Orlando Rivera — Founder, VRspaces.TV

Orlando Rivera is the founder of VRspaces.TV, an AI and XR studio where indie artists, educators, and technologists build stories with 3D animation, video, and interactive media. His work lives at the intersection of filmmaking, visual effects, and artificial intelligence — from supervising VFX on feature films and shorts to developing generative-AI workflows for design, pre-production, and education.

Over a 20+ year career across media, technology, and education, Orlando has led teams of 3 to 30 at organizations including JPMorgan Chase, IBM Watson Research Center, AT&T, QVC, and Canela Media. As a lead developer at AT&T, he helped build the backend for one of the first large-scale live sports streams — the 2006 Masters Tournament — and he has shipped multiple apps to the Apple, Google, and Meta stores.

Today he teaches what he builds. Orlando is an adjunct faculty member at Adrian College, where he teaches AI across five courses — AI for Everyone, AI for Decision Makers, AI Ethics, AI in Creativity and Design, and AI for Leadership — and at Berkeley College, where he teaches game design and UI/UX. He has previously taught at Tufts University, Pratt Institute, and Montclair State University, and has been a guest speaker at NYU. He has presented at the Trenton Computer Festival, mLearningDevCon, and youth conferences at Princeton and Columbia.

He is currently developing StoryTime, an AI-assisted filmmaking and storytelling platform for classrooms, along with an AI interview-practice tool that coaches students through realistic job interviews.

Orlando holds an M.A. in Art and Technology from the University of Oklahoma and a BFA in Film and Animation from the School of Visual Arts. He is a member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) and the Northern New Jersey chapter of the Association for Talent Development (NNJ-ATD).