DAY
Day
2
TIME
11:40 – 12:00
AREA
Forest Stage
TYPE
Talk + AMA
LANGUAGE
English
This talk explores how the world-building principles of immersive in real life, like Punchdrunk and Meow Wolf, are the secret blueprints for the next era of XR. By designing for sensory presence rather than digital capture, we can leverage 2026’s smart glasses revolution to return us to our physical world with a renewed sense of wonder.
Liya Safina
Independent (Google XR) | Design Futurist
Liya Safina is an award-winning digital designer and futurist working with Google’s XR team and previously with Toyota’s Woven City, Alibaba and Björk’s virtual reality music projects. Liya brings a design-for-impact lens grounded in spatial computing, AI, and mobility innovation. With over a decade of experience in digital innovation, her vision is to build a future where technology serves human needs, instead of humans serving revenue models.