It is a word.
We are hearing a lot of these days,
but it is a word not easily defined.
The metaverse, which in simple
terms is a 3D model of the Internet.
By using VR or virtual reality
we can create all kinds of new
worlds without leaving your own
neighborhood or your own city or state.
Recently I visited the Atlanta
headquarters of Exploring Inc,
where digital technology reigns supreme.
When you and I are talking about the
metaverse, what exactly does that mean
to someone who's sitting at home going?
I don't know what the metaverse is, you
know that's a good question.
I think everybody has their own
definition of what the metaverse is,
so we had to formulate ours,
and I think that's where you
bring in virtual reality.
3 dimensional models on your screen
on your cell phone and be able to have
those emotional connections in a VR.
Phase or in a 2D space.
So in the short term you're all
set to go in Cobb County where
people can come out and experience
these games which are incredibly
real and alarming. Quite frankly,
I love that you know that's the
whole idea of bringing out the
emotion and making an experience.
It's not an arcade,
it really is something that is unusual
and unique that we have multiple
people in an environment free walking.
So you're really yourself inside of an
immersive environment is very incredible,
so it's more than just games though.
I mean the potential here.
Is to be able to. By automobiles.
By clothes I mean everything in our
lives can be touched by the metaverse
and probably will in the decades to come.
I think that's a great point and
I think that's why there's so much
potential in this environment.
I mean, we're already working in education.
We're working in training,
so we're working with companies like
Abbott and Emory University doing
training and education for students.
It's really quite amazing to see all
these markets starting to develop,
so education would be
impacted by by which way.
Let's say you're taking a history class.
You could meet Julius Caesar.
You could meet Winston
Churchill and talk about 1939.
It's just your imagination,
but when you're immersed
inside of an environment,
you remember things so much more.
In fact, the statistics tell us it's
about four times more that you're
going to remember in a VR environment
with the glasses on than not,
so it's pretty powerful
and you've got the Braves now
involved in this as well. Well,
that's right, you know,
you think about where virtual
reality is headed. In Atlanta,
the Braves started digital Truist Park,
and so now you can go behind the scenes
you can actually toward the clubhouse.
You can meet the players.
You can get immersed in the Braves history.
There can be rewards that you get
in terms of the seating and what
you experience at the stadium.
So now they're having an all
immersive experience and we're
going to see more and more of
that with the attractions here.
I think like the College Football
Hall of Fame, the aquarium,
a way to get people behind the scenes.
Well, the growth of this is,
you know, mind boggling. It truly is.
Yeah it is. I mean,
you have lots of great companies here
like exploring digital that are starting
the virtual reality escape room.
But they're also companies out there
like vestigo that are creating
experiences for leadership.
Teams where your team can
literally climb Mount Everest,
cross the crevasses and actually
do that as a team without having
that risk of taking your entire
company out in the field.
Those are the kinds of things
that we're going to see in the
virtual world that people just
haven't experienced today.
How do you think this could change?
Potentially the financial world as well.
I think it's going to have a huge impact.
Atlanta is already a big financial
technology center right now,
and I think that we can be
one of the leaders here in the
Metaverse and the megaverse.
As you've seen here on site.
And that's going to have a huge impact.
More jobs, more dollars to the city,
other ways that we can grow.
Revenue in Atlanta and it's
where we're becoming a leader,
Jeff where we weren't before you
used to be Silicon Valley and and
what's happening in New York City.
But now Atlanta is really becoming a
hub. You got here in the late 1970s.
Could you have imagined that
all of these years later,
45 years later or so,
that you would be immersed in
something that would have been?
Impossible to even comprehend
in your wildest imagination.
Absolutely not. In fact, back in 1977,
we were building physical environments
to keep up with the demand,
and that's really now we're building
them in the virtual world. So, no,
I don't think I could have imagined this.
But Atlanta is the right place to start
it. Do you think it is like a match with?
You know a brush fire in
that once people start to see
this in a very small snippet.
Whether it's a game Oregon.
You know that it that it will
lend itself to being more
practical to everybody. That's
a great point because I think once
you experience this immersive
technology and being in VR,
it actually does open up
your mind to what could be,
and that will keep things
growing and growing and growing,
and people will want to do it.
I think right now they're not used to it,
they don't know it, they don't know
what to experience and what to expect.
And so far the the response has been
overwhelming and it's really fascinating
to see what's going to happen. You
can try the. Virtual escape room
at the Sky Zone in Roswell and
soon to be at stars and strikes.