Making the Metaverse

Aakash Singh is a Global People Management and Development Advisor. He is a mentor and a friend to over 37,000 students and 19 business owners globally. Aakash started his professional life as an engineer and eventually became a ‘talent architect’. Aakash helps people find their ‘perfect fit’, using the power of storytelling. He writes and speaks about HR, talent acquisition, and career development. 

In this episode Aakash shares his insights on the role artificial intelligence is playing in HR. He covers everything from recruitment to resume writing. Aakash also offers some advice to students who are graduating and entering into the workforce. What are employers looking for? Should they be using ChatGPT? Listen to the episode for the answers! 

Connect with Aakash:

Pranava is a Student Voice/Marketing Intern at AI for Education and a junior at Middleton High School. Pranava's impressive achievements include winning first place in the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) national competition and state competition. He has led business education workshops at the national level, and has spoken at global conferences such as GovAI 2023 and the prestigious IIT Global 2024 regarding the future of AI in education. Pranava is committed to bridging the gap between students and teachers regarding AI literacy. Pranava is a huge fan of the Golden State Warriors. 

Zoe Lord is a Queen’s University graduate student studying cognitive load in virtual reality environments for chemistry education and a Scientist-Astronaut candidate at the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) conducting bioastronautics research. 

Prior to graduate work Zoe earned two Bachelor’s of Science degrees in the Specializations of Neuroscience and Chemistry with a Minor in Biology at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. 

In this episode Zoe talks about her VR research and shares stories about training to be an astronaut, what it’s like to be on a micro-gravity plane, and how it felt recently flying a plane for the first time. 

Connect with Zoe on LinkedIn: 

Maria Becerra is an AI business strategist, presenter, prolific volunteer, and content creator. If you don’t already follow her on LinkedIn, you should, because she has a ton of insightful and informative content with a splash of humour. 

Maria has worked for TD, Deloitte, and Canadian Tire and holds a graduate degree from Smith School of Business at Queen’s. She’s currently director of AI expedition a community driven project that makes learning about AI accessible to everyone. 

Connect with Maria:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariaf-becerra/

Join the AI Expedition Community:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/ai-expedition/

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My guest today is Andy Ku, CEO of Altava. Andy is a graduate of Cornell and of Harvard where he studied architecture and urban planning. He has been involved in start ups for the past 20 years working with some of the biggest names in media and gaming. 

Zak is a multi-talented individual with experience in a range of domains including healthcare, big tech, academics, management consulting and government in Canada and in the USA. 

He has worked on VR and AI products at Facebook/Meta. He also created an app for Crohn’s and Colitis Canada that gained him national attention. He is a researcher, a project manager and an entrepreneur. 

Korey Thomson is a graduate of the Instrumentation and Control Engineering Technology program at St. Lawrence College. He also has an advanced diploma in game programming from Humber. Korey now works at the Queen’s University Medical Simulation Lab where he has been developing augmented reality based simulations. He also teaches at St. Lawrence College.

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Angad uses the power of art as a medium to break the taboo that mental health carries in India and globally. His art therapy sessions and workshops for corporates and blocked creative professionals increase creativity and communication skills. Shh... It's Taboo, his mental health event has enabled hundreds of people to share their mental health stories, empowering hundreds more to start talking about theirs. He co-founded The Colours of Change Foundation to spark conversations about locally relevant social issues in rural communities in India and to empower artists by the giving them a voice at the same time.

Connect with Angad:

Corey is VP of Web3 and Industry 4.0 at dapphaus. He is an experienced entrepreneur and creative problem solver with a vast technical, managerial, and creative skillset. He's spend a lot of time focused on digital media and emerging technologies. In the past several years, Corey has helped some big brands move into new digital spaces. As the founder and CEO of Parcel Party he has created unforgettable experiences inside virtual worlds and video games. Corey has a wealth of knowledge and experience that only a few people in the space have developed.

Connect with Corey:

Dapphaus: https://www.dapphaus.io/

Parcel Party: https://parcelparty.io/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreykovnats/

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Fernanda is a multidisciplinary artist based in Mexico City. She is deeply passionate about creating unique and impactful digital experiences through NFT technology. She has leveraged her expertise in storytelling, video creation, and editing to bring her vision to life.

