METAVERSE MINGLE OPTIONAL - MUST BE ON A COMPUTER (NOT AVAILABLE ON SOME CELL PHONES) - Building Community in the Metaverse Particularly with the disruptions caused by Covid-19, the world is moving towards more online interactions between people, organizations, and communities. The current buzzword for this is “Metaverse,” a term attributed to Neal Stephenson in his seminal 1992 sci-fi novel Snow Crash. In some form, the Metaverse has been around since the existence of the internet, but recent advances in technology have allowed for more dynamic, realistic, and customizable online spaces. Particularly for nonprofits and other worldwide distributed advocacy groups, the Metaverse represents a new opportunity for forging deeper connections with their members, and bridging the gap when physical presence is impractical or impossible. Tim will be giving a short talk on one of the emerging platforms called Ronday, which aims to be “The Human-Centric Metaverse.” Members of the conference have the unique opportunity to check out Ronday for themselves in a “Metaverse Mingle” social hour on the second day of the event.

Tim Train - Ronday Tim is CEO / co-founder of Ronday Technologies, a unique metaverse platform leveraging natural human dynamics to create a sense of genuine presence for participants. Ronday builds stronger bonds within communities, organizations, families, and friend groups. Tim began his career in games over thirty years ago, working on the original Sid Meier’s Civilization and building several hit titles in the historical strategy category. He went on to found two game studios before embarking on the Ronday journey.