Creating engagement via Web conference is challenging even with small groups, and large groups can be almost prohibitively difficult to monitor. The ideal solution would recreate the natural engagement and interactivity of face-to-face instructor-led training (ILT) in a way that’s as easy, convenient, and accessible as Web conferencing. A handful of up-and-coming companies are introducing Web 3-D apps as a potential solution. They look similar to Second Life in certain basic ways, but are super-intuitive to use and are designed specifically for business use in terms of scalability, participant control, usability, and multi-screen, low-bandwidth content-sharing (a useful feature that ’2-D Web conferencing platforms don’t provide).
The best of these platforms have gone to great effort to recreate the essence of face-to-face communication, without a user learning curve, for better online learning. For example, they feature directional, actual-distance (but adjustable) sound, which studies indicate is crucial to the brain’s ability to quickly absorb information.
They also allow both learners and instructors to be in control of all the non-verbal communicators we semi-consciously use in-person that contribute to an engaging sense of presence. Instructors can tell by sight when learners are focused and engaged from anywhere inside the 3-D training room (and learners know it, so they’re naturally more engaged).
Collaboration flows more freely with more people participating and fewer people talking over one another or ‘checking out.’ Because they’re virtually sitting among their easily identifiable peers instead of alone in front of a 2-D Web conference, learners are more accountable for their presence, so they become more engaged in the course objectives. In essence, being in one of these Web 3-D environments ‘feels’ natural, so both training and learning become almost as naturally engaging as they are with in-person ILT.
- Kate Hendrick, director of marketing for VenueGen
In 2009, the Cisco Global Sales Experience demonstrated the power of games to engage audiences and impart learning. In this guest post by David Gardner, CEO of VenueGen, David highlights why gaming and business are a perfect match. David is also speaking on “3D Immersive Worlds for Business Engagement” on January 12, 2011 from 11:00 – 11:45 am.
David Gardner is a serial entrepreneur, technology investor and futurist. With a proven track record for early identification of paradigm-shifting technologies, Gardner has successfully built seven companies. He is a trusted advisor concerning new technology trends who believes the 3D web is on the verge of dramatically transforming many web-based business models as we know them today
David Gardner, CEO of VenueGen
To the average business person, the word “gaming” probably seems irrelevant, especially when used in the same sentence as “a more productive, innovative, strategically unified workforce.” But it makes perfect sense for business objectives and gaming to go hand-in-hand. Why? Because while most every company is looking to cut costs by moving training, meetings and events online, today’s 2D web conference solutions just can’t match the engagement we experience when we’re physically face-to-face. And without engagement, ideas don’t connect and information just doesn’t sink in.
Virtual games, on the other hand, have been engaging people from afar for years. So why not embrace their use for business? What business needs to understand is that it’s not just the high-speed car chases or alien massacres that engage people in virtual games. Rather, a game’s storyline is akin to a corporate meeting agenda, or content for a training course. Obviously, the material must be relevant and maybe even a little exciting to be engaging. But even the most popular courses and topics become lackluster when presented as flat slides accompanied by faceless voices. To further the metaphor, expecting engagement from a web conference is kind of like expecting it from a video of a stranger playing Halo.
So what else drives engagement beyond the ‘storyline’? The missing link is individual control. With gaming, each player has a sense of shaping his or her own virtual experience while (especially in team-player games) contributing to a common goal. Similarly, when we communicate face-to-face, we’re in control not only of what we say and when we speak, but also of our facial expressions, our body language, where we direct our attention, our perception of others and their perception of us, and countless other subtle, semi-conscious gestures whose maintenance keeps us alert, interested, and above all, engaged. Isn’t this exactly what’s missing from our virtual classrooms, events and meetings?
To find out, creators of a new breed of in-browser 3D environments are enabling high levels of personal control for online business communications. These applications feature simple, intuitive usability, and are meant to “disappear” once a user becomes accustomed to them, so that he or she can become fully immersed in a virtual world of natural-esque business collaboration and learning. So far, there’s evidence that gaming and business are a great match. Happy users report improved collaboration, communication, retention and long-term transfer of learning.
Attendees at one of the seminars at this year’s Virtual Edge Summit in Las Vegas were amazed at the 3D technology that’s now on the market for virtual meetings and events.
Comments such as: “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” were uttered during the demonstration by David Gardner, chief executive of VenueGen – and this was despite a technology malfunction that meant it had to be cut short.
What delegates saw were 3D virtual meetings populated by avatars, but more life like than people are used to seeing in environments such as Second Life. What’s more, the avatars had the faces of the people they were representing, with the 3D immersive technology creating a real feeling of the presence of others in the meeting.
What was clear to Gardner’s audience was how much more engaging an environment VenueGen’s 3D event was compared to the two dimensional versions that are becoming increasingly widespread. And it is this increased level of engagement that Gardner believes makes meetings held in a 3D environment much more effective.
“Analysts Gartner and Forrester both predicted the rise and widespread adoption of Web3D by 2010,” said Gardner. “This was the hype cycle, and what people found was that the technology was difficult to build, couldn’t negotiate firewalls easily or be downloaded quickly enough. Plus it was complex to use and expensive. But now we’ve hit the five-year point, I believe all these issues have been resolved.
