This year we celebrated the first ever Meta Festival – a hybrid festival combining a future-forward virtual and physical experience, with more than 40 renowned speakers and thought leaders from marketing, tech and e-commerce. Around 4,000 visitors gathered on September 23 to talk about the evolving metaverse, current trends and the future of the digital industry while discovering the game-changing 3D virtual world built upon the gaming engine ‘Unreal’.
They call it the new normal. Well, normal isn’t good enough!
Being faced with the challenge that from early 2020 on due to the worldwide pandemic every call, every webinar and every virtual conference looked the same and phenomenons like zoom fatigue emerged, we decided: the so called ‘new normal’ isn’t good enough!
The result? With Meta Festival we’ve put an end to boring virtual events and reinvented the festival experience. We created a first of its kind hybrid landscape ‘Metapolis’ – offering space to learn, experience, marvel and connect.
Food for thoughts
The attendees of Meta Festival could experience forward-thinking talks which circled around the overarching questions of how we will live, work and love in the future, where the boundaries between the physical and digital world are continuously melting, and what chances are enabled through technology.
We discussed questions like: What does the extended self look like in the digital universe? How can brands execute next-level personalization? What is the future of ownership? These are also the types of questions defining the development of the metaverse.
Besides that, interesting masterclasses from experts of leading tech companies like Meta (former facebook) About You or Commercetools offered the opportunity to discover what’s next in marketing, tech & e-commerce.
First mover brand experiences
The metaverse holds the opportunity for brands to create fully realized, 3D immersive experiences and redefine customer relationships. The visitors of Meta Festival could catch a glimpse of that through various brand experiences, like the virtual beach party hosted by Mollie or the virtual puffer jacket installation by fashion brand Bogner.
In Berlin and the Metaverse – we call it Metapolis
Meta Festival brought people together to experience the power of technology. Visitors could either attend the virtual experience from anywhere or had the opportunity to experience the physical event in Berlin. Everyone could personalize an avatar, which made it possible to interact and create meaningful virtual connections.
A groundbreaking meta-technology – the heart of the experience
The virtual event part was realised together with JOURNEE – The Metaverse Company™ through a custom interactive stream technology which creates photorealistic 3D environments. The platform was available to anyone, anywhere, through the browser without the need to install any additional software or hardware.
A tailored virtual Meta Festival world was created featuring the iconic arch architecture and recognisable colour scheme. The panel discussions, talks and presentations from the main stage in Berlin were streamed live and broadcast on giant screens. With the help of custom avatars, users could enter the experience, watch the conference content, network and discover the world with all its special and unique features – whether standing, running or flying.
Our plans for the future
The 3D hybrid experience we created for Meta Festival demonstrates the power of technology to connect people and brands in the context of the continuous shift to a future, where the boundaries between the virtual and physical world are blurred. Nobody knows exactly what the world will look like in a few months, but it is very plausible that virtual solutions will occupy a permanent place in our future. Accordingly we will use Metapolis as a unique platform for hosting a selection of (smaller) events with the vision to make the metaverse tangible – together with our clients, partners and brands. On top of that there will be a second edition of Meta Festival, so stay tuned!
Experience the website
Personalize your experience
We use functional cookies to make the website work properly, analytical cookies to measure your behavior and marketing cookies for ads- and content personalization. We collect data on how you use our website to make our website easier to use, but also to tailor or personalize communication in advertisements, on our website or apps. Data collected through marketing cookies is also shared with third parties. By clicking accept you agree to this. More information? Read our cookie policy.