Dr. Carolina Cruz-Neira, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, is a pioneer in virtual reality and interactive visualization, having created and deployed a variety of technologies that have become standard tools in industry, government, and academia. She is known world-wide for creating the CAVE virtual reality system, by spearheading Open-Source initiatives, like VRJuggler, to disseminate and grow VR technologies, and by leading entrepreneurial initiatives to commercialize research results. She has over 100 publications and has been awarded over $75 million in grants, contracts, and donations. She is also recognized for founding and leading successful virtual reality research centers: the Virtual Reality Applications Center, the Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise, and the Emerging Analytics Center. She serves in international technology boards, government technology advisory committees.

She enjoys intersecting her research with the arts and the humanities through public performances and installations. She has been named one of the top innovators in virtual reality and one of the top three greatest women visionaries in virtual reality. She has been inducted to the IEEE Virtual Reality Academy, an IEEE Fellow, and an ACM Computer Pioneer;She has received the IEEE Virtual Reality Technical Achievement Award and the Distinguished Career Award from the International Digital Media & Arts Society among many recognitions. She has given numerous keynotes and advises several governments on how virtual reality can help to give industries a competitive edge towards regional economic growth. Currently, Dr. Cruz is the Agere Chair in Computer Science at the University of Central Florida.

At Avanade Workplace Advisory, we help organizations to unleash the full potential of their workforce and enable them to deliver best-in-class work experiences for their employees.

We help organizations design a workplace roadmap and operating model that aligns with their objectives, evaluate and adopt new technologies, like GenerativeAI and Spatial Computing, that empower their employees and drives business outcomes.

We leverage proven best practices, collaborative methodologies and Avanade deep knowledge and experience of Microsoft technologies to help our customers deliver value and impact.

Susie Heude is an Engagement Manager at Allianz Consulting, part of Allianz Services, where she has built an outstanding career since 2013 within Allianz Group. Throughout her journey, she has taken on various leadership roles and consistently driven innovative projects in the realms of change management and digitalization. Over the past 1.5 years, she has been leading a specialized team focused on the metaverse, while also overseeing various extended reality projects and initiatives. Susie is aiming to support the shaping of the future of Allianz through cutting-edge technologies and strategic leadership.

“Nicola “Nick” Rosa is a technologist, business strategist and digital transformation specialist who previously worked for Google, Spotify, IBM IX, Yahoo!, and Atari; and is now part of Accenture Strategy & Consulting in their Innovation team, where he is the Industry Technology Innovation Lead for Europe.
Nick is also a Director at the Academy of International Extended Reality (AIXR), a non-profit entity producing the annual VR Awards. He co-hosts and co-authors a podcast series called “Field of View”, where he interviews entrepreneurs, researchers, and pioneers in Extended Reality, AI, and the Metaverse. The podcast is available on all major platforms, including YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music. Nick has also spoken at international events such as AWE, Oculus Connect, Fyuz, and CogX. His first book “Understanding the Metaverse: A Business and Ethical Guide”, was published by Wiley worldwide on October 27, 2022 and available on printed press, kindle, and audiobook versions. Nick is also a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts.”

After studying mechanical engineering, Hugo spent 17 years working as innovation manager at Airbus developping digital technologies roadmap. He developped expertises on XR project deployment for ndustrial use cases. Convinced that immersive technologies will help creating the of tomorrow’s world, he founded Skyreal in 2018 to build a team and a new VR turnkey solution for industries.

Discipline meets creativity and therefore enables innovation. Patricia is an experienced cross-sector & multi-disciplinary technology and innovation strategist currently working for the Strategic Regional Innovations pillar at the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Manufacturing.

A graduate of the Aeronautical Maintenance Institute and holder of a Master’s degree in Business Administration, I joined the company, now called ArianeGroup, over 20 years ago. After a few years in the production sector, I joined the Ground Systems Design Office. After taking on various responsibilities in the development of mechanical ground systems for military projects, I worked on a number of civil projects (launch sites, launchers, satellite integration centres, etc.) and nuclear projects (ITER, dismantling of nuclear installations, etc.). With a strong end-user focus, around 4 years ago I joined ArianeGroup’s Digital & Transformation unit to develop and deploy innovative digital solutions (Virtual Reality, 3D simulation of industrial processes, Product Lifecycle Management, etc.) for the whole company. In November, I joined the @My Job Glasses community as an ambassador to promote the aerospace industry.

As a virtual reality researcher, my investigations focus on virtual characters (avatars and agents). I study the sense of embodiment and the way avatars impact human behavior in immersive environments. I am also in charge of teaching 3D modeling and real-time rendering, as well as programming for VR interfaces.

After a year in the B2B department, supporting companies in the RetailTech, E-commerce and EdTech sectors in their export initiatives, Oriane is now B2B project manager for companies in the Cultural and Creative Industries sector, as part of the ICC Immersion government program jointly run with the Institut Français.

Almost-all-the-time exhibitor in Laval Virtual since 2004.
Eager educator.