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The Power of Five: How XR Women Built a Global Movement for Women in Spatial Computing

• Nathan C Bowser • Season 2 • Episode 1

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Julie Smithson, Karen Alexander, and Sophia Moshasha are the co-founders of XR Women, a groundbreaking organization celebrating five years of empowering women in extended reality. What started as a pandemic-era virtual meetup has evolved into a global movement spanning 60+ countries with 1,500 members and nearly 240 consecutive weekly immersive events in the metaverse.

Key Takeaways:

  • Consistency Builds Community: XR Women has produced nearly 240 consecutive weekly immersive events—not Zoom calls, but full avatar experiences in virtual worlds—creating an unparalleled space for learning and collaboration in spatial computing.
  • Global Impact from Day One: Within months of launching, XR Women attracted members from around the world. The community now spans 60+ countries with 4-9 different nations represented at every weekly event, demonstrating the universal hunger for inclusive XR education and connection.
  • Five Pillars of Impact: XR Women operates on five core pillars—Leadership, Education, Innovation, Collaboration, and Impact—which guide everything from weekly programming to student chapters, showcasing how structured values drive organic community growth.
  • Learning by Doing: The founders emphasize that mastering emerging technology requires constant experimentation. By hosting events across multiple metaverse platforms weekly, they've built expertise in large-scale virtual production that doesn't exist elsewhere in the industry.
  • Newly Minted 501(c)(3): XR Women recently achieved nonprofit status, opening doors for expanded programming, partnerships, government collaboration, and educational initiatives including student chapters in Kenya and beyond.

Throughout November 2025, XR Women is celebrating "The Power of Five" with special events highlighting their five pillars, showcasing speakers from their 240+ event archive, and demonstrating the behind-the-scenes magic of producing weekly events across multiple metaverse platforms.

The organization proves that consistent, values-driven community building creates lasting impact. By showing up weekly for five years, by prioritizing education and collaboration over competition, and by building an inclusive space where expertise is shared freely, XR Women has created something rare: a genuinely global community advancing an entire industry.


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Sophia Moshasha:

XR Women isn't just a community. A movement, redefining how we show up, learn and lead in the metaverse.

Karen Alexander:

XR Women isn't just a community, it's a movement. Redefining how we show up, learn and lead in the metaverse.

Julie Smithson:

XR Women isn't just a community, it's a movement redefining how we show up, learn and lead in the metaverse.

Nathan C (2):

Hello and welcome to a very special episode of The Tech Glow Up. I'm Nathan C, Today I'm talking with the leaders of XR women. We're gonna talk about the power of five years of XR women and how they're igniting the future. XR women, thank you for joining me.

Karen Alexander:

Thanks for having

Julie Smithson:

Excited to be here.

Nathan C (2):

Amazing. Julie. can you, tell us a little bit about this idea of the power of five igniting the future? You've got some, big things you've accomplished and big things you're celebrating.

Julie Smithson:

Yeah, absolutely. the power of five, we've actually been in existence for five years now. XR Women started in November of 2020, so we're approaching our five year anniversary and we've got lots to celebrate, to celebrate the leadership, the education. Innovation, collaboration and impact that we've been making over the five years. Super excited to, celebrate that with my co-founders, the leadership team and our growing 1500 member community that we have around the world.

Nathan C (2):

Oh goodness. Let's actually meet everybody individually. Julie, why don't you start and then we can, Pass it around the horn.

Julie Smithson:

Yeah, my name is Julie Smithson. I'm the co-founder of XR Women, also CEO of my own company, metaverse and co-founder of Unlimited. Awesome. together with my co-founders in our, leadership team, we provide, Weekly learning events, In the Metaverse for our XR women community to, be educated about the technology, the real world impact, that it has, and to come together and collaborate with a global group of women on a Weekly basis

Sophia Moshasha:

hi. My name is Sophia Mosasha. I've been in the industry for 10 years and XR Women for five. can't believe it's been this long and I'm very excited to celebrate with everyone. Uh, co-founder of XR Women Currently working on the Interactive Media team leading client engagement at the World Bank. And lots of other fun stuff in the XR community.

