Press Release: Web3D Technology Boosts User Engagement for eTraining & Corporate Events

David Gardner will explore the potential of new in-browser meeting environments to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of dispersed business teams

(Morrisville, NC: January 10, 2011) For business to truly recoup value by moving training, meetings and events online, they need a more engaging, natural-feeling solution than the web conferencing and screen sharing platforms that dominate today’s market, says David Gardner, CEO and creator of VenueGen, a subscription-based web application that enables business customers to more effectively engage teams on-line in fully immersive Web3D virtual conferencing environments.

Gardner will explore these solutions, as well as the implications of new technology on the future of corporate training and events, in two sessions at Virtual Edge Summit 2011, the industry’s largest gathering for virtual events, meetings, communities, and learning, held this year at the MGM Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, as well as virtually.

3D Immersive Worlds for Business Engagement will take place Wednesday, January 12, 11:00 – 11:45 PST. Gardner will join IT/IS expert and KohdSpace Chairman Terry Thorpe, along with John Jainschigg, virtual events expert and CEO of World2Worlds, Inc (www.world2worlds.com), to examine the proof and case experiences behind the capacity of fully immersive 3D online environments to drive engagement and improve results.

Virtual Environment Platforms: From Social Gaming to Social Media will take place Wednesday, January 12, 2:15 – 3:00 PST. The session will focus on how the convergence of social gaming and virtual environments is changing expectations for online business experiences. Other thought leaders participating in the session are Ken Hayward, digital media expert and CEO of Vcopious; Rahul Rankavat, director of software development at Vcopious; and Manu Gambhir, social gaming expert and CEO of Ryzing.

For more information, or to schedule an interview with Gardner at the event, please contact Kate Hendrick by phone at 919-228-4995, by email at khendrick@venuegen.com, or via Twitter at @VenueGen.

About David Gardner

David Gardner is a serial entrepreneur, technology investor and futurist with a proven track record of early identification of paradigm-shifting technologies. He is a trusted advisor concerning new technology trends who believes Web-3D is on the verge of dramatically transforming many web-based business models as we know them today.

David Gardner, CEO of VenueGen

Experienced in taking IT products and Internet-service model companies to market, Gardner has founded seven technology companies—including PeopleClick, the first hosted software-as-a-service enterprise application; and healthcare communications technology exchange ProviderLink, now owned by Compuware—without a single failure or loss of investor funds. He has served on several boards, spoken at multiple industry conferences, and published over twenty forward-thinking papers and articles on technical, business and managerial topics.

In 2007, Gardner founded VenueGen, a company dedicated to creating a new standard of in-browser web-conference platform for more engaging, productive and efficient online training, meetings and events. He currently serves as CEO.

About VenueGen

VenueGen is a subscription based Web3D conference application enabling business customers to efficiently and affordably train, collaborate, meet and share content online without sacrificing the engagement and productivity of face-to-face communication.

Compared to the web conferencing and screen sharing platforms currently on the market, VenueGen’s immersive 3D environments facilitate lifelike, natural-feeling interaction for improved learning, motivation and overall performance. VenueGen features fast, easy installation; a minimal usability learning curve; private, secure environments; and one-of-a-kind content sharing capabilities that use negligible bandwidth, allow multiple content windows to be shared simultaneously, and empower each user to control his or her personal view of content.

VenueGen is included in Gartner’s Five Coolest and Most Promising New Technologies, and has received accolades from USA Today, Business Week, CNBC and others. To learn more, please visit the company’s website at www.VenueGen.com or follow VenueGen on Twitter at twitter.com/venuegen.
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Save Time and Money with Virtual Meetings

Many businesses are looking for ways to save time and money. One area that tends to get a lot of attention is travel expenses. For businesses that require frequent collaboration between workers, VenueGen’s virtual meetings can provide cost-effective solutions without losing the benefits of face-to-face communication.

VenueGen makes expensive transportation costs and travel time a thing of the past. The virtual 3D web conferencing platform provides an effective means of communication as effective as a 500,000 telepresence room—it’s that sense of actually being “there” with your colleagues. Featuring photo-created avatars, realistic meeting rooms, VoIP technology, surround sound, and content sharing, it’s the all in one program that’s easy to use and simple to install. No telepresence equipment or cameras required.

