Ajay Fry, Co-Host InnerSpace
Space

Ajay began his national television career on YTV hosting the coveted Saturday morning block CRUNCH. After two successful years he blasted off to Space where he’s been in orbit for the last 7 years hosting InnerSpace (Weeknights at 6:00PM EST).  Along the way he’s made appearances in the web-series, Captain Canuck and Guidestones as well as a cameo on the Space original series Bitten.

He grew up “in the business” as a child actor and appeared on Big Wolf on Campus, Are You Afraid of the Dark, Lassie, and Undressed while lending his voice to the cartoons Little LuLu, Arthur and many more.  Days after his 18th birthday he flew to Beijing to voice the main characters in a series of English language educational videos. In just 30 days he logged more than 200 hours in studio and provided a variety of unique character voices.

More recently, he launched his YouTube series, 5 on Fry. The series acts as a platform for Ajay to offer his take on five topics of interest; TV series, movies, games or current affairs, if it’s popular, Ajay’s got something to say about it.

KEYNOTE
James Rodgers, Director of Innovation
PETA

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) started their Innovations Department when James Rodgers joined the organization and took on the role and title of Man of Action for Animals. Since then this unique team of freelancers, consultants and contractors, with a mission to develop empathy radically fast using emerging technology, has been busy

His team has done everything from establishing PETA’s illegal hunting eye-in-the-sky drone program to building Ellie, PETA’s life-sized, life-like walking, talking animatronic elephant that visits children in their schools to share why not to attend circuses that use animals.

Using immersive technology, PETA’s “I, Chicken” and “I, Orca” are virtual reality experiences designed to make it possible for users to empathize with animals on land and sea.

James will be sharing PETA’s experiences of using virtual reality and other emerging technologies for social change and empathy development.

Kim Davidson, President & CEO
SideFX

Co-founded in 1987, SideFX is a world-leading innovator of advanced 3D animation and special effects Houdini® software. Kim has been awarded the Technical Achievement and the Scientific and Engineering Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his work in developing 3D software, and the J. Wesley Graham Medal in Computing and Innovation from the University of Waterloo. Kim is a Board Member of SIRT (Screen Industries Research and Training Centre) in Toronto. He is also an active VES Board Member and Past-President of VES Toronto Section.

John Schrag, Experience Design Architect
Autodesk

John Schrag has been designing software tools for designers for 30 years. Specializing in interface design for artistic users with open-ended tasks, John has helped create 3d graphics tools for graphic artists, typographers, industrial designers, automotive stylists, animators, filmmakers, sculptors, game designers, and architects. He worked on Maya and was the lead UX designer for Mudbox, both of which were awarded Scientific and Technical Academy Awards. John has presented at UXPA, SIGGRAPH, and SIGCHI on the design of interactive 3d UI, user research methodologies, and Agile UX. Currently John is working at Autodesk, democratizing game engines, VR and AR technologies for the architecture and construction markets.

Colonel Kevin Mastin (retired), Director of Business Development
Acomb Ostendorf & Associates (AO&A)

AO&A helps clients deliver extraordinary guest experiences like theme parks, resorts, restaurants, or other themed destinations. They help guide clients with every aspect of development: from creative concept and design through construction.

Colonel Kevin Mastin (retired) is a former Air Force officer and fighter pilot who has commanded and led award-winning organizations with as many as 1,500 team members. He has extensive experience with team building, strategic planning, inter-agency coordination, diplomacy, and contingency operations.

In addition to flying and instructing in the T-37B, T-38A, T-38C and F-15C, Kevin also flew the F-16C as the Opposing and then Lead Solo Pilot for the USAF Thunderbirds Air Demonstration Team where he performed in over 120 airshows in front of millions of people throughout the world displaying the capabilities of Air Force pilots and front-line fighter aircraft. Prior to his retirement from the Air Force, Kevin was the Professor of Aerospace Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

Olga Nabatova,
Award Winning Artist

Olga loves Toronto and Torontonians! Originally from Lithuania and in Canada since ’92, Olga has worked for the last ten years creating a successful children’s theatre, which stages five performances a year. She wears many hats including set design, prop creation, installations, costume design, photos and video. As an artist, she paints and creates cartoons of cultural performances around town. Her true artistic love is sculpture. Her portrait sculptures in bronze and terracotta can be found in private collections in Germany, Holland, Belgium and Canada. In 2016, she discovered her latest canvass: virtual reality art using Google’s TiltBrush.

