Tag: Andy Fidel

UPDATED! A Report from the IMMERSIVE X Conference, Nov. 11th, 2025

If anything, I urge everyone in our industry to build our digital spaces the way we design cities: with flow, gathering spots, heart and soul. Places that invite people to linger, not just scroll. It’s not just about what people see—it’s about where they feel seen.

—Andy Fidel, State of the Metaverse in 2026 keynote presentation, IMMERSIVE X Conference, November 11th, 2025 (in ENGAGE).

Julian Reyes delivering his talk titled Preserving the Legacy of Digital Culture: The Virtual Worlds Museum Living Archive, which took place yesterday evening my time in a virtual world in Spatial (I’m the blonde in the green T-shirt, sitting in the front row, near the centre bottom of this screen capture).

Yesterday, November 11th, 2025, I had the opportunity to attend three sessions of the IMMERSIVE X conference, held on three different platforms:

  • IMMERSIVE X 2025 Warm-Up: Curator’s Remarks (held in VRChat)
  • Andy Fidel’s keynote, The State of the Metaverse in 2026 (held in ENGAGE)
  • Julian Reyes’ presentation, Preserving the Legacy of Digital Culture: The Virtual Worlds Museum™ Living Archive (held in Spatial)

Warm-Up: Curator’s Remarks (Thomas Zorbach)

Set in a custom-built theatre surrounded by lush rainforest. Thomas Zorbach set the tone and agenda for the conference sessions to follow over the hree days of the conference. My friend Carlos Austin was the videographer for the event (as he no doubt will be for many of the conference sessions!), and he produced the following video of Thomas’ speech, which was posted to the IMMERSIVE X YouTube streams channel (I also took some photos using VRChat’s built-in camera, but I first have to figure out how to transfer them from VRChat to my blog!).

UPDATE Nov. 13th, 2025: I was finally able to add some photos I shot while in VRChat to this section of my blog post (please see the pictures above).

The State of the Metaverse in 2026 (Andy Fidel)

Andy’s keynote was prefaced by a half-hour red carpet awards session where various people were introduced, and several awards were given out (I arrived late for this part, but here’s the 35-minute video from IMMERSIVE X’s YouTube channel). Here’s the blurb from the conference program:

What an entrance! Dress your avatar to impress and flash your most dazzling smile for the photo. Once again, the path to the Opening Keynote leads across the legendary red carpet of the Polys Theater, home of the annual Polys Awards. Thanks to Ben Erwin and his incredible Polys team, this festive event marks the official start of IMMERSIVE X 2025. Don’t miss this prestigious social event in the Metaverse — you might just be in for a surprise or two.

After the red carpet, we all moved over to the main stage where Andy Fidel, the founder and creative lead at Spatial Networks, shared her insights on where the metaverse stands today and where it might be heading.

Andy Fidel on the virtual stage, giving her keynote address in ENGAGE (it was giving TED Talk!)
I took a selfie of my avatar in ENGAGE at the red carpet event prior to Andy’s keynote!

Because I attended the event in my Vive Pro 2 VR headset, I did not take written notes of her talk, but it was excellent! Also, Andy has asked that her talk not be streamed to YouTube, a decision which I can totally understand and respect. However, Andy was happy to share her speech notes with me, so I did not have to rely on my notoriously faulty 61-year-old memory to share a few quotes which especially resonated with me!

Andy started her presentation off with a sigh, stating:

I’m tired of the [metaverse] hype cycle. I don’t know what we’re all waiting for. Because I’ve seen us create real, human digital experiences—moments of presence—every day for the past ten years. This isn’t a sci-fi episode. The metaverse is already here. It’s in your browser tab. It’s not just a concept, a game, or a place. It’s how we’re choosing to show up online.

And my favourite [metaverse] misconception? We’re not escaping reality—we’re extending it.

There were more of Andy’s quotes which I really appreciated. In talking about the shift away from massive metaverse platforms to micro-communities, she said:

We’ve got to find new ways of measuring success when we talk about connection. Every social metric measures visibility, impressions, clicks, followers…that’s activity, not authenticity. And I don’t know about you—but I’m done chasing mass engagement and empty distribution. Because connection isn’t content. It’s presence.

