The metaverse is what all are talking about in 2022. Be it news outlets, social media, or ads, the metaverse is everywhere. It is especially dominating the talks in terms of its influence on the global events industry, worth $886.99 billion in 2020.
A host of top-level events are already taking place in the metaverse. For example, the Australian Open in Decentraland took place in January 2022, and Metaverse Fashion Week in March 2022.
The list doesn’t end here, as the metaverse will host even more events in the coming days, essentially shadowing the number of real-world events. This is something even Bill Gates believes in. His exact words in his year-end blog post were, “Within the next two or three years, I predict most virtual meetings will move from 2D camera image grids…to the metaverse, a 3D space with digital avatars.”
Now, let’s take a look at the influence the metaverse will have on the events & virtual gatherings. So, without further ado, let’s dive straight into it.
Unlimited Space at Reasonable or no Cost
Neal Stephenson coined the concept of online events in the 1980s when he envisaged a future where humans will interact with each other through their digital avatars in a virtual setting. His vision is finally becoming a reality with the emergence of the metaverse. Such is its potential that Facebook, one of the leading social media giants, rebranded into Meta, reflecting its ambitions of ruling the global metaverse market.
Talking about events, what really enables the metaverse to stand out from its physical counterpart is the unlimited space. After all, the events in the vast metaverse can hold an innumerable number of attendees without any issues, which is something that real-world event locations cannot compete with. In contrast, offices and meeting rooms can only hold a small number of people.
Thus, by nature, the metaverse is an ideal solution for almost all large or small events such as office meetings, trade fairs, etc. Not only that, but it also adds a touch of fun to online events, resulting in an interactive experience for attendees. For instance, businesses can create a virtual booth in a metaverse attracting high footfalls from attendees, similar to physical events.
When it comes to companies hosting small events, the metaverse offers them something missing from the remote work: Employee Engagement.
Gamification Like Never Before
Audience engagement is what events aim for, and gamification goes a long way to achieve it. And when it comes to gamification, the metaverse is second to none, as it grants attendees the ability to self-express themselves & be creative. As for the businesses hosting events in the metaverse, they will benefit from the different ways they can interact with customers, which is only limited by their imagination.
Then comes the changing expectations of the audience as the number of Genz & Gen Z Alpha users is eclipsing other user categories. Thus, offering powerful audience interaction becomes even more critical today. That’s where the metaverse comes into the picture, as, unlike in-person events, the tools and infrastructure available at disposal in this technically endless virtual world make audience engagement easier to achieve. That said, the metaverse industry must come together and solve the interoperability puzzle to ensure that it can cope with the spurt in the number of events moving to the metaverse.
Gamium, a digital identity and decentralized social metaverse-focused blockchain and Web3 company, is tackling this problem heads on. It is building the world’s “first metaverse aiming to connect all the metaverses & making the avatars and digital identities multi-metaverse compatible.” Thus, making seamless experience possible across metaverses. Additionally, Gamium’s digital identities will be represented by a unique non-transferable NFT serving as a universal username and offer on-chain as well as off-chain data. All in all, sooner or later, a large number of in-person events will move to the metaverse.