How to run a meeting in the metaverse

We've been talking a lot about the Metaverse recently. Probably more in a "this is a bit silly and over-hyped" kind of way. But then Anna here drew my attention to Noel Mack's video showing him having a short meeting in the Metaverse.

The idea is that you and your teammates wear a VR headset and, rather than meet on a regular video conferencing tool such as Zoom, you meet in a virtual meeting room to have your conversation.

Strangely, this makes a lot of sense.

I'll cover why in a moment. But first here are the steps showing how you hold a meeting in the metaverse. It's surprisingly straightforward.

Note: also see: Is meeting in the metaverse worth it?

Gettings started is easy

Here's all you need to do:

• Sign up to Horizon Workrooms or Breakroom or similar. It looks like Noel is using Horizon in his video, which I think looks cooler.
• Buy an Oculus Quest 2 headset for some peeps to try it out. They were £299 each, so it's not the cheapest experiment, but not the most expensive either. Because they're standalone, you shouldn't need anything else. We have four of these now.
• Follow the Horizon or Breakroom on-screen instructions to get set up.
• Customise your room by picking a favourite office with your company logo 
• Have your meetings and enjoy

I was surprised at how low the barrier to entry is for this. Once we try this out, I'll post some more details and updates on our LinkedIn feed.

A few tips

Allow a slightly longer setup time as people get their headsets on. The Oculus Quest 2 is pretty fast to switch on and set up as it's standalone. However, loading the room takes a minute or two, which is slower than Zoom or Google Meet.

We've explored a number of alternatives to Horizon Workrooms, but this still remains our favourite.

We find these Metaverse meetings a refreshing alternative to Zoom, especially if you're doing a session where you talk through a slide deck. So do try out connecting your laptop screen and then selecting the option to project it on the wall. There's something good about feeling like you're in the room with people. 

Similarly, if you have to brainstorm some ideas on a whiteboard, then this works quite well. It's not quite as fast as using Figjam, but then again you could just project a Figma file onto the virtual wall.  

For 1-to-1 meetings, some folks here have tried playing mini-golf whilst they chat. Apparently, that's quite a nice way to hold a meeting when you don't need to show people files or use a whiteboard.

It might just work

At a time when we're all fatigued from video conferences, could a Metaverse meeting be a nicer solution?

For a start, you can restore some of the dynamics of a real meeting. For example, you can see who's looking at how when they talk. And who's looking at the "TV". And you can see some of the body language, at least head, arm and hand movements. 

Also, a video conference is mentally fatiguing, partly because you're on-show. We're just not meant to see ourselves on camera mirrored on our screen for 3-5 hours a day. A Metaverse meeting space gives us an avatar to hide behind, so there should be less stress.

How could this tech improve app development?

It could be all hot air, but it's intriguing to think about how this technology could affect creative work.

Would it be easier to showcase app design work? Could you actually hand someone a phone with an app running on it with a virtual prototype?

Could you conduct qualitative user research in a virtual setting? Would there be any merit in observing participants' body language?

What about whiteboard sessions, dot voting, or card sorting? Would it be more "interactive" doing this in a virtual world?

Watch this space, and let us know how you get on!  

P.S - The Oculus Quest 2 is still a good bargain on Amazon.