"'Wow' doesn't happen by chance," explains tech pioneer, human-centric AI consultant and author/speaker/podcast host Elizabeth Bieniek, in her book Cake on Tuesday: 25 Lessons to Unlock Corporate Innovation.

And, Elizabeth says, "corporate" or not, we're all innovators.

Elizabeth built and led the team that created the groundbreaking Webex Hologram holographic collaboration system, in 2021. In Cake on Tuesday, she shares the lessons she learned, along the way. And while these are about leading a pioneering team of technological innovators, the principles could every bit as easily be applied to your next creative project.

Getting started, keeping the project going, and especially, building in the "wow!" element, for anyone who experiences what you've created, are all areas Elizabeth explores in Cake on Tuesday.

So are the elements of playfulness and fun.

"Do we (have to be serious)?" she asks, at one point, as we discuss focusing a team on a project.

(Indeed, the title of her book and podcast come from exactly that principle!)

And one of her own latest creative projects is her new podcast, Cake on Tuesday, in which she and her guests discuss tech leadership and entrepreneurship! (Be sure to subscribe.)

In this discussion we apply some of the principles from Elizabeth's book to a hypothetical educator's experience of creating a mini maker faire!

What are some of the best ways XR could transform your life? And how might you be an active participant, driving these innovations to create a better world?

This November, that's exactly what IMMERSIVE X 2025 will be exploring.

From November 11th through November 13th, the fifth edition of IMMERSIVE X: The Next Reality Festival takes place. The festival, hosted entirely in virtual space, will feature presentations, activities, performances and various other events across multiple immersive platforms.

The focus will be on community, as IMMERSIVE X brings together creators, educators, businesspeople, activists and anyone else who'd like to share new perspectives and interact in fully immersive 3D environments. Admission is free, but is by invitation--and you're encouraged to request an invite! Here's the link to apply. However, be sure to do so early. These events may book to capacity.

Thomas Zorbach is the Organizer and Curator of IMMERSIVE X, as well as the Founder and CEO of Berlin-based full-service agency vm-people.

However, describing vm-people as "an advertising agency", doesn't do them justice.

Marketing for the 21st century

Thomas explains that he and his team help brands to find and tell better stories. And he jokingly offers that vm-people started with "witchcraft"--his work on a thesis on The Blair Witch Project was the catalyst!

In researching the popularity of this 1999 film, Thomas came up with the concept at the core of vm-people. In the age of digital and interactive media, marketing would go beyond advertising announcements, to having companies tell their own stories through immersive experiences.

Thomas's exploration of the Metaverse, since the pandemic, has led him to host events, give lectures, runs theater courses, and throw parties in virtual space, as he assists others in exploring the potential of XR for their purposes.

Thomas shared the story of creating both vm-people (check out their YouTube channel, for past IMMERSIVE X sessions!) and the IMMERSIVE X festival, as well as offering a preview of this year's events.

"In art, it's OK to fail," says iBoda CEO Professor Sunah Kim.

"You can draw a different way, next time. "

Continuing to draw and learning from "failures", she explains, is how students learn to draw well.

"If you stop there (after failing), you will never draw, and you will say, 'oh, I'm not that creative.'"

And her South Korea-based personalized art education platform encourages everyone, both to keep practicing, and to enjoy exploring, their creativity.

In the process, students get to harness AI as an implement, self-evaluate their work and receive guidance from art education experts from Hanyang University in Seoul.

AI for the individual creative

With programs for both art students and teachers, iBoda assesses a student’s artistic tendencies, as well as the art styles they prefer. Then, based on these findings, the platform customizes art lessons to that individual’s interests and abilities.

It also tracks a student's learning journey, by automatically generating a portfolio of their work. Finished art can be uploaded to a virtual gallery and students are encouraged to self-assess, as well as receiving feedback from instructors.

And it's all about having fun, while learning and creating.

