How to Run Effective VR Meetings with the Right Tools and Strategies
VR meetings have grown increasingly popular in recent years as companies look for ways to bridge the gaps between hybrid workers and enhance team productivity through immersion. Although a virtual reality meeting may not be the same as collaborating with a colleague in person, VR can bring a unique sense of “presence” to conversations between staff.
Nowadays, almost every virtual reality headset supports some form of immersive collaboration app, whether it’s Microsoft Teams and Zoom on the Apple Vision Pro or Horizon Workrooms on the Meta Quest. Why is virtual reality such a valuable tool for collaboration, and how can you host VR sessions that empower, align, and inspire your teams?
Here, I’ll introduce you to the benefits of VR meetings, explore the tools you can use to enable immersive conferences, and share some tips for success.
What are VR Meetings? Meeting in Virtual Reality
VR or virtual reality meetings are conferencing sessions enabled by a combination of collaboration technology and virtual reality. They’re the heart of most immersive collaboration strategies, empowering distributed teams to connect and share a virtual space.
VR meetings essentially build on the benefits of video conferencing to help team members reconnect and share ideas during hybrid and remote work.
Video conferencing simulates face-to-face interactions by allowing staff members to see each other through a video feed, communicate via chat and audio, and share files. VR meetings, alternatively, give team members an immersive landscape where they can represent themselves with avatars and work on projects in real time.
Wearing a virtual reality headset, participants can navigate a digital space, interact with content and tools, such as virtual whiteboards and 3D models, and communicate in real time. Some VR meeting solutions even include pre-built spaces for collaboration sessions, such as all-hand meetings, demonstrations, and training programs.
The Benefits of VR Meetings
A decade ago, VR meetings may have seemed like a futuristic novelty. Today, they’re becoming increasingly crucial to preserving company culture and improving the productivity of hybrid and remote workers. VR meetings and similar immersive collaboration solutions:
- Improve connections between employees: In a VR meeting, team members can represent themselves with a realistic avatar, interact with team members, move freely in a 3D landscape, and even share three-dimensional content. This helps strengthen connections between employees, reducing travel costs, and a company’s carbon footprint.
- Boost productivity and creativity: Depending on the VR meeting software available, employees can simultaneously work together on projects in an infinitely scalable environment. They can design new products, work in 3D wireframes and prototypes, and experiment, boosting productivity while reducing resource wastage and costs.
- Flexibility: In a standard meeting room, participants are limited by the resources available to them. In VR meetings, there’s no limit to the environment or type of meeting you can create. Companies can use VR meeting rooms for brainstorming sessions, sales conversations with customers, onboarding sessions, and more.
Used correctly, VR meetings enhance collaboration, productivity, and employee engagement, drive greater creativity, and help companies reduce operational costs.
Top Tools and Platforms for VR Meetings in 2024
Increasing interest in the benefits of immersive collaboration for hybrid teams and the growing availability of enterprise-level VR headsets, has led to an influx in VR meeting solutions. You can find our complete list of the various top immersive collaboration platforms available today here.
Alternatively, here are some of the most popular tools companies can use for VR meetings.
Microsoft Teams Immersive Spaces
Immersive Spaces leverages the features of Microsoft’s world-leading collaboration app (Teams) and Microsoft Mesh to bring meetings into the metaverse. This solution allows companies to create and customize virtual meeting sessions, leveraging spatial audio, realistic avatars, and 3D content.
Microsoft Teams Immersive Spaces is accessible through Quest devices, like the Meta Quest 3, and desktop computers, ensuring everyone can get involved in a session. Plus, developers can use Microsoft Mesh to insert logic into their immersive environments, access AI enhancements, and assign properties to objects in a space.
Glue
Glue is a popular solution for VR meetings, offering companies access to a virtual platform where staff members can share knowledge, and work on projects simultaneously. The platform includes features like virtual whiteboards, sticky notes, and 3D models for product design. Plus, it can integrate with existing collaboration tools like Trello and Slack.
With Glue, users can build custom spaces, design their own personalized avatars, and even import images, and videos into their environments. For companies concerned about security in the metaverse, there are even enterprise-grade data protection algorithms available.
Igloo
Otherwise known as Igloo Vision, Igloo is a shared immersive spaces company that offers access to VR meeting technologies and customizable metaverse environments. Companies can use the Igloo Core Engine to build dynamic meeting rooms which include integrations to the platforms they already use, like Microsoft Teams.
Igloo’s highly customizable interface allows users to explore ready-made rooms and environments or build unique solutions from scratch. There are also integrated enterprise-grade security features to help defend shared data during meetings.
Remio
Remio ensures VR meetings are just as fun as they are productive. The comprehensive VR platform supports virtual reality conferences, gaming, and training sessions. It’s an excellent option for companies who want to access VR work environments like board and presentation rooms.
The integrated gamification features make it easy to embed team-building exercises into your virtual conferences. There are also plenty of handy collaboration tools included for file sharing, virtual whiteboards, and real-time notetaking.
Virbela
One of the better-known vendors in the VR meetings landscape, Virbela has been influencing the rise of the enterprise metaverse for more than ten years. The company gives organizations access to pre-built solutions for remote work and conferencing, with enterprise-grade security.
There are tools for slide presentations, screen sharing, and virtual events. Companies can even host huge meetings with thousands of attendees at once. Virbela also includes access to meeting features like breakout groups, whiteboards, and avatar creation tools.
