Second Life Conferencing

We made the journey from Chicago Illinois over to San Francisco California to attend the Wainhouse Collaboration Summit.  The event so far has been excellent, with several hundred participants in attendance, ranging from smaller companies like mine, all the way up to the big boys such as Microsoft and Cisco.  The theme of course is conferencing and collaboration and there are many thoughts on this topic to be sure.

The first day was focused on the videoconferencing industry, and featured several vendors with outstanding technology and tightly integrated user interfaces.  The products ranged from standard definition video feeds to High Definition Video and of course everything in between.  Over the next few years, the world will definitely become a smaller place is videoconferencing becomes more mainstream.  The technology behind these products is exemplary and the price points are going to allow for some serious mainstream penetration in the near future.

After the first day and a half of the event, there have been several interesting topics covered, including the potential future of China in the industry, as well as the continued growth of MMORPG's and how the entertainment medium needs to be closely watched by business for trends.  Of course, the ever popular World of Warcraft was used as the main punchline with it's annual revenues in excess of $1 Billion and more then 8.5 Million subscribers.  Also getting mentioned was Second Life as more of a "business oriented" platform and an up and comer to watch.

Could there be an expansion into China on the horizon for Great America Networks Conferencing?  That is certainly an appealing option with a world of potential.  As most of you know, cell phones are the preferred method of communication in China, and if you add that to our future cell phone and blackberry products that allow for call control from your wireless device, there is a large potential there.

Our foray into the Second World community will continue to grow as the months move along, and we are building a very talented work force from within the Second Life community, and the potential is huge.  The Second Life Convention will be in Chicago this year, and my biggest decision now is whether to be a key sponsor in one of the chosen tracks.  I will be deciding that over the next couple of weeks.

I'll post another article when our afternoon sessions are completed.  For now it's off to lunch.

www.ganconference.com