Nathan C (2):

Amazing.

Karen Alexander:

Hello. So I'm Karen Alexander. One of the co-founders of XR Women, along with Julie and Sophia and I came to XR from a background in higher education where I had observed how technology was changing these huge systems already and forcing these changes. I was seeing how new technologies were opening up creative possibilities for people. Took a head first dive into XR back in 2016, and I say that I haven't looked back, I do work with educational institutions, specifically higher ed, on advising them on adoption and implementation of xr. I am also one of the co-founders of the Academy of Immersive Arts and Sciences which is an organization that seeks to promote XR and promote excellence in XR through education, inspiration, and recognition.

Nathan C (2):

So Julie, five years means that XR women has been around long enough for some people. Maybe haven't already met you yet. I would love it. Can you take us back, to the origins of XR women five years ago, and, how did it all begin?

Julie Smithson:

Yeah, absolutely. So I started in the immersive space back in 2010. I was building VR and AR. We started our company MetaVRse in 2016. And then in 2019, actually at the V-R-A-R-A conference, we met that was an in-person event. along came that pandemic where it shut everybody down and we started to say, okay, we know how to do this. We can get into VR, we can get into these immersive worlds as avatars. Let's keep meeting. Let's keep learning about this. And it was in September, 2020. I still remember the event. There was a group of women that got together. We learned about a real world application of the technology, said this is coming fast. Because of the pandemic, because of everything, being, becoming remote, our industry, our immersive industry just exploded and things were happening on a Weekly basis that we said, okay, we need to meet next week. if we're going to become leaders in this industry. And we did. so on November 18th, 2020, we said, I don't like the term, but eat our own dog food, right? Let's go in, let's present in the metaverse. Let's present in an immersive world and share education and let's bring speakers in. Let's learn from each other. And that's what we did. And that was five years ago. we're approaching our, in November, it'll be around the 240th event, immersive in a row that we have produced. our community's grown. we cover so many countries. The footprint that we built through the passion of not just Karen, Sophia, and myself. But our leadership team and the community, it's accelerating. It's really exciting. We have a lot planned. we've done a lot in five years and we're looking forward to celebrating next month with our community and, sharing, how we can collaborate and educate and learn with each other to enhance our own skills. it's pretty special the community we've built and I'm pretty proud to be a part of it with. these two ladies.

Nathan C (2):

Doing anything in a series. Is way harder than it ever sounds in the beginning. So to be 240, puts you in some rare space

Julie Smithson:

And just to clarify That's an immersive event as an avatar, and it's not a Zoom call, We, we take this seriously, we go immersive and we present immersive. So the whole mantra about, what we're trying to educate about. try and learn about how these technologies impact our communications, our collaborations, how we learn, and then learning how that technology's impacting places around the world. It's pretty special.

Nathan C (2):

Thank you for that history. I love this. there's this interesting, bits of timing that you called out that are very right, like that the pandemic and, being isolated through that really started to open people up to different digital ways of connecting. But even five years ago, there were tools and platforms that were accessible enough that you could literally meet in a virtual world like the next week, once you decided on that. so that culmination of ease of entry and a strong demand, a strong driver, for change, is very well timed. Love it. Amazing. Karen, this idea that XR women started, five years ago as a response to a local community need, or, this newly identified community need. Now, five years later, you're celebrating, this global movement that you've happened into. when did you realize that you'd created something that was much more than just a local meetup.

Karen Alexander:

Yeah, sure. That actually happened pretty early on because we would start to recognize, oh. Wow, so and so is coming here from France, or someone is here from Indonesia. And we noticed that at first, and then eventually we started, tracking it and keeping track of how many different countries were represented by our membership. And we're now more than 60 countries. We range between four and nine different countries represented at any of our Weekly events. it's pretty special to be able to come together in real time with people from all around the world connect with one another, find out what we're working on, and, have the opportunity to come back again next week and continue the conversation.

