The Music Ally Debate: "Virtual Worlds - Real Potential" December 5, 2006

From http://musically.com/debate...

Music Ally is proud to announce another in our sell out series of evening networking seminars.

Duran Duran is there, as is hip hop superstar Chamillionaire. Singer-songwriters Susanne Vega and Ben Folds are involved. But much of the music industry hasn't even visited Second Life - the biggest of several online virtual environments which are rapidly gathering momentum on the internet.

These virtual worlds aren't just gimmicks or flash-in-the-pan PR stories. There's real money being made (USD $500,000 in virtual goods is traded every day on Second Life) and hundreds of thousands of "residents" registered with the service. No wonder big brands like Reebok, Adidas, IBM, Vodafone and Fender are investing increasing slices of their advertising budgets on virtual world marketing. The BBC has hosted a virtual concert; Reuters has opened an in-world virtual newsdesk; and advertising agency BBH is using Second Life to encourage its employees around the world to collaborate in a virtual office. Don’t get left behind, come and find out what all the fuss is about.

Second Life presentation and demo:

Justin Bovington, CEO, Rivers Run Red

Panelists:

- Barney Wragg, Global Head of Digital, EMI Music
- Daniel Heaf, Interactive Editor, BBC Radio 1
- Roo Reynolds, Metaverse evangelist, IBM Labs
- Hans Timmermans, Promedialab and PVG Concerts
- Christian Batist, SVP, Sales, Sulake (Habbo Hotel)

Chair: Toby Lewis, Editorial Director, Music Ally

Official Website: http://musically.com/debate/