Tuesday, April 28th, 2015

6:30 PM – 9:00 PM, Marina Vista Room

The Virtual & Augmented Reality Evening Summit

Session I:

Virtual Reality - The Industry Visionaries and Innovators

Donnie Keller, Global Director, Xbox, Skype, & Holographic Media Solutions, Microsoft

Amir Rubin, founder & CEO, Sixense

Nathan Burba, co-founder & CEO, Survios

Nonny de la Peña, CEO Emblematic Group and Annenberg Fellow, USC School of Cinematic Arts

Neville Spiteri, CEO, WEVR

Moderator - Seth Shapiro, Governor, Interactive Media, The Television Academy

Amir Rubin, Co-Founder and CEO of Sixense, is an entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience building companies and developing products in the fields of simulation, video games, virtual reality and motion tracking.  Sixense is shaped around Amir’s two fundamental tenets for virtual reality: (1) to deliver the best user experience, the technology should be transparent to the user, and (2) a platform’s success depends on its ability to enable application developers.

Nonny de la Peña was named One of the 13 People Who Made the World More Creative by Fast Company for pioneering immersive journalism and changing the way people experience nonfiction narratives. Using cutting edge virtual reality technology, she immerses viewers in documentary stories, allowing them to feel an extraordinary emotional connection as witnesses.  A graduate of Harvard University, and a former correspondent for Newsweek, she has more than 20 years of journalism and award-winning documentary filmmaking experience.  Her work in virtual reality has been featured by the BBC, Mashable, Vice, Wired and many others.  Screenings and showcases around the globe include the Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals, Victoria and Albert Museum, Moscow Museum of Modern Art and other renown venues.  In conjunction with her doctorate, she is an Annenberg Fellow at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.

Neville Spiteri is CoFounder/CEO of WemoLab, pioneering a virtual reality open platform to unlock content creation and publishing on VR devices. WemoLab developed theBluVR, a virtual ocean experience on the Samsung Gear VR.  Neville started his career as a software engineer on the industry leading 3D animation product Maya at Wavefront in 1993, then as a technical director and digital effects supervisor at Digital Domain and Square. He served as Director of Product Management on the ground floor team of Greenplum|EMC, now Pivotal.

Neville was a Producer and Senior Development Director at Electronic Arts, where he led technology and production teams since 2004. Neville graduated Summa Cum Laude from Brandeis University in Computer Science and Cognitive Science in 1992.

Seth Shapiro, Governor, Interactive Media, The Television Academy:  Two-time Emmy® Award winner Seth Shapiro is a leading advisor in digital media. His work includes projects with Disney, Comcast, DIRECTV, Intel, IPG, NBC, Showtime, Verizon, Universal Pictures, Goldman Sachs and a range of early stage ventures.   He is a frequent speaker on media and innovation worldwide, has served as an expert in several federal media matters, and is completing his first book on the history and future of television.  Shapiro is a Governor of the Television Academy, the home of the Emmys. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and Chairman of Village Green Network.  As Head of Production at DIRECTV Advanced Services, Shapiro launched over 25 services on four platforms, including NFL Sunday Ticket Digital , Microsoft's UltimateTV® and TiVo by DIRECTV, the world's first major DVR platform. He was previously Partner at Media Valuation Partners, co-founder of ARC (a VOD service in 15 million homes) and a Producer at the Walt Disney Company.  Shapiro sits on the TV Academy's Digital Committee, the Annenberg Research Council and the Producer Guild's New Media Council. He is a Magna cum Laude graduate of New York University and was Adelbert Alumni Scholar at Case Western Reserve University.