How to Choose a Metaverse for Company Events in 2023?

Who would have ever thought that one day, attending events would become as easy as enjoying your favourite television program, sitting on a couch? And, switching from one event venue to another would be the same as changing television channels.

But virtual technology has made it possible!

Enchanting event venues, limitless venue designs, high-level engagement features, speed, accuracy, scalability, flexibility, performance measurement tools and unmatchable  AI-enabled features- all of this without even stepping out of the house, with zero carbon emission and with just 20% of the total cost! Isn’t this like a scientific miracle?

Virtual technology has revolutionised the event industry at an unpredictable rate. We at ibentos have contributed to this with our explicit virtual & hybrid products. And with metaverse platforms coming into the picture, things are only going to get better!

Through this article, we aim to help you understand metaverse technology and how you can use it suitably to grow your business.

Difference between Metaverse & traditional virtual events

Traditional virtual events happen in 2D/3D virtual environments and offer all the advantages listed above but have limited engagement features. On prolonged exposure, the audience is subjected to monotony and screen fatigue.

Metaverse events happen in virtual 3D immersive environments that have exceptional engrossment & features and the closest resemblance to real-life venues. Attendees can interact with each other at an entirely new level, through their Digital Avatars with/without the aid of AR & VR gadgets. They successfully arrest the audience’s senses, giving them the opportunity to virtually live inside the event environment, leaving a minimum scope of distraction, monotony or screen fatigue. 

In addition to regular e-commerce, Metaverses allow people to build virtual economies through the trade of digital commodities like avatar skins, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in digital currencies.

Why it is mandatory for companies to migrate to metaverses?

Taking evidence from the fast-growing popularity of virtual platforms, the audience preference is quite clear. Many international surveys have indicated that in the next 5 years, the entire e-commerce will function over Metaverses. To build a long-term & sustaining business, the companies have to build a virtual representation on Metaverse platforms. And while the rest of the players are making up their minds, whoever switches to metaverse platforms earlier, will occupy the front seat in the show!

How to choose a metaverse platform effectively for your event?

Metaverse technology is picking up at a tremendous rate, due to its technical advantages, global outreach, high engrossment features and capacity to promote almost all business cases. Apart from the established tech giants like Meta, Microsoft, Apple, Roblox and Unity Software, there are many new companies coming up with Metaverse platforms. In such circumstances, it becomes essential for the companies to pick the most suitable & economic option.

At ibentos, we design comprehensive & customised metaverse products for our clients & also help them to launch them on the most suitable metaverse event platfroms, according to their needs.

General Guidelines for hosting Metaverse Events

●       Know your event type

To pick up the right metaverse service provider organisers need to understand the requirements of their event and the USPS of all the prominent metaverse services available in the market. Some metaverse services are suitable for formal as well as informal events whereas some may be good only for informal entertainment gatherings. At ibentos we help our clients to choose the best suitable options. However, if you wish to have an idea about the popular metaverse services available in the market at present, you can refer to the table given below.

●       Understand your audience

The different metaverse services have a hold over different sets of audiences. Similarly, they have different hardware and software requirements. Some have been developed from a popular gaming database and have excellent outreach among young audiences. Whereas others have been developed by prominent social media companies and are accessible to all audience classes. Organisers need to ensure that the metaverse service they choose has excellent outreach among their target audience.

●       Know your as well as your audience’s budget

As mentioned above, different metaverse services attract different audience groups. Depending upon the features they offer in terms of engagement, flexibility, scalability and data sharing, their hardware & software requirements are also different. And so is their hiring & running cost. For example, if your event is just an informal gathering of company employees there is no point in choosing a costly metaverse service that has 100 features that are useless to you. It is very important that your event fits into the budget of your target audience. For this, you should keep a minimum hardware require requirement with/without AR & VR gadgets.

●       Check the monetary exchange & payment flexibility in the platform you choose

The next significant thing would be the monetary transactions involved in your event. Most of the metaverse services operate on digital currencies or bitcoins. But it is not necessary that the entire audience group has access to that. You should make all feasible arrangements comfortable for your audiences.   

●       Check the extent to which the platform supports integration with other applications

The metaverse platform or service you choose should be compatible with all software applications popular in your business. There should not be specific preferences or disinclinations for particular applications that may cause compatibility issues later.

USPS of popular Metaverse Services

Sno	Brand	Applications	Disadvantages
1.	Horizon World (Facebook)	Is best suited for formal Business Events & Gatherings, Business Promotions, and has limited gaming applications	Promotes usage of particular software & hardware that are costly
2.	Microsoft Mesh (Microsoft)	Has an excellent resemblance (Minecraft-like) to the real world, is ideal for business events like exhibitions and also compatible with most gaming applications.	Promotes usage of particular software ( Microsoft Teams) & hardware that are costly
3.	Party Space	Ideal for informal business gatherings like corporate parties & exhibitions	Requires powerful internet & latest browsers.
4	Decentraland	Suited for Formal & informal corporate events, and exhibitions & gaming, and e-commerce thriving on the metaverse.	Mostly operates on cryptocurrency, and is not compatible with other types of money transactions.
5.	Roblox	Is popular for Gaming and has millions of teenage users.	Not suited for hosting online commercial events.
6.	Gather	Is ideal for business meetings and large-scale conferences.	Not suitable for gaming applications.

Though Metaverse technology is quite a known concept,  there is still an ambiguity along with curiosity, among the general masses, about its final shape & structure. The infrastructural development in this field is happening at a lightning speed. And within the next few years,

we will observe huge changes in the ways the virtual event industry works. While others reserve their reactions for the future, there is a huge opportunity for the ones who wish to be pioneers in the field.

If you wish to explore the subject and want to know how you can expand your business on Metaverse platforms feel free to contact ibentos!

Resource: https://writeupcafe.com/how-to-choose-a-metaverse-for-company-events-in-2023/