Metaverse can ‘help event organisers thrive’ – Meta leader

Big Tech giants should not be seen as a threat to event organisers but instead as a way to help them “thrive and make money through the metaverse”, according to a Meta leader.

Andy Mihalop, vertical marketing lead EMEA, told ExpoPlatform how the company formerly known as Facebook is concentrating on building a virtual and augmented reality platform which can help businesses make money.

Concerns have previously been raised that Big Tech players such as Meta could be moving into space occupied by traditional event organisers, with social media giants such as LinkedIn already showing an interest.

Andy said: “I don’t think it’s our core business. Our core business is really to build the hardware, to build products and platforms to enable you to thrive and make money through the metaverse.

“It’s a completely new world and I think it’s the next wave of tech. It is going to come and if you’re working in the event space as an exhibition organiser, you need to be aware of how that technology is going to evolve and how quickly you can start to think about making that shift.

“The biggest opportunity at the moment is just understanding how the hardware works – what virtual reality actually is. You’ve almost got to try it to start to understand the potential.

“That’s the place to start – get yourself a set of Oculus, experiment with it, see what virtual reality actually feels like – because it’s pretty amazing.”

Oculus is Meta’s virtual reality headset which allows users to enter the metaverse. One of the barriers to opening up this new world to consumers and businesses is the cost of the technology, however it is suggested that prices could drop as the market grows.

Andy’s comments come as ExpoPlatform gets set to stage its own event focussing on the topic, alongside Event Industry News (EIN). How the metaverse will transform tradeshows takes place online on Thursday 4pm GMT. Here’s what we’ll cover:

1. What is the Metaverse and why does it matter to the exhibition industry?
2. What trends are there? 
3. What could this mean for tradeshows in the next five years?
4. What issues does it raise for the exhibition industry?
5. How to get started
   

Andy had been speaking at International Confex in London when he told how there would be opportunities for event planners to make money from virtual and augmented reality, however the technology is still in its “early days”.

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He said: “It’s definitely coming. When you think about how the industry had to shift from physical to virtual events, it’s a step on from that. From an events perspective, it’s going to be an amazing opportunity to participate and interact in more ways than you could ever imagine previously.

“The metaverse is coming, we are just going to see an escalation in platforms and technology that will enable it. We’re still at a very early stage. It’s much more about building an awareness about how this is developing.”

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