6 benefits of Virtual Reality for events
Travel to the most paradisiacal places while touring tourism fairs such as FITUR, take visitors to your stand on a virtual tour of your facilities hundreds of kilometers away or let visitors try out a new car model in VR at the automotive fair. Virtual Reality focused on events and the MICE sector (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions/Events) is all about a revolution in attracting and surprising with differential and customized activities.
In this article we will review the 6 main benefits of the implementation of the Virtual Reality at events, trade fairs and congresses. Where face-to-face events continue to set the pace of the sector, but whose digitization and hybridization with the virtual world is becoming more and more important to innovate and surprise attendees.
What is Virtual Reality?
Before delving into its benefits, it is important to know what this technology consists of. Virtual Reality is defined as the technology capable of immersing us into fully digital alternative worldswhere we, the users, are the ones who decide where to focus our attention.
It is about 3D environments where the experience is lived in the first person and where our senses cease to perceive the real world thanks to the total immersion. Through Virtual Reality glasses/helmets (HMD or Head-Mounted Display) and its accessories.
The various controllers, gloves, headsets and haptic suits not only allow us to see, hear and feel these new experiences.The virtual universe is a virtual world that offers us great freedom of movement to enjoy.
In connection with the world of events, the Virtual Reality proposes to transform both online and in-person events. with the implementation of new immersive experiences that seek to make possible what was previously unthinkable.
Virtual Reality allows the development of customized experiences and unique, attracting new audiences, obtaining interaction and participation data, connecting the online and offline event through hybridization and facilitating product experimentation and presentation.
Main benefits of Virtual Reality for events
The integration of Virtual Reality in the events allows to improve the brand awareness y engagementincrease the public participation giving them a more active role, create gamified experiences and obtain valuable behavioral data from attendees.
The following is a review of the 6 main advantages of implementing Virtual Reality (VR) in events.
1. Gamification of events
The gamification is the technological trend that takes entertainment and fun beyond video games, reaching the business world and the world of events. Generating a new way of interacting with and motivating users/visitorsThe program is designed to increase participation and make the spectators the true protagonists of the event.
With the gamification in events fun and challenging experiences for the participants. Games and activities in VR that attract attendees to our booth and / or increase the time spent and involvement in virtual events.
With this technological trend, it is possible to develop activities that can range from originate VR simulations to test products and/or machinescreate virtual gymkhanas to present the service, trip or product to visitors to the stand or develop real Virtual Reality tours to immerse visitors in other worlds and landscapes, such as the Virtual Reality tunnel developed for the Aragon stand at the international tourism fair FITUR.
2. Unique and personalized immersive experiences
In Virtual Reality experiences, users have an opportunity to greater control of its actionsThe interactions, contents and final result of the activity are different for each one of them.
If you add to this the tools of Generative Artificial IntelligenceThe VR experience is personalized to the highest level of detail depending on the behavior of each visitor.
In addition, Virtual Reality experiences offer an opportunity for great flexibility and versatility in eventsby being able to go beyond physical limitations. Creating true virtual worlds and spaces that explore the essence of the brand or product presented.
3. Experiential marketing
With the incorporation of Virtual Reality and the rest of the technologies of the Extended Reality in the product presentations, showrooms y event marketing strategies, new ways of reaching visitors and target audiences emerge.
Virtual Reality in events allows users to be immersed in interactive experiences that revalue brand positioning with more creative, immersive and innovative proposals.
Among the applications are the celebration of virtual events, showrooms in three-dimensional spaces, virtual tours, transporting attendees to new worlds that convey the essence of the brand, or product presentationsgamified.
Within the gamified product presentations, some examples stand out such as the simulations where customers drive the latest car model (even before it has been manufactured) or enjoy a virtual skiing experience as in the campaign "The virtual skiing experience". Frozen Emotion. A project developed by Ibercaja for the presentation of the season of the great winter sport of the Aragonese Pyrenees.
