When industry experts describe Cathy Hackl as the “Godmother of the Metaverse,” it’s not just a fanciful title dreamt up by a PR person. As a globally recognized Metaverse and web3 strategist, and the world’s First Chief Metaverse Officer, Cathy’s reputation is well deserved.

Regarded as one of very few people in the world with an exceptional level of knowledge and understanding of the AR/MR/VR industry, it’s not surprising this energetic innovator is a sought-after speaker, expert consultant and media personality.

As the co-founder and Chief Metaverse Officer of Journey, Cathy describes Journey as ‘a new kind of innovation and design metaverse consultancy.’

She is leading its Metaverse Studio in working with the world’s top brands on metaverse/web3 strategies, NFTs, gaming, virtual fashion, and how to extend their brands into virtual worlds.

With the Journey website stating it ‘builds real products, with real technologies, to create meaningful experiences for real people in whichever reality they choose,” Cathy explains the company is taking ‘a panoramic view across physical, digital and virtual landscapes.’

“At the moment, my team and I are working on several world-building projects for brands and developing Metaverse strategies for our clients to show them the process of a company or brand navigating into the Metaverse.”

People who’ve worked with Cathy describe her as ‘an innovative leader who approaches the evolution of human-technology interaction with a uniquely pragmatic optimism.’

With numerous accolades − including being named by BigThink as one of the top 10 most influential women in tech in 2020, and readwrite.com including her in its 2021 Top 30 Most Influential People in The Metaverse −, she’s also a best-selling author.

Successor of today’s mobile internet

Calling the Metaverse the successor of today’s mobile internet, Cathy says for her, the Metaverse is about shared virtual experiences that can happen in both the physical and virtual world.

“Stop thinking of the Metaverse as only virtual, as we’ll move between both physical and digital worlds.” Working in Metaverse-related industries and many major global corporate clients for almost a decade, this feisty futurist admits that succeeding ‘as a woman and a Latino has been hard.’

Cathy is totally at ease when she speaks, using expressive hand gestures and a disarmingly dimpled smile to convey her message. But she confesses it’s been a ‘wild ride with many coincidences consisting of AHA moments.’

While attending a conference about nine years ago, she put on a Virtual Reality headset to join a virtual experience called Confinement. After experiencing this very realistic experience that was programmed virtually, Cathy realized it was ‘the future of something.’

“In that moment of clarity, I decided ‘this is my path,’ it’s what I want to do for the rest of my life. I made a hard pivot into VR and AR, and everything has been evolving since that moment.”

Commenting on how web3 and the Metaverse have developed over the past year, Cathy remarks ‘we’re now evolving from web2 that connected people (social media), to web3, which connects people, places, and things or people spaces and assets in the virtual world and the physical world.’

“In building the Metaverse, web2’s successor, we can explore who we are in this space, discover new job opportunities and expand new commerce models. It’s an inflection point happening now in a moment of exploration.”

World builders

Cathy enthuses ‘in the Metaverse, we’re all world builders, and now is the time to build and create it together.’ Some of these opportunities include:

• Expanding, ever-changing identities – there are already some avatar-related examples – Expect the Metaverse populated with lifelike chatbot avatars to help us create and build things and be brand ambassadors or customer service agents.
• Unlimited creativity when people start exploring other parts of themselves.
• Seamless interaction with digital content and experiences immersed in the physical world in daily life.
• Deep, immersive worlds we haven’t even imagined yet, being able to travel and have experiences beyond our comprehension.
• Creating virtual worlds so people can socialize online and experience more immersive relationships; and..
• New integrations, with smart glasses and augmented reality glasses eventually overtaking smartphones.

She enthuses ways the Metaverse will impact society include unlocking never-before seen creativity, allowing artists and creators to regain control and have digital ownership of their work by releasing it as NFTs, making the world machine readable and enabling autonomous vehicles and robots to engage with us in new ways.

CATHY HACKL’S METAVERSE & WEB3 TIPS

• Life’s about opportunities; when you feel aligned with that opportunity, go for it!
• Don’t seek to define the Metaverse − start building it.
• Just because it happens in the virtual world, doesn’t mean it’s not real.

Living our lives with impact

Contentedly family focused, many Instagram posts reveal while Cathy spends most of her life working in virtual worlds, it’s ‘a blessing to disconnect and reflect what matters most.’ And she still appreciates the small things in the real world. These include relaxing in Costa Rica with her three children and husband (explaining he’s actually a rocket scientist), movie nights under the stars in their backyard, family hikes along the Potomac, photographing her adorable mini-Golden doodle puppy and practicing acceptance to recalibrate.

Cathy encourages us to live our lives with impact, and she’s followed the advice of a former boss, “If you can see it, you can be it.” There’s no doubt her Instagram comment – ‘becoming that girl that decided to go for it’ – is 100% real.