Online events have some big benefits, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for improvement. And already, there are ways to make the standard virtual event experience even better. One option is to hold metaverse events in a shared 3D virtual space. Metaverse events have all the benefits of virtual environments, plus some upgrades that mean the metaverse is on track to becoming an integral part of the future of virtual events.
1. Improve Accessibility and Expand Your Potential Attendee Pool
One of the biggest benefits of metaverse events—and virtual events in general—is that it’s easy for people to attend, meaning these events are highly accessible. Provided they have the requisite computer hardware and an internet connection, attendees are good to go. They can show up to a metaverse event from almost any location in the world.
So, people can attend from any location. They don’t have to travel, book accommodations, or pay for any other event-related expenses. That’s a huge win for small businesses, startups, and other attendees who wouldn’t normally be able to afford the expense of industry events.
That’s a win for any company hosting an industry event too. By holding a corporate event in the metaverse, your potential attendee pool expands considerably because fewer people are limited by location or cost.
2. Simplify Logistics for In-House Events
It’s not just industry events that benefit from being in the metaverse. Does your company frequently hold in-house meetings and events where people have to travel from other states or countries? If so, metaverse events could dramatically simplify event planning.
No more organizing travel, accommodations, meals, and more for everyone who has to come in from out of town. Instead, every attendee just logs into the event from their own home base. This saves both money and time, not just for one event but for every future metaverse event.
3. Design the Perfect Purpose-Built Event Venue
The perfect venue doesn’t exist in the real world, but in the metaverse, you can have a venue that provides exactly what you need, with no wasted resources. In the metaverse, real-world physics don’t apply, and there’s no location that’s too wild or remote. You can inspire sales conference attendees with views of Mount Everest or locate your executive team-building retreat on a tropical island.
Metaverse events also benefit from a lack of size constraints. Your trade show can have an unlimited number of booths, because as each section fills up, you can add more space. Your conference or training event can have unlimited lecture theaters and breakout spaces. And as your attendance figures grow, you can simply add more rooms.
If that’s not enough, then consider the issue of customization. There are limits to what you can customize at a live venue, but there are no such limits in virtual metaverse environments. Need a branded experience to promote a new product line? You can throw a digital launch party in a metaverse space that’s customized in exactly the perfect way for your brand and product. In the metaverse, you can customize the external environment, the venue, and the décor to create a venue that looks exactly the way you envision it.
4. Increase Immersion and Engagement
One downside of some kinds of virtual events is that they don’t provide a high level of immersion or engagement. Attendees may be less motivated to participate in event content, which can affect ROI and the success of the gathering.
The metaverse is different because it’s more immersive and interactive, and therefore more engaging. This is particularly true of metaverse environments that incorporate virtual reality or augmented reality, but these technologies aren’t essential. The metaverse setting provides a high level of visual stimulation and interactivity that boosts engagement much higher than for a 2D virtual event platform.
5. Provide a More Authentic Experience
Attending virtual events on 2D platforms makes it hard for people to feel like they’re getting an authentic event experience. In a standard webinar, it’s easy to feel like you’re just one name in a sea of names and text. In 3D metaverse environments, it’s a completely different, immersive experience. Attendees can explore the virtual world as if they were in it. They can interact with things they see and walk amongst other attendees—even have chance encounters with people they know, just like at a physical event. All this means that the metaverse event experience is more realistic and a more authentic event experience than 2D can provide.
6. Bridge the Virtual-Live Event Experience Gap
The standard virtual event experience can be less immersive and engaging than the live experience. When this happens, there can be a gap in the overall quality of experience attendees have. And it’s possible that as more in-person events return, people will be anxious to get back to them.
3D metaverse events have the potential to reduce that gap and make virtual events feel just as exciting as live ones. Its higher level of interaction and immersion means the online experience doesn’t have to be inferior to the live one. Because the metaverse lets people interact more authentically, the venue and the corporate event as a whole feel more authentic to the live experience.
7. Glean More Attendee Data
In terms of data-gathering, virtual events already have a major advantage over live events. It’s infinitely easier to track attendee activity on a virtual events platform, and any virtual event provides the opportunity to gather large amounts of potentially useful data.
But metaverse events have even greater potential. In 3D environments, attendees have the ability to engage in more varied types of interactions compared to 2D events platforms. For instance, they can interact with digital objects and with one another, adding a whole new layer of data-gathering potential that can be used to improve future events. Plus, the ability to track attendee activity makes it possible to measure immersion and engagement over the course of an entire event—both individually and in aggregate.
Build Immersive, Impactful Virtual Events in the Metaverse
The events industry has undergone massive changes in the last couple of years, and this period of change is not over. The metaverse offers a powerful new opportunity to create online events that are meaningful, engaging, and highly accessible.
