Cathy Hackl Keynote Speaker

Cathy Hackl is a leading tech futurist and globally recognised business leader. She has deep expertise in augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), spatial computing, and the metaverse. She is one of LinkedIn’s top technology voices and a champion for diversity in tech.

Her book ‘Into the Metaverse -The Essential Guide to the Business Opportunities of the Web3 Era’ was published in 2023.

Cathy works with technology giants, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Magic Leap, and HTC VIVE. She leads the Futures Intelligence Group & Future Metaverse Labs, an emerging technology consulting firm and lab that helps brands through strategic foresight and next-gen actionable strategies.

She also serves as VP at Avatar Dimension, the only Microsoft Mixed Reality volumetric video capture studio on the East Coast helping brands in entertainment, fashion, and enterprise create holograms. Avatar Dimension helped Dimension Studio in London with some of the work on Balenciaga’s futuristic fusion of volumetric capture and video gaming for the launch of their 2021 Fall Collection. This project incorporated 50 volumetric characters, one of the largest volumetric video projects ever undertaken.

BigThink named Cathy Hackl one of the top 10 most influential women in tech in 2020 and she’s been called the CEO’s business guide to the metaverse. Cathy Hackl was included in the 2021 prestigious Thinkers50 Radar list of the 30 management thinkers most likely to shape the future of how organisations are managed and led. She’s a Limited Partner at the WXR Fund, which invests in female-led early-stage startups focused on the next phase of the internet and AI.

Cathy Hackl is a sought-after keynote speaker and author. She has spoken at CES, SXSW, Comic-Con, Adobe Summit, Harvard Business School. Facebook, Twitter, Aspen Institute, In-Q-Tel, US Navy, SDA Bocconi, IE, Singularity University, and many other places.

Cathy has been featured in media outlets like 60 Minutes, CNBC, CNN, NBC News, Forbes, Vogue Business, Barron’s, Salon, VentureBeat, Digiday, Digital Trends, CMO.com, and Mashable. She is a global advisor for VR AR Association and was recognised in 2016 by NBC News as one of the top Latina women working in VR.

Before working in technology, Cathy Hackl worked at media companies such as CNN, Discovery, and ABC News and was nominated in 2007 for an EMMY Award for her storytelling work. She’s also the creator of the world’s first holographic press release and loves all things spatial computing, digital economy, and futurism.