2020 Games for Change Virtual Festival: Full Schedule

2:10pm EDT

Sensing the Risks of XR

XR misuse can lead to psychological, physical, reputational, social, and economic harm. In this session, XRSI advisory CEO explores the potential risks to XR ecosystems, explains how to mitigate them to better protect end-users and enterprises. This session will approach the topic from multiple different directions. An introduction to cybersecurity, and discuss XR specific security challenges, concerns, constraints overlap and the types of threat XR is experiencing and may experience in the future.

Speakers

Kavya Pearlman

Founder & CEO, XR Safety Initiative

Well known as the “Cyber Guardian” the founder of XR Safety Initiative (XRSI), Kavya Pearlman is an Award-winning cybersecurity professional with a deep interest in immersive and emerging technologies. XRSI is a global effort that promotes privacy, security, ethics, and develops... Read More →

Tuesday July 14, 2020 2:10pm - 2:30pm EDT
Mainstage

XR For Change, Talk

4:00pm EDT

Managing Burn-Out & Stress with Games & XR: Industry Trends

This roundtable delves into how the games and XR industries are approaching themes of stress management and burn-out -- whether in the context of building resilience or exploring these contemporary motifs through the lens of narrative and gameplay. What are the challenges and opportunities? How are games and XR making a positive impact in people’s lives? What cautionary tales must be taken into account as more interventions occur remotely in digital or spatial computing contexts?

Moderators

Margaret Wallace

Co-Founder & CEO, Playmatics

Speakers

Dr. Walter Greenleaf

Neuroscientist, Medical Virtual Reality Expert, Stanford University Virtual Human Interaction Lab

Walter Greenleaf PhD, neuroscientist and medical technology developer working at Stanford University. With over three decades of research and development experience, Walter is considered a leading authority in digital medicine and medical virtual reality technology. Walter is currently... Read More →

Naomi Mwasambili

CEO, Chanua

Naomi is the CEO of Chanua and has over 10 years experience designing, implementing and evaluating social change programmes. Her team at Chanua have developed a range of products and services embedding play, gamification and technology in areas of health, mental health and enterprise... Read More →

Matthew Seiji Burns

Writer, Zachtronics

Matthew Seiji Burns is a writer, composer, and game developer. Most recently he created Eliza, a visual novel about an AI-assisted therapy tool, the people who use it, and the people who develop it. At Zachtronics, he wrote for EXAPUNKS, Opus Magnum, SHENZHEN I/O, and others. With... Read More →

Tuesday July 14, 2020 4:00pm - 5:00pm EDT
Sessions

XR For Change, Round Table

5:00pm EDT

VR for Change Alcove Challenge Presentations

G4C and AARP Innovation Lab teamed up to create the VR for Change Alcove Challenge, aiming to inspire developers to create immersive VR experiences that promote healthy living and intergenerational connection. The top projects will be published on the Alcove VR platform, enabling people of various ages and ethnicities to experience simple, beautiful and impactful virtual reality. Hear from the creator of Alcove VR and learn about the powerful experiences from Challenge finalists.

Moderators

Raul Carvajal

Festival Producer, Games for Change

After working closely with the Festival team to produce the 2018 Games for Change Festival, Raul now serves as the Director of Production & XR for Change at Games for Change. Raul fuses his background in film production and virtual reality development to bring together talented teams... Read More →

Speakers

Cezara Windrem

Innovation Catalyst, Head of VR, AARP Innovation Labs

Cezara is an emerging technologies leader, innovation and product executive employing immersive media and spatial computing to create valuable solutions to issues people face as they age. Creator of Alcove, the VR platform that brings together the intergenerational family connection... Read More →

Peter Pichya

Creative Technologist / XR Developer / Experiential Designer

Peter Locharernkul, a creative technologist, has been developing interactives for a variety of audience, ranging from museum exhibits to trade shows to experiential marketing events. Embraces the complex discipline of testing and overcoming the limitations of hardware devices and... Read More →

Awu Chen

Chief Experience Officer, Ama Inc.

Awu Chen leads an award winning team of cross disciplinary storytellers to tell personal stories using immersive media. Our goal is to tell stories that bring people together even when we are apart.

