The number
virtual worlds platform choices available to marketing,
entertainment and media companies is proliferating, offering a variety
of options and technological sophistication. Join executives
from leading brands, agencies and virtual worlds platforms and vendors
to discuss how best maximize your navigation of this undulating
virtual landscape.
Wednesday,
October 10, 2007
Wednesday, 11:00am - 12:00pm
Advertising in Virtual Spaces - Developing
Standards - a discussion
With the advent of new virtual worlds platforms now
coming to market in addition to more "established" virtual
worlds marketers now have a dizzying variety of options in which
to get their brands in front of virtual world users. This
discussion, which encourages audience participation, brings
together advertising gurus from the major virtual worlds
platforms and advertising networks. IAB standards simply
don't work in a virtual environment. And yet for wide
spread adoption this emerging industry needs to at least
establish a common language defining product and service
offerings. Join us for this first step at bringing the
major players together to engage in this discussion.
-
Mike
Dowdle, Vice President of Business Development, Kaneva
-
Joe Hyrkin, Vice President, Sales &
Business Development, Gaia Online
-
Ben Richardson, VP Business Development, Makena Technologies,
Inc.
-
Joel Greenberg, VP, Marketing Innovation, The Electric Sheep
Company
-
Art Sindlinger, VP, Activation Director - Social Media & Gaming,
Starcom
Wednesday, 1:00pm - 2:00pm
ROI - How the Rules Are Changing
Were there any rules to begin with? How to identify your goals and strategies within virtual worlds. Look at prior considerations from established players and hear
planning that worked and planning that didn't. What opportunities do
virtual worlds hold over other, more established, media formats. How do
you insure that your campaigns quantified and verified. What
does ROI mean to you?
-
Mike Monello, Partner / Creative Director, Campfire
-
Nic Mitham, Managing Director, K Zero
-
Michael Solomon, Professor, Saint Joseph's
University
- Rita
J. King, CEO and Creative Director, Dancing Ink Productions LLC
-
Erik Hauser, Founder/Executive Creative
Director, Swivel Media
Wednesday, 2:30pm - 3:30pm
Entertainment in Virtual Worlds - It's Not
Games. it's Not TV. It's....
With the advent of virtual worlds television networks, individual channels and
individual shows can now create interactive versions of their
franchises and engage fans directly, immersing them into the
environment. Find out how to successfully extend a television brand,
including measuring audience participation and extending the
advertising business model. Speakers will discuss activities on
multiple virtual worlds platforms.
-
Blake
Lewin,
Vice President Product Development, Turner Broadcasting Inc.
-
Daniel Schiappa, General Manager, Strategy Entertainment and
Devices Division,
Microsoft Corporation
-
Reuben Steiger, CEO, Millions of Us
-
Sibley Verbeck, CEO, The Electric Sheep Company
-
Jerry Paffendorf, CEO, Wello Horld
(moderator)
Wednesday, 4:00pm - 4:30pm
Case Study: Combating IP Theft in Virtual
Worlds
In July of 2007, Kevin Alderman (aka Stroker Serpentine) filed a
landmark suit in the the 13th District Federal Court. His
complaint tests the boundaries of infringement and prosecution
of intellectual property theft as it relates to virtual worlds.
Alderman, with the support of Francis Taney of Buchanan,
Ingersol and Rooney, used the template forged by Sony and the
RIAA (Recording Industry Artists Association) to ferret the
identity of an anonymous avatar on the Second Life platform.
Alderman's case is unique in that his product is a virtual
recreation of tangible object.
-
Kevin Alderman (aka Stroker Serpentine),
CEO, EROS
Wednesday, 4:30pm - 5:00pm
Case Study: Turner Broadcasting's
virtual worlds initiatives
More details to be announced at the show
-
Blake
Lewin,
Vice President Product Development, Turner Broadcasting Inc.
Wednesday, 5:15pm - 6:00pm
Fireside
Chat in the Attendee Lounge
in the Expo Hall.
-
Paul Yanover, Executive Vice President &
Managing Director, Disney Online
Thursday, October
11, 2007
Thursday, 11:00am - 12:30pm
Case Study: SmartFurniture.com
SmartFurniture.com will share their story of why they are
participating in the launch of this new virtual space - the key
learning to date and how this offers real-world value to their
business. Find out about SceneCaster - a new virtual world
platform that engages consumers by combining 3D visuals with the
best the Web offers today - search, eCommerce and social
networking. What do you need to know about the next generation
platforms for contextual eCommerce? What impact will we see in
how buyers and sellers engage online?
