“We aim to democratize virtual worlds, so that this is not something that only large companies can do”, Gorka Lorenzo is the founder and CEO of Aglaya Virtual startup. This company, born in 2020, creates spaces in virtual worlds for brands, companies and all kinds of entities, where small events can be held, such as meetings, presentations, roundtables, conferences…
In this interview, Gorka will talk to us about Aglaya Virtual, the metaverse and entrepreneurship, among others.
- What is Aglaya Virtual?
Aglaya Virtual is a technology-based startup that was born in the context of a pandemic, that is, in confinement, which started as a platform for events and virtual worlds, fairs and others. A year and a half ago, we took a tour of our technology and went from focusing only on mass events to creating meeting places for brands, companies and all kinds of entities that want to be represented in virtual worlds, where, among other things, small events can be held, but above all, the world it focuses more on virtual interaction, be it meetings, product presentations, roundtables, conferences… anything that can be done in a social way in virtual worlds.
- How did you come up with the idea?
The startup was founded in 2020. I was in college at the time. I graduated in Entrepreneurial Leadership and Innovation, LEINN, at Mondragon University, and due to the pandemic, when I was in the third year, we had to go to India and China, and due to the pandemic it was not possible.
So, from home, the university accelerated the plan prepared for us in the fourth year, which was a process related to getting to know the ecosystem of startups that existed in the Basque Country, to carry out ideas and processes, with two ‘venture builders’, as a kind of entity that invests in and supports projects from the initial stages . In a way, they co-created the project with you, provide you with resources, and above all, provide you with their expertise and knowledge on a specific topic for launching your startup.
In our case, we were working with Eiwa Space, which is a virtual reality and augmented reality ‘venture builder’ that supports projects based on these technologies.
At that time, we concluded that in relation to the whole pandemic, and due to the acceleration that would occur in the adoption of digital tools in different market segments, we found it interesting to launch a tool to help the trade fair and conference sector, to have a premium platform to carry out their activity, which could not because they did it normally.
Seeing this need in the market, after validating it with a few potential customers and different players in the sector, this idea was launched with the help of Eiwa Space, whose support we continue to maintain today.
- What are the advantages of using these virtual worlds for a company?
There’s a part that’s not about virtual worlds, but that there are these digital repositories so that end users who can’t connect at a specific time or moment can consume that content, and that can be done with a normal, obviously a website where you create a repository with a YouTube video or whatever you want. , but there is one thing that virtual worlds greatly benefit from, and that is that all these experiences can be gamified. That is, you enter a space where an event has taken place, that space can remain as it is, there can be different elements that gamify the experience, the user spends more time, consumes its products or content. Including sponsors within the event, because everything is like a theme park at the end, because it is a very unique experience, which mainly benefits the time spent by the user thanks to the engagement we achieve with this kind of user, by making virtual spaces and events, whether it is a 3D website having When we go to a website and read the content on a flat page, we’re already trying to make everything very dynamic, but we can also create a 3D website where you enter, you move through the space and you have a guide that guides you, you can consume all the content that is on a normal website . Therefore, a very experiential aspect must be made for the user and the feeling of having a different experience in a new channel remains.
- How do you see the future of this type of events? Do you think they will become more and more virtual or hybrid?
Just looking at the facts, I’m not entirely clear that there will be a complete virtualization of this type of actions. Events are environments where human contact is very important and this can be rewarding. Due to the reduction of investment in events due to the pandemic, this type
even if the customs of the event have slowed down, there is a very important point, and this is that when you want to have that presence in an event, it will be face-to-face. So I’m not entirely clear that this is going to be massive. For this reason, we have also made this change from focusing only on events to slightly expanding the spectrum of use of our technology, but I believe that user habits will include experiences in this case. Digitization goes a step further and when conducting video conferences, we will go from being in a Zoom to being in a three-dimensional space where we can move freely and we will be able to continue conducting these meetings naturally, with a camera. in the same way, it’s just that we’ll be able to move around the Area and upload content in a different way.
Users demand experiences and these will become standardized over the years. Adoption won’t happen overnight, it’s a long way off, but the development of hardware and virtual reality glasses and the adoption of these devices in homes and offices will be critical over the next 10-20 years to keep these types of experiences commonplace.
- Does a business need to be online to have a future?
Of course. Now, even if any street-level business thinks that their customer is coming because they’re passing through and loyal, that customer needs to at least be indexed in Google, they need to have a My Business file so they know the correct address, otherwise you’re not going to know how to get to business It is absolutely basic and essential for any business.
We are no longer talking about large companies, because of course a large part of the traffic that is generated is through advertisements to be able to redirect from their website and make an appointment and present their products or services. Even small businesses are well aware that they need to be on the Internet with at least a basic presence.
- Do you think people are familiar with terms like Metaverse? How would you describe it in a few words?
More and more. This commotion with Meta, with Facebook, which is talking about these kinds of virtual environments, has kind of democratized that technology. It has made many people who did not know what it was understand that it is a new way of communicating virtually; it has helped people understand more. Yes, it is true that there are many people who keep confusing the terms. The difference between augmented reality and virtual reality is not clear to the common people, they think that it is about putting on glasses and virtual things that overlay reality are just happening. They don’t know how to distinguish one thing from another, but there is a much more advanced process that understands that there are three-dimensional spaces that you enter, where you move and are represented by an avatar.
The metaverse is a virtual space where people come together to socialize, work or play. And that three-dimensional space is like a video game. It is a space that can resemble a real place, or it can be a fictional space designed to create a unique experience. You are represented by an avatar whose appearance you can change, you can make your hair long or short, change your clothes and give the character a name or nickname of your choice. This virtual identity will represent you and you will be able to interact with those people within that space. That is, even in this type of environment there is temporality.
