Virtual, Immersive, Engagement, Oh My: A First Step to Understanding

Attending the 2011 Virtual Edge Summit reminded me of conferences I attended in my field of education and training about 5 years ago. That is when we were first seriously exploring the potential of the ideas of "virtual", and "3D" as tools to enhance learning and training. Last week, if I only closed my eyes and replaced the term "event" with "courses", I was having that same experience all over again.

The past 5 years have given those of us in eduction and training the opportunity to dig deeper into the virtual and 3D environments, and enabled us to provide some answers to many of the questions I heard last week in Las Vegas. I realize that answers appropriate for education and training may not be exactly the same for event planning, but my guess is that there is more similarity than difference. Let me try a few ideas here.

- I enjoyed the early session in which key leaders talked about their experience in using virtual platforms as pre-sessions and post-sessions for face-to-face events, along with "broadcasting" the events themselves. Especially interesting was the dissatisfaction with the post-sessions, and their low participation. As I listened to what was done, I recalled our thinking a few years back. Why not develop activities that span the pre-during-post experience? Use the "pre" experience to help raise the questions that need to be answered, use the "during" experience to provide information based on those questions, and the use the "post" experience to pull together the "meat" that was created during the first two experiences to provide some meaningful answers? Use the virtual to provide something more than is possible, rather than providing more of the same.

- While virtual events are intriguing and certainly different, simply adding a virtual element to an event does not make it meaningful, especially if what is added is simply replicating the face-to-face activities. A strong virtual platform allows for activities and interactions that are not possible in the time-constrained, face-to-face event, so why should we limit our thinking? If time is not an issue, which it does not have to be virtually, what might we do to introduce a participant to a product or idea in a more meaningful way? If time, or even gravity was not an issue, what kind of a booth experience would you create to really have people remember your product? Why not do that virtually?

- Broadcasting a live event is fine, and may expand some access, and adding a text/Twitter feed may provide some level of interaction for the virtual participants. But why just offer those virtual participants the same limited opportunity available to those sitting in the conference room? Why not create virtual activities that expand upon the ideas and concepts, and give the virtual participants the opportunity to examine and experience some things beyond what can be presented in the 45 minutes? At minimum, why not maintain a "virtual hallway" where session speakers can spend some time interacting with virtual participants after a session? We all say it's the hallway time that makes a conference most meaningful anyway...why not move beyond "broadcast" virtually as well?

After spending six years full-time and completing a PhD in virtual environments for learning, training, meetings, on-boarding, and more, the primary thing I have learned is that it is not possible to make the most out of virtual environments if you don't really understand their abilities and their potential. With all respect, it was clear to me that many I met at the Summit were committed to virtual environments, at least their virtual environment, but most of them had clearly not spent any significant time "experiencing" virtual environments. They spoke "about" virtual in a very narrow way, making statements such as "It's all about the avatar!", or "Avatars are just toys, and we don't mess with toys!"; statements that may be good sales lines, but reveal a very limited view and a serious gap in understanding "virtual".

Virtual environments come in many different forms, with many different features and abilities. The "best" virtual solution for your needs depends entirely upon what your needs are. The challenge is for you to be very clear about your specific needs, and to understand enough about the differences in virtual environments to know what is possible in addressing those needs. After six years, the best way we have found to gain that understanding is to experience the virtual environments for yourself; not in a sales presentation but in a well designed learning environment.

We have spent six years introducing newcomers to the virtual environments. Our objective is not to sell virtual platforms, but to create an experience for our participants that will enable them to understand what is possible and whether virtual environments might be of value for them. When asked, we can help redesign traditional activities to be most meaningful in the virtual space, but our primary goal is to help you understand the potential of the new space, because until you have that level of understanding you have no way to know what is really possible, "virtually".

If you would like to know more about our immersive learning experience for virtual environments, feel free to contact me at:

john@imagilearning.com

Our next learning experience:

http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=odc4zsdab&...