Sharon Lin

Student, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Sharon Lin is a third-year student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She worked on an XR experience through Oculus NextGen and Hacking VR, resulting in a team presentation at the Oculus Symposium in Menlo Park, CA. She has worked at the Open Documentary Lab, MIT Media... Read More →

David Lobser

Creative Technologist, Object Normal

David Lobser is a Brooklyn based Creative Technologist with a focus on XR. His multi-user VR projects include Flock, which premiered at the Future of Storytelling Festival. Cosmic Sugar is a VR app which allows users to create particle system driven light shows and art in VR. His... Read More →

Michael Owen

MediaCombo, Co-Founder

Michael Owen is a co-founder of MediaCombo, a digital media studio. With his partner Robin White Owen he has developed AR and VR experiences for The Morgan Library & Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Pollock-Krasner House & Study Center. In 2016 he went to Lake... Read More →

Tuesday July 14, 2020 5:00pm - 6:00pm EDT
Sessions

XR For Change, Round Table

6:50pm EDT

Exploring Digital Rights: Data Sovereignty in XR

Virtual and augmented reality applications provide new paradigms for interactions, expression, creation, and exploration. With the personal and immersive computing capabilities present in XR technologies, devices and applications are increasingly able to utilize and collect information about users. In this session, Liv will build on her experience bridging policy and product development to explore the considerations for data rights and digital sovereignty as they related to XR application development.

Speakers

Liv Erickson

Staff Product Manager, Mozilla

Olivia (Liv) Erickson is an open source engineer and Staff Product Manager in Mozilla’s Emerging Technology group working on Mozilla Hubs. She has spent her career developing virtual and augmented reality software applications with a focus on exploring shared 3D environments. Previously... Read More →

Tuesday July 14, 2020 6:50pm - 7:10pm EDT
Mainstage

XR For Change, Talk

7:10pm EDT

Keynote with Brennan Spiegel

Speakers

Dr. Brennan Spiegel

Director of Health Services, Cedars-Sinai Health System

Brennan Spiegel, MD, MSHS, is Director of Health Services Research for Cedars-Sinai Health System, Professor of Medicine and Public Health at UCLA, and author of “VRx: How Immersive Therapeutics Will Transform Medicine”. He directs the Cedars-Sinai Center for Outcomes Research... Read More →

Tuesday July 14, 2020 7:10pm - 7:30pm EDT
Mainstage

XR For Change, Keynote

1:50pm EDT

Keynote - Anti-Racism + XR

This session will explore the meaning and practice of anti-racism, the intersection of anti-racism and XR and the role of technology in promoting equity and justice. 1000 Cut Journey an immersive VR experience focused on racism and other work in development in collaboration with the Virtual Human Interaction Lab will be used as case studies.

Speakers

Courtney Cogburn

Associate Professor, Columbia University

Dr. Courtney D. Cogburn is an associate professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work and faculty of the Columbia Population Research Center. She employs a transdisciplinary research strategy to improve the characterization and measurement of racism and in examining the... Read More →

Wednesday July 15, 2020 1:50pm - 2:10pm EDT
Mainstage

XR For Change, Keynote

3:15pm EDT

Access for the Future of XR

In this Panel, we will be discussing the topic of access for the future of XR. The panel will be speaking to what access means to us individually in our respective fields, and as a group for the future of XR. Our talking points will center around different marginalized groups including topics of race, age, gender, location, and ability and how the industry needs to be providing access to immersive content for these groups.

Moderators

Regine Gilbert

Industry Associate Professor, New York University

Regine Gilbert is a user experience designer, educator, and international public speaker with over 10 years of experience working in the technology arena. She has a strong belief in making the world a more accessible place—one that starts and ends with the user.  In 2019, Regine’s... Read More →

Speakers

Kai Frazier

Founder & CEO, Kai XR

Kai Frazier is an educator turned EdTech entrepreneur passionate about using tech to provide inclusive and accessible opportunities for underestimated communities. She is the founder & CEO of Kai XR, the most inclusive and accessible, educational VR platform where kids can explore... Read More →

Erin Hawley

Digital Content Producer, The Geeky Gimp

Erin Hawley is a digital content producer and consultant with a focus on accessibility and disability representation in media. She has worked with companies like Microsoft, Logitech, Adobe, and Electronic Arts to ensure accessibility in not an afterthought. Erin is also a part of... Read More →

Katherine Mahon

Founder and CEO, HomeAgain VR Foundation

After working in the 3D development and immersive tech space for over four years, Katherine founded HomeAgain VR, a nonprofit that uses immersive tech to make social enrichment and adventure accessible to everyone, regardless of age, income, or physical ability. As a hospice volunteer... Read More →

