Cortney Harding

In an era where many enterprise VR/AR creators lean on outmoded ideas and churn out non-interactive, unrealistic, bland content, Cortney pushes the medium forward by fusing some of the first voice-activated virtual reality interactivity with highly engaging, cinematic content from acclaimed directors who specialize in the medium. She has experience building teams with best-in-class Unity and Unreal developers and producers.

Her agency Friends with Holograms created “AvenueS” for Accenture, an immersive experience that places child welfare workers in training in a realistic, traumatic environment and then confronts them with an extremely challenging decision – whether or not to remove a child from their home and family. The interactive piece is now in use by the largest child welfare agency in the US and is being expanded into multiple chapters of content. People have often reported highly emotional responses in tests of the experience, including crying.

Her agency also created “Can’t Win” for Development Dimensions International (DDI) which places employees into an immersive scenario to demonstrate the impact of exclusionary behavior in the workplace that was described by senior leaders as “not a conversation, but an emotional experience.”

Prior to founding Friends With Holograms, Cortney led business development for VR production company Moth+Flame where she worked with AT&T, MTV, and Discovery Networks, and prior to that led business development for several music technology startups as well as served as the music editor of Billboard. Read Less ^