The Economist Summit Shows that the Metaverse is Still Here

Blockchain Beach attended The Economist’s 2nd Annual Metaverse Summit, featuring business leaders from across industries. Although web3 and consumer Metaverses have seen drops in users, many believe that there is growth on the horizon. In addition, the enterprise Metaverse is showing concrete use cases.

Meta may be focusing less on Metaverse this year, but it’s still a priority for them:

Senior director, global policy campaign strategies at Meta, Kevin Chan, says that the metaverse is about bringing people together @economistimpact pic.twitter.com/XP90klcLON

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) October 10, 2023

And Sir Martin Sorrell, the Founder of WPP, the world’s largest advertising agency is also bullish:

The metaverse had had unfair criticism according to Sir @martinsorrell. He has been seeing “huge” advances in healthcare, wfh, and other areas. @economistimpact pic.twitter.com/xP8e2QwlU9

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) October 10, 2023

Oil company BP uses the Metaverse to run simulations:

VP of Global Deisgn at @bp_plc @rogerrohatgi says it’s not enough for the company to run simulations in 2D. They use the #metaverse to test growth strategies and how to keep people safe @economistimpact pic.twitter.com/g8oWEgM2AC

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) October 10, 2023

And the industrial Metaverse may already be worth $100B:

According to @e_liz_dc @XRAssociation, the “industrial #metaverse” is a $100B market, much larger than the consumer metaverse @economistimpact pic.twitter.com/XLKJRYBcHs

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) October 10, 2023

Heard of Nvidia recently? They’re working on Digital Twins:

Per @mpgeyer, Head of digital twins and industrial metaverse @nvidia, digital twins have saved 30% in time and tens of millions of dollars when building new factories @economistimpact pic.twitter.com/LxSbiaF0rm

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) October 10, 2023

Price Waterhouse Cooper uses NFTs for internal pilots. Once their employees understand the benefits, they can better bring it to clients:

Web3 and digital assets lead @mblumenfeldeth on an internal NFT program at @PwC. Successful engagement from employees because of rewards that matter to them, like private dinners with executives @economistimpact pic.twitter.com/6NldLZYq3j

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) October 10, 2023

Warner Music has continued their web3 ethos, even when web3 is not the hot topic:

Vice-president of Web3 and innovation @warnerrecords, Jacqui Bransky, said that she’s had to do non-blockchain NFT-like activations recently, but kept the web3 ethos @economistimpact pic.twitter.com/rgi8OAI8zD

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) October 10, 2023

While Ab InBEV (Budweiser) continues to build in web3 via gaming:

Head of web3 @abinbev, Adi Abili, says they launched an NFT collection in connection with the video game they are developing. They had to dox the team to gain trust with the community @economistimpact pic.twitter.com/GRP89C0Hkt

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) October 10, 2023

And Mars knows that their products are often impulse buys and uses that context for when web3 makes sense:

North American digital content leader @MarsGlobal, Brienne Coates, says their candy is often an unplanned, impulse buy. Her goal is to make web3 fit into that pattern @economistimpact pic.twitter.com/E0WGcF2aV9

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) October 10, 2023

Finally, the experts believe that NFTs will mature in the next 2-3 years!

Half the panel believes NFTs will mature in the next 2-3 years. @mblumenfeldeth reminds us that what you build now is what you will capitalize on later/as soon as six months from now (if you try to build it later, you will be way behind)@economistimpact pic.twitter.com/p0qqckDoZW

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) October 10, 2023