Futurist, speaker, and author, Cathy Hackl is a globally recognized augmented
reality, virtual reality, spatial computing and innovation thought leader. LinkedIn has
named her one of the Top 10 Technology Voices in 2018 and 2019, the highest honor
on the platform. Next Reality included her in their annual Top 30 People to Watch in
Augmented Reality for 2019 and she’s been shortlisted as Technology Evangelist of
the Year by Women in IT Awards.
Cathy is currently working on her second book The Augmented Workforce: How AI,
AR, and 5G Will Impact Every Dollar You Make. The book is slated to be published in
late 2020. Cathy is also a professionally trained futurist and is using strategic
foresight to help companies and brands prepare for emerging futures.
She recently worked as part of the Enterprise strategy team at Magic Leap where
she helped drive communications and partner strategy for the company. Prior to
that, Cathy was the lead futurist at You Are Here Labs, where she led agencies,
brands and companies in applying Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality for
marketing and training working with brands like AT&T & Porsche.
Hackl worked as a VR Evangelist for HTC VIVE during the launch of its enterprise VR
headset and during the company’s partnership with Warner Brothers’ blockbuster,
Ready Player One. She’s the co-author of Marketing New Realities, the first VR AR
marketing book ever written. She also worked as Chief Communications Officer for
cinematic VR studio Future Lighthouse, where she collaborated on projects with
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Oculus, Beefeater, and William Morris Endeavor.
Hackl has been featured in media outlets like Forbes, Barron’s, Salon, VentureBeat,
Digiday, Tech Target, CMO.com, and Mashable. She is a global advisor for VR AR
Association and was recognized in 2016 by NBC News as one of the top Latina
women working in VR.
Before working in spatial computing and technology, she worked as a
communicator at media companies such as CNN, Discovery, and ABC News and was
nominated in 2007 for an EMMY Award for her storytelling work. She’s also the
creator of the world’s first holographic press release and loves all things spatial
computing, artificial intelligence and futurism