Agenda

7:00 AM EST: Keynote Session

Keynote Speaker: David S . Rose

8:00 AM EST: Onboarding your Employees in the Metaverse

Speaker: Rrahul Sethi

The metaverse has significant capacity to enhance HR functions and employee on-boarding.  This session will highlight its ability to enable new employees to gain a deeper and broader perspective of the companies they’ve joined.  Essentially, the metaverse permits those employees to be trained in scenarios and spaces they’ll experience in their job while interacting with virtual representations of people for which they’ll be working.

8:00 AM EST: Reputation Management in the B2B Metaverse

Moderator & Panelists

As the metaverse continues to evolve, businesses will need to carefully strategize and adapt their digital reputation management to leverage its potential effectively. A panel of expert communicators discussing this topic will provide valuable insights into how early adopters can shape the future of business in this rapidly evolving digital landscape. Discussion topics include: crisis management, navigating online communities, leveraging influencers and ambassadors, and transparency and authenticity in your communications strategy.

8:00 AM EST: Microsoft Mesh – Revolutionizing Communication and Collaboration

Picture a digital landscape where boundaries between reality and virtuality dissolve, and communication becomes an immersive experience. Microsoft Mesh brings forth such a shift. In this session, we delve into the Microsoft Mesh, revealing its capacity to reshape how we connect, share, and collaborate.

From meaningful personal connections to cutting-edge cooperative endeavors, we’ll navigate the vast possibilities of this emerging domain.

Discover the future of communication in the metaverse era, emphasizing enterprise security, Microsoft Teams integration, and custom world creation.

Speaker: Christian Glessner

9:00 AM EST: Taking New Routes into the Metaverse – the Automotive Industry’s Burgeoning Opportunities in the Metaverse

Moderator: Askia Underwood

Panelists: Albert Thompson,  Kristian Kerkhoff, Andy Anderson, Matt Gonzales

The metaverse offers special benefits for the automotive sector, including the ability to more effectively market cars to consumers and others, design and prototype cars, and train sales and technical personnel. This session will highlight key uses of the metaverse by various elements of the automotive industry, including car manufacturers and dealers.

9:00 AM EST: Developing More Robust Urban Metaverse Environments

Moderator: Sara Wray

Panelists: Teppo Rantanen, Miguel Marin, Greg Lindsey

Many diverse opportunities exist for city governments and “smart city development” applications in the metaverse, and a growing number of city governments are increasingly turning to the metaverse to more efficiently deliver certain services, disseminate information about their operations and services, and create new opportunities for citizen participation in government. This session will provide a blueprint for diverse city government and smart city applications in the metaverse, and assess the potential growth of those applications.

10:00 AM EST: The Industrial Metaverse- Ready for Takeoff?

Moderator: Jack Boreham

Panelists: Michael Inouye, Dave Copps, Neil Trevett, Mike Giresi

Industrial applications have long been considered some of the most promising applications of the metaverse, but the infrastructure for the industrial metaverse seemed hobbled by the lack of certain key infrastructure elements. Now, various aspects of the metaverse seem to be converging, including the emergence of robust new platforms geared to the industrial metaverse and the integration of such technologies as AI, VR, AR, and IoT in the industrial metaverse. This session will highlight prime industrial uses of the metaverse for manufacturing, prototyping, simulation, training, and other purposes.

10:00 AM EST: New Metaverse Frontiers for National Governments

Moderator: Richard Johnstone

Panelists: Magnus Jones, Michal Ptacnik, Stephanie Borg Psaila, Michael Mascioni

Although relatively few nations have established a presence in the metaverse, the metaverse has significant potential uses for national governments. A handful of nations are utilizing or exploring the use of the metaverse to deliver such services as taxation services, diplomatic services, economic development assistance, and other services, including Norway and Barbados. These nations are leveraging the metaverse to better educate their citizens about their services and foster greater citizen involvement in public policy, especially among young, tech-savvy citizens. For a few countries, Web3 is key to their operations. For example, voting and other functions of the micronation Liberland areexecuted through the use of blockchain. This session will assess the impact of and prospects for metaverse use by national governments.

