During the past year, many events started utilizing XR (Extended Reality) technology to revolutionize the experience and reach larger audiences. You may have seen this during the MTV Video Music Awards and during the American Idol finale with stage environments that are heavily enriched by digital elements. You likely have also experienced it on a variety of televised shows where hosts or characters interact with 3D digital elements. While this used to be a world of green screens and highly specialized coordination, today’s XR is becoming more mainstream and accessible. With that, comes the chance to bring an endless array of experiences to the event world.
Imagine a room surrounded by moving image screens that blend seamlessly with actual décor. It could replicate anything from a 15th-century castle, to a planet in outer space, to a fantasy world of pure imagination. As people move through the environment, it changes and moves along with them, even allowing for direct interaction with integrated touch screens, or unique options for food and beverage.
XR can also fulfill a more functional role in an event setting. Product demonstrations come to life in a 360-degree immersive environment, allowing prospects to test technologies or equipment in multiple real-world scenarios all in one place. Likewise, a pre-construction real estate project could use XR to take guests on virtual walk-throughs of spaces not yet built. Rather than a rendering or model which can only be looked at, the prospective buyer gets the feeling of walking through the lobby, amenity areas, and rooms of the home. They can even try out the views from residences on different floors, facing different directions, at different times of day with just the click of a button.
Because of the tremendous flexibility and scalability of XR, event organizers have more choice in terms of event venue. Showroom sets, which used to require a lot of space, can now be condensed into a single XR environment with multiple settings. Now, a business may be able to attend more conferences per year with the same budget. What’s more, the experiences created in XR can often be easily repurposed for online audiences, showing more immersive interactions with a product, service, or brand. A good example of how this is already happening is with digital dressing rooms that invite web users (or in person users) to allow technology to “picture them” in an outfit, makeup, jewelry, accessories, or even certain hair styles or hair colors.
If it sounds like something out of a video game, you’re not too far off base. The same computer technology behind gaming platforms is the high-speed, high-resolution tech engine that fuels this transformative approach to space. So, it takes a specialized team to put together life-like XR event experiences, but there’s no denying the incredible impact. It’s a way to make sure an event stands out like no other, because each and every experience is completely one of a kind.
About the VIBE Agency: The VIBE Agency is a Miami-based award-winning full-service production agency that specializes in the creation and orchestration of live and virtual experiences for the corporate industry. The agency is forward-thinking and was recognized as one of the 50 top event companies by Special Events magazine in 2019 and 2020. Most recently, Valerie Bihet, founder of the VIBE was named a Smart Women in Meetings 2021 Hall of Fame honoree by Smartmeetings, for her consistent work advancing the industry. If it can’t be live, make it VIBE!