And she talked about how, perhaps, we are a little too narrowly focused on what the “metaverse” is:

Let’s be honest—the metaverse didn’t start with VR. We’ve been building shared digital worlds for decades: Second Life, World of Warcraft, Minecraft…The only difference now? The new emerging tech finally lets us feel presence. VR, AR, digital—these are just new layers on something deeply human. “Metaverse” is just a new name for something we’ve always done: to gather. And to gather, we need space to do so. What’s different now? We have the technology to do it remotely, and feel like we’re right there. With embodiment, body language, haptics, even phantom touch—we’re tapping into all the little things that make our digital space feel more immersive and real.

And:

Virtual presence has become its own form of togetherness. We show up not just in person, but in-world. Because let’s be honest—why show up at all? Because you can feel it.

The metaverse isn’t here to replace the real world. It’s here to layer it with new forms of meaning. It’s not just a playground, [and] not just a marketplace. It’s a new layer of human communication.

And look—if you say, “the metaverse isn’t for me,” that a bit like saying “the internet isn’t for me” in the 1990s. You don’t have to love every corner of it. You just have to find the part that resonates. Because this isn’t about tech for tech’s sake. It’s about connecting—more intimately, across space, time and medium.

UPDATE Nov. 13th, 2025: I was finally able to add some photos I shot while in ENGAGE to this section of my blog post (please see above).

I want to thank Thomas Zorbach for shoehorning me into this avatar-packed session, after I personally begged him to let me in, even though the event was fully booked and no longer accepting signups. I did not want to miss Andy’s speech, and I was not disappointed!

Preserving the Legacy of Digital Culture: The Virtual Worlds Museum™ Living Archive (Julian Reyes)

I was not sure if I was going to be able to attend this session (I was having all kinds of trouble getting Spatial to work for me, and I eventually threw my hands up, gave up on attending in virtual reality, and instead visited via my flatscreen monitor on my Windows home computer instead). However, I am so, so glad that I did! A video stream of the 45-minute presentation has already been posted to the IMMERSIVE X YouTube channel, but I will also add some of my own remarks (since I was on desktop, I took written notes).

This blogpost will be updated as I add pictures and more of my impressions, so check back later today for those updates! I enjoyed all three sessions, and I am very much looking forward to the sessions I will be attending today and tomorrow!

With the deepest thanks to Andy Fidel for sharing her speaking notes with me. Thanks, Andy!

More and More Conferences Are Going Virtual In Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic: Here’s a List of Events for the Rest of March (Thanks to Andy Fidel!)

Well, trickle that started with the highly successful Educators in VR 2020 International Summit has turned into a veritable flood, as dozens of conferences and events are moving away from real-world meetings to virtual ones, held on a variety of social VR platforms and virtual worlds.

Digital literacy educator Andy Fidel has compiled a document titled Running List of Conferences Going Virtual Due to Coronavirus Health Concerns — 2020, which he is updating as he hears of new events.

Here’s what’s coming up between now and the end of March (along with a couple of additions of my own). Thank you to Andy Fidel for all her work compiling this information!

March 16–19 | MVP Global Summit

“Microsoft has made the decision that this year’s MVP/Regional Director Summit will be an online-only/virtual event. Our entire team is working hard to plan and prepare an alternate experience that still provides the exclusive in-depth technical sessions in an online-only format and be inclusive to our globally distributed community.” [register here]

March 17–19 | Virtual Universe 2020

“Competing in today’s diverse market is no joke. Successful organizations must remain at the forefront of technology while controlling budgets, leveraging data, and ensuring security.” [register here]

March 18–19 | Women in Graphene 2020 Virtual Event

“The next Women in Graphene Career Development Day is going digital…join us on 18–19 March for an out of this world experience! This two-day event is an opportunity to discuss issues related to gender and diversity in science and technology fields and specifically in the graphene community.” [register here]

March 18 | Playable.GDC2020

“The Game Developer’s Conference has announced they will postpone their event. But all game developers know that with grit and innovation, THE SHOW MUST GO ON! PLAYABLE in the virtual reality streams from the event that you can attend from anywhere on the planet!” [register here]

March 18 | Domopalooza

“While we are disappointed not to be hosting Domopalooza in Utah, we are excited to bring the great content and conversations to you as an interactive online experience.” [register here]

March 19 | Spring Live

“Things are a little crazy right now. Were you excited about an upcoming conference that’s now cancelled? Same here. So we’re doing something about it. Complete the form and we’ll send you details on how to join this one-time event.” [register here]