Ed Callway, Principal Member of Technical Staff
Advanced Micro Devices

Ed has been designing analog and digital products for 35 years, beginning with ultrasonic imaging equipment. At ATI/AMD he has developed a range of products including sound and graphics cards, the award winning All-in-Wonder graphics + TV tuner series, STB/DTV designs, as well as algorithms for video and display processing. His current work is focused on Virtual Reality and High Dynamic Range (HDR) displays.

He has a B.Eng and M.Eng in Engineering Physics from McMaster University and holds over 25 patents in video technology and computer architecture. Other interests include woodworking, PC case mods, 3D printing, acting, and messing with every car he’s ever owned so it sounds better and goes faster.

Kevin Carbotte, Tech Writer
Tom’s Hardware

Kevin is a lifelong electronics junkie with a passion for innovative new technologies. He has a deep understanding of computer technology and a knack for spotting innovations early on. Following a 12-year career in IT, Kevin joined Tom’s Hardware in January 2015 as a contributing writer covering graphics and virtual / augmented reality hardware. Since joining Tom’s Hardware, Kevin has reviewed all of the major VR HMD releases, more than a dozen graphics cards, as well as more than a dozen VR games. Kevin also regularly interviews industry professionals from around the globe, including software developers, hardware engineers, industry consultants, and company executives.

Kevin has also been involved in running a bi-annual LAN tournament called BaseLAN in his hometown of Winnipeg, MB. for 14 years. For the last five years, his role at BaseLAN involved demonstrating various immersive gaming technologies during the event including stereoscopic 3D and virtual reality gaming experiences.

Saleem Khan, Founder
JOVRNALISM

Saleem is a journalist and digital news pioneer with a passion for the public interest. He is the founder of JOVRNALISM — a professional community resource for producing virtual reality in journalism — and leads the investigative news and technology project INVSTG8.NET.

He covers VR and related technologies, as well as working with them as a trainer, technical adviser and consulting producer for news organizations. Saleem’s reporting on technology, business, security, surveillance and privacy has appeared in the New York Times, the Globe and Mail and National Post newspapers; and New York-headquartered business magazine Fast Company.

Saleem launched, managed and reported for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) technology news service; was news and global technology editor at the world’s largest international newspaper, Metro; and held editor roles at Toronto Star newspapers.

Saleem was a 2015 Kiplinger Fellow in Public Affairs Journalism at the Ohio State University, a 2014 UNITY (Ford) Journalism Fellow, and has won honors for his news-technology work from OpenNews, the African Media Initiative, Knight and Mozilla foundations.

Saleem is an active member of the Investigative Reporters and Editors, and the Online News Association. He serves as an elected judge of the IRE Awards, and adviser to the ONA Ethics Committee where he co-authored the industry-leading Social Newsgathering Code of Ethics.

He is strongly focused on VR ethics and inclusion.

Justin Cooney, Director, Developer Relations
Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR)

Justin Cooney, a 23-year industry veteran, has worked at Electronic Arts, Advanced Gravis, Logitech, Kensington, ATI, AMD, Sony Computer Entertainment America, OTOY, and now Razer.  Justin has jumped onboard with Razer to lead the developer outreach program for their Open Source Virtual Reality platform, also known as OSVR.   Through OSVR, Justin wants to share his love for VR and AR, with the help of great developers, with the world.

Tim Dashwood, Founder
11 Motion Pictures Limited
Dashwood Cinema Solutions

An accomplished director/cinematographer and stereographer, Dashwood’s diverse range of credits include music videos, commercials, documentaries and feature films, as well as S3D productions for 3net, DirectTV, Discovery Channel and the National Film Board of Canada. He also specializes in the previsualization of live action fight/stunt scenes for large-scale productions such as Kick-Ass, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Pacific Rim. Recent
credits include the films Air Knob, Bob, The Killer, Darknet and Academy Award Winner Chris Landreth’s Subconscious Password.

