Title: Business Travel Market conference Author: Pingo Justin Bovington our CEO, presented and keynoted the NextGen session to over 73 delegates representing over 30 different companies. ITM says “It’s easy to sit in the “things won’t change that much” camp as to predict dramatic change is a risk. But do we really know how the executives of tomorrow will behave based on our own experiences. Shouldn’t we think about this more as it is at the heart of our future market?”

Date: 25 Jun 2010

Title: V-Trade (Conventry University) Author: Pingo Rivers Run Red will be showcasing and presenting at the inaugural V-TRADE event. http://seriousgamesinstitute.co.uk/business.aspx?section=60

Date: 25 Jun 2010

Title: Texas Regional Infrastructure Security Conference (TRISC) Author: Pingo Justin Bovington to keynote the conference and discuss the opportunities and challenges ahead of us in the emerging virtual worlds Enterprise sector. http://www.trisc.org The Texas Regional Infrastructure Security Conference (TRISC) is a 2-day non-profit conference sponsored by a cooperative of working professionals. Our mission is to provide an educational forum focused on the core challenges in the Information Security industry. Each year professionals from across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana meet to share experiences, learn and network. The conference will be held on July 19th and July 20th at Embassy Suites in Grapevine, Texas.

Date: 05 May 2010

Title: Immersion - future of social networking and serious games Author: pingo The Immersive Spaces to keynote at the upcoming Immersion Conference: 25th May 2010 Can Serious Games & Virtual Worlds be Monetised? What is the Future Distribution, Access and Monetisation Model? Is it 2D or 3D? Social, Games, Corporate, Brands - What are the Use Cases? How viable are Immersive Platforms? http://www.applygroup.com/ASGWebsite/pages/schedule.htm

Date: 01 May 2010

Title: Informatology - the future of learning and leadership Author: Pingo The Immersive Spaces team lead a series of workshops and seminars on the power of virtual worlds for collaboration, learning and leadership http://www.informatology.com April 26-29th

Date: 28 Apr 2010

Title: British institute of Learning Author: Pingo Last week, the BILD ran one of its free member events at the Defence Acadmy near Swindon. The theme for the day was 'Delivering capability through serious games'. Over 60 BILD members attended this one day event! Delegates enjoyed presentations which highlighted the diverse use of serious games technology throughout different sectors. Speakers included: The Defence Academy Skills 2 Learn Birmingham University Rivers Run Red http://www.thebild.org/news/PANBEL

Date: 29 Mar 2010

Title: Games Based Learning: 2010 - Keynote Author: Pingo Join The Immersive Spaces Team and your fellow industry and education leaders, designers, innovators, policy makers, publishers and practitioners at this compelling conference to explore how video games, digital and social media are having a positive impact on learning while developing essential skills that learners and the industry require to compete in the 21st century. http://www.gamebasedlearning2010.com/ Keynote: Justin Bovington - Rivers Run Red In 2007, the world was a buzz with the promise of virtual worlds. Almost hourly, our inboxes were bombarded with announcements of brands declaring their presence within virtual worlds. No sooner had they arrived, it would appear by 2008, that they left in a mass exodus. Or did they? It soon became apparent, reaching consumers via virtual worlds alone was not the opportunity. Since 2008, over 1400 companies have adopted virtual worlds as a platform for experiential learning, collaboration and asynchronous spaces. In 2010, companies like Linden Lab are enabling Enterprise clients to take the entire experience behind the firewall. These mini-virtual worlds, or not so small in the case of the 400,000 IBM employees, will create new and innovative ways for companies to communicate, learn and play. Arguably, the birth of the 3D web will happen behind closed doors; perhaps to eventually emerge back into public domain (e.g. focus group gaming and experiential experiences built around gaming). Rivers Run Red was the leading company to bring brands and content companies into virtual worlds between 2005 and 2008. Highlights include: BBC, adidas, Vodafone, Duran Duran etc. Using real life examples of companies like: Intel, Johnson&Johnson, Harris Broadcast, GE etc. Rivers Run Red continues the story of virtual worlds, a story that is quickly gathering pace and momentum; a market projected by Gartner to be worth over $500million in the next few years. Tools not Toys: serious gaming.