The effective communication produces better results for both business and customer relationships. Meeting attendees are able to see people’s facial expressions and read their body language which can greatly facilitate communications. Sharing documents and presentation slides enables worker collaboration over the internet.

The browser-based software loads in just seconds, allowing remote workers to come together in real-time over the internet. VenueGen makes it possible to hold meetings, lead training sessions, and service clients right from your desktop.

Businesses Learn to Host Better Virtual Meetings and Training Sessions with VenueGen

Learning to use a new web conferencing tool can be overwhelming for some users, especially as technology becomes more advanced. For those migrating from ordinary web conferencing services to the VenueGen 3D virtual meeting software, VenueGen is making the switch easier with video tutorials and practice rooms.

VenueGen tutorials are designed specifically for users who are interested in learning how to use the virtual meeting services. The video lessons are only 30 to 90 seconds in length. Once finished watching the videos, users can even apply what they have learned in virtual practice rooms. There are lessons for both hosts and guests — most guests simply watch the 30 second flash tutorial when they log on to a meeting, while hosts can learn more advanced features around content management and presentation.

In addition to tutorials for individual users, VenueGen also offers free demos for businesses and organizations. Together, company employees can learn to host meetings, integrate content, and communicate with one another through their virtual avatars. Many new users learn to manage the virtual environment in as little as five minutes!

VenueGen Presenter Scores Higher Than In Person Speakers at TIP-NEP Conference

David Gardner‘s virtual presentation was rated as one of the best presentations at this years TIP-NEP Conference. In fact, Gardner’s 3D virtual presentation on VenueGen was given the highest presentation scores from 22 of 23 evaluators. His presentation was so engaging that he outperformed all other speakers there, even the in-person speakers.

Become a Sales Superstar: Cut Out 90% of Your Travel and Get 12-Hours out of an 8-Hour Day

Would you like to get rid of your audio and web conference calls? Get off the phone and in front of customers, and sell, sell, sell…

Bringing to the table over 25 years of experience in sales, marketing, and general management (leading successful startups and Fortune 500 organizations worth $10M-$6 Billion), VenueGen’s own Jeff Crown will show you how to take the pain out of your everyday sales life.

Live Event Details:
Duration: 60 minutes, including Q&A
Date: Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 10:30 AM PST / 1:30 PM EST
Where: VenueGen at www.venuegen.com
Registration

At this special event, you will learn how to fire up your laptop or PC browser and be in a highly productive, collaborative online meeting with your colleagues in less than 60 seconds.

With no strings attached, our speakers will show you how you can drive sales momentum by throwing out unproductive, traditional online web and audio conferencing meetings and moving to VenueGen, a 3-D sales and marketing online meeting platform.
The VenueGen online sales & marketing meeting platform will help you:

1. Instantly review multiple forecasts and sales results on screen with your sales team
2. Share best practices for closing deals using tools or Power Point Presentations
3. Put a web camera on a new product to train your team on new features and competitive advantages.
4. Bring in outside speakers from remote locations anywhere in the world to share new sales techniques, closing techniques and get everyone motivated.
5. Run weekly staff meetings, or full day training events.

Try a full functionality trial, sign up for our free 30-day trial here.

However, if you are interested in learning more, but are unable to attend this event, please email us. We will gladly schedule a convenient time to show you how to run a more engaging sales or marketing meeting in 5 minutes. Overnight, your sales team will be more competitive and executing faster.

Important Please Read: If you plan to virtually attend this meeting it is very important that you register now to reserve your seat well in advance to allow enough time for the venue and meeting content to be downloaded to your computer. If this is not the computer you will be using to attend the meeting, please wait and register from the computer you will be using.

For more information please go to http://www.venuegen.com or follow VenueGen at http://twitter.com/venuegen

VenueGen Revolutionizes Virtual Learning

In a conventional lecture hall, audience members are seated together with focus on the instructor or presentation at the head of the room. In the case of many web learning tools, users may only have either audio or text to rely on. This lack of interaction adversely affects the listener’s ability to maintain focus, resulting in retention that is significantly reduced, and some information goes ignored entirely. VenueGen has set out to change all of that, delivering a time and money saving solution with the benefits of telepresence—just like being “there.” Think of it as “telepresence in your browser”.