Nathan C (2):

That sort of Weekly revisiting of topics and conversation seems like it can be really valuable for, drawing a thread between ideas, technologies, relationships, there's a lot of different perspectives, right? how do you balance, the focus of the group plus all of the different, interests and inputs that come from being a global organization.

Karen Alexander:

That is something that we really try to be intentional about. we try to be a space where opinions can be voiced and can be heard respectfully, and we make a point of saying that at the beginning of each of our events, and we also make an effort in our programming. To represent different aspects of the ways that XR technologies or are used, whether it's, someone who is an artist creating spatial narratives, or it's someone working in the energy sector who is, using XR for training their employees, Community using xr. So we really try to represent all the ways in which this technology, can be beneficial and to identify, women who are working in that space to help us learn a little bit more about it. there is a creative aspect to what we do. we've decorated up our virtual spaces to give them a little pizazz. Julie does a motivation of the week every week, which is, I think a very popular, Thing that people look forward to. they always want to hear that. I know. I do. So I think we all bring a little bit of ourselves to it, and the education comes from. Hearing about these use cases, people did things, how they made things happen in their space, and we all learned quite a lot when we come together. the q and a sessions can be amazing. The exchange of ideas there once the, guest presenter has finished are excellent.

Nathan C (2):

the q and a, at least in my experience in these virtual events, right? there's something. Incredibly equalizing about everybody being in an avatar, in a virtual space, in that, some of the barriers that you might have, like walking up to an executive and just introducing yourself, melt away when everybody's, in an avatar. I find that access, to all kinds of perspectives and even, folks across the business spectrum has been, I love the networking that I get at XR women events. And I think there's something that's really unique and dynamic about, how virtual and avatar connections can enable, Kinda gets rid of some of, the things that makes it hard in other places.

Sophia Moshasha:

Yeah, I completely agree. I think the time where I realized that this was like bigger than us, is when through those engagements, whether it's in virtual worlds or whether it's through Slack channel, social media, all of those places, Where people started collaborating with one another. Like they, it's not only a knowledge exchange, it is like people are leveling themselves up, personally, professionally, like from an education perspective, whatever it might be. And they're very vocal about it. And that is really incredible to see. Pioneers in the industry who have been in this space for a long time and truly, innovative in this space. And then we have people that are just getting their feet wet, trying to find, where they belong in this space and where they can add value, from our student chapters as well. So I think. that open, welcome, collaborative environment is really unique and special.'cause we as professionals, in the industry don't often get an opportunity to have that open dialogue with one another. we're busy creating for clients. It's really nice to be able to have those spaces, to do that. And we've seen some really incredible things unfold from that.

Karen Alexander:

Can I, comment on that because, when you were talking about the q and a Nathan and then what you just said, Sophia reminded me of occasions when. you've got this incredible brain trust in the room and of women coming from different countries or the east coast of the US and the west coast of the us but they're able to be there in real time and have these deep. Conversations about the specificities of the technology and how it is used, and that's really indicative of the expertise of our community. And there are very few spaces. Where you can find that and be able to talk to someone about the work that you're doing to be able to talk to people who will understand it and be able to discuss it with you in more depth rather than just asking you what is xr? So without having to go to that level, we dive in deep right away. We can assume a certain level of knowledge on the part of our community members, although we do try to be welcoming to those who are new.

Nathan C (2):

Yeah, innovation, being in deep technologies can be a really lonely space'cause you're in a frontier. the number of people that can relate, isn't always, that many. turning to a global audience, can really help you build those connections, that you need when you're in, a rarefied space like that. Can you tell us about this fifth year and how you're using the power of five, to step into this next era for XR women?