Professor Kim, who holds multiple art-education credentials, has been an artist for as long as she can remember. She is a Professor in the Department of Art Education at Hanyang University in Seoul, South Korea. She chairs three art-related graduate programs at HYU, as well as serving as Director of the university’s Art Gifted Education Institute. In addition, she is the Director of the Hanyang Education in Art + Design Lab.

Professor Kim shared the story of the iBoda platform, offered a look at the ways it works and discussed the ways she’d like to expand the platform in the future.

What if school could be re-imagined?

And, what if that re-imagination included making every student feel welcome? As well as involving their families in the education process, while facilitating classroom community-building for educators?

That's Dr. Kara Stern's goal.

An expert in EdTech subject matter, Kara serves as Director of Education and Engagement for Ridgeland, Mississippi-based educational technology company SchoolStatus. Her background, as an education professional, has included serving as Executive Director of nonprofit Math for America, as well as both a classroom teacher and a principal.

Drawing on her experience as an educator, Kara has designed a number of resources--many of them free!--designed to promote student success and decrease absenteeism.

Among these are her newsletter templates for educators, available on the Smore platform, as well as applications aimed at reducing chronic absenteeism on School Status' resource library.

Kara talked about the creative journey which led her to design these applications, explored one possible scenario in which a teacher could involve students more fully in their own learning and offered a look at the ways a classroom or school newsletter could work well for a busy educational professional.

"(We want to) really give people some magic," says artist and metal fabricator Cjay Roughgarden.

And that's exactly what she's doing with her interactive art installation, "Naga and the Captainess", which opened in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park in July.

"Naga" is a 100-foot-long, 25-foot-tall sea serpent--with a story around him. He blows bubbles, inspires oohs and aahs when he lights up at night, and is designed to challenge the "evil sea serpent" mythology prevalent in the West.

Cjay, who is the proprietor of Richmond-based metal fabrication studio Element 26, explains that the catalyst for her project was a favorite childhood book: "Cyrus, the Unsinkable Sea Serpent".

And from there, she began researching the lore of sea serpents. Ultimately, her goal of creating a more likable character led her to explore Asian culture's positive view of dragons.

The result: Naga, with a friendlier face that tends to delight visitors.

"Naga and the Captainess", which Cjay built in collaboration with fellow artists Jacquelyn Scott and Stephanie Shipman, debuted at Burning Man 2024. The full installation included a sinking ship, the Aldrovanda, which had a highly-detailed cabin, and treasure surrounding it.

And it was one of the most popular installations in Black Rock City.

Fast-forward to Summer, 2025.

After a four-month visit to the Petaluma Fairgrounds, Naga was on his way to San Francisco. The opening of the installation, Cjay explains, drew far more visitors than she'd anticipated.

And the real treasure of "Naga", is the community-building he inspires.

More than 250 volunteers worked on the installation, which Cjay and her team had four months to build after obtaining funding. Those volunteers did everything from calligraphy to sewing to handcrafting treasure.

"One of the things that I think is so special about projects like this, is that it brings together people in different fields,"Cjay says.

Future plans include considerable community involvement for the locals of San Francisco.

The vision for the future

A smaller version of the Aldrovanda, the Aldrovanda II, is planned for addition to Golden Gate Park, according to Naga and the Captainess' website. And the final stage of the project, Stage III, envisions community programming, such as interactive theatre and hands-on artisan workshops, happening at the installation.

Would you like to help? 501(c)(3) nonprofit Illuminate, the project's fiscal sponsor, has a link for donations.

Meanwhile, for updates on "Naga" (and to see a cool video of him blowing bubbles!), be sure to follow Naga and the Captainess on Instagram!

Cjay shared the story of creating and transporting "Naga and the Captainess", previewed an exciting upcoming related art project and offered advice on what works best, for making a large-scale creative project a reality.

"There's no wrong way to get started," says VEX Robotics Vice President of Global Educational Strategy Jason McKenna.

He's referring to the process of implementing STEM education into a classroom curriculum.

Jason, who is an educator and EdTech leader, is the author of What STEM Can Do for Your Classroom: Improving Student Problem Solving, Collaboration, and Engagement, Grades K–6.

