At the Academy of Management meeting earlier this month, I had the pleasure of assisting Dr. Ulrike Schultze in a session that she coordinated. The panelists at the session were respected journal editors. What was different about this session from other sessions at the annual meeting was that it was held simultaneously in Second Life and the hotel in Chicago.  It was an experiment of sorts to see how virtual world technology could bring conference events to those who were unable to travel to the actual event.

The session consisted of presentations by 4 panelists. Three of the panelists were at the Academy of Management meeting and presented to a live audience there. They also had avatars in Second Life in the meeting room there. The other panelist joined the meeting via Second Life with his avatar. Power point slides that the panelists used were shown through Second Life, so attendees in SL could see the slides in the meeting room there. The slides, and the SL meeting room/avatars, were broadcast to the live audience through a projector. Audio from SL was broadcast through speakers to the meeting room in Chicago, and audio into SL was broadcast through a microphone. The session lasted about one and a half hours. I was fortunate to be able to assist Dr. Schultze with the technological side of the session; it was a good learning experience in some of the potential benefits and challenges of using virtual world technology to hold meetings, events, or collaborate  in “mixed” settings, where some people are in a virtual world and others are not.

Potential Benefits

One major benefit I saw to using a virtual world such as Second Life in this way was that people who were unable to attend the meeting in Chicago would be able to attend a session from wherever they happened to be. Second Life attendees could get the same information that those at the meeting received. This could be done through live streaming of the session or by recording it and posting videos later, as well. However, the added benefit of the virtual world in this case, is that the presentation becomes interactive even for those who can’t attend in person. By gathering in the virtual world during the actual session, presenters know who else is attending the session and virtual world attendees have a chance to participate instead of just listen and/or watch. For example, using my virtual world account I could type a chat message to a moderator to ask questions or I could make comments about a particular topic through audio capabilities. Additionally, being in the virtual world space allows attendees to “run into” other people attending the session through the virtual world. Much of the value of conferences and meetings is the informal communication and networking that occurs before and after working sessions. Using a virtual world would give those same communication opportunities to others that can’t attend in person. In fact, the use of Second Life allowed one panelist to join the session and present from another country.

Another potential benefit I saw to using virtual worlds in this way was permanence and the potential to aid collaboration. After a session such as this, an interactive billboard with presentation notes could be left in the virtual world where later visitors could still browse through the materials that were discussed. A virtual notebook could even be left where visitors could add their ideas or comments to discussion materials. Having such materials available longer term could help sessions or meetings extend asynchronously over a longer period of time, giving people time to develop new ideas. It would give events a life outside of the few hours and four walls in which it happened.

Challenges

Despite the potential benefits, there were also some challenges to conducting a session in this way. Most of the challenges that I saw could be put under the umbrella term “technology.”

One challenge was the use of power point slides within Second Life. Although Dr. Schultze did a fantastic job of having everyone’s presentation available and visible at the right moments, it was a lot of work for her. Getting all of the panelists logged on, into the right location, and with proper audio features was also a challenge; most of them had never used Second Life before. With two of us to handle some of the technological components it was still challenging to get everything ready and functioning properly on time. Some of these issues, such as the difficulty with running a power point presentation, are specific to the Second Life platform. However, the general lesson was that the learning curve for effectively using a virtual world is very steep. Presenters and attendees may have negative reactions to having to learn the technology on their own in order to present or attend one event or meeting.

The other challenge I saw was that the interactivity provided by the use of Second Life was not complete. In other words, people at the meeting could see the attendees in Second Life, but not vice-versa. So, while the virtual world provided some opportunities for interaction, it did not fully integrate the two audiences.

Despite the technological challenges faced, I think there were glimpses of real benefits to conducting future events or meetings simultaneously. When the technological challenges can be overcome and virtual worlds become more user friendly these benefits will become more pronounced. Sun Microsystems is already working on a solution to the challenge of bridging the gap between co-located and virtual audiences with their porta-person system.

Has anyone else attended a similar event or session? What was the experience like? Was it beneficial?