Due to the growth of the social media reach on recent years, the word metaverse acquired a whole new meaning in October 2021, when the future creation of what has the potential of becoming the biggest digital universe was announced.

In general terms, metaverse refers to an alternate environment where people can interact. The word usually refers to different types of software where graphic elements are used to build a world with its own rules. Users create an avatar, and, through it, they present themselves to the community with the name and looks of their choice.

Today, the company to which Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp belong to, now known as Meta, has become the bigger one in terms of communications. Even when in recent years TikTok and Twitter have grown, none of them can compare yet to the 2,900 million users Facebook alone has around the globe.

Nevertheless, as Guillermo Pérez Bolde, founder and general director at Mente Digital stated in his conference “Metaverse: the next step for event organization” at IBTM Americas 2022; there is a sector of the audience that Meta’s social media platforms are not reaching. The youngest generation is showing no interest in static content, preferring the opportunity to interact with brands and assisting to virtual events through their own profile in which they show themselves to the world in their own terms.

Even though many people believe that the popularity of metaverses is a consequence of the pandemic and the social isolation, the fact is that this type of technology was already there. Sandbox, for example, is another multiverse that was created for Windows users and released in October of 2012. On the other hand, Roblox has been around since 2006, and Decentraland was available in 2020, just before the pandemic started.

It is impossible to deny the fact that the sanitary emergency maximized the people’s interest in this type of software, but it is certain that the versatility of it would’ve reached us sooner rather than later. As Pérez Bolde phrased it on his conference: “Metaverse is not a game. It’s a business”. The real question is how the industries are going to face it, and when it comes to events, we know they are already happening.

Through concerts, product launches and a whole Meta Fashion Week; digital experiences are offering unique options that wouldn’t even be a possibility in the real world. In fact, a platform specialized in events and exhibitions exists since 2016: Spatial, which was created with the main goal of potentializing creativity and generate events around any topic the user may choose.

Certainly, as Meta is a company with a larger number of users, there is no doubt at some point they will create their own events section to compete with Spatial. However, it is necessary to admit that we are entering the new era of massive digital events, and it is evolving as fast as technology has been doing so since the 2000’s. Have you already started organizing your own metaverse event?

If you want to learn more, you may be interested in reading about the event industry facing the digital world, which will transform marketing in upcoming years.