In this episode of the XR Industry Leaders Podcast, Brad Scoggin and Will Stackable sit down with Sophie Thompson, CEO and co-founder of VirtualSpeech, and Gema Molero, Project Manager of XR at IE University, to explore how VR is reshaping higher education.

What started as Sophie’s personal struggle with social anxiety has grown into VirtualSpeech—a global VR platform for soft skills training. Partnering with IE University, they’ve scaled immersive public speaking and leadership training across campuses, impacting thousands of students. Gema shares how IE made VR compulsory for over 1,000 master’s students, scaled to 700+ devices, and proved measurable gains in student confidence and skills.

The conversation covers the origins of VirtualSpeech, faculty adoption hurdles, the power of AI feedback, and how ArborXR helps IE University manage devices across multiple campuses. Whether you’re running a pilot or scaling XR globally, this episode is full of lessons on building programs that stick.

Key Moments

01:02 – From Social Anxiety to VR Pioneer

05:03 – Why IE University Made VR Compulsory

11:07 – Faculty Adoption & Early Challenges

15:30 – What Students Actually Do in VR

20:39 – The Power of Immersion & Emotional Response

20:39 – AI Coaching for Personalized Learning

21:46 – Scaling to 700 Devices Across Campuses

27:31 – Proving ROI: Confidence Up 24% in Two Sessions

27:31 – Advice for Universities Considering VR

Quotes

“In less than 20 minutes, students using VirtualSpeech increased their public speaking confidence by 24%.” – Brad Scoggin, citing IE University data

“At first, we had 300 headsets. Now we’re managing over 700 devices across multiple campuses—and ArborXR makes that possible.” – Gema Molero

About the Guests

Sophie Thompson is the CEO and co-founder of VirtualSpeech, the first VR app built to help people overcome fear of public speaking, now used globally for soft skills training.

Gema Molero is the Project Manager of XR at IE University in Spain, where she leads the integration of VR into curriculum and manages the university’s 700+ headset deployment.

Links and Resources

Gema Molero on Linkedin

Sophie Thompson on LinkedIn

VirtualSpeech Website

IE University Website

Brad Scoggin on LinkedIn

Will Stackable on LinkedIn

IE University & VirtualSpeech: Building Student Confidence with VR Public Speaking