An experienced founder and content creator, Cortney Harding is an in-demand expert as one of the few people who can not only translate the impact of the digital revolution from Web2 to Web3 and its impact on businesses, but also how the metaverse can become the new frontier to create better and more accepting communities. As the founder of the award-winning agency Friends With Holograms, she was a pioneer who created VR training pieces around topics like child abuse, workplace exclusion, mental health, Black maternal mortality, and racial bias for companies like Lowe’s, Walmart, PWC, Amazon, Target, and more. Her work was honored as the Best VR/AR of 2019 at Mobile World Congress, a SXSW Innovation Award Finalist at SXSW, and a Top HR Product by HR Executive. She has also worked with Meta to help shape strategy around learning and training in the metaverse and was instrumental in creating What is the Metaverse - a groundbreaking course that covers all aspects of the Metaverse while exploring safety issues, ethical questions and much more. Currently, she serves as the head of immersive content at Virti.

An accomplished speaker, Cortney is considered a future facing architect of change as she has a full understanding of what challenges and opportunities exist within the metaverse. She approaches every aspect of her work leading with what problem can we solve and how sustainable is the journey to this virtual landscape which has led to a host of unique speaking opportunities. These include DAVOS, SXSW, Advertising Week Europe, the Next Web, and Future of Storytelling, among other events. She has been interviewed by the New York Times, NPR, and Ad Week, among others, and has written for Billboard, Teen Vogue, and the Village Voice. She is the author of three books, including her most recent book on using virtual reality to create social change.

An in-demand academic, Cortney has taught at North Carolina State, Barnard, NYU, New Mexico State, and Caltech, sharing her one-of-a-kind curriculum. She has also guest lectured at Johns Hopkins, Chapman University, Harvard Business School, and Columbia University. She is a member of the World Economic Forum and the Television Academy.