Join us on Dec 9th for a Holiday Fest and a Look at the Year to Come with our guest Tom Burg of Touchcast.

• Trading business cards: This isn’t a new feature but it’s got newfound importance in a world where trading business cards seems downright yucky. Using the mobile app, LinkedIn can prominently display a scan code of your information. Or you can scan someone else's code. To find your QR code, open the LinkedIn app on your mobile device. Then tap the QR code. It appears to the right in the search bar at the top of your LinkedIn homepage. Then tap the My Code button.
• Creator Mode: In its new Creator Mode, LinkedIn does a little magic to ensure that what shows up on your news feed is focused on the content you’re creating. You’ll also be able to create hashtags and define 5 topic areas you specialize in that remain part of your profile. Your Connect button on the LinkedIn screen will turn into a Follow button so that you can quickly build up followers without necessarily connecting to them. Connect will remain an option, but under the More Menu. Honestly, I saw an uptick in followers the instant I switched.
• Video Cover Story: You can also replace your profile photo with a 30-second video welcoming folks to your page. This needs to be done using the mobile app by turning Creator Mode on and selecting the “+” that will now appear on your profile photo. Use your camera or upload a video. The video will autoplay for 3 seconds with the sound off. Here’s a good tutorial.

Seoul, So Meta
This week the Seoul metropolitan government announced  that it would be the first major city to enter the metaverse, meaning that public services and cultural events can be accessed  using an avatar. The idea is that Seoul residents can visit a virtual city hall to perform routine tasks, while tourists can visit major attractions, like Namdaemun Market. (Euronews)

NVIDIA’s CEO: Digital Twins for All

If NVIDIA isn’t on your radar regarding the future of events, then it should be. The company’s chips are likely to power the whole shebang. At his keynote speech during GTC, CEO Jensen Huang introduced the concept of everyone having a digital twin or avatar to head into the metaverse and do their thing. The NVIDIA Omniverse Avatar is a platform that can be used to create real-time conversational AI avatars that are able to see, speak, converse on a wide range of subjects and understand your intent as you speak to them. The company hopes to see these avatars as bank tellers, waiters, receptionists, and more. Here is a nice demo showing NVIDIA’s Omniverse Avatar.

The Beliebers Take to the Metaverse
Justin Bieber is also planting his face in the metaverse. His choice of venue is Wave, an XR Interactive Virtual Experience. According to the announcement, the collaboration will give fans a “futuristic look into the metaverse, merging gaming, real time motion-capture, and live musical performance into an immersive interactive experience.” Fans can sign up on live.wavexr.com and experience the event for free on November 18 at 6pm PST (9pm EST). Rebroadcasts will follow on November 20 and 21.

The AR Difference
John Hanke, CEO of NianticLabs, makers of Pokemon Go, has been pretty vocal about a metaverse that lets you live your best-augmented life in the real world, instead of donning a headset and becoming a virtual cartoon. Announcing its Lightship toolkit, Niantic is offering developers a quick-on ramp to create AR games. And this week, friend of VEG Tom Emrich from 8thWall announced powerful tools to bring the metaverse to any browser which means you can build it once and deploy it on iOS and Android smartphones, tablets, desktop and laptop computers, and virtual reality and augmented reality head-worn devices. 

Cloud Storms Ahead? The Great Resignation Meets Hospitality
According to Endless Events, 47% of hospitality workers are predicted to say goodbye to their hospitality jobs. BYOT (Bring your own Towels)

Ain’t too Proud to Brag
Robin Raskin was recognized as a new member of the CTA Hall of Fame for her work in tech journalism and as the founder of Living in Digital Times, a major CTA partner that brought consumer-focused content to CES for more than a decade. Now, with VEG, Robin has another winner.

Why not buy your company a holiday treat in the Virtual Events Group marketplace? You can build your booth in a matter of minutes, selling everything that the virtual events world needs to get the job done.

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