The organizational environment is experiencing a radical change in its communicational needs, both internally and externally. As organizations accept the work-from-home culture, first out of necessity and now as an opportunity, there is a rising necessity for interactive online environments.
Presently, the best video conferencing apps – such as Zoom, Google Meets, Skype, Microsoft Teams etc. – offer a rudimentary communication interface. Lacking the means to accommodate extra-verbal cues, typical video conferencing tools start users off on shaky grounds, with every additional technical issue and miscommunication adding to the UI fatigue.
For humans, the lack of meaningful visual input is disastrous, especially since 80% of our sensory intake is visual in nature. However, even the best video conferencing apps are mere video grids with basic capabilities of sharing screens and chats. Poor visual input hampers the engagement between participants, creating feelings of isolation and disconnect. Simply put, video conferencing applications haven’t yet found a way to keep people ‘on the same page.
VR vs Video
In an increasingly online world, video conferences are losing their intended degree of impact; as sensory fatigue increases, information retention by participants drops, and passivity becomes common. The solution is simple: Virtual Reality (VR) applications, with their unparalleled ability to provide immersive digital experiences, are the natural successors of video conferencing applications.
Virtual meeting platforms simulate real-life environments using a far larger spectrum of sensory input than video-based tools. The human mind is highly tuned to respond to geo-spatial cues, and 3D virtual meetings offer a heightened scope of engagement as they simulate the effect in an online format. Extrasensory queues – such as body language, eye contact and social queues – form the core of human interactions.
Although it’ll take a while before we can track eye-rolls in VR conferences, real-time engagement enabled through internet connectivity render VR software as the most humane digital communication system to date.
3D Virtual Meetings & Conferences
Beyond the statistics of engagement and data retention in virtual meetings and conferences, immersive VR software also offer the opportunity to gamify the virtual conferencing experience. The use of interactive environmental elements not only strengthens the geo-spatial cues provided by a digital interface, it makes virtual conferencing fun.
By recreating real life, VR technology also offers professionals and businesses the chance to recapture networking opportunities, reclaim advertising spaces, and scale the size of conferences without hampering their impact. In a time when digital real estate is just as important – if not more so – than its physical counterpart, user engagement is bound to be a metric of gauging a platform’s success.
No matter how we cut it, 3D virtual conferences will always have an edge over video feeds.
With NextMeet, we are pushing the envelope on what makes for genuine human interconnection on a digital platform. Using spatial audio capabilities, real-time avatar movement and object interaction, and a dynamic convening ecosystem, we are setting out to make virtual conferencing a viable alternative to physical convening. As video makes way for virtual mediums, it’s clear that true immersion is the way forward in the domain of digital communications.