Fernanda designed, promoted and sold out her first NFT collection “Serious and Cool” as a one person team. Her new project Docena is the first zodiac themed dynamic NFT on the market.

Connect with Fernanda and her work:

My guest today is Evan Sitler-Bates, co-founder of XpertVR, which is revolutionizing education and job training for something like a million users in a range of sectors and industries. He’s been in the space for several years and is passionate about making education accessible, affordable and verifiable. 

Connect with Evan and XpertVR here:

Sam Huber is a metaverse pioneer. He is the CEO and founder of LandVault, the largest real estate company in the metaverse. With $37 million in funding, a team that includes 120 architects, designers and developers, and partnerships with brands including Mastercard, L’Oreal and Heineken, Sam is shaping the future of our digital realms. 

Connect with Sam:

Really enjoyed speaking with Dr. Alexander Hughes about his recent eCampusOntario report titled “Wallets, Passports, Portfolios, Credentials: What Learners Want in a Virtual Education Wallet.” Alex shared insights on what learners think about access, use and adoption of a virtual wallet system that stores digital educational credentials. According to Jill Dunlop, Minister of Colleges and Universities, “The research carried out by eCampusOntario clearly indicates that learners are interested in and receptive to virtual wallets for storing their educational credentials.”

Adri Mukund is a designer with a passion for creating impactful and meaningful designs that leave a lasting impression. With years of experience and a proven track record of success, Adri is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of creativity and delivering visually stunning designs that inspire and captivate audiences.

Adri has earned recognition as a visionary in the design world and is continuously striving to evolve and grow as a designer. With a keen eye for detail, Adri's designs are not only beautiful, but also thought-provoking and memorable.

Adri's artworks have been showcased in prestigious exhibits such as Kaari Kollective, CGW Exhibit, Nautz Exhibit, CSS Club Exhibit, NFT NYC'23, and NFT Karachi'23.

My guest today brings incredible insight and a tremendous level of passion to web3. Costantino Roselli is Founder & Chief Metaverse Officer at NTZNS and an Advisory Board Member on the Metaverse Fashion Council. He is a top brand storyteller, bestselling author, futurist and keynote speaker. He holds two masters in Digital Marketing and Leadership, a Diploma in Management of Arts, Culture & Communication, a bachelor's in Computer Science, and over 21 certificates in Future Thinking, Gamification, Storytelling, Brand Management, Fashion & Luxury Management, Communication, Growth Hacking Marketing, Human Psychology, and Human-Technology Interaction. Costantino is truly a leader in the space and it is a great honour to have him here today!

John King has a wide range of skills and experiences that he brings to the edtech space. He took his undergraduate degree at the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia and completed a Masters degree at the Chinese University of Hong Kong where he studied globalization, commerce and media. He has worked as a lecturer, researcher and sales director for firms in the United States and in China. More recently, John has been in the edtech space working with VictoryXR, bringing colleges and universities into the XR education space through the building of digital twins and the integration of XR tech with curriculum. 

My guest today is Sati, a digital artist and NFT creator with a fierce dedication to her craft. She has a life long love of graffiti, canvases and all the traditional art she can get close to. Several years ago she discovered digital art and it heavily influenced her illustration style and way of thinking. Now she is developing her own brand and working on a range of NFT projects.

In her art, she explores themes of identity, love, and melancholy. Her art style also incorporates influences from retro futuristic aesthetic, music, anime and life experiences. Her largest project, TV Obsession, was featured on the front page of OpenSea at the peak of the NFT boom. Her journey has not always been a walk in the park but she has remained dedicated to her art and persevered through difficult times. Sati has a wealth of experience to share with artists and collectors in this very special one year anniversary episode of Making the Metaverse.

Connect with Sati:

Ron Bauer is a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and author, with over 20 years of experience. He is focused on FinTech, EdTech, SaaS, Gaming, VR, AR, Metaverse and Web 3.0. Ron has a track record of supporting disruptors from early-stage seed funding all the way through to IPOs, as well as SPACs. He has been a major shareholder and principal investor in many companies.

