Holograms: The future for keynote speakers

Source: Laura Baptiste

Who has never dreamt of being at several places, at the same time? Indeed, schedule are sometimes too tight and the diversity of events happening simultaneously forces you to rank them in terms of significance in order to choose which one you will eventually attend. On the other hand, you are just unlucky some other times for not being in the same country or the same city.

Holograms are nowadays making this dream comes true. As an event organiser, you can make the most out of this technology by hosting a speaker, at one place, but for an international attendance. Bring him for example to Taiwan, Los Angeles or Paris while letting him enjoy his dinner with his family in Berlin after his session.

Your public speaker does not need to put a foot on a place anymore, which means you are saving money: no more plane ticket either accommodation or restaurant expenditure. The technology is now allowing you to experience what Princess Leila did during this Star Wars scene: you can convey a message; you can make the people aware of what is happening, even though you are not able to meet them. Moreover, it is not all about doing a skype with you attendees; your gesture, your gait, your very eyes and your entire body in front of the stage make you “physically” there and make the speech way more real and your words stronger than just being on a 2D screen.

Vntana, one of the IT company that is providing this type of technology ensures you true live from one part of the world to the other with less than a second delay, which allows you to ask and reply to the question in real time. They have been involved in several product launches or brand activation as well, putting Roger Federer in the middle of an airport, playing tennis for 12hours in a row and making the visitors amazed by such a performance.

Marketing, tourism and the event industry could then make the most out of this technology by enhancing their offer with an original concept while saving money on the long-term. However, could we really replace human interaction with holograms? Don’t you think this could alter face-to-face engagement and the interest we have in meeting people in person? Is this just a short-lived trend? Are you not afraid of making your attendees bored if so?

Antoine Gagneux and Laura Baptiste

Feigenbaum P. (2017, July 12) Holograms Put Keynote Speakers in Two Places at Once. Retrieved from https://www.smartmeetings.com/technology/100481/holograms-put-keynote-speakers-in-two-places-at-once-event-tech-trends

Play, Win and Visit - Video game and Tourism industry

Play, Win and Visit - Video Game and Tourism industry

In the 1970s, video games began to emerge on the market through arcade machines and game consoles. Since that day, video games have become a real industry in the world and this growing industry managed to merge with other booming industries and vice versa: like the Tourism industry. Indeed, today it is possible to:

• Travel through video games: Ubisoft first mover

Traveling virtually is not brand new, Ubisoft ten years ago with his first episode of Assassin’s creed initiated it through travels in the past. They reconstituted cities at the time of the third crusades where the hero had different missions to achieve. Two years ago, they get a step further by refocusing on the universe of the game without constructing a complete story, the player was more independent. In order to create the best experience possible, designers really wanted to have an accurate reconstitution of cities, to be as precise as possible so that the gamer can navigate as if he was visiting the city. Traveling in the game became a real purpose for the player beyond the missions he should do.

Quotation of a gamer: “Walking through Assassin’s Creed II was one of the most profound experiences I’ve ever had with a video game. They absolutely nailed Venice and actually managed to capture some of that awe it inspires”.

• Travel to discover reconstructed video game universe

                  As we have just seen, we can travel in our living room by playing. It is also possible to choose to travel thanks to video game. Indeed, tourist site had been created to reconstruct scenery of some video games. One of spectacular example is “Witcher School” in Poland. This school was inspired by the saga video game “The Witcher” where we become the hero of it. All the conditions of the game are transcribed in life size. This new trend is called “live action role-playing game” (LARP).

• Travel and play with serious game

                  “Serious game” is a new tool and it will more and more used in the tourism industry. This new trend is a way to learn by playing, which is usually used thanks to a mobile application. For the tourism industry, principally in museum, it is a way to interest young people during the visit of the site, like the Castle of Fontainebleau which have created riddles and games of tracks throughout the visit. There are also many other examples, such as Ingress (created by google thanks to geolocation), Interiago (visit of a city scripted), Urbangaming (professional entertainment), which are adapted today to all age groups.

                  As we can see, the tourism industry is taking advantage of the growing video game industry in different ways and it will become more and more important thanks to the digitalization of our society.

These trends can be a real opportunity for the destinations: they could communicate about it on social medias taking advantage of the popularity of this video games where they appear.

Sarah ALTMAYER and Lena BENOIST 

Sources 

Audureau, W. (2016) Ubisoft, agence de voyages en jeu vidéo. Available at: http://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2016/09/29/ubisoft-agence-de-voyages-en-jeu-video_5005466_4408996.html

Gerardi, M. (2016) Readers explain the pleasures of video game tourism. Available at: http://www.avclub.com/article/readers-explain-pleasures-video-game-tourism-239619

Charleselie (2016) The Witcher school: Le culturel / vidéo-ludique au service du tourisme. Available at: https://jvtourisme.wordpress.com/2016/02/24/the-witcher-school-le-culturel-video-ludique-au-service-du-tourisme/

Charleselie (2014) L’évolution et le futur des serious games dans le tourisme. Available at: https://jvtourisme.wordpress.com/2014/12/08/evolution-futur-serious-game-tourisme/