A high-end extension of the real world.
It allows global organisations to engage with their workforce and clients, to amplify their brand and deliver exciting, immersive virtual experiences to large, and otherwise hard-to-reach audiences.
MAMAA said so.
We are building the next phase of our mother company’s metaverse presence, and you are all invited.
We are about to embark on a project that I personally have been daydreaming about since we began in 2020. This is the type of work Enter Agora was originally conceived to deliver.
Better still we are not incumbered by the need to keep the work under wraps, quite the opposite, we are actively sharing the process in a bid to help our wider networks understand the potential the metaverse offers in business.
We are building the next phase of our mother company’s metaverse presence, and you are all invited.
— MAMAA said so.
We are about to embark on a project that I personally have been daydreaming about since we began in 2020. This is the type of work Enter Agora was originally conceived to deliver. Better still we are not incumbered by the need to keep the work under wraps, quite the opposite, we are actively sharing the process in a bid to help our wider networks understand the potential the metaverse offers in business.
We are building the next phase of our mother company’s metaverse presence, and you are all invited.
Within International is that mother, and I am blessed to be its Founder, and equally blessed to be the co-Founder of Enter Agora. The path for Within International, like most businesses, was far from linear. In 2006, we placed people into Government Departments to understand and solve challenges faced by people on the front line, from their perspective. After several very successful years (and prompted by the early Conservative austerity policies) we pivoted to look at climate change with the then HRH The Prince of Wales and the United Nations. That led to work in professional Services with some of the biggest businesses in the world, becoming known for narrative-led rebrands and sophisticated campaign delivery. In more recent years our approach to creation and several key hires into our management team, saw us commissioned to deliver advisory communications as much as the sophisticated ‘product’ we are known for.
Then Covid. Stranded from each other, we decided to build a Metaverse product that can truly get us closer together.
I guess that’s a big deal, but the alternative was another fancy dress Zoom quiz and three weeks in these had already lost whatever appeal they initially had. In the four years since its creation, Enter Agora had many successes and overcome many hurdles. Now it is time for the ‘perfect partner project’.
Before we get to that, I wanted to address why you do not hear much about the Metaverse these days. Was it all a flash in the pan? Somewhat, yes. Was it too difficult to build? It is rather difficult, yes. Are computers not powerful enough? No, they aren’t.
Thankfully we fixed all these problems, but then the incredible power of AI landed.
AI’s foundations
AI’s foundations go back to the ‘Analytical Engine’ built by Charles Babbage in the 1830’s but the thing is that now you don’t need ‘Babbage level smarts’ to make use of it today. A good friend referred to the advent of Artificial Intelligence – or at least the advent of public access to AI – as a ‘hype-cycle’. I tend to agree but there is a good side to it.
AI is a key component in how we built Enter Agora. Instead of using it as a shiny new toy, we embedded AI meaningfully, to deliver value to visitors, and analyse the data we generate from those visits. And whilst we see it as a benefit, we believe that the Metaverse, in its prime position, will be the next, new channel that businesses will adopt in droves by 2030.
And why do I think you would benefit from engaging in our journey? Let me explain.
Investment by the FAANG companies (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) is more significant than you might think. The exact amounts are not disclosed, but Meta reports $10 billion(ish) annually, and changed their name to pivot to this emerging technology (source: The Verge, 2021).
In fact, the focus on the Metaverse has changed the unfortunate ‘FAANG’ acronym to the much more insidious-sounding MAMAA. For those of you getting ‘Mother’ flashbacks from Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise, stay tuned.
Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet (MAMAA) are now the go-to collective of influential technology companies, particularly when talking about their market power, economic impact, and influence on technology and society.
So, if MAMAA think it will happen, who am I to argue?
Then there is the technology itself, the discussion around -which is frankly a little dry-, so I will let the IDC explain it:
Technological advancements in virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and artificial intelligence (AI) are accelerating the development of the Metaverse. The availability of more affordable and sophisticated VR and AR devices is expected to increase accessibility for a broader audience. The AR/VR market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.5% from 2021 to 2027, indicating rapid technological adoption that could facilitate the metaverse becoming more mainstream. Reference: The AR/VR market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 36.5% from 2021 to 2027. (IDC, 2021)
Incidentally (just for fun), I watched a short video on LinkedIn years ago that told me that I could never be successful without understanding CAGR, so I learned. My relative ‘success’ remains unchanged, but in case there is any truth in this, here are my learnings:
In simple terms, CAGR, or Compound Annual Growth Rate tells you the average yearly growth rate of an amount over multiple years. It smooths out the growth curve over time, so you can see what the growth rate would be if it were the same each year.
For example, if you invested £1,000 and it grew to £2,000 over 5 years, the CAGR would tell you what the annual growth rate was, on average, to get from £1,000 to £2,000 over those 5 years. The answer is about 15%. Why is CAGR important when talking about the metaverse? Put simply it helps us to understand growth more evenly, and project future growth more fairly (and it makes you sound ‘cleverer’ on Zoom calls with the ‘Big Four’ consultancies).
Instead of turning to the Big Four, we find salient truths when speaking to the new generation. I spoke probably most insightfully with my then seven-year-old daughter. For me, she is still the leading global authority on what the Metaverse can do, and better still, she understands that not everything works the first time but wants to team up to make it the second time. Only the more enlightened organisations (and my daughter), understand technological advancement is not an exercise in risk management, but one of value creation.
