Announcing “The metaverse – what’s in it for me;
what’s in it from me?” Visual 1st Spotlight Series event
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My partner Alexis Gerard and I invite you to join your photo & video industry peers for our first Visual 1st Spotlight Series event: “The metaverse – what’s in it for me; what’s in it from me?” This streamed live event will occur March 15, 8:00 am – 9:30 am Pacific Time (17:00 – 18:30 CET).
While there are many opinions about what exactly the metaverse currently is and how it will evolve, there’s little doubt that it will touch our lives and businesses in many profound ways. We also know that it’s going to be visual to the core.
This will bring about opportunities and challenges for any company active in the larger photo & video ecosystem on the scale of those triggered by the introduction of the Internet and the smartphone ecosystem.
We’re pleased to announce the first 3 speakers:
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When:
March 15
8:00 am - 9:30 AM Pacific Time
(17:00 - 18:30 CET)
What: Live, virtual, no recordings
$9 Super Early Bird tickets expire Feb. 16.
Program: Panel discussion, Show & Tell demos, Attendee networking & discussion
Attendees: Startup founders and corporate executives in the photo & video ecosystem, as well metaverse-specialized solution developers.
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Alexis Khouri, Senior Director of Business Development and Strategy, 3D & Immersive at Adobe, and previously with Allegorithmic, the company Adobe acquired in 2019. As the dominant force in 2D visual creation, Adobe can’t afford to “miss the metaverse boat.” Alexis is at the forefront of its initiative, representing Adobe’s Substance 3D product line, which enables creators to generate 3D visuals for VR, AR and metaverse applications.
Justin Melillo, co-founder & CEO of Mona, previously with Magic Leap and DreamWorks Animation, whose company is at the forefront of providing solutions for companies to build their own metaverse spaces. Mona Spaces are 3D environments that you can build and mint on the Etherium or Polygon blockchain. Spaces are designed to be composable, social, and interactive. They can hold & display visual assets, such as photos, videos and 3D objects. Mona Spaces also enable artist royalties to be sold.
Stay tuned for the announcement of our high-profile 4th and final panelist!
Kirby Winfield, a seasoned startup operator and investor, and the Founding General Partner at Ascend.vc, a pre-seed venture fund. Kirby’s successful IPO and exit experience enables him to provide a broader industry perspective on the monetization opportunities for startups who develop solutions for the metaverse.
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Sr. Director of Business Development and Strategy, 3D & Immersive
Alexis Khouri joined Allegorithmic in 2007 and has been deeply involved in the product design and growth strategy for Substance, the industry standard for 3D texturing. In 2019, Alexis joined Adobe as Senior Director of Business Development and Strategy for the 3D & Immersive division.
He was formerly General Manager at Playsoft (Mobile Game Development) and Senior Consultant at Simon-Kucher & Partners. Alexis graduated from ESSEC Business School and has also a strong technical background in programming and 3D production pipelines.
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Co-founder, CEO
Justin Melillo is co-founder & CEO of Mona, a startup whose mission it is to seed the open metaverse through the creation and use of beautiful, unique 3D Spaces.
Justin has a background of making art, writing stories, and creating immersive AR and VR experiences. His AR lenses have been viewed over 100 million times across Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. He has worked with a number of clients throughout his career, including stage designs for touring musicians including Drake and CharliXCX.
Previously, Justin was production manager at Magic Leap and worked at DreamWorks Animation in various positions.
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Kirby Winfield is a seasoned startup operator and investor, and is currently the Founding General Partner at Ascend.vc, a pre-seed stage venture fund investing in marketplace, e-commerce/DTC, and B2B software startups in the Pacific Northwest.
Early in his career, Kirby was a founding team member and operating executive at back-to-back tech IPOs, with Go2Net (GNET) and Marchex (MCHX).
He is also a two-time venture capital-backed CEO, with AdXpose (DFJ, Ignition) acquired by comScore (SCOR) where he became Sr. VP Corporate Development, and Dwellable (Maveron, VersionOne) acquired by HomeAway (AWAY).
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Stay tuned for additional speaker and Show & Tell demo presenter announcements!
Alexis and I very much hope you will join us - we look forward to seeing you!
Best,
Hans Hartman
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Pimloc. AI backlash, what backlash? Concerned about visual tech intruding upon privacy? After a few rounds of pivoting with their visual AI technologies, UK-based Pimloc raises $7.5M for its deep learning platform, which enables private businesses and public organizations to protect sensitive or personal data in videos, such as by blurring faces or license plates.
Soona. Product photo shoots going virtual. Soona raises $35M in Series B funding for its solution that enables remote photo or video shoots. Instead of having merchants ship off their items for a remote photo shoot, then wait for the results, Soona’s technology allows brands to participate in the photo shoot process, both remotely and in real time.
Meta. Inclusive 3D avatars. Meta’s metaverse is upon us. This means, we need the types of 3D avatars that present us properly in a virtual world. It’s no surprise that Meta is now bringing 3D avatars to Instagram Stories and direct messages and is also updating the avatars in Facebook and Messenger. Nice touch: the new avatars will include more facial shapes and skin tones, as well as assistive devices such as hearing aids and wheelchairs to be more inclusive of different user types.
Pinterest. Shopping going virtual. Arguably, shopping is still the most compelling AR use case – for now at least. Shopify already offered AR beauty product features (envisioning how that lipstick looks on you), but is now expanding their offering to furniture and other home décor items. Shopping online from your home is no longer a so-so alternative to seeing the products in the store; it also has a major advantage enabling you to picture exactly how that couch will look like in your living room.
Ricoh Theta. Keeping it simple, baby. Some handheld 360 camera vendors have come and gone, but Ricoh’s Theta camera product line is very much alive and kicking. Its latest version, the Theta X now adds a touchscreen display and Micro SD card slot rather than the user needing to make a Bluetooth connection to their phone or tablet for controlling, transferring, and editing their video footage and photos.
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