6 minute read
Special Report
Metaverse: The Real Story
by Janice Cardinale
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The word itself makes me think of a Block Buster movie, produced by a huge network, anticipated by an even bigger audience that embraces the subject matter and engages younger generations in buying tickets, while the producers sit back enjoying the fruits of their labor. This is one way of thinking about it and the crazy part is that in reality, the metaverse is going to have such an impact on society, that we have no idea what this really means for the future of the event and hospitality industry.
If the contemporary internet experience is twodimensional—meaning you browse and scroll through it on a screen—the metaverse is 3D. You’ll be “walking” through it via connected headsets. Essentially, the Metaverse is a virtual world, with virtual assets such as land, buildings, offices, cars and cryptocurrency is used in the Metaverse. It is an entire world where people can get together, congregate, communicate, chat and share. Think of it in terms of you as a business owner, needing to buy a website, that’s considered an essential nowadays, and you call it your digital real estate. Owning digital assets in the Metaverse, is the next step into a 3D world, and that’s potentially the way of the future.
The Meta, now made famous by whistleblower, Frances Hagan is the new established brand name of Facebook, and because it involves Mark Zuckerberg, you can only assume that it will make him that much richer as he embarks on the future with a vision that wired futurists and techies have been studying for the last 2 decades.
Frances Hagen said, “The world should fear the impact of the metaverse.” Why? Because everything about you will be an open book for others to feed on. Not that it is a surprise but
Facebook and transparency are locked in an ongoing battle, on the security and well being of humans around the world. Facebook knows that by changing the conversation, Meta will force people to give up more information, while Mark Zuckerberg gets rich and monopolizes the online world.
Our safety as individuals is at high risk. To participate in the metaverse you will have to add sensors in your home and workplaces. However, you do not have the advantage of choosing, if your employer decides to become a metaverse company. Your personal data is just as it says, “personal and private”.
When I thought about writing this editorial, I called upon my colleague Alan Smithson whose company “Metavrse” has been in business for 5 years and has been a leading force behind this new technology.
So, let’s ponder an idea; you create your own avatar much like an emoji and you enter what is naturally a gamer’s world, where everyone you work with has an avatar. You begin to have meetings as an avatar of yourself and soon your avatar emerges as a bigger player in a global world with virtual and live (hybrid) players online only.
Alan explained it to me this way, “The internet was designed to go on and off. Augmented reality allows you to walk into a 3D world that requires a VR headset. In virtual reality, you are blocked out from the real world. In augmented reality the digital world comes out into the real world.”
You’re likely scratching your head right now and asking yourself what does this have to do with me and how does this impact me? As event professionals, you have to plan for all demographics, road blocks, generational changes and virtual worlds that play with each other in a virtual sand box so to speak.
Understanding the metaverse is complicated, especially because it doesn’t exist yet. Since companies like Epic Games, Nvidia, Microsoft and Facebook (I mean, “Meta”) won’t stop talking about it, there’s an evolving lexicon to describe the next iteration of the internet. Microsoft mesh and Facebook meeting have been created for the metaverse.
Brands will benefit from this the most, as they produce interactive video, get circles of people conversing, while meeting people in the virtual world, creating presence and comradery.
There is much work ahead of us, as our children are learning this at a very young age and the whole world is playing games online and participating in these 3D settings in augmented reality. It is addictive, and can be dangerous, if not regulated for the real world of business.
The creation of 3D worlds, avatars, and 3D assets, will be converted to 3D versions with super high resolution keynote events, with interactive Roblox-like worlds that have breakout sessions, and plenary networking.
It is unclear whether there will be one metaverse, or many different separate metaverses (or any metaverse at all, really) but this seems to be the one constant: The metaverse is an immersive next-generation version of the internet, likely rendered by virtual or augmented reality technologies.
The venture capitalist, Matthew Ball, whose writing on the metaverse has influenced Mark Zuckerberg, describes the metaverse as, “a successor state, to the mobile internet” and “a platform for human connection.”
But, the metaverse will be for work, and you can expect lots of workplace applications too. Stanford professor Jeremy Bailenson says, “It’s not something that you do for fun yet. VR has always been about solving problems. You’re putting something on your head. You can’t see the real world. You can only do it for a certain amount of time because it is different perceptually, than the real world.”
What you need to know right now:
1. Microsoft wants to make the metaverse available on any device.
2. Snap AR-based connected lenses put snapchat closer to the metaverse than many social media platforms.
3. Nike recently changed its trademark fillings because of, The metaverse.
4. There are others who are making changes and you should keep your eyes and ears to the reality of the future.
What is the biggest challenge facing the metaverse?
The experience has yet to improve on real life. Think of all the 2D social network struggles to eradicate, and multiply them. Is it even practical?
I believe that it is going to be huge, and I would invest now on the metaverse because I believe that younger generations are in pursuit of the future at a faster pace than our children ever were. They are smarter, driven, indulged and challenged by being at home continually with changing systems of health concerns. They are growing up with the tools that make it more viable to play with and create from.