I have used her approach to ‘testing whilst playing’ to explain to big businesses why the Metaverse is so important (and shall have to pay her royalties at some point). I explain that when your Teams call does not connect the first time, it does not mean that Microsoft is shit, it probably means that you need to check your settings. When your audio doesn’t immediately work on Zoom, it is not overly complicated, you are just unwilling or unable to diagnose and solve the problem. And when your Wi-Fi dips you don’t throw your router out of the pram, you restart it.
It means you might need to work in fully immersive virtual offices where your colleagues from around the globe can interact as if they were physically present. This could further reduce the need for traditional office spaces, allowing for more flexibility in where and how people work. Our clients in the Real Estate sector will need to start thinking about what a ‘commercial office build’ looks like, will they even need to break new grounds?
Team collaboration will become more dynamic. Instead of video calls, employees might meet in 3D virtual environments, interacting with digital avatars. This could foster creativity and more fluid communication, bringing back those moments of ‘serendipity’ where you bump into someone in the kitchen, like the old days!
Training programs could be transformed, offering hands-on learning experiences in simulated environments. Remote work would become more engaging, lessening feelings of isolation. The ability to create custom virtual workspaces tailored to specific tasks could increase productivity.
However, there is a cautionary tale, the rise of the metaverse could also blur the lines between your work and your personal life, requiring companies to establish new guidelines for digital work-life balance. Security and privacy concerns may intensify as employees share more data in virtual environments.
Despite the challenges, the metaverse holds the potential to create a more connected, efficient, and flexible workplace, reimagining the traditional work structures we know and hate.
There is much still to learn and be discovered in and from the Metaverse.
To follow our build journey between now and the New Year, pop back here for regular updates, interesting observations and previews of progress.
Oh, and we have opened the chat function below, so feel free to ask us questions.
Now 11, my daughter has choices, and one of those is her version of value creation in the Metaverse.
Option one is to absorb the insipid ‘influencer’ content piped into her blissfully unaware eyes via the algorithmic power of YouTube shorts. I don’t like this option much, so I encourage option two, where she and her friends can build a Minecraft sky castle in the clouds and trade with villagers (or mobs) to acquire new assets. And there it is, value creation. Ridiculous perhaps, but in Minecraft the villagers are farmers, blacksmiths and clerics, and influencers are, well influencers (or influenzas as she prophetically used to call them).
The Metaverse has been quietly growing, and not just for 11 years-old building castles in Minecraft. And as the future generations engage with technology from a position of curiosity rather than suspicion, integration of metaverse-related platforms will flourish.
There is increasing consumer interest in metaverse-related experiences, as evidenced by the growing number of users on platforms like Roblox, Fortnite, and VRChat, which are early examples of metaverse environments. For example, Roblox reported having over 230 million monthly active users as of 2024, showcasing a significant user base already engaging in metaverse-like experiences. As these platforms continue to grow, they signal a trend toward widespread adoption of metaverse environments. Reference: Roblox had over 230 million monthly active users as of 2024. (Statista, 2024)
When I speak to my parents about technology, they bemoan the way it has impacted our daily lives, at least my Mum does when she isn’t too engrossed with ‘Wordle’. The challenge with new platforms has always been adoption. The AI hype-cycle I referred to earlier is not led by innovation and curiosity, but by timesaving and cost-reduction, whatever the price to the individual. But the Metaverse is different, it is very much a choice, one that insightful big businesses are increasingly looking at.
The metaverse is beginning to integrate into various aspects of daily life, including work, social interactions, and commerce. Virtual worlds are being used for remote work, social events, and virtual economies, which are rapidly expanding. Gartner predicts that by 2026, 25% of people will spend at least one hour a day in the metaverse for work, shopping, education, social, or entertainment purposes. This trend points toward the metaverse becoming a routine part of everyday activities within the next decade. Reference: Gartner predicts that by 2026, 25% of people will spend at least one hour per day in the metaverse. (Gartner, 2021)
So, if brands are moving meaningfully toward the metaverse to solve the biggest challenges they face right now, what does that mean for you?
It means you might need to work in fully immersive virtual offices where your colleagues from around the globe can interact as if they were physically present. This could further reduce the need for traditional office spaces, allowing for more flexibility in where and how people work. Our clients in the Real Estate sector will need to start thinking about what a ‘commercial office build’ looks like, will they even need to break new grounds?
Team collaboration will become more dynamic. Instead of video calls, employees might meet in 3D virtual environments, interacting with digital avatars. This could foster creativity and more fluid communication, bringing back those moments of ‘serendipity’ where you bump into someone in the kitchen, like the old days!
Training programs could be transformed, offering hands-on learning experiences in simulated environments. Remote work would become more engaging, lessening feelings of isolation. The ability to create custom virtual workspaces tailored to specific tasks could increase productivity.
However, there is a cautionary tale, the rise of the metaverse could also blur the lines between your work and your personal life, requiring companies to establish new guidelines for digital work-life balance. Security and privacy concerns may intensify as employees share more data in virtual environments.
Despite the challenges, the metaverse holds the potential to create a more connected, efficient, and flexible workplace, reimagining the traditional work structures we know and hate.
There is much still to learn and be discovered in and from the Metaverse.
To follow our build journey between now and the New Year, pop back here for regular updates, interesting observations and previews of progress.
Oh, and we have opened the chat function below, so feel free to ask us questions.
There is much still to learn and be discovered in and from the Metaverse.
To follow our build journey between now and the New Year, pop back here for regular updates, interesting observations and previews of progress.
Oh, and we have opened the chat function below, so feel free to ask us questions.
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