Wednesday, October 17, 2018

11:15 AM – 12:15 PM – Immersive Hollywood: VR – AR – MR - XR

Session I: Guerin A, in Herscher Hall

2018-2019: The Year Augmented Reality Changes Everything - The Next 12 Months Change the industry

Patrick Costello, Senior Director of Business Development, Qualcomm

Aruna Inversin, Creative Director, VFX, Digital Domain

Tom Wesselman, VP/GM, Enterprise Software Group, Plantronics

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D., CEO, SocialRecall AR, Founder, Legend3D

Philip Lelyveld, VR/AR Program Manager, USC Entertainment Technology Center

Dan Philips, Global Head of Innovation, MPC

Moderator - Jay Samit, Best-Selling Author and Digital Disrupter

Dan Philips, Global Head of Innovation, MPC: Dan is a hugely experienced producer and strategist. He has successfully shaped and delivered a diverse range of experiences in digital interaction, immersive media, creative communications and audience engagement across advertising, branding, gaming, education and the Arts. Notable MPC Creative projects helmed by Dan include Talk Talk’s XFactor sponsorship TV and digital from 2014-16, the award-winning ‘Buster’s Garden’ VR experience for John Lewis Christmas 2016,

Samsung Snowboard VR for the 2018 Winter Olympics, FIFA World Cup Mascot World Cup 2018, Honda Accord ‘Trophy City’ social campaign, and numerous award-winning apps, installations, web experiences and immersive media projects for diverse brands from Balmain to Aquafresh. He also received Technicolor’s prestigious Engineering Award 2016. An accomplished industry events speaker, Dan has led advertising, communications and brand strategy projects for a range of national and international brands including BT, National Grid, BBC, English Heritage, O2, Imperial War Museums, British Airways, M&S, Aquafresh, Technicolor, and the London 2012 Olympics.

Patrick Costello, Senior Director of Business Development at Qualcomm Technologies Inc., is responsible for building partnerships with strategic multimedia partners in the sports and entertainment verticals.  In support of Qualcomm’s XR business, Patrick leads engagements with film studios, sports leagues, OEM’s, and ISV’s to drive content partnerships and traction for Qualcomm’s broader technology portfolio. Prior to joining Qualcomm, Patrick led business development for Kyocera Wireless in emerging markets like India, Indonesia, Thailand, and other markets in MEA and SEA.  Following completion of his International Relations degree from the University of San Diego in 1995, Patrick obtained his MBA from San Diego State University.

ARUNA INVERSIN - Creative Director & VFX Supervisor of VR/AR, Digital Domain: Aruna Inversin has cultivated more than twenty years of expertise in the visual effects industry and is an innovator in virtual and augmented reality. His work has resulted in many honors including two Emmy nominations and a Visual Effects Society nomination for the first Virtual Reality Advertisement, “The Neymar Jr. Experience” for Nike. Additionally, his work on Bjork’s “Stonemilker” VR experience, debuted at MoMA in New York. Lately Aruna has been supervising cinematic storytelling experiences through virtual reality on multiple formats. Aruna specializes in creative direction for immersive content and experiential technology. His work includes developing custom hardware solutions for immersive situations bringing projects from inception to delivery. Aruna is highly experienced in working with interactive real-time, virtual and augmented reality, and platform teams. Recent projects include multiple VR experiences for Syfy Network including “Welcome to the Quiet Room” for “Incorporated” and several for “The Expanse” series. Aruna is continuing to develop interactive real-time solutions for traditional delivery and high-end mobile solutions for delivery on headsets.

Tom Wesselman is VP/GM, Enterprise Software Group at Plantronics. His focus is connecting the capabilities of Plantronics products to the world around them. This starts with defining and building the data and services provided by Plantronics’ wearable technology, and then by working with partners and developers to integrate those capabilities into the applications people use. Prior to Plantronics, Wesselman held senior engineering roles at Cisco, where he led a variety of UC engineering programs including the development of the company’s first UC client.

Phil Lelyveld manages projects and guides the strategy of the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) within USC's School of Cinematic Arts.  The USC ETC, which is funded at the CTO level by the six major studios plus consumer electronics and internet companies, is a think tank and research center that brings together senior executives and thought leaders from the entertainment, consumer electronics, technology, and services industries, as well as USC faculty, to explore and act upon topics and issues related to technical aspects of the creation, distribution, and consumption of entertainment content.  For example, work in the early 2000's at the ETC led to the transition from film to 'Hollywood quality' digital projection in movie theaters.

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D., CEO, SocialRecall AR, Founder, Legend3D: From Harvard/MGH neuroscientist to internationally recognized serial entrepreneur, digital imaging expert & visual effects (VFX) pioneer, Dr. Barry Sandrew has over 33 patents and decades of feature film & TV accomplishments including productions for all the major Hollywood studios, TV networks & several cable networks. Sandrew is founder of 2 production studios that became gold standards for color VFX. In 2007 Sandrew invented a process for converting 2D films to 3D and subsequently founded Legend3D. Beginning in 2010, Sandrew oversaw creative and technical teams in the 3D conversion of Alice In Wonderland, the Shrek Trilogy, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and many more tent-pole films at the height of the 3D phenomenon. In subsequent years the teams Barry Sandrew led have worked on the 3D conversion and VFX of more than 50 of the highest grossing 3D feature films of the past 7 years. An invited keynote speaker at many international conferences focused on new media, Barry Sandrew is considered a thought leader in Augmented and Virtual Reality with an significant online following.  Dr. Sandrew is also a consultant to Fortune 5000 companies in the mobile space, focusing on emerging opportunities in augmented reality, the Internet of Things and 3D Sensor Technologies – Converging our Real and Digital Worlds.

Jay Samit serves as the U.S. National Sector Lead for Digital Reality at Deloitte Consulting LLP and focuses on providing Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed reality solutions for corporate and public sector clients. Samit has more than 30 years experience in digital transformation and is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on disruption and innovation. His international bestseller Disrupt You! Master Personal Transformation, Seize Opportunity and Thrive in the Era of Endless Innovation has been translated into six languages. Combining innovation with commercial success, Samit is the consummate dealmaker; his list of partners and associates reads like a who’s who list of innovators, including: Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg, Steve Jobs, Reid Hoffman, David Geffen, Richard Branson, Paul Allen, and Pierre Omidyar. A proven trend spotter, Samit accurately predicts the future because he is constantly working with those who create it. An adjunct professor at USC, Samit teaches innovation at America’s largest engineering school and is author of the internationally best-selling book Disrupt You! Master Personal Transformation, Seize Opportunity, and Thrive in the Era of Endless Innovation (available in seven languages including Chinese, Russian, Japanese and Korean). He is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal and host of its documentary series WSJ Startup of the Year.  Samit frequently appears on ABC, Bloomberg, CBS, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, NBC and tweets daily motivation to the over 100,000 business professionals who follow him on twitter @jaysamit. An expert on transformational corporate change, Samit has been quoted in The New York Times, The Economist, Businessweek, Forbes, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Fast Company and TechCrunch.