I aim to make virtual reality become real in a human way.” Dr. Martha Boeckenfeld is passionate about supporting the leaders and shapers of tomorrow. The world is on the precipice of a new digital transformation – and it is undoubtedly a defining moment for society as we know it. Just as when the internet first arrived, businesses and people must now push through a new wave of technology disruption.
“The Metaverse remains invisible for the normal person on the street.” Dr. Martha Boeckenfeld plays a decisive role in designing that future, asserting: “What really matters to us as a society is how the Metaverse can create value for all of us, improve our lives and create a better future.”
“The Metaverse is an evolution of a set of possibilities for how we will live our lives,” believes Dr. Boeckenfeld. “I see the Metaverse as an ecosystem of experiences that spans the spectrum of digitally enhanced worlds, realities and business models fully interconnected and interoperable. As the next evolution of the internet, the Metaverse will be the interaction of rapidly emerging skills, use cases, technologies and experiences.”
Becoming part of the evolution of the Metaverse, society must take the opportunity to ensure that the next wave of the internet is developed with responsibility at its nucleus. She emphasizes this importance for the evolution of humanity in an increasingly digital existence: “From ownership of data to inclusion and diversity, to sustainability, to security and personal safety, we need to shape our future together.”
“What was previously a privilege for gamers almost now informs all the experiences of the Metaverse: storytelling, immersion, aspiration, progression, identity, and socialization. I am still amazed about the new experiences the Metaverse provides for all fields in our life, and I feel privileged being part of the next paradigm shift in our society.”
Dr. Boeckenfeld is Dean and Partner at the Metaverse Academy, and holds several advisory roles including at Engage AI Digital, GenTwo, and is an ambassador for AllStars Women NFT Club and DAO, BeyondGenderAgenda, and ‘Women in Metaverse, web3 and VR’. It is as a Thought Leader and expert in web3 and its applications that Dr. Boeckenfeld passionately believes in tech, blockchain, and the Metaverse. “The key factors for dynamically driving digital transformation are the mindset of digital leaders and the power of innovation and inclusion to develop and execute forward-thinking concepts.”
Encouraging tomorrow’s change-makers means empowering thinkers today. In this spirit, the Metaverse Academy is founded to enable companies and individuals to be part of the exciting future through community building and actively engaging in the Metaverse. The faculty will consist of world-class creators, artists, tech, and industry experts. Its f irst cohorts started already successfully in March 2022. The Metaverse Academy creates classes to address the needs of everyone- with a Metaverse Ready, Strategist, Web3, tailormade and C-Level offering. Individuals will be able to resell or upskill as Metaverse professionals or leaders, or even whole companies, to become part of the next paradigm shift. Apart from education, the company supports companies in all aspects of creating a 360-degree experience: strategy, NFTs, avatars, web3, and virtual real estate. Dr. Boeckenfeld comments: “we are passionate about creating an inclusive academy for the Metaverse, about the Metaverse, in the Metaverse, for everyone, everywhere.”
In her roles at inter alia Engage AI Digital, GenTwo, vision&, AllStarsWomen NFT Club and DAO, and BeyondGenderAgenda, Dr. Boeckenfeld supports companies to benefit from her experience in this unknown field to develop their strategies, bring them to life and explore growth opportunities for clients. She describes her mission: “In building the Metaverse ecosystems, we can connect all players in the metaverse – consumers, creators, tech, and business to shape our future together.”
As a GenTwo advisory board member, she enables the company to create a community of innovators and startups and collaborate, connect, and create products to make assets bankable and share experiences. GenTwoDigital works in particular on digital assets, helping clients access this new asset class.
At vision&, she supports the company to consult institutions along the entire digital asset journey- from the conceptual phase of a digital asset project all the way until the strategy comes to life during the actual implementation and creation of tokens, NFTs in the real world and the Metaverse.
At Engage AI Digital, Dr. Boeckenfeld empowers the creation of a pool of emerging technology thought leaders and partners with human-centred organisations to convert their vision into reality. Engage AI Digital held its f irst phygital event with the successful funding of several startups in India with 3 million viewers.
She staunchly believes in diversity and inclusion and actively participates in several communities. At the AllStarsWomen NFT Club and DAO, a metaverse woman network of founders, entrepreneurs, and investors, she supports bringing diversity and inclusion to the entrepreneurial ecosystem. As an ambassador of BeyondGenderAgenda, Dr. Boeckenfeld seeks to improve the long-term international competitiveness of the German economy by integrating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) into the DNA of listed and medium-sized companies.
Dr. Boeckenfeld’s work as a member of ‘Women in Metaverse, Web3 and VR’ focuses on encouraging women to thrive in this new economy.
The healthcare and education sectors are the immanent use cases to change people’s lives directly. The Metaverse provides these innovators and innovations tools to achieve their goals. These companies and leaders will require critical assets, including massive amounts of patient data. In such a significant area, it is collaboration and not competition that will drive forward change. She underlines this: “The ‘Healthverse’ will need the entire world and their leaders to work together to overcome the obstacles, such as legal and regulatory, on the path to standardization, including the adoption of smart technology.”
New spaces in the Metaverse will let patients interact with clinicians, peers and enterprises at a distance (Internet of Place). Healthcare organizations will shift part of their operations to the Metaverse, maintaining their own internal virtual environments so employees can work from anywhere and collaborate in new ways based on data that can be validated and authenticated by the employee and the patient (Internet of Ownership). In fact, many medical professionals are already actively using the Metaverse technology to shift the future healthcare paradigm.
“Success in the workplace of tomorrow will require mastery of a suite of skills for a changing world,” says Dr. Boeckenfeld. “Such skills, like collaboration, critical thinking and creative innovation broaden our view of achievement beyond core academic subjects like reading and math.”As Nelson Mandela famously said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” With this, Dr. Boeckenfeld believes that education through the Metaverse and web3, virtual worlds can create more engaging and meaningful experiences for students of all ages, from fine arts to foreign languages to ancient history.
“My mission is to support the society to learn more about the Metaverse and discover the opportunities together to create a better world for all of us. As we build beyond the universe with new experiences, technology is only the enabler, but we must not lose sight of the most important element: people.”