-
Mark Zohar, Founder and Senior Vice
President
- T.
J. Gentle, President, SmartFurniture.com
Thursday, 11:30am - 12:00pm
Case Study: AT&T in MTVs Virtual Worlds
The purpose of this session is to provide a case study-type
overview of how to successfuly integrate a marketer's brand into
a virtual world; how to work closely to take marketers by the
hand and help their brands come alive in a virtual medium and
deliver true ROI; how to create a much deeper level of
engagement with branded content; and how to ignite viral
communications (word-of-mouth) about the brands. AT&T will
demonstrate its leadership by highlighting their integration in
our virtual worlds -- beginning with Virtual Laguna Beach and
evolving with the additional worlds. AT&T is taking people in
world from brand loyalists to brand advocates who spread their
marketing messages out to a much larger community via a number
of compelling in-world initiatives. Specific examples include:
Tony Fresh, who has all the cool insights into what's happening
in-world (meeting w/ and rewarding 1,000 avatars in-world, who
have met with thousands of others in-world), to in-world
promoters of the brand in-world (ambassadors/innovators): to
AT&T kiosks; to links to purchase product online, to the latest
initiative of "dramatic moments" that recently debuted on MTV.
- Speakers to
be announced at the show.
Thursday, 1:30pm - 2:30pm
Kids and Teen Worlds - What You Need to
Know
Without argument kid and teen focused virtual worlds have
become a huge market unto themselves with players spanning
startups to major television networks to toy manufacturers. How
do marketers effectively traverse this landscape? What needs to
be done differently when kids and teens are the primary audience
and how are these worlds structured to bring marketers closer to
their audience?
-
Mattias Miksche, CEO, Stardoll
-
Sampo Karjalainen, Chief Creative Officer,
Sulake Corporation
-
Jason Root, Senior Vice President, Digital, Nick.com and
Nickatnite.com
-
Stefanie Schwartz, Vice President of
Marking and Operations, NeoPets
-
Joey Seiler,
Reporter,
VirtualWorldsNews.com (moderator)
Thursday, 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Virtual Worlds and the Music Industry
It began with the rise of iTunes, the shift from reaching
fans via traditional methods like selling CD's to reaching them
via the Internet. And now, as an extension of the Internet/iTunes
popularity, musicians are reaching their fans in virtual worlds.
The truth is that artists know their fans are online and virtual
worlds are the perfect venue to reach them. In fact, artists are
dropping new albums in virtual worlds to increase subsequent CD
sales as well as holding live virtual events to reach fans
across the world. And with virtual worlds showing huge increases
in registered users, you can expect to see more mainstream
artists building better name recognition and more personal
relationships with their fans via their avatar.
-
Dorcas Casey, VP of Project Strategy &
Development, FunWebProduct
-
Tim Stevens, President and CEO, Doppelganger
-
Matt Bostwick, SVP, Franchise Development, MTV Music Group
-
Greg Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer, GGL
Global Gaming (moderator)
Thursday, 4:30pm - 5:30pm
VW's and Big Media: The future or the
ruination of the VW space
VW's, originally the purvey of small start-up
companies with a focus on user generated content and
socialization have seemingly become the new hot area for large
media companies and retailers as these organizations continue to
look for new ways to push their brands in the online space.
Second-Life, a company that has led the PR blitz for the VW
space and the torchbearer of the core value that user generated
content is key has recently been cited as a virtual revolving
door for media and retail companies. There.com, its main
competitor has recently announced a huge deal with Capitol Music
Group and continues to develop the MTV properties. Multiverse
continues to push its technology as the easy answer for third
parties hoping to enter our space. But to what end? This panel
of experts from both the VW and traditional Media areas will
discuss the future of the VW space and whether there will be an
inevitable move to a brand driven model that can count on
sustainable recurring revenue or whether it can continue to hold
true to its roots as a purely social experience as evidenced by
the original incarnations of There and Second Life. We will
discuss the effect that big brands and retailers may have on
VWs as money is spent to increase fidelity and interaction in
an effort to turn profit. Finally, we will discuss the viability
of the subscription based model and whether we can expect
e-commerce, ad-sales and sponsorship as the final harbinger to
drive the VW space along the lines of mainstream media.
-
Rick Giolito, President, Trilogy Studios
-
John Batter, COO, Dreamworks Animation
-
Peter Marx, Managing Partner, Analog Protocol
