The Metaverse – what does it mean for business?
Join our Honorary Liveryman Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli in discussion with Liveryman Roz Morris to discover if the Metaverse is a Marketor’s dream or their worst nightmare
18:00 – 19:30, Wednesday 16th February 2022 on Zoom
Are you prepared for sci fi to come true?
The word metaverse comes from a 1992 science fiction novel called ‘Snow Crash’, and it’s used to describe a realm where physical, virtual, and augmented realities converge to create interlinked, persistent, shared, 3D virtual reality spaces. Mark Zuckerberg says he believes the metaverse will be the successor to the mobile internet. “We’ll be able to feel present – like we’re right there with people no matter how far apart we actually are”, he said, last October when he announced the renaming of Facebook as Meta.
The Metaverse has a number of implications as an alternate space for social commerce. Companies that deliver their services or content digitally will find that their presence in the Metaverse will increase their interactions with customers, but also their interaction with other services and products online. The fight for the customers’ eyeballs will place significant emphasis on the user experience in augmented and virtual reality. The look, motion, sound, texture, and ‘feel’ of digital content may become more important than the ‘back end’ functionality of ICT. In short, Michael Mainelli suggests, there could well be a revolution in marketing.
Chaired by Liveryman Roz Morris, this talk and discussion will explore the implications for marketing, in particular the challenge to concepts of space and distance. For Marketors, the Metaverse is their best dream and their worst nightmare – worlds where you can monitor everything, have the customer data, and completely control their environment, while at the same time a space where security and control are highly uncertain.
Roz Morris is Managing Director of TV News London Ltd, the leading media training company, which she founded more than 20 years ago. She is one of the most influential advisers to business and the public sector on handling the media. She has trained several thousand executives across the world, including many top CEO’s in both private, public and third sector roles, to handle media interviews successfully. Roz is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Marketors.
Professor Michael Mainelli MStJ FCCA FCSI(Hon) FBCS, is a qualified accountant, securities professional, computer specialist, and management consultant, educated at Harvard University, Trinity College Dublin, and the London School of Economics. Michael founded Z/Yen in 1994, the City of London’s leading commercial think-tank, to promote societal advance through better finance and technology, particularly famous for its Global Financial, Green Finance, and Smart Centres indices, as well as its technology and financial research. Michael is also an Alderman of the City of London and late Sheriff 2019-2021. Michael is Past Master of the Worshipful Company of World Traders, Freeman of the Company of Watermen & Lightermen, as well as an Honorary Liveryman of the Marketors and of several other livery companies.