Advisory Members & Speakers

Sumithra Maran is a Product leader at Microsoft. She is focused on developing new software product concepts and enhancing existing Product Design that reflects market and user requirements. Her day-to-day activities are to work with customers influencing them to adapt new technologies in the Microsoft ecosystem. Prior to Microsoft, she worked as a Product Manager at Ola Electric where she handled the payments platform responsible for managing the financial transactions in the system. Sumithra has an engineering background and transitioned into PM after working as a Software Engineer at Visa Inc for 6 years. Sumithra is passionate about user engagement and understanding the new products, features development through the customer optics.

As the founder of Endless Events, & creator of the #EventProfs Community, and host of the event industry podcasts, #EventIcons, Event Brew, and Event Tech Podcast, Will Curran has been named one of the most influential people in the meeting & events industry, one of the 40 under 40 event industry leaders, 35 entrepreneurs under the age of 35, and the highest customer satisfaction of any event company in the industry.

I am Jamaican born, a poet and a lover of language. I am intrigued by the power of communication, may it be through the written word, textiles, color, shape, or music. I enjoy shaping stories to fit multiple mediums while creating impact strategies based on the principals of design and psychology.

Melissa Jones Clark oversees the experience that newcomers, long standing clients, and everyone in between has with the Meeting Tomorrow brand. With over a decade of experience in the events industry, she is passionate about the impact events can have inspiring, educating, and bringing together people across every industry that exists. Ask her about why she loves the inclusivity of virtual events, her favorite super-creative formats, and the best thrifting spots in Chicago

Rauno Saarnio Chief Design Officer and partner from XR-Presence Inc. Seasoned entrepreneur with + 10 years’ experience in AR/VR/XR and + 40 years’ experience in international business and business processes. I have been part of several EU-funded development projects in various business areas such as healthcare, open-source software development, etc.

Erika developed her career in events & marketing for over the last 18 years. Throughout her career, she has produced large-scale corporate events and non-profit galas across the country. Her background covers a wide span of the in person and virtual events industry: show director, scenic set design, creative multimedia concepts, technical, stage management and entertainment management. Erika brings her creativity, décor design expertise and knowledge to the teams she works with and her clients. She holds the designation of CSEP (Certified Special Event Professional), one of 400 international event professionals. Erika was named BizBash’s Top 500 US Event Planners, Designers and Producers (2020 & 2021), Smart Women in Meetings, Stellar Performer (2019), one of the Top 25 Young Event Pros to Watch (2015) by Special Events Magazine. She has produced notable events such as an episode of Bravo’s Top Chef, and is a recipient of the Event Solutions Spotlight Award, Rising Star 2007.

Maggie Zaman has worked in the education arena for a time span of 25 years, leading teams in the operations of Admissions, Enrollment Management, International Recruitment, Community Outreach, Admissions training programs and Marketing. Developed new domestic and international markets, enhancing diversity, and increasing yields.

Stephanie is a humble Changemaker who believes in the power of combining Impact Hacking, Digital, Data, new Technology, Jugaad, and Open Innovation, Circular Economy, Collective Intelligence, and Sharing Economy to contribute to the UN Sustainable Goals by 2030 while developing a new generation of business. Stephanie has been passionate about Innovation, Technology and Digital Disruption for the past two decades.

Christian is a brand and marketing consultant of 7+ years, helping global web2 brands go-to-market in web3 with NFTs and the Metaverse. Christian also advises crypto-native brands and NFT projects on strategy, positioning, messaging, and marketing. He has worked with noteworthy brands such as Meta, Pinterest, Binance, 53 Bank, Better Days Foundation, and more. His strongest belief of being successful in web3 is this — People will Pay for Brand and Bargain for Commodity.

20 year intensive and successful experiences in MEDIA, DIGITAL and EXTENDED REALITY industries as consultant, entrepreneur and c-level positions. Vincent started his career in 1999 as consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Media & Telecom industry. In 2007, Vincent launched a startup to develop a Do-it-Yourself and User-Generated video platform, named maTVpratique.com. He sold it in January 2012 to Prisma Media (Bertelsmann Group) and joined the company as Head of Video Growth. Then, he was promoted as Digital Marketing Director for premium business and travel brands and finally Merger & Acquisition Director. In 2017, Vincent launched One Digital Nation, a digital agency to provide consulting services to digital media groups, startups and co-founded the digital media, 7x7.press, dedicated to business, technology and lifestyle (totaling 500k visits/month). From 2019, Vincent is conducting projects in virtual and augmented realities for telecom, entertainment, industry 4.0 and luxury brands and is developing CINEVR (cinevr.io), a virtual movie theater application to watch 2D, 3D and 260° movies alone or with friends and family. He is also very committed to developing the XR ecosystem in France and speaker about the metaverse and Web 3.

Daniel Vaczi has over 15 years of experience in all aspects of online marketing driving success and solid outcomes for small, medium, and corporate clients. He lived and worked across different regions in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and run marketing activities globally. Dan has also worked as an Adjunct Marketing Lecturer at the University of Wollongong in Dubai.