Tim’s latest development is 360VR Toolbox, a set of software tools to aid in cinematic 360˚ virtual reality post production.

Bertrand Nepveu, CEO
Vrvana

Bertrand Nepveu has spent his entire career working in the field of computer vision. From a very young age, he knew that he wanted to be an entrepreneur like his grandfather and change the world. A hardcore gamer since Donkey Kong on the Coleco Vision, he became obsessed with virtual reality when he tried the PowerGlove on the NES. Early adopter and gadget lover, he founded Vrvana in 2005 in order to fulfill his dream of improving the gaming experience by bringing the user inside the game. Geek at heart, he gathered the best and brightest in Montreal to create the ultimate mixed reality headset. Bertrand holds a Computer Engineering degree from the Université de Sherbrooke and an MBA from HEC Montréal.

Dave Doucette,STEAM Education Director
FAST Motion Studios

Dave is an award-winning science teacher with a passion for bridging science education research into effective high school classroom practice. During a 25 year career, Dave was a science department head and assistant head, wrote curriculum for the Ontario Ministry of Education, edited textbooks for Pearson and Nelson publishing, founded the Ontario Science Olympiad, served as an instructional facilitator at Perimeter Institute, authored 20 articles on ‘Bridging Research into Practice’ and modeled exemplary instructional practices in over 150 workshops at conferences and faculties of education in Canada and the US. Dave served as Vice President and President of the Ontario Association of Physics Teachers and was recognized as an honorary life member in 2013. In 2013 Dave also received the CAP (Canadian Association of Physicists) Award for Excellence in Teaching High School Physics.

Dave joined the team at FAST Motion Studios to help co-develop VR content for STEM education, ensuring education platforming includes cutting-edge learning research. VR is at the core of a confluence of disruptive technologies which have potential to totally transform human learning. Strategic amalgamation of technology and research will see this potential optimized. Dave’s role at FAST Motion Studios is to effectively partner resources from both sectors.

Kharis O’Connell, Head of Product
Archiact

Archiact is Canada’s largest and fastest growing virtual / mixed reality studio. Kharis has over 18 years of international experience in crafting thoughtful products and services.  Before joining Archiact, Kharis co-founded the emerging-tech design studio HUMAN.  He has also worked at Nokia Design in Berlin, Germany as Lead Designer on a multitude of award-winning products. Previous works also include flagship projects for Samsung – helping design their first smartphones back in 2008, and an interactive hardware/software installation for Nike in 2006.

Kharis gave the keynote at the 2014 Taiwan Design Week in Taipei, and is a startup mentor at the Wearable World / IoT labs accelerator in San Francisco, and advisor to Commandwear Inc and Proxxi Technology Corp in Vancouver,BC. He has also written an ebook for O’Reilly Media called “Designing for Mixed Reality” which is due out in September.

Luc Beaulieu, CTO
FRIMA Studio

Frima Studio is a 400-employee company with a passion for digital entertainment. Mr. Beaulieu is currently leading the CTO Office to ensure that the company’s technology strategy serves its business strategy with a focus in virtual reality, augmented reality and connected devices. Mr. Beaulieu has over 20 years of experience in video games, online communities and digital experiences.

Tom Curtin, Director of Business Development
Dimension Technologies Inc.

Tom is responsible for planning and implementing DTI go-to-market strategies to successfully commercialize and license DTI’s IP and know-how in autostereoscopic (glasses-free) 2D/3D displays. In that capacity, he identifies market opportunities, key players, value propositions and marketing, sales and communications strategies. He is experienced and skilled at discovering and defining market opportunities, developing and implementing business plans, and delivering business results.

Sample clients of DTI include NASA and Boeing.

Enrique Molano, CTO / Partner
Molanis VR

Molanis VR is a tech company that develops software and tools to help content creators reach new highs in the 360 Video and VR markets. Enrique is responsible for developing Molanis VR’s products including 360 camera rigs, a video stitching software, a 360 video editor, and 360 players for Windows, iOS and Android. Most recently he has been involved in creating 360 video content, VR experiences, and VR games with Unity. Enrique has 16 years of experience in software development and holds a Bachelor Degree in Electronical Engineering as well as an MBA from McGill University.