He was the Co-Founder of Turkana Energy, which merged with Africa Oil (TSX: AOI) in July 2009. The company went on to have a peak market value of over $3 Billion CAD, having raised more than $1 Billion of equity after Tullow Oil successfully drilled Turkana’s oil concession. Ron’s greatest personal quality is his ability to adapt himself to changing economic climates and diversifying sectors. He holds an MBA from the University of Cambridge.

Find Ron here:

Samuel Dahan is law professor at Queen’s University and is cross-appointed to Cornell Law School and Paris Dauphine Law School. A qualified lawyer and former EU official, his areas of interest include labour analytics and dispute resolution. He is the head of policy at the Deel Lab for Global Employment, a research consortium on labour policy and compliance analytics.

My guest today is Alex Scott. Alex is the Academic Director for the SIT Learning MMA, the Director of Group Risk Management products at Borealis AI (RBC’s AI Research Institute), and an instructor in the Analytics group at the Smith School of Business. At Borealis AI he is the product owner for all AI products in the risk line of business. Prior to Borealis AI, Alex led data science teams in the Analytics Center of Excellence at TD Bank and held various roles in management consulting at EY, Novantas, and the Carly Rian Group.

He has experience leading analytics programs, products, and courses at financial institutions and public sector organizations around the world.

My guest today is Arthur Huang, Founder and Managing Partner of The Blockchain Lab, a national student-run community that specializes in content creation, incubation, event hostings, and cryptocurrency investments. Arthur is a recipient of the D&R Sobey Atlantic Scholarship at the Smith School of Business, Queen’s University. He is a digital asset fund analyst with Round13 Capital and is involved in several student run clubs focused on finance and consulting.

Connect with Arthur:

LinkedIn

Grigory is a research associate at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance where he runs the Regulatory Knowledge Exchange project. Before joining the CCAF he worked at various tech companies, across functions but mainly on legal and research roles. He has also previously worked in the legal and research sectors in China and Central Asia and received an honours degree in law from the University of Edinburgh, specialising in international law. He teaches various courses on fintech and regulatory topics, including Schaffhausen Institute of Technology's course on Web 3.0.

Email: g.mckain@jbs.cam.ac.uk

Pavel is an expert in ethically aligned AI & Digital Assets regulations, markets, partnerships and revenue models. He is Co-Founder and Venture Operating Partner at Vision Studio Ventures (VSV). VSV's purpose is to democratize venture investments for the operating partner network. In addition to capital, VSV provides go-to-market advisory services and connects senior enterprise executives with world class founders to help build legendary companies, accelerate user acquisition & revenue growth.

One of the VSV portfolio companies is Fasset, which is building the golden bridge between trad-fi & ce-de-fi with real world partnerships (banks, telcos, payment platforms) in emerging markets like UAE, Indonesia, Turkey and others. Pavel is on a mission to empower the next billion of Web3 users to learn, play, invest, earn, and spend in crypto.

Pavel holds degrees from the University of Toronto (Bachelor of Engineering) and the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University (Masters in AI & Advanced Analytics). Pavel is teaching Web3 webinars through the Schaffhausen Institute of Technology that will be offered online and in person in Dubai and Zurich. Details for the program can be found here: https://learning.sit.org/learning/web-3

More information about Pavel can be found on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavelrahman/

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Making the Metaverse is hosted by Michael Carter and produced by www.ontheblockchain.ca Canada's fastest growing blockchain media community.

Collin O’Brien is Head of Marketing for Rubic. Rubic is a cross-chain DeFi ecosystem, which features cross-chain swaps, on-chain swaps and much more. Their aim is to deliver a complete ONE-STOP decentralized trading platform. The Rubic platform is a place where users can complete cross-chain swaps utilizing different solutions, where users will get the best rates from all the leading swap protocols (thanks to a DEX aggregator implementation), as well as access to a unique cross-chain feature which gives the opportunity to swap all supported tokens on 1 click!

