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IT’S a project that shows how two organisations that have never met face to face – and are thousands of kilometres apart – can fuse technology and innovation to fundamentally change the way companies treat their staff.
Proving that distance doesn’t matter in terms of collaboration, a UK-based company and Australian outfit XVenture combined to produce a world-first virtual-reality experience which unites a global workforce.
The outcome is a major contribution to the debate over how companies and their staff will adapt to a “new normal” in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and how businesses can use emerging technology to embed a workplace culture.
For any company to bring 700 employees together for a huge well-being festival – those staff mingling around four big tents and four live stages with 25 main acts and nine side shows – would be remarkable enough.
When those 700 employees are spread across the UK, Germany, the US, Hong Kong and Mauritius – and never even left their home cities to be part of the festival – the result shows in breath taking detail the possibilities for how companies do business with their own staff, as the world grapples with finding pandemic-driven new ways of operating.
On April 16th 2021, 700 employees from five countries – separated by tens of thousands of kilometres - tuned in for over 18.5 hours of the virtual-reality world- based festival.
The festival featuring 25 artists, entertainers and presenters via a fully integrated livestream solution (provided by Brightcove) was brought to life thanks to the global creation and delivery of virtual-reality learning and development programs by Australian company XVenture. This latest creation cements their position as a leader in virtual-reality conference and festival solutions.
Remarkably, executives at the two companies have never met, but began collaborating in the realisation that traditional ways of working had been turned on their head in the past year.
Here’s the lesson. In this new era, there are no more geographical boundaries. When trust, innovation, disruption and rule- breaking are the common denominators of two organisations, then together they can create and deliver an extraordinary experience.
“Since starting XVenture, our team has always been on a relentless pursuit to pushing the boundaries in relation to technology, engagement, production and creativity,” said XVenture CEO and founder, Mike Conway. “I’m always looking for great people and organisations to join us or to partner with us who are can-do, disruptive and curious about creating ground-breaking experiences.
“When we were thrown the challenge of creating and delivering the festival we said ‘yes’ immediately. The idea of expanding on our repertoire of what we’d been doing in creating virtual-world learning experiences globally, TV series work and incorporating our years of knowledge and expertise across digital and live production, made this an opportunity we simply could not refuse. The opportunities for brands globally to grab hold of the fully integrated solution we’ve created are endless. It’s such a joy working with innovative brands and we’re excited about what the future holds.”
Gymshark’s Founder, Ben Francis said the following on LinkedIn about the event: “On Friday Gymshark hosted the first-ever GSHM festival for our staff members! As we've been unable to hold any IRL staff parties, we wanted to give something back to the Gymshark staff. So, we asked XVenture to create this mind-blowing virtual festival for us! Our Gymshark Healthy Mind team did an incredible job on the line-up, from workouts, to cook alongs, Journalling, Science, DJ's and comedians. We gave all staff a day off of responding to emails and Slacks and focus on what's important - mental wellbeing….”
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