In the future will we all wear headsets and communicate through avatars with our work colleagues? The metaverse is changing much of how we communicate and that has huge implications for the world of work. To talk about the implications Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Mark Purdy, an independent economics and technology advisor based in London who works with companies to get ready for the future of work, including work in the metaverse. Guest: Mark Purdy is an internationally recognized thought leader and advisor on issues at the intersection of economics, technology and business. He has over 27 years’ experience as an economist in business and government, including twenty years as chief economist at one of the world’s largest technology consultancy companies. He is Managing Director of Purdy & Associates, an independent consultancy focusing on economic and technology policy issues. He is also a senior advisor to several economics and technology analyst companies. His recent work has focused on topics such as the future of work in the metaverse, ESG, contactless commerce, AI-powered discovery, digital twins, digital trade, the rise of techno-nationalism, the economics of supercomputing, and the issues of bias and quality in AI systems. He has published widely in tier-1 media and business publications such as Harvard Business Review and Sloan Management Review. Mark has also undertaken industry landscape studies in technology areas such as cloud-native, intelligent automation, and the Google and Microsoft ecosystems. He speaks on economics and technology issues at conferences, client workshops and seminars around the world. Links: LinkedIn Profile https://purdyassociates.com/   Selected recent publications: Purdy, M. (August, 2022), The View: Saviour of Global Trade?, op-ed on the metaverse, South China Morning Post. Purdy, M, (March 2022), AI Data Bonanza will intensify Geo-strategic Competition, op-ed, The Straits Times. Purdy, M., (April 2022), How the Metaverse could Change Work, Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2022/04/how-the-metaverse-could-change-work Purdy, M., November 2021, The future of Contactless Commerce, Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2021/11/the-future-of-contactless-commerce Purdy, M. and Chang, X. (2021). Instant language translation can help us talk. But will it help us understand? TechMonitor. Available at: https://techmonitor.ai/technology/instant-language-translation-can-talk-but-will-it-understand Purdy, M., Klymenko M., and Purdy, M. (2021). Business scents: the rise of digital olfaction. Sloan Management Review. Available at: https://shop.sloanreview.mit.edu/store/business-scents-the-rise-of-digital-olfaction Purdy, M. and Klymenko M. (2021). How Machine Discovery can Accelerate Solutions to Society’s Big Problems. Sloan Management Review. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-machine-discovery-can-accelerate-solutions-to-societys-big-problems/ Purdy, M. (7 December 2020). Forces Driving New Wave of Techno-nationalism. Op-ed in The Straits Times (Singapore). (Available on request) Purdy, M. (2020). Unlocking AI’s Potential for Social Good. Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.