November was a month filled with learning and sharing! After the inspiring XR Summit 2024 at IIT Madras, I had the privilege of attending another fantastic event—XConf 2024 by Thoughtworks India. Here are my key takeaways from this incredible gathering of technologists. About XConf XConf is Thoughtworks’ annual technology event, designed by technologists for technologists. Sponsored this year by AWS and CockroachDB, it celebrates innovation and the transformative power of software in the real world.

🚀 Excited to announce that I’ll be part of the XR Summit 2024 hosted by XTIC, IIT Madras, a hub for driving innovation in XR technologies in India! 🌟 IIT Madras, with its state-of-the-art Haptics Lab and the IoE Center for VR and Haptics, supported by the CAVE consortium (via XTIC.org), is at the forefront of advancing experiential technologies. This summit will bring together key stakeholders, industry leaders, and visionaries to shape the future of XR.

📢 Virtual World Symposium: Join us as we dive deep into the future of AI-powered virtual worlds: What are they? Where are they headed? And why is it crucial to discuss these transformative spaces to..day? This symposium will also unpack spatial intelligence and its role in defining and enhancing immersive environments. As we step into a new era of digital interaction, this event will provide insights into the challenges and opportunities that virtual worlds bring to society.

Exciting conversation on the future of tech with Eddie Avil, where we dive into my journey of writing Exploring the Metaverse, discuss the opportunities and challenges of the digital age, and even touch on mind-bending concepts like Programmable Dreams and Time Travel. Are we ready for what’s coming? XROM Podcast 🎙️ XROM PODCast, hosted by serial entrepreneur and visionary Eddie Avil, is an incredible YouTube channel showcasing conversations with industry leaders in emerging tech.

Thoughtworks has always amazed me—whether it’s the pioneering work we do in the industry or the contributions we make to software engineering practices. What truly inspires me is our people-centered approach. Recently, I was honored by our market leadership, who put me in the spotlight to share my journey with fellow Thoughtworkers. While I’ve learned a great deal from my colleagues, I took this opportunity to share my own experiences in the hope of inspiring others.

AWE Asia is a flagship event of AWE(Augmented World Expo), dubbed as “XR’s Most Essential Conference” and “The XR Conference for Everyone”. It is the world’s leading AR/VR expo after more than 10 years of dedication, development, and high-quality events. AWE organizes three annual events (USA, Asia, EU) and holds a number of other sessions all over the world. AWE Asia is an opportunity to bring together outstanding XR companies, investors, and other international stakeholders in Asia to promote the development of the local XR market.

In a world where AI is ubiquitous, technologies like AR, VR, and XR often raise eyebrows, despite their vast potential. AI is not only propelling these technologies forward but also preparing them for the next stages of development. There are tremendous opportunities to leverage their potential for business transformation. I am honored to be invited by Express Computers - India Leading IT Magazine, to speak on this topic and dispel common myths.

Season of AI, a virtual event series of the Microsoft Azure Developer Community by Reskill, stands as a flagship event in empowering aspiring professionals. Recently, I had the privilege of delivering a session, where I had the opportunity to guide the community and share insights from my experience in XR and AI development. It was an honor to accept this invitation, and special thanks to Rohit Sardana and Azkar Khan for extending the invitation.

AI is pervasive, whether we sense it or not. Staying updated has become essential for survival. We are increasingly immersed in artificially generated worlds, with the internet rapidly evolving into what is known as the metaverse. In my book, “Exploring the Metaverse”, I delve into its various forms and interpretations, usecases and challenges, and the way forward. DesignersX, a company specializing in software development, invited me to speak about my book and discuss how AI and the metaverse will shape the future.

The VRAR Association(VRARA) is an international organization designed to foster collaboration between XR, mixed reality, spatial computing, and artificial intelligence (AI) solution providers and end-users that accelerates growth, fosters research and education, helps develop industry best practices, connects member organizations and promotes the services of member companies. VRARA has various industry focused committees, and I am invited to speak at an event by Energy Committee. Thanks Hemanth Satyanarayana and Susan Spark for invitation.

