Mesmerise, a UK-based technology company, will host up to 250 people in virtual reality (VR) as part of Morningstar’s flagship annual investment conference.
The conference will take place this week, from 22-24 September.
While the physical event will still take place in Chicago, the 2021 Morningstar Investment Conference will also see hundreds of attendees join in VR, helping individuals in financial services meet and network, from any location they choose.
As part of their conference registration, attendees will receive sent a headset in advance of the conference from Mesmerise. Through their headsets, they can create bespoke conference schedules and attend speeches and panels virtually. Attendees can also participate in VR-only ‘Meet the Manager’ events.
VR guests will be able to mingle as digital avatars, communicate with one another in a group setting and organise one-on-one meetings with other attendees.
Building on Morningstar’s previous VR conference experience, the 2021 conference will see the introduction of more advanced and life-like avatars, based on headshots submitted by attendees.
Leslie Marshall, head of experiential marketing at Morningstar, commented: “We want Morningstar events to be as accessible as possible to a wide range of investing professionals. We chose to work with Mesmerise to not only open-up the conference to people from all over the world, but to also create exciting new experiences for our guests to learn and collaborate.
“From the feedback we have received in previous years, we know that our guests find the conference VR experiences memorable, intuitive and engaging. It’s a significant milestone in technology innovation for our sector.”
Andrew Hawken, CEO and co-founder of Mesmerise, said: “Our ongoing work with Morningstar is showing just how effective VR can be for engaging and connecting people in the corporate world – especially at a time when people’s ability, and willingness, to fly across the world for events has changed dramatically. We are pushing the boundaries even further this year, creating VR experiences that far exceed what the physical world allows. “We’ve only just scratched the surface for what we can achieve for global businesses through the world of VR and it’s a very exciting time to be a leader in this sector.”
