Focus on the Change: Takeaways from Immersive Media DQ Symposium
Last Wednesday, I had the opportunity to attend the World Economic Forum’s DQ Symposium: XR+, co-hosted by the DQ Institute, Games for Change, and the IEEE Standards Association. DQ also is shorthand for ‘Digital Intelligence’, similar to EQ and IQ. The symposium sought to explore how VR/AR/MR technologies can inspire positive social change.
The DQ event was filled with speakers and panels discussing the opportunities and challenges facing XR and gaming. The topics of the day ranged from digital literacy to Gen Z to barriers of innovation to the role of multi-player experiences. In addition, there was an XR for Change Arcade, so attendees could try some of the experiences firsthand.
Here are some of my takeaways from the XR+ Symposium:
- Respect Your Audience: When developing and marketing technologies, don’t forget who you are making it for and how to message it appropriately. Students and teachers have different needs, Gen Z and Boomers as well. Gamers definitely aren’t all men 18–34. Hiring people who reflect the audience you target is one approach that companies should consider. Building experiences that resonate with a specific target is key.
- Solve a Problem: Content and new technologies need to be relevant first and foremost, especially if you are asking people to learn and experience something new for the first time. This especially holds true when you ask someone to wear a VR headset who hasn’t tried it before. Make sure you answer the question, “Why should I put this headset on?” And then “Why should I put it on again later?”
- Develop Games for Good Fun: Everyone enjoys playing. Many XR education tools have tapped into that love of game play, AND they encourage student learning. Non-for-profits have also used XR to raise awareness and for training. Creating a fun game is a way to encourage both education and repeat usage.
- Enable Inclusivity: Tech companies and game developers should find ways to simplify experiences to allow everyone to play (e.g. an adaptive controller, fewer buttons to push). Gaze tracking, gesture mapping, voice control can help to do that.
- Plan for Tech Evolution: It’s important to realize that there are two paths that converge when it comes to XR. 1) The storytelling, communication, and/or education goals. 2) The VR/AR/MR technology. Focus on the 1st first, and then allow for the technology to built around to support those goals. Even if the tech isn’t where you want it to be at present day, eventually the tech will catch up to your vision.
- Look at the History: Even with a technology that is as revolutionary as XR, you can still learn from the launch of movies, TV, the internet, and mobile phones. AI’s recent signs of inherent bias should be taken into consideration when developing XR applications. So plan ahead by looking back and learning from it.
- Understand Data and Privacy: Privacy and data use was top of mind at the event, especially with the 2020 election around the corner. Everyone agreed that the answers will become more and more complicated as new data (e.g. biometric, movement) and new analyses of that data (e.g. psychological states) become available. Technology and XR companies will need to make a conscious — and likely public — choice on what kind of data and how they use it, in an easily digestible format.
So “How [Is] Immersive Media…Changing the Way We Learn, Interact, and Advance as a Society,” as the DQ Symposium asked? To me, it felt like we are just beginning to understand. There is a lot more discussion to be had, opportunities to develop, and policies to be written. But what was clear that XR companies need to determine their own active role in social change — whether it be deciding how to manage user data, how to create an adaptive version of their game, and/or how to join in the development industry-wide XR standards. Not actively making a choice, especially around data and privacy, won’t be a choice for much longer.
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Thank you to Cezara Windrem of AARP Innovation Labs for the invite to the event.
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Samantha G. Wolfe is Managing Partner of We Are Phase2, an emerging technology agency/consultancy that works ahead of the curve. Sam is an innovative marketing and branding strategist driven to empower companies and executives to make the never-been-done-before a reality. She co-authored the book, “Marketing New Realities: An Introduction to Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality Marketing, Branding, & Communications” and wrote the “AR & Brands” chapter in the book “Convergence: How The World Will Be Painted With Data.” Sam has spoken about the future of marketing and emerging tech at SXSW, the Miami Ad School, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the VR Voice, and the Augmented World Expo (AWE). Sam runs the largest XR Marketing group on Facebook, is a Board Member of SXSW Pitch, and an advisor at XR Ignite. She has been named a Top 23 Women in VR, Top 101+ Women Leading the Virtual Reality Industry, and a Top 10 Most Influential Women Leaders.