XREvolve Summit serves a comprehensive platform for exploring the latest advancements, applications, applied sciences and progresses within AR, VR, and the broader domains of the metaverse such as spatial computing and mixed reality. It is backed by Gatherverse community, that advocates humanity-first standards in accessibility, education, equality, community development, safety & privacy, wellness, and ethics within the metaverse and emerging technologies. This year’s focus is XR : Interface of AI, that open up the extraordinary and near limitless possibilities for humanity.

Metaverse India Policy and Standards (MIPS) is a pioneering initiative led by Experiential Technology Innovation Centre (XTIC), serving as India’s premier research and product innovation hub for Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, and Haptics, hosted at IIT Madras. It’s an honor to be the member of MIPS and showcase my book Exploring the Metaverse: Redefining Reality in the Digital Age, which aligns closely with the initiative’s objectives. I extend my gratitude to Thriveni Palanivelu for orchestrating a seamless event.

The CareerMaker meetup, hosted by the Microsoft Azure Developer Community and managed by Reskill, stands as a flagship event in empowering aspiring professionals. Recently, I had the privilege of delivering a special keynote address at Microsoft Gurugram, where I had the opportunity to guide students from various institutes and share insights from my experience in product management. It was an honor to accept this invitation, as engaging with the young, fresh minds of our nation is not only an opportunity to learn from them but also a responsibility to impart valuable knowledge.

Welcome to Internet 3.0, the transformative era where reality takes on new dimensions, driven by eXtending Reality (XR) at it’s core, along with AI, Cloud, IoT, and more. This evolution would be the product of collaborative efforts involving academia, government, industry, and individuals. I recently had the privilege of participating as a panelist at an event hosted by the pioneers shaping the future of the internet. In this article, I share my insights and a summary of this remarkable event.

The XConf XConf is Thoughtworks annual technology event created by technologists. It is designed for technologists who care deeply about software and its impact on the world. Last year, I presented on the topic of AI Assisted Content Pipeline for XR. This year, we took it a step further by hosting an immersive experience booth. We featured cutting-edge AR/VR devices and engaged in in-depth discussions about various industrial applications. It was truly enriching to interact with participants, share our insights, and absorb their perspectives.

🤖 Rapid Prototyping Community Rapid Prototyping is an internal community @Thoughtworks, focused on building a culture of rapid prototyping and innovation. They organise various learnings events, and I was invited to speak at one of their events. I talked about the importance of holistic product development and how the modern products goes beyond software. I also discussed the impact of technological evolution on products, how to stay ahead of the curve.

Lean2Lead is a network of women at work, with will to lead and succeed in their respective areas of work. They are 400+ women from different industries together in this group for exchange of ideas, connecting and coaching, building network with industry leaders and inspiring each other for building strategies for success in leadership and executive roles. I am speaking at their tech session series, on 15 July 2023, 3-4 PM.

Extending Reality (XR) is providing experience to user where the boundaries of real and fake blur, and user believe in the new reality presented to them. In the recent years, the tech has evolved to enable extending the reality by XR (AR/VR) faster, and much more evolution still to happen. I was invited to join the Progress Review Committee as a Judge for Meta and Meity’s Startup Hub program. It is great talking to top XR startups of India.

As technology continues to advance, electronics are getting smaller and wires are disappearing. Even electric poles, once a familiar sight on road trips, are being phased out. With the internet now ubiquitous, physical storage devices are disappearing too, and we rely more on cloud-based solutions that seem to happen over the air. ‘It’s no wonder we look up when we think of clouds ☁️, but should actually look down to the earth in the mines!

The TWiinoFest 3.0 The third edition of innovation fest, named at TWinnoFest, a month-long hackathon, was recently held by Innovation Labs at Thoughtworks. This year’s event was conducted remotely, with participants spread across different cities. I was fortunate enough to be invited to judge the finale of the event. The sheer variety and quality of ideas presented was truly astounding. It was incredibly difficult to compare them, as each one was unique and innovative in its own way.