Ramtin Attar, Sr. Principal Research Scientist
Autodesk Research and Head of Design and Social Impact Group
Autodesk

Ramtin is a DiverseCity Fellow alumnus: The Greater Toronto Rising Leaders Project funded in part by the government of Ontario. As a passionate city-builder, Ramtin has a strong track record spanning domains of design, technology, education and civic leadership. He is also the founder of Imagine My City; a non-profit organization that he is working to grow by helping important regional issues through collective leadership coupled with tools of imagination. He has taught and lectured on digital media and design at four Canadian Universities while holding an honorary Research Professorship from Carleton University.

Dylan Pearce, Director
Lucas Talent

Award-winning Director, Dylan Pearce, has directed six feature length films, countless shorts and worked extensively with storytelling in 3D, 360 and VR. Dylan’s work has been screened worldwide and he most recently directed the award-winning 40 Below and Falling 3D. The film, earned him, a 2016 Canadian Screen Award nomination for best directing, an Alberta film award for directing and won a Lumiere at Warner Brother Studios alongside Star Wars, The Martian and Mad Max. One of Dylan’s, upcoming projects will be the horror film The Cottage What Lies Beneath filmed for BARCO ESCAPE. Dylan recently had his film Iron Dogs win best 3D pitch at the Stereo Media Summit in Belgium. Dylan’s focus on immersive storytelling with 3D and VR has led him to work and speak around the world.

Neil Schneider, Executive Director
The Immersive Technology Alliance

Neil Schneider is best known for founding Meant to be Seen (mtbs3D.com), the first modern stereoscopic 3D gaming community and the launch point of products like The Oculus Rift, the Virtuix Omni, the open source Vireio Perception VR drivers, and more. Neil also served as Manager of Immersive Technology Services for the Faculty of Business and IT at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, and was the founder of The Stereoscopic 3D Gaming Alliance which the Immersive Technology Alliance is born from.

Schneider’s VR sales models have been continually referenced by the likes of Fortune Magazine, Gamasutra, Motherboard magazine, and more. Pragmatic in nature, Schneider focuses on spotting the problems and jointly with the Immersive Technology Alliance, takes action to try and solve them.

Ryan Jackson, CEO
Full Circle Visuals Inc.

Ryan Jackson is an award-winning photojournalist focused on immersive storytelling in 360VR and 10K dome projection. He has worked at various publications across Canada including the Edmonton Journal where we was senior multimedia photojournalist for nine years. He now runs a growing 360-video production company, Full Circle Visuals Inc. based out of Edmonton.

Jackson has developed several award-winning multimedia projects over the years, including 360-degree videos dating back to 2010, interactive games for tablets, and a virtual reality conversation with candidates during an election campaign.

Always keen to share his knowledge, Jackson posted the first beginning-to-end online tutorial on creating 360 video of a World Record Dodgeball game in 2011, cementing his reputation as a global leader in the medium.

Ryan has been a documentary photojournalism instructor at MacEwan University and has been invited to speak about 360VR at numerous conferences including the Online News Association in 2012 and recently at the IMERSA Summit in Denver, NPAC in Toronto and the IX Symposium in Montreal.

Over the past decade, Jackson has been honoured with 26 national and international awards for his work in innovative multimedia storytelling.

Manuel R. Gutierrez Novelo, CEO
ImmersiON-VRelia

Manuel founded TDVision in 2003 providing an entire solution for the full HD 3D to the home ecosystem in 2006, now ISO MVC standardized for Blu-ray 3D and internationally awarded with a Lumiere 2013 for his contributions to the 3D industry.

In 2014, he created ImmersiON with the mission to provide the users with the entire platform for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality and later performed a strategic fusion and Acquisition of VRelia, creating ImmersiON-VRelia Inc. to accelerate the development of HMDs and HUDs with a wide field of view and the AlterSpace platform for content integration.

Gutierrez Novelo architected A.I.L.E.E.N.N., an Artificial Intelligence Neural Network, a powerful engine that emulates the way the human brain works by creating multidimensional synapses of any pattern with an object oriented approach and analyzing with Fuzzy Logic to understand contexts, predict and forecast results and finding correlation and covariance patterns of any data set.

