How to successfully host a Metaverse Event

Grand Opening of an Art Exhibition in the Metaverse with non-technical people as guests

In this how-to guide I show you the steps to successfully host your first event in the Metaverse. For me, it was difficult to find a guide or tutorial at all. There is not much information on Facebook and a Google search for "Metaverse event How To" nearly always results in consulting agencies offering their service.

The Metaverse is independent of any product or company but since there is a huge hype about Meta/Facebook who is promoting it, I thought this would be first place to start. It took quite a long time for me to find out, that Meta has got a product called "Horizon Worlds". Unfortunately it is not available yet, and it will only run on a Oculus/Meta Quest VR headset.

I think most people have just no idea about the Metaverse at all , because of missing beginners information and that it is too difficult to try out. I do not want to bring an explanation about the Metaverse here, but with the real example of an art event it is much more fun to discover and learn about it. And you can give it a try.

So how to host an event, if even Meta does not offer anything here? In this guide I recommend one good solution. We bring all important things on the table, have an example, and also talk about what went wrong and what could be improved. First of all, what do we need to host a Metaverse event? And as it turns out, it is pretty much the same as with a normal event:

Finding a reason (me: AI art exhibition)
Which guests: I preferred only friends and colleagues, people who know each other
Location and usage of the rooms
How to invite your guests?
Which music to play?
Who will help you?
Which technical difficulties can occur?
How is on-boarding to the party and will there be unwanted guests?
Many more things like how to dress, decoration, ...

So it is like organizing a real world event with similar requirements (just without the food and drinks) and it is very helpful if you have already experience in organizing an event or party in real life. So this is not like a presentation or a video call via Zoom or MS Teams. It takes several days in preparation.

Reason: I had a good reason because AI (Artificial Intelligence) art is quite new and so it fits perfect in Virtual Space. But to be honest any other reason might be OK. I already made parties in real life just for fun with some funny topics. This is similar here.

Which guests? I made only a private invitation. So it was more exclusive and the people knew it. It also led to many more guests. It seems counterintuitive but throwing a random link on the Internet about your super-duper event is not as interesting as an exclusive private invitation. So for me, I invited about 45 friends and 20 came from different ages and none of them had been on such an event before.

Location: make sure your event is accessible in the web browser, smartphone, tablet and VR. Expect that most guests are not using VR! In my case: none used a VR headset! I used Spatial, what was the best tool for this task. I have no connection with that company and there might be other good multi-platform solutions out there. It is intuitive and easy to use for a beginner. Also, no Facebook account or any other account is needed to join the spaces/event on desktop. For mobile or Oculus devices the Spatial App is needed with a Spatial account. It also shows full body avatars (from Ready Player Me) and not half cut ones like in Facebooks version. That is very important in my opinion.

Invitation: this can be a (free) (online) ticket. I used just a link on a page with a counter to the start time.
What to put on that page:

a teaser image
very important: a screenshot of that Spatial space so people know what to expect; I used one with the teaser image in it
just 1-2 sentences what it's all about
when it starts (plus time zone)
where: Spatial/Metaverse
write that it is an online event
after counter went to zero show the target (Spatial-)link
give instructions about how it works: "Follow the link which will be provided here after opening. On a mobile device or Oculus Quest you need the Spatial App. On PC or Mac just use the Browser. Voice can be activated on devices (audio permissions required) for communication."

Landing page with invitation for event

Welcome guests: provide help after the people arrive in your virtual room. I put a screenshot about how to activate microphone. Also write a welcome text about what the exhibition/event is about. This is very important.
Test everything before: voice, music, changing avatar. And test it on all devices. Also test the link to the event. In my case there was a blocker bug and that link didn't work on mobile. Luckily the Spatial team fixed it within a few days.

Avatar choice: use a nice dress or suit for your avatar - you are the host. Also choose an avatar which looks more or less similar to yourself.

Music: play some background music. In Spatial this is difficult. I could only upload around 30 MB of an empty video with music. Put the video at the ceiling, make it very large to access volume to set it very low and then zoom it small. Set music to repeat.

Rooms: in my exhibition I have a main room with the entrance and art. I also added a lounge room for hanging around with slightly louder music and also some art. The rooms are separated in so-called "Spaces" in Spatial. Portals connect the exhibition room and the lounge. Explain the guests how to use it - best would be a colleague who helps the guest and explains the portal. Here is a whole map:

Map of the exhibition using two Spaces

Decoration: I added an animated character, a dog (made with Blender) flying around the building (this was a super difficult task). This is fun but not needed. I also put some static items like a champagne bottle, some wine glasses and a ghetto blaster near the music location.

Animated flying dog: external 3D models can be integrated

Communication: only use audio in falloff mode so people can talk in groups. This is a huge difference to an online video call. People can go around and communicate to each other in small groups.