Much like that traditional classroom experience, VenueGen’s virtual meetings empower company or academic students and teachers with real-time interaction and delivers that sense of presence. Participants establish a group identity with others, observe the instructor’s nonverbal cues, watch PowerPoint presentations integrated into the VenueGen platform, and raise their hands to signal desire to ask a question. Even step out of the virtual classroom and into one of our smaller venues for a more intimate study group.

Online learning methods have proven especially beneficial for those with complex work schedules, stay-at-home parents, companies who have consolidated their facilities or tech savvy people who prefer to work from home. Imagine attending three meetings in New York, Paris, and Chicago in one day, all from the convenience of your home computer. But the best payback of all is saving people’s travel time and budgets, while reaching a wider audience. Attendees have the ability to attend classes while instructors can teach them from anywhere in the world!

In a technological era, we are no longer bound by time or space. Especially in the changed economy, companies can save valuable time and money without sacrificing the learning experience of guests. Distance learning companies and major businesses are already switching to VenueGen virtual meetings. Try it for yourself. The download takes minutes to install and just 60 seconds to learn as an attendee. Sign up for a VenueGen free trial today.

Stay Focused on Your Company’s Goals with VenueGen’s Virtual Meetings

People are driven by an inherent need to develop meaningful relationships and to connect with one another. And with social networking websites popping up every day, we are discovering new ways to communicate. But when engaging in social interaction, scientific research tells us up to 80% of our communication actually comes from nonverbal language. With that kind of figure, it’s no wonder so much information is lost through other web conferencing methods!

It is with this understanding that the creators of VenueGen are revolutionizing virtual meetings and distance learning with the totally immersive, 3D software platform that helps you to connect with others that is as close to being “there” as you can get. It’s the web conferencing platform that allows you to have both the audio and the visual focus of others in the room.

When you can see all of the other attendees while focusing on the speaker, you actually feel as though you’re part of something real. When other users speak, their names display in pop-ups above their heads so you can identify exactly who’s got the floor so you can adjust your avatar’s focus. This is not video with boxes of talking heads. This is a true 3D virtual room you are participating in. To supplement these unique visual cues, VenueGen features positional audio, meaning the volumes of others’ voices will vary depending on where they are located in the room in relation to you.

Beyond natural interaction, VenueGen allows users to control and share documents too. Your content is integrated on the screen in the virtual room (emulating a real conference). Content can be shared 3 ways: 1) distributed before the meeting to all attendees when they sign up, 2) added on the fly during a meeting, and 3) your entire screen can be shared on the fly. And get this -multiple users can share their screens at the same time! Imagine sharing multiple financials, sales forecasts, powerpoints. Everyone in the room has the option to enlarge and interact with the document on their own computer screen.

Ultimately as a speaker, being able to share a common visual focus will ensure you to have greater command over your virtual audience and as a result create a shared understanding of the information. This results in faster learning, insights and retention of information. Because VenueGen saves time and enhances productivity in meetings for long-term success, we are confident that you will find our software suitable for almost any virtual meeting need.

Event: Cashing In on Virtual Worlds:Entrepreneurial Insights for the Healthcare Industry

Listen to David Gardner speak at Media X, Stanford University’s catalyst for industry and academic research partnerships on the impact of information and technology on society.

Event Description
Virtual environment platforms for the enterprise have gone through a peak of inflated expectations and appear to be in a trough of disillusionment. Numerous pilot programs have been technically successful and have shown efficacy in training, collaboration, and other applications, but they have not been generally adopted in mainstream business operations. However, virtual world technologies are commercially successful in social networking and entertainment, and new businesses using these technologies continue to spring up. What can entrepreneurs in the healthcare arena learn from these commercial successes and fresh ideas?

In this workshop, we will hear from successful virtual world companies, and brainstorm how their lessons learned apply to fledgling healthcare ventures.

In Part I, we will peer across “the chasm” to examine how virtual worlds technology can be harnessed to work as a business. Through both virtual and in-person presentations, we’ll talk with entrepreneurs who are banking on significant returns on their investment.

