"Emerging from the Dark Stage" - Stephanie Riggs

A former Disney Imagineer and Refinery29/Vice Media Experiential Creative Director, Stephanie Riggs has been bridging storytelling and immersive technology for over two decades through ground-breaking projects across theatre, film, experiential and XR. She talks about ways people use technology -- both personally and professionally -- to move forward when things don't turn out the way they've planned. A former Disney Imagineer and Refinery29/Vice Media Experiential Creative Director, Stephanie Riggs has been bridging storytelling and immersive technology for over two decades through ground-breaking projects across theatre, film, experiential and XR.

Her collaborations with international corporations (Instagram, Google, Netflix, Amazon), start-ups (InceptionVR, JauntVR, Lightframe.co), non-profits (IndieFlixFilms, The Nantucket Project), and academia (Yale Blended Reality Lab, NYU Future Reality Lab) have pushed the boundaries of technology and story. She explores learnings from these experiences in her acclaimed book, “The End of Storytelling”, and presents a powerful new paradigm for narratives in immersive technology. Passionate about inspiring diverse, interdisciplinary teams, Stephanie frequently mentors and speaks around the world.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama (Directing) and School of Computer Science (Human-Computer Interaction), she is the director of the New York Times Critics Pick documentary “The Standbys” about Broadway understudies and standbys and produced the cult classic film “Banshee Chapter” with Zachary Quinto (“Star Trek”, “The Boys in the Band” [Broadway], “The Glass Menagerie”[Broadway]).