The concept of the metaverse has been popularized over the past year with brands and artists leveraging the emerging tech for immersive activations, interactive fan experiences, or virtual concerts.
However, the metaverse also presents important possibilities for things like work and meetings — Facebook launched Horizon Workrooms earlier this year and Mesh for Microsoft Teams will roll out next year — and while the adoption of metaverse technologies for business events is happening more slowly than for fan events, it is certainly happening.
Immersive 3D platforms like exvo by Allseated have already been working to recreate real-life environments and interactions in a virtual space, and others like rooom have indicated their vision of building a metaverse for B2B events.
AR technology company Nextech AR, which recently rebranded as a metaverse company, is jumping on the immersive event platform trend with its newly redesigned virtual platform, rebranded as “ARitize Events 3D,” which is now part of its portfolio of metaverse solutions.
One of the key features of ARitize Events 3D is its ability to showcase products in 3D and AR, making it ideal for events like auctions, product launches, trainings, etc. The platform includes the option of incorporating a QR code for attendees to scan and view AR elements from wherever they are using their own smartphones during an event.
The experience includes 3D Virtual Sets, which is essentially a presentation mode that includes a presenter in avatar form on a virtual stage, as well as 3D AR Showrooms, which allow vendors and exhibitors to showcase AR products in the virtual booths.
Nextech AR also recently launched an AR SaaS offering for ecommerce and has announced further plans to launch a SaaS Metaverse Studio SDK, called Aritize Metaverse Studio, early next year. The Metaverse Studio will integrate all of Nextech’s existing solutions for clients to access and manage themselves. Notably, it will be interoperable with other metaverse platforms, including Meta’s Spark AR Studio and Apple’s Reality Composer.
“After 3 years Nextech is poised to reap the rewards of all our hard work as we continue with the transition of integrating into one unified suite of products implementing our low cost scalable SaaS business model,” said Nextech AR CEO Evan Gappelberg in a statement. “All of our SaaS offerings will live inside our Metaverse Studio which will open up ARitize 3D to the world. Our goal with all our 3D technology is to populate the Metaverse with 3D models and AR visualizations.”