ACC 2022: Futurist Mike Walsh challenges business leaders to dive into the Metaverse!

Asian Carriers Conference 2022 started its first day with a bang with the keynote presentation from futurist and best-selling author Mike Walsh!

Mike Walsh, CEO of Tomorrow

'What Leaders Need to Know about the Metaverse'

With the support of the Philippines' leading telco PLDT and wireless unit Smart Communications, the Asian Carriers Conference 2022 was packed with multiple learning sessions for over 600 attendees listening in on Mike Walsh's plenary keynote presentation. The 'CEO of Tomorrow' implored business leaders to step into the Metaverse and the various layers of opportunities that their businesses could benefit from.

He categorized these into three: Interfaces, Interactions and Infrastructure.

“Think of the Metaverse as a massively scaled, decentralized, blockchain-enabled computer. This network makes possible not only entirely new kinds of hybrid digital experiences, but more importantly, the creation of entirely new business models, new value delivery platforms and new ways of working,” Walsh explained.

Mike Walsh says that for the Interface category,  businesses need to re-imagine the delivery of their customer experience. One example is the Travis Scott concert held in the popular online game Fortnite. Another example would be in the online Roblox platform and the virtual universe creator platform Zepeto where new partnerships have accelerated the dive into the Metaverse.

Companies can also create digital versions of their products such as the NFT version of apparel and shoes from Nike and Adidas.

For the Interactions category, he showcased the need to build communities and not just campaigns which successful Metaverse brands have done. “what they've done well is build an active community on platforms like Discord, or other messaging platforms where they're not just trying to recruit or sell their products, they're making their customers evangelists.”

On Infrastructure, the Tomorrow CEO advised leaders to design their assets for de-centralization and take a bottom-up approach like how AI Tech company NVIDIA granted free licences for its Omniverse software to artists and creatives to spur the building of virtual worlds.

"The Metaverse calls for new leadership capabilities"

“The enterprise metaverse will integrate a wide range of emerging technologies and radical organizational design ideas to challenge how we work, from manufacturing to collaboration to strategic decision-making,” Walsh continued.

He ends his keynote presentation with the reminder that the Metaverse will need new leadership capabilities and skills. He then asked the audience to ponder on which skills and capabilities could those be.

What do you guys think?