3 Learnings from our first public conference in 3D about the Future of IDC

If you have been following our blog, you will know that we have worked on What future for International Cooperation and Development? To present the ideas to the public, and even take forward the work with some ideas for practice, we held a conference in the 3D world of Immersive Terf (which will soon change its name to Virtend). In the session the nearly 20 participants from a wide variety of organizations and four continents learned about and commented on the scenarios, and then discussed their implications and what types of projects/programmes/activities are robust in these scenarios. For this short report, let me focus only on 3 particular things we learned in the course of the conference:

1. It was remarkable to see how very quickly everyone in the room learned to use the space. After 15-20 minutes we were all focused on the content, and even forgot that we were working in an unfamiliar software.
2. It felt much more like a normal workshop with the possibility of switching between plenary discussions in a large room, group work in small break-out rooms, and a nicely decorated space outside in the green for informal exchange.
3. A few technical issues (for example old computers with not outdated software) were a challenge. But as 3D spaces are just starting to boom, it is likely just a question of time before these issues are overcome.

We are still in the learning curve of how to use the full potential of a 3D space, but this is definitely something that we will continue using – until it will be maybe one day not be an experiment anymore, but everyday business for everybody.

A big thank you to everyone involved. It was a lot of fun! We will keep you posted what we are going to do with all the ideas we got from the workshop.