Exclusive TrailblaXR interview: Virbela

ALYSSA KEAST | VIRBELA | VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE CONSULTANT

We sit down with Alyssa Keast to talk about the future of Virbela’s next-gen metaverse platforms and 3D tools designed to enable live virtual and real world collaboration for everyone, everywhere and the industries harnessing the companies tech for real-time virtual experiences to boost business, training, learning, community and more

Instinctively Real Media has proudly partnered with Virbela and Frame to bring the metaverse platforms to even more creators and users. Support Instinctively Real Media by clicking the button below to purchase your Frame plan of choice.

Please tell us about the Virbela® and Frame™ platforms.
Virbela® is an immersive technology company that builds engaging virtual worlds for remote work, learning, and events in the metaverse. Founded in 2012 by a team of behavioral psychologists, Virbela® is building the next generation of products for the Metaverse and VR to help companies solve today’s biggest challenges associated with a remote and dispersed workforce. With a portfolio of offerings, including Virbela Private Campus™, Virbela Team Suites™, and Frame™, the world’s most innovative companies are turning to Virbela® to create unique experiences that foster collaboration and build community.

Virbela’s virtual worlds and campuses, Private Campus™ and Team Suites™ give global organizations and their people greater choice and control over how they work, connect, and collaborate. Combining the benefits of remote work and in-office togetherness, the platform:

• Provides a digital HQ for companies to build culture and community
• Improves communication for healthier, more engaging remote and hybrid work
• Increases productivity by focusing energy, streamlining teamwork, and tightening cross-functional relationships
• Digitally transforms workplace operations, slashing real estate and travel costs, and lowering carbon footprints.

Frame™ is a web-based beta product from Virbela that brings people together in immersive, highly customizable spaces for meetings, events, and learning. It was built to push the limits in browser-based VR technology and provides an instant and frictionless way to connect online.

• With just the click of a link, Frame makes it easy for people to communicate and collaborate using their mobile device, desktop, or VR headset (no download required).

• Users can create avatars in their likeness and create virtual offices by using one of Frame’s template offices, uploading their own 3D models or requesting a custom office based on images or floor plans of an in-person office.

What type of immersive experiences are your customers utilizing the tech for to engage with their communities, and are some experiences more popular than others?
Enterprise organizations are deploying Virbela to create end-to-end employee experience programs that focus on accessibility, inclusivity, team development, and company culture. The platform is capable of hosting thousands of users at once, recreating offices and events while maintaining a sense of community that video, chat, and email can’t – including recruiting, learning and development programs, company meetings, team offsites, industry events and more.

People are using Frame for online events, trade shows, panels, discussions and education to create a sense of shared space, where they can browse documents, spreadsheets and 3D models, and communicate through voice and chat.

As industry leaders, which events or experiences do you envisage seeing more of in the future?
Our core use cases are corporate events, learning experiences, onboarding, recruiting and remote work company culture. As metaverse technology evolves further and further, we expect to see more gamified experiences to enhance engagement at events.

Can you share informative statistics which are important for future users?
In a recent study done by one of our customers comparing a Microsoft Teams Onboarding experience and a Virbela Onboarding experience, the Virbela experience raised their onboarding program NPS by 80.6%.

Previous studies that have compared Webex to Virbela found similarly compelling results:

ROI STUDY: VIRBELA VS WEBEX A/B TESTING – USER FEEDBACK
Trade Show Experience
– 66% of people participated in networking before, during, and after the Expo experience
– 90% of participants said they would attend another event of this nature in the Expo Hall

Employee Social Night
– 80% of participants preferred Virbela to video call alternatives
– 70% participated in casual conversations before the event started in Virbela (compared to 40% in Webex)

Auditorium Keynote
– 60% of participants mingled and interacted with other guests before event
– 48% said it felt as if they were attending an in-person event

What has been your most memorable project and/or customer and what recent successes has Virbela and Frame had?
One of our most recent memorable projects was an experience we built with PwC for the Cannes Lion Festival 2023, as we completely transformed the standard Virbela campus to look like the French Riviera. For the week of the event, we had daily recaps, panels, and short presentations discussing the content that was being shared live at the festival.

Which hardware do you recommend participants to use? Which ones achieve your desired results best?
Virbela is best experienced by downloading the application onto your laptop or desktop computer, while Frame can be accessed across any device from the mobile web. Both platforms may also be accessed via headset.

Are there any challenges facing your industry sector?
The enterprise metaverse is still in its early stages of development, but it has the potential to revolutionize the way businesses operate. By embracing the enterprise metaverse, businesses can improve collaboration, training, sales and marketing, and customer service.

What do you think are the most exciting trends in your industry right now?
Remote Work and Learning Societal Transformation. Large growing markets with lots of potential to create change, for example VR and AR; remote collaboration; gaming; metaverse.

Are there plans to integrate Generative AI into the platforms, if so, in what ways will this benefit customers and participants?
Yes – we already have a generative AI feature in Frame and we are planning to launch a generative AI feature in Virbela next year. These features let program organizers use generative AI to completely transform the decor of a space, drastically changing the look and feel, and emotions provoked when entering. This feature will give customers the flexibility to reinvent experiences over and over again for each new program.

Are you seeing customers harnessing Generative AI as a creative tool and artform as part of their experiences ?
Yes, in addition to how we are seeing generative AI for decor and space transformation, we are also seeing AI used to create voiceovers, enhance games and scavenger hunts. We even have NPC bots that can be integrated into gamification or just used to answer questions.

What are your aims for the coming year?
In Virbela, we are launching some really unique AI features like generative AI, and in Frame, we are working on the ability to host 1000 users concurrently.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with your audience to help them decide on using your products compared to alternatives?
Virbela isn’t your typical tech company. Our foundation is in organizational psychology and our core values center on building community and fostering human connection. With this in mind, we have a strong human element to the products we offer, including robust support and training at all steps along the way to set our clients up for success. Whether you are hosting a 2,500 person event or want to make an ad hoc experience for one user at a time, we are here to welcome you into our immersive virtual worlds, in the metaverse.

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