Sophia Moshasha:

Definitely, we are. Very excited to be able to have made it this far and built, this virtual empire that we all know and love. and it is growing organically, and we want to empower our community to do that because while, we need leadership to help push this movement forward. We always tell people like, you are an XR Women if you're in this space, or you're an XR Women ally, and we wanna empower people to take this badge of honor and represent proudly and through this next month in November, we have five pillars. That, kind of frame our mission at XR women, to include, Leadership, which is all of us who help run these Weekly shows. And, it is not easy as we have, as we've talked about before, and we'll go into that in a little bit of detail. Education is another one, and it's everybody that we have been able to give, a megaphone to, to showcase their. Talent and expertise and experience in this space and archiving that for everybody else to learn from. Innovation is another one. Helping to be that foundation which people can take these learnings and grow and prosper from. Collaboration is threaded in everything that we do, both within our community as well as partnerships, among other industries and other organizations and our allies as well. Impact, because that's the reason why we're doing all this, to create impact both as a community as well as on an individual level. part of that is also helping to. up this next generation of creators as well. And we're doing that through, our student chapters also. We're celebrating, just being established as a 5 0 1 3. So we're really excited for that. And that brings about. opportunities as well. both as an organization to be able to again, create real impact within our community and beyond.

Nathan C (2):

I have to jump in. Sophia, you had a fantastic list, but you. Just mentioned that XR Women is now a 5 0 1 C3 nonprofit, which opens up a ton of doors, for partnerships, collaborations, and sponsorships to help really push that mission. And I feel like that's something worth just celebrating and sitting on, for a moment. Congrats.

Sophia Moshasha:

Yes.

Nathan C (2):

Amazing.

Sophia Moshasha:

time coming it's the community that we built up till now that really makes Very special, even more special and even more impactful. we have this brain trust as, Karen mentioned, of much perspective and so much experience that span across industry verticals, that is really special. And I think there's a lot that we can do to help, educate. industry verticals on this technology, through that depth of experience that is brought from these amazing women across the world.

Nathan C (2):

Amazing.

Sophia Moshasha:

So with that, we also have events going on throughout the month of November that kind of celebrate these, and showcase these different pinnacles that we're trying to highlight. they are themed around our awards that we give out each year, around innovation, trailblazing, and real world impact. we are. Taking people through, the different platforms that we typically host events on. I think this is what makes we've done really special and unique because we're not just hosting virtual events every week. We are hosting them on various platforms in the metaverse. because We are not only showcasing how to produce virtual events at scale through individual platforms, we're also helping people to onboard and get exposed to these different platforms through our efforts. that is really unique and I think a lot of people appreciate that. So we'll be demonstrating the magic behind that through this event. And the work that goes into producing this. another event that we're doing is around trailblazing, celebrating our five years of speakers. So we'll be, highlighting some speakers and some knowledge that's been shared over the five years that has really, hit home with us and our community as well. we'll be asking your community to chime in on that and just to share with us on, on, what has been extra special and there, experience over the five years, attending these events. And then real world impact. we're highlighting the impact that basically our community has had, in, our community and beyond. I think those are gonna be really interesting stories to share.'cause then we'll hear about, success cases of people collaborating together, the different knowledge that people have shared and what they've been able to do with that. how people have been able to, get on other stages as a result of us helping them with this. and giving them the first opportunity to showcase their work at XR women, and so much more. we have so much to share on that. So I'm really excited for, the world to see this community make that real world impact.

Julie Smithson:

I'm sitting here listening, going, wow, that sounds like a great organization.

Nathan C (2):

How can I be a part?

Julie Smithson:

Yeah.

Nathan C (2):

Sophia you did mention, a number of different events, different showcases, ways to get involved. What's the best way for people to learn about all the five year celebration and, the different ways that they can engage?

Sophia Moshasha:

Yes. First and foremost, definitely join our mailing list to get all the information, that we share every week. If you go to xr women.com on the upper right hand side, you'll have an option to do that and you'll get regularly updated. We also have, a landing page, called Power of Five that you'll see in our menu options Kind of tells you about these different pillars and what we are doing, as a community, as an organization, to propagate those pillars and asking people to support us because we are, a community run organization, nonprofit, been doing this for a long time and growing our team, we need all the help that we can get to continue our mission here. So if you Go on that landing page of so many ways to contribute, both with donations and also getting involved with the community and organization. we would love any and all input from the community.

