Who Rules in the Metaverse?

It is still early days for the Metaverse. Big tech and corporates are jockeying for ownership, while entrepreneurial creators and brands leap into the fray to test the limits of what might be possible in these immersive, augmented spaces.

But while this brave new world is still taking shape, we grapple with issues around the governance of behaviour within these new worlds. How are we considering the values, ethics and even laws of the new worlds in the Metaverse?

Join us for this panel discussion with a special guest of the City of Sydney’s Visiting Entrepreneur Program, Bell Beh, Co-Founder and CEO of Buzz AR, Singapore.

Joining Bell on the panel are:

• Dr Julia Scott-Stevenson, UTS Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow
• Carli Johnston, Co-Founder and Head of Product, Virtual Method
• Robert Yearsley - CEO, ARIA Research

The panel will be moderated by Jackie Randles, Partnership Lead at ANU School of Cybernetics.

This event is part of the Visiting Entrepreneur Program, an annual City of Sydney initiative that connects international entrepreneurs with our local startup ecosystem. The 22 June – 1 July 2022 program will explore what might the future look like for cities, technology and innovation in FUTURE T.B.D. This year, we will question everything, from a travel guide to decarbonisation to the future possibilities of the Metaverse and global health game changers. See the full program at city.sydney/vep #VEPSyd

Powered by UTS Startups, UTS Graduate Research School and Sydney Knowledge Hub.

Bell Beh, Co- Founder and CEO, BuzzAR

As a lawyer turned entrepreneur, Bell Beh is CEO of BuzzAR, a Singapore based metaverse startup. BuzzAR is poised to be Southeast Asia’s first metaverse startup that has fully scaled the 7 enablers of the metaverse, which is online gaming (2013), VR (2015), Augmented Reality (AR) (2018), Digital Twin (2019), Avatar engine (2021). In 2022, BuzzAR is launching the last 2 enablers, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and Social Networking (2022). Their current seed round is oversubscribed with global investors from US, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Jackie Randles is the Partnerships Lead in the School of Cybernetics at the Australian National University (ANU). A communications and engagement expert, Jackie is passionate about fostering interdisciplinary partnerships that create shared value and enlist support and cooperation from diverse groups. She is known for 'joining the dots' between and within organisations to extend impact and reach and enjoys bringing people, creative ideas and new audiences together. Jackie was the founding Manager of Inspiring Australia NSW, the national strategy for public engagement with science, technology and innovation, and has delivered media and engagement strategies in business, government, cultural and community settings. She has also worked as a writer, editor and documentary radio producer.

Dr Julia Scott-Stevenson is a researcher, producer and curator of interactive and immersive media. Her current UTS Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship project uses practice-led research to explore how immersive media (virtual, augmented and mixed reality) might address the climate crisis. Julia produced Privy To, an XR project exploring privacy rights through using an artist’s brainwaves to compose music, which was one of 14 projects globally to be showcased at CPH:DOX's Inter:Active Exhibition in 2021. Julia recently spent three years as a research fellow at UWE Bristol, UK, and in 2019 she was also an immersion fellow on the UK’s South West Creative Technology Network, where she developed a manifesto for virtual futures. Julia holds a PhD in interactive documentary and social impact, and has taught and mentored in XR/VR/AR, nonfiction media and digital cultures at institutions locally and in the UK.

Carli Johnston, Co-Founder and Head of Product for Virtual Method, has been working in the AR + VR industry for 6 years, coming from a successful career as a Designer, Brand + Culture Strategist, working with celebrities and household brand-names . She specialises in translating the advanced (and sometimes confusing) technologies of AR + VR, and inter-spatial storytelling, into clear consumer activators: zeitgeist trends and calls-to-action that increase engagement and ensure sales & marketing success. She is also the Co-Founder of Australia’s only Women in AR/VR group.

Robert Yearsley is the CEO and Co-founder of ARIA Research. Consumer technology and AI industry veteran, Robert is the developer of Australia's first AR glass device, providing spatial perception to the world's 336 million visually disabled people. ARIA counts amongst its partners UTS, University of Sydney and World Access for the blind with backing from the Medical Research Future fund and DIESR.