And he knows, from experience, the ways in which STEM in general--and robotics, in particular--can keep students engaged in learning.

An educator's epiphany

At the start of his teaching career, Jason says, he was a traditional classroom teacher in Pennsylvania.

Feeling burnt-out, he began exploring ways to spark students' imagination and get them more involved with their own educational careers.

He gave his students a survey, to find out what they'd like to learn. Their responses surprised him.

They wanted to learn to build and code robots.

With considerable apprehension, Jason nevertheless implemented his first classroom STEM activity: a robotics class.

After that first experience, he says, he was "hooked".

The journey

Fast-forward to today.

Jason has been working with global educational robotics leader VEX Robotics for more than eight years. With the theme of "educational robotics for everyone", VEX Robotics offers robotics kits and activity challenges for students, pre-K right up to university level.

They also offer free educational resources for teachers--including their VEXcode VR virtual robotics platform, where educators can teach and learn coding!

And annually, VEX Robotics offers numerous student competitions, including their global VEX V5 Robotics Competition, for middle-school and high school students. Recently, they announced the theme, "Push Back" for the V5 Competition for the 2025 - 2026 season.

Jason, who published his book in 2023, talked about his journey into STEM education, some of the concepts in his book that may surprise traditional educators, and how VEX Robotics illustrates these principles while allowing students to develop hands-on skills for their future careers.

New World Rides is changing one element of thrill rides--and VR--which no one will miss.

They're removing the motion-sickness component, as they host Tallahassee's first virtual-reality arcade!

Their revolutionary ride, the Roto Loco, spins 360 degrees on three axes as riders play an interactive virtual-reality game. And creator Dr. Nick Suttell, CEO of New World Rides, has designed the Roto Loco so that riders don't get sick!

In fact, on their website, New World Rides explains that riders control the ride's rotation. Meanwhile, reviews on the website, while describing the ride as "fun" and "thrilling", also use the words "soothing" and "comfortable"!

A "VRcade" of options

Riders can experience the Roto Loco, on which they can play the game "Shuttle 39", at New World Rides' "VRcade", in the Railroad Square Art District.

In addition, or if thrill rides aren't someone's thing, VRcade's arena offers a number of VR experiences, designed to get people moving and interacting with friends.

And this is about much more than offering entertainment experiences.

In their mission statement, New World Rides says they hope to "inspire others and get them excited about engineering and the arts". They also have the goal of bringing people out to enjoy truly immersive experiences with family and friends.

Meanwhile, they're inspiring the next generation of innovators. Every Friday, Nick says, they've been taking their arena VR games to a local summer STEM camp, introducing the young participants to immersive experiences.

Nick, who has a PhD in mechanical engineering, talked about creating the Roto Loco, what visitors can experience at VRcade, and what's next!

"You need to think of change as being your partner, and welcome it," says futurist, Ubertrends Founder and author Michael Tchong.

But along the way, he warns, we also need to be skeptical--due to the scams proliferating as AI flourishes.

Michael, whose entrepreneurial background has included creating four successful startups, has based his career on watching trends and educating others in what he has termed "ubertrends": trends that change human values. He is the author of three books, the most recent of which is "Ubertrends – How Trends and Innovation Are Transforming Our Future". In addition, he is an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco.

His motto is, "I help you catch the next wave, before it catches you".

One such wave, he warns, is a growing "scam wave" accompanying the acceleration of AI.

"We've crossed a dangerous threshold," Michael says, as he explains how well AI can "fake" voices and, in the wrong hands, wind up swindling individuals and organizations out of thousands, or even millions, of dollars.

"It's all part and parcel of technology,"he continues. "It comes with a lot of great benefits, but it also comes with a lot of great dangers.

"We just need to be prepared, you know?"

Michael shared some of the ways to be prepared and possibly avoid getting "scammed", talked about his background and discussed ways artists and "arts people" can stay relevant amid the AI surge.