Nathan C (2):

Amazing there. There was something you said, Sophia, that Inspires me to maybe bring something back to the group as a whole. As the core leadership and co-founders of XR women, you've been in the thick of it for 240, virtual events in multiple different, metaverse platforms. There's no way that this amount of engagement of, listening to global experts from collaborating and building community together, that, this work hasn't. Changed or impacted you? I'm curious, can you take a look back internally and how this five years of XR women has, helped you grow and learn and build a.

Julie Smithson:

Yeah, sure. I'll take that one on. I know for a fact that I wouldn't be me without XR women today. it was in December of 2020. And I remember Juliana Lowe saying to me, and some of you know her from the industry, she said, Julie, you're a leader. Help us. lead us through this. And that rolled into 2021 and we haven't stopped since. I've grown as a leader. I've seen Karen and Sophia both grow as leaders people change a lot in five years, and we both had our personal stories along with, growing this ecosystem of taking women under this massive umbrella that we've created. And there's just. There's so much good vibes there that every time we come together, we're seeing each other grow in little bits and pieces, being on stages, being able to, run these production events, which are very technical that we challenge ourselves, when we go live on YouTube, it's okay, who's gonna do this today? And we challenge each other we're always looking for, how we can engage our audiences in different ways, not being fearful about this technology. We've created an ecosystem that adapts very well, one of the reasons why we need to meet every week now is to adapt to the information that we're taking in and, apply that into our world, impact it into our ecosystem. So we've created this really safe. Communal, adaptive, place to learn. And every week, like today, we talked about quantum narratives. And that was that touchpoint for all three of us five years ago, was if we're gonna continue learning, let's bring in people who are smarter than us and learn from them. What a great concept. And that's what we've built.

Nathan C (2):

Sophia, what are you proud of? How do you mark, your growth and success in this time?

Sophia Moshasha:

Oh, first of all, learning by doing as Julie said. I haven't personally seen any initiative that does what we do, and hosts these. Larger scale productions in various virtual platforms every single week. I think building that knowledge around what works best, best practices, troubleshooting all of these things, is really valuable. I remember when I first started in the industry. Had to fight your way to be seen and, get on stages and have your voice heard being able to now offer that to women who are looking to share their knowledge and their voice is really rewarding I see them. to others in our community. Now they're pulling them in to the opportunities that they have and us included also. So I think, it's been rewarding for us personally, but also to be able to see that like just keeps flowing and people are taking it in their own hands and saying, we, have something share back with you. Or, Hey, should get involved with this community XR women, because they have something valuable for you in the industry. So it's been really rewarding to see it grow organically through our community. And that's just a testament to, the impact that we're having. So that's really special.

Nathan C (2):

Yeah, I love that idea of, to learn by doing, there's often this sort of mythos about, startup innovators as like having some perfect divine message that delivers them a fully whole technology that's viral. But like most of the time when you're on the cutting edge, you have to slog through trying it every day, trying it a million ways until you. find that fit, that connects the community to the impact. And it's so cool to hear that, that's just baked in to how you've been building. Karen, how about you? what have you learned from this process and your partners?

Karen Alexander:

Oh wow. It's just been incredible to have a front row seat to everything that is happening in the industry in so many different aspects of it. And I feel incredibly fortunate that I'm able to bring what I learn from not just our speakers that XR women, but from our other community members who we engage with. to bring what I learn about the industry and the tools and the concepts and the ways that people are using them back to my own consulting practice. And so whether I'm working with higher ed institutions or working with corporations or working with startups, I can bring what I have, gleaned at XR Women to bear on that work. I also just wanna say a little bit more about our global community and the ways that women are hungry for this. they come to us and say, wow, I was hoping to find an organization like this, or, I can't believe you exist. when someone says, oh, I'm so happy to find you, or, I love these events. I love coming to these events every week. It means an awful lot.

Nathan C (2):

I can envision the community user generated content campaign that collects all of those sound bites and. celebrations of discovering XR women. Yeah, that's gotta just be so inspiring. This is just fantastic. I so appreciate hearing about, all that you've been building and growing. It wouldn't be the glow up if we don't talk about goals and growth. What's the fabulous next version that you're building toward? I'm curious, where's XR women going in the next five years? how are you gonna top, the first 242 episodes? Julie, what's the big call to action?

