Talk of the metaverse, particularly in the B2B space, may have died down this year compared to the hype it received in 2021, but digital technology isn’t going anywhere, and as it continues to improve, it will provide more compelling use cases for metaversal and virtual experiences.
The Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACVB) is working on one such experience, Atlanta Meta World, which was unveiled at the American Society of Association Executives’ (ASAE) annual meeting last month. The experience is designed to enable eventprofs to interact with staff and the city’s view meeting and event offerings virtually.
Atlanta Meta World is currently in beta and will be expanding over the next few months and years. Users can jump in and explore the world, which includes a full digital twin of Atlanta’s 22-acre Centennial Olympic Park, complete with a visitor information center. Users begin by selecting their avatar, and they spawn inside the world right in front of the center.
Inside the visitor center are several screens that display the same information or video that’s being shown on the screens in the real-world visitor center, as well as a desk where the avatar of a staff member may be seated to welcome guests.
“At some point in the future, we are planning on having somebody staffing the center,” explains Andrew Wilson, ACVB executive vice president and chief marketing officer. “We get a notification when anybody enters into the metaverse space, so when we’re notified, we could have a staff member come in and sit in the visitor center, and be there to answer questions if there are any. It's a capability that we will have pretty soon.”
For faster transport, users can use the teleport feature to travel faster around the park. This feature will be further built out as ACVB also plans to continue bringing on more partners — including hotels, restaurants, and the Georgia World Congress Center — which will enable users to teleport inside of and explore more venues.
For now, a full digital twin of the convention center is in the works, and other venues will be able to join the project as they wish — whether through digital twins, or simply a lobby space with more information and perhaps a virtual staff member for eventprofs to interact with.
ACVB staff and that of partner vendors can host private presentations for interested customers and prospects in the virtual park’s amphitheater, which includes a large stage and screen setup. Avatars with admin access can control the presentation on the screen, climb onto the stage, and even use different emotes to look like they’re speaking and presenting instead of awkwardly standing still.
“This is a way to get [meeting planners in distant cities] into the city and meet with our convention salespeople, have a discussion and understand what the convention campus looks like,” says Wilson, “and hopefully, through that, convince them that an in-person visit is really necessary.”
Also coming soon is spatial audio so that users will only be able to hear others within a certain radius, except within the amphitheater, where anyone inside will be able to hear each other perfectly regardless of how close they are.
The experience also includes fun and informational elements that show up based on where you are. For example, as you guide your avatar towards the virtual Olympic rings, you are greeted with a pop-up about the 1996 Summer Olympics. “As venues come on board, there will be the ability to have wayfinding information pop-ups that are proximity based,” explains Wilson.
Atlanta Meta World is powered by Unity, which Wilson notes was important as it doesn’t require much hardware in order to run. “What we wanted to do is make sure that we could just send the link to somebody, and they could just open up a browser and have a pretty immersive experience,” he says.
For now, curious planners (and anyone else) can explore the park and get a feel for the dynamics of Atlanta Meta World, but Wilson hopes that by the second quarter of next year, the platform will be even more robust and that there will be enough partners on the platform to have real site visits.