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Athena Demos
CEO Big Rock Creative

Athena Demos is co-founder and CEO of Big Rock Creative (BRC), an award-winning XR experience company creating groundbreaking experiences for global clients. Big Rock Creative won the Producer’s Guild Award for Innovation, the Aurea Award for creativity, the No Proscenium award for Best VR experience of 2020, the Hermes' Platinum Award, the Auggie Award for Best Societal Impact of 2022 and the Global LiveWire Creative Innovators of the Year for 22/23. With over 20 years of experience producing iconic events, like the LA Burning Man Decompression Arts and Music Celebration, as well as the Art of Change Inaugural Ball for President Obama in LA, she transitioned to the metaverse to produce BRCvr (Black Rock City Virtual Reality). BRCvr is an official virtual Burning Man Experience whose scope is unprecedented in the VR space. Athena produced internationally recognized social impact projects such as Breonna’s Garden which premiered at SXSW 2022 and Pride has no borders which was a finalist in the VR Awards. She has developed a philosophical approach to guiding humanity to build a foundational fabric for creative collaboration in the metaverse. As a result, she has been quoted in leading books, articles, delivered key notes, and spoken at leading industry events and universities across the globe.

In August of 2022, Athena and the BRCvr team went to Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert to film the community, art, event, and ethos in 360 and 180 3D formats to combine with the VR worlds and models they cultivated the past two years. Currently in post production, she plans to deliver a new format for storytelling that brings them all together into one participatory experience.

She spent 8+ years as the PM of two time Academy Award-winning documentary film company, Moriah Films.

TALKS

Jun 1

03:00 PM - 03:25 PM

GRAND BALLROOM E
ENTERPRISE

Emotional Connection & Resilience in XR

Caitlin Krause | MindWise

Jun 2

11:05 AM - 12:00 PM

GRAND BALLROOM E
ENTERPRISE

Innovation for All: Ensuring XR Technology is Inclusive and Accessible

Athena Demos | Big Rock Creative

Jazmin Cano | Owlchemy Labs Inc

Yao Ding | Meta

Stephanie Montgomery | XR Association

Dylan Fox | XR Access

Jun 2

12:50 PM - 01:45 PM

GRAND BALLROOM F
CREATOR

The Case for Custom: Jump Ship from Walled-Garden Multiplayer-VR, Build Your Own App, and Do Your Own Thing

Angelina Dayton | Virtual World Society

Athena Demos | Big Rock Creative

Justin Barnett | CyberHub Syndicate

Robert Nelson | Sia Partners

Daniel Sisson | Spatial Ape