38 VR and AI Trendsetters Eventprofs Should Follow in 2019 for Insights and Inspiration

The event tech world is constantly evolving, with innovations in virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) providing much of today’s fuel.

With the dizzying pace of change, it’s hard to keep up-to-date on what all the changes mean – especially for #eventprofs and #meetingprofs. VR, AR and AI are all changing every aspect of events – from the way they’re planned, visualized and event booked, to the way organizers, sponsors and vendors engage with attendees at events.

The impact of VR and AI is felt far and wide beyond event tech and martech. It’s impacting all the workflows in our universe.

means exhaustive of all the brilliant minds in this emerging space – women and men!

Whether you are an avid follower of these technologies or you’re looking to learn more on how to use these within events and the universe beyond, these are worth following. (Our list is alphabetical by last name and numbers are only for ease of reading – no ranking here!)

Augmented and Virtual Reality

1. Hugo Barra (@hbarra): vp ARVR partnerships at Facebook and Oculus

2. Clay Bavor (@claybavor): vp, virtual and augmented reality at Google

3. Ryan Bell (@ryan_a_bell): a self-proclaimed digital hippy, writer, speaker & award-winning poet who works as a media strategist for NASA

4. Kent Bye (@kentbye): host of Voices of VR podcast

5. John Carmack (@ID_AA_Carmack): chief technology officer for Oculus

6. Rob Crasco (RoblemVR): futurist, tech influencer, consultant and creator of the RoblemVR YouTube channel

7. Tom Emrich (@tomemrich): recognized as one of the world’s leading thought leaders in augmented reality, virtual reality and wearable tech

8. Live Erickson (@misslivirose): co-organizer at ARVR Academy, teacher and host at Just A/VR Show

9. Charlie Fink (@CharlieFink): consultant, columnist, speaker and author of two AR-enabled books

10. Christopher Lafayette (@vrleader): a national and international speaker covering virtual, augmented and mixed reality, artificial intelligence and other disruptive media

11. Ben Lang (@benz145): co-founder and executive editor of the VR news publication, Road to VR

12. Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey): founder of Oculus and Anduriltech

13. Jacki Morie, PhD (@skydeas1): founder and chief scientist of All These Worlds LLC, with 25 years experience developing innovative techniques for rich, emotionally evocative virtual reality (VR) environments

14. Helen Papagiannis (@ARstories): author of Augmented Human, working with AR for over a decade as a researcher, designer and tech evangelist

15. Tony Parisi (@auradeluxe): entrepreneur, investor and VR “OG”

16. Malia Probst (@TheMalia): founder partner at VR Scout and the host of the Real Virtual Show

17. Helen Situ (@HelenSitu): one of the first employees at NextVR, founder Virtual Reality Pop, and on the advisory board for SXSW Accelerator

18. Mike Quindazzi (@MikeQuindazzi): US Digital Sales Leader for PwC, consulting on emerging tech including blockchain, augmented reality, virtual reality and more

19. Ryan Wyatt (@Fwiz): global head of gaming and virtual reality at YouTube

Artificial Intelligence

20. Nathan Benaich (@NathanBenaich): Founder/co-organizer of London.AI

21. Sandy Carter (@sandy_carter): vice president at Amazon Web Services, author and TEDx speaker

22. Jenn Duong (@jenndefer): co-funded SH//FT, an organization that supports equality and inclusion in future tech and director of VR at 1215creative

23. Martin Ford (@MFordFuture): Futurist & NY Times bestselling author of Rise of the Robot

24. Ian Goodfellow (@goodfellow_ian): director of machine learning at Apple and lead author of Deep Learning

25. Eva Hoerth (@downtohoerth): VR evangelist and fellow at WXR Fund

26. Evan Kirstel (@evankirstel): thought leader, technology influencer and B2B marketer

27. Fei-Fei Li (@drfeifei): Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, and director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab and the Stanford Vision Lab

28. Spiros Margaris (@SpirosMargaris): a venture capitalist and founder of Margaris Ventures

29. Tamara McCleary (@TamaraMcCleary): chief executive officer of Thulium, and thought-leader in AI and IoT

30. Fabio Moioli (@fabiomoioli): director of consulting and services at Microsoft

31. Andrew Ng (@AndrewYNg): co-founder of Coursera, Stanford CS adjunct faculty and former head of Baidu AI Group/Google Brain

32. Nonny de la Peña (@ImmersiveJourno): journalist and founder/ceo of Emblematic Group, an award-winning VR/AR company

33. Paul Roetzer (@paulroetzer): author of The Marketing Agency Blueprint and The Marketing Performance Blueprint, and creator of the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute and Marketing Score

34. Nige Willson (@nigewillson): global strategist at Microsoft, with a focus on innovation and future trends.

Tech Events and Media

35. AWE (@ARealityEvent): according to Forbes, “The Most Essential AR/VR Conference and Expo”

36. TechCrunch (@TechCrunch): online publisher focused on the tech industry

37. The Verge (@verge): covering the intersection of technology, science, art and culture

38. WIRED Magazine (@WIRED): monthly magazine covering how emerging technology affects culture, the economy, and politics

Hashtags to Follow

#AI

#AR

#AugmentedReality

#DataScience

#MachineLearning

#MixedReality

#oculus

#spatialcomputing

#VR

#VirtualReality

If you didn’t see your favorite VR or AI thought-leader on the list, reach out to us via Twitter and we’ll continue to update the list.