Converging Realities

James Everett is a Lead Game Designer and Producer at Magic Leap & Weta Workshop. The team released the world's first long-form mixed reality action game, Dr. Grordbort's Invaders, for Magic Leap One in October. He started his career over 17 years ago as a game designer in Vancouver and has since worked in Montreal, Toronto, and Wellington for companies such as Ubisoft and Sidhe/PikPok. James has worked on titles ranging from award-winning brick breaker Shatter, to AAA blockbuster Splinter Cell Blacklist.

Matt is the Digital Engineering Lead at Aurecon Wellington. Aurecon is a multi-million dollar international engineering, management, design, planning, project management and consulting company that spans over 26 countries. They are one of Asia-Pacifics largest multi-disciplinary engineering consulting firms. Delivering project design and management across twelve markets in the built environment, construction, data and telecommunications, defence, energy, government, international development assistance, manufacturing, resources, transport and water. Find out how Aurecon has been experimenting and integrating virtual reality and augmented reality technology into their projects.

Wrestler is an independent creative agency specialising in video production, virtual reality and augmented reality. They're one of New Zealand's most exciting creative practices. A multi-award winning agency, Wrestler has earned high praise nationally and internationally for their work. Wrestler has ranked 47th in the New Zealand Deloitte Fast 50 index and 330 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific. Co-Founder Ben Forman was recently recognised on Forbes' 30 under 30 Asia list for 2019.

Sean is the Innovation Lead at Wellington City Council. He oversees much of the planning and initiatives taken by WCC around their Wellington Towards 2040: Smart Capital plan, which focuses on how tech can help Wellington become a more people-centered, dynamic, connected and eco city in the next 30 years.

Laureen Jones is the manager of the He Tohu initiative by the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs. He Tohu is a multi-award winning exhibition that has garnered international praise for its design. It provides a platform for the public to engage with three iconic constitutional documents that help shape Aotearoa New Zealand. Laureen will speak about how they used VR technology with He Tohu to meet the government department's desire to increase access to New Zealand’s three founding documents.

Jessica has been working in both the arts and tech for over 15 years. An award-winning producer and co-founder of New Zealand's centre for virtual and mixed reality PROJECTR, she was also a 2017 Wellingtonian of The Year finalist for science and technology. Her company MIXT studio is an industry leader in the space, and specialises in creating VR, AR and 360° products, having worked with clients such as Heineken, LIFE Education and the NZTA.

Meredith Meyer-Nichols is a producer and executive producer of visual effects, virtual, augmented and mixed reality, and virtual production and performance capture. She has 15 years experience producing ground-breaking visual effects and creative technology both in New Zealand and internationally.

Now the Executive Producer at CMIC, she has previously worked as the Executive Producer and Head of Production at Framestore in London, and VFX Producer at Weta Digital. Meredith’s credits comprise some the biggest movies of the past decade including Avatar, The Adventures of Tintin, Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Beauty and the Beast.

Ali Evenbly and Mitch Duncan founded MAGGLE Creative in 2016 and have taken Wellington's Augmented Reality scene by storm. They're all about creating new media products and digital experiences that engage with a purpose, while still making things fun. They've worked for a number of high profile clients such as Suzuki, NZ Reserve Bank and the Christchurch City Council.

Dr. Christopher Maymon is a researcher working at the School of Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington. Over the past three years, Chris has established a Virtual Reality Laboratory designed to investigate a range of psychological phenomena in new and compelling ways. Presently, Chris and his colleagues are using virtual reality to conduct ethical experiments around the topics of fear (from exposure to heights) and other human psychological phenomenon in order to understand how people manage and express their emotions

Tane Moleta works at Victoria University of Wellington's School of Architecture. His research focusses on the implementation and assessment use of Virtual and Augmented Reality for Architecture and Design. The talk Tane will deliver will describe a range of new content creation tools that have been developed in the DARA research initiative.

Previously the President and Chair of the Looking Glass AR/VR Club, Jessie Rogers research looks into the use of new technologies such as virtual reality to supplement novel workflows, and investigate future ideas around how we approach the practice of architecture and design. Her work has been published in multiple notable international conferences, featuring in the likes of eCAADe, CAADRIA, and VSMM as well as being recently awarded Victoria University's Post Graduate Research Excellence Award.