XR Immersive Tech & Experience Strategist, Tech Humanist at The Collaboratorium

Kathleen Cohen is Tech Humanist and an XR Immersive Strategist and with over 25 years building both user and guest experiences. Kathleen’s background includes working as an artist and creative producer for DreamWorks Interactive, IBM Centers for Innovation and Walt Disney Parks & Resorts. Kathleen also was the former Vice President of Digital Innovation & Integration for the National Constitution Center helping to tell the contemporary story of the U.S. Constitution. Kathleen sits on the Advisory Board of holoride (Munich); a spinout of Audi innovation and winners of the 2021 SXSW Pitch for Best in Show and Entertainment, Gaming, Content — holoride just closed their $12M Series A round. For the past four years, Kathleen also has been the Jury Chair and Keynote speaker for the AUREA Award, a dedicated conference focusing on excellence in immersive entertainment, hosted by Europa-Park, Europe’s largest themed attraction, second to Disneyland Paris.

Kathleen’s consultancy, the Collaboratorium focuses on XR research and client engagement utilizing immersive tech, AI/ML, XR and spatial computing projects as it relates to virtual beings / digital twins inside virtual worlds, themed attractions, location-based entertainment and other business verticals. Her interest is the near future of man merging with machines. Kathleen and her team are building a Likeness & Legacy project for the “deathcare” industry. Her latest talks are: IRL vs. XR, The Future and Present Converge(s); a talk about teleportation, and Meet Your Digital Twin, a talk about the land rush to recreating humans.

Kathleen just completed the 1st immersive artist-in-residence project at Surel’s Place in Boise, ID, working with the University of Idaho’s, Virtual Technology & Design Research Lab, along with BlackBox VR on a collaborative object-oriented design product, leveraging Indigenous Peoples Science and Neurodivergent principles.