In August 2020, all eyes were on the Democratic National Convention happening in the USA and there was something noticeably different about it. Yes, for the first time in its history, the entire conference took place virtually. Mobiddiction used our 360 virtual reality platform, VirtReal, to provide a multi timezone global sales virtual conference.
As COVID-19 restrictions continue to disrupt our way of life, with no near end in site, more and more industry conferences will be facing the same fate. But it’s not all doom and gloom, as the move towards innovative digital adoption includes technology that can deliver the conference feel and experience right to your living room.
This is exactly what happened to Genesys, earlier this year. With their annual Global Sales Development Summit cancelled due to the pandemic, the organisation was looking for a way to recreate their highly engaging and interactive conference – and a Zoom call just wouldn’t cut it.
Still wanting to maintain the usual features of their conferences, including breakout sessions, live panels, videos with facilitators and live chats – they reached out to the team at Mobiddiction and our latest virtual reality (VR) offering, VirtReal.
Leveraging our previous experience with AR and VR, Virt-Real delivers engaging events online for your brand or business. With features like multiple rooms for different streams, photo galleries, social feeds and networking live chats, the platform and the event was fully hosted and managed by us. Offering completely customised themes that are suited to your next event, Virt-Real is a world-first technology.
Being a world first, our team was very excited to be able to deliver this amazing feature rich virtual event for Genesys. As we thought of ways to leverage our VR 360º platform, we had to consider all the necessary requirements including:
- Keeping multiple guests engaged form different time zones.
- Introducing Sydney to all global attendees.
In the end the team presented a virtual “Sydney Bus Tour” that allowed guests really feel as if they were in the city for the conference. With no app download needed, the team at Genesys had already sent attendees readily packaged conference swag pack a fully branded SDR2020 conference pack with lanyard, VR lens, socks, mask, conference agenda and everything they needed to experience everything the city of Sydney has to offer, right from their homes.
“What an incredible Kick Off for the Sales Development Virt-REAL Summit at Genesys This year, we took our team into a virtual platform in Sydney with the general sessions taking place with Sydney Harbour Bridge as the backdrop.” – Lukau, Director, Global Sales Development Training & Enablement at Genesys
Getting the multiple time zone’s right wasn’t easy, we had to make sure all conference attendees got to feel like they were in the “Journey to Sydney” Bus Tour as you would if you were visiting that place in real life!
The SDR2020 Summit attendees were also able to engage to with one another through Q&A’s, Bingo, Fireside chats with speakers, a Twitter wall and they got to share photos that were then displayed on the conference virtual photo gallery all in real-time.
As more and more global organisations have to rethink their ‘live-event’ strategies, the adoption of innovative digital measures is all but guaranteed. Technology such as AR and VR allows these global meetings to still take place without the risk of spreading the disease. The move to VR-enabled conferences will also mean a huge mitigation of costs for both conference holders and attendees. It also increases the opportunity for more people across the globe to attend and it’s likely we will continue to see a rise in virtual conferences long after the pandemic is over.
We look forward to hosting the next event, perhaps under water or maybe on a virtual cruise liner? Plus, who wouldn’t love the option of attending a prestigious conference while wearing pajama bottoms!
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If you are a company looking to change your own in-person conference to a virtual experience, book a demo of our Virt-Real technology today.