Angelina Dayton

The VR Lady

Dr. Angelina Dayton is the founder of the Students in VR Conference and a virtual reality user experience designer, speaker, consultant and trainer. Her specialty is the design and deployment of virtual reality user experiences into complex organizations such as public schools. Her... Read More →

Keisha Howard

Founder, SugarGamers

Infectiously passionate about the worlds of video games and geek culture, Keisha Howard is a leader who has created a compelling and engaging vision and inspires others around it. A two time TEDx Speaker, Keisha is able foresee what lies beyond the horizon for the video game and esports... Read More →

Wednesday July 15, 2020 3:15pm - 4:00pm EDT
Mainstage

XR For Change, Panel

4:00pm EDT

Keynote - Fireside Chat with Chris Milk and Jesse Damiani

Moderators

Jesse Damiani

Deputy Director of Emerging Technology, Southern New Hampshire University

Jesse Damiani is Deputy Director of Emerging Technology at Southern New Hampshire University, Director of Simulation Literacies at Nxt Museum, and covers emerging technologies on Forbes. He's also Editor-at-Large of VRScout, with other bylines in Adweek, Billboard, Quartz, The Verge... Read More →

Speakers

Chris Milk

CEO and Co-founder, Within

Chris Milk is an American entrepreneur, director, and immersive artist known for producing challenging and unique works of art by employing technological innovations in his creative process. He is co-founder and CEO of Within, a company using immersive technologies to build products... Read More →

Wednesday July 15, 2020 4:00pm - 4:30pm EDT
Mainstage

XR For Change, Keynote

4:30pm EDT

Keynote - Building the Volumetric Future

Nonny de la Peña is the CEO & Founder of the award-winning innovation company Emblematic Group. She is a pioneer of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality and is widely credited with inventing the genre of immersive journalism. She’ll discuss her journey from working as a Newsweek journalist, premiering the first ever VR piece at Sundance, to now being at the forefront of the industry providing an easy XR creation and sharing platform called REACH.Love.

Speakers

Nonny de la Peña

CEO & Founder, Emblematic Group

Nonny de la Peña, founder and CEO of Emblematic Group, is regarded as one of the most influential pioneers in virtual and augmented reality. Recently awarded the WSJ Tech Innovator of the Year title, she is also one of CNET's 20 Most Influential Latinos in Technology, Wired Magazine's... Read More →

Wednesday July 15, 2020 4:30pm - 4:50pm EDT
Mainstage

XR For Change, Keynote

5:00pm EDT

Keynote - Changing Narratives with Immersive Storytelling

To create The March for TIME, Co-Creators Mia Tramz and Alton Glass sought to re-examine how the Civil Rights Movement is taught and developed an immersive exhibit that gives visitors a first hand experience of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s iconic “I Have A Dream” speech

Speakers

Mia Tramz

Editorial Director of Enterprise and Immersive Experiences, TIME

Mia Tramz is Editorial Director of Enterprise and Immersive Experiences at TIME. In 2016, Tramz oversaw the launch of Time Inc’s company-wide immersive storytelling brand, LIFE VR, which included producing the Emmy-winning VR-docuseries Capturing Everest. In 2019, she oversaw the... Read More →

Alton Glass

CEO, GRX Immersive Labs

Alton Glass is a creative entrepreneur who leads a team of new media gurus tackling contemporary issues through immersive storytelling and prioritizing community capacity building so communities have access to new technology tools and training. Glass is the founder of GRX Immersive... Read More →

Wednesday July 15, 2020 5:00pm - 5:20pm EDT
Mainstage

XR For Change, Keynote

10:40am EDT

Bringing the Natural World Into Your Living Room

Augmented and Mixed Reality experiences allow us to blend digital content with our real world. A simple idea, but one which is having a profound and transformational effect on how we interact with the world around us.

This talk will deep dive on the ambition behind the spatial computing natural history documentary 'BBC Earth - Micro Kingdoms', and examine the emerging possibilities for storytelling when the digital and physical worlds collide.

Speakers

Phil Stuart

Founder & Creative Director, PRELOADED

Phil is founder and award-winning creative director at PRELOADED. Since 2000 he has worked with game-based technologies to create playful, purposeful experiences for all. Stuart has led many of PRELOADED’s groundbreaking projects including the BAFTA-winning collaboration with... Read More →

Thursday July 16, 2020 10:40am - 11:00am EDT
Mainstage

XR For Change, Talk

1:00pm EDT

VR for Inclusion

Developers for PERSPECTIVES will share about their inspiration to develop experiences using gamification for creating positive social change.