David Gardner, CEO of VenueGen, will demonstrate how his company is transforming virtual conferencing into a more engaging, productive experience at an affordable price. Brett Durrett, VP Engineering of IMVU, will illustrate how IMVU has leveraged virtual goods and become a profitable market leader in virtual worlds and social networking. Other speakers will also address how they have focused on key capabilities in virtual worlds to address critical needs in their target markets.

In Part II, we will brainstorm how the ideas presented in Part I can apply to applications in healthcare. Areas of interest include telemedicine, home care, treatment compliance, fitness, virtual hospitals, virtual patients, professional training, and education. We will invite developers and healthcare practitioners to talk about their pilot programs that show promise for business. We will also invite entrepreneurs in the audience to present their “elevator pitches,” and receive feedback from the group. In this way, this workshop will conclude the discussion that we began in the “Virtual Medical Environments Workshop” at Media-X on March 8, 2010.

Audience
Developers, healthcare practitioners, entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate leaders looking for applications of virtual worlds that provide a return on investment.

Date
Thursday, August 19, 2010, 1:00 – 5:00PM

Location
The workshop will be held at Wallenberg Hall, Stanford University’s state-of-the-art facility for experimentation in innovative learning methods.

Registration

Free Online Seminar in 3D: How to Make Your Online Meetings More Engaging and Productive

According to a recent Gallup study, disengaged workers cost US companies over $325 billion each year in lost productivity. Fully engaged workers and learners demonstrate an energy, creativity and level of interaction that is critical to meeting the goals of any gathering, but it is particularly difficult to create truly engaging online meetings. If you utilize online audio, video or web conferencing then this free seminar could dramatically improve your virtual meeting outcomes.

Register to hear business leader and technology pragmatist, David Gardner, as he distills the findings of over 30 studies into an easy-to-follow and practical guide to getting the most out of your online meetings. See a recent TMVnet interview with some of David’s insights here. Additionally, all attendees will receive Gardner’s whitepaper which distills the top tips for running virtual meetings, including 3D online meetings.

This live event will cover:
1. Top 10 tips for running online meetings
2. Why creating highly engaged audiences makes meetings three times more productive
3. Using online meetings to make faster business decisions and increase post-meeting learning and retention

Live Event Details:
Duration: 90 minutes, including Q&A
Date: Wednesday August 18, 2010 at 10:30 AM PST / 1:30 PM EST
Where: VenueGen
Technical Requirements: Windows based computer and optional headset. If no headset, a dial in number will be provided.

Space is limited, so reserve your spot now!

Online Virtual Meetings Are the Green Alternative to Business Travel

There seems to be no escaping the expenses and the loss of time that arises from trying to coordinate the travel and logistics for large-scale internal meetings—that is, until now. Entrepreneurs, small business owners and corporations alike have never had so many technological tools at their disposal before, so why lose time and money associated with traveling? New technologies can decrease costs while simultaneously increasing productively and returns on investment exponentially.

While many companies talk about embracing green technologies, many are not taking advantage of what online virtual meetings offer. In today’s age, online virtual meetings have eliminated the need for any travel, making services like VenueGen the perfect green alternative to in-person meetings.

Let’s face it – when training involves a large number of attendees, the time spent organizing events, travel and transportation for each individual turns into the hundreds of thousands when you consider travel time, wait, delays, time to move to and from a location, etc. What could your employees have accomplished during all that travel time? How many carbon emissions is their travel pushing into the environment?

Within seconds, employees are online virtually to train new employees, to discuss the latest business strategies, and to meet with clients across the coast, among other possibilities. Using VenueGen’s unique content sharing features, employees can seamlessly share information like they would during an in-person meeting. Users are able to browse the web with ease and share PowerPoint presentations. Advanced features allow users to see and hear where a speaker is in the 3D room, cancelling out extraneous noise and other speakers – an issue that plagues traditional audio and web conference calls. Unlike other conferencing tools like webinars, online 3D virtual meetings are designed to increase productivity by minimizing those distractions.

And with nearly every company in America doing training, 3D virtual meeting platforms enable employees to gather more information, learn and retain information more rapidly. The return on investment for online virtual meetings is simply unparalleled to other options. Visit our website to get a free 30 day trial today and see how it can revolutionize your business’ productivity.