Episode description
After two years of stops, starts, and disruptions, the live event industry finds itself at an exciting crossroads. Nothing about live events can be said to be the same as before the spring of 2020. The emergence of virtual technology in the event world wasn’t a mere pandemic band-aid; it’s a trend that will continue and prove they can play a critical role in any live-event strategy moving forward. Centrifuge Media’s Suzanne Tudman, a 3D Event Designer, and Steve Welch, Director of Creative Services, joined Open Mic’s Daniel J. Litwin for all the insights and latest information on the future of virtual and 3D environments for events.
“You know, we came from a place before the pandemic where we were creating projects that were for virtual reality, augmented reality, and a lot of training-type programs where participants would wear an Oculus headset and be immersed in a virtual world,” Welch said.
The pandemic moved people from the workplace to remote environments and, for a time, live events stopped, and companies like Centrifuge moved entirely into virtual events. And something that before the pandemic might look similar to a webinar or zoom meeting overnight became a broadcast identical to someone watching the nightly news. Bottom line: Welch said Centrifuge Media created many great interactive and engaging ways to bring people back together, virtually, when they couldn’t meet up in person.
Tudman spoke about the evolution of virtual events throughout the pandemic from a design aspect. “Going in to end of 2020, into 2021, we really needed to step it up and make it more interesting and more interactive. So, we created awards sets, we did a newsroom-style set, and even a homey kitchen where we sent clients taco kits, and they were able to watch a cooking demonstration in the virtual kitchen. We also created virtual tours for attendees where they could walk through a gamified space while clicking on hot spots to display content and video.