He Co-Founded AngelInventum, a company with the mission to help inventors to bring their ideas to the market, leveraging years of know-how and expertise to design the business strategy and accelerate the time to market to maximize the return of investment. Manuel Holds a Bachelor Science degree in Electronics Engineering from ITESO with Digital Control and Digital Systems emphasis.  Manuel holds more than 30 patents issued worldwide, and has been an active contributor in the standards community as an inventor, entrepreneur, multilanguage speaker and he is the master architect of the ImmersiON, AlterSpace, TDVision and AILEENN initiatives.

Bernie Roehl, CEO
Virtual Escapes

Bernie Roehl has been involved in VR development for over 20 years, and has written a number of books on the subject along with countless articles (both technical and non-technical). He has worked on standardization efforts in the VR industry, including early attempts such as VRML, and was the developer of one of the first open-source VR SDKs.

He is currently developing room-escape games for both the Gear VR and the HTC Vive, as well as developing VR software for major clients such as Lindor Chocolates and UNICEF Canada. In addition to his work at Virtual Escapes, he is the CTO for two VR-related startups (Deep Realities and Tiriam Immersive Media).

His main areas of interests are multi-user social virtual environments, embodiment in VR, and the intersection of VR with interactive and improvisational theatre.

Nigel Newton, Director – Canada
INDE

Consulting in augmented and virtual reality, Nigel is Director (Canada) for INDE on their large screen BroadcastAR solutions as installed at the Toronto Zoo and Montréal Biodôme.

Nigel introduced mobile AR to Canadians in 2012 with Layar while leading digital product at Postmedia. This led to the groundbreaking Nissan Canada campaign that won a Media Innovation Award.

In 2013 he integrated Layar into Glacier Media’s BC newspapers, Readers Digest Canada and the Toronto Star. In 2014 Nigel led business development for Layar in North America with apps for BMW USA and Pure Romance. When Blippar acquired Layar, he was appointed as VP Canada working with General Mills, PepsiCo, P&G and Blue Ant Media.

Jean-Philippe Doiron, Technology Director
FRIMA Studio

With Frima since 2009, Jean-Philippe benefits from over fifteen years of professional experience in R&D. Before joining Frima, he co-founded a company specializing in the development of Web applications, where he acted as a developer for the better part of six years. He also worked for seven years as a consultant, mostly in Canada, the US and the UK, developing highly optimized and multithreaded database architecture and reporting systems for transit operators. His current responsibilities as Director of Technology include fostering relationships, suggest and manage innovation endeavors and exploring new ways to position Frima for the future.

Ana Serrano, Chief Digital Officer, CFC Lab Founder
The Canadian Film Center (CFC)

Serrano is driving the digital transformation of the CFC into a unique blend of talent, product and company accelerator and creative production house. Most recently, she launched Canada’s first digital entertainment accelerator ideaBOOST with founding partners Shaw Media, Corus Entertainment, and Google. To date, Serrano has directed the development of over 130 digital media projects, mentored over 50 start-ups, and has received numerous awards from the digital media, film, and theatre industries in both Canada and the U.S., including a DigiAward for Visionary of the Year, a Best Canadian Feature Film Award from the International Reel Asian Film Festival for her own transmedia production Prison Dancer: the Musical, and a Jim Blackaby Ingenuity Award for Body/Mind/Change. She is an adjunct professor at OCADu, an Executive Member of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences (IADAS) which presents the Webbys, and frequently speaks at digital media and film festivals around the world about the creation and business of digital entertainment.

Vijay Ravindran, CEO and Co-Founder
Floreo

Floreo is a startup building social therapy applications in virtual reality. He is an Amazon veteran (1998-2005) with extensive experience leading startups from creative ideas to successful operations. At Amazon he led product and engineering for the teams responsible for consumer purchasing on all Amazon properties, including Shopping Cart, Checkout, 1-click, and Your Account and oversaw the launch of Amazon Prime.

