Is the metaverse really a thing?

Is the metaverse really a thing?

We still don’t know yet whether we’ll be collecting NFTs in our future virtual living rooms. Yet, for sure, the metaverse drives a wealth of opportunities for businesses and brands: socializing, selling, generating brand content, teaching … 

Our two keynote speakers will discuss the opportunities they envision and share their thoughts with the audience. 

Afterwards Imperial alumni can network with alumni from HEC Paris Business School.

Agenda

18.30-19.00 - Arrival

19.00-20.30 - Talk starts with Q&A

20.30-21.30 - Networking reception with canapes and drinks

Speaker bios

Gachoucha Kretz holds a PhD from HEC Paris.

Upon earning a master’s degree in finance and spending several years as a finance consultant and executive at Arthur Andersen and LVMH, she decided to pursue her career in marketing research and teaching.  She earned an MSc. in Communication at CELSA (the French communication “grande école” at La Sorbonne) and an MA in Marketing and Strategy at Université Paris Dauphine before attending the HEC Paris PhD program. She completed her doctoral dissertation under the supervision of Jean-Noël Kapferer and Kristine De Valck.

Gachoucha Kretz specializes in brand management with a focus on the following areas: digital branding, fashion and luxury brand management and social media marketing and branding. Her latest publications deal with fashion and luxury blogging and its impact on brand management.

She is also co-authoring a textbook on luxury brand management to be published by SAGE London. She teaches a wide range of HEC students from Summer School and MSc. to post graduate programs such as MBAs and executive MBAs and transversal audiences such as the Luxury Certificate program.

Gachoucha Kretz is also a visiting professor at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and at Meiji University in Tokyo where she teaches the Netnographic research method (Kozinets 2010) applied to luxury and fashion and fashion and luxury marketing.

She is a member of the Association for Consumer Research, of the Association Française du Marketing and of the Consumer. Best Professor Award 2018.

Chris Tucci

Christopher L. Tucci is Professor of Digital Strategy & Innovation at Imperial College Business School and Co-Director (Education) for I-X, Imperial's new campus concept centred on AI/ML, data, and digital. Professor Tucci is Academic Director of the Centre for Digital Transformation at Imperial College Business School as well. He was Professor of Management of Technology at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), where he held the Chair in Corporate Strategy & Innovation. From 2013-2018, he was Dean of the College of Management at EPFL. His primary area of interest is in how firms make transitions to new business models, technologies, and organizational forms. He also studies crowdsourcing, Internetworking, and digital innovations.