Find Collin here:

Adam is the Chief Strategy Officer of RDX Works, a core development company behind the Radix Public Network. Throughout his career, Adam has worked in and with multiple successful start-up, scale-up, and platforms businesses in marketing, content, and strategy.

Prior to joining RDX Works, Adam built a video sharing platform to over 35 million Monthly Active Users and the VRA token community to over 250k people."

Chris Horne is an Emmy and Peabody award winner with deep experience developing projects that marry frontier technology with the arts - from filmmaking in VR at Oculus, running the core UX/UI team on Facebook's next-generation Social VR platform (basically the Metaverse), and specializing in fixing some of the largest and gnarliest shots at Pixar. His current project, Filta, is an NFT face filter marketplace that lets you create, trade and wear face filter and avatar NFTs. FIlta is backed by Y Combinator.

Harrison Jordan is a Toronto-based lawyer and consultant with a focus on legal matters involving NFTs and Web3. He graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School where he enrolled in a broad range of public and private law courses. Harrison enjoys staying abreast of developments in the NFT space, and providing legal advice and services involving the use of NFTs in business.

Jojo Sunshine is a visual artist and educator based in Portland, Oregon. In this episode, she shares her unconventional journey into web3 and NFTs, the origin story of GIRL HAUS, and why she believes web3 is the future for creators.

Find out more about Jojo here:

Website: https://www.jojosunshine.com/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jojosunshineart/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jojosunshineart

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Entrepreneur and crypto educator Briana founded 0xx to be a welcoming front door for other women to walk through. Frustrated by the lack of financial safety nets for new mothers in the freelancing world, Briana knew there must be other options and began exploring decentralized, accessible wealth building options in Web3.

Discouraged by the overabundance of bro-marketing and utter lack of accessible education, Briana set out to raise the bar with making crypto truly accessible to women from all walks of life. Her goal is to act as a catalyst for bringing together the bold—those that want to radically uplift the world and their bank accounts.

Find out more from Briana and 0XX here:

Anastasia Drinevskaya is the most dynamic and interesting human in web3. She has multiple degrees, a love of theatre and fashion, she kicks b*tt in the gym, she models, she can juggle, and there is a rumour that she will soon breathe fire. Oh and she is CEO of Cointelegraph communications. On top of all of this, she is incredibly warm and genuine, cares deeply about the blockchain community, and wants to give 'power to the people' through blockchain technologies. If web3 was a marvel cinematic universe, she would be one of the superheroes. So sit back, relax and enjoy this very special episode of Making the Metaverse! 

Find Anastasia here:

Hi! I'm Michael Carter and my guest today on Making the Metaverse is Federico Carpi, an Argentinian musician and NFT artist living in Poland. Under the name Huxley Sun, Federico writes, records and performs as a musician offering an indie-folk sound that is delivered at a slow pace with a contemplative style. Federico also creates NFT artwork in a unique visual aesthetic. His NFT project offers collectors special benefits linked to his music releases. Today we talk about how web3 is changing the music industry and what it means for artists and listeners. We also talk about the role being played by NFTs in these changes.

You can hear more about his music and see his NFT artwork at the links below:

For more about his Music:

My guest today is Piers Ridyard, CEO of RDX Works, core developers of Radix, the first layer one protocol for DeFi that started from the problem of how to decentralize the $400 trillion global economy and worked backwards.

Piers has been in the blockchain space from the very beginning. Today, he shares a historical perspective on DeFi, talks about his vision for the future and illustrates the role standards play in the development of networks. I also learn a new term from Piers: ‘ujamaflip’.

My guests today on Making the Metaverse are Wilfred Lee and Sardwell who are working together on a phygital project called Renisis. Renisis is a multidimensional world that takes you to another place, physically and emotionally, providing superpowers to be stronger and present your best self. It combines fine jewelry crafted by Sardwell with sounds and AI generated artwork created by Wilfred. Working together they have created a truly unique project that bridges the physical and digital realms. 

