Human

A DJ, a drummer, and a domestic foodie walk into a Gastown office.

There’s no punchline to this statement, though, but a team of three forward-thinking visionaries running a company that can build and do things to solve problems that companies may not even know they have. The unknown is something the faces behind HUMAN thrive on.

Indeed, the three have taken an unlikely route to arrive where they are today. “20 years ago I was a DJ touring around Europe and recording records,” says Kharis O’connell, CEO of Human Experience Research Corporation.

Similarly, Ryan Betts, chief technologist and a drummer in several local bands, certainly wouldn't have predicted he'd end up where he is today. "I probably would have said working for Ballard Power," he says. But the past is not what concerns this trio of technology adventurers. Instead they are focused on the world of emerging technology: virtual reality, augmented reality, and wearables.

HUMAN provides product design consulting, as chief operating officer and hobby chef Boris Mann explains. “An organization has an existing product or a product they want to build – in our case we're usually talking about digital products, like a mobile or web app. They may have some ideas of what they want it to do, and we then focus on our two areas of expertise, virtual reality and wearables, to develop the idea further."