Guests

FLIGHT SCHOOL STUDIOS

Brandon Oldenburg is an award-winning film director, designer and immersive storyteller. Stories that he has directed have won an Academy Award, multiple Emmy Awards, multiple Gold Lions at Cannes including the Grand Prix and a host of other industry accolades. As Chief Creative Officer at Flight School, Brandon leads the team of creative directors and artists to produce innovative stories with new technologies. Prior to Flight School, Brandon co-founded Reel FX and Moonbot Studios, both leaders in animation and emerging technology.​

SCIENCE FICTION AUTHOR, ACTIVIST & JOURNALIST

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger — the co-editor of Boing Boing  and the author of Radicalized and Walkaway, science fiction for adults, a YA graphic novel called In Real Life, the nonfiction business book Information Doesn’t Want to be Free, and young adult novels like Homeland, Pirate Cinema and Little Brother. His next book is Poesy the Monster Slayer, a picture book for young readers. He works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is a MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate, is a Visiting Professor of Computer Science at Open University, a Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of South Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles.

GLASSBOX TECHNOLOGIES

Mariana Acuna is a technologist, pixel pusher and entrepreneur. During her years working at Foundry, she focused on Virtual Reality post-production workflows, as well as being the Head of Creatives in the Americas.

Most recently she co-founded Glassbox Technologies, where she leads the roadmap for new and existing technology, developing tools for Virtual Production using Virtual Reality to transform the way filmmaking is done today. Before her switch into software, she worked as an on-set VFX supervisor & senior compositor and has over 13 years experience in the motion picture industry.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR & AUTHOR

Michael Madary is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at University of the Pacific. He specializes in the ethics of emerging technology as well as cognitive science. Madary co-authored the first code of ethics for immersive technology. His first book, Visual Phenomenology, was published in 2017 with MIT Press.

HP GLOBAL HEAD OF VIRTUAL REALITY FOR LOCATION BASED ENTERTAINMENT

Joanna Popper is a Hollywood and Silicon Valley media executive. She is HP’s Global Head of Virtual Reality for Location Based Entertainment. Prior she was EVP of Media & Marketing at Singularity University and VP Marketing at NBCUniversal. Joanna developed a TV show partnership with NBC and Singularity University for a new TV series on technology and innovation.

Joanna was selected as “50 Women Can Change the World in Media and Entertainment,” “Top Women in Media: Game Changers,” “Top Women in Media: Industry Leaders,” “Digital It List,” “101 Women Leading the VR Industry” and is on the Coalition for the Women in XR Fund.

NO PROSCENIUM FOUNDER

Noah Nelson is the founder of No Proscenium, a publication dedicated to exploring the immersive and experiential arts and a co-founder of LEIA – the League of Experiential & Immersive Artists. He holds a bachelor in Theatre Arts from San Francisco State University. His reporting has been heard on NPR’s All Things Considered and APM’s Marketplace.

CO-FOUNDERS OF DEROOTED

Simón Rojas
Co-founder, Creative Director

Creative Director, artist and co-founder at Derooted Immersive. Simón is a seasoned international creative with over 20 years of experience in the design and advertising industries. His hands on, concept driven approach has put Derooted at the top list when it comes to memorable innovation that resonated with clients and participants alike. Whether people or technology, his undying inquisitiveness and observation of the world around him drive insights leading the team at Derooted to continually push boundaries and expectations.

Amir Ebrahimnia
CEO, Co-founder, Technologist

Derooted Immersive Co-founder & CEO Amir Ebrahimnia is an accomplished multidisciplinary creative technologist and integrated strategist with over 20 years’ experience who has consistently led initiatives pushing boundaries of the possible through quantum approach to explore concept driven ideas connecting the user to the essence of the concept through a multi sensory environment and fantastical unique immersive experiences.

PUBLISHER OF R. TALSORIAN GAMES

Appearing as a Mild Mannered Game Designer, Mike Pondsmith is in reality a Time Lord from the Far Future, here to warn all of us of a reality involving Giant Robots, cyber-enhanced Boostergangers, and an Invasion of Teenagers From Outer Space. When not involved in his day job of Saving The Future of Humanity, he can also be found in the nearest gravel pit, digging up million year old dead things with waaaay too many teeth and claws. He calls this relaxation.

DEPUTY LEAD OF OPERATIONS LAB, PROTOSPACE PROJECT LEAD, TECHNICAL GROUP SUPERVISOR FOR USER INTERFACE DEVELOPMENT, NASA JET PROPULSION LABORATORY

Sasha Samochina (sam-ocean-uh) is an award-winning creative technologist. She joined the team at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory after working in New York in the fields of video and web development and in Chicago, where she was a Media Producer at The Field Museum of Natural History. After dreaming up content for JPL’s Communications department, she began to explore the world of 360 videos and XR. Through Sasha’s visualization skills, she pioneered the very first 360° video release on social media for NASA. She is currently the Deputy Manager of the Ops Lab, Project Lead for ProtoSpace, and the Technical Group Supervisor for the User Interface Development Group at JPL. Sasha dedicated herself to helping create software that incorporates innovative forms of visualization that aid scientists, engineers, and astronauts in transforming their workflow, and she leverages that same experiential technology to educate and inspire the public to engage in STEAM. She loves all things digital, animal, sound-emitting, cosmic, and views the world through XR-colored glasses.

DUNGEON MASTERS

The Dungeon Dudes bring you Player’s Guides, Dungeon Master advice, roleplaying tips, reviews and more videos for Dungeons and Dragons 5e.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PEDIATRICS & MEDICAL EDUCATION AT THE KECK SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Dr. Todd P. Chang, MD MAcM, is Associate Professor of Pediatrics & Medical Education (Educational Scholar designation) at the Keck School of Medicine at University of Southern California. He works clinically in the Emergency Department at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and spends his academic time in both clinical research and simulation-based research, where he explores best practices for mannequin-based, digital, and virtual reality-based simulation training for healthcare professionals. He has had grant support and work through the federal Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA), American Heart Association, the National Board of Medical Examiners, and companies like A.i.Solve, TetraSignum, BioFlightVR, and Oculus from FaceBook.

FOUNDER OF LOCUSIUM

Being introduced to VR in 2016 at the 4th SeattleVR hackathon, Drew Stone led a team as Project Manager to win the “Best Humanitarian” award for a HoloLens project whose MVP enabled second-responders to identifiably mark, note, and rate hazardous conditions after an emergency based on a point-cloud of the affected scene area.

In 2019 he was brought on to the Event Team of Microsoft’s AltspaceVR platform. When the COVID-19 pandemic surfaced, he was transitioned to Conferences and Partnerships team at AltspaceVR for bringing high-value groups into VR events on that platform, playing lead and supporting roles to MR Dev Days, and other high-profile events.

After ending his contract with Microsoft, Drew knew his calling and passion was for producing VR events, and he subsequently founded Locusium, LLC to help guide others who were new to the VR space to bring their own communities into VR in spaces that are friendly and safe.