Positive Social Change: Microsoft Summit 2017

360dgrees and Microsoft – showcasing how interactive reality is shaping the face of connected retail at NRF 2018

Just over a week ago, Microsoft launched their free global Tech Summit in Sydney. This is their first ever attempt at this event, and a success story which will now move ahead into 13 other countries. This first summit took place at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Sydney’s Darling Harbour from 14-17 November and brought C-Suite/BDMs, Partners and the tech community together over the course of one week. The conference provided expertise, skills, and connections for businesses and individuals to network, discover, and share their solutions in a digital landscape that is transforming at an increasingly rapid pace.

The Summit was kicked off by local Microsoft managing director Steven Worrall, who announced that “cultural transformation is the vital ingredient to any successful digital transformation”. Microsoft’s global head of industry, Toni Townes-Whitley elaborated on a similar theme, asserting that public and commercial leaders have a responsibility to establish business success that delivers a positive social impact. “Global companies like Microsoft need to think of the broader societal implications and transform responsibly,” she said, a statement that strikes a chord with what we are trying to achieve at 360dgrees.com.

360dgrees.com was the first ISV (Independent Software Vendor) Microsoft partners that were selected & invited to participate and showcase within the beating heart of the summit – the expo area. We were hugely excited to be involved as this is the world’s first expo where ISVs were included in the Data and AI story. As Microsoft partners, the Summit was a fantastic opportunity for us to share our transformative solutions, make new connections, and strengthen our existing relationships. However we also find the key themes and ideas shared at the conference to resonate strongly with our drives and beliefs, with a strong emphasis on success being driven by “the ability of companies to adapt both their leadership and their organisations for the digital era” as Worrall put it.

New technologies and solutions, like 360dgrees.com, are defining incredible new business opportunities at a rapid pace. From the global macro view to local industry deep dives, it’s a tangible solution to advance organisations’ digital transformation. But significantly, we are dedicated to ushering positive social change by revolutionising the way safety training is delivered. The fundamental goal of the 360dgrees.com platform is perfectly summarised by Microsoft’s mission statement – “empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more”. This is the core promise of our platform, to simply deliver the advantages of interactive reality software to anyone. The feedback from our customers and partners throughout the course of the week was overwhelmingly positive and we look forward to the future.

To learn more about 360dgrees.com safety training, visit 360dgrees.com/safety-training/.

How Mixed Reality Gave Me Purpose & Made My Daughter Proud

How mixed reality gave me purpose and made my daughter proud
Written by Toby Ellis, CEO at 360dgrees.com 

I’ve worked in the Innovation and Technology sector for a few years now, but it was a simple yet really confronting question my 8-year-old daughter asked me at breakfast one morning that forced me to think about technology, what I do, why I do it and helped to pivot the focus of our entire organisation. I’ll get to her question in a minute… 

I want you to think about training. Imagine safety training for a warehouse.  There are 10 people in a room and none of them want to be there. They would all prefer to be back doing their jobs. They’re working from a folder and in that folder, is a question. That question is “should you be looking at your personal device while walking across the warehouse floor where there are forklifts and PT’s operating?” Now, no-one gets that question wrong, but it doesn’t change behaviour because the second they leave that training room they’re all on their mobile phones.  

Now I want you to reimagine that training using our 360dgree.com platform. First, the participant puts on the Mixed Reality headset and is immediately immersed in the environment. They are in the warehouse. They take the point of view of the person walking across the warehouse when they hear an SMS and a phone appears at the bottom of their view. They look down to read the text and in that split second, they are hit by a forklift.  Sounds a bit rough right, but not nearly as rough as not getting home to your kids. 

Did you know, that in Australia at the end of August 115 people had died as a result of workplace accidents and that that number is higher than the corresponding period last year?   Workplace accidents cripple people financially. A global number of cost is touted at $6bil but the impact on individual families is devastating. You see the problem is, traditional safety training produces poor real participation rates, low knowledge retention and is done in abstraction of consequence. 

Our Mixed Reality Training Platform creates immersive, interactive, gamified training experiences that makes it impossible to not be present and engaged during the training. We turn training into a game where you make decisions and learn by doing not by reading and data tells us that when you learn by doing you can lift knowledge retention from 5% to 75%. When you experience consequence, you get to feel the outcomes of your decisions and that’s what drives behavioural change.  

You become the forklift driver, the nurse, the student, the teacher. You’re not doing the training, you’re in the training. Actively participating, making decisions and experiencing the outcomes of those decisions. 
If safety and training are important to your organisation and you aren’t taking advantage of Mixed reality technology then please reach out to us today as we have a platform that can help you tomorrow. 
Now, back to that question my little girl asked. Matilda said “Daddy, how do you make your money?” At the time, my answer was “Ï help people see things differently using technology.” It was a cool answer but it lacked purpose. I wanted more purpose. My parents are teachers, my wife’s a teacher, my brothers served in the navy, I have cousins in the police force and friends who are nurses. I wanted more purpose in my work. I didn’t like my answer so I sought to change it. Now, our platform is making a real difference to businesses and communities. The next time my kids ask me how I make my money I am able to say, “Daddy helps people go back to their families the same way they went to work: Safe.”

To learn more about 360dgrees.com and how we drive real outcomes through virtual training, get in contact with us or visit 360dgrees.com.

