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Peter Thiel, one of Facebook’s earliest and most controversial investors, and a board member since 2005, will step down to devote his time to support candidates aligned with Donald Trump’s agenda. Is anyone connecting the dots between having Thiel as a Board member and Meta's political policies? 

 
 
 
 
 
 
February 17 | 3pm EST | ZOOM
 
The Pragmatic Metaverse
 

Just around the corner. Meet us on Feb 17th for a class trip to Rooom. It’s a fabulous platform that illustrates what a pragmatic metaverse can do for you. And we'll have a special announcement relating to Zoom.

 
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Meta’s Schizo Relationship with Europe
 

Last week I pulled the stat that 24% of the more than 3,000 jobs listed on Meta’s website are for AR/VR roles (the NYT). Meta also said it’s planning to create 10,000 jobs in the EU related to the metaverse. 

This week the European bromance is in a spat. Meta has threatened to pull Instagram and Facebook out of the European market if they’re not allowed to exchange data on European servers with the US. Redditors are having a field day. The short story is that Meta is trying to skirt tough European privacy laws by sending its data back to the US where we play much looser. 

 
 
 
What the Music Industry Teaches Us About Events
 

At our Omicron Aftermath Town Hall, we featured key speakers from across the events industry. The session was filled with digestible nuggets we’ll be talking about here. One really salient data point came from our Board Advisor Martin Porter. Porter has been involved, in one way or another, in broadcasting (and events) for a long time. He posits that the state of events will follow the same trajectory as music media did when we moved through additive formats—from vinyl to cassette tape, to CD/DVD, to downloading, then online music and streaming. With the introduction of each new format, the industry expanded the marketplace for music. As Marty says, "pay attention to the green part of the graph. It represents the opportunity to expand the production of events, adding digital components (new formats) to reach a much larger audience.”

 
 

Photo Credit: Recording Industry Association of America

 
 
 
Personal Space in the Metaverse (I Couldn’t Make this Up)
 

Meta announced mandatory social distancing between avatars in its metaverse. This is not COVID-type social distancing; it’s because of anticipated sexual harrassment in the metaverse. The distancing rule, which is about the same as 4 feet in the real world, will be implemented in Horizon Worlds, where people can meet fellow VR users and design their own world; as well as in Horizon Venues, which hosts VR events such as comedy shows or music gigs. 

If you thought the metaverse would free you from the social distancing of the real world, think again. For a world that was created to free us from our real life rules, we’re bumping into a new set of them. 

 
 
 
VEG Audience Sees an Advantage to Keep On Vegging 
 

Based on a Zoom Poll of the Audience (about 70 attendees) taken at the Town Hall Meeting on Feb 3rd, the appetite to return to live events has not returned quite yet.

Poll Results Summary:

  • Have You Been to a Live Event in 2022? 
    63% No
    37% Yes

  • How did you feel there?
    Nearly forty percent of those who attended live events said they felt apprehensive and uncomfortable. Other choices included: Perfectly at Ease and Thrilled

  • When will live events be back?
    Only a small percentage felt optimistic about spring, 67% predicted fall 2022 or Jan. 2023 and a full quarter of respondees felt that live events will never “be back.”

  • Can you do business as well virtually?
    60% of respondents felt business could be done just as well in a virtual environment.

  • What keeps you from attending live events?
    73% reported that Health and Safety concerns was their reason for staying away from live events with only small percentages citing other factors like Company Travel Restrictions, Environmental/Sustainability Concerns, or Difficulty of Travel.
 
 
 
 
A Child's Garden of (Meta) Verse
 
It’s poetic justice. Last week I began composing A Child’s Garden of (Meta) Verse (with apologies to Robert Louis Stevenson) because only bad verse can describe the metaverse. 

Image credit: Techonomy
 
 
Scuttlebutt
 
 
 

MetaAcademy 
Stumbled Upon: Imagine a game show that’s done its homework about your Zoom audience before the game begins. That’s The Escape Show. Your job is to brief the game show host on your group, your company, whatever. The next time your group meets up there’s a screen invader who knows who on the team got married, scored a touchdown, is pregnant, or had a birthday. It’s a totally over-the-top way to start your next meeting. (We just might have to try it.) 

 
 

We’re All Ears
LinkedIn is following ClubHouse, Twitter’s Spaces and Spotify’s Greenroom and others like Slack and Reddit, by entering the world of audio-only broadcast events. But, audio-only environments require a new set of skills. (Yes, it’s the face made for radio effect.) BizBash tells us what to think about before you dive into this uni-sensory experience. 

 
 

Playing House
Samsung launched its My House metaverse on Jan. 5th. It has hosted over 4 million visitors in less than a month. Users can test out a variety of Samsung products and appliances while decorating and furnishing personalized virtual homes. Samsung says it’s a way to draw in new audiences. Clearly we’ve seen a boom in what analysts are calling the Kidult market, so it all makes sense. 

 
 

Image credit: Samsung Newsroom

 
 

Zoom Survival Tips
We were Zoom bombed at our last online meeting by a rapper wannabe in a blue bandana, waving his digits in the air and singing some raunchy lyrics. How did we take him down? We went to the “participants list” in Zoom. The person making noise with their mic open is always highlighted and moved near the top of the participants' list. Next, we went to the click More (three dots) next to the participant's name, where there is an option to remove them. 


Another Zoom tip has to do with recordings. Zoom’s recordings are a bit of a mystery as to whether they’re capturing the gallery view, speaker view, or the shared screen when you’re creating a recording. If you’re planning to do any post editing you can record three separate tracks. Go to Account Information and then click Settings. Choose Recording settings, and then select “Record active speaker, gallery view and shared screen separately.” Recording these views separately is great for post-meeting video editing to produce the best video of your meeting.

 
 

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Robin Raskin  | Founder
917.215.3160 | robin@virtualeventsgroup.org

 

Julie Sylvester | Sales & Marketing

917.868.7160 | Julie@virtualeventsgroup.org