AWE 2025 Speaker Lineup Features Oculus Founder, Meta’s Metaverse VP, and ILM Immersive Executive

AWE USA 2025 is gearing up with an impressive lineup of top voices from the extended reality (XR) world. Among those slated to speak are Oculus and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and Jason Rubin, one of the few early Oculus executives still with Meta. Rubin now serves as the Vice President of Metaverse Experiences at the company. Also joining them is Vicki Dobbs Beck, an influential leader as Vice President of ILM Immersive, the team behind XR versions of Star Wars and Marvel projects.

This annual gathering, AWE USA, is famously among the largest and longest-standing XR-focused conferences globally. It’s truly a must-attend event for XR enthusiasts like us.

Set to take place from June 10th to 12th in Long Beach, California, this year’s event is poised to be its biggest ever, anticipating more than 6,000 attendees, 300 exhibitors, 400 speakers, and a sprawling 150,000 square feet of expo space. If you’re looking to attend, now’s the time to secure those early-bird tickets. Plus, Road to VR readers can nab a special 20% discount on those tickets.

Within the cadre of over 400 speakers at the event, you’ll find industry representatives including the likes of Palmer Luckey, Jason Rubin, and Vicki Dobbs Beck.

Palmer Luckey is no stranger to making waves in the tech world. He founded Oculus, the company Meta acquired in 2014 to spearhead its XR developments. After driving the launch of Meta’s first major VR headset, the Oculus Rift CV1, Luckey’s journey at Meta ended due to controversies during the 2016 US presidential election cycle.

Years rolled by, and Meta extended an olive branch to Luckey, allowing him a sneak peek at their newest AR headset, Project Orion. Along with this, a heartfelt apology came from Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth, Meta’s leading XR executive, acknowledging Luckey’s invaluable contributions to not just Meta but to the VR industry as a whole.

Leaving Meta might have ushered in a challenging time for Luckey, but he found a silver lining. His next venture, founding the military tech company Anduril, catapulted into success, now valued at an impressive $18 billion—making Luckey one of the select few to create multiple multi-billion-dollar enterprises. Although his path appeared to steer away from XR, Anduril recently made headlines by leading the military AR headset project initially launched by Microsoft. At AWE, we’re eager to learn more about this venture and its implications for XR technology within U.S. military forces.

Jason Rubin, another pivotal figure in XR’s narrative, will also take the stage at AWE USA 2025. One of the few who made the transition with Oculus when Meta took over, Rubin has been crucial in guiding content strategy throughout his tenure at the company. Now with Meta as VP for Metaverse Experiences, we’re curious to hear Rubin delve into Meta’s vision for the evolving metaverse.

Adding to the lineup’s allure is Vicki Dobbs Beck, a leading light in creating immersive content as Vice President of ILM Immersive—a division of Lucasfilm. Initiating the division, Dobbs Beck has championed the creation of acclaimed XR content, translating massive IPs into the interactive world. Her work includes the renowned Vader Immortal series and Marvel’s What If…? – An Immersive Experience, notably one of the first major endeavors featured on the Apple Vision Pro.

Throughout her session, we’re eager to discover what’s next on the horizon for ILM Immersive, particularly how they envision integrating narrative-driven immersive experiences into the market’s expanding pool of standalone headsets.

We at Road to VR are pumped to support AWE USA 2025 as the Premier Media Partner, enabling us to offer our readers a nifty 20% discount on event tickets. We cannot wait to be part of this unparalleled XR journey with all of you!