Date: 29 Mar 2010

Title: METAMEETS 2010 Author: Pingo Justin Bovington of the Immersive Spaces team to keynote METAMEETS2010 with Mark Kingdom, CEO, Linden Lab and Philip Rosedale founder of Linden Lab. Location: Dublin, 7th May 2010 http://www.metameets2010.com/

Date: 17 Mar 2010

Title: Corporate learning: Out of body experiences are ‘in’ By Jane Bird Author: Jane Bird - FT article (reg required to view) Teams operating in a virtual world face the challenge of constructing a bridge across a stretch of water to an island, using a set of blocks. One team spots that some of the blocks are weightless. They quickly string these together, march their avatars across the bridge, and declare victory. The other teams of business school students cry foul, but the winners deserve their triumph because they avoided making assumptions, says Steve Mahaley, director of learning technology at Duke Corporate Education in North Carolina. One way to shed new light on old problems is to take people completely out of their element, he says. “Virtual worlds let us test people’s understanding of the nature of the problem and help highlight their assumptions, such as whether all the blocks are subject to gravity, and if the other teams are rivals or potential collaborators.” The fact that team members are not physically together means they need to communicate effectively, for instance checking which spreadsheet and database other members are using, says Mr Mahaley. “It lets people explore and practise new behaviours that will impact positively on the business.” Retention is also improved because of the “experiential” nature of the learning. Business schools are using web-based training, such as virtual worlds, online conferencing, and e-learning software, to enhance and in some cases replace traditional face-to-face learning. The option is proving popular with corporate clients, such as IBM, Alfa Laval, an engineering group, and Ernst & Young. It cuts travel costs and is more convenient. Over the past two years, the economic crisis and the H1N1 virus have meant people have been travelling less for courses and some clients have completely stopped training, says Mr Mahaley. “This has turned up the brightness of the light on technology.” Switching to web-based training enabled one Duke client to halve its $3m annual training costs for 2,500 people in the US. Ease of access is another big factor, says Tony Sheehan, learning services director at Ashridge Business School in the UK. Employees might not have time to attend a training programme, he says. “This lets them learn in bite-sized chunks.” People who in a face-to-face environment might hold back, often find it easier to be assertive in the virtual world. “One of the hardest challenges in the learning environment is to get people to feel confident enough,” says Justin Bovington, chief executive of Rivers Run Red, a software company that has developed Immersive Workspaces virtual learning software. In the virtual world they feel less inhibited. Virtual worlds are inherently more flexible than traditional electronic learning tools, and can be much more easily kept up to date. “They are not hermetically sealed like a CD-Rom,” Mr Bovington says. “It’s not a fixed narrative, but open to discussion.” Rather than manipulating the avatars of a virtual world, in web-based conferencing, remotely located delegates can submit questions during a presentation, provide responses, and use text chat to make comments. Web conferences are typically used for large groups, with smaller breakaway discussion sets for brainstorming, and reconvening of the larger group at the end. There are often face-to-face sessions too. Jan Hall, who took part in a short web conferencing-based course in “action learning” run by Ashridge, says she was “sceptical and doubtful” about the idea of sitting at her screen for the three four-hour sessions, expecting to feel uncomfortable and disengaged. In fact, she says, there were scheduled breaks and the time passed “amazingly fast”. Compared with a teleconference, it was “very different and much better.” Wearing a headset instead of relying on the PC speaker and microphone cuts out ambient noise and helps participants focus and avoid distractions. But web-conferencing delegates need to be a bit more assertive than in face-to-face sessions, Ms Hall says. They must have the courage to interrupt, and the facilitator needs to make more interventions, ensuring participants are listening and not checking and replying to e-mails. The fact that there is an audio channel and nothing else heightens awareness of voice inflection, says Ms Hall. “It makes you very aware of how you come across and is very good for your listening skills.” As a result, a strong sense of trust and bonding built up rapidly, she says. “This helped us work more effectively as a virtual group.” When the group subsequently met for follow-up sessions, she was surprised how well they had bonded. Some web-based learning can be delivered inexpensively using free material on Google and YouTube. Simple online programs can work for click-and-learn testing, in areas such as diversity and health and safety. And web-conferencing can be run using standard packages such as Cisco’s WebEx or Microsoft’s Live Meeting. But for maximum benefit, web-based courses on topics such as leadership, strategy and management need to be collaborative and to show people how to change their behaviour. Moreover, many delegates expect a high level of technical sophistication. “If someone is used to playing World of Warcraft, which is all about collaborating on tasks to achieve a result they won’t be happy with a slide of Porter’s Five Forces on screen,” says Mr Sheehan, alluding to the industry analysis framework developed by Michael Porter of Harvard Business school. To help fund virtual course development costs, business schools are turning to specialist companies such as Immersive Workspaces, Milamber Group and PIXELearning. Andy Hasoon, Milamber’s chief executive, says this approach can heavily reduce the $250,000 that it might otherwise cost to develop a fully customised simulation. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools.

Date: 15 Mar 2010

Title: BUSINESS TRAVEL MARKET (BTM) Author: Pingo BUSINESS TRAVEL MARKET (BTM), the conference & exhibition for European travel buyers, has announced its 2010 conference programme, with an impressive line up of top UK and European speakers, for the event taking place at ExCel London on 16th and 17th June. http://www.businesstravelmarket.co.uk/ Justin Bovington keynoting and panel discussion: Technology will never replace face-to-face”/”You can’t build relationships through machines” are mantras regularly produced to counter the surge of VC but generation Y and beyond are already doing that. Will these trends translate into changed business practice and the challenge to travel some expect or is life in the real world just not the same? ITM says “It’s easy to sit in the “things won’t change that much” camp as to predict dramatic change is a risk. But do we really know how the executives of tomorrow will behave based on our own experiences. Shouldn’t we think about this more as it is at the heart of our future market?” – it takes place on Wednesday June 16 at ExCeL in Docklands at 14.00. http://www.businesstravelmarket.co.uk/

Date: 20 Feb 2010

Title: Thinkbalm publishes immersive software decision making guide. Author: Pingo The Enterprise Immersive Software Decision-Making Guide is a use case-based guide designed to aid business decision makers in the enterprise immersive software selection process. In this report, we present “if/then” scenarios and highlight good-fit vendors for common situations, with a focus on the most prevalent use cases: meetings, conferences, and learning and training. The report offers guidance on how to: 1) ask core business questions to frame the discussion, 2) choose a research-and-demo, do-it-yourself, or combination approach, 3) identify requirements based on your use case, and 4) filter your options based on important limiters. http://www.thinkbalm.com/2010/01/19/thinkbalm-publishes-immersive-software-decision-making-guide/

Date: 19 Jan 2010

Title: RRR join forces with the Dynamic Coalition Author: Pingo RRR is honoured to included in the UK and European Think Tank for policy: http://www.virtualpolicy.net/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=DynamicCoalition The Dynamic Coalition on Convergent Media (CM) will promote the visibility of CM in Internet governance discourse and will facilitate interaction between relevant bodies in order that policy making supports the social benefits of convergent media. The coalition will promote the inclusion of CM in policy debates both to understand the benefits and challenges of convergent media itself and to illuminate policy gaps and overlaps that have emerged as digital media have blurred traditional media and technology boundaries. The coalition will seek to use and promote the use of emerging technologies in policy and governance processes e.g. virtual meetings to increase efficiency and reduce carbon footprint of the DC. The DC will conduct research and input on the main topics of IGF debates and will work closely with other DC’s.

Date: 11 Dec 2009

Title: EVENT Magazine - go with virtual Author: Pingo Rivers Run Red featured and quoted on the rise of Virtual Events as an important and new aspect for the Event's industry. A positive thumbs-up for adoption and sector consideration for 2010.

Date: 25 Nov 2009

Title: Standard cover the launch of SLE™ Author: pingo Justin Bovington, the CEO of Rivers Run Red discusses the recently announced Enterprise solution platform. summary: The emphasis needs to be on solutions; we need to concentrate on creating relevant and cost saving applications. The Enterprise clients will expect their to be 'content' as a given, solutions sales also expands to: consultancy, integration and embedding/aggregating back end data and established web solutions. http://www.thestandard.com/news/2009/11/05/second-life-enterprise-bring-security-enterprise-apps-world-activities

Date: 06 Nov 2009

Title: Linden Lab announce: Second Life Enterprise Author: Justin Bovington Second Life Enterprise Beta (SL Enterprise Beta) is the most secure, content-rich, and flexible virtual workplace solution that exists today, built on the most robust virtual world platforms in existence. http://work.secondlife.com/en-US/products/

