Friday, July 31, 2020 at 4:30
Community Gathering on Zoom - register in the bright red ticketing box and we will send you the Zoom link.

In the room this week: Emileena Pedigo of The Show Goes on Productions will moderate. Guests:  include: D.J. Smith is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at The Glimpse Group, a holding company for a portfolio startups focused on the virtual and augmented reality industries, Eric Roffman, VR expert developing a new VR station and an advocate of eXtended Reality; and Julie Saltman, producer, developing Bway's first techno-enhanced immersive production using AR, video mapping and avatars.

eXtended Reality (XR) includes all the content and technology enabled by the exponential growth of digital computing. eXtended Reality (XR) also includes all the ways that technology and imagination eXtend our Reality.

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  EMILEENA PEDIGO

  Emileena's work focuses on building sustainable careers #AnotherWay, using entrepreneurial strategies that prioritize the artist over their art.  Her company, The Show Goes On Productions provides coaching and artist management, as well as produces workshops, showcases, and events.  Before that Emileena was managing producer of the Midtown International Theater Festival.  She helped expand the annual festival into seven venues, presenting up to 60 shows in one month during her seven-year tenure.  Emileena also general-managed for several nonprofits, assisted Stewart F. Lane on four Broadway shows, including the Off-Broadway transfer of The 39 Steps, and worked on various film and music festivals.  She toured theaters, music arenas, and schools across the country, working with artists from all artistic disciplines.  Emileena has served on the board of Conscious Capitalism NYC, and helped to build Arts programming within the Chelsea Greenwich Village Chelsea Chamber of Commerce.  She is a graduate of the Commercial Theatre Institute, SUNY/Kaufmann's Fasttrac program for entrepreneurs, and a Purdue University alum. 
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  ERIC ROFFMAN

  is an eclectic developer of eXtended Reality (XR) content and technology.  He is the organizer of the NYXR (New York eXtended Reality), StoryForward, and StoryCode Meetups. On his QPORIT (Quick Previews Of Random Interesting Things) website, www.qporit.com, he has written over 1,200 articles on film, theater, new technology (especially XR), and more. Many of his stories include 3D and Virtual Reality video interviews of film and theater performers and directors -- such as Diane Paulus and Liv Ullmann. He created, edited, and published THE AMERICAN FILM MAGAZINE, later selling the title to the American Film Institute. His background includes work at Viacom and IBM, where he created live, interactive demos that were shown around the world. He has appeared in, directed, and produced plays as well as studied acting and directing at AADA, HB Studios, and LAByrinth Theater.  His technical background includes a PhD in theoretical physics, a book on Neutrino Astrophysics, stints at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and Nobel Laureate C N Yang’s group at Stony Brook, lectures around the US and Europe, programming for many financial institutions, and the creation of an award winning video game. He recently completed a short, fictional, dramatic 3D 360 VR video with spatial audio, and another short film with three robots (programmed with Microsoft Text-To-Speech).  He is currently developing QPORIT XR: upgrading QPORIT to a fully 3D 360 webXR enabled site.
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  JULIE SALTMAN

  Julie Saltman (producer/costume designer) She holds a degree from Carnegie Mellon and a MFA in costume design from Brandeis University. Her Broadway credits include Lestat, High Fidelity, Spring Awakening, etc. She worked for the producers of Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, which led to creating and
  developing Taking Wing: Legends of Emimencia, which will become Broadway’s immersive techno-enhanced production using AR , video mapping and avatars. It’s debut workshop was at The
  Duke Theatre, with fiber-optic wings. She led a panel discussion at BroadwaCon, entitled ‘What Will It Take to Bring Special Effects and Immersive Reality to Broadway.”
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  D.J. SMITH

  is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at The Glimpse Group.  The Glimpse Group is a holding company for a portfolio of (9) startups focused on the virtual and augmented reality industries.  At Glimpse, D.J.’s responsibilities include overseeing the production of all VR and AR content as well leading the effort to locate new subsidiary companies.  In addition, D.J. is the organizer of The New York Virtual Reality Meetup (NYVR).  NYVR hosts monthly events focused on virtual reality technology and is the premiere venue for industry networking and collaboration within New York City.  NYVR is the (2^nd) largest virtual meetup in the world with 6000+ members