"You cannot learn empathy on powerpoint!" Wise words from today's guest, Somewhere Else CEO Christophe Mallet, who comes by the show to discuss how soft skills training -- basically, training for human behavior -- is now a wide-open industry, thanks to XR technology.

Alan: My name is Alan Smithson,

your host for the XR for Business Podcast. Today's guest is

Christophe Mallet, co-founder of Somewhere Else. Somewhere Else

Solutions is a London based innovation agency specialized in

immersive technologies. He's now exploring how to leverage immersive

technology and artificial intelligence to deliver soft skills

training that actually delivers behavioral change. The end goal is to

make the workplace a better place for everyone. Throughout his

careers, he has strived to bring together brilliant minds, makers and

businesses to deliver impactful projects and solutions. He's worked

with a variety of global clients, including Adidas, Samsung, Ernst

and Young, Save the Children, Sony, IKEA, KPMG, Nokia, and the list

goes on. To learn more about Somewhere Else Solutions, you can visit

them at somewhereelse.co.

Welcome to the show, Christophe, it's a

pleasure to have you here.

Christophe: Thanks, Alan. Thanks

for having me. It's good to be here.

Alan: You've been working in immersive technologies. Maybe kind of give listeners an understanding of what you've done at Somewhere Else, some of the projects you've done, and then we'll dig into something really exciting after that.

Christophe: So I came from the

world of mostly strategic consulting, digital and social, and the

world of storytelling, kind of on my own time. And back in 2015, I

met with a guy called Julien in a pub, and he showed me an

experience: The Night Café, in which you enter a painting by Vincent

Van Gogh. I don't know if you've tried that one.

Alan: I have. So to paint a

picture for people. They took Vincent Van Gogh's painting and then

made it fully spatial so you could walk around in the painting in VR.

It was the night café and you could walk around and go and sit at

the piano. And it was beautiful. Really, really beautiful.

Christophe: It was beautiful. It

was very early. And my jaw dropped, because I saw a new way to tell

stories. I was a bit bored of my previous job, so I decided to quit,

and I started a studio with that guy -- Julien -- and another guy,

Randy. And kind of alongside the market -- the way the market has

evolved since 2015 -- is, the wow factor was big in the beginning,

where a lot of things were done around entertainment and marketing.

We worked on that with TV channels, we did an escape room in Paris,

we did stuff for the climbing experience for Adidas. Champions

seeking experiences for the UFR. And that's honed our skills in what

it means to tell a story in virtual reality, versus other mediums --

such as cinema. And about two years ago, Accenture, BCG, McKinsey

started publishing their reports about how immersive technologies

should impact service design, visualization, training, and so on. And

so suddenly, immersive tech started appearing in conversations at the

boardroom level, which is what you need for any technology to be

adopted. And so we started receiving inquiries in this area, and

specifically in training. And so for the past, I would say 18 months

to two years, we've been specializing on that and more specifically

on the behavioral side of things and taking VR support what it really

is, which is-- you know, VR has been very focused on environments,

and virtual realities are recreating the environment virtually. But

your reality is also about the people who are part of that reality.

And I think so far we've failed a little bit on creating virtually

real humans. And the day we can interact with virtual humans in