26 Jan 2024
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Sam Sprigg
Find out who's speaking at AWE USA 2024
AWE USA 2024
We’ve said it already, but 2024 really is shaping up to be a breakthrough year for XR. And with the 15th anniversary of AWE USA also taking place on what will hopefully be a stellar year for the spatial computing industry, we are very excited to share with you the first group of 150 speakers that have been announced across 14 agenda tracks for this year’s most exciting AR and VR conference!
Big Name Speakers at AWE USA 2024
Let’s dive into some of the big names we’ve already got confirmed to speak at AWE USA 2024:
Palmer Luckey | Founder, Anduril
Palmer Luckey, founder of Anduril and the visionary behind Oculus, is considered by many as the individual who helped to really revitalize the modern VR industry and boost adoption of the technology. Oculus was acquired back in 2014 by Facebook (now Meta) for $2.3 billion. At his new venture Anduril, which was founded in 2017, Luckey integrates a consumer technology business model with mission-driven objectives, enabling rapid product development and deployment, setting the company apart from other players in the defense industry.
Nonny de la Peña | CEO & Founder, Emblematic Group
Nonny de la Peña is the founder and CEO of Emblematic Group, a digital media company that specializes in immersive virtual, mixed and augmented reality. Emblematic pioneered walk-around virtual reality with the first ever VR documentary, Hunger in Los Angeles, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012. Known as the “godmother of virtual reality,” De la Peña is widely credited with helping create the genre of immersive journalism.
Tom Furness | Founder & Chairman, Virtual World Society
Tom Furness is an amalgam of professor, inventor, and entrepreneur in a professional career that spans 53 years. In addition to his contributions in photonics, electro-optics, and human interface technology, he is an original pioneer of virtual and augmented reality technology and regarded by many as the “grandfather of virtual reality.” Furness is a Fellow in the IEEE and the founder and chairman of the Virtual World Society, a non-profit for extending virtual reality as a learning system for families and other humanitarian applications.
Jacquelyn Morie | Founder, Chief Scientist, All These Worlds, LLC
Dr. Jacquelyn Ford Morie is recognized as a virtual reality (VR) trailblazer with 3 decades of work crafting profound experiences that enhance the human experience. In 2011, Dr. Morie founded All These Worlds, LLC, to advocate for and build diverse applications of VR technology. She has developed virtual ecosystems for NASA with ANSIBLE, aimed at providing psychological benefits for astronauts embarking on extended space missions, and is currently an advisor to several forward-thinking companies.
Enterprise Speakers at AWE USA 2024
This year’s AWE USA is proud to feature leaders from global companies like Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Coca-Cola, Nestlé Purina, IKEA, Hershey Co, Raytheon, UPS, Paramount, JP Morgan Chase, and ExxonMobil. These industry giants will share their experiences with AR and VR, providing a rare glimpse into how these technologies are transforming business operations, manufacturing, marketing, and employee training.
Plus, the participation of such big name companies also really helps to underscore the increasing prevalence and integration of XR across various industry verticals. So, no matter what sector you work in, you are guaranteed to learn something new from these innovators in their field, as they showcase the diverse applications and potential of XR technologies at this year’s event.
Spatial Computing Leaders at AWE USA 2024
AWE USA 2024 will highlight the technological breakthroughs at the forefront of spatial computing. With the agenda already shaping up very nicely, attendees can expect insight from spatial computing leaders, including: Meta, Roblox, TikTok, Tripp, Rec Room, ScopeAR, Avegant, and Twitch.
These companies, all of whom are leading the charge in the XR industry in their own unique and innovative ways, will showcase their latest advancements across the augmented and virtual reality spectrum, offering a vision of the future and how our digital and physical worlds will further intertwine.
Whether you are an XR developer, VR content creator, or AR brand advertiser, you’ll be sure to gain some valuable insights into how spatial computing is revolutionizing the entertainment, content creation, and advertising industries (to name but a few). More big names from across the spatial computing landscape are sure to follow these too, so stay tuned!
XR Pioneers at AWE USA 2024
One of the major themes for this 15th anniversary year of AWE events will be to celebrate past achievements from across the XR space, and acknowledge how the history of the industry has helped to guide and build today’s modern day AR, VR and MR advancements.
This year’s event will stand out as a pivotal gathering for XR professionals, enthusiasts, and innovators, as it will be a meeting place for those who have been working in the spatial computing field for several years and decades, as well as a place for those new to the industry to learn about its past and connect with some of the many pioneers that have helped to lay the foundations for today’s exciting AR/VR/MR landscape.
As part of looking to XR's past to build its future, AWE USA 2024 will be highlighting the pioneers who were there from the start and who helped to create today's industry as we know it. Esteemed figures (in addition to many of those already mentioned above) like Carolina Cruz-Neira, Shelley Peterson, Avi Bar-Zeev, and dozens more, will share their XR journeys and contributions.
Their sessions are set to provide a historical perspective, emphasizing how their groundbreaking work has shaped the modern XR landscape and continues to influence its evolution today.
You at AWE USA 2024
So, if this first awesome announcement isn’t enough to get you excited, don’t forget about all of the other things that will be on offer at AWE USA this year, including:
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A dynamic new ocean-view location in Long Beach, California
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A new and vastly expanded AWE Expo floor
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A packed AWE Playground full of never-before-seen XR demos and experiences;
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All of the incredible networking opportunities that you’ll have whilst at the event
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An amazing AWE USA Welcome Party sponsored by Zappar, and so much more!
We can’t disclose all of the details surrounding these aspects of the event just yet – but trust us, we’ve got some really exciting stuff planned for our 15th anniversary event, and you can be sure that you definitely won’t want to miss this event.
So why wait until prices go up? If you’re already certain that you’ll be attending, do yourself a favor and make some big savings on ticket prices now whilst we are still offering our Super Early Bird rates.
And if you’re still not decided, then joining in at this year’s leading AR/VR conference will be your best opportunity to celebrate the past, present, and future of XR, and be at the forefront of shaping the exciting trajectory of the spatial computing industry!
Hurry though - Super Early Bird rates for AWE USA 2024 will be expiring soon!
