Simon Ferguson, Publishing Director from Reed Business Information Travel division presented an interesting session on ‘Chances in Second-Life.’ 

Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve never really got my head around Second Life and other virtual worlds (if you struggle as well, there’s a decent definition here).

I prefer to interact with real people that I can see, feel and smell. The idea of locking myself in a room and getting to grips with an avatar in what seems like, well, a computer game, just doesn’t float my boat.

Simon Ferguson provided a contextualised view of the potential for businesses and managed to blow some of my resistance out of the water. He reminded me that this is the kind of technology that seems way out there, but is in fact the early stages of a future reality. He harked back to the time when companies didn’t bother to set up a website as they thought it would never take off. It’s hard to believe that now.

In summary:

• It’s not just about Second Life. There are many more virtual worlds developing around niche interest groups (e.g. Twinity – a parallel world of real cities, Habbo – a place for teenagers to hand out, Neopets – for kids who love animals, Eve – an online gaming world, and Gaia – a virtual world for creative folk). Think of the potential interactive access with these groups to conduct market research and build brand interest and loyalty.
• Companies are already using virtual worlds – for limited financial gain, but also to hold meetings, conference, launch events, market research, branding and so on.
• The economics of virtual worlds can work – think about the cost of flying staff to a conference or event – then compare to using existing web connections to discuss strategy and present new products in a virtual environment where you can still present, talk and show-and-tell.
• A virtual world supply chain is already established – the impact on the bottom line for publishers if you remove physical distribution and the need for handheld devices will be an interesting development for digital content.

There are three trends that industry should bear in mind are: i) user time in virtual worlds is rising and maturing, so don’t ignore it; ii) consumers are building strong digital personas already – through social media – virtual worlds are a logical extension of this – it will happen; iii) Web 3.0 is fusing the virtual and real world – the technology is there.

The ability to track these changes on a strategic level is critical to companies positioning themselves for future success. At this stage, it might all seem a bit too ‘out there’. However, making sure you have key skills such as the ability to track and manage change, understand these customer trends and what they mean for your business model, and communicate what the technology can deliver to both customers and company profits, will be the difference between evolving and surviving or getting left behind.