Instead of video conferencing: They organized virtual reality conferences

CEO Maria Hellström acknowledges:

- We were skeptical from the beginning and thought: No, we really want to be seen.

Conference via video call did not attract

Putting on several hundred conference participants VR glasses and meeting in a virtual programmed reality felt scary.

- We can reduce by 300 people to South Africa - no problem.

But this?

It will be a threshold that you have to cross, says Maria Hellström.

Maria Hellström, CEO of the consulting company Kvadrat, was skeptical at first, but the corona pandemic made her dare to try to arrange a conference for several hundred participants with VR glasses.

In the video, she explains how it happened.

But the corona pandemic made physical encounters impossible and a video conference did not attract.

So when the robot developer Fredrik Löfgren, who was booked to lecture at the conference, suggested that the consulting company Kvadrat should arrange the entire conference in VR, Maria Hellström said yes.

"Teleported us to after work"

- It gives completely different possibilities.

We had our conference in a hall in daylight and afterwards everyone could teleport to a roof terrace in evening light where we could shoot virtual fireworks.

It was so wonderful to hear all the giggles.

You do not get it in the same way when you have video calls, says Maria Hellström.

Robot developer Fredrik Löfgren would actually have been one of the lecturers at the conference.

But when the corona pandemic threatened to cancel the conference, he was instead commissioned to organize the entire conference - in a VR environment.

Watch the interview in the video where SVT's reporter interviews Fredrik Löfgren in the VR world as avatars.

As VR glasses become cheaper and technology better, this will be something that more and more people use, Fredrik Löfgren believes.

- Over time, there will certainly be better glasses that are not as heavy, and there is also research with smart lenses that have a small display in the eye.

So it will be easier, he says.

"Brand new labor market"

After the conference with the company Kvadrat, many interested event agencies - which lost customers during the corona pandemic - got in touch.

- There are many who want to hook on, but there are no event agencies that have worked with this technology before.

So here is a completely new labor market where many who have become unemployed may be able to work, says Fredrik Löfgren.

VIDEO: Follow us into the VR world where SVT's reporters interview Fredrik Löfgren and Maria Hellström as avatars and get an insight into how a conference can go.

Fredrik Löfgren, robot developer from Linköping, has recently arranged a large company conference in VR environment.

Here he is interviewed by SVT in the virtual reality.