VR is more than games. Immerse into the new realities where VR is working to change the way we see and learn.
On November 9 Sofia hosts the top minds and communities from EU, US, Middle East, Asia coming together to discuss and experience VR and how it’s changing everything. A whole day of talk by world renown tech experts, 30+ hi-tech demos, insights by psychology and business specialists, high-level networking, and more.
Join us for a day of killer keynotes and networking with peers and industry leaders who are shaking up the VR, AR, XR industry. We’ve carefully crafted an incredible lineup of presenters who are prepared to arm you with new strategies, insights and know-how to fully use VR as a way to gain business advantage. Additionally we are curating 30+ experiences for you to see how it is changing business, learning, healthcare, and more.
Mr. Friedman assumed his duties as Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) at the U.S. Embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria in August, 2018. Previously, he was Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey (2014-17). Other overseas assignments include DCM at the U.S. Embassy in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei (2006-8), and positions in Croatia (2003-6), Canada (1997-9) and Ukraine (1995-7).
In Washington, Mr. Friedman served as the Director of the State Department’s Office of Caucasus Affairs and Regional Conflicts (2011-13) and as Director of the Office of Export Control Cooperation (2009-11). His other Washington assignments were as Special Assistant for Caspian Basin Energy Diplomacy (2001-2) and on the Russia Desk (1999-2001).
Krassimir Valchev has a Master’s degree in Public Finance. He has graduated from the University of Economics - Varna. Valchev has received "Budget and Financial Management" training at Duke University, USA.
Krasimir Valchev has extensive experience in the field of financing of education, as well as in evaluation and monitoring of the implementation of the European pre-accession programs.
In 2002, he started his career at the Ministry of Finance, and from 2003 to 2009 Valchev was an expert in the State Expenditures Directorate, which is involved in planning, implementing, analyzing, and evaluating budget expenditures. Krassimir Valchev participated in the development and implementation of sectoral and budgetary policies.
From September 2009 until February 2017 he was Secretary General at the Ministry of Education and Science.
From April to May 2017, Valchev served as Head of Department at the Local Government Financing Directorate at the Ministry of Finance.
Elected Minister of Education and Science on May 4, 2017
"Tom is an amalgam of Professor, Inventor and Entrepreneur in a professional career that spans 52 years. He is an original pioneer of virtual and augmented reality technology and widely known as the ‘grandfather of VR. Tom is currently a professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is the founder of the family of Human Interface Technology Laboratories at the University of Washington, Christchurch, New Zealand and Tasmania, Australia. He is the founder and chairman of the Virtual World Society, a non-profit for extending virtual reality as a learning system for families and other humanitarian applications. Over the past 26 years, Tom and his students have started 27 companies (two of which are traded on NASDAQ with a market capitalization of >$8 billion).
Mickey Revenaugh (Vice Chair) is a co-founder and Director of New School Models–Pearson Global Schools at Connections Academy, a leading national provider of virtual public school curriculum, technology, and school management services. Previously, she helped launch the E-rate program to wire every school and library to the Internet, and served as education technology magazine editor at Scholastic.
Neil has eighteen years’ experience in international business and has lived and worked in seven different countries. He is currently a Director & Senior Partner at Tomorrow Street, Vodafone’s global innovation centre based in Luxembourg. Tomorrow Street hosts and supports late-stage startups (focusing primarily on Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence) and helps them grow through the power of Vodafone's global footprint.
Shelley Peterson has supported Lockheed Martin pursuits, diving into the rapidly evolving augmented reality and wearables market to integrate emerging technologies into solutions for Lockheed Martin applications.
Early in her professional career, Shelley founded a business focused on emerging technology solutions, including military aircraft distributed mission training and multi-spectral imaging monoculars.
Ioana is the Virtual Solutions Leader for Procter&Gamble (P&G), Board Member of Women in Immersive Technologies Europe (WIIT), award-winning Film Maker and co-founder of Reality+ Productions, an independent film and VR company. P&G has been playing in the VR space for more than 10 years, in a wide range of domains: customer engagement, consumer research, manufacturing, branding etc.
Lead globally the delivery of Virtual Reality solutions used by P&G to drive better and more innovative customer engagement, shopper understanding and artwork design. Managesourcing of digital images globally. Manage innovation projects using VR/AR (with focus onanalytics and VR). Manage Virtual Solutions delivery team, 70+ people globally.
Assistant Professor at TU – Sofia. Author of 20+ published scientific papers and one of the primary developers at the Laboratory for Virtual Reality at TU – Sofia, as well as the Virtual and Augmented Reality Laboratory, part of Research and Development and Innovation Consortium. Descriptive text about the speaker goes here.
Shauna Heller is President, North America of AiSolve. AiSolve is a ten year old UK-based tech company that uses artificial intelligence to create VR and MR applications across simulation training and leisure. Their products include VRSims, an AI-embedded sim training platform for enterprise, defense and healthcare . AiSolve also produces the popular turn-key location based VR attraction, WePlayVR, live at dozens of theme parks and family entertainment centers worldwide. Prior to assuming her AiSolve position, Heller was the founder of Clay Park, an advisory firm for institutions, corporations and developers exploring VR. Heller began her work in immersive technology at Oculus, where she was the developer relations specialist managing VR development across enterprise, education and healthcare. BVR (before virtual reality), Heller was an LA-based director of business development for boutique creative technology companies working in virtual production and performance capture, where she focused on building partnerships and projects spanning education, entertainment and theme parks.
Erkan is an entrepreneur, game director, producer and designer. His companies have received more than 2 million USD as an investment and 250+ professionals directly managed by Erkan. Erkan founded Céidot Game Studios; one of the first game development studios of Turkey, in 2004. More than 10 titles have been developed by the studio. Joined Crytek as a publishing producer in 2015 and then promoted to director of game operations. Erkan was responsible from the entire Turkey / MENA operations of Crytek’s multiplayer games Erkan left Crytek to establish Metavese Reality Labs, another game venture focused on VR and mobile. Erkan is assisting METUTECH ATOM; Turkey’s first game focused incubation center, Bahcesehir University & Crytek VR1Lab.
Human Interact is an enterprise studio for learning and training with AI in VR.
