Wednesday, May 23rd, 2018

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM – Immersive Hollywood: VR – AR – MR - XR

Session I: Guerin A, in Herscher Hall, Live Webcast

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

Michael Ludden, Director of Product, IBM’s Watson Developer Labs & AR/VR Labs

Patrick Costello, Senior Director of Business Development, Qualcomm

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

Daniel Oberlerchner, Director of Content Operations, Method EXP

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D., Founder & Chairman, ARIVAL

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

Moderator - Jay Samit, Independent Vice Chairman, Deloitte Digital, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Michael Ludden is Director of Product at IBM’s Watson Developer Labs & AR/VR Labs. Previously, Michael was Developer Marketing Manager Lead at Google, Head of Developer Marketing at Samsung, a Developer Evangelist at HTC, Global Director of Developer Relations at startups Quixey & Nexmo, and was involved at various times in development, product management, marketing, co-founding startups, tech show hosting, and even cruise-ship singing (don’t ask). Michael has a degree from UCLA and is happy to share more about exciting developments in the exploding field of Artificial Intelligence.

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.

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.

Daniel Oberlerchner, Director of Content Operations, Method EXP: With a background that blends deep immersion in VR with VFX pipeline expertise, production operations and brand management, Daniel guides clients through all aspects of immersive content creation. Prior to joining Method EXP, he was an Executive Producer at Company 3 for Call of Duty titles including Advanced Warfare and Black Ops II. His recent projects at Method EXP include producing localization on Warner Bros’ Justice League VR. Daniel’s early-adopter approach has shaped his career – from brand management to marketing to producing and operations.

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., Founder & Chairman, ARIVAL: 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.