Karen Alexander:

Yeah. one of the things that's really important to me right now is to get us on a solid foundation, and as was mentioned earlier, we got our 5 0 1 C3 designation from the IRS. we're a grassroots organization. one of the things that I have been really, concerned with is. building the structure of the organization and, how do we operate, what are our policies and all of these sorts of things that will keep us going, sustain us into the future. So for me, the short term goal. Is to make sure that we are stable, that we have a solid foundation, which we do in terms of the community. but we need to be able to sustain the work that we do. That's why these support of our community is so very important to us. And that's absolutely crucial. Right now, we're at this key moment where if we can do that. Then the sky's the limit Okay.

Nathan C (2):

Yeah. XR Women is looking for sponsors and partners to help further the mission. they need folks to step up to support the mission as community, but are also looking for financial backers to support this mission in the future.

Sophia Moshasha:

And I'll jump in. just something else that we're proud of and we're starting to get, more inbound requests to educate back to community outside XR women and help connect, right? We've been asked to do workshops, for various topics Help funnel in creators, like women creators to ecosystems for both software and hardware platforms, for large companies. we're very proud to be able to do that and we want to continue to do that. we know that this is a huge value add to. Our industry at large, or any company that's really trying to build the creator ecosystem. And so that is one of the things that I see ourselves growing in, is not only connecting and collaborating amongst our own, but now that we have this pool of talented individuals, how do we then continue to connect them to other opportunities to see other ecosystems grow as well? and we're really good at doing that. And we're seeing a lot of, again, these inbound requests for doing this. We wanna continue to be able to do that. and that is why, supporting the organization and the community and continuing to leverage it, to help it grow is really important. Not just for us, but really for the industry at large to keep this going. because there's a lot of things that we can do. And with the 5 0 1 C3 designation especially. I'm looking forward to more programs through this accreditation, through partnering with organizations and government and others as well. We now have the opportunity of doing that. And again, we have a pool of talented individuals from all over the world, all professional industries. So we have a lot of knowledge and talent, that we can pull and culminate together to be able to start building some really impactful solutions and projects, revolving around the designation. So we're definitely putting a focus on growing that.

Nathan C (2):

I love the, you've really caught my attention, right? With the knowledge trust and the network that XR women has created globally is such a unique. Set of perspectives and experiences and insights about spatial computing technologies For an industry that is so predominantly like white dudes in Silicon Valley, to have, an outside perspective, to have a perspective that represents the whole a little bit more, or like the state of the actual world. it seems incredibly valuable and like Bravo for understanding where your own expertise and data sets are and how you can turn those into, Value back into the industry. That's the kind of feedback loops that get people moving on. Julie, how about you? what's your big call to action for the next five years?

Julie Smithson:

Yeah, for sure. And I'm gonna touch both on what Karen and Sophia said that are behind XR women. one of the things, the real world impact that we've been able to accomplish is starting, our student chapter in Kenya and Africa. So within that stability of being a 5 0 1 C3. our reach and our impact, it goes far beyond that and building out the governance behind. the stability goes deep. understanding the laws, the accessibility of some of the women to this technology. we're hearing stories from war torn countries where they're going into the tunnels to access wifi to be able to connect with other women. That's happening and I think it's incredible. we hear about these stories through, the channels of our community, Us having this global impact. it's, incredible during this day and age where there's a lot of disturbance in the force out there, in the real world. But with that comes the governance. that's the first piece. And then second to tie it to what Sophia was saying. The important thing for us is to continue learning about this technology. How do we introduce robotics and drones into XR and ai? How about Augmented reality and glasses and things like that. So for us, that's the kind of that next phase beyond the five years, we're gonna take a deeper look into some different topics. Especially for the three of us, for our leadership team is important on how we pull in those speakers to be able to educate us. We've got a machine going. XR Women is a huge machine. We've got a massive footprint. We have, the XR Women Museum Gallery and the Frame Platform curated by Paige Daner. The exhibition's called She Who Codes herself. So learning about how AI is transforming art. In the designers themselves, female designers. We've done a lot of things around even, putting people's businesses. it was a while ago, it's almost two years, I can't believe this already. The spatial computing business showcase. We've been able to put these, exhibits together where it features the XR women's. Talents and their ecosystem to teach others. And again, it just comes back to the power of our community. We've got this massive footprint. We're gonna be celebrating it with our community, in the next month, and then the celebrations don't continue. We keep learning and we keep meeting because the ecosystem's not stopping anytime soon. So we're really proud to be on the forefront of it and we can't do it without the community. This isn't just a Sophia, Karen, Julie show. This is the XR Women movement and yeah, we're proud to be a part of it.

