Gone Global is serving you the future of work for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Settle in, this is a future-feast. Let’s start with a questionable party from the metaverse.

The $400k metaverse party that everybody forgot

We’ve all been there. You put a lot of effort into throwing a good party for your friends – and then no one turns up. It’s devastating for the ego.

The EU is licking its wounds right now after spending $400k on a metaverse party – that the rest of the planet snubbed.

The forward-thinking European Commission’s foreign aid department threw the party to get ‘young people excited about the EU.’ Unfortunately, only five people turned up.

Warning signs of a to-be-pooped-party were there. Their promotional trailer only got 44 likes running up to the event, and the Foreign aid department has a questionable track record of tropical-themed house parties. And, it was a Tuesday. Who parties on Tuesday?

Roving reporter Vince Chadwick, said of the event: “After initial bemused chats with the roughly five other humans who showed up, I am alone.”

There is a lot of talk about the metaverse and how it’s going to change the world we live in. If this party is anything to go by, it will be a lonely place.

The metaverse concept is not all that new. After launching in 2003, the kooky online world called Second Life was a part of popular culture for some time. It’s still out there, its avatars hanging out and ‘world-making’, but user numbers are dwindling, and is generally considered a digital relic of the past.

It’s easy to point to early-stage failures, laugh, and conclude that change will never happen. But change does indeed happen. The internet took nearly 30 years to get mainstream adoption. And there were many failed attempts at e-commerce before Amazon found the magic formula.

We have recently seen a seismic shift in online and remote work. City offices lay empty as the workforce votes to working-from-home. As staff opt to work from home, employers are realizing that they can employ their staff from anywhere. As this happens more, the norms and tools of work-culture become increasingly digitized, remote and online.

Facebook,  and others, are investing heavily in making ‘meta’, the new reality. Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t. But one thing is for sure – the future of life and work is changing.

The rise of the global workforce is evidence of this massive shift. Today, more employers than ever are choosing to hire their staff offshore. Employers are now basing their employment decisions on the cost and quality of their candidates – not the location. 

Times are changing.

The question for your business

Are you seeing an increasing digitization of your business? IS your workforce also digitizing?