VenueGen Hits the Virtual Meeting Market With a Low Cost, Pay-as-you-Go Model Yet is Powerful, Clean and Easy to Use
One of the biggest obstacles the virtual industry has faced is the perception of impersonality, a distinct lack of face-to-face, human interaction. Businesses love the cost savings, but some have been reluctant to embrace the new technology because nothing, they feel, can replace the dynamic of the handshake. With this in mind, VenueGen has created an online experience that seeks to mimic that face-to-face contact as closely as possible. VenueGen’s interface allows users to impose their own face over an avatar, a subtle psychological difference which transforms the avatar from an anonymous “it” to a real person in a real setting. The interface also allows users to convey different gestures and expressions: need, impatience, eye movements, etcetera. In fact, they have published a white paper on their site entitled Gesture Archetypes which condenses and elaborates on a few basic, cross-cultural gestures which translate across societal and cultural barriers. This devotion to creating a real-life meeting experience caused VenueGen to set their product launch back 8 months, but it’s been worth it according to Dave Gardner, CEO of the Virtual Network, Inc.
Check out the VenueGen 3D virtual meeting demo video.
In addition to the reality of faces and gestures, VenueGen’s interface is easy to use. “The thing that’s so neat about this,” claims Gardner, “is I don’t have to understand any buttons on the screen. I can just show up, I’ll appear in my seat, and if I can click the screen and drag around and talk, I’m going to get 85% of the experience.” VenueGen’s surveys have consistently shown that users can learn the interface within 10 minutes. In fact, Michael Doyle, Editor and Executive Director of the Virtual Edge Institute called the on-boarding experience (the process of a new user starting from scratch to becoming productive in the environment) “the most clean and smart interface of any 3D immersive environment.” Once registered for the event, the meeting’s content is automatically downloaded to the user’s desktop, and it appears exactly the same in the event as it does on the desktop. Document manipulation and PDF capability are also possible within VenueGen’s ad hoc meeting spaces.
Security and content integration concerns have been another roadblock for companies uneasy about utilizing virtual technology, but Gardner is confident that they have overcome these issues. The security model is, in Gardner’s words, “pretty tight.” Documents are encrypted when downloaded and the encryption key is sent only when a user shows up for the event. VoIP (voice-over internet protocol) is probably the least secure function of the experience, but, according to Gardner, “VoIP is pretty hard to sniff.” ViVox, VenueGen’s VoIP provider, has a version that can be placed behind a firewall for larger companies with greater security concerns. And as far as scalability goes, their back end architecture allows users to scale into the thousands, although the current recommendation is limited to 50. That, however, is a front-end limitation, and VenueGen is currently tweaking the product so the front-end can accommodate the back-end capability.
VenueGen’s market strategy is targeted toward service-based companies in the 50 million to 1 billion dollar range, although they don’t seek to compete with the ON24s, 6Connex’s or Unisfair’s of the world. Their market niche is primarily smaller internal events rather than conference spaces or large trade shows. With that in mind, Gardner prefers to start small, introducing the product gradually and ironing out the kinks before doing a large-scale product launch. They currently offer a variety of pricing models: a $39/month pay-as-you-go plan as well as a business license, which operates on the same principle as a cell phone plan – companies can purchase a certain number of event hours to use however they see fit; hours that are not used are rolled over to the next month. And Gardner has been able to convince potential clients of the cost savings – tens of thousands of dollars a month – over traditional physical meetings.
VenueGen adapted the Icarus engine for its back-end architecture, although Gardner admits that, after pulling out the parts he didn’t need, Icarus probably wouldn’t recognize its own product. What that engine allowed them to do was to create an interactive environment with a “sense of presence,” which sets VenueGen’s platform apart from the others. “Why do we get in our car and drive all the way across town to sit face-to-face with someone that we could have called on the phone?” Gardner asks. “What is that sense of presence that makes us do that and prefer the in-person experience? That’s what I tried to capture.”
Check out the VenueGen 3D virtual meeting demo video.
In addition to the reality of faces and gestures, VenueGen’s interface is easy to use. “The thing that’s so neat about this,” claims Gardner, “is I don’t have to understand any buttons on the screen. I can just show up, I’ll appear in my seat, and if I can click the screen and drag around and talk, I’m going to get 85% of the experience.” VenueGen’s surveys have consistently shown that users can learn the interface within 10 minutes. In fact, Michael Doyle, Editor and Executive Director of the Virtual Edge Institute called the on-boarding experience (the process of a new user starting from scratch to becoming productive in the environment) “the most clean and smart interface of any 3D immersive environment.” Once registered for the event, the meeting’s content is automatically downloaded to the user’s desktop, and it appears exactly the same in the event as it does on the desktop. Document manipulation and PDF capability are also possible within VenueGen’s ad hoc meeting spaces.
Security and content integration concerns have been another roadblock for companies uneasy about utilizing virtual technology, but Gardner is confident that they have overcome these issues. The security model is, in Gardner’s words, “pretty tight.” Documents are encrypted when downloaded and the encryption key is sent only when a user shows up for the event. VoIP (voice-over internet protocol) is probably the least secure function of the experience, but, according to Gardner, “VoIP is pretty hard to sniff.” ViVox, VenueGen’s VoIP provider, has a version that can be placed behind a firewall for larger companies with greater security concerns. And as far as scalability goes, their back end architecture allows users to scale into the thousands, although the current recommendation is limited to 50. That, however, is a front-end limitation, and VenueGen is currently tweaking the product so the front-end can accommodate the back-end capability.
VenueGen’s market strategy is targeted toward service-based companies in the 50 million to 1 billion dollar range, although they don’t seek to compete with the ON24s, 6Connex’s or Unisfair’s of the world. Their market niche is primarily smaller internal events rather than conference spaces or large trade shows. With that in mind, Gardner prefers to start small, introducing the product gradually and ironing out the kinks before doing a large-scale product launch. They currently offer a variety of pricing models: a $39/month pay-as-you-go plan as well as a business license, which operates on the same principle as a cell phone plan – companies can purchase a certain number of event hours to use however they see fit; hours that are not used are rolled over to the next month. And Gardner has been able to convince potential clients of the cost savings – tens of thousands of dollars a month – over traditional physical meetings.
VenueGen adapted the Icarus engine for its back-end architecture, although Gardner admits that, after pulling out the parts he didn’t need, Icarus probably wouldn’t recognize its own product. What that engine allowed them to do was to create an interactive environment with a “sense of presence,” which sets VenueGen’s platform apart from the others. “Why do we get in our car and drive all the way across town to sit face-to-face with someone that we could have called on the phone?” Gardner asks. “What is that sense of presence that makes us do that and prefer the in-person experience? That’s what I tried to capture.”
Tags: 3D immersive, Dave Gardner, VenueGen, virtual meeting platform
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