Nathan C (2):

Oh goodness. Thank you so much for that. So cool to see that five years in, you're still thriving and being inspired, on a Weekly basis by both, the technology, the community, and, the opportunities to grow and learn together to make an impact, in real people's lives. so fantastic. Are there any sort of last closing thoughts or calls to action that you wanted to share out?

Karen Alexander:

Oh wow. I think, as Sophia said before, first of all, just join XR Women. It's free to do, and it doesn't matter what your gender orientation is, you can join and you can come to our sessions. there is a tiny little thing you have to tick a box underneath where your email goes on that join form in order to receive our Weekly newsletter, which will let you know where we're going to be on Wednesday. The newsletter comes out on Tuesday. I'll let you know on where we're gonna be on Wednesday. we do have this Power of Five campaign going on where we are asking people to donate just$5. if you appreciate what XR Women does. Give us$5. If you've got a little more room in your wallet and you can give us$50, that would be very much appreciated. If you can give us$500, wow. That goes a long way toward, helping us to make what we do happen.$5,000 would sponsor two XR women's student chapters for us to found new ones. And$50,000. That would do a great deal toward help us achieving that will allow us to continue growing this incredible community of learning and collaboration and connection.

Sophia Moshasha:

Karen said it very well. We provide. Value to our own community, but more importantly to the industry at large. So I think people need to keep that in mind in terms of what we do, and the value that community actually has. you will not find a collective of professionals. This large and this dedicated anywhere in the virtual world. so I think there is, so much that we can do together as an industry with XR women, and I want, people to understand that we're not siloing ourselves. In fact, we need the partnership, in collaboration with others in the industry, to be able to. Add the value that we've been seeing within and creating within XR women to the initiatives that are happening in the industry. so we definitely. Want people to reach out to us. We want to help. and we want our community to be able to help and let's leverage them. There's so much that they want to give and they can give The purpose of this is to give back to the industry, and so let's figure out how we can continue to do that and leverage our community to be able to provide that value.

Karen Alexander:

Yeah, I like the way you said that, Sophia, because, we all got started in this because we were passionate about. XR technologies and what they could do for people. Whether it would be, giving them more ways to create and tell stories share a perspective on something, or make a business process safer or more efficient. we. Really believe in the power of this technology to improve people's lives. so we are helping to build this industry and move it forward through what we do at XR Women.

Nathan C (2):

Oh my goodness. This is lovely friends.

Sophia Moshasha:

XR Women isn't just a community. a movement, redefining how we show up, learn and lead in the metaverse.

Karen Alexander:

XR women isn't just a community, it's a movement. Redefining how we show up, learn and lead in the metaverse.

Julie Smithson:

XR women isn't just a community, it's a movement. redefining how we show up, learn and lead in the metaverse.

Nathan C (2):

Yo. Julie Smithson, Karen. Alexander Sophia, Sasha. So fantastic to talk with you, co-founders of XR Women and to hear how you're using the Power of Five to both celebrate, your amazing run to date as well as how you're planning to ignite the future. Thanks for joining me on this very special episode of the Tech Glow Up.

Karen Alexander:

Thank you so much, Nathan,

Sophia Moshasha:

Thank you.

Julie Smithson:

Thanks,

Nathan C (2):

Amazing