World Economic Forum and virtual presence

One negative aspect of virtual meetings I’ve experienced over the past three years is the lack of physical presence i.e. being around others. There are so many aspects of a physical meeting that cannot be replicated through attending via a two dimensional representation such as traditional online meetings. Watching a screen is one thing: interacting with others in the space 3D space is another.

Looks like those attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this year will have another opportunity to participate: Davos’ metaverse access. After a trial last year of their Global Collaboration Village in the XR space (sorry, I refuse to use Mark Z’s personal branding and commercialization of the platform) participants this can attend in one of three ways:

• Physically
• Virtually via XR
• Virtually via traditional 2D platforms like Zoom

Whilst this will address a number of barriers and concerns to those attending (environmental and physical accessibility are just two aspects) I’d be curious what this will mean for those physically present and how they can interact with those virtually present and vice versa. Interesting to note however that you will only be able to attend (this year at least) if you have a Meta Quest 2, 3 or Pro. The eventual aim is to have it available to all VR platforms.

Hmm: another reason I should go and update my VR headset.