Unfortunately, recent years do not favor offline communication. First, there were quarantine restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, now the war forced many employees to relocate to different regions of Ukraine or flee abroad. However, companies still need their teams to meet regularly. Fortunately, modern technologies allow us to gather in virtual space. Like, for instance, it happened with Sergey Tokarev’s company ROOSH* managed to have a meeting on New Year’s Eve thanks to the Party Space platform.
The platform allows you to hold an event online yet with the effect of people’s presence in the same room. It allows you to organize a panel discussion aligned with a presentation on a large screen, to hold various competitions and events. Just like in the real world, you can hear only those people who are nearby. However, in virtual space, it is easy to adjust the volume of background music or put your colleagues on mute if you want to focus on a certain action in the room.
When you start using Metaverse for the first time, it requires some time to adapt. However, it rarely takes more than 20-40 minutes. There are also tips and guides to help with this. To enter the virtual platform, you need to create an avatar. In some versions, it is enough to upload your photo, in others, your avatar can be customized: you can choose your hairstyle, clothing, accessories, etc. Then you need to learn how to move in the metaverse, to master the mechanics of this world, to get used to the fact that you can interact with pretty much everything around including paintings on the walls.
This is not the first event that Sergey Tokarev and his colleagues hold in the virtual world. In the summer, Roosh turned two years old. This date was also decided to celebrate in Metaverse, on the Gather platform. Back then, the corporate party lasted almost four hours. The event started with partners speaking on the scene, then there was a tech quiz and a virtual auction. According to Oleksandra Borodina, the Roosh creative communications director, the auction lots were chosen according to their relevance and the interests of the team. Among them were knitted items by Ukrainian brand Gushka Wool, wine bottles that survived after the missile strike at a Good Wine storehouse, a discount to the restaurant in Kyiv Chinahi Privet, etc. In total, the auction helped to raise about 300,000 UAH which were later distributed between Ukrainian charity foundations.
Another bright moment of the metaverse event was a stand-up performance of Vasyl Baidak. For him, it was the first time that he experienced such a format for an event, so, as he later confessed, he required some time to find the right hall where he had to perform on stage.
Communication in the metaverse can be challenging as you may face issues that you do not have in real life, such as no Internet signal. However, in general, the metaverse is a very fun and positive experience.
*Note: Roosh is a Ukrainian technological company established in 2021. Its founder is Sergey Tokarev. The company specializes in investing and launching projects in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Currently, Roosh technological ecosystem includes Pawa Venture Studio, Roosh Ventures Fund, Community Building AI House Platform, Set University, and two startups – Reface and ZibraAI.