Tracy Greenan is the CEO and Founder of AURELIA + ICARUS, a hip-hop inspired, genderless, phygital (physical and digital) fine jewelry label based in New York. She is an Advisory Board member of the Metaverse Fashion Council; an active member of the Meta Shaper Web 3.0 community and Fashion Industry Advisor at META-Tailor. AURELIA + ICARUS has won the "Ones to Watch" fashion brand competition twice this year and will be showing at New York Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week this September and October in partnership with Flying Solo.

This serial entrepreneur is the Adventuress in Chief of Women’s Adventure Travels (WAT). Her online store, The SAY WAT Shop is an extension of her women’s travel company as is her TV show, WAT in the World. She is a Virtuoso luxury travel advisor with her company Lofty Traveler and a sought-after writer, producer, and speaker with her empowering signature talk, Walking Out Windows.

Melissa Swartz, CAE, is Director, Membership and Community Operations at ISACA, a global organization of more than 165,000 digital trust professionals headquartered in Schaumburg, IL, USA. She cultivates relationships with members and volunteers and leads the team responsible for building and executing program operations for member and community engagement activities.

Personal blogger, Seeker of Balance, Shishya, Dancer, Hula Hoops, Yoga Lead at lazarus.sports.india and Brand Ambassador at kicaactive

100K+ Spotify listeners

Amna has been passionately involved in the blockchain space before it went mainstream and was a member of the first cohort of the Oxford Blockchain Strategy Program by the prestigious University of Oxford. She was a founding member of Blockclean, a blockchain project based in Slovenia aimed at reducing plastic pollution through tokenization. She is also a founding member of the Oxford Blockchain Foundation, a 190+ member organization spread across the globe.

Zaara is a well versed and diligent Strategist in the field of Blockchain, Cryptocurrency & FinTech with expertise in key management, business growth which includes building crypto communities, as well as planning and executing marketing strategies globally. Her strength in management consulting background has given her a boost in the industry and opened a wide horizon into different industries and governments.

Hamidreza Hosseini has more than 23 years of experience in advisory, as an executive in German DAX companies, and as well as a startup founder. He has been advising companies on digital topics, platform economy and ecosystems since 2013. After his post-education at MIT and Y Combinator, he founded Ecodynamics in 2016 with focus on platform economy, blockchain and digital business. He supports companies in the conception and launch of Web 3.0, Metaverse and NFT business models since 2020, is a W3C advisory committee representative and keynote speaker. He leads platform masterclasses for executives and is WHU Lecturer. He is co-researcher of the Top 100 Platforms and the Top 100 NFT Platforms.

Engineering Leader with more than 22 years in world class company having extensive experience in designing, developing and testing enterprise software products. Expertise in domains like Analytics & Business Intelligence, IoT and Machine Learning.

Aditya’s mission is to blend the confluence of playable commerce & immersive storytelling by draping your favorite apparel onto your digital self. He believes styling yourself with brands you love enhances the online shopping experience while creating digital versions of yourself for the metaverse. YOLOgram aims to augment playable 3d commerce on yourself and create playful social content. Aditya believes fun styling with D2A (Direct-to-Avatar) will replace scrolling to shop & his vision of digital fashion rests on the convergence of 3D fashion and digital humans immersed across spatial realities. D2A enables 3D digital pioneers and virtual influencers in fashion to achieve sustainable goals across both the production value chain as well as consumer engagement paradigms. His meta-Avatar vision encompasses blending the worlds of purpose (commerce, communication) and play (styling and fun).

An explorer and early adopter with a massive passion for Technology, Psychology and the Humanities. Aragorn spends his time dreaming and talking about Blockchain, AI , XR, Transhumanism, the Meta verse and how it will change civilization as we know it.

Pradeep Khanna is Executive Director Asia Pacific, Sydney Chapter President & Global Co- Chair Education for the global Virtual Reality Augmented Reality Association & CEO of Global Mindset. He is an Advisory Board member of global Metaverse Fashion Council. Pradeep has 30+ years of executive experience and has been a leader for IBM Australia/NZ leveraging India, China, Philippines, Vietnam, Egypt, Romania, Brazil & Argentina.

Josh Drean is a Web 3.0 advisor at Harvard Innovation Labs, Core Contributor at SoWork, the Workplace Metaverse, and Co-Founder of DreanMedia. Josh’s work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Bostinno, and he has made appearances on The Today Show, NBC, and FOX Business. His YouTube channel has garnished millions of views and he was named top 100 foremost experts on the Metaverse.

Peta is passionate about the crypto, blockchain and web3 space. She's been in the space for over five years as a popular investor on the social trading platform eToro, advisor, public speaker and community advocate. She also has 20 years of experience in social and community management across different sectors.In 2021, she decided it was time to pass the torch to the next generation of social media mangers and go back to her first passion - writing, while still being active in crypto communities and advising projects with her community expertise.

Saroosh is the CEO of next-gen Event Tech platform Eventcombo, focusing on introducing efficiencies for businesses. Saroosh is a technology enthusiast, driven by innovation, and is passionate about access and opportunity. His expertise in data, intuition, and strategy based organizational decisions, along with his dexterity as a team motivator, leading by example, have helped build world-class products and teams that add value to businesses and communities.