XR Women Global Announces Advisory Board and Spatial Computing Business Showcase

XR Women Global, a community dedicated to the success of women working in spatial computing, is pleased to announce the formation of an Advisory Board composed of distinguished leaders in the field. The establishment of the Board will help XR Women propel the community to new heights and facilitate new offerings, such as educational workshops and the Spatial Computing Showcase taking place on January 31, 2024 in the ENGAGE VR platform, in partnership with Virtual Reality Marketing and Metaverse Spectrum.

A proven executive leader skilled in adopting disruptive technologies for premier companies, Laura Kusumoto’s expertise is seeing beyond hype and harnessing the business value that emerging technologies bring to work. Applying her experience working for Meta, Deloitte, Disney, Kaiser Permanente, LEGO and more, her passion is helping companies identify the best problems to target with innovative solutions, and driving towards implementation of high-value applications.  Having started her career as a software engineer, Laura applies pragmatism to the innovation process, with user-centered design, metrics to measure success, inspiring teams to pursue it, and building bridges across the chasm between research and operations.

Amy LaMeyer is Managing Partner at WXR Fund - a venture fund investing in early stage companies that are transforming business and human interaction using spatial computing (VR/AR) and AI. The entire WXR portfolio is comprised of female founders and gender diverse teams across industries including retail, healthcare, training, remote work, real estate and education. Through M&A, strategic partnerships, and engineering scale, Amy accelerated growth at Akamai Technologies for over 15 years. Amy is also an angel investor and advisor in early stage music and metaverse companies including Tribe XR, LeoAR and Infinite Album.  She is the author of ‘Sound and AR’ in Charlie Fink’s book “Convergence: How the World Will Be Painted With Data” and often speaks on topics of emerging technologies, diversity and venture including SXSW, The Economist, AWE, Music Tectonics, Singularity University and Techcrunch Disrupt.

Judith Okonkwo is an award-winning Technology Evangelist, Business Psychologist and Organisation Development Consultant with experience working in Africa, Asia, and Europe. She sits on the Board of the European Organisation Design Forum and co-founded We Will Lead Africa. She created Imisi 3D in 2016, a creation lab in Lagos focused on building the African ecosystem for extended reality technologies (AR/VR/MR) and connecting XR communities across the continent. In 2017 she convened AR/VR Africa, which holds large XR capacity development events; the most recent had participants from 42 African countries. Judith is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council for the Metaverse; was a 2022/23 Chen Yidan Visiting Global Fellow at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education; and is an industry expert on immersive technologies for the OECD’s Global Forum on Technology.

An XR Industry Pioneer and Thought Leader highlighted by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella for her work bringing mixed reality into the aerospace industry to manufacture spacecraft, Shelley Peterson has been a notable authority in the XR industry for over 20 years.  Employing her experience and skill as an early adopter and integrator, Shelley has assisted numerous organizations through many industry verticals to reduce the barriers to adoption. Her work has been highlighted in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, Tech Crunch, and dozens of other sources. Shelley has provided keynotes and presentations for the Augmented World Expo (Santa Clara, Munich, Tel Aviv), BrainXchange, Enterprise Wearable Technology Summit, Augmented Enterprise Summit, MIT Emtech, Harvard, Stanford, NYU, McMaster University, and many others, and her guidance has been sought out internationally by governments and organizations in Bulgaria, Switzerland, Israel, Germany, Singapore, Canada, and more.

“I am honored to join the board of XR Women, an organization committed to amplifying the voices and contributions of women in the immersive technology realm. As we navigate the dynamic landscape of XR, fostering diversity is paramount. Together, we will empower women to shape the future of extended reality, ensuring that innovation knows no gender boundaries. XR Women's mission aligns seamlessly with my passion for inclusivity and transformative technology. I look forward to collaborating with this exceptional group, driving positive change and inspiring the next generation of female leaders in the immersive tech space” - Amy LaMeyer

 “XR Women is visionary in elevating the profiles of women leaders in this field. They have diligently pursued their mission, refining and sharing expertise on how to connect and educate in XR along the way. I am honored to join XR Women’s Advisory Board, with their serious commitment to recognizing women’s voices and business successes in XR.” - Laura Kusumoto

“The expertise of these talented and experienced advisors will contribute to the development of a strategy for the expansion of XR Women in terms of resources, programmatic offerings, and global reach. There are many skilled and knowledgeable women working in spatial computing, and our mission is to boost their visibility, to provide professional development opportunities, and to be a fertile seedbed for collaborative partnerships and successful endeavors.” - Karen Alexander, XR Women co-founder

Spatial Computing Business Showcase & 2024 Awards

The XR Women Spatial Computing Business Showcase takes place January 31, 2024, in the ENGAGE VR platform. The women-led businesses on display there include virtual reality training for industrial workers; a comprehensive travel planning and exploration app; an award-winning content production and distribution studio; a mixed reality gaming company; and 3D meeting and retail spaces, among others. A partnership with Virtual Reality Marketing and Metaverse Spectrum will bring a broader audience to the Showcase, and wrap-around events such as a Spatial Computing Masterclass will deepen engagement with the topic.

The 2024 XR Women Awards ceremony will take place live at the Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, California, in June. Nominations open February 1.

About XR Women Global

XR Women hosts weekly events in virtual worlds, giving women in the field a platform to speak about their work and for community members to exchange knowledge and develop professional relationships, and conducts skill-building workshops. Documentation of the more than 150 such events the group has held can be found in the XR Women Museum in Frame VR. The Museum includes a Gallery where the work of technologically innovative artists is shown on a rotating, quarterly basis.

Click here to subscribe to the weekly XR Women newsletter, go to XRWomen.com. XR Women can be found on LinkedIn, Instagram (@XRWomenGlobal) and X (@XRWomenGlobal). 

The XR Women Leadership Team consists of Karen Alexander, Sophia Moshasha, Julie Smithson, Colleen Bielitz, Tricia Blake, Caroline Dennis, Christine Hobbi, Ginna Lambert, Robin Moulder, and Wendy Sherman.