Rise of the Avatars for Virtual Conferences and Answer to Video Conferencing (Zoom) Fatigue

COME MEET ME AND MY AVATAR, JUNE 1-3

Video chat is helping us stay connected, and employed!

Many of us use and love Zoom, Google Hangouts, and other video conferencing tools for work meetings. Zoom, in particular, stood out for me as it made everything really easy to use, especially the background image effect to cover the inside of (messy) bedrooms or garages with an image of your choice, e.g., forest, beach, SF Golden Bridge, or a fake office background.  This "green screen" feature made Zoom video conferencing calls more interesting.

However, most of us came to know the term “Zoom fatigue," which refers to the mental exhaustion associated with online video conferencing. I personally on average have 5-10 video conferencing meetings per week, with large groups of people..and, frankly, I often do now turn off my camera.

There are many articles and research on why video conferencing calls cause fatigue:

The reason Zoom calls drain your energy - BBC

Zoom fatigue is real — here's why video calls are so draining - TED

Being on a video call requires more focus than a face-to-face chat. "Video mean we need to work harder to process non-verbal cues like facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice, and body language; paying more attention to these consumes a lot of energy. This is exhausting. You cannot relax into the conversation naturally."

If we are physically on camera, we are very aware of being watched. "When you're on a video conference, you know everybody's looking at you; you are on stage, so there comes the social pressure and feeling like you need to perform. Being performative is nerve-wracking and more stressful."

There are articles and research that also propose a few solutions:

How to Combat Zoom Fatigue - Harvard Business Review

We definitely don't want to be that one person in the video call who turns off their camera! But more than ever, we do..

So what's the solution? Perhaps, your Avatar!

The Avatar speaks, while you speak in real time. The Avatar can also look directly into the camera on the call, even when you don't. You can freely get distracted or stretch without having to apologize for not looking into the camera while you were multi-tasking, something that was the norm, before this new-normal! Your avatar will do the "hard work" for you - appear engaged in conversation, speaking your exact words.

I invite you to join (virtually) our VR/AR Global Summit ONLINE Conference + Expo, June 1-3, online. You'll get to meet my Avatar!

Come see me!

Plus, don't miss out on these sessions and speakers:

Remote Collaboration & Virtual Conferences, The End of Distance, and The Future of Work. We took a tour of 150 sites offering a diversity of collaboration and conferencing tools available today, in order to analyze what's working, and gain insight into what's needed. XR is a big part of this story. Charlie Fink, Forbes

Collaboration Tools in VR: Developing Virtual Creativity in the Age of Social Distancing Kiira Benzing ? Jani Leskinen ? Cristian-Emanuel Anton

AR, Deep Fakes, Avatars & AI – and how they might impact on us as a society; psychological, moral and the future of work. Janosch Amstutz, HoloME

Check the full schedule and get Free Access or Premium Access tickets here www.vrarglobalsummit.com

Topics: Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Virtual Reality, 3D