JP runs XR and gaming investments at Hartmann Capital, a frontier tech fund. In this episode, we dive deeper into what makes gaming so hot right now, and why is it going to be the catalyst of immersive technologies. Now, we already know that gaming is probably going to be a big part of the future, for different reasons. But what makes gaming so unique that it will take the spotlight of social interactions? Listen to the conversation and find out!

Tibor Mérey is a core member of Boston Consulting Group's Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT), which he leads in Austria, and currently one of the global metaverse experts at the company as well. His adventures in the metaverse happened way before anyone called it Metaverse, when the first consumer-ready VR devices were released around the previous decade (2010's). He comes into the podcast sharing his insights about what he believes is the direction of the metaverse, his perspective from an enterprise standpoint by working with many global companies, and how he typically advises these companies. Follow Tibor on LinkedIn to stay up to date with his content.

Hartmut Mueller is a Chief Transformation Officer at ServiceNow, and also led/transformed the IT Technology Organization for Mercedes-Benz Group AG. We talked about he approaches innovation within big corps, and how to create a more human centric approach towards new innovative technology like AI, Blockchain and Web3 in general. By focusing both on hardware and software, it's amazing to understand how a Chief Innovation / Transformation Officer thinks about new tech, how to speed up adoption within these big corps, and so much more.

Kenneth Corrêa is a business owner, AI/Metaverse evangelist with a 15 years track record in generating business growth across LATAM by using marketing, technology and innovation, and is currently an MBA professor at FGV, one of Brazil's leading business school. After closing different projects for global corporations, Kenneth sat down with me to talk about his strategy to close projects for Fortune 500 companies that are leading the way globally with both consumer facing products and business focused products/applications. To follow Kenneth on social, check out his profile @kenny.verse on Instagram.

Erik Londre is the founder and CEO of Karta, a Metaverse studio based out of the UK. Karta has worked with big brands like Amazon Music, top artists like BlackPink, Twice and major football clubs across Fortnite and Roblox. Before founding Karta, in 2021 Erik worked at esports juggernaut Fnatic as Head of Events. In this conversation, Erik shared some of the do's and dont's he learned about Metaverse Branded Experiences throughout the years, and how he sees the space nowadays after doing many successful branded experiences in big platforms. Also we talked about the different types of activations and how should modern marketers approach their metrics and revenue in such experiences.

Leslie Shannon is the global head of innovation at Nokia, and many might wonder what has Nokia to do with the Metaverse? Well, as it turns out, A LOT. Nokia has been behind the infrastructure and building blocks that are ESSENTIAL for the future of AR, VR and XR. In order for us to be able to run amazing experiences on small devices on a daily basis, it's obvious that a huge infrastructure will be required. That's where Nokia and Leslie come in. She walked us through all of the tech that's going to be involved and what is the vision of the future that she (and Nokia) have for the Metaverse.

Nic Hill has been at the center and forefront of the new era of user generated content and social gaming. Having built literally some of the top Roblox experiences for big brands like Alo Yoga and Fenty, and amazing Metaverse experiences for companies like Netflix, there's a lot that he can share about the current state and the future of social gaming, which I personally believe is the next iteration of social media.

Michael is the founder and creative director at Digital Lode Immersive Media, where they created one of the most popular Mixed Reality game titles on the Quest Store: Espire, which is a mix of Metal Gear Solid with VR/MR, a type of gaming that might revolutionize the industry in the next few years. We talked about how the industry is lacking innovation in terms of interactivity with devices and games, shares his vision for the market, and his experience developing what has become one of the most promising games of the Quest Store.

Brent has worked with some of the world's most innovative media and technology startups, including Uber and Facebook. Now his big bet is on Smart Token Technology, as he believes this will be the way web services and applications will integrate and exchange data seamlessly, allowing for better customer experiences, specially in bureaucratic processes. We also talked about what are some of the problems the tech can solve, and some applications they have worked on at Smart Token Labs.

John is a speaker and China tech expert, and in this episode we dive deeper into the ways China is exploring the metaverse, and already using several different solutions in a very interesting way to enhance E-Commerce and other verticals that are bringing businesses with revenue and innovation that pays off. We spoke a lot about Alibaba, TikTok (and its Chinese version Douyin), WeChat, Tencent and more. As John's personal mission is to connect China with the rest of the world and bridge that gap, it was an amazing conversation, definitely worth listening to, that gives us insights about how the future of the metaverse can be.