March 19 | V²EC 2020 — Virtual VIVE Ecosytem Conference

“HTC usually hosts its Vive Ecosystem Conference (HTC 2020 VEC) in Shenzhen, China but due to the current climate will entirely host the event in virtual reality (VR).” [register here]

March 19–21 | Microsoft Build

“Join your peers and Microsoft engineers to learn, connect, and code together. Get inspired and leave a better developer than when you arrived.” [register here]

March 21–22 | Virtual Genius Conference

“Get ready for some very nuanced discussions/dialectics, lots of cutting-edge solutions to problems that the world hasn’t even acknowledged exists, to find like minds and new hobbies, and for a sneaky look at future trends (we tend to know them first!).” [register here]

March 24 | EMOTIONAI

“Join us for a virtual conference featuring leaders in tech and EQ to explore how AI and EQ can collaborate to build emotional connections for our future.” [register here]

March 22–26 | 2020 IEEE VR

“Out of an abundance of caution surrounding COVID-19, the decision has been made to convert the in-person component of VR 2020 into an all-digital conference experience — VR 2020 will now be an online event. The IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR) is the premier international event for the presentation of research results in the broad area of virtual reality (VR).” [register here]

March 25 | MoCDA Spring 2020 Virtual Conference

“How do you share information with your students, clients, and other stakeholders, such as department chairs and local employers? A picture is worth a thousand words. Discover how career practitioners can enhance their website content and workshop materials with original images, including infographics, without having graphic design experience.” [register here]

March 24–25 | TRANSFORM

“#TRANSFORM2020 Online will deliver the complete conference as programmed via live streaming on 24 & 25 March with all content uploaded for viewing post-event. We will film all the sessions as programmed and will video conference in remote speakers where feasible. Delegates will be able to join the conversation and participate in sessions by submitting their questions and comments live — stay tuned.” [register]

March 23 | The Ultimate Tech Skills Conference

“Pluralsight LIVE Europe is now a virtual event open to everyone. Tune in for exciting product announcements, a message from Pluralsight CEO Aaron Skonnard and sessions on tech trends, skill development, best practices and more. Register below to get information on how to access it and a reminder when it goes live on 23 March.” [register here]

March 25 | Microsoft Developer Virtual Conference

“Calling all developers! Get ready to dev-level-up. Spend one day exploring a digital virtual conference and learning from experts across the nation. This digital event enables all types of developers to connect and learn through 5 different tracks and 20 sessions, as well as an online Partner lounge to build connections and discover a range of developer tools and services. Join sessions created for developers and discover the capabilities of the Microsoft Cloud ecosystem.” [register here]

March 25–26 | OECD Global Anti-Corruption & Integrity Forum

“Forum will go ahead in a virtual format, allowing participants to join the sessions from anywhere in the world, contribute to the debates and engage with speakers in real time.” [register here]

March 25–26 |Virtual World Best Practices in Education

The long-running Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) conference will take place in the virtual world of Second Life from March 26th to 28th, 2020. The keynote on Saturday March 28th will by Lorelle VanFossen and Daniel Dyboski-Bryant, who will share their experience creating and running the first-ever Educators in VR 2020 International Summit, which was a resounding success with 160 speakers over six days on five different social VR platforms, and a model for future virtual conferences. The title of Lorelle and Daniel’s keynote is Lessons Learned from the 2020 Educators in VR Conference. [register here]

March 29-April 1 | Association of Test Publishers

“Innovations in Testing 2020 has made the unprecedented decision to cancel their on-site meeting in San Diego and turn Innovations 2020 into a Virtual On-line Conference. These are extraordinary times and in some ways it is a remarkable opportunity to put into play the technology and e-learning that we have talked so much about.” [register here]

March 31-April 2 | Adobe Summit — The Digital Experience Conference

Watch the keynote live: Hear about trends and new products that are transforming industries from the comfort of your wherever. Explore 100+ breakouts on demand: Get free access to over a hundred on-demand breakout sessions from Adobe, customers, and partners. Sneak a peak at the future: Join special guest Chelsea Handler for a look at the latest experimental tech from our labs — at Adobe Sneaks. [register here]

There are many more conferences and events taking place past the end of March, 2020; for further details please refer to Andy Fidel’s blogpost on Medium. (Thanks, Andy!)