10:00 AM EST: Expanding Opportunities for Financial Institutions in the Metaverse

Moderator: Ed Haravon

Panelists: Apurv Suri, Marc Nichols, Caroline Hughes 

The metaverse has become increasingly attractive to banks, insurance companies, and other facets of the financial industry, especially as banks seek new ways of reaching and delivering services to their customers more cost effectively. Virtual banks in the metaverse have been sprouting up worldwide. But financial institutions are also utilizing the metaverse for such applications as training, recruiting, and collaborative work. This session will examine the effectiveness of and prospects for a full range of financial applications in the metaverse, and highlight design techniques that are particularly well suited to financial applications in the metaverse.

11:00 AM EST: Hitting the Experiential Marketing Sweet Spot in the Metaverse

Moderator: Ginger Shimp

Panelists: Celeste Acosta, Max Pinas, Jordan Robinson

The metaverse affords myriad new opportunities for powerful experiential marketing experiences and campaigns. This session will examine the most effective ways of harnessing the metaverse to create impactful experiential marketing experiences/campaigns that are well aligned with overall brand marketing strategies. It will devote particular attention to gamified marketing experiences in the metaverse and hybrid experiences blending metaverse marketing and live marketing elements.

11:00 AM EST: Extending Location-Based Entertainment into the Metaverse

Moderator: Kevin Williams

Panelists: Jason Ambler, Juliana Barbieri, Sebastien Borget

As real and virtual experiences continue to converge in such leisure facilities as amusement parks, location-based entertainment centers, and museums, and as those facilities seek new ways of exploiting and promoting their intellectual property, the metaverse has become alluring to those facilities. Although metaverse use in the out-of-home entertainment market is still limited, an increasing number of companies in that sector are enjoying success with such metaverse applications as gamified attractions. This session will help highlight best metaverse uses in the out-of-home entertainment market.

11:00 AM EST: Powering Up the Energy Metaverse

Moderator: Sean Guerre

Panelists: Lee Margetts, Richelle Elberg

As the industrial metaverse heats up, and as digital energy networks grow in importance, the energy industry is taking an increasing interest and role in utilizing the metaverse to advance various objectives, including promoting sustainability. Energy applications in the metaverse extend to virtual power plant, prototyping, and decarbonization applications. They are increasingly being utilized for such new energy sources as hydrogen, wind, and fusion energy. This session will highlight effective uses of the metaverse in the energy sector.

1:00 PM EST: New Marketing Horizons in the Metaverse

Moderator: Lisa Peyton

Panelists: Neal Sivadas, Olivier Moingeon, Catherine Oaks

Metaverse use in marketing is expanding and diversifying, as an increasing number of companies tap into the technology to afford more immersive experiential marketing, reach new markets, increase brand engagement, and open new avenues for e-commerce. This session will examine the application of the metaverse in gamified marketing, pop-up marketing, out-of-home marketing, and hybrid real/virtual marketing applications. It will also discuss AI’s growing role in powering marketing applications of the metaverse.

1:00 PM EST: New Opportunities for Events in the Metaverse

Moderator: Jamie Hayes Jones

Panelists: Natalie Taylor, Robin Raskin, David Adler, Adrian Driscoll

The metaverse enables the creation of deeper, more interactive business events with greater impact, especially with the integration of such technologies as AI, VR, and AR. Metaverse events allow for greater audience participation and collaboration, as well as the delivery of a wider array of event experiences. This session will examine a range of new opportunities and techniques for events in the metaverse, and assess the factors that are central to successful metaverse business events.

2:00 PM EST: Guarding the Security and Privacy of Business Metaverse Applications

Speaker: Lisa Sotto

The development of the business metaverse has been significantly hindered by rising concerns about the security of data and privacy in business metaverse applications. This session will examine key new techniques used to protect the security of data and privacy in business metaverse applications.

