Hi! My name is Cope.

I have 7 years of experience in the Immersive Technologies Industry including Mixed Reality, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality (XR, VR, AR) particularly in operations.

As a native of Austin Texas, I grew up interested in the local indie film community at a young age. I began a short stint as a freelance motion graphics and VFX artist at the age of 15 working mostly in Adobe Creative Suite, maya, 3ds max, Cinema 4D. I participated in Rooster Teeth community projects, release several animated videos, and was featured on their weekly update show AWHU. I produced promotional content for nonprofit’s like Austin Peace Academy. I was able to monetize my skills as well by working for local cinematographers to produce intro and outro assets for their videography content. By 17 I was learning Unreal Engine 4 as my interests shifted to interactive media.

I am a long time fan of the late 80s and 90s Star Trek TV shows TNG, DS9, and Voyager. These shows included a technology, the “Holodeck”, a room where science fiction allows you to create any stories, worlds, characters, or experience you can imagine. I had the opportunity to try a oculus DK1 and DK2 at SXSW in 2014 and the similarity to the scifi holodeck of these shows that inspired me was striking.

In 2017 as I graduated high school, I pre-ordered the first HTC Vive virtual reality headset. The same year I founded an LLC called Potato Face Games with a friend to develop consumer virtual reality content. We brought our game “Dark: Frontier” to SXSW 2017 and VR Austin. I connected with Paul Eckhart of Austin Virtual League(AVL) and began my journey towards becoming a community organizer in the VR community of Austin. We went on to release several more projects including “VR Bottle Flip”, and “Space!, VR” on the “Steam” and “Vive Port” storefronts.

I became lead event organizer for AVL in 2019. My development, QA, and content creation experience at Potato Face helped me transition to this new role. I leveraged my VR developer contacts to bring new and unique content to AVL events like “Beat Games”, “Mighty Coconut”, “SUPER HOT Team”, “Ionized Studios”, and more . We organized and trained a group of volunteers to provide a high quality and safe experience to our attendees, with the goal of facilitating free access to the newest and best experiences consumer virtual reality has to offer. We were also able to form relationships with SXSW, Capital Factory, Houston VR, and VR Austin and hosted partnered events around Austin. At AVL we helped over 2,000 Austinites have their first experience in virtual reality in a fun and safe space, all for free.

In 2019 the lockdown disrupted our ability to hold in person events. So we began hosting our events virtually in the metaverse. I realized the potential for how VR could be used to help other companies and groups connect during lockdown. I began offering my services as a freelance Virtual Reality Consultant, helping companies utilize VR technology to connect with their communities in ways they never thought possible. Several colleagues and I developed a multi-camera live broadcast workflow to create and stream content from VR events, similar to how a conventional event may offer broadcast or livestream option for attendance. We worked with several organizations like Global HR Summit, iLearn, Global Music Festival, and Virtual World Society.

In 2023 I was brought on a new cutting edge Mixed Reality project for the Four Seasons Lake Austin(FSLA) development by Alex Coloumb and Agile Lens. I recruited, trained, and managed a local team to take over onsite R&D, QA, maintenance, and operations of the immersive experience. Directed the acquisition, installation, and dismantling of technical systems, maintaining strict timelines and quality standards. We catered to roughly 200 high net worth individuals, between the ages of 6-93, through a half hour experience, with %100 completion rate.

In August 2023 my operations team replicated the Austin, TX FSLA holodeck experience in Aspen, CO for one week. We collaborated with cross-functional teams to adapt the semi-permanent installations, a pop-up experience across state lines; ensuring replication and adaptation of the experience to the new venue, the St Regis hotel.

In late December 2023 I lost my youngest cousin and took a step back from my work to focus on my family and personal mental health. I took the opportunity to peruse my passion for travel, culture, cars, and martial arts. I spent a month in Japan and Vietnam. Visited and trained at the the Kodakan, the headquarters of the international judo association in Tokyo.

I returned to SXSW this year 2025 with Lena Herzog and her anti war project “Any War, Any Enemy”. I Recruited trained and lead a team to operate the VR experience. We were able to give more than 200 people an opportunity to view the work during the 3 days the “XR Lounge” was open at the convention.

I believe immersive technologies like VR/AR/XR are going to change how we live our lives. I aspire to be a part of that change, using immersive technologies to create genuine connection and engagement between people.