Who rules in the Metaverse?

How can we create a Metaverse for good?

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

Visiting Entrepreneur

• Bell Beh – CEO and Co-Founder, BuzzAR

Panel

• Dr Julia Scott-Stevenson - UTS Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow

• Carli Johnston - Co-Founder and Head of Product, Virtual Method 

• Robert Yearsley - CEO, ARIA Research

Moderator

• Jackie Randles – Partnership Lead at ANU School of Cybernetics

About Bell Beh

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.

About Julia Scott-Stevenson

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.

About Carli Johnston

Carli Johnston is the Co-Founder and Head of Product for Virtual Method. She 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 is also the Co-Founder of Australia’s only Women in AR/VR group.

About Robert Yearsley

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.

About Jackie Randles

Jackie Randles is the Partnerships Lead in the School of Cybernetics at the Australian National University (ANU). 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.

The Visiting Entrepreneur Program is produced by the City of Sydney with partner organisations from the local startup ecosystem. The 2022 edition is kindly supported by Tech Central and the Greater Cities Commission.