Diego Borgo has already been in a previous episode of the podcast bringing amazing insights about the Web3 space, and now he's back with even more valuable content to help us understand all the moving pieces of Web3, specially for brands. Since he's been at this since 2021, he helps us understand how brands have been using the same playbook since Nike and Adidas released their first NFT collections, and helps us see the path moving forward as brands need to reinvent the playbook in order to serve newer audiences. Very interesting to realize how some problems remain unsolved!

ShiSh is the Global Lead for Retail with Microsoft for Startups, leveraging his expertise to revolutionize the retail industry with cutting-edge innovations. At Microsoft, one of the things he has been invested into is the Industrial Metaverse and its applications. By working with the retail industry from an innovation perspective, he has been directly in touch with startups that are using the Metaverse to solve old and new problems in large scale manufacturing plants and industries in general. In this conversation, we talk about the Industrial Metaverse, Digital Twins, and examples of applications.

Filippo is a GTM expert with years of experience working with top-notch B2B SaaS companies worldwide and has been onboarding enterprises in Web3, enabling blockchain adoption and taking Web3 products to market. He's also a dear friend with whom I've worked with since 2022, analyzing over 100 brands strategies entering Web3 through our weekly Brands on Web3 live event. In this conversation, we talk about how brands were jumping on Web3 in 2021/2022, the Pyramid Concept created by Filippo, the next level of customer engagement and examples of brands doing it the right way. Check out his newsletter here: https://web3forenterprise.ghost.io/

Elijah is the founder and CEO of Zesty, a tool that looks to support VR game developers to make money off of their creations in the metaverse. We have talked about some of what he's been seeing lately at Zesty, in terms of advertising and marketing data, the behavior of users, differences between North America and Asia, and much more. We have also discussed some of the current and upcoming devices, and how that is going to affect marketing and advertising in the metaverse.

Alvin Wang Graylin has been the China President of HTC since 2016, leading all aspects of the Vive initiatives and also VR/Smartphone businesses. HTC has been one of the global leaders in the VR devices front for years now, so therefore Alvin has a unique perspective, which he brings to the conversation by leveraging a lot of incredible data generated through research at HTC, regarding the usage of the metaverse for different purposes, but mainly marketing and advertising. We also talked about responsible usage of the metaverse and the differences between the western metaverse and the chinese metaverse.

Adam is a designer serial entrepreneur focused on the innovative consumer products, and in this episode we talked about what has happened so far in 2023 in terms of devices & tech, what to expect out of new devices and especially the new Apple Reality Pro, but also what the future holds for entertainment and media. By leveraging Adam's expertise with building innovative technology and experiences, we are able to have a glimpse of the day-to-day lives of the future consumer.

Michael McDonald has been through some of the most successful gaming studios back when mobile was considered innovative, and was part of many blockbuster / AAA games that you probably know of, in companies like Ubisoft and EA. With his unique creative vision and experience, Michael came in to tell us a little bit more about the emerging tech for gaming and the metaverse in the upcoming years. An amazing and insightful conversation worth listening to!

Amy Peck is the founder & CEO of EndeavorXR, a leading global XR consulting firm working with Fortune 500 companies on XR, Metaverse and Web 3.0 strategy and deployment. Not only that, but Amy has a lot of experience within the XR world and also working with Web3 companies. Throughout the conversation, we talked about what companies are winning within Web2 by truly living the Web3 ethos, and what is the relation with consumer behavior in the near future. Data also plays an important role in such change of behavior, and big companies should keep an eye out for that.

Jorrit is the co-founder and CTO of YOM, which is the platform aiming to enable amazing experiences in the Metaverse for creators, companies and everything in between. We actually already interviewed another co-founder of YOM, Daniel van der Waals, in a previous episode. Jorrit explains to us the importance of having the right infrastructure in order to scale the Metaverse, and also the mindset that needs to be in place to make all of that happen. This is actually not his first business, so it was really interesting to see his perspective towards the present and future of Web3.

Adam has been a successful musician amassing 7 million plays across platforms, and has decided to dive deep into storytelling on Web3 through the company he co-founded, Zero Gravity Labs, where he, his team and his community are creating what is potentially to become the next Harry Potter or LoTR story, or potentially the Disney of Web3. It was a really exciting conversation where we could see what are the challenges and possibilities of co-creating a story alongside a global community for Adam and his team.