Bringing global development stories to life through immersive technology

How It Started

The World Bank discovered Roundme, the 360 platform I founded, while searching for ways to bring field operations closer to headquarters. What began as a platform demo turned into something bigger: an invitation to help build their immersive media capability from scratch.

I joined as a technology consultant with a mission to prove that VR and 360 content could do more than impress - it could change how people understand and act on global challenges.

The Challenge

The World Bank operates in 100+ countries, funding projects most people will never see firsthand - and reports and presentations can only carry so much of that reality back to Washington.

The harder part was building a program that could scale across a complex institution: navigating multi-million dollar procurement processes, aligning diverse stakeholders, and delivering experiences that worked for non-technical users in boardrooms, conferences, and field offices worldwide.

Climate and Environment

Some of our most impactful work focused on climate change and environmental conservation. These experiences transport viewers to the frontlines of climate adaptation - from drought-affected farmlands to protected rainforests.

The Sahel Virtual Journey takes viewers into one of the world's most climate-vulnerable regions, showing how communities adapt to extreme weather through climate-smart agriculture practices.

This is the journey itself - a walkthrough of the experience as viewers see it.

The Congo Basin experience highlights forest conservation efforts across Central Africa, while our Kenya project showcases youth employment opportunities in sustainable land management.

Education in the Eye of the Storm, produced with the Global Partnership for Education, is a 360 experience on keeping children learning through cyclones and flooding - filmed with communities in Mozambique.

That thread of climate storytelling didn't end with 360 video. As mixed reality hardware matured, we carried it into headsets. Visualizing Fragility, built for Meta Quest 3 with the GCSIM team, turns World Bank data on extreme poverty, climate change, food insecurity, and debt distress into a spatial experience about how fragile and conflict-affected countries carry a disproportionate share of the burden.

It debuted at the Fragility Forum 2024 - the same stories we had told through a camera lens, now unfolding as data in the room around the viewer.

Events and Exhibitions

Twice a year, the Spring and Annual Meetings bring delegates from more than 180 member countries to Washington. When the pandemic made gathering in person impossible, we created virtual spaces that preserved the spontaneity and discovery of those events. These weren't just video calls with extra steps - they were navigable environments where attendees could explore at their own pace.

The Global Water Security Program's annual showcase and various virtual exhibition halls allowed thousands of participants to engage with World Bank initiatives without leaving their desks.

When the halls filled again, we brought immersive technology onto the exhibition floor itself - interactive exhibits that met delegates in the flow of the Spring and Annual Meetings.

The first, Jobs Outcomes, was built with the GCSIM team around an Ideum multi-touch table and a Looking Glass holographic display, showing how the Bank brings more and better jobs to client countries across agribusiness, tourism, manufacturing, climate, energy, and healthcare. It ran at the Spring Meetings for more than 10,000 attendees.

The Scorecard on Apple Vision Pro turned ten datasets measuring the Bank's outcomes - from social safety nets and debt distress to emissions, education, water and sanitation, electricity access, and digital services - into a mixed reality visualization, shown at the Annual Meetings.

The same approach carried to the World Bank Land Conference, where a large interactive globe let delegates gather around and explore big data on land use, jobs and growth, and land tenure and rights.

Some stories needed to travel lighter. For the International Development Association, we produced six image-triggered acrylic panels using 8th Wall WebAR for the Spring Meetings 2024 - point a phone at a panel and it comes alive with IDA's work on cultural restoration, climate resilience, education for girls and women, healthcare, and infrastructure. No headset, no app - just a browser.

Institutional Projects

Beyond external storytelling, we built experiences for internal audiences - from interactive histories celebrating partner countries to sustainability showcases for IFC facilities.

The IFC Rooftop Garden tour lets visitors explore sustainable urban agriculture practices right at World Bank headquarters.

For Bangladesh's 50th independence anniversary, we created an interactive timeline tracing the country's development journey and partnership with the World Bank.

Training and Operations

VR proved especially valuable for training scenarios that are difficult, dangerous, or expensive to replicate in real life. The Staff Road Safety Program uses immersive simulation to prepare employees for field travel in challenging environments.

Not every training scenario is about physical risk. Picture Yourself Included, created with the GCSIM team, uses immersive storytelling to build awareness of neurodiversity in the workplace - a hand-painted VR animated film paired with four live-acted office scenarios shot in 360 video, delivered across VR headsets, the web, and touchscreens.

Recognition

The work earned recognition at the highest levels. I had the honor of meeting World Bank President Ajay Banga and his wife during the Children's Art Prize celebration - a project we developed with the GCSIM team that used immersive technology to showcase children's artwork from around the world.

Receiving the Annual Information Management Team Award validated what we set out to prove: that immersive technology, when thoughtfully applied, can make global development challenges feel personal and actionable.