This text is part of the special Business Tourism booklet
According to Bill Gates, the majority of business meetings will take place in the metaverse within two or three years. These immersive digital meetings could soon make our current videoconferences old-fashioned and renew our congresses. For Pierre Bellerose, business and tourism development consultant and co-founder of the MT Lab, Quebec must catch the wave without delay for its business events.
Immersive, customizable and even multisensory, the metaverse has something to seduce, or at least intrigue. From English metaverse (contraction of “meta-universe”), it is a sort of virtual 3D digital double of the physical world accessible via the Internet, allowing users to create their avatar, move around and interact with other connected people. “It’s an emerging parallel universe that appeals to many sectors in tourism, such as musical events, of course, but also business meetings,” says Pierre Bellerose.
Destinations like Seoul, Las Vegas or Bali or hotel chains like Marriott have not hesitated to enter the metaverse to relaunch or develop their attractiveness. Quebec companies in the tourism sector have already invested in this niche, such as the “virtual reality network for real destinations” Hoppin’ or personalized immersive training for actors in the recreational tourism sector Happy Hotels.
Take the wave in stages
After the Internet of the 1990s and the social networks of the 2000s, Pierre Bellerose sees the metaverse as the next wave of technology. “We are still at the beginning of the cycle, but I believe that it will become unavoidable,” he believes.
In business tourism, it can facilitate the preparation of events. “Inspection visits of hotel rooms or halls can, for example, be carried out using a platform like Rendezverse,” he says. Event organizers can virtually visit places reproduced as faithfully as possible (these are called “twin universes”). “This practice begins in the United States, but is gaining momentum. More people can thus see the service offers without having to physically go there,” the consultant points out.
As for the events themselves, they can include a session, a workshop or a conference in the metaverse. They allow an audience beyond the physical capacity of the room to interact in an immersive way. Starting with the most knowledgeable, because “the characteristic of a wave is that it starts with a specific group, then if the dough rises everyone follows quietly”, observes Pierre Bellerose. Meanwhile, 46% of Gen Zers and 42% of millennials say metaverse will be part of their job in the future, according to a recent study by Adecco Group. A conference in the video game sector, for example, could offer a good place to start.
Reduced sizes for now
Current technologies with a helmet limit the number of participants and the duration of the experience in the metaverse. “Platforms can generally involve 200 people at the same time in the parallel universe, but this figure will increase more and more”, predicts Pierre Bellerose. Moreover, after about an hour, fatigue sets in. “Equipment manufacturers are working on lighter glasses that will make it possible to lengthen sessions. But until these products are accessible, it is better to limit them to a maximum of one hour and offer a break,” advises the consultant.
Other challenges are important. ” It’s the far west, there are no rules, so there is starting to be harassment in the middle of the metaverse. Moreover, it consumes a lot of energy (even if, in Canada, the stake is less than in countries dependent on coal or oil), recognizes Pierre Bellerose. The metaverse also remains inaccessible to “very small players”, who are numerous in tourism, alongside about fifteen large hotel chains and three or four wholesalers.
Tourisme d’affaires Québec will also include a workshop in the metaverse during its major national conference on business tourism, which will take place on November 29 and 30, 2023 in Montreal. “Faced with such a technological wave, I am not for staying on the sidelines and waiting,” says the consultant. We have to encourage people to understand and try the metaverse, so that we are not surprised in three years by having set our entire industry behind our foreign competitors. »
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the Duty, pertaining to marketing. The drafting of Duty did not take part.