The evolution of virtual events and what it means for you

Source: https://vrscout.com/news/second-life-creator-sells-sansar-social-platform/

Virtual events may feel like a byproduct of the pandemic, however they have been around longer than you might think and are here to stay.

What’s old?

The first virtual event was a tradeshow hosted in New York in 1993 and showcased videotaped exhibitor booths attached to a HTML floor map. Whilst this didn't take off at the time, the popularity of hosting virtually has steadily increased over the years along with the capabilities of technology.

The benefits of virtual events reaches further than just the accessibility to a wider and more diverse audience. With sustainability being a huge factor in today’s world, virtual events are much more beneficial to your carbon footprint and potentially to your budget. Data is ever increasingly important in business and virtual events can capture data points previously not trackable in physical events, which can lead to insights about customers and employees behaviour and more so indicate whether your event was successful.

What’s new?

In April 2020 we saw Fortnite collaborate with Travis Scott to host a virtual concert that reached over 27 million players worldwide. Fortnite has been evolving from a multiplayer game to a global media platform for millions of people, even more conventional advertisers have taken an interest to see Tenet’s exclusive trailer in Fornite back in May. More than ever before this type of media is in demand with the majority of the world being unable to attend any of their favourite events. What makes Fortnite an excellent event platform compared to most virtual meeting spaces is the ability to make the experience more than just a face to face meeting. This engagement is lacking in the basic form of online meetings and events and it is up to the event organisers to create this user experience to rival real life. This variety of expression and interaction is key to building relationships in a digital space. It offers a multi-layered communication system with voice chat, text chat, team chats and even proximity chat where only those people in a small proximity can hear your conversation. 

What’s Next?

Looking further into the future, engaging virtual worlds could be the next step for corporate business events. Whilst currently the virtual events are usually limited time live meetings, a virtual world, such as Fortnite, offers a continuous setting for engagement.

With the visual needs of the event experience being aptly met, what about the audio needs? Spatial audio is so similar to what we hear in real life, it has the potential to immerse the listener more fully than standard audio. The rise of this immersive audio has been driven by virtual and augmented reality and 360 video applications with the need to match audio to the visual. Sounds will appear to be coming from in front of you, from the sides, the rear and even above.

This idea can be introduced into the virtual event with technology such as a Virtual Exhibition and Networking Platform where you can be your own media, enabling a new way to network much better than Zoom. You can manage the room and the booth which retains the event feel but still allows for private 1-2-1 conversations at booths. As you move around the virtual exhibition, spatial audio recreates how this would sound as if the attendee were there. As you approach an exhibition booth the sound becomes more private and you can have 1-2-1 conversations in the booth without the need to organise meetings. The video aspect is still a dominant feature and you can interact and network with other attendees but the key advantage is being audio driven in a visual world.

Get in touch to see how your brand can utilise this technology, and experience it for yourself.