Overview
On April 28th, Youth Can Do I.T. held our 3rd International Girls In ICT conference. The big difference this year; we hosted the entire event within the Metaverse. 14 awesome presenters joined our YCDI-designed virtual auditorium, walked/teleported their avatars onto the stage, and presented slides live on the screen behind them.
Hosted by the extraordinary Dr. Terri-Karelle Reid, we were live for 6 hours and there were many takeaways for hosting an event in the metaverse.
Here are 5 🔑 Key Considerations When Planning Your Metaverse Event
1. Pre-Work
The success of an event is dependent on the planning that goes into it. Event planners need to be aware of all the important aspects when planning a metaverse event.
Collect the presentations - While the platform you may be using might have a great facility to allow different guests to present their own screens on the day, you want to avoid having this be a provision. Instead, collect all presentations, videos & other media before the day, and test it.
Event Date and Time - When hosting an event with attendees and presenters from different locations globally, it helps to emphasize the date and time of the event, and to always highlight the Time Zone on all outgoing marketing material. That way no matter whose hand it ends up in, they'll know when your event is.
Registration Form & Link - Ensure the link is publicly available to RSVP or pay for entry to your event. Test the flow for yourself all the way from landing on your event page to the confirmation emails.
2. Max Capacity of Persons
When planning a Metaverse event, it is important to keep in mind the needs of your attendees and presenters. The platform you choose will have technical limitations you need to be aware of when setting up your event. This holds true whether it's Mozilla Hubs, VRChat, Fortnite, AltVR, Horizon Venues or another platform.
Estimated Number of Visitors
Room Size matters when it comes to Metaverse Event Capacity. Based on your RSVP interest list, you should have an idea of how many persons will be on your event at a given time. This will allow you not only to select a platform, but will inform the number of moderators you may need on hand to help set the space up.
Reserved Capacity
If you have special guests joining who you want to make sure have spots in the room, consider choosing a platform which facilitates reserved spots for moderators. Otherwise, you might end up needing someone to monitor the Lobby area when speakers arrive
Overflow Capacity Planning
By knowing how many persons your event can handle, you'll be able to account for overflow capacity. This assumes that not everyone will be able to join your hosted cloud instance.
An example of the structure we used for our event is below.
Group | Platform | Detail |
First 35 persons | YCDI Makerspace | Able to enter the room, chat, move around, interact with others and change their avatars. |
After 35+ (36 - approx. 70) | YCDI Makerspace (Spectators Mode) | Able to navigate the makerspace, but without an avatar in the room or the ability to interact with the environment |
Overflow Capacity | YouTube | Live stream directly to YouTube from an attendee's point of view |
3. Metaverse World Building & Hosting Considerations
Upgrading Servers
One critical consideration is the hosting of the event, and by that I mean the servers running under your cloud instance.
For Hubs Cloud, one option is self-hosting your instance.
If you do setup a Hubs Cloud instance for self hosting, you will have much greater freedom over custom branding the space. However it's important to note that the way the server handles load is now in your control, for better or worse.
AWS Burst Scaling & Upgrading
An advanced option is to configure your servers to scale up during the days of the event and scale down afterwards. This will provide you with the ability to only allocate resources and funds to your instance when the time is necessary.
Just remember to scale back down!
World Design
If you're completely new to the idea of Metaverse events, one key new consideration for you is in building out the virtual world where the events are happening. The Metaverse is being used in many ways by schools, churches, big brands and governments to reach their audiences. Each virtual space is tailored to (1) the functions of that organization (2) their audience.
In creating your event space, you will likely need to partner with an experienced 3D world designer to create your own space, persons familiar with tools such as Maya, Blender or Unity.
4. Hosts & Presenter Setup
It is also important to schedule test runs with presenters before the event takes place. This will help you work out any kinks in your event before it starts.
Dedicated Wifi & Space for Host - Make it a priority to provide the event host with their own unencumbered location where they can host the event from. Ensure that as much as possible, they are using a dedicated wireless/ethernet LAN setup for their host device.
In cases where the host(s) will be using a VR headset to present, try to ensure that each headset is connected to its own WIFI network whether directly or over PCVR.
5. Dedicated Role-Assigned Team
As the last point, it's important to figure out who is available from early from the organizing team. This allows you to assign the roles based on who is available on the day. Don't make any assumptions, ask the question.
The success of an event is determined by its planning. The more time and effort you put into the planning, the better your event will be.
This is a new space, and I don't pretend to be an expert in this burgeoning environment of Metaverse event management. However, if you've found this list of learnings useful, feel free to book a consultation below for us to discuss your event.