Neon Protocol

This town hall marks the first step in expanding Neon Protocol beyond interviews and into a more open, collaborative format. This episode is a live pulse‑check with the crew and past guests — a space to surface emerging ideas, debate what’s breaking, and shape where the show goes next.

Neon Protocol Live System Check is our first-ever open forum episode — an unscripted town hall with the crew and past guests. We’re using this space to talk through what’s shifting in tech, what’s keeping us curious, and what deserves deeper exploration in future episodes. It’s loose, it’s collaborative, and it’s the start of a new cadence of community-driven conversations.

Neon Protocol Members:

Gene Feldman

Mark Grob

Dan Meeks

Damon Shackleford

Mike Vann

Why the next wave of XR innovation depends on open standards, browser‑based experiences, and a more accessible development ecosystem.

WebXR advocate and immersive developer Daniel Meeks joins Neon Protocol to break down the shift from closed XR platforms to open, browser‑native experiences. We explore the technical realities of building for the open web, the lessons he carried over from military simulation, and how interoperability will reshape training, collaboration, and consumer experiences. A forward‑looking conversation about the XR ecosystem we should be building.

Neon Protocol Members:

Gene Feldman

Mark Grob

Damon Shackleford

Mike Vann

Why immersive technology is becoming essential for clinical confidence, patient engagement, and the next generation of care delivery.

Tonight on Neon Protocol, Dax Leepart from PICO joins us to unpack how XR is reshaping both sides of the healthcare experience — the clinicians delivering care and the patients receiving it. Dax walks us through how VR simulations are elevating clinical training and workforce readiness, giving teams the ability to rehearse complex scenarios with consistency and confidence. We also explore XR’s growing role in rehabilitation and patient‑centered therapy, where immersive environments can improve motivation, adherence, and outcomes. Throughout the conversation, Dax highlights what healthcare leaders really want to know: how to measure impact, prove ROI, and scale immersive tools responsibly.

Neon Protocol Members:

Gene Feldman

Mark Grob

Damon Shackleford

Lucky Gobindram

Ron Thompson

Why the next era of spatial computing will be defined by the devices we build—and the ecosystems required to support them.

Tonight on Neon Protocol, we’re joined by Scott Patterson from Lenovo to explore the hardware realities shaping the future of XR and spatial computing. Scott breaks down the engineering trade offs behind modern headsets, the rise of modular architectures, and the growing demand for devices that can flex across training, collaboration, simulation, and field operations. We dig into how Lenovo thinks about durability, ergonomics, compute distribution, and the long term roadmap for enterprise grade XR. This episode is a deep dive into the physical layer of the future—and why the right hardware unlocks everything else.

Neon Protocol Members:

Gene Feldman

Mark Grob

Mike Vann

Damon Shackleford

Lucky Gobindram

Why immersive environments improve learning, retention, and engagement—and what that means for the future.

In this episode, the Protocol team sits down with Bobby Carlton from FS Studios to unpack the psychology behind immersive learning. They explore why XR experiences can accelerate skill development, how companies are using them to solve real‑world problems, and what it takes to design training that actually changes behavior. Bobby offers a grounded, practical look at how immersive tech is evolving—and why it’s not just a trend, but a shift in how humans learn.

Neon Protocol Members:

Gene Feldman

Ron Thompson

Mike Vann

Damon Shackleford

Lucky Gobindram

XR, Storytelling, and the Systems Behind Immersive Innovation

In this episode of Neon Protocol, our roundtable sits down with Annie Eaton, CEO of Futurus and a leading voice in immersive technology. Together, we explore the real systems behind XR innovation — from the creative frameworks that guide experience design to the operational challenges that determine whether immersive tech truly sticks inside organizations.

Annie shares insights from her book, The Extended Reality Blueprint, offering a behind‑the‑scenes look at the ideas, lessons, and experiences that shaped her journey as a founder. The conversation dives into the future of spatial computing, the evolving expectations of users, and how organizations can adopt immersive tools in a way that’s strategic, sustainable, and human‑centered.

