sustainable manner and contributing to greater sustainability.

Speakers

Yu Yuan

IEEE SA President , IEEE

Ramesh Ramadoss

Chair , IEEE

Description

In 2000, Motorola launched its first touchscreen mobile phone. Over the next decade, that PDA phone evolved and informed what we all now know as the smartphone. The ensuing apps and app stores formed an ecosystem that has contributed to the transformation of the internet into the mobile internet.

Today's Augmented Reality (AR) glasses is following a similar market adoption and growth trajectory. Meanwhile, recent display and processing advancements are bringing AR solutions that consumers desire. XREAL is leading the charge with a goal of making AR glasses available to all.

Speakers

Jon Li

Head of US Market , XREAL

Description

The journey with XREAL Light, XREAL Air and Beyond

Speakers

Chi Xu

CEO , XREAL

Description

Magic Leap CEO Peggy Johnson will discuss Magic Leap 2, the traction enterprise AR is experiencing in the market and be joined on stage by a few special guests to talk about the enterprise AR ecosystem.

Speakers

Peggy Johnson

Chief Executive Officer , Magic Leap

Maret Thatcher

CEO , Argyle.build

Kimberly Powell

VP Healthcare , NVIDIA

Description

Coming Soon!

Speakers

Ori Inbar

Co-Founder , AWE and Super Ventures

Description

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already having a significant influence on the Metaverse and the intersection of AI and the Metaverse will become increasingly evident as AI evolves and the Metaverse grows.

AI can be used to create more realistic and engaging experiences in virtual worlds, intelligent avatars that can engage with users in a more natural way, and personalized content in real-time. All of this can improve the overall experience for users. Furthermore, AI can be used to create more efficient and scalable infrastructure for the Metaverse, enabling more users to participate and interact with each other.

However, there will be challenges as well, such as biases in algorithms that perpetuate harmful stereotypes, false or manipulated content leading to misinformation, and questions about privacy and security.

This expert panel will discuss the issues and how AI might potentially transform how we interact with others in immersive spaces.

Speakers

Kent Bye

Producer , Voices of VR Podcast

Amy LaMeyer

Managing Partner , WXR Fund

Tony Parisi

CPO , Lamina1

Alvin Graylin

Global VP of Corporate Development , HTC

Description

The grand challenge of the 21st Century is to create socially and ethically adept hybrid networks of humans and machines. The augmentation of human abilities and global ecological systems will play a critical role in our future. AI agents are already deeply integrated into society and integral to many activities from dating, driving, coding, to policing and Large Language Models and Multimodal AI have already changed the way we communicate, work, and play. But, while Augmented Ecologies are now reaching beyond industry experts and scientists to the rest of us with generative AI, these new hybrid ecologies between humans and machines will diminish individual human autonomy and agency if we do not empower people to create, manage and participate in them. This panel will look at this grand challenge for the future of an Augmented World!

Speakers

Anselm Hook

CTO , MorpheusXR

David A. Smith

CTO, Founder , Croquet

Sean White

Founder , Three Dog Labs

Tish Shute

Co-Founder , AWE

Description

XR is at the heart of industry, education, health, and social networks. The development of immersive technology will only be successful if it is created by a diverse workforce, empowered to create an XR that represents that experience of all people. As our world is transformed by the prospect of XR, employment opportunities abound for people of all levels of education and experience.

**XR Impact**

Speakers

Naria Santa Lucia

GM, Digital Inclusion & Community Engagement , Microsoft

Kathryn White

Assoc. Dir., Metaverse Continuum Business Group , Accenture

Elizabeth Hyman

CEO , XR Association

Jessica Lindl

VP of Social Impact , Unity

Description

In the gaming industry, "God Mode" is a special code that makes the players invincible in the virtual world. And today, In the real world, there is no character in more need of invincibility than Earth - the sustainability of communities, natural resources, and wildlife within it.

One of the debates in recent Sustainability forums has been the extent to which the massive digitalization of people, processes, and technology during the pandemic has proved a bountiful benefit or dramatic detriment to the planet. And the XR industry has been a major beneficiary of this accelerated digitalization and has the opportunity to demonstrate how the industry and total ecosystem (be that Metaverse, Blockchain, etc) will positively contribute to REAL Sustainability outcomes.

This critical panel will explore where and how XR can meaningfully impact climate-positive and social-forward initiatives and enterprises, and put the Earth in God-Mode - before it's too late (ie, "Game Over").

Speakers

Rika Nakazawa

Group Vice President, New Ventures & Innovation , NTT

Shivam Kishore

Sr. Advisor Digital Transformation | Sustainability , UN Environment Programme

Heidi Lehmann

Sustainable Capital & Innovation Advisor, Co-Founder , Kenzen

Description

Dispelix develops and delivers elegant and high-performance see-through waveguides that are used as transparent displays in extended reality (XR) devices. We are the trusted and visionary partner of the most demanding customers in XR, and enable the industry leaders to redefine the form, function, and feel of XR wearables. Join our Co-founder & CEO, Antti Sunnari, as he discusses how together with Dispelix you can realize your product visions from waveguide design to mass production.

Speakers

Antti Sunnari

CEO , Dispelix