We are thrilled this experience won Gold and Silver Awards from both the Academy of International Extended Reality (AIXR) VR Awards for Social Good and the inaugural Anthem Awards. The Anthem Awards, Webby’s newest initiative, recognize global social-good work—honoring organizations, brands, and people making long-lasting impact.

AVEnueS (Accenture Virtual Experience Services) delivers a learning experience that is immersive and reflective. It begins in virtual reality where users are immersed in real-world scenarios and tasked with making difficult decisions under pressure. The experience employs voice-based interactive scenarios (powered by NLP via Watson) to transform how caseworkers hone data-gathering and decision-making skills.

Users visit 13-year-old Tory and have the opportunity to observe and interact with his family. Afterwards, they discover there are two versions of the family; at the start, each user is randomly assigned one. Both families share the same name, wear identical clothes, live in the same home, and deliver the same lines—except: one family is Black and the other is White.

Early testing shows participants respond with more empathy toward the white family and are more likely to see the black family as angry or threatening. In post-experience seminars, users articulate specific actions they will take to advance racial equity. Our intention was to give participants the opportunity to explore their inherent or learned racial biases, so they become aware of their tendencies in real situations and act to promote racial equity.

As Creative Lead, I helped build authentic, dynamic characters and conflicts with strong backstories. I also led creative development of a branched-narrative VR script, storyboards, and supporting materials that guided both the live-action and 360° VR content production. Post-production included collaborating closely with the production crew and Unity developers to polish the creative experience in headset.