Meet our Hello Wednesday speakers on blockchain and the metaverse

By Dharma Gutierrez | April 14, 2022

Join us April 20th for our free virtual Hello Wednesday event: How blockchain technology is enabling the emerging metaverse.

The metaverse has captured the interest and imagination of both global organizations and the public. Blockchain technology is playing a large role in building a unified metaverse and can allow users to control and monetize their own data as well as share and transport their digital goods between different proto-metaverses.

How can users and companies plan to use blockchain technology? What can we expect as these emerging technologies interact? Join John Eisenman, Principal, and Thomas Huitric, Analyst, from our Technology Group as we answer these questions and more along with the notable guest speakers introduced below.

Our Hello Wednesday events are always public and non-restricted. Don’t miss out, register today!

Chris Akhavan

Chris Akhavan operates as the Chief Business Officer at Forte, a leading platform in blockchain gaming. Prior to Forte, Chris worked as the Chief Revenue Officer of Glu Mobile, a mobile video game developer. Chris’s accomplishment includes transforming Glu’s $240m company into a $2.4B company, now acquired by EA. Some of his responsibilities at Glu included leading the company’s Business Development, Corporate Development, User Acquisition, Marketing, Advertising Revenue, and Central Tech. Chris also served as SVP of Partnerships at Tapjoy (now acquired by ironSource) where he grew the company from 10 employees into a platform reaching 1 Billion mobile devices.

Brian Trunzo

Brian Trunzo comes to Web3 and the metaverse with a unique perspective. Having started his professional career as a financial services attorney, he pivoted into the creative world, becoming a leading voice in men’s fashion. After successfully exiting two fashion businesses, Brian went on to lead WGSN, the authority in trend forecasting, in growing their North American consulting business. While there, he earned a reputation as a leading thinker on the burgeoning metaversal economy: from digital scarcity to crypto-economics, Brian consulted clients on how to think about this emerging world. In leading up to his post as Metaverse Lead at Polygon Studios, Brian built a metaverse consultancy to advise legacy brands on how to leverage their IP in the metaverse while heading up America’s largest men’s fashion trade show at Informa Markets.

Daniel Buchner

Daniel Buchner operates as Head of Decentralized Identity at Block. Prior to Block, he founded the Decentralized Identity program at Microsoft after spending his early career at Mozilla leading the Developer Ecosystem product group and various W3C Web standards efforts. He represents Block in the Decentralized Identity Foundation and is working with members of DIF and W3C to make decentralized identity a reality. A friend of Orange Silicon Valley’s, you may remember Daniel from our 2021 Hello Show.