Whilst it is still very much in its nascent phase, the vision is that the metaverse will help expand and enrich our real-life experiences, helping us to connect with people from all over the world in a more meaningful way. It’s the next generation of the internet; a persistent and shared virtual world where we can play, socialise, shop, work, learn and more. A connected experience where you can seamlessly move between platforms and experiences taking your personal digital avatar and crypto wallet with you.

As an older woman and a non-tech native working in this space, I’m a prime example of just how possible breaking through the barriers to entry is.  My background is in the creative arts, training as a dancer from a young age; I’ve always had a huge passion for art and creativity. As an art collector myself, I used to feel intimidated going into galleries with white walls and expensive paintings with people creeping up on you asking if they could help you and looking down their nose.

It dawned on me that, whilst I spent a lot of money on art and am a pretty confident person, I still felt intimidated by the traditional art-world, so what must that experience be like for others?

So, I decided to take the plunge and open my first art gallery. My mission was to break down the barriers and make art accessible for everybody. I wanted to banish the snobbery around art, and de-jargonise it – essentially removing barriers to people enjoying art. I founded the brand Bad Art, which rapidly cemented its reputation as a disruptive and dynamic venture within the art world. I created immersive and experiential gallery events. These quickly gained recognition through several award-wins and high profile events including Paul Karslake’s Banksy-inspired ‘Bank Robbery’ exhibition, which achieved extensive national media coverage and critical acclaim.

As the world shifted during the pandemic, I became more and more interested in NFTs and their potential to elevate the art world through digital art. I saw an opportunity and began researching obsessively. I saw that it was evolving so rapidly and knew that wherever it was then, was not where it was going to end up.

I was then introduced to the dynamic founder of Vertex Labs, Ander Tsui and Bobby Zhu through a business contact in 2020. Ander and Bobby are true visionaries with a keen eye for disruptive ventures. They had developed this technology far superior to anything else on the market at that time and were building a hyper-realistic virtual city called LightCycle, set to become the go-to destination for art, film, gaming, music, fashion, sport, property and retail. Powered by AI technology, it would empower users, businesses and brands to create commercial installations, or purchase land and other digital assets through a seamless and secure virtual experience. Users would be immersed in a bustling virtual commercial city where they could engage with their communities in new ways, interact with their favourite brands in a stunning 3D environment, experience live sport and music events, browse NFT collections in an NFT exhibition hall, or visit the fashionverse district. I was hooked.

It struck me that, much the same as the art world, the jargon around the metaverse and blockchain revolution was a real sticking point for so many people. People in this space love to use all these acronyms and geek words – even the term ‘blockchain’ or ‘NFT’ made people glaze over.  Having made it my mission to slice through the jargon and barriers in the art world, I knew I could do the same and add huge value in the Web3 space. So, I boarded Lightycle as its CMO to help drive and realise its vision.

Pivoting my skillset and black book of contacts, I got to work forming strategic partnerships that would take LightCycle to the next level. I realised that the key mistake brands were making was to focus only on Web3 natives. Yet for the metaverse to really take off, we need mass scale adoption. The real potential lies in brands leveraging the Web3 technology to engage with their existing audience in addressing current business challenges and capitalising on new opportunities. I knew that we needed to stop focussing only on the crypto natives because that wasn’t where this market was going to take us.  We needed to retrofit it, looking at what the problems were and what this new technology solves. Because blockchain technology and NFTs really do solve a lot of real life problems.

It was through this exact ethos that I was able to secure partnership with British singer-songwriter, Robbie Williams, for whom we recently announced his 2024 metaverse debut with LightCycle. I’ve also brought in some more really exciting household names and big brand live events soon to be announced. These artists and events will feature in LightCycle so that their fans, new and old, can enjoy next-level interaction and engagement. We’re just elevating their entertainment experience in a virtually enhanced way.

I believe it’s really important to differentiate yourself in this market and to have a specialist USP. This is why, with LightCycle, we position ourselves as the metaverse for music, sport, and entertainment. People know that we specialise in music, art, entertainment and that gives mores impetus for them to come to us.

I think the possibilities for the metaverse really are limitless. The future is where technology and creativity intersect to create new paradigms for cultural expression and human connection in an increasingly digital world. Another big opportunity for brands is the ability to overcome authenticity issues, particularly for the secondary resale marketplace. Once it’s on the blockchain, it can’t be changed or tampered with, it can't be reproduced. Whatever is on the blockchain is factual and truthful. That's it, you can't mess with it. So, it overcomes the problem of authentication. It will also speed processes up. For example, if you buy a house through today’s traditional model, you have to wait for around six weeks for all the due diligence to be reviewed and completed. If that was on the blockchain, anyone can access that immediately.

No one yet knows the impact the metaverse will have on our everyday lives. It depends on the power of computing and network abilities and the adoption rate of users. It won’t be an all at once moment, but rather a gradual collection of digital experiences that improve the way we live and work. As well as usage and adoption, it will depend on how much support and enthusiasm governments provide. Early data shows much higher metaverse adoption rates in Asia, MENA, and Europe than the United States. Which indicates that people in these regions have better access to the devices needed to use the metaverse, which makes it a favorable environment for the development and adoption of metaverse-related applications.

People say to me, ‘oh you work in crypto?’ ‘Well no, I don’t’, I say. Crypto is just the currency. Blockchain is a secure, digital ledger, like transparent record-keeping of transactions without the need for a intermediary.  NFTs are a digital transfer of ownership and the metaverse is the just the next phase of the internet. It’s a conversation I never tire of. It’s definitely worked to my advantage that I’m not a tech native in this industry and I hope, in some small way, it encourages us to change the narrative on gender bias in the tech world.