If you’re curious about how XR really gets built, how creative and technical teams collaborate, or what’s coming next in immersive tech, this roundtable lights up the grid.

Neon Protocol Members:

Gene Feldman

Mark Grob

Ron Thompson

What happens when the future is watching back?

In this episode of Neon Protocol, we sit down with Cortney Harding to unpack the quiet rise of AI‑powered smart glasses—and the hidden cost behind their surprisingly low price. Marketed as seamless, helpful, and hands‑free, these devices promise convenience and intelligence at eye level. But what are we really giving up in exchange?

Through the lens of “Eyes of a Stranger,” we explore how always‑on wearables blur the boundary between public and private, observer and observed. From ambient recording and invisible data capture to the normalization of surveillance as a lifestyle feature, this conversation digs into what it means to live in a world where seeing is also collecting.

Cortney brings clarity to the trade‑offs: why accessibility and affordability often come paired with diminished privacy, how consent becomes murky in shared spaces, and what it means when technology doesn’t just watch the world—but learns from it.

This episode isn’t about fear—it’s about awareness. Because when intelligence moves from our pockets to our faces, the question isn’t just what can these glasses do?

It’s who do they see—and who’s watching through them?

Neon Protocol Members:

Gene Feldman

Mark Grob

Mike Vann

Damon Shackleford

Lucky Gobindram

Welcome to Neon Protocol — the show where we go inside the systems shaping what comes next.

Each episode brings together members of the Neon Protocol team and a guest who’s actively building, researching, or governing the technologies transforming our world. Founders, engineers, researchers, policymakers, operators — people who aren’t just imagining the future, but constructing it. Together, we break down what’s working, what’s breaking, and what’s emerging across XR, AI, spatial computing, and the infrastructures that support them.

The recurring Neon Protocol members form a multidisciplinary group exploring technology as a living system shaped by culture, constraints, and human behavior.

Gene Feldman — XR
Gene focuses on the evolution of extended reality and AI as a usable, durable medium, bringing historical context and practical insight into adoption and scale.

Lucky Gobindram — Kinemeric
Lucky works at the intersection of identity, intelligence, and computation, exploring how agentic systems and adaptive software reshape assumptions about users and interaction.

Mark Grob — UPS
Mark brings the enterprise‑scale view from one of the world’s most complex logistics networks, translating frontier tech into real‑world constraints, reliability, and operational scale.

Aditya Mani — Yologram
Aditya explores spatial computing, immersive platforms, and the future of presence — how new interfaces change collaboration, memory, and human experience.

Emma (Middleton) Valdés — Lowercarbon Capital
Emma connects deep tech with planetary outcomes, grounding speculative ideas in energy, carbon, infrastructure, and responsible scale.

Damon Shackleford — Endeavor B2B
Damon brings the growth‑stage operator lens: how emerging tech becomes real revenue, real teams, and real companies.

Ron Thompson — CAIL
Ron brings an entrepreneurial perspective on AI and XR, focusing on decision‑making and business outcomes in the enterprise.

Mike Vann — Agents of Play
Mike works where creativity meets systems design, using gamification, simulation, and experiential engagement to drive learning and behavior change.

In this episode, Dr. Bob Stone joins the conversation for a wide‑open look at the current state of XR and AI. With decades of experience in human factors engineering, simulation science, and applied immersive research, Dr. Stone brings a perspective that cuts through hype and gets to what matters.

Together, we explore how XR and AI are evolving in parallel, where they meaningfully intersect, and why human‑centered design remains the anchor point for both. The group digs into today’s spatial computing landscape — validation challenges, adoption friction, and the growing role of AI in shaping workflows, training, and real‑world decision‑making.

Neon Protocol Members:

Gene Feldman

Mark Grob

Mike Vann

Damon Shackleford