Immersive Events are the latest feature added to Microsoft Teams. But what is it and why is it important?
Who, what, where, why?
The new system allows organizers to host a 3D environment where employees can participate as avatars. In this virtual space, team members have the opportunity to communicate, collaborate, and participate in training.
The space is accessible via PC and Mac systems, ideal for businesses in the early stages of their immersive collaboration journey. For a more dynamic experience, you can also participate in events through Meta Quest products.
In its announcement post, Microsoft emphasized that organizers will have creative freedom for their events by customizing the look and activities as needed. However, there will be pre-made templates for these simple events.
The service is now available. It is expected to replace the retired Microsoft Mesh.
Store Opportunity
The Microsoft team briefly explains the key benefits of this new feature:
Make your events more immersive and memorable.
We can already imagine it rolling out for product launches, new demos, and big announcements. You may also host several social events during this festival…
The UC platform boasts that immersive events will help create an interactive workspace environment without requiring a single line of code from users.
And ease of use is one of its biggest advantages. Immersive Events are integrated into tools that thousands of companies already use every day, like Teams calendar and chat.
This seems to have opened up a world of collaboration and communication productivity.
What still remains?
As with any new product being integrated into the workspace stack, there will be compliance concerns.
Microsoft says immersive events will be handled by the identity management, security, and privacy systems already present in Microsoft 365.
But it will take some testing to see exactly how this translates to a virtual space full of digital avatars.
Considering the bigger picture, it remains to be seen how much progress this will make in the development of the metaverse.
Earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg highlighted how AI tools can make metaverse design easier and faster than ever before.
However, the criterion for measuring the success of Metaverse is not simply IT innovation, but a change in mindset. These 3D spaces have long been associated with gaming adventures, but now businesses need to recognize them as workplace tools.
final take
New immersive events in Microsoft Teams lay the foundation for workplace collaboration already happening.
But productivity gains must first be demonstrated to spark a cultural shift among corporate decision-makers that will drive adoption.