My guest today is Dennison Bertram, an avid futurist, artist and serial entrepreneur with a keen eye for the future of technology and its social impacts. He is an early block-chain technologist having founded the first Bitcoin Exchange for Czech Crowns (BuyBTC.cz), a technologically advanced physical bitcoin wallet (Aeternum Key-Vault), and a PayPal like digital currency wallet (Terrawallet). Dennison is the founder of DopeWars, DappHero, and PridePunks, the first CryptoPunks derivative. He also founded WithTally, which offers tools for decentralized decision making and governance for distributed ledger ecosystems.

Dennison is also a renowned fashion and commercial photographer that has shot for some of the world’s top names in Fashion and Commerce such as Nespresso, Heineken, Alitalia, Marie Claire, Elle, Versace, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and more. He has developed cutting edge 360 VR experiences and campaigns for brands such as MUDEC, Vogue Italia, I-D Magazine Online, Vice: Motherboard, The NorthFace and advertising agencies such as Publicis, Leo Burnett, McCann and more.

Creator of HOLOHEADZ & Co-developer of the HOLOVERSE an amazing metaverse platform

Eljan is an italian digital artist, born in 2001 who has worked on digital art since he was in high school. His main goal is to create timeless, astounding NFTs that aim to connect people from all over the world and help them build relationships with other collectors & investors. His goal is to create an immense flow of project ideas, creative thoughts and constructive feedback to allow a collective growth inside the V.I.P. HOLO CLUB. Eljan has been creating NFTs since March 2020 and is committed to developing HOLOHEADZ as a long-term project, allowing the investors who collect them to connect with an increasingly large network of like-minded people.

Iana is a digital fashion designer. She moved to Europe three years ago after graduating in theoretical and applied linguistics in Moscow. After five years in the field of intercultural communication she decided to find her actual passion and purpose. During that period of her life, she and her Dutch fiancee decided to see the world and to travel across Europe. They've traveled to Sweden and lived in Greece, France and Italy. Iana traveled with very few clothes but with her sewing machine and laptop in hand. She didn’t always have the opportunity to sew, so she started studying digital fashion. After three years of self-studying she became a professional digital fashion designer. 

Sourav Deb is co-owner of Guerrilla Music and a thought leader in the Web3 space.

Sourav and his partner have successfully built a socially conscious company that exists on the blockchain but is focused on growth in the real world.  Through Guerrilla Music they have initiatives like the Color the Blockchain campaign. They hold free online courses to onboard people who want to learn but haven’t had the resources to do so. They teach in the cadence of hip hop so it’s easy to break through the language barrier of blockchain lingo. For the past year they’ve been raising money to support and assist artists in developing countries. As Guerrilla Music is owned by a woman and a person of color, inclusivity is important to them.

They’ve recently launched the $RAP Token and are in the prelaunch stages of an NFT drop and Play to Earn game featuring their RAP HEADZ characters. $RAP Token is used in voting for their MetaVerzus events held in Decentraland and has many in real life uses.

They have created wearables for National Geographic, Jim Jones, Zap Theory, Forever 21, Space 1 Mission, Ice Poker, The Hundreds, Penguin Fight Club, Tru Community and more.

Sourave is also a genesis artist as the first Canadian rapper to mint an audio NFT, a resident DJ in the ICE Poker lounge and the host of the MetaVerzus events in Decentraland.

Very excited to share this podcast featuring a very special guest, Daniel Liebeskind. He is the co-founder and CEO of Topia, a platform for creative visual experiences that inspire authentic human connection.

From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, Daniel’s mission is to foster human connection through technology. He has been building offline communities his whole life and originally became an entrepreneur to build software that helped people manage their own personal community.

Daniel is a product creator and engineer, having coded nearly 30 applications over the last 6 years. He has built community platforms, contact managers, slack bots, real estate systems, trading platforms, knowledge ecosystems, and browser, VR and mobile games.

Daniel believes that creativity is humanity's greatest gift and he has been on a quest to empower creators and make it easier for them to earn financial freedom by creating community and bringing people together to share in experiences.

Privacy in the metaverse will be interesting. In this episode I develop a privacy spectrum for social media platforms and then consider how this range of privacy expectations could play a role in making the metaverse.