The virtual office of the future is on its way! If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know we’ve been intrigued by the concept of the Metaverse—the idea that we are living in a digital world that is beginning to merge with our physical Reality.
Imagine working from home but in the centre of a huge open space, where you’re free to wander and connect with people from all walks of life. A world where the virtual office can now be taken to the next level. This is the future of the virtual office, and it’s finally here. Virtual Reality (VR) technology will change the way you live and work. Today, it is used for entertainment, training, and gaming. In the future, it could change your daily life in profound ways.
1. What is the Metaverse?
The way we work is changing. More people are working remotely, more people want flexible work options, and more people are re-thinking what it means to be in an office. However, some challenges in remote work still need to be addressed.
As a solo founder, the ability to interact with others can be extremely important. Even more so if you are working in a team. Collaborating with the right people can make or break your business. The clients who use our virtual offices in Regent Street and in Wimbledon are in exactly this situation. Many of them work from their house or local coffee shop using our address and secretarial services to present a professional face to the world. Imagine though, that instead of spending your working day sitting at your kitchen table you can have meetings and work in a bright, modern, luxurious office space without leaving your home. It takes a moment to get your head around it but this is what VR provides and the Horizons Workrooms from Facebook or the Spatial Workspace from Microsoft can offer you.
I tested this software out myself and I was amazed at how seductive the process is. After registering with Horizon you pop on your Facebook/Oculus headset and you are transported into a totally credible virtual office space with your desk, your regular computer screen and a choice of views from the window. You customise your office with family photos on the desk, your logo on the door and a choice of office furniture. I decorated the wall in my office with a large Hold Everything logo and a mural of the London skyline.
Already, canny developers are selling virtual furnishings and embellishments for your workspace. If you feel lonely you can order a ‘meta pet’ to share your office with you. You may have read about NFT’s which are digital representations of real items like artwork and fashion clothes that are sold in CryptoCurrency well, these can all be imported into your VR office space to personalise it.
2. How does the Metaverse Work?
The Metaverse is the convergence of two concepts that have existed for a long time: virtual Reality and digital second life. Virtual Reality has always involved some sort of online interaction, while the concept of Second Life has always involved real-life interactions. For decades, technologists have dreamed of an era where our virtual lives play a critical part in our everyday life. As the amount of information that can be stored, shared and transmitted continues to grow, these dreams continue to become a reality.
In theory, we would be able to spend our time interacting with our friends and colleagues in virtual space. As a result, we would spend money there, too, on outfits and objects for our digital avatars.
Virtual Reality is becoming a reality as more and more people begin to experience the virtual world. While it’s still far from perfect, VR is quickly becoming a popular experience.
You carry motion-sensing controllers to interact with virtual objects and use a microphone to communicate with others. That’s how you control a robot!
As business picked up, companies are now trying to get back to work, but with COVID-19 still hanging over us, many are worried that the risk of bringing everyone back together is still too high. As a result, many are working remotely or using tools like Oculus VR to simulate the meeting experience. Some have even started to offer more than traditional meetings and are allowing people to interact from all over the world. One company is even offering a party where you can see your coworkers as their own characters.
3. What does Horizon Workplaces offer?
The Horizon Workroom is an office space that is very comfortable to work from home. It has all the necessary facilities like a large conference room (very similar to the one you will find at our 207 Regent Street ‘bricks and mortar location.
That is perfect for working professionals who are looking to conduct meetings, seminars, and so on. The Horizon software includes a whiteboard that you can walk up to and write on and other participants can watch. It also has a spacious boardroom that can accommodate a maximum of 14 people, and it is ideal for team building sessions. It also has an area where you can conduct your business and do some brainstorming and other activities.
There is also a lounge area which can be used by the working professionals for their relaxation.
Workplace culture is always changing over time. Thanks to new tools and technologies to make virtual meetings even easier and greater demand from employees and management for more flexible work models and schedules, people are moving towards hybrid work. Many people want to return to the office regularly, but some will never want to return. The workspace of the future needs to accommodate everyone! If you have been using Zoom to get you through the 2 years of Covid disruption you will be pleased to know that Zoom are busy building a sophisticated integration into the Meta Workplace interface and I would guess also into Microsoft and other platforms.
“A year from now, hybrid meetings will be the norm,” says Shiraz Cupala, product leader for Microsoft Teams Meetings Platform Innovation. “So the question becomes: How do we connect the pieces so that everyone has equal access to information and an equal voice at the table when we’re all in that hybrid room together?”
Just as digital documents created more efficient ways to annotate and collaborate, new digital tools are offering new and more effective ways to share content and information during the flow of a meeting. “We’re working together, we’re commenting together, we’re having a conversation, and we’re making the changes in real-time,” says Cupala.
The office will no longer be a place we visit, but rather a place we visit virtually. The Metaverse is where advancements in virtual reality, augmented reality, and robotics will all converge to create a virtual world where we work and live and play as well. We believe that the Metaverse will make working and living a much better experience for us in the future. Hold Everything has been a pioneer in remote working for more than 40 years so we have the experience to help blend your hybrid workspaces for years to come.
