Welcome to the Metaverse

Will the experience of millions of people forced to work, play, and socialize online because of the covid-19 pandemic change our attitudes toward life in virtual worlds?

It's been over three decades since Jaron Lanier coined the term virtual reality. Since then, the technologies for creating virtual worlds have matured, but public acceptance has remained low. Most people still can’t imagine virtual experiences competing with ‘real life.’

Now suddenly we've been thrust into a global experiment, designed to see if we can use video conferencing, collaborative workspaces, and online entertainment venues as replacements for IRL.

What lessons are we learning from this experiment that can improve the quality of virtual experiences?

Will this experience be the tipping point that fast forwards the acceptance of virtual life?

How real are our concerns about digital isolation, and what can we do to mitigate them?

Join Speculative Futures Orlando as we GO VIRTUAL to explore the future of life in virtual worlds. Tuesday, April 21, 2020, from 7 pm to 8:30 pm EDT.

During the session, we'll share some of the latest information on virtual worlds, play with some online technologies, and create scenarios that explore the future of virtual engagements.

Your hosts for the event:

Joe Tankersley- President Unique Visions, inc. Founder of the Orlando Chapter of Speculative Futures. Futurist and author. Joe helps corporations, nonprofits, and community imagineer their best tomorrows.

Christopher Stapleton- Creative Venture Catalyst for Simiosys Real World Labs, has been melting the boundaries between the real, virtual, and imaginary worlds for nearly 40 years. His current research is exploring how to transcend time and space for human connection and social engagement. As Co-Founder of the Virtual World Society (VWS) with the Grandfather of VR, Tom Furness. Mr. Stapleton is applying his work as an Innovation Broker to accelerate the innovation process to bring innovations to those who need it most.

Steve Lewis- Creative Director, Slewpiter Productions
Steve brings 20+ years of experience in the hospitality and theme park industry to XR, Virtual Reality, Spatial Computing, and AI with a specific focus on Space Tourism and Digital Narrative Storytelling.