4. Hybrid events
Undoubtedly, Virtual Reality is a revolution in the organization of online events. Giving virtual attendees the opportunity to experience the meeting as close and immersive as possible.
Going beyond live streamings to create a 360º virtual eventwhere it is the user himself who decides which route he wants to take and where to focus his attention. It also provides more options for people who cannot travel to the country or city to attend in person, improving the scope of the event.
What if you combine the digitization of face-to-face events with the new opportunities offered by virtual events? The result is the hybrid eventsThe Virtual Reality glasses, face-to-face meetings where through Virtual Reality goggles and even Mixed Reality attendees can receive presentations from people in other parts of the world as if they were there.
5. Better performance metrics
If there is one element that only events held in Virtual Reality can offer compared to in-person events, it's the greater control over audience actions and reactions.
In this type of event it is possible to record all movements, interactions and dwell times, places of origin, age, preferences of the audience. Thanks to the access to a large number of data on attendee behavior that could not be analyzed in person.
6. Low cost
One of the great advantages of organizing events in Virtual Reality is the possibility of meeting and interacting with hundreds of people from all over the world. without having to pay for travel or booking large auditoriums.
This fact reduces costs and allows you to focus most of your resources on what matters most: the quality of the event experience.
Virtual events in the Metaverse
Our way of interacting, socializing and sharing experiences has moved in recent years to the digital universe. Without physical limitations and facilitating the participation of all attendees: that's what the Virtual Events in the Metaverse.
A Virtual Event is a massive online meeting organized within a custom-designed space, in which users have the freedom to move around the stand, fair or virtual world through their own personal own personalized avatars. New innovations that have a common goal: humanize these new online experiences.
All so that attendees can interact with the rest of the participants and enjoy the different interactive points. In this type of event, professionals not only attend the meeting virtually, but they also can actively participate through voice and chatinteract with the avatars of the other attendees, study all the 3D models shared at the meeting and consult all the complementary material in the same space.
You may be interested in→ What is the Metaverse: Everything you should know about it.
Examples of events with Virtual Reality
In the world of events, all kinds of meetings can be organized: private events, corporate events, virtual events, events within trade fairs and congresses, entertainment events such as concerts, sports matches, product presentation events... With the Virtual Reality and the Metaverse the possibilities multiply.
In order to clearly see the possibilities and opportunities offered by the incorporation of these immersive technologies in this sector, we have prepared a list of examples of events with Virtual Reality.
- An example of this type of event can be found in the Telefónica's virtual stand for the Mobile World Congress,where the attendees who could not travel to Barcelona enjoyed the same contents in a immersive online format.
- The digital universe also developed Iberdrola's first Shareholders' Meeting in the virtual worldThis was a corporate event of great importance where shareholders could enter with their access data to a private space prepared to gamify the experience, touring Iberdrola's 3D space and getting to know all its novelties.
- Another great example of the implementation of these technologies in the development of events is found in the presentation of the Rafa Nadal Virtual Academy. A massive event in the virtual world in which 100 journalists from all over the world had exclusive access through their own avatar to know the Metaverse of the sports center.
- In relation to entertainment events, one project to be highlighted is the presentation of the series of The Twists and Turns of Virtual Reality Lifewhere attendees could tour the same virtual facilities where the series was filmed, the first filming in the Metaverse in Spain which transferred Carmina Barrios and Henar Álvarez to the virtual 3D world.
Virtual Reality (VR) development for events
After more than 12 years in business, in Imascono we have specialized in the ideation, creation and development of all types of projects based on Virtual Reality with great examples in the world of events. In all of them we provide support both in the consulting part as well as in their installation, training and dissemination.
We accompany you throughout the entire process, from conceptualization to final implementation. We focus on understanding your specific objectives and requirements in order to offer you a Virtual Reality solution efficient and high quality for your next event.
Our technical team of engineers and designers has a wide range of experience in the field. extensive experience in the development of Virtual Reality options and its latest innovations. Contact with us and discover how we can develop the Virtual Reality and 3D simulation experience you need for your events, stands and product presentations.