Images: never use PNG as file format. Only use JPG in Spatial: it loads faster. There is also a problem that images are sometimes not loading. Reloading helps here. Also try to optimize 3D WebGL content.

Reminder: send/post reminder a few hours before the event.

Presentation: I gave a live presentation how AI art is created via screen sharing (integrated feature in Spatial) for small groups.

Feedback: ask leaving guests about their opinion of your event. In my case I got amazing feedback and some shared their experience in Social Media.

Date & Time: for this kind of event I recommend to host it during the week. Most people are busy on the weekend. For a company event work time would be best. For private events like I had 8 pm is pretty fine.

What went not that great, lessons learned. Some things I never expected went different.

Most people came at the same time. In real live, e.g. at a party, most people will come one by one, and you can say "Hello", offer them drinks and be a good host. But online people are used to exact schedules like Team calls. I never expected that. Around 10 people came in the first three minutes the event started. It is impossible to handle such a situation even with some help. A solution might be to explain in the invitation, that the event will last for hours, and they can come at any time.
Most people made fun of it and used a fake name. For me as host it was not easy to know who was standing in front of me - even if it was one of my best friends. This was a huge problem. A solution might be that at last the first name should be real and the welcome message in Spatial should be configurable (see below). In a more public event this is not a problem but for a private party people should be able to identify each other.
Some guests had a lot of background noise. A solution could be using a "mute" feature in Pro mode.
Some guests cared a lot about how their avatar looked. They wanted to post a photo of their avatar and the event in Social Media. I recommend to make some video of the event for Social Media as well. With Facebooks New Horizon using half cut avatars this would not look very natural. I do not understand why Facebook have overseen this in their implementation.

What is missing in Spatial and could be improved (list of small things)

There is a list of the people currently in a room but not a list of people, who have visited the event at all.
There is no information about what device the guests are using. So it is difficult to help them.
Most important: a push notification is needed in case a new guest is coming. The host might be in another room (lounge in my case) or has already closed the browser at the end of event (and another late guest wanted to come).
MP3 for longer background music playlists. It should be easier to set low volume for background music.
Bigger name above avatar
Personal on-boarding message (multi-language!) before one enters the room and chooses a name. It should be possible to change names for an event, if the user has already got a Spatial account. This is very important. If real world names are required this should be an option.
They should think about an optional browser based solution on mobile as well or using the app without having an account - maybe only for an event.
Integration with third party user databases like Active Directory is crucial to have success with company events.
There are no statistics about ongoing visitors after the event has finished if the space is still open: how many people are visiting the space for how long at what time?

What are the problems with the Meta/Facebook solution (list of huge problems)

Only supporting VR Headsets like Meta Quest is definitely the wrong approach. Most users will not switch form a smartphone, tablet or a PC just to enter the Metaverse.
The half cut avatars look too ugly and are not really a reason to publish a photo about a visit on Social Networks.
Also showing Mark Zuckerberg as an avatar is too much Uncanny Valley and Anti-Marketing.
The provided show "Are we there yet?" on YouTube summarizes the weirdness of their marketing: in several quite long videos the moderator is having interviews with people connected with the Metaverse while sitting in a car and having animations around. They want the user to understand what the Metaverse will be with questions like "Create a giant virtual banana to go rock climbing on it?". I think there is a reason why Meta is deactivating comments in YouTube below such videos.
Not starting with small ideas and events, but instead offer it as a platform for half-baked and too ambitious ideas like virtual weddings or music events might be the wrong approach. Why should someone put a VR headset on to meet unknown half-cut people in the Metaverse to see a live concert on a large video wall rather than just going to a real concert with friends or watching it on Apple-TV at home on the coach without strange people around?
Facebook had success with the right solution of a Social Network at the right time. Now with their Metaverse product and service this seems not to be the case. Maybe they can only be successful by buying another company with a better product? Better focus on a platform for some small things that are easy to access.

Summary

Hosting a Metaverse event is pretty easy, unless you have many custom 3D objects like sculptures or 3D versions of products to be integrated. Most effort for preparing and running the event is similar to a real life event. The target group can be anybody with internet access of any age without the need of deeper tech knowledge. Also, there is no Facebook account or any other account needed using the browser on a PC. Comparing the well thought and well running Spatial solution with FB own "Horizon Worlds" it is clear, that the FB one will be DOA (dead on arrival), if they do not change their whole strategy.

So how can I try the Metaverse now?

Click here to go directly to my exhibition. There are probably no other guests now. If you want to try out communication, you should have a colleague joining you.

Who am I?

I am Nicolay Mausz, founder and CEO of flying dog software. We develop products like our Workflow or Social Network for large Enterprises. We are considering to integrate a solution like Spatial in our Enterprise Social Network product.