After having a shower and eating breakfast, you cuddle the kids, kiss your partner goodbye for the day and choose a virtual suit (you’re really just wearing shorts and a T-shirt) and then wander into your office. It’s right there in your home, but it could be anywhere in the world. It’s simply a white walled room, but once you flick a switch and fire up the sensors, cameras and projectors, you see your colleagues all around you, sitting at their own desks, getting on with the day’s projects.
Turn your head slightly and you can chat with the person sitting next to you as if they are right there in your house. Toss a crushed piece of paper at the person sitting in front of you, though, and it will simply bounce off the wall.
When it’s time for a group meeting, flick a switch to ‘boardroom’ and you’ll see all your workmates appear around a conference table. On the walls behind them are charts, tables, interactive video presentations and your organisation’s branding. In reality, one colleague is sitting on an airplane, another is in a hotel room and yet another is in a cafe.
This article appear in Virgin's inflight magazine, 'Voyeur'.