Speakers

Myra LalDin

Founder, PERSPECTIVES

Parth Naik, Michael Ballentine, Mickey Stewart, and Myra LalDin are founders of VECTRE, a VR development studio, that has worked with Fortune 50 companies on custom XR projects. From here Myra spun out PERSPECTIVES, a conscious leadership training platform at the intersection of inclusion... Read More →

Thursday July 16, 2020 1:00pm - 1:10pm EDT
Mainstage

XR For Change, Talk

1:10pm EDT

Learning Remotely Using Virtual Reality

Discover how Emilie and her team are empowering K12 students to create powerful & authentic interactive experiences using immersive technologies from virtually anywhere in the world.

Speakers

Emilie Joly

CEO, apelab

CEO by day and interaction designer by night, Emilie Joly co-founded apelab, a Swiss/US Software Company working on Zoe. A distance learning platform empowering students to create powerful & authentic interactive experiences using immersive technologies from virtually anywhere in... Read More →

Thursday July 16, 2020 1:10pm - 1:20pm EDT
Mainstage

XR For Change, Talk

1:20pm EDT

Be Earth: A VR Activation on Climate Change in Times of Crisis

The VR experience shows man-made fires in the amazon forest and their broader impacts on the Earth's ecosystems as a whole. An emotional immersive piece that combines scientific data -including Earth's representation in full size planet scale, mixing art, love and hopes for tomorrow.

The piece was created to inspire global action towards climate change and premiered at the World Economic Forum Annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2020 -in a context of global climate crisis with gigantic fires burning on the Amazon forest and Australia. Leaded by Boo Aguilar, Ylva Hansdotter and Paulo Gibbs, the experience was funded by the Swedish International Development Agency ( SIDA ) and Facebook’s Oculus, and made in collaboration with the United Nations and climate experts, researchers, artists and storytellers under the non profit organization XR impact.

Speakers

Boo Aguilar

Director, Be Earth

Creative Technologist, Project Director, Developer, and Researcher of Human-Computer Interaction processes, Boo leads globally awarded projects on the intersection of Technology, Philosophy, Science and Arts, transitioning in topics like (bio)engineering, nanotech and AI with partners... Read More →

Thursday July 16, 2020 1:20pm - 1:30pm EDT
Mainstage

XR For Change, Talk

1:30pm EDT

The Making of Lutaw: A 3D Virtual Reality Film

Join Director Samantha Quick and Co-Creator Michaela Holland for a behind the scenes look at the partnership between Oculus's VR for Good program and the Filipino non-profit, The Yellow Boat of Hope, which provides transportation for kids who swim to school. The creators discuss the production of Lutaw—its art direction, animation, and field research—which built the foundation for this richly drawn animated world and honors the Filipino island of Caohagan and its people.

Speakers

Michaela Holland

Immersive/Interactive Storyteller

Michaela Holland is an Emmy, Webby, and Sheffield Doc/Fest award-winning storyteller. She is a creative director, producer, and project manager, who combines experimental content with traditional mediums. Her work has been featured by TIME, Forbes, The Guardian, and more. Michaela’s... Read More →

Samantha Quick

Director, Samantha Quick LLC

Samantha Quick is an immersive director and creative technologist working in interactive media. She is one of the most prolific VR content creators with over 100 bylines in The New York Times and has also created work for Al Jazeera, Sotheby's and Doug Liman.

Thursday July 16, 2020 1:30pm - 1:40pm EDT
Mainstage

XR For Change, Talk

1:40pm EDT

Story/Background/Insights of Daughters of Chibok

A brief talk where I will be sharing the inspiration behind Daughters of Chibok, the rationale behind using VR to tell the story, and the social impact that has been achieved so far with the film.

