Personal Reflections on 2022 and Predictions for 2023
Alan Smithson
Reflections on 2022
2022 was incredible for Julie and I personally and our companies, MetaVRse, TheMall and YourDirectorAI. I am super grateful to everyone who supported us, believed in us and invested their time, money and attention to making everything you see here possible.
Our personal mission remains unchanged; to inspire and educate future generations to think and act in a socially, economically and environmentally responsible way.
Thank you for all your support as we continue on our journey to build a new education and economic system for humanity. For more about our vision, you can read our open letter here:
Open Letter from MetaVRse Co-Founders, Julie & Alan Smithson
Personal highlights of 2022:
- My daughter Holly started high school
- My daughter Abi started university at my alma mater, Guelph.
- My wife Julie and her organization XR Women celebrated their 2 year, 100th event in NY.
- I garnered 10.7m impressions (views) on LinkedIn with a 94% engagement rate!
- This post about Apple’s room scanning was my most viewed with over 700k views
- Joined the Board of Advisors for a Space Transport Company called HStar Space Transport.
- Attended and spoke at conferences and events in NYC, Riyadh, Dubai, Monaco, Vegas, SF, and San Diego including the ultra-exclusive Ritossa Summit and PTTOW!
- Had a private dinner in a Royal Palace in Saudi Arabia
- I got to meet some pretty incredible people including;
- LL Cool J, Prince Albert II of Monaco, Dr. Kai Fu Lee — Former head of Google China and Author of 2 books on AI, Neal Stephenson — Coined the term ‘Metaverse’ in his book ‘Snowcrash’ (1994)
- I traveled a lot, met some incredible people and made some lifelong friends and memories
- Made the cover of Adello Magazine
At work, we were incredibly busy working to transform training, marketing and retail with our MetaVRse platform. In addition to working with some of the largest companies in the world, here are some of the accomplishments we achieved last year. THANK YOU to the incredible team and advisors who spent countless hours working to make this possible, you know who you are ;)
MetaVRse Accomplishments in 2022:
- Won Best Advance in Education, Delivered Through Technology — Brandon Hall Award
- Won Best Retail Solution at XR Awards
- Best AR/VR Creation Platform (finalist) AWE
- Top 20 out of 900 in the T-Mobile/Deutsche Telekom T-Challenge
- Top 50 Startups in the World Innovation Awards
- Announced v2.0 of the MetaVRse Engine w/ over 20 new enterprise-grade features
- Announced the world’s largest virtual mall, TheMall
- Participated in Monaco Art Week
- Secured an 8-figure non-dilutive grant
MetaVRse was featured in:
Adello Magazine: (Cover Feature: Revolutions mess of top tech innovations)
Forbes: Retail’s Future Brings Fashion, Web3, and NFT’s into Immersive Commerce
Harvard Business Review: “How brands can enter the metaverse”
MIT Technology Review: “The metaverse is open for business”
Predictions for 2023
As we move into a new year, it is always wise to try and predict the future a bit. While there is no crystal ball for life, I feel confident that the points below are likely to happen within the next 12 months. I guess we will see how this post ages. Without further ado, here are my personal 2023 predictions:
- Launch of MetaVRse Engine 2.0 (I have the inside scoop on this one)
- Launch of TheMall (inside scoop)
- Launch of YourDirectorAI PRO (also inside scoop ;)
- Live Human Trials of Brain Computer Interface (BCI) to treat paralyzed patients
- Live Human Trials of contact lens augmented reality (AR)
- Apple will announce AppleGlass developer kit at Apple’s World-wide Developer Conference (WWDC) giving developers time to build software for the device before a public launch ahead of the holidays.
- The Federal Trade Commission will lose its lawsuit opposing Microsoft’s $69 billion Activision purchase, but Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and others will continue to struggle to acquire startups due to regulatory restrictions on antitrust.
- Cloud computing and server side rendering will increase in quality while decreasing in price leading to another explosion in cloud investments and acquisitions.
- Cryptocurrencies will see a resurgence near the end of 2023 due to softening of monetary policies and systematic lowering of interest rates by the US Fed.
- Startups with outrageous valuations and no revenue will find themselves in down-rounds where investors take over and founders get left behind and investors try to mitigate their losses (ie. Clubhouse, Be Real, etc.)
- Meta releases Oculus Quest 3 (with higher resolution, eye tracking and colour passthrough). Meta will also release an AR Glasses prototype for developers and perhaps another mid-tier VR headset.
- More companies will install a ‘Chief Metaverse Officer’ and/or create a comprehensive Metaverse Strategy.
- Enterprise companies focus on value creation using Metaverse tools (ie. 3D/XR, AI and Blockchain). Companies will not continue to invest in ‘Digital Land’ unless it comes with eyeballs. Attention is the new economy.
- NFTs will find their value but will continue to create worthless ‘assets’ that unsuspecting people will waste their money on.
- Hedera / HBAR will go from 38th position to 20th as companies realize the potential of a dedicated ‘enterprise blockchain’. I predict $0.50 by the end of 2023 (wishful thinking? I do hold a bunch so I hope not)
- Massive advancements in Generative AI (Text, Audio, Music, Video, 3D)
- GPT4 will blow our minds
- Google will introduce a new AI to compete with ChatGPT
- Qualcomm announces next generation XR3 Chipset
- Microsoft will deprecate AltSpace or sell it off while expanding the Mesh program for serving Enterprise Metaverse needs. They will also introduce Hololens 3 in 2023. The DoD will expand the IVAR test and start to use HL2 for deployed soldiers for real-world testing.
- Magic Leap will continue to struggle to find ground despite their excellent technical progress with their Magic Leap 2.
- The Middle East will lead the Enterprise Metaverse with Dubai (UAE) and Riyadh (Saudi) leading the way. Companies will use government grants and investment to build real value using XR, AI and Blockchain.
- A completely novel light projection system for miniature AR glasses will appear in 2023 from Israel or Europe. (Photonics are hard)
Well, there you have it, a personal recap of 2022 and predictions for 2023. Regardless whether I am correct or not, I want to personally express my gratitude and admiration for you, my incredible community of dedicated, passionate people building a future that serves the needs of everyone equally. I pray for a year of peace, abundance and joy for you, your family, friends and co-workers.
Let’s make 2023 AWESOME!!
With Gratitude,
Alan Smithson
