The digital world is being reimagined. For quite some time, innovative technologies were a prominent event element helping bridge gaps and make events accessible to a wider audience. But the world is soon set to witness the next wave of digital change. The introduction of the Metaverse has opened a new set of possibilities and demonstrated its potential to change the face of the modern world by transforming our digital experiences.
Metaverse is a massive technological leap that can revolutionise how the hospitality industry utilizes their event venues . With this next-gen technology, attending events or industry conferences virtually is never going to be the same again. By amalgamating virtual reality, augmented reality, holographs, etc, metaverse promises to seamlessly deliver life-like experiences in digital or virtual environments.
Metaverse is a network of immersive, 3D virtual worlds that can be accessed using virtual reality and augmented reality headsets. The primary objective of this new-age concept is to encourage more immersive virtual experiences, overcome device limitations, and blur the lines between the physical and digital worlds.
Although a very vaguely defined and understood concept yet, the metaverse will soon come up with avatars that resemble real people as well as digital replicas of actual spaces or things. Not just that, in the near future, the metaverse might grow into a completely different world that runs parallel to our physical world.
With metaverse, you won’t be just looking at screens and interacting with other people virtually but you will be a part of those experiences. It is set to mitigate the difference between virtual and physical worlds and deliver life-like experiences to large groups of audiences across geographies.
Although in its primitive stages, the metaverse is already displaying unfathomable potential and is opening new frontiers for the events industry. With the introduction of the metaverse, events are slated to shift to an entirely digitised and virtual world. But these events will differ from the current virtual/ hybrid events in many ways.
For instance, different metaverse features such as ‘3D avatars’, ‘augmented reality’, etc might make way into and become a regular part of events in the near future. Hence, this evolution of digital events is set to solve the primary concern of all event organisers – the clear divide in the engagement levels of in-person and virtual attendees.
With the advent of technology and innovations, recreating the virtual or digital twins of physical venues is possible today. This, combined with the metaverse, could take hybrid events to the next level by delivering extraordinarily immersive and similar experiences to each and every event attendee.
Unlike hybrid events that promise the same experience to attendees in different environments, the metaverse will bring everyone on the same page by creating one world for all the attendees and super easy for event planners to plan their events. This way, even the tiniest of interactions and conversations in the metaverse-compatible events would feel extremely authentic.
Showcasing property to prospects and generating leads is one of the most important yet tedious aspects of events. Mere pictures and videos of the venue may not always be able to paint a picture of how the event might transpire. On the other hand, inviting prospects to the hotel and showcasing the entire property could be a time-consuming affair.
With metaverse, hotels can get rid of these issues. How? By enabling event planners to not just view 2D pictures of the hotel but provide immersive 3D tours of the venue. This will give the event planners a proper sense of how the event venue can be utilised for the event without the need for them to travel to the venue location.
Another way in which hotels can capitalise on the advantages of the metaverse is by introducing customised venue packages. Most hotels consist of different types of event venues which can be potential venues for a variety of events. For instance, meeting rooms can be ideal for business or corporate conferences while spacious halls can be perfect for expo events.
Hotels can replicate all of their rooms and event venues digitally and sell each of them as independent virtual venues. As a result, prospects coming with specific purposes are showcased exactly what they need instead of checking out the entire hotel. Based on these virtual venues, hotels can also craft different packages pertaining to different types of events. This can be useful in boosting the sales of hotels.
Until now, hotels have been selling in-person or hybrid models to event organisers. However, the metaverse has introduced a completely new dimension and hinted at the addition of metaverse event models as well in the near future. This could open up many new revenue streams for the hotels and hospitality industry.
The metaverse could also reduce manual interventions in the venue booking process, thereby reducing the labour costs of hotels. All in all, the metaverse promises to be a boon for the hotels and hospitality sector. It could very well redefine the way hotels, especially the ones that offer event venues, do their business. Despite its infancy, the metaverse is opening several avenues to the hotel and hospitality industry. With no barriers of cost, travel or time, the metaverse is likely to make place for itself in the events industry. Are you a hotel owner that wishes to make your venue available for metaverse-compatible events? Please get in touch with us to know more.
