I. Introduction

Goals
The purpose of this plan is to implement a state-of-the-art Solution Provider Conference held online in an interactive, three-dimensional, spatial location operating on networked computers, with multiple real persons logged in and interacting in real time. Such an event is a "virtual world enabled conference".

Core Logistics
The conference will be held on two days at 8-11AM SLT (three hours).
The conference will accommodate 100 to 500 European and US solution providers.
The conference will have an audio video (and text) archive for further use by Linden Lab.
Linden Lab requests conference dates the week of June 15 and has chosen: 16-Jun-09 and 18-Jun-09.
The conference will be held in Second Life on 9 regions.
The conference will consist of scheduled keynote speakers in presentation areas and participant discussions in breakout areas.
All attendees in all regions will have equal high quality experience of, and access to the keynote speakers.
The conference will be open only to registered attendees, conference staff, and selected Linden Lab employees.

Caveats
Many virtual world enabled conferences have been held to date. Experience shows there is a tendency toward two categorical errors which, if not managed, limit the optimal experience of an online conference:
. Error Category One: Treat the conference as if it were a typical real-world conference and UNDER use virtual world capabilities.
. Error Category Two: Treat the conference as if it has to be done using ONLY virtual world capabilities and thus UNDER use real world conference best design practices.

Solutions
It is best to use a blend of both real world and virtual world conference capabilities and best practices based on prior experience (see Appendices) to achieve conference purposes.

II. Work Summary

The Conference Manager manages overall conference preparation and implementation under the direction of the Linden Lab Contact. Conference Manager includes: Audience Logistics, Audio Video, Participant Event Information, and Regions; but excludes: Speaker Preparation and Management and Public Event Communication.

Estimated Effort Breakout

III. Plan At A Glance

The conference implementation plan is as follows:

Figure 1 shows a detailed task timeline with these milestones:

Date        Wk*         Milestone

27-Apr      1              Final Plan Accepted

4-May      2              Regions Open For Builders

11-May     3              Registration Opens For Participants

18-May     4               

25-May     5              Pre-Event Midpoint Walkthrough  ("Dry Rehearsal")

1-Jun        6              Registration Closes 12 Midnight SLT (Last Day for Refunds)

8-Jun        7              Pre-Event Final Walkthrough and Approval

15-Jun      8              Regions Open for Participants
                                   Conference Starts
                                     2 Days Keynote Speakers:
                                       Tue 16-Jun
                                       Thu 18-Jun

                                   Conference Ends

22-Jun      9              CM Provides Best Practices Documentation to LL Contact

29-Jun      10            CM Returns Registration Accounts to LL Contact

*7 work weeks available between RFP acceptance and conference start

Figure 2 shows detailed project flow with these interdependent stages:

I. Approved Plan and Budget

II. Pre-Event Information, Pre-Event Preparation

III. Registration, Speaker Confirmation, Audio Video Confirmation, Region Confirmation, Builder Confirmation, Event

IV  Staff Confirmation

V. Approve Presentations, Region Setup

VI. Prerecord Presentations, Test Live Audio Video, Region Build, Event Staff Orientation

VII. Final Approve

VIII. Speaker Presentations, During-Event Information

IX. Post-Event Information

Figure 3 shows overall region layout with these elements:

. Nine sims arranged 3x3, each with one presentation area and multiple breakout areas

. All sims on one common audio video stream

. Participants given alternating TP points to alternating sims to load balance across estate

. TP points in each sim have traffic direction signage to each sim’s presentation area
. TP points have local viewing screen for latecomers
. Hosts and transcribers located close to presentation areas but in communication with each other across all sims
. Presentation areas have large viewing screens and event information signage
. Breakout areas are separate but close to presentation area and have local viewing screens

IV. Task Assignments (Final)

Responsibilities and relative effort are detailed below.

V. Key Design Principles

Conference Purposes

The primary purpose of the SP Conference is to support Second Life Solution Providers.

KEY PROPOSAL PLANNING ASSUMPTION: The secondary but equally important purpose of the SP Conference is to show off the speakers and content and the worldwide connecting power of Second Life to as broad a direct and indirect audience as possible.

. The direct audience includes solution provider attendees and speakers, including speakers who have not yet had much direct personal experience of the use and power of a virtual world communication channel.

. The indirect audience includes nontechnical and technical world media, as well as enterprises advised to experiment with virtual world communication channels but not yet sure of what steps to take and desiring to see best practices in action (even if at a distance as reported by media).

Thus, even though the primary purpose of the conference is to support solution providers, its ultimate purpose is to increase awareness, positive regard, and support for the Second Life virtual world platform.

This will increase the number of Solution Providers and increase the number of Solution Provider Clients. This will increase the use of the Second Life virtual world platform and thus Linden Lab's return on conference investment beginning with the year in which the conference is held.

High Tech High Touch

KEY PROPOSAL RECOMMENDATION: This conference design proposal recommends that all keynote speakers present via live video stream (pre-recorded presentations and live Q&A) into the conference regions.

By providing the same high-quality presenter live video to all conference participants on all regions, there is no issue of some people being advantaged to be on "main" vs. "remote" sims. All sims provide an equal quality experience and all participants have an equal direct impression and opportunity to interact with the speaker.

Keynote speakers may still be available in world as avatars after their live video presentation, for direct interaction with conference participants. For example, during the remainder of the presentations that day. Speakers may move from sim to sim, to each of the sim presentation areas, to interact in chat text.

Risk Management

The conference is a first-time investment of effort for Linden Lab and should be kept relatively low risk
Risk management elements include conference quality, contingency, and publicity:
. Quality should be managed to be Good or better
. Contingency should allow for missing speakers (e.g., prerecorded presentations), loss of platform access (e.g., backup date), and slippage in timeline (e.g., midpoint and final approval walkthroughs)
. Participant information and public communication should be managed before, during, and post event.

VI. Task Details

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3