Emotional depth and dynamics in digital meetings thanks to virtual reality

Being closely together while everyone is sitting at home – this is possible thanks to the virtual reality technology. For the first time, Uniper ran a real high profile meeting entirely on a virtual reality collaboration platform.

The CIO Damian Bunyan and the Commercial Operations & IT Management Leadership Team discussed key performance indicators and shared success stories, tracked action items, and collected feedback directly in a three-dimensional virtual space. While every senior manager was sitting at home, wearing a VR headset, he or she could interact with other participants, stand up if required, go to the front, or approach another team member.

The virtual representations of the participants, called avatars, created a sense of “togetherness” that goes beyond regular video and telephone conferences. “This technology is in its infancy, but I am sure it will develop… It was great to simply move around and look at people in the room, as they spoke. I also noticed that I was tired after an hour…. I must have been concentrating really hard. In summary, not perfect but I am thankful to those willing to give up their time to experiment”, says Damian Bunyan, CIO at Uniper.

The virtual reality surrounding recreates a variety of social signals: Making eye contact, gesturing at someone across the room during a team building workshop, brainstorming, or collaborative data exploration are possible again – while facial expressions are still limited. Virtual reality collaboration tools are emerging as viable alternatives by sharing immersive spaces with others – it opens a whole new world of communication possibilities.

Moreover, this format will strengthen the bonds and knowledge exchange between onshore and offshore development leads as well as employees from all around the world. VR can be used as an alternative or a complement especially for exercises such as brainstorming or team building, while MS Teams is even more appropriate for other conversations and topics.

By performing further experiments and exploring virtual reality technologies, Uniper strives to improve different scenarios and to provide exciting new perspectives. Development of training sessions for a digital culture based on virtual reality technology is key to learn how to give creativity and collaboration a virtual space in the most performant and effective way.

If you would like to know more about the technology and future plans, please contact Rene Koch.