2:00 PM EST: Building a More Robust Infrastructure for the Metaverse

Moderator: Alex Lawrence

Panelists: Maximilian Nikolaus Schmidt, Subroto Mukherjee, 

As the metaverse’s scope expands, the demand for higher speed, lower latency service grows enormously. This session will examine the increasingly important roles such technologies as 5G, cloud computing, edge computing, and quantum computing will play in supporting the next-generation metaverse, especially as such immersive media as AR become a more significant part of the metaverse. These technologies will afford higher bandwidth, greater connectivity, and increased access to the metaverse via more diverse devices.

2:30 PM EST: Interview with Joe Forenz

Pesach Lattin interviews Joe Forenz

3:00 PM EST: Mainstreaming the Future of Phygital: Simplifying Interactive Personalized Commerce

Moderator: Ray Khan

Panelists:

Mainstream adoption of digital items connected to physical products has been limited by the complexity and high costs of the digital ecosystem. Stated simply, the large majority of consumers do not trust or understand the complex process of obtaining/managing/transferring digital items. The use of core technologies (NFC, IoT) that invisibly power and enhance our everyday tangible lives will enable digital assets to be simply, seamlessly, and privately managed over the internet without the existing intermediaries and friction. Digital assets managed over the internet will lead to the explosive mainstream adoption of interactive personalized digital commerce, delivering exciting, direct, and democratic benefits to consumers, merchants, and brands. Truly transforming digital commerce in a manner that has been predicted but not yet obtained

3:00 PM EST: Web3 Revolution: Unlocking Value Across Industries – Music, Real Estate, Fashion, and
Beyond

Moderator: G

Panelists:

Web3 technology, driven by blockchain and decentralized systems, has the potential to
revolutionize numerous industries beyond just cryptocurrency. In this panel discussion,
we will explore how web3 can provide significant value to a diverse range of sectors,
including the music industry, real estate, fashion, and other emerging technologies. Our
panelists will delve into the innovative ways in which blockchain, NFTs (Non-Fungible
Tokens), smart contracts, and decentralized applications are reshaping business
models, enhancing security, fostering trust, and driving creativity in these sectors. Join
us as we unravel the web3 opportunities that are changing the game for traditional and
emerging industries alike.

4:00 PM EST: Building Lifelong Brand Loyalty in the Metaverse

Fireside Chat: Adrian Driscoll, Harold Hayes Jr

Dive into the future with “Building Lifelong Brand Loyalty in the Metaverse.” Explore how industry leaders Adrian Rashad Driscoll and Harold Hayes Jr., are leveraging XR & Metaverse technologies to create lasting connections. Discover strategies for immersive brand experiences, community building, personalized engagement, and ethical considerations. Join us to learn how to forge unbreakable bonds and drive lifetime value in this new digital frontier.

4:00 PM EST: The Seeds of the Metaverse

Speaker: Julian Reyes

In this presentation, we will explore and analyze the evolution of metaverse platforms and the benefits that these virtual worlds provide businesses and brands. We will delineate between Web2, Web3, and WebXR immersive worlds. Understanding the differences between these technologies is important for brands, investors, and marketers in planning their Metaverse business initiatives. We will explore the virtual world landscape and organizations working to advance ethics and open standards. These efforts will reveal such business advantages as improving marketing, collaboration, community building, and education through the implementation of an immersive strategy.

5:00 PM EST: AI and the Metaverse: the Ultimate Convergence?

Moderator: Neil Sahota

Panelists: Vincent Serpico, Linda Ricci, Frank Diana, Louis Rosenberg 

A key element poised to propel the metaverse to the next stage is AI. This session will examine the different ways AI is poised to power and support the growth of the metaverse. It will discuss the implications of such efforts to integrate AI into the metaverse as open platforms like Futureverse and AI enhanced avatars. The session will also examine the implications of key research and experimental projects relating to the use of AI in the metaverse.

Opening Remarks

Speaker: Opening Keynote Speaker

5 companies will present

Live Demonstrations & Networking

5 Companies will present

Live Demonstrations & Networking

5 Companies will present

Live Demonstrations & Networking

5 Companies will present

Live Demonstrations & Networking

5 Companies will present

Live demonstrations & Networking