3 minute read
The Accenture VR Lifetime Achievement Award - Cher Wang
A serial entrepreneur of extraordinary vision, Cher Wang foresaw the rise of smartphones some 12 years before they were technically feasible, and built a remarkable hardware design, engineering and integration powerhouse in HTC to make them a reality. Recognizing early the huge game-changing potential of VR, she set her best teams to work on the hardware and software seven years ago – long before VR became a mainstream concept. A strategic partnership with Valve in 2015 brought the world’s first consumer-scale VR systems to market, boasting full room-scale movement and laser-accurate tracking for the ultimate gaming experience. For Cher, however, gaming was only the beginning; her vision saw the proliferation of VR throughout many aspects of our lives, which we see today, with VR being adopted by companies for training, collaboration, marketing and development work, but also by providers of mental and physical healthcare, education, military applications, and much more.
Beyond commercial applications, Cher knew that the fully immersive nature of premium VR created an opportunity to change the way we experience the art, culture, and history of our society and many others; indeed, it even provides a whole new medium for expressing art and entertainment. She understood that the ability of VR to engender empathy could benefit society in new ways, fostering greater understanding between peoples, spurring a more positive impact on society through raised awareness of key sustainability challenges, and bringing people closer together. As a result, she invested millions of dollars in the strategic initiatives of VIVE Arts, VIVE Originals, and VR for Impact to promote the benefits of VR in the fields of the arts and museums, movies, and global sustainability. VIVE Arts has worked on exhibitions with leading museums around the world, including the Louvre, the Royal Academy, and the American Museum of Natural History, enhancing appreciation of their exhibitions; VIVE Originals has won numerous awards for its VR movie shorts at international film festivals around the world, including a Lumiere Award for Cher Wang for achievements in VR film; while VR for Impact was adopted by the World Economic Forum two years ago to continue the mission of raising awareness of – and greater empathy for – the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals as a global industry body.
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Cher has steered HTC through the rise of consumer VR since the first announcement and ground-breaking demos at MWC in 2015, consistently raising the bar for consumer and enterprise VR through the development of premium hardware that has extended the range of movement, improved visuals, controls and ergonomics, and eye-tracking for greater feedback accuracy, setting the standard for the fast-emerging VR industry. HTC launched a premium VR app store, VIVEPORT, in 2016 to make it easy for VIVE users to find VR content in many of the entertainment, education, cultural and exploration categories, which continues to grow subscriber numbers as VR proliferates. She also launched VIVE X, HTC’s $100 million program to invest in early-stage startups in the XR space, which has invested in more than 100 companies globally since its founding in 2016 and continues to grow its portfolio today. Cher Wang continues to lead the industry in building a holistic VR ecosystem, and has introduced VR to generations of people around the world.
NICOLA ROSA, ACCENTURE XR EUROPEAN LEAD
