Materializing the Energy Metaverse with Kevin O'Donovan: Step into the Metaverse podcast: EP21

Dr Mark van Rijmenam, CSP -

In this episode of the Step into the Metaverse Podcast, I had a chat with Kevin O'Donovan, the Founder of the boutique technology consultancy company, A Bit of This and That, which focused on the intersection of technology and the energy industry, delivering innovative technology consultations, sales advisory, speaker and B2B Influencer services. The company has been involved with new technologies and their potential in an economic and socio-cultural context for more than three decades.

Being a bit of a storyteller, Kevin has been evangelizing how new technologies can transform the way we do things throughout his career. He advises international clients in the digital evolution process and real-life digitalisation implementation, primarily in the energy industry. Kevin has a proven track record of bridging the gap between new technology's capabilities and the practicalities of bringing that technology to market.

He has held senior leadership technical sales and sales management roles at Compaq, HP and most recently at Intel, where he was Intel’s Worldwide Sales Director for the energy industry. He came on to share his wisdom on the Internet of things (IoT) and digital twins, how important they are for the metaverse, and how they will define the enterprise metaverse. He also talked about how governments can benefit from the immersive internet and how it could disrupt the energy sector. You don’t want to miss this episode. Enjoy!

Highlights

  • [01:15] - His journey to becoming the tech evangelist that he is today.
  • [02:59] - The next iteration of how we are using digital technology to enhance our world.
  • [05:40] - Why AR will lead the way in the enterprise metaverse and the role IoT will play.
  • [08:11] - 5 to 10-year outlook of the number of sensors in IoT devices.
  • [11:08] - When the real world will affect the virtual world.
  • [17:05] - Metaverse Plus Smart Cities: What’s happening and what to expect.
  • [19:54] - How the metaverse can positively impact climate change.
  • [22:04] - Operations in the enterprise metaverse in comparison to the consumer metaverse.
  • [25:10] - Expected ethical challenges and dangers in the enterprise metaverse.
  • [28:14] - Changes in the future of work that will be sparked by the metaverse.

Quotes

“The internet of things enables the creation of a dynamic digital twin that then creates the virtual world that we can collaborate inside of” - Kevin O'Donovan
“The digital twin based on the internet of things data is the key building block for any industrial metaverse” - Kevin O'Donovan
“Technology is the easy bit. It’s how us humans use it and integrate it into workflows that’s the hard bit” - Kevin O'Donovan
“The metaverse is the next iteration of our digital way of interacting with the physical world” - Kevin O'Donovan
“We’re going to have the exact same issues we have in the real world in the metaverse” - Kevin O'Donovan

If you are interested in learning more about the metaverse, you can order my book Step into the Metaverse here.