Welcome
Paul Donato — Chief Research Officer, ARF

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Defining the Metaverse
While the “metaverse” was a term coined in 1992 by Neal Stephenson in his prescient science fiction book Snow Crash, the origins of what most think of as the metaverse has been in the making for many decades. The evolution of numerous technologies have laid the foundation for metaverse experiences. Simultaneously, much early work in virtual reality concepts and the evolution of Web standards have contributed to making the metaverse a more accessible reality. However, much like any new technology, we are in the early stages of nearly every aspect of these platforms—developer tools and user features, identity management, security reporting and measurement. Marketers will recognize great promise in these metaverse platforms as they mature—especially with the rapid rise of user adoption. Understanding the genesis of these platforms will help marketers understand what role they can play across the landscape of platform providers.
Patrick Donoghue — Partner, Next Media Partners
Gerard Kunkel — Founder and Managing Partner, Next Media Partners

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Into the Metaverse
Decoding the next era of digital engagement with the experts at Wunderman Thompson Intelligence and XRGuild/Open Metaverse/Realitycraft.
Evo Heyning — Secretary, Board of Directors, XRGuild; Co-Chair, Open Metaverse Interoperability Group
Emily Safian-Demers — Editor, Wunderman Thompson Intelligence
Moderator: Paul Donato — Chief Research Officer, ARF

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The Interoperable Brand
The metaverse promises some amazing opportunities for brands to get closer to customers in highly immersive and interactive ways. Interoperability is one of the cornerstones of the metaverse that allows for a more fluid experience across digital and physical properties. Interoperability will enable people to access a plethora of branded experiences (spaces) across different blockchains without ever leaving a decentralized space. This is essential to giving consumers the freedom of interoperability while maintaining the security that is expected from the metaverse. One of the challenges interoperability will invite is that brands must now open themselves up so that consumers can interact with more than one brand at once and recognize that consumer led experiences are going to be what drives the value of the metaverse. How can brands start to create the conditions for other brands to exist inside of their narratives and vice versa?
Craig Elimeliah — Chief Experience Design Officer, VMLY&R

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Extending the Internet and Business into the Metaverse
The Metaverse can be seen as a logical next step in the evolution of technology, communications, and the Internet over the past several decades. As such, we can use the past as a framework to consider how brands, creators, and content owners will achieve their business objectives in the Metaverse.
Glen Hastings — Director, Partnerships Science, Meta

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Measuring Augmented Reality: Shaping the Future with Past Lessons
Digital marketing is no stranger to innovation, with an ever-changing landscape that ebbs and flows with how consumers adapt in the usage of new technologies and development of emerging behaviors. Augmented reality is one of these new technologies and as its use becomes more ubiquitous over the coming years, the advertising industry will need to take the lessons learned from the past, like that of the mobile revolution, and develop guidelines and metrics that are unique to AR.
Takeshi Tawarada — Ads Research and Insights Lead, Augmented Reality, Snap

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Metaverse 2027: Expectations & Extremes
The Metaverse has attracted intense interest, waves of investment and unlimited questions. Its future potential is both undefined and limitless. And therein lies the problem. Kantar’s futures expert, Don Abraham, shares a realistic assessment of what brands should expect from this emerging digital territory by 2027—including the six critical uncertainties that will define the next few years of development—as well as potential extreme scenarios brands should be prepared to address.
Don Abraham — Senior Partner, Consulting Division, Kantar

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Closing Remarks
Paul Donato — Chief Research Officer, ARF