| Description | Before Virtual Reality technology alters the entire world, we have a responsibility to guide its development. Experts discuss if empathy and inclusion should be considered in the early stages, and how initiating best practices will propel the success of alternate realities. Moderator: Xuny Haley
Xuny Haley is the Operations Manager for CoMotion Labs @ HQ, a shared space that exclusively incubates VR/AR/XR startups. She has worked for a variety of startups for three years, ranging from VR software startups to Ultimate Frisbee broadcasting startups. Her passion is for the storytelling of innovation, as she views tech as the tool to improve lives, and startups as the pioneers to implement the innovations in society. When she isn’t thinking about XR or startups, she’s scheming for ways to make her resources and networks accessible and equitable to under-served communities. Speakers:
Brian Van Buren: Brian is the Narrative Designer at Tomorrow Today Labs, a freelance writer, editor, designer, and a VR accessibility advocate and analyst.
Di Dang: Di Dang is the Emerging Tech Lead at digital agency POP. She advises clients from a variety of industries on how emerging tech will impact their business, and she leads XR design thinking and education workshops around the country. Di also loves working the full XR product development cycle, and she has recently shipped XR experiences for POP’s Fortune 100 clients. Outside of virtual reality, you can find her onstage doing improv. Di tweets passionately about emerging tech at @dqpdang.
Jason Pace: Jason Pace is the Executive Director of the University of Washington Bothell’s Digital Future Lab, an interactive media research and commercial game development studio focused on transforming how the technology industry approaches diversity. Jason started the lab in 2012 after spending 15 years at Microsoft designing features to support products ranging from Windows to Halo, and his work in the DFL explores how groups that intentionally seek to maximize diversity can innovate and thrive. The lab challenges conventional wisdom about tech talent and culture, bringing undergraduate and graduate students together from across majors and campuses to create high-performance creative teams engaged in commercial product development and interaction design research.
Emily Pascual: At the intersection of human rights and education, Emily is the EdTech Game UI/UX Designer for the bilingual social enterprise Genius Plaza. Emily's team was awarded 2016 MIT AR/VR Hackathon's Best Virtual Reality Hack with the education platform KidCity VR. Emily earned a joint Bachelor's of Arts in Human Rights and Political Science at Bard College. Prior to tech, Emily worked in policy and nonprofits including, UN Women and LATISM (Latinos in Tech Innovation and Social Media). Emily has a passion for working with organizations advancing political, social, and economic justice for underrepresented minorities and women. |
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