Spatial VR
Spatial is another well-known company in the immersive collaboration and VR meetings landscape. Aside from offering companies access to a wide range of tools for immersive learning, Spatial also supports incredible virtual meetings. With the platform, you’ll have the opportunity to build highly realistic avatars for more organic human-to-human interactions.
Spatial VR also offers access to various handy collaboration and meeting tools, such as virtual sticky notes, custom 3D objects, and whiteboards. This app is available on a huge range of virtual reality headsets, including Meta Quest devices.
Arthur
Arthur is popular VR meetings application that gives companies access to highly customizable virtual landscapes. With this tool, you can import and share documents, files, and images in a VR meeting. Users can also design and use infinite whiteboards to brainstorm with their team, take notes, and save them for later. There’s even the option to participate in meetings without a VR headset.
Arther gives companies access to tons of sample rooms and workspaces they can explore, and meetings can host up to 70 participants at once, with spatial audio zones. Plus, Arthur can integrate with a range of productivity and collaboration apps.
Tips for More Effective VR Meetings
Any business or team leader knows just how difficult it can be to host effective meetings. Up to 71% of employees consider meetings unproductive and inefficient. While VR meetings can minimize some common meeting problems by improving engagement and immersion, you still need the right strategy to get the most out of each conference.
Here are my top tips for hosting successful VR meetings.
1. Choose the Right VR headset
One of the first things you’ll need for effective VR meetings is the right headset. These days, companies have a huge range of options to choose from, including the Meta Quest 3, Pimax Crystal, and even the mixed-reality Apple Vision Pro. When choosing your headset, consider:
- User experience: The easier the headset you choose is to set up and use, and the more comfortable it feels to wear, the better your meetings will be. Don’t choose headsets that are going to be hot, uncomfortable, or heavy, as this will distract users from meetings.
- Compatibility: Not all VR headsets offer access to the same applications. If you’re going to be using a common collaboration app like Microsoft Teams or Zoom, make sure your chosen headset can support this.
- Crucial features: What does your VR headset need to be able to do to enable great meetings? Should it be able to track hand and eye movements? Does it need to combine virtual and mixed reality capabilities? Should it feature spatial computing options?
2. Select the Best VR Meetings Platform
Once you’ve got your headset, the next stage is choosing the right VR meeting software or platform for collaboration. Many cutting-edge headsets allow you to leverage virtual reality features enabled by existing collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams or Zoom.
However, depending on your requirements, you may choose to use a different type of software. For instance, you might want a platform that includes access to 3D model imports so employees can work together on a project during their conversation.
At a basic level, your solution should enable the use of avatars, video and audio communication, file and content sharing, and virtual whiteboarding.
3. Prepare Employees for VR Meetings
Virtual reality may be becoming more commonplace in some office environments, but many employees still lack the knowledge to leverage VR tools effectively. Before you embrace the enterprise metaverse for crucial conferences, provide teams with the right support.
Give your staff members access to a pre-meeting orientation session where they can learn how to use their VR headsets and the meeting software. Ensure employees know how to troubleshoot technical problems and who they should reach out to for extra support.
Creating best-practice guides for VR meetings that cover everything from how to design an appropriate avatar to how and when to use screen and file-sharing tools can be helpful, too.
4. Plan Meetings Carefully
Preparation is crucial to a great meeting experience. Before you launch a meeting in virtual reality, establish clear goals for what you want to accomplish during the session. Create a meeting agenda you can share with your team members that outlines everything you want to cover, and make sure teams have access to crucial resources in advance.
For instance, if you’re hosting a meeting to talk about your latest product collection, import images of the product and other crucial documents into the virtual setting in advance. Other ways to ensure you’re planning your VR meetings effectively include:
- Inviting the right people: Choose the people who should attend your meeting carefully, and identify whether they need to be a full VR participant in advance.
- Keep it brief: Pay attention to time. Decide how long your meeting should run in advance, and try to avoid going off schedule. This will help to reduce VR sickness and prevent disruptions in the workplace that reduce productivity.
- Use meeting facilitators: Assign someone in your meeting to be responsible for ensuring the conversation progresses smoothly. Have them keep track of the time you spend in your meeting, and key action items.
5. Use AI to Your Advantage
Artificial Intelligence can be an excellent addition to many VR meetings. With AI tools built into your meeting software, you can automate note-taking, so your employees have more time to focus on the conversation as it happens. AI tools can also help translate conversations or transform them into captions so it’s easier for users to follow a conversation.
You can even use AI tools to create more realistic avatars, or design “NPCs” for your meeting sessions. AI can also summarize your meetings automatically, highlighting important topics and action points so everyone walks away knowing what they need to do next.
Some VR meeting solutions already offer access to AI tools as standard. For instance, with Immersive Spaces in Microsoft Teams, users can access Copilot for AI support.
Hosting VR Meetings in the Future of Work
VR meetings aren’t just a futuristic concept for today’s businesses. With VR meeting solutions, companies can embrace all the benefits of immersive collaboration, boosting creativity, productivity, and employee engagement. All you really need to get started is a VR headset, the right software, and an open mind.
Remember, it’s worth paying attention to the results of your VR meetings over time. Measuring engagement levels, attendance, and meeting outcomes will give you insights into which VR strategies are having a positive impact on team collaboration.
Quelle:
