Virtual Worlds News

Social Games: Ready for Prime Time?

SAN FRANCISCO -- On a day the Dow dropped nearly 200 points, Dada, a trendy bar in the South of Market district was slowly filling with a lively bunch of twenty-something programmers, coders, and entrepreneurs. Invited by Offerpal Media, one of the major players in the nascent area of social gaming (Offerpal's place in the value chain is primarily one of integrating ad offers into the games) the meet-up took place the night before the Social Gaming Summit 2009 was to take place. In less than 12 hours, the 100 or so revelers at Dada would be supplanted by literally hundreds more who would fill an expansive ballroom at the elegant Hotel Nikko for the annual event.

Who's New to Virtual Worlds – June 19, 2009, Wrap Up

The American Cancer Society's Relay for Life is taking place nationwide this weekend, and in Second Life. More info.

Not in Gotham for New York Law School's State of Play law and economics conference through tomorrow? Participate in-world. More info.

Netroots Nation is live from Netroots Nation Island in Second Life. From August 13 to 16. More info.

Children's entertainment group The Jumpitz will team up with SecretBuilders to host free live virtual concerts June 19, 20, and 21. More info.

PDN Talks Up Success of Inaugural Virtual Event

As the area of virtual trade shows grows, it pays to look closely at the track record laid down by early adopters. Today, Nielsen Business Media's Photo District News (PDN) released a few milestones reached during its PDN Photographers' Virtual Show held last May 21 -- and detailed some of what the public can expect from the second part of the show, scheduled for June 11.

InXpo Taps Twitter, Brings Backchannel Up Front

InXpo, a major player in the increasingly visible virtual events sector, has added popular micro-blogging tool Twitter to the virtual event environments it builds for clients. From InXpo-produced trade shows, career fairs or corporate events, attendees, organizers, and vendors can now use Twitter from within the event's virtual environment rather then having to toggle between the virtual event and Twitter.

"We know people are already tweeting during events, now we provide the convenience of tweeting from within the virtual environment," InXpo director of marketing Cece Salomon-Lee told Virtual Worlds News today.

Pigg Places Fifth in Sapporo Summit

Japanese virtual world Ameba Pigg received a vote of confidence this week when it snared a fifth place finish in the Infinity Venture Partners-produced Launch Pad event, part of the Infinity Ventures Summit which took place today in Sapporo, Japan.

Proof and Vision: Commentary On The 3D TLC And Federal Consortium Of Virtual Worlds Conferences

I couldn't make it to either our own 3D TLC or the Federal Consortium of Virtual Worlds conferences last  week. Thankfully, Koreen Olbrish, CEO, Tandem Learning, was able to attend both and volunteered to share her thoughts in a guest post.

Last week, a veritable who’s who of “serious” virtual worlds descended upon Washington, DC, first for 3D TLC and then the Federal Consortium of Virtual Worlds. I had the pleasure and honor of attending both conferences. Both were well run and provided lots of opportunity for networking, information sharing, and showcasing the current state of virtual world technology for enterprise, government, and the military. 

Virtual Events Gain Experience With InXpo And George P. Johnson

Virtual events are gaining prominence as businesses look to cut travel costs and save time, but they're still a foreign concept to many planners, staff, and executives--especially those outside of the tech field. Partnerships like the one announced earlier this month between InXpo and George P. Johnson are helping to raise awareness, though. According to Drew VanVooren, President and co-founder of InXpo, the idea for the virtual events provider was always to work in the background, letting firms like GPJ, a well-known experience marketer, provide legitimacy and services. 

"When you take a look at the whole events world, it shouldn't be treated any different whether it's at the Moscone Center or in the virtual  world," he explained. "We see in a few years out that InXpo will be behind the scenes powering the events."

Unisfair Launches Channel Program For Partner Resale

Today Unisfair announced the formal launch of its channel program for partners looking to sell customized virtual events and events bundled with value-added services. As more organizations look to virtual events in the down economy, Unisfair has seen an according rise in work. Unisfair partners, resellers or refferers, can add in extra services for event planning and creation, add virtual event planning to their services, or add in online experiences to existing clients.

“Demand for Unisfair’s technology solutions grew substantially in 2008 as the number of virtual events hosted by Unisfair customers grew over 200 percent,” Guy Piekarz, CEO of Unisfair, said in a statement. “Building this ecosystem will enable us to meet the rapidly increasing demand being driven by economic challenges, globalization and travel reductions.”

Meet me at Kidscreen Summit or Toy Fair this week or next

I'm heading to New York for Kidscreen Summit and Toy Fair this week and early next. At Kidscreen I'll be sitting on the Keeping it Real in the Virtual World Space panel taking place Friday, February 13, 2009 from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM.  As the panel description suggests: there’s no question that virtual worlds represent the hottest kids entertainment model on the web these days. This panel, which also includes Michael Bellavia, President, Animax Entertainment, Mike Burns, CEO, Fuel Industries, Louis Fournier, VP, Business Development, Tribal Nova and Rick Mischel, Executive VP Animation & Interactive Services, Technicolor (Moderator) could be considered a primer for Engage! next month.  I'll be discussing our recently released market research and the state of the marketplace.  My time at Toy Fair (Sunday and Monday) is less structured with no speaking engagements. I'll be checking out all the new toys with VW tie-ins.  Having never been to Toy Fair I'm certainly open to pointers on how best to navigate the show.  If you've been and have suggestions ping me directly at chris ~(at)~ showinitiative.com or post your thoughts in the comments below.

Notes from Virtual Worlds London: Niniane Wang's Keynote on Lessons from Lively

Niniane Wang, Google Engineering Manager and Lively Engineering Lead, opened the second day at Virtual Worlds London by discussing Google's venture into the virtual worlds space with Lively, which it launched this past July.

"The reason that we created Lively is that we noticed the Internet is becoming more social, and every day people are finding new ways to interact with each other. We wanted to give users a way to be even more social," said Wang. "We also wanted to enhance their existing experience. Instead of forcing them to have a separate life within our product, we wanted to improve their experience on the sites they already use."