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Nirit Cohen – WorkFutures
Angela Howard – Culture Expert
Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
Despite WeWork pivoting away from its not-so-convincing label of a technology company, the coworking operator is adopting something that is undeniably techy: hologram-enabled meetings.
While it’s easy to make the assumption that these holograms will appear from a droid in a Star Wars-like fever dream, the reality is not as eerily futuristic. Simply put, WeWork will host events that will feature speakers in front of a green screen in a different location than the event itself.
WeWork has entered a deal with Canadian company ARHT Media for this technology, which will be installed in WeWork locations across the globe.
The technology works like this: whichever WeWork is hosting a panel or event will have a big piece of audiovisual equipment on the stage that displays the holograms. Coined a HoloPod, the gadget is around five feet wide, ten feet high and looks like a large TV with a partially transparent screen.
“It’s about as close to having a natural in-person experience that you can find with a person at a remote location,” said Hamid Hashemi, chief product and experience officer at WeWork.
So far, WeWork will install ARHT’s equipment at sixteen of its locations by the end of the third quarter, with plans to expand this technology to as many as 100 WeWork spaces in the future.
