Techniques of access control in VR environments involve defining a series of gestures that users attending a private meeting within a virtual environment carry out to be allowed into the private meeting. Along these lines, when a user sets up a meeting to take place within a virtual environment, the user may define a series of gestures (e.g., swipes, circles, etc.) that may serve as an effective “secret handshake” that gains admittance to the private meeting. In one implementation, each person invited to the private meeting is given the same gesture to form in the virtual environment that provides access to the private meeting. In other implementations, each user has their own respective gesture that, when matched along with an identifier identifying that user, provides the access. Advantageously, such gestures are easily defined and executed by the users and recognized by servers that control private meetings within the virtual environment.