Kelly Lovell is precisely what the Metaverse and web3 need to catapult it into mass adoption. She’s a Gen Z influencer in entrepreneurship, a youth advocate, a woman entrepreneur, a thought leader, CEO of BridgingTheGap Ventures and Founding Global Chair of YOUNGA. She believes wholeheartedly in the potential and power of web3 and the Metaverse to bridge society, create a deeper human connection, and inspire imagination and innovation to build a better future.
“I build programs of impact that bridge opportunity gaps to prepare young people for the future and solve global challenges,” Kelly shares. “I aim to bridge access and education barriers for underrepresented talent and the next generation so that they are empowered to contribute, shape, and participate in the emerging digital world.”
his change-maker’s mission has thus far reached 330 million online and created upskilling opportunities for youth in 158 countries. With a consistent track record for creating global youth campaigns with measurable results, Kelly has worked with Grammy and Emmy award winning talent and international brands such as Disney, IBM and Toyota Tsusho, and governing bodies including United Nations, UN Women and World Bank, and Royalty. Her distinctions include Top 30 Under 30 Sustainability Leader, Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100, and Queen’s Young Leader award — a prestigious honor bestowed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II that recognizes young leaders under 30 creating a legacy of impact.
According to Kelly, web3 and the Metaverse can bridge two significant gaps. First, Gen Z’s talent needs to be upskilled to participate, innovate, and design new sectors of the emerging economy. And at the same time, existing organizations and institutions must learn how to tap into the innovation coming from those new sectors and to bridge gaps to connect with new skilled talent.
That’s the intersection in which Kelly operates, where she’s building a space between generations and sectors for co-creating the future of web3 and the Metaverse. Through BridgeTheGap Ventures and YOUNGA®, Kelly and her teams strive to bridge the opportunity gaps for stakeholders to tap into this emerging young talent and innovation to help create new jobs and build inclusive hiring pipelines within the sector.
Kelly shares: “I am passionate about using technology to bridge skill gaps and create a human connection, inspire imagination, and innovate to build a better future.”
She goes on to explain that traditionally fields of logic/reason and art/ creativity used to be separated. But the technology blends and blurs these pathways like never before. “With web3, those sectors are no longer segregated in the future of jobs. Bridging those gaps between the creative and digital worlds exemplifies this leap forward in building a more inclusive world. As a youth mobilizer focusing on upskilling emerging leaders for the future, I’ve seen magic that happens when you bring together different generations, perspectives, and skill sets. That’s the power of web3 at bridging gaps and creating more interconnected experiences.”
Kelly demystifies these future industries and emerging technologies to create approachable and accessible learning opportunities for young people and industry stakeholders alike. She believes helping underrepresented talent including women, minorities and underemployed youth in learning about web3 can unlock new economic opportunity— addressing the widening skills and employment gaps — and inspire new local solutions to global challenges. It also helps individuals to understand how emerging technologies are shaping their lives and empowers them to use these tools to enhance, improve, and build their own innovation to benefit humanity.
Says Kelly: “With the Metaverse, we can build an interconnected digital world where we can interact in a way that blurs the lines between physical and digital realities. For example, we now have digital identities that will be shaped by our interactions and experiences. With spatial awareness and personalized interaction, I can have more substance and connection with individuals in the Metaverse than in a linear form, such as a Zoom video call. The Metaverse is an evolution — and at the same time an extension — of making our imagination real and building new worlds that enable borderless human connection.”
When Kelly says there will be entirely new generations of careers in the future, you can believe her. Through upskilling and reskilling people in emerging industries like web3 and the Metaverse, Kelly believes future careers will include virtual world builders, metaverse real estate owners, 3D designers, and completely new roles and systems around digital identity and data sovereignty. This creates an entirely new sector.
Apart from education, entertainment will be the next sector to face significant disruption by the Metaverse. “There will be limitless opportunities in entertainment, with more borderless immersive entertainment experiences being created. In the future of this space, we’re going to see the dissolving of nations and borders to create more globally accessible experiences and immersive, interactive education. The most profound aspect of future opportunities will be an evolution and exercise of our full brain capacity: blending, dissolving, and merging left and right brain thinking, career sectors, and ways of life. Future blended world experiences will further dissolve and blur the lines between our physical and digital lives.”
The limitation of web2 is illustrated by the isolation, disconnection, and segregation created by silos of interaction. The Metaverse, believes Kelly, is blurring lines that divide humanity — and this is the Metaverse’s most extraordinary potential and impact. “Technology right now has as much a potential to be used to further segment and escape the world as it does to be wielded effectively and positively. It has the potential to dissolve access barriers and isolation in the sense of how we live, foster empathy and a deeper human connection. The Metaverse opens up new ways for us to participate as a collective and work together as humanity for the betterment of our world.”
When asking Kelly what she’s most excited about in the future, she quickly answers with “co-creation and collaboration.” She feels web3 and the Metaverse technologies propel humanity in a direction that centers around collective action and co-creation, unleashing new levels of possibilities, innovation and imagination.
Her purpose is to ensure the building of bridges — between talent, generations, and sectors — so emerging technologies can be leveraged by all to build a more inclusive, sustainable world. With web3 and the Metaverse, she says the world holds the potential to elevate and unlock potential in many bright minds through upskilling and reskilling for the future.
Kelly creates bridges of opportunity, helping people find the keys to a better future. That time is now.
Website: BridgingTheGapX.com | Youngaworld.com
