There has been a 91% increase in online meetings in the past few years.
Online or remote meetings have made a steady appearance in offices in the past few years. The pandemic accelerated the adoption of different media that can be used to facilitate online meetings.
However, with remote meetings being here to stay for the long run, organizations are adopting new and novel technologies.
Facebook’s Metaverse has been a pioneer in championing the cause of virtual meetings but offering exciting VR based solutions. While some of these have been adopted, most are currently in development.
This article offers a purview into the future of meetings, and how they will be in the near future and beyond.
Omnichannel Meetings:
While currently most meetings are remote, in the future there will be a hybrid set-up that combines both in-person meetings and remote ones.
For instance,
Omnichannel Meetings where some of the members are meeting in person, whereas others are joining from varied geographical locations will become the norm.
Using advanced technologies to enable telecommunication will be the need of the hour.
One way to enable omni channel meetings is to create a virtual experience, where in remote attendees can use a VR headset that virtually enable in person meetings.
All attendees will have the feeling that they are in the same room or location.
Technology is used in omnichannel meetings to ensure that everyone involved gets the maximum benefit from them.
Holographic Meetings:
Are your employees looking forward to meeting their colleagues in person, instead of seeing them from behind a screen?
If yes, brace yourself for holographic meetings! Your employees will be able to interact with 3D rendered avatars of their colleagues without even leaving their desk!
What more, they can even share slides, use a whiteboard to discuss their ideas, brainstorm and literally do anything that they would in an in-person meeting.
Furthermore, based on the response and hand gestures of their colleagues, they will also be able to see them move and gesticulate, just like they would in a normal meeting.
If you through holograms, were only for Tony Stark (Iron Man), think again, a holographic version of you could become a possibility in the near future.
Smart Glasses for Smarter Interaction:
It is a fact that many of us may dislike bulky VR helmets and headsets and may not want to wear them through a meeting.
Fortunately, this seems to be the case with the employees in many organizations, necessitating the need to have something much lighter and easier to use.
Smart Glasses can create a virtual representation of the meeting room, where people can see each other. However, unlike holographic meetings, gestures will be generated based on what someone says.
However, what it lacks in functionality, the smart glasses make up for in terms of ease of use and convenience.
AR Based Networking and Interaction:
In large gatherings and meetings in the near past, people used to exchange business cards with each other.
The adoption of technology has made interaction better. People can simple scan the QR code on the online / virtual business card to save the details.
People need not carry bulky card holders anymore and can just save and access all the details they need at the click of a button.
They can even use it to send emails and execute other tasks.
Scaling Meetings at Will
In the past, hosting a meeting was a logistics intensive task that needed people to book different spaces or create infrastructure based on the number of attendees.
Thankfully, meetings can be scaled down and up anytime soon, thanks to improved technology.
We already have the concept of small meetings and break up rooms to create meetings, within meetings.
This will become a notch better as organizations will be able to host meeting for thousands of attendees all at the same time.
This will enable organizations to let all their employees attend, instead of just a select few and will improve knowledge sharing considerably.
What does the Future Look Like?
The future looks bright! And here is why!
- People will neither have to travel extensively to attend meeting, nor will have to use expensive IT infrastructure. With smart phones, smart glasses and other devices becoming extremely affordable, hosting an online meeting will come very easy for the host and attendees.
- People will be able to interact better. Currently meeting are scarcely interactive. By improving the interactivity in meeting, encouraging gestures and so on, people may be able to interact better.
- The boundaries imposed on meeting by the number of people, geography, and so on . This will make meeting accessible.
Are you looking to create an exciting meeting system for your stakeholders on employees?
Augray has decades of experience in deploying both AR and VR based solutions that can revolutionize interaction. Reach out to us!
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