For LG Electronics Air Solution we designed a custom multi-user, metaverse environment to host exciting talks, live Q&A sessions and workshops during the Service Partners and Innovation Days 2020. Thanks to avatars, the digital space was made to feel uniquely human. A huge, specially concepted event stadium made visitors feel at home. Complimented by a custom virtual showroom to explore LG’s product offering. The space was freely explorable, and even had a mini-game to make sure visitors were entertained and engaged between talks.
A new solution for the new normal
With COVID-19 keeping the world apart, we needed to find a truly innovative solution for LG’s Innovation Days. With Zoom fatigue now a thing, it was clear we had to create something truly special: A special unique place to enjoy expert talks and interact with their peers – supporting multiple languages and contents.
Connecting People in an Immersive Experience
A major goal of the LG conference experience was to create a vivid and engaging atmosphere that makes communicating with each other fun and easy. It also had to transport the energy of the attendees’ emotions and feeling of togetherness as they watch a keynote talk together. Thanks to avatars, we could provide all of this. Attendees could inspire each other to follow activities and to explore new places in the space together.
Avatar Customisation and Interaction
As the users enter the experience for the first time, they could create avatars of themselves having diverse customisation options at hand. Once they are ready, they are teleported into the LG lobby where they learn how to take their very first steps and meet other attendees. A small interaction control panel enables users to select animation to great and wave at each other or even start a spontaneous dance.
The Lobby - A Central Place to Meet and Explore
Here’s where it all begins. The place to hang out together and to meet during breaks. From the lobby, you can go through doors to the auditorium stage and the showroom. The environment is characterised by its open design surrounded by water, and its friendly and light atmosphere. An integrated workshop area provides access to the pre-scheduled Google Meet conference rooms and gives attendees a sense of what to expect during their workshop sessions: a busy and joyful meet-up.
The integrated Virtual Showroom
We created a special showroom to bring LG’s air flow and heating solutions into the spotlight. Each product can be viewed and explored in detail. Hotspots explain the specific characteristics of the products and even offer a unique look inside highlighting the most important components to make the functionality more accessible to everyone.
The Auditorium - An Authentic Conference Feeling
Entering the auditorium, users dive into a complete different atmosphere. Lighting and environment harmonise to concentrate all attention onto the wide screen theatre stage. The stage resembles a physical conference stage: transferring emotions and providing options to broadcast the speakers’ video streams together with their keynote slides or playing videos in an ultra-wide format. The chat functionality supports the Q&A sessions during the live event. Watching the stream together and showing live reactions with emojis, clapping and waving hands makes the conference feel so much more like an authentic, busy and exciting event.
Gamification
Key to engagement, attendees have the chance to gain a winners’ badge to appear on their avatar’s head to show their expertise and engagement. The game idea is simple: users have to answer all the questions of a quiz correctly. But in order to master the questions, they will have to explore the complete environment, learn about LG products and be curious about each bit of information that can be found.
A 3D, Avatar-Based Web Experience
We created a web experience based on WebGL technology that allows attendees to navigate freely in a 3D space using their arrow keys or a joy stick interface. Meaning it works on all devices. Anytime. Anywhere in the world. To make the experience feel as immersive and fluid as possible while still providing access for everyone, we optimised the 3D environment and textures for low-end devices. To meet the business context of the conference, we chose a design that keeps the balance between a playful and professional look and feel. Respecting the brand’s CI and branding world.
The foundation for more events
The outcome: Two successfully hosted events with great user engagement that are paving the way for more sociable digital events in the future! The LG Partner Conference proved that avatars do not need to be subject to casual events only, but are there to spice up your digital event, to make it more sociable and entertaining - no matter the industry.