“But one key issue remains – we have failed to make the case for how important engagement is to online meetings. It’s very hard to measure, but last year $350 billion dollars was lost through disengaged staff, according to research.
“Why would people spend so much on Telepresence, when WebEx was so cheap? Because it is engaging and 2D screen sharing is not.”
So what about the cost of 3D immersive meetings technology? Well Gardner was keen to point out that is has become very affordable.
“Web3D can be installed in under a minute, learned in 30 seconds and is cheaper that WebEx,” he said.
So after a five-year wait, perhaps Gardner may well see his vision for the future of corporate meetings come to fruition in 2011.
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 Mediawill 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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The makers of VenueGen are seeking your input to design the next ideal venue. What kind of room, elements, functions, or settings would you integrate to enhance your VenueGen virtual meetings?
VenueGen is the on-demand web conferencing platform that enables users to host public and private virtual events in businesslike venues. Creating a meeting is simple: Customize your avatar, choose a virtual room, and step inside where you can see and hear your colleagues around the room.
When placed in a familiar environment, participants feel naturally inclined to open up conversation and interact with one another. Versus the average phone conference call, the true-to-life experience impacts group productivity in a significant way. User report improved communication, faster learning, and better decision-making. This is totally immersive 3D web conferencing.
At present, VenueGen offers over 30 different businesslike venues for users seeking formal or casual meeting places. Some of our users’ favorite rooms are the board rooms, lecture halls and theaters. Among the most unique spaces are the outdoor stone amphitheater, a late night talk show studio, and even the deck of a luxurious yacht. Check out some screen shots of the rooms here.
Our customer feedback is important to us, and your comments will help make the virtual experience even more productive and meaningful for everyone. Thanks!
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!
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.
Listen to the first 30 seconds of this real-life example of a video conference call. You smirk, not because it’s humorous, but because you have experienced dozens or even hundreds of video conference calls just like it. You know the feeling. If you’re not engaged within that first thirty seconds, that’s when your interest falls and your attention-span shortens. You distract yourself by opening new browser windows to check your email or being searching for other activities to keep yourself from nodding off. All the while, you’re still not really focused on the call and you might find it almost impossible to truly grasp those key messages that are essential to your business’ success.
With 3D virtual conferencing, the experience is different. The moment your personalized representation enters that virtual lecture room, you feel a sense of togetherness, belonging, and connectedness because you’re seated with virtual representations of your own colleagues. Facing the head of the room, you notice the speaker’s performance is refreshingly engaging. He’s incorporated facial expressions, gesturing, posturing, and even eye contact into his delivery. For the first time, you feel as though the call leader is speaking with you rather than at you. Then you peer around the room to see which of your colleagues are present when the speaker addresses you by name to volunteer you in one of his special presentation examples. You are truly involved.
Previously, physical presences were required in classrooms or boardrooms in order to share information and interact with participants. However, the Internet fostered development of alternatives such as web and video conferencing, message boards, and instant messaging, which allowed limited group interaction without requiring one’s physical presence. However, as helpful as those innovations have been, they do not compare with the advantages of a live, in-person, forum in which full immersion and interaction maximize learning potential.
Thankfully, 3D-technology like VenueGen has reached a point in which the benefits of distance learning can now merge with the immersive advantages of live, in-person meetings. However, in order to judge overall effectiveness of this form of online virtual training, one must consider three important factors:
1. Information Sharing: In the past, files like Word documents, spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations needed to be emailed to participants beforehand for review. Or people saw a boring web conference screen share without people in the room. Venuegen’s virtual platform allows for people in the 3D room to have real time dissemination of this material on a shared screen space, as it would be in any other in person training session, lecture, or business meeting. Moreover, participants can also edit documents as they screen share in real time via their avatars without closing the program. Juggling less windows makes attendees more productive.
2. Attendee Control: Control over one’s 3-D representation is crucial because realistic movements simulate a more realistic environment. So instead of speech alone like in a webinar, one can also gesture and move to engage other participants non-verbally, which is important since human beings absorb as much information through non-verbal cues as they do with speech. Additionally, the more lifelike a user’s 3-D representation is, the more attentive and receptive other participants will be in accepting it as a “real” person rather than a simulation. This means more information can be digested from these meetings, increasing return on productivity since users do not need to spend time asking questions or re-explanations for topics they blanked out on. Venuegen’s own 3D system uses real-life photos to model one’s avatar to achieve this goal.
3. Creating Social Interaction: Perhaps the most important factor is judging how effectively the immersion creates interaction amongst participants. VenueGen’s online virtual meeting platform allows attendees to automatically face the dominant speaker in a room, simulating a real meeting. When the presenter laser points at the screen, you can have your avatar turn to look at the content – everyone in the room sees everyone else looking- creating a sense of focus on the content. The host can then engage easily with others without distraction. Interaction also includes collaboration as previously mentioned, i.e. the ability to share and edit documents with quick efficiency without opening other windows. If a small group of attendees wants to discuss a matter on their own, VenueGen also offers a chat system that can send messages to specific attendees.
To learn more about Venuegen’s 3D system and put many of these concepts into practice, check out VenueGen’s free demo.
