How Killing Zombies in Games Helped Inspire Better Remote Meetings

Written by michael-brooks | Published 2020/08/07
Tech Story Tags: remote-work | remote-working | remote-teams | remote-working-tools | remote-workers | remote-working-tips | latest-tech-stories | improve-remote-meetings

TLDR Michael Brooks is the CEO of goLance and the author of REMOTE iT! He used gaming headsets to combine virtual workspace technology for meetings. Games kill zombies and virtual workspace can be fun and productive in the same room. Virtual worlds are here to stay, so enjoy them! Read my book on Amazon about how to run a thriving business in a virtual world. Back to the page you came from: http://www.michael-brooks.com/rereporter-i-qt/reporter.com.via the TL;DR App

Are you “Zoomed Out” and looking for a new way to engage with your remote teams in this age of COVID? Sure, I’m grateful that Zoom, Slack, Skype, and other resources have made it possible to meet with people remotely.
These apps are particularly critical since business travel has been
pretty much shut down for about six months. Because I run my business
from anywhere, and the freelancers that support my company and clients also work remotely, it’s still business as usual for us.
But I wanted more than just what was simply usual. Yet I didn’t realize that playing games killing zombies would take me into the virtual world of productive and super-fun business meetings.
Here’s a little background to help you understand how this experience unfolded. I like to travel globally and meet with freelancers, business partners, and clients, but I soon realized that these options weren’t going
to be available for a while.
While I really appreciate being able to spend more time with my family now—one of the huge silver linings of the COVID restrictions—I still needed to do something to make up for missing out on conferences and in-person meetings. That meant literally using game-changing technology for meetings.

From Games To Meeting Rooms

Suddenly, the answer became clear. A friend, who is also a client of mine, sent me an Oculus Quest gaming headset earlier this year so that we could stay in touch. We’d take our avatars and play mindless games while catching up on business during these sessions.
When you have the headsets on, you block out all distractions and interruptions and have meaningful conversations.
Then it dawned on me. What if I combine gaming headsets with virtual workspace technology for meetings with some of my key team members? That’s just what I did, and the results were amazing.
I sent out headsets to some people, and we used our avatars to get together in the same virtual room, look at presentations, and discuss business. Some of us were thousands of miles away from each other, yet we were all fully engaged in the same room (without the Zombies).
These meetings have been extremely productive, great for morale, and offer an exciting way to stay connected. Virtual worlds are here to stay,
so enjoy them!
I discuss these technologies in more detail, along with other topics in REMOTE iT, my new book on Amazon about how to run a thriving business in a virtual world.
So, if you’re ready for fun and incredible productivity, consider how
gaming technology can make a difference—with or without Zombies.
(Disclaimer: The author is the CEO at goLance)

Written by michael-brooks | An award-winning entrepreneur, speaker, and author.
Published by HackerNoon on 2020/08/07