VR Technology for a new Generation of Learning, Recruitment, Marketing and Sales

By Mike Conway

Monday 7th March 2023

Can you remember when you saw your first website? Where did you see it and what did it do?  

I remember my moment. I had just moved from my consulting career at EY and Deloitte and started a new role as Head of Strategy and Business Development for Standards Australia. In those days I had a habit of reading US News and earlier that year had seen an article about the conference “24 hours in cyberspace” which brought together 1000 of the best programmers, designers, photographers to create a 24 hour time capsule on online life. The released book caught my imagination so much and looking back who could have really imagined the impact the web would have had on us all.   In a short time later, websites were popping up all over the place. Huge effort was going in, to the creation of this new way of working. In the early days, little was known how to really use the technology, but over a few years, people found their way through. 

Humans are good at doing this. Even at Standards Australia, we became leaders in online publishing, opening up global markets for the thousands of printed standards by converting them to pdf with the catalog searchable and with a payment gateway to collect funds. Revolutionary! Now there are almost 2 billion websites in the World (23,000 when I started getting interested in digital business and 100,000 in 1996!)

It takes a while for people to grab such a technology as the vast majority of us prefer evolution not revolution. The early adopters and real innovators are few and far between and in the early days, they tend to be looked at with suspicion. What’s your organisation like? Most are inherently conservative and see innovation after it’s already been proven time and time again. In other words- followers not innovators. Think about this: the microchip, the satellite, the web, the smartphone, MRI, drones, are now all part of life but they all started the same way: Slow, slow take up and then – everyone uses them. Is there anything else emerging of the same ilk? 

In my world there is! 

I can see that five, ten, twenty years from now, it will be obvious. A small few already see it… The practical use of virtual reality solutions.

VR has been around for a while though few know how to apply the technology. Based on many projects in the XV lab, (seven years so far and before the “meta”) we now know there are many practical applications which will give organisations and people an edge in its application and use.

The first of XVenture’s VR-based projects, was a simple but very cool “spot the difference” challenge that was undertaken with the Sydney FC team in 2017. Whilst we’ve now removed the goggles from most VR solutions as we’ve found them restrictive, in the instance with Sydney FC, the project helped a group of elite sportspeople to build social and communication skills. Applying several fundamental aspects in the science of learning: attention; active engagement; error feedback and consolidation. (How We Learn: The new Science of Education and the Brain: S Dehaene).

Understanding how people learn is critical to the power of VR.  For years we’ve been applying learning pedagogies in our work and this is being played out in the practical VR solutions emerging too. People have often asked me how were The Wiggles so good at teaching pre-schoolers? My answer: they know how they learn, and typically that’s because they just do! Applying this principle over the last seven years has helped us in our quest to utilise VR in the most effective and practical way.

Let’s take the next landmark. In building two more projects into a Channel10/TV THREE TV series we noticed that VR increased the level of communication among those participating and that teenagers grabbed the VR concepts very quickly and started taking leadership roles with their parents (our first experience of gamified learning).

This prompted us to find more ways of developing VR solutions for learning and development. We set our stall based at Event Cinemas delivering team programs in Gold Class for the likes of Woolworths and KPMG. However, as covid reared its ugly head, the face to face solutions became redundant. 

With people isolated at home it forced us to find new methods of connection and collaboration; it encouraged a better solution for those trying to learn online and for introducing new people into organisations.

Our effort focussed on this. Working with groups such as Tottenham Hotspur Academy, Gymshark, EY, Scots College, Winning Group, and Football Coaches Australia, we commenced the building of virtual reality branded environments for knowledge sharing and learning, both in and out of the organisation. We built, guided and often times produced multimedia content enabling faster access, faster learning and greater curiosity. Content and messaging that was once sadly ignored was reinvigorated and made relevant.

We also developed and ran over one hundred desktop accessible virtual reality challenges all around the World for groups as diverse as HP legal, ABB, Loop TV USA; Benchmark and Ivey Business School Canada; Chicago Fire Football team; Western Sydney Wanderers FC, the Australian Women’s cricket team and Olympians.

From all these experiences we discovered a myriad of cost effective solutions for a range of real business challenges: recruitment; appointment; onboarding; retention; teaching, learning, connecting and collaborating, brand storytelling, and trading. 

Each “XV Lab” project has encouraged us to face new challenges. We called it the “XV Lab” as we knew that what we have been, and are doing, is cutting edge. Some organisations aren’t ready and fearful of such change. We wanted to prove every project in terms of outcome before we formally released the solutions for the masses. When the CEO of Taekwondo Australia Heather Garriock said of one of our solutions, “I’ve now seen the future of learning,” it gave rise to a state of art Taekwondo Australia virtual Centre of Excellence with content in three other languages (Arabic, Korean and Malaysian) to enable even greater access for learning. Not only is the TKD Centre unique, the live TKD media launch took place in the virtual world!

In late January 2023 we had one of our most exciting and proud moments: the Minister for Education in South Australia announced the launch and support of a new HSC program for year ten students, all situated with an Adelaide 36ers Virtual World environment. The best of sport and education coming together.

Other virtual reality projects have flowed: a commercial building group, Nickaz making their brand come to life; Nuzest supplements selling directly via their virtual world and Eagles Nest, the World class boutique resort in New Zealand. 

Next projects include a major commercial furniture company and a Dutch based 3D photographic group, the solutions of which we’ve never seen the like. Cap this off with the Giants AFL team who have followed Adelaide 36ers suit to establish a schools program for teenagers in NSW and ACT set within their stadium and HQ.

What sets each of these organisations apart is their genuine appetite for active innovation and their commitment to try things out and fast track. The extra benefit they all get? In a few months time they will all be sitting in a digital City where trading, affiliation and connection takes place.

All in all, we’ve now confirmed that VR has a practical place in every organisation. 

We have coined the phrase “COBALT” (Connect; Onboard; Brand build; Affiliate; Learn and Educate; Trade) from the German word KOBOLD which means mischief maker or disrupter!

Still not convinced? We’re now going full circle. The next big project which is just a few weeks away from completion is the next generation VR website: a fully integrated virtual world web site which includes brand messaging, learning and development programs, 3D imagery and video avatars ecommerce and the potential to collaborate in live conferencing in the virtual world. In February, this will be the first of its kind. I wonder how many more will join it in the coming year or two?

So, key learnings: VR is here to stay. It can and is impacting everyday life in innovative organisations. “COBALT” provides the key for focus in integrating it into organisational life. VR can over time take the place of traditional websites. Content delivery and brand representation through VR design is king as is the appetite to lead and be different. This fits nicely into my final thoughts. I’ve just finished the latest Siegel book: “Aware; the science and practice of presence.” A perfect program of work to develop my attention, awareness and intention. Whilst 1996 and the period after this was good to me professionally, I wish I had been more aware to take on board what “24 hours in cyberspace” was really telling me. This time around, I’m older, hopefully wiser and can see that the VR exploration we have undertaken has transformed ideas to possibility and now to probability. Another exciting 24 hour capsule perhaps?