Google offers a virtual ascent of Mont Blanc, thanks to the cardboard !

As you all know, Mont Blanc is one of the world's most beautiful mountains and is the highest mountain in the Alps with the highest peak in Europe. Indeed, not all the people will succeed in reaching the 15,720 feet ascent to its summit.

Thankfully Google has done this climbing reachable to everybody.

Thanks to a Google Street View climbers team, the western Europe's largest mountain has been captured in 360-degree images.

The general life and ecosphere that accompanies the destination has been captured as well as the snowy and icy parts of the mountain, which can be explored in Street View. Ski shops, how athletes compete in the valleys surrounding the mountain, and the most popular routes 20,000 people a year use to traverse the mountain's difficult conditions is now available from everywhere with an internet connection.

There's a serious side to capturing the mountain as well. The Google team also captured how global warming is changing the natural surroundings: images show how glaciers in certain areas of the region are melting.

"So this Street View imagery also serves as a digital record of Mont Blanc as it appears today, so future outdoor enthusiasts and scientists can look back at this time capsule to see how the mountain has changed," Google explained on its blog.

You can also visit with Google Street view six different places as:

-       The White House

-       The Miniatur Wunderland

-       The Carnegie Hall

-       The British Museum

-       The Brazil’s World Cup Stadiums

-       The Palace of Versailles

Thanks to Google, from last month, we can now climb the Mont Blanc in virtual reality with the Cardboard.

Indeed, Google has chosen Paris Match magazine to be the first press title in France to join its Cardboard technology. It will offer an exceptional ascent of Mont Blanc in virtual reality available for its mobile application and distribute 40,000 free Cardboards, an unprecedented initiative in Europe.

Since last November, 20,000 Cardboards have already been ordered by the public via an online registration system and has been delivered between 21 and 28 January. The start of the experiment has been given the Thursday, January 28: the other half of the cardboard boxes  will be distributed with the magazine Paris Match, in selected outlets (Ile de France region, major cities, Chamonix, St Gervais, airports and stations). Users can then view exclusive content available on mobile iOS and Android Paris Match for an experience full immersion on the roof of Europe. The user is guided by the voice of the mountaineers and mountain guide Gabarrou Patrick, who introduced him to the mountain step by step to reach the top.

Through this unique partnership in Europe, Paris Match will allow the general public to enjoy the Google Innovative Technology of virtual reality through an immersive media experience. This will be supported by a promotional 360 degree device on Paris Match (print + digital + off media & Relay partnership). Proof of the great public interest in virtual reality, Paris Match has recorded since the launch of the operation, within 24 hours, more than 18 000 entries online to receive a Cardboard.

Invented by David Coz, the Cardboard allows with a simple cardboard box, lenses and a smartphone to put virtual reality accessible to the general public. Olivier Royant, managing editor of Paris Match: "We are very pleased to partner with Google Cardboard. The power of the image has always been at the heart of Paris Match and virtual reality now includes the ability to go even further by offering an immersive 360 ​​° experience, in which the user becomes an actor of the content. This is an exciting new field that opens on journalistic content. " Edouard Minc, editor of Paris Match, added: "This major operation, is part of the digital transformation of the brand Paris Match. It demonstrates our ongoing commitment to innovate to meet invent new uses and those of tomorrow. This partnership marks a first step, and we aim to continue the development of content in virtual reality. "

You just need to download the Paris Match app, open it on your smartphone and put your smartphone into the Google Cardboard!

How to make it true ?

Here is the link to make it happens from a computer if you don’t have any cardboard : Explore the Mont Blanc from your laptop !

Meetings and social media: 4 challenges to consider

Nowadays, there is a new trend based on social network such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: the fans and the followers post photos, share news and comment on status updates. They are really involved in the image and communication of brands and for events, feedbacks and reactions on live are also critical elements for event planners to control.


The social media landscape has become essential in order to build a strong community of attendees, promote an event and communicate afterwards about its outfalls.

Scott Stratten, the President of Un-Marketing helped meeting professionals at the Convening Leaders 2015  understand some of the leading reasons why their organizations are struggling in the social media race (for further information, please visit their website ConveningLeader).
According to him, four characteristics and trends about Social media may explained why Event organizers face troubles on the virtual world.

 

 1: People don't want; they Really want

Stop failing in catching attention. Consider using emotions when talking to an audience.

Wondering why no one is bothering to like all those reminders about the early bird registration deadline? Because they all feel like promotional billboards, and promotional billboards do very little to inspire attendees. You have to make it awesome.

“Nobody shares mediocre,” Stratten said. “People spread emotion. We share something really funny or really sad or something that makes us really angry.”
In deed, to make a difference in the multiplicity of information, powerful emotions are the only way to distinguish among others. Remember that on-line users are bombarded with posts that cover everything from what their friends ate for breakfast to sponsored advertisements to pictures of someone’s new baby. Translation: the social media world is very crowded. If you want to stand out from the noise, do something worth your attendees’ time. Make them stop, listen and turn the volume up to make sure other people hear the message.

2: Give voice to your online community

While your communications department can write, revise and refine a press release, social media is the opposite.

“It’s not the brand telling the story,” Stratten said. What communication could be stronger than the one made by convinced attendees? In contrary to a marketing campaign led by the brand, noise emerging from the reactions of people is much stronger and more able to promote company's values.

Organizations can attempt to start the conversation, but the online community members will be the ones who determine its direction.

“Don’t ask them to retweet or to share,” Stratten added. “Put your messages out into the world and hope that they’re worth talking about. Hope the story is good enough that your audience will do the work for you.”

3: Be awesome and not negative!

 

Social media can be a great outlet for sharing good stories and positive reviews, but these channels also act as a platform for voicing frustrations. Be careful not to find your own media platform turn against you to become a bad promotion. When attendees complain about the lack of gluten-free food options at lunch or the temperature in the general session  it’s up to the meeting team to make sure each user’s complaint receives attention. Even facing serious complaint, one should react confident and awesome so that a complaint turn into a memorable story.

4:  #BeReactive

The time lapse between a complaint and its answer is sometimes more important than the actual content of the answer. If an attendee posts an angry tweet at 10 AM, someone needs to reply by about 10:01 AM — sooner, if possible. Being reactive is essential in this rapid-response business environment, “The speed at which we reply is almost more important than what we reply with,” Stratten said.

This carries serious implications for any meeting team that creates a specific hashtag for a conference and asks attendees to use it throughout the conference. A hashtag is a good idea under one condition: a staff member must be constantly monitoring it throughout the conference to respond to questions, needs and negative comments. In deed, whenever you give access to a platform where meet live reactions, tweets and comments, you also need to allocate a representative of the event that may be able to answer to questions, complaints and limit damages in case of hot debates.

“Don’t have an event hash tag if you’re not following it in real time,” Stratten said.

We know how influential, uncontrollable and wide the social media networks are today and for meeting professionals as much as others, they are an undeniable part of the success or failure of a company/event. From the promotion, the on-going and the outfalls of an event, social media are an efficient way to communicate and share; it is also a slippery slope because company may have chosen the brand, they have not so much control on their image.

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