Invitation to Consultation with Political Decision-Makers on the Potentials for New Professions in the Development of Metaverses for Cities and Local Communities
2024-04-15 10:00 - 11:30 UTC | Online, Slovenia
Dear political decision makers, professionals and enthusiasts in the realm of digital innovation,
📅 Join us on Monday, April 15, 2024, from 11:00 to 12:30 CET, as part of the Think XR project co-organised by World Metaverse Council, for a crucial consultation webinar session with political decision-makers to discuss the burgeoning prospects for new occupations within the development of Digital Worlds and Metaverses for cities and communities.

Program Highlights:

11:00 – 11:15 | Introduction to the Think XR project, potential for new job opportunities in the development of digital worlds, and the European Commission’s strategy on Digital Worlds and Web4.0 by Jasmina Mihelak-Zupančič, Headministress and CEO of ŠC Slovenske Konjica-Zreče and Tadej Slapnik, CEO of Hashnet, Founder and Director of the World Metaverse Council.
11:15 – 11:45 | A lecture on the potentials for new professions in developing Metaverse for cities by Dr. Christina Yan Zhang, CEO of The Metaverse Institute, and co-author of the world’s first people-centred metaverse strategy (for the city of Tampere, Finland, where Nokia was founded 160 years ago)
11:45 – 12:30 | Open discussion and conclusions.
🌐 Location: The consultation will take place in the form of a webinar via following link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86474675521?pwd=[REDACTED]
🗣️ Language: The webinar will be conducted in English.
🔗 Don’t miss out on this opportunity to explore the future of digital occupations and how we can shape the Metaverse for the betterment of our cities and communities.
Jasmina Mihelak-Zupančič, Headministress and CEO of School centre Slovenske Konjice-Zreče, a public institution for the education of youth and adults. They operate in three locations: Slovenske Konjice, Zreče and Laško. Their centre consists of three organizational units: general grammar school (Gimnazija), Secondary vocational school and SIC – adult education and counselling which provides a wide range of various formal and informal forms of education for adults. Adult participants can choose among the following formal education programmes: economy, mechanical engineering, gastronomy, preschool education and health care.

Tadej Slapnik, CEO of Hashnet, Founder and Director of the World Metaverse Council. He is director at Tolar HashNET, Chairman of World Blockchain Hub, Co-Chair of High Level Group Blockchain for SDG and Council member at Circular Change platform. He is a former State Secretary of the Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, initiator and signatory of Feel the future declaration: Initiative Blockchain Europe, actively involved in promotion, development and smart regulation of social and circular economy, blockchain and distributed ledger technology for achieving Sustainable Development Goals at national, European and global level. After he graduated from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maribor, he was working in the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia as a secretary of deputy group from 2000 – 2004. From 2002 – 2006 he was also a board member of the Financial Fund for Decommissioning of the Nuclear Power Plant Krško as a representative of the Slovenian parliament. From 2004 -2009 he was director of the Youth Centre of Dravinja Valley. In 2009 he became a member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia and was a member of the following parliamentary committees: for defence, social affairs, agriculture, supervision of secret services and European affairs. As parliamentarian he proposed a law on social entrepreneurship which was accepted in April 2011. He was the initiator of establishing the Slovenian national Social enterprise forum in December 2011, and in January 2012 he was elected to become its secretary general. From February 2013 – October 2014 he was working as a political advisor in the European Parliament. From October 2014 until September 2018 he was State Secretary in the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic if Slovenia. From 2015 until March 2018 he was a member of European Commission Expert group on social entrepreneurship (GECES) as representative of Republic of Slovenia.

Christina Yan Zhang, CEO of The Metaverse Institute. Christina is a metaverse pioneer. She started her master research on the topic in 2006 and completed a PhD using digital twin for the construction industry. Christina is an award-winning leader with 18 years experience. She was China Director for QS, the world university ranking agency 2013-2020. Starting from scratch, she grew the UK-headquartered firm’s success in China. In 2016, China’s Vice Premier highlighted the use of QS rankings in a speech, impacting 5 years funding allocations of £750bn to 3005 universities with 48 million students. She has sat on 20+ committees for UNESCO, World Bank, Commonwealth, EU, and UK Governments on innovations. She is Vice Chair of the UN’s ICT agency-International Telecommunications Union’s Metaverse Working Group on Sustainability, Accessibility & Inclusion and Co-chair on Pre-standardisation for the CitiVerse Task Group. She works with members states to set up the UN definition and roadmap using frontier technologies for citizen-centred cities, which leads to standards. She sits on Advisory Council of Centre for Science Futures at International Science Council, with a UN mandate on science. She advises on how AI impacts on the global innovation ecosystem. The Metaverse Institute advise the UN, governments, investors, corporates using frontier technologies for positive impact. She is Top 100 Women of the Future, Metaverse Influencer of the Year, Intellectual Leader of the Year 2023 etc. She regularly meets with top leaders, is a keynote speaker at high level events, interviewed by media. She recently speaks at UN HLPF, STI Forum, summits of WIPO, UNESCO, and ICAO.
