Autonomous Animator
Content will be king in 2021. By Martin Grebing
Technology has been rapidly moving toward virtual connectivity and interactivity for decades. And with the recent assistance of COVID, this scenario has been ushered in with great haste. This is something that has always been in development and part of the natural evolution of technology for decades, however with the recent pandemic, this scenario has been forced upon us globally and with great urgency.
Everything from schools to colleges to office jobs to movie theatres to restaurants have been shifted, seemingly overnight, from standard in-person modus operandi to isolationist protocols. While the world holds its breath waiting for a cure and for things to return to normal, when normal comes back, I have a feeling it won’t resemble pre-COVID normalcy as much as expected. Rather, the new normal, as far as business operations go, may look surprisingly similar to in-pandemic existence.
The Problem
If you were to interview office managers at virtually any business, government entity, school, or college, they will probably tell you the following:
1) They are having record amounts of online meetings and presentations.
2) They don’t see this slowing down in 2021 and in many cases may see it increase even further.
3) Their online meetings and presentations could use a lot of improvement.
Almost all businesses were taught a sharp, deep-cutting lesson that, unless you were in the hospitality industry, your business could pretty much operate at an acceptable level, some even experiencing record growth, with everyone working from home. Therefore, once COVID is finally a thing of the past, many if not most businesses may be reluctant or outright refuse to return back to pre-COVID operating procedures because they have found through experience that it’s simply not necessary to the bottom line.
That is why we should all prepare for even more online meetings, presentations and learning sessions.
Imagine companies worldwide conducting most if not all of their meetings and presentations online. Now, imagine how much help will be needed to bring all these presentations and meetings up to a standard that will truly engage if not impress their audience and/or separate them from the competition. For this to happen, companies all over the world will need to invest heavily in one of the most precious commodities being developed today: content.
That’s where you come in. Forward-thinking companies will soon realize they need to upgrade their online presence. Millions upon millions of children, college students, employees, managers and business owners, have been plunged headlong into the deep end of virtual meetings and multi-hour learning sessions whereas many or most have never been exposed before even in the slightest.
It’s hard enough to wrangle a massive amount of people together for an online meeting, so how can companies all over the world keep everyone’s attention fully engaged throughout an online session, many of which are help for extended amounts of time?
The Solution
Pack each presentation and meeting with eye-catching visuals, full motion infographics, animated characters, visual effects and all the eye candy that can possibly be crammed into an online session. If companies wish to engage their audience, they need to make the visuals jump out at the viewer, always keeping them on their toes, guessing about what might be coming next.
The real opportunity in this scenario is for high-quality content makers and providers. Every school, every business and every government entity will need to boost their presentations with premium content, otherwise their brand and morale will be left in the dust and ultimately their staff, students and clients will follow suit.
The first person, team or studio to come to the table with massive amounts of presentation-enhancing, meetingengaging, learning-boosting content that effectively and strikingly visualizes, communicates and illustrates a wide variety of material in an interesting and compelling fashion, very well may usher in the next gold rush.
With lots of help from animators and visual designers, blasé meetings and presentations may soon be a thing of the past, much to the joy of online viewers and virtual meeting attendees around the world. ◆
Martin Grebing is the president of Funnybone Animation Studios. He can be reached at funnyboneanimation.com.