WXR Managing Partner Martina Welkhoff recently had the honor of speaking at a unique event hosted in Altspace by LinkedIn. Talent executives from Fortune 500 companies gathered to discuss how VR could be used within their organizations from recruiting and onboard to training, team building, and collaboration.

WXR Fund raises their inaugural fund to invest in women led startups building augmented reality, virtual reality and artificial intelligence companies

WXR continued our exploration of virtual events with Verizon 5G Labs and hosted a small, highly interactive gathering in Rec Room focused on education and XR. We assembled a group of educators, entrepreneurs, and technologists to explore the various spaces and tools Rec Room has to offer and brainstorm how they might be able to use XR in their classrooms or businesses.

Check out the video for highlights of the event.

We’ve all had the collaborate virtually over the past few months, so for our most recent event with Verizon 5G Labs, we decided to look beyond video conferencing to the Future of Collaboration. We invited leaders from three cutting edge XR collaboration applications to present: Andrea Ancieto-Chavez of Digital Film Tree, Melissa Chan and Clay Walsh of The Wild, and Inga Petryaevskaya of Tvori. After learning about some of the tools being developed, we hosted a fireside chat with Lauren Ruffin of Crux and Jonathan Williams of VRX to discuss collaboration in action as artists and producers in the space.

The pervasive pain caused by racial injustice in our country is unfortunately a reality known all too well to Black Americans, and that urgently needs to change.

We are committed at the WXR Fund to building a more inclusive foundation for the XR industry and are always working to examine our own biases and blindspots. We believe in the power of diversity to build superior technology, stronger economies, and ultimately a better world.

On April 21st, WXR hosted a panel of researchers and entrepreneurs working at the intersection of immersive technology and mental health. Their collective knowledge and practical advice would be relevant at any time, and is particularly salient as society grapples with the anxiety that the pandemic is causing.

In case you missed it, here are some highlights.

Our next VR Roundtable will focus on Mental Resilience and the strategies we can all use during this time to promote mental wellness, as well as ways we can support those in our communities.  We’ll explore cutting edge technology solutions and fundamental best practices we can all integrate into our daily lives while practicing physical distancing.

On March 24th, we convened 10 tech and public health leaders in Hubs, Mozilla’s social VR platform to talk about resilience in the time of COVID-19. They joined from as far away as Karachi, Pakistan and our conversation covered topics such as the unique challenges to overcome in supporting vulnerable populations, privacy and security concerns, and the role of emerging tech in finding solutions.

As COVID-19 spreads around the world in parallel with general uncertainty, are you wondering what the lasting impact this pandemic will be on our communities, our work, and our lives?