Consequence, Participation, Retention: The untapped value of MR Training

The untapped value of Mr Training
Written by Toby Ellis, CEO at 360dgrees.com

There’s a problem with traditional training:

  • Real participation rates are low
  • Retention of knowledge is low
  • Training is delivered in abstraction of consequence

And it’s not the fault of the training teams, the people taking part or the organisations: It’s a symptom of the tools at disposal not helping. Technology is to blame! But it doesn’t need to be. Mixed Reality (MR) Training is enabling organisations to reimagine training and pedagogies, to deliver improved results and a renewed enthusiasm on the part of the participants.
Let’s take a step back. Imagine a traditional training session at work. There are 10 people who are attending the 2-hour session away from their desks/jobs. Despite the very best of intentions of participants and trainers, too often the below is the real outcome:

  • 4 people are thinking about what they are going to do after work or at lunch
  • 2 people are consumed by the thought of all the work they could be doing if they were back at their desk
  • 1 person is reminiscing about the time they saw the Wallabies win the Bledisloe cup, on the siren, with a John Eales conversion in his very last game
  • 1 person is fading in and out of consciousness and is lucky to have the support of their colleague next to them who is providing some well timed ‘nudges’ to keep them from being noticed
  • 2 people are listening

I exaggerate to emphasise… but you get my point. In this example, there are 3 main problems:

  • Participation is low. In this example, only 20%.
  • Knowledge retention rates are low. Retention rates from learning by lecture are as low as 5% when compared to retention rates of 75% when you learn by doing.
  • This training very rarely lets people really understand and experience consequence of actions – what is the outcome and why is it important. So it becomes task focused, not outcome focused.

A lot of effort and a large commitment by everyone, that deserves a better result.

Fast forward to the same training delivered using MR Training.

  • The training is a game delivered using Mixed Reality. They put on the MR Headset, then get immersed in a game that shows them real people, asking real questions and each decision they get to see the same people show them what the consequence of that decision is. As if they are right there and it is happening to them in the 1st person.
  • Each participant can go through the training as part of a team or on their own, when it suits them.
  • The training team and organisation get access to the rich analytics of the MR Training for each individual and as a team/organisation to identify trends and think strategically about training needs.
  • The training can take a fraction of the time and the team are pretty excited about taking part in MR Training!! Let’s not kid ourselves… it’s cool!

MR Training solves problems we saw in the traditional approach.

  • 100% participation rates. By its very nature, MR Training is fully immersive. Try thinking about lunch or what you’re doing after work when you have an MR Headset on and are playing a Training Game!
  • Retention rates through the roof: from 5% retention rates for a lecture to 75% retention rates from ‘Learning by doing’ as a result of the gamification of the training.
  • Consequence brought to life: MR Training lets people experience consequence, without being in a position of danger! Outcome focused.

So, you’re left with more people participating, retaining more, with an opportunity to experience consequence.

These are exactly the sorts of outcomes 360DGREES.COM are helping enterprises achieve by challenging and innovating the way they deliver training. No longer a tick in the procedural box… training that delivers real outcomes. But it’s hard to explain… get in touch with us and we can show you so you can experience it for yourself.

1 Source: National Training Laboratories, USA
Banner image modified from original by Patsy Lynch @ FEMA Photo Library

5 ways technology is changing the work

5 ways 360 video is changing work

All around the world, jobs are evolving thanks to technology such as virtual reality

Technology is all around us. So much so that some people are fearing for their jobs. The perception is that their skills will be replaced by robots and they’ll find themselves out of work.

While many jobs are now relics from days-gone-by (think the ice delivery man, the vinyl record manufacturer and the switchboard operator), what technology does do is create opportunities for new jobs. For example, the aforementioned jobs have given way to the refrigerator repair man, the digital sound engineer and the online customer care consultant.

An article recently published by Forbes about whether or not technology will be responsible for economic turmoil caused by job loss concludes that “Technology doesn’t create new jobs for people to do. It frees people to go off and invent new jobs to do, ones which meet some other human desire or want.”

So what kind of jobs will technology allow us to have in the future? These are some professions that will increasingly be in high demand.

Aerial Drone Technician

With the use of drones on the rise, the people who service and operate them will also increase. Drones are useful for a lot more than fancy wedding photography… they are already being used to survey disaster areas, to help with insurance claims and even to transport human organs high above the busy streets of a city.

As the concept of self-flying, passenger carrying dronesinches towards reality (prototypes have already gone on show at tech conferences), a career in drone supply, management or maintenance is well worth considering.

Artificial Intelligence Developer

With the influx of Siri, her pals Alexa and Cortana as well as countless chatbots, artificial intelligence is quickly integrating with our lives. But as smart as these systems appear to be, right now someone does have to be at the wheel.
Artificial Intelligence offers a range of employment opportunities, including software developer, trend researcher, and data analyst. These jobs will be in high demand in the near future until we figure out a way to automate the automation process!

Virtual Reality Designer

While we’re preparing to step into virtual worlds via our fancy Oculus Rift headsets, somebody has to create these worlds for us to step into. These designers don’t just have to understand technology, but also interiors and vast outdoor landscapes. They will have to have a deep knowledge of how humans interact with their environment in order to create believable, compelling virtual worlds that will completely surround us.

Quantum Computing

Quantum computing is being described as the ultimate disrupter. In a nutshell, it creates a complex system that is able to process exponentially more information than the computers we use now. A basic explanation of this technology is that today’s computers have to solve problems in sequence, whereas in the future they will be able to solve countless problems at once.
Quantum Computing is fledgling right now, with labs being set up around the world to investigate the possibilities that this new science can contribute. The more minds that are on deck, the faster we will be able to develop and test new drugs, accelerate space exploration and even more accurately forecast the weather.

360 Degree Videographer

Filming in one direction at a time? How turn of the century?
Modern videographers are adding 360degree cameras to their equipment swags, making the most of this latest way of capturing all the action. 360 video can be used for tourism videos, museum and educational tours, shopping experiences and immersive gaming. The best videographers will be experts at capturing everything in intricate detail and in a way that feels as realistic as possible.