In other prior roles to Floreo, he was the Chief Digital Officer at The Washington Post Company, CEO of a news startup, and founding CTO of a political technology company that was active in the 2008 presidential campaign and worked closely with the Obama and Clinton presidential campaigns.

Brent Jentzsch, Director Developer Relations
Idealens

Brent is an experienced character animator, producer, teacher and evangelist. He has a BFA in Animation & VFX from the Academy of Art University. While at Mixamo, Inc (now part of the Adobe family), he animated thousands of animations that have been used in countless projects, including TellTale’s “Jurassic Park: The Game” and EPSN’s Sports Science, the latter seen by millions during a prime time airing of NBA’s Chicago vs Cleveland playoff game. He animated on and produced Mixamo’s animated short film “Unplugged”.

He has been teaching animation and motion capture at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco since 2010, including guest teaching masters animation courses at Ruta N in Medellin, Colombia as well as iAnimate.net.

In his current role at IDEALENS, he is laying down the relationships and groundwork for launching an innovative self contained mobile virtual reality head mounted display.

Gord Harris, Senior Program Manager
Christie Digital

Gord works in Christie’s Research and Innovation group as a physicist focusing on simulation and visualization displays. Recent work includes concept and design of the SV1 simulator, the Deployable Immersive Simulator, the DualView display, the EGG 3D system and the Collimated 3D display. These are all forms of immersive displays. Previously he worked as a freelance R&D consultant for four years after 24 years at IMAX as an engineering generalist in the science of mechanical, optical and electronic displays.

Dr. Jon Peddie, CEO
Jon Peddie Research

Dr. Jon Peddie is one of the pioneers of the graphics industry, and formed Jon Peddie Research (JPR) to provide customer intimate consulting and market forecasting services. Peddie lectures at numerous conferences on topics pertaining to graphics technology and the emerging trends in digital media technology. Recently named one of the most influential analysts, he regularly advises investors in the GLG network, he is frequently quoted in trade and business publications, was the former president of Siggraph Pioneers, and he is also the author or co-author of eleven books his most recent, The History of Visual Magic in Computers. Dr. Jon Peddie was recently honored by the CAD Society with a lifetime achievement award.

Derick Downey, CEO and Co-Founder
Immersion Arcade

Immersion Arcade is the United States’ first VR arcade out of Normal, Illinois. Derick is a full-time professor for Illinois State University’s Program in Arts Technology where he teaches audio engineering, Max/MSP, storytelling, and basic skills in the digital arts. Instead of using this summer to apply for PhD programs, Derick decided to help his friend Brian Jesse, a startup scene web developer of 5 years and current CTO of Immersion Arcade, pursue Brian’s hunch — that the high cost of the HTC Vive will cause the arcade business model of the 70s and 80s to become relevant again. Through Brian and Derick’s combined efforts, Immersion Arcade opened on June 14th (just 2 weeks after CTRL V) and remains a fully-functional Steam-partner arcade, offering 20+ commercially-licensed VR games to customers. Immersion Arcade is currently spearheading VRLeague.org — the world’s first international VR arcade tournament.

Brian Jesse, Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Immersion Arcade and VR League

Brian is an Illinois native, an alum of the computer science program at Illinois State University, and a former software developer at Wolfram|Alpha. He has been working in the startup community as a software architect and consultant since 2012. Today Brian devotes his time to developing VR League’s platform and API.

Stephan Tanguay, Director of Gaming & Technology
Super Polygon Games & Interactive

Stephan Tanguay is an award winning game director, designer and developer specializing in Virtual Reality located in Toronto Canada. Stephan has won awards such as an Applied Arts Interactive Media award, several IAC awards for work in addition to several Webby, Cannes nominations and an Banff 2012 Rockies nomination for work on the game Nomatics.

His job responsibilities have included game director, senior technical lead, lead game designer, technical artist, lead game developer, level designer and user experience designer. This wide range of experience gives Stephan a unique perspective allowing him to deliver exceptionally creative interactive experiences across numerous cutting edge technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality.

Charlie Morrow, Founder
MorrowSound

Passionate about using sound and music to inspire, entertain, and even heal, Charlie Morrow is an acclaimed multimedia artist, producer, and composer. He is a leading figure in branded sound and advocate for the use of sound for well-being.