Speakers

Joel Benson

Creative Director, VR360 Stories

JOEL ‘KACHI BENSON has been making documentary stories for over a decade. In February 2018, he became the first Nigerian filmmaker to use Virtual Reality technology for storytelling, when he produced “In Bakassi”, a virtual experience of life in one of the largest IDP Camps... Read More →

Thursday July 16, 2020 1:40pm - 1:50pm EDT
Mainstage

XR For Change, Talk

3:30pm EDT

5 Open XR Projects

Picking up where most game jams leave off, let us together explore questions of what it might take to make this or that prototype into a finished title. How do we measure success? Is it publication? Number of downloads? Player reviews? Is it efficacy against illness? Environmental resilience? For practice, we'll start with a variety of existing prototypes from XR4C Brainjams past. In three parallel breakout rooms, we'll use Miro to whiteboard ideas. Something for everyone. GitHub repo will have Oculus Quest builds available for anyone so inclined. It's great that, with such authoring tools as Unity, a lone creator can contribute meaningfully to society, and yet it remains true that a well polished product is most often the result of big teams in diverse collaboration.

Moderators

Nick Fortugno

Chief Creative Officer, Playmatics

Nick Fortugno is a designer of games and interactive narrative experiences and co-founder of Playmatics. Fortugno has been lead designer on dozens of works, including leading interactive narrative design on Frankenstein AI, shown at Sundance New Frontier, and on games and experiences... Read More →

Jonathan Ogilvy

XR Producer, Little Red Robot

Jon’s first job was at Trilobyte, as a texturemap artist, bluescreen line producer and a DAMS project manager. Since then he has produced thousands of projects on time and on budget, even while remaining consistently at the forefront of emerging markets.As a civilian subcontractor... Read More →

Speakers

Saul Pena Gamero

Senior Software VR Developer, The Glimpse Group

Saul Pena Gamero is a Senior Software VR Developer at The Glimpse Group - A Virtual and Augmented Reality Company. He is currently developing VR training simulations for enterprise use. He has a Master's in Computer Science and a bachelors in International Business Administration... Read More →

David Gochfeld

XR Creator

David Gochfeld is an award-winning XR creator, experience designer and engineer specializing in interactive narrative and user experience design for multi-user virtual reality. He has presented his pioneering work with live performance in virtual reality at festivals and conferences... Read More →

Olivia Goldman

Co-Founder/Chief Creative Officer, NeuroStorm Studios

Olivia Goldman is a PhD candidate at Rockefeller University and artist who studies sensory perception of mosquitoes in Dr. Leslie Vosshall's lab. She is co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of NeuroStorm Studios, a startup at the intersection of neuroscience and immersive media... Read More →

Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga

Professor, Hunter College

Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga is an artist who seeks to establish dialogue in public spaces. Having been born of immigrant parents and grown up between Nicaragua and San Francisco, an awareness of inequality and discrimination was established at an early age. The ways that inequality and... Read More →

Thursday July 16, 2020 3:30pm - 5:00pm EDT
Sessions

XR For Change, Workshop

5:00pm EDT

Keynote - Holograms in the Age of Social Distancing

Join Asad Malik and Hana Pestle in a discussion on the process of Jadu building a hologram of Hana and releasing it during quarantine. Together, they will explore how volumetric capture will be handled post COVID-19.

Speakers

Asad Malik

CEO, Jadu

Asad J. Malik is a director working exclusively with augmented reality as a medium of narrative story telling. His studio 1RIC carved out a pioneering position in the AR for storytelling space when his immigration focused Hololens project Terminal 3 premiered to critical acclaim in... Read More →

Hana Pestle

Artist / Producer / Streamer

A frequent collaborator of Grimes and BloodPop, HANA has crafted a unique, forward-thinking style of both making and releasing music. HANA wrote, recorded, and produced her entire 12-track debut album ‘HANADRIEL’ in four weeks while live-streaming on Twitch. In addition to being... Read More →

Thursday July 16, 2020 5:00pm - 5:20pm EDT
Mainstage

XR For Change, Keynote

5:20pm EDT

The Future of Education with Verizon 5G

Learn about what Verizon is doing to support education today and how our first 5G school is demonstrating what's possible in schools of the future.

Speakers

Phil Puthumana

Manager, Verizon

Phil leads EdTech Innovation at the Verizon Foundation, responsible for the development and implementation of Verizon’s signature K12 Education programs focused on reducing the digital divide of underserved students and improving their STEM related academic achievement. Included... Read More →

Thursday July 16, 2020 5:20pm - 5:40pm EDT
Mainstage

XR For Change, Talk

5:40pm EDT

Keynote - Anti-Racism + XR (Encore)

Speakers

Courtney Cogburn

Associate Professor, Columbia University

Thursday July 16, 2020 5:40pm - 6:00pm EDT
Mainstage

XR For Change, Keynote