AWE Celebrates The Women Of AWE USA 2018 With More Than 100 Female Speakers From AT&T, HP, Adobe, IEEE, US Navy, And More

Announces Partnership with Women + XR and Launch of 9th Annual Auggie Awards

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Mar 08, 2018, 12:30 ET

SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AWE, the world's #1 augmented reality and virtual reality conference and expo, is celebrating more than 100 influential female speakers pioneering AR, VR, and MR (XR). The women of AWE USA 2018 represent the XR ecosystem, with speakers from hardware suppliers such as Intel, DAQRI, NVIDIA and Oculus; software solution providers such as Google and Adobe; and Fortune 500 organizations such as AT&T, Cisco, HP and the US Navy -- all using XR to further business.

In addition, AWE today announced its partnership with Women in XR (WXR), an organization which exists to elevate women leaders and advance equality in emerging technologies. In addition to working with WXR to feature female leaders on all six of its conference stages -- echoing AWE's commitment to gender parity and diverse voices heard at the event -- AWE USA 2018 will also feature a dedicated WXR track on June 1 to showcase founder stories, explore startup strategies and host pitches.

"The WXR Fund is thrilled to partner with AWE to showcase founders, executives, angel investors and VCs working together to lead AR/VR to a more diverse future," said Martina Welkhoff, founding partner of WXR. "AWE's commitment to gender parity exemplifies the support we want from the XR community to build an inclusive immersive technology industry foundation. This moment in time is a unique opportunity to shape the industry in ways that could have profound effect moving forward. Amplifying the voices of women leaders and allies at events like AWE is a crucial part of building a more inclusive world at large as we work together on the future of computing."

"AWE's commitment to gender parity and inclusion is not just the right thing to do but it is also critical to the success of the XR industry since it affects all aspects of life," said Ori Inbar, co-founder and executive producer of AWE. "To achieve this, we collaborated with community partners dedicated to promoting diversity in emerging technologies, such as WXR, SH//FT and the PMA, to ensure that all voices are heard on the AWE stage as we hope it will have a ripple effect on the XR ecosystem."

Highlights of AWE's Women Speakers Include:

Elizabeth Bieniek, XR Lead, Cisco Collaboration Strategy & Innovation
Heidi Buck, Director, US Navy's Mixed Reality Lab, USN – SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific
Robinne Burrell, Chief Product Officer, Redflight Mobile Innovation
Alice Lloyd George, Principal, RRE Ventures
Kathy Grise, Senior Program Director, Future Directions, IEEE
Cathy Hackl, Marketing Futurist & Co-Author of Marketing New Realities, VR & AR Evangelist
Sarah Hill, CEO, StoryUp
Eva Hoerth, Mentor Fellow, WXR Venture Fund/Women in XR
Linda Jacobson, Co-Producer, AWE2018 XR For Good Forum, Virtual World Society
Brenda Laurel, Principal, Neogaian Interactive
Cassie Li, Product Manager, DAQRI
Suzanne Leibrick, Intel RealSense Virtual Reality Experience Design Manager, Intel
Stephanie Llamas, VP, Research and Strategy, SuperData Research
Alexis Macklin, Analyst, Greenlight Insights
Silka Miesnieks, Head of Design Lab, Adobe
Rachel Metz, Senior Editor, Mobile, MIT Technology Review
Jacki Morie, Educator / Scientist / Artist, Virtual World Society
Emily Olman, CEO, Hopscotch Interactive, LLC
Amy Peck, Founder & CEO, EndeavorVR
Shelley Peterson, Emerging Technologies Lead, Lockheed Martin
Joanna Popper, Global Head of Virtual Reality, Location Based Entertainment, HP
Yelena Rachitsky, Executive Producer, Experiences, Oculus
Marley Rafson, Software Engineer, Google
Jasmine Roberts, Software Engineer and Creative, Labs, Unity Technologies
Alisha Seam, Senior Engineer: Emerging Technology, AT&T
Tish Shute, Director AR/VR Corporate Technology Strategy, Huawei
Martina Sourada, Senior Director, SWQA Test/Tools Development, NVIDIA
Adaora Udoji, Adjunct Professor, NYU
Alla Vovk, PhD Student in Computer Science, Oxford Brookes University
Julie Young, CEO, SH//FT

A full list of speakers along with the complete AWE agenda will be released soon.

AWE has also opened up nominations for the ninth annual Auggie Awards in all 10 categories -- to be held Thursday, May 31. The AWE Auggie Awards are a peer-selected and judged celebration of the talent, artistry and creativity of innovators and inventors who set the standard for ideal XR tech, design and applications. Past Auggie Awards winners include Brenda Laurel, formerly of ATARI, who was recognized in 2017 as a VR pioneer and advocate of diversity and inclusiveness in video games. This year's Auggie categories span best-in-class applications, developer tools, enterprise solutions, games, film, hardware, campaigns and more designed to drive economic growth and shape the future of computing. For more information or to nominate a product or a project for an Auggie Award, visit https://augmentedworldexpo.com/auggie-awards/.

More about Augmented World Expo
AWE (Augmented World Expo) is the largest AR+VR conference and expo showcasing technologies which are augmenting our human capabilities, turning ordinary experiences into the extraordinary and empowering people to be better at anything they do in work and life: Superpowers to the People. Join more than 6,000 attendees on May 30-June 1, 2018 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

For more information and to register to attend, please visit www.awe2018.com. Journalists can request a complimentary press pass to AWE USA 2018 by emailing [email protected].

More about AugmentedReality.ORG
AWE is produced by AugmentedReality.ORG, a 501 (c) (6) non-profit organization. All profits are reinvested in AR.ORG's services. Its mission is to Advance Augmented Reality to Advance Humanity. It's goal: 1 billion active users of AR by 2020.

AR.org facilitates and catalyzes the global and regional transformation of the AR industry by