Alex Gibson (Head of Digital Marketing, Technological University Dublin) 

Alex Gibson is Head of Discipline - Digital Marketing, at the School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship,  Faculty of Business. He has previously held lecturing and management roles in the School of Tourism and Hospitality Managementand has prior industry experience in food and hotel marketing roles. He is a Fellow of the Marketing Institute of Ireland,  and an advisor to TechIreland on AR and VR sectors. He is the founder of the annual ARVR INNOVATE conference and expo, and regularly contributes to national and international industry and academic conferences in immersive technology topics. He also presents a weekly radio programme on marketing issues - The Persuaders - on Dublin City FM. 

Enterprise Academy Fellowship Project

Alex's work to date in AR and VR module development, and funding applications, has encouraged him to see the massive opportunity for immersive technologies to help both students and trainees in areas such as presentation skills (where he is already research-active), negotiation and diversity and inclusion awareness. We are entering an exciting and challenging technological era with the rapid transition from a 2D internet and world of learning to a 3D model with the Metaverse and supporting immersive technologies of Augmented and Virtual Reality at the core. These technologies are now being powered by rapid advances in AI and unleash the potential to develop, at scale, innovative solutions for learners, whether in academia or industry.

From the perspective of industry, we know that transversal skill development is increasingly seen as critical for success. His fellowship project seeks to give educators and trainers the knowledge and practical tools in how to leverage immersive technologies to address key gaps in transversal skills across a wide variety of enterprise sectors. The main vehicle to do this will be the development of an accredited Level 6 CPD Cert – Transversal Skills Metaversity. Learners who complete the module will have a knowledge and technical skill-set which will allow them to subsequently develop Metaverse-led initiatives in their own organisations to enhance learners’ transversal skills.