I know that young and old PR pros alike are intrigued by Second Life. Some love it, some hate it. Some are scared, some excited. Here you’ll read my thoughts on a great event I attended in Second Life last week - CaseCamp Second Life (an event I think exemplifies the astounding potential of Web 3.D.)

What Went Down

50-odd avatars descended on crayonville’s auditorium to interact with four short presentations in the CaseCamp format.

Speakers and cases presented:

• Douglas Walker, Managing Director, World RockPaperScissors Society - Viral & WOM communications for RPS Society
• Michael Seaton, Director, Digital Marketing, Scotiabank — Viral Campaign for Scotiabank and Ottawa Senators
• John Wall, Marketing Manager, AccuRev — Google Search Campaign for AccuRev
• Pam Davis, VP Marketing, World Wildlife Fund — national global warming awareness and fundraising campaign Save Our Climate

The audience, seated around the auditorium, listened to the ‘real’ voice of the presenters through a live audio stream, as the presenter’s avatar stood in front of their slides. At the end of the presentations attendees could IM questions to one of the moderators, which would then be answered in the ‘real’ voice of the presenter.

Just Like a Real Conference

This experience closely mirrored a real conference, in the majority of ways it was no different.

You could both see and hear the speakers – it meshed together audio and visual senses to engage attendees. You could also interact with the presenters and other attendees. You could ask questions of the presenter, talk to other attendees (everyone loves networking at conferences), and take photos of the session.

In short, it was everything that a real world conference is, short of the physical presence of the audience.

A Real World Conference - Extended

• I participated from the comfort of home.

I didn’t have to deal with transit; instead I was on the lounge with a glass of red. This was particularly poignant for me, because I’m currently travelling the globe chasing the kind of experience this conference gave me.

• Second Life is all about social interaction.

I could chat with the entire group, or interact with other avatars on a one-to-one basis through instant messaging. Throughout the conference I was involved in a couple of discrete conversations with friends in the audience (and I struck up a friendship with the good sort avatar sitting next to me ) At the end we could extend the Second Life equivalent of business cards – friendship offers.

• Control of the environment.

It gets really hard to concentrate when sitting in the one seat listening to lecture after lecture. In SL, I could move my view around the room without my avatar leaving his seat. I could do everything from taking a close-up view of the slides to taking a snapshot from behind the presenter.

• The interactivity of the medium held my attention.

Instead of being mutely glued to my seat absorbing the lecture, I could zoom around the room, send occasional IM’s, and generally keep my hands busy allowing my mind to focus.

• It was fun.

One of the presenters was a giant lizard, another one looked like the Incredible Hulk with a bad bleach job, behind me sat a gnomish looking fella drinking Guinness. At the end of the conference someone turned into a zebra and flew around the room. All this sounds weird… but it added a quirky charm to the entire experience.

With a few drawbacks

There were a number of small technological glitches throughout the event, but they didn’t take away from the experience for me. The audio stream dropped out a couple of times, and a number of newbies in the audience experienced some ‘User Malfunction’ (that’s a polite way to say they didn’t know what they were doing ) However, considering this was the first event of its type – the organizers did a great job.

All in all: CaseCamp Second Life was an excellent experience. The presentations were interesting and all taught me something, I was fully engaged throughout the event, I met some cool people and enjoyed some socializing. All from the comfort of the lounge. This is the future people!

If you’d like to learn more about Second Life listen to this Forward Podcast or email me, it’d be my pleasure to give you a tour .

Technorati Tags: CaseCamp Second Life, Second Life, avatar, conference, marketing, public relations, networking, Web 3.D., crayonville, CaseCamp, presentations

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