A little over a year ago, on October 28, 2021, Mark Zuckerberg officially changed Facebook’s name to Meta, directing much of the company’s efforts to develop technologies and services for immersive experiences.
Last month, Meta released the Meta Quest Pro mixed reality glasses, enhancements to several other devices, and improvements to the Horizon Worlds platform.
Worldwide investment in the project is estimated to exceed US$100 billion.
But developing the metaverse, still without much certainty about what it will be, is not just about hardware or equipment but mainly about content and the ability to develop creative and diverse narratives.
With an eye on this challenge, Meta in Brazil is launching an unprecedented regional project.
The Creative Minds Roundtable gathered nine Brazilian entrepreneurs, including founders of startups, social impact leaders, entertainment entrepreneurs, advertisers, and experts in immersive technologies, to collectively discuss the metaverse in Brazil and the world.
“The first few times he talked about the metaverse, Zuckerberg made it clear that it would not be built by a single company.
“Given this premise, our goal is, especially in Brazil, to bring together, in fact, those who understand communities, the collective, and those who dominate their respective areas to have not one, but several approaches and points of view about what kind of metaverse we are building.
“This first phase of the project revealed to us extraordinary Brazilian talents who have a very lucid and interesting vision about technology and who contribute in a fundamental way to discussing the metaverse,” says Theo Rocha, director of Meta’s Creative Shop in Latin America, the area that leads Creative Minds.
LISTENING AND CONTENT
The project’s first phase began with a round of conversations that brought together a group of big names at the intersection of the technology, creative and entertainment industries, developers, and creators of content in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
From this dynamic, a series of videos was born, in which the participants mainly discuss the primary role of creators to connect people and brands during the journey of building the metaverse, as well as the importance of the optics of diversity and inclusion from the beginning.
All the content is already available on Meta’s social networks in Brazil. “The project is not limited to the nine people initially chosen since we are counting on expanding these people’s network to expand the discussions and collaborations further,” reinforces Theo Rocha.
“How to stay relevant in a universe where everyone can express themselves more creatively and become a creator with high potential to influence others?
This dynamic change in the industry will happen quickly. We believe that the most effective way to help brands think about their role in this new scenario is collaboratively, considering different points of view,” reinforces the Creative Shop leader, explaining that, after this first stage, Creative Minds will remain active as a hub for innovation and fostering conversations about the future of the Brazilian creative industry in the metaverse.
The first round of discussions will feature the following:
- Eco Moliterno (Accenture Song),
- Gean Santos (Favela & Futuro),
- Konrad Dantas (Kondzilla),
- Luciana Haguiara (Media Monks),
- Nina Silva (Black Money),
- Nohoa Arcanjo (Creator.LLC),
- Ricardo Dias (Adventures),
- Ricardo Laganaro (Árvore),
- Roberto Martini (FLAGXC).
The project was moderated by consultant and journalist Cristina Naumovs and counted on the advice of Ricardo Silvestre, creator of Black Influence, Simone Kliass, co-founder and VP of XRBR, and Camila Yahn, journalist and expert in fashion and innovation.
“We are at the beginning of a process in which co-creation will take place in another sphere, much more complex, and that will demand an effort that, until now, marketing was not used to.
“Many of the people we heard from and who participated in this first round express what it is to be a community in their lives.
“And most importantly, the new generations of artists and entrepreneurs don’t wait for investment or initiatives from big companies; they go there and do it,” points out Cris Naumovs, who has been following other projects related to Web3 for brands such as Havaianas.
METAVERSE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Nohoa Arcanjo, Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Creators.LLC points out that the construction of the new Internet era reflects directly on the qualification of the people working in this new ecosystem.
“Training new developers, programmers, and software engineers is necessary. And since we have to train new people, why not train the public that has been undermined until today, that didn’t have this access? A diverse audience to work on these new technologies and bring other visions of culture.”
For Nina Silva, CEO of the Black Money and D’Black Bank movement, it is crucial that in Web3, “we don’t bring the same structures that limit our power to act to new realities.”
“200 years ago, 100% of our attention was focused on the physical world. When TV came along, we started to look a little more at a little window that showed other things, virtual and digital, that were not what we saw in the physical world.
“And in the metaverse, when we have the glasses, we will replace or add layers to the physical world, which will only make things more natural and more integrated into our daily lives,” says Ricardo Laganaro, Partner & Chief Storytelling Officer at ÁRVORE.
“This whole architecture, the whole organization of this blockchain technology, was made for us to organize in the real world. It was made to impact the real world,” concludes Gean Guilherme Santos, digital artist and creator of 2050.cco.
WHAT THE CREATIVE MINDS PARTICIPANTS SAY ABOUT BUILDING THE METAVERSE:
- Ricardo Dias, founder of Adventures, Inc
“Brazil can lead this in the world because it is a country that will not put the passage to the metaverse as a barrier.
“On the contrary, I see Brazil adopting the metaverse with a voracity that perhaps we will not see anywhere else in the world.”
- Gean Guilherme Santos, digital artist and creator of 2050.cco
“All this architecture, all the organization of this blockchain technology, was made for us to organize ourselves in the real world. It was made to have an impact in the real world.”
- Nina Silva, CEO of the Black Money movement and D’Black Bank
“We intend that in Web3, we start at least at the same starting point and don’t bring the same structures that limit our power to act to new realities.”
- Konrad Dantas, creator and founder of KondZilla
“Creators are a class that today produces content without having to go through the sieve of
nobody, without having to have a diploma. Is there anyone saying they can’t? Is there anyone saying it will go wrong? Nobody knows yet.”
- Nohoa Arcanjo, Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Creators.LLC
“We have to train new developers, new programmers, software engineers. And since we have to train new people, why not train the public without this access? A diverse crowd to work with these new technologies and bring other visions of culture.”
- Ricardo Laganaro, Partner & Chief Storytelling Officer at ÁRVORE
“200 years ago, 100% of our attention was focused on the physical world. When TV came along, we started to look a little bit more at a little window that showed other things, virtual and digital, that were not what you saw in the physical world.
“And in the metaverse, when we have the glasses, we are going to replace or add additional layers to the physical world, which will only make things more natural and more integrated into our more integrated into our daily lives.”
- Luciana Aguiara, Executive Creative Director at Media Monks
“They (creators) have the power of communication and construction of this world (of the metaverse) in their hands. The closer the brands are to these creators, the better for them,
because the exchange is huge.”
- Eco Moliterno, Chief Creative Officer at Accenture Song for Latin America
“The idea of creative, of having creative operations, professionals who work with this, brought us here—a whole industry creating new ways to reach consumers, to communicate.
“It was all coined and evolved from the work of creatives. From now on, we are talking about a space environment where you will have to create universes for people to visit.”
- Roberto Martini, Founder, CEO, and Chief Creative Officer at FLAGCX
“In the past, we needed to be in the technology area, or programmers, or coders in some way to be able to access some specific places.
“Today, you can build an entire universe by talking to a machine. At the end of the day, this is the most interesting part because when it is just the same people, we build the same universes.
“The moment we manage to democratize and have expressions from more places, this is creativity because it also brings originality.”
With information from Forbes