Taking sound to the next level, Morrow most recently created MorrowSound®, a state-of-the-art technology at the forefront of the rapidly-expanding field of 3D sound. The first technology to use a real sound source, MorrowSound projects sound above and below the listening plane, creating the illusion of an expanded space where sound moves up, down and around. It has been showcased at major venues and events around the world, including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics, and 2009 Design Week Helsinki.

A prolific composer, Morrow’s numerous credits include a Cannes Awards-winning campaign for Diet Coke and the feature film soundtracks for Moonwalk 1 and Altered States.

Patrice Roulet Fontani, Co-founder of Technology and Director, Engineering
ImmerVision

Based in Canada, Patrice heads ImmerVision’s engineering and contributes to the IP growth and the adoption of ImmerVision’s 360° panomorph technology by global corporations.  He has overseen the integration of 360° imaging technology in numerous consumer electronics, surveillance, automotive, aerospace, medical and broadcast products. Recently, he has led the miniaturization of the panomorph 360° technology for smartphones, tablets, wearables and IoT devices.

Back in 2000 in France, after completing his Master’s degree in image processing and computer graphics, Patrice joined the INRIA and contributed to their research in robotic surgery simulation field. In parallel, he co-founded ImmerVision, a company dedicated to 360° optics and imaging technology. With his conviction that 360° technology could be applied everywhere, he contributed to the development of 360° panomorph optical and imaging technology.

Beyond technology, Patrice believes that innovation is propelled by human beings, partnerships and alliances – he has collaborated with a large ecosystem of partners in the optics industry like Fujifilm, CBC Computar, Tamron and Kolen, and in the silicon industry like Marvel, Intel, Qualcomm, Sony, Samsung, HiSilicon, NXP and OmniVision. In addition, Patrice is an avid surfer, international traveler and always seeks to make new connections.

Dr. Jason Jerald, Co-Founder and Principal Consultant
NextGen Interactions

Dr. Jerald has been creating 3D computer graphics and next-generation computer interfaces for over 20 years. Jason has held various technical and leadership positions and currently serves on multiple conference committees and advisory boards. His work has been featured on ABC’s Shark Tank and the Discovery Channel, in the New York Times, and on the cover of the MIT Press Journal Presence: Teleoperators and Telepresence. He has worked with various organizations including Fortune 500 companies (General Motors, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin), research institutions (NASA Ames, Argonne National Labs, Pacific Northwest National Laboratories), game companies (Valve, Oculus VR, Sixense Entertainment), and startups (e.g., Virtuix, CI Dynamics, Spot On Performance). Jason’s book ‘Perceptual and Interaction Design for Virtual Reality’ was a top seller at SIGGRAPH 2015 and will be available in wide release shortly.

James Stewart, Founder
Geneva Film Company

Geneva Film Co. was founded by commercial director James Stewart to produce his work in live action, VFX, stop-motion and CG animation on platforms ranging from mobile to giant screen including gesture control and VR. His award-winning stop-motion 3D short film FOXED! has screened at over 90 film festivals, winning multiple awards and opened at #1 on iTunes in October 2014. Stewart’s recent projects include 3D cinema commercials for Samsung, Toyota, Lexus, Sprint, and the 3D concert film Experience Montreux.

His work on Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams was awarded the Lumière Award for Best 3D Documentary and in 2012, he produced the world’s first gesture-controlled 3D cinema game for Samsung. Stewart was recently featured with Ang Lee on the cover of the Directors issue of SHOOT magazine. He is a six-time speaker at Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. At TED2011 he presented the TEDTalk Storytelling in the Next Dimension.

Professor Michael Page,
PI PHASE Lab (Prototype Holographics for Art and Science Exploration)
OCAD University/ Institute for Optical Sciences, University of Toronto

Michael Page has been kicking out the boundaries of holographic technology since the 70’s. His holographic artworks have been exhibited around the world. His current federal and provincially sponsored research includes haptic holography (holograms you can touch), holograms and mobile devices, holographic scanners, holograms of electrical activity in the human brain, and holograms of CAT, PET, CT and Confocal Microscopy data.