Meta hosts popular content creators to exclusive dinner on the metaverse in Lagos

Tech media giant, Meta has hosted popular Nigerian content creators in Lagos at an exclusive dinner aimed at celebrating their impact and creativity, as well as introducing them to the various technologies that are paving the road to the metaverse.

The event had in attendance a selected mix of content creators and technical creators who represent a variety of interests from Music, Comedy and Augmented Reality Specialists.

Creators that attended the exclusive dinner include:

• Mark Angel comedy: a scriptwriter and comic skit maker who produces the ‘Mark Angel’ Comedy
• Josh2funny: a comedian and content creator, famous for making covers of popular songs
• Ayomidate: an actor, content creator and comedian, who is known well-known for his Instagram skits
• Miss Techy: a female digital creator popularly known for her captivating VFX videos on Instagram
• Frank Itom: a storyteller and creator, popular for his video editing illusions infused into lifestyle and entertainment content
• Tolu Bally: an award-winning fashion entrepreneur and celebrity stylist
• Santi: a musician and visual artist.

Also in attendance at Meta’s showcase of its tech were Tenientertainer,  an award-winning singer and songwriter, Ayrastarr, one of the leading female singers signed to Mavin Records and Nissi, a popular afrobeat singer and animator.

Other creators who attended the dinner are Anthony Azekwoh, Somi Nwandu, Shutabug, Miracle Otugo, Judith Okonkwo (Imisi3D), Tobi Odion and Hadeeart.

The event took place just a day after Meta showcased some of its tech, Avatars, Spark AR and digital collectables (NFTs), features that will be a big part of the metaverse experience. These creators spent the day co-creating and building ideas that would bring them closer to their diverse communities.

Speaking at the event, Kojo Boakye, Meta’s Director of Public Policy, Africa, Middle East and Turkey said that Meta is committed to providing a new and immersive way for people to connect:

“We recognise Nigerian creators as trailblazers that express themselves, inspire others, and build communities and livelihoods while connecting with their audiences. We are excited to bring these talented creators together to celebrate their achievements and work with them to build inclusive products for connected metaverse experiences”, she explains.

She added that the tech giant is excited about building inclusive products that will foster inclusion and connectivity in the metaverse.

Meta is building the prospects of the metaverse

Empowering a group of leading influencers is one major way Meta is deepening the prospects for metaverse adoption in sub-Sahara Africa.

Recall that Meta announced that it has designed and built the AI Research SuperCluster (RSC), one of the fastest AI supercomputers running today and will be the fastest AI supercomputer in the world when it’s fully built out in mid-2022.

According to a statement by the tech company, RSC will help Meta’s AI researchers build new and better AI models that can learn from trillions of examples; work across hundreds of different languages; seamlessly analyze text, images, and video together; develop new augmented reality tools; and much more.

Already, individuals and companies are already doing some fascinating activities on the metaverse despite its early adoption stage.

We reported in February that Africa’s biggest telco, MTN, joined the league of global companies on the metaverse by purchasing 144 plots of land in Africarare, Africa’s first Virtual Reality metaverse featuring digital land. The amount paid for the land is unknown but we know it has an overall area of 12x12m.

According to information from the company’s website and social media handles, the purchase is in line with MTN’s transitioning efforts to go from just being a telco to a tech company

Similarly, an Indian couple (Dinesh Sivakumar Padmavathi, 24, and his fiancée Janaganandhini Ramaswamy, 23) planned a Harry Potter-themed wedding in the virtual reality ‘metaverse,’ with the ‘ghost’ of the bride’s late father in attendance. The wedding took place on February 6, with hundreds of participants attending the country’s first wedding of its sort.