Date: 04 Nov 2009

Title: Avatar: Business Use vs Personal play? Author: Justin Bovington 2010: Business Avatars vs Personal Avatars. We're often asked about the issue of using a 'Personal avatar' VS 'Business avatar'. Meaning, is it okay to use an established avatar presence from your own personal exploration of virtual worlds? We've always said that there has to be a clear line between YOU and US. For collaboration to be effective, it has to come from a group of people/company (US) focused and motivated on achieving similiar goals. By adopting a defined company moniker, we're also establishing fair rules: Accountability Familiarity Professionalism Relevance Security This is also why the standard Immersive Workspaces environment is a 'gated community' in contrast to the Second Life consumer space, which is more akin to a 'public park'. This is a unique feature of our product, one that makes our solution a private/secure/safe place of work, cited by Linden Lab as the 'best of breed' solution. We've even created a secondary level encryption system that has passed security protocol at major financial institutions. As we enter 2010, there is also a shift away from the 'evangelist' and the adoption of 'company wide collaborators'. We wouldn't be expected to use our personal email (gmail, hotmail, xbox live nickname etc.) in a business context, therefore why would we do the same with our avatar name and presence? In 2010, it could start to become as common to see an avatar business name on a business card, as an assigned business email address today. There is one exception to this rule, if you're inviting an industry speaker, expert or thought leader in this space. Make provision for that person/avatars quirky choice of name. Although - as we recommend to our clients - if you're worried about content pollution or accountability, assign that person a pre-designed guest avatar account. We would recommend the latter, as security should always be the No.1 priority. Here is an interesting article, one that moves on IBM's initial stab at establishing guidelines back in 2007. Gartner Says Enterprises Must Get Control of Their Avatars: Gartners' Virtual World Avatar Guidelines: 1. Help users learn to control their avatars. For most people, controlling and using an avatar is not viewed as intuitive or easy, but like any skill, after a few sessions a user can master the basics. The platform being used can also be an important factor, but improvements in optimizing virtual environment memory have lessened this issue. 2. Recognize that users will have a personal affinity with their avatar. Users often take pride in their avatar and dress them up or down. For enterprises, this is where dress codes can come into play, if the avatar is being used for company business. Early efforts with avatar appearance have often been viewed as an inhibitor to adoption but this issue should fade as quicker and easier methods of configuring avatars become available. 3. Educate users on the risks and responsibilities of reputation management. Organizations can avoid problems with employees mixing their personal and professional avatar interaction and activities by suggesting that employees use one avatar for their work interactions and another avatar for personal activities. 4. Extend the code of conduct to include avatars in 3-D virtual environments. Just as with social networking sites and individual Web pages where employees participate as representatives of their employer, an avatar's behavior and appearance are a reflection of the individual and the company they work for. Companies with codes of conduct for other Web activities, such as blogging, should be able to extend those policies into virtual environments. However, because 3-D environments add the visual dimension, they will need to make sure that their policies also cover dress codes. 5. Explore the business case for avatars. Justifying avatar use in a business setting is becoming easier, in part because avatar use is gaining wider acceptance. Training and virtual meetings are the top use cases, and one of the main reasons for the increased use of avatars is cost. 6. Encourage usage and enterprise pilots. Looking ahead, one of the biggest uses of avatars appears to be for online meetings. Web meetings are emerging as an important new use case for virtual environments, and this may be a good point at which to start learning about the issues and opportunities surrounding users and avatars. Enterprises may find that they have a willing and ready population of users who are familiar with avatars and their usage. Pilot testing is still the best option for starting to understand the issues that enterprises will face with increased avatar adoption.

Date: 19 Oct 2009

Title: Hybrid not duplication, the real power of virtual events Author: Justin Bovington The Immersive Workspaces team and our partner NBH Horizons recently ran a series of strategic consultancy sessions in collaboration with the Institute of Travel and Meetings. The strategic sessions and real/virtual virtual world conference yielded some interesting action points: We started off with a simple question: Can you run a virtual event as an alternative to real life event? Our conclusion of the test results: · Relevance: Create a strategy based on strength and weakness, making sure you add value rather than just creating duplication. · Hybrid: Use the technology to expand relationships, enable delegates to continue the real world experience within the virtual space. · Travel without moving: We're not in a linear world, virtual worlds enable us to bridge the gap between timezones and the physical world space. · Engagement: The power of keeping the momentum between meetings/conferences is a major reason for adoption. · Cost Savings: Real ROI, Real environmental impact. Press Release: Associations Test Virtual Water IITM and Eventia Announce Results of Event Experiment Events industry association ‘Eventia’ and the “Institute of Travel and Meetings” have today announced the results of their innovative experiment on the delegate experience of real events versus virtual events. The two associations, who recently signed an agreement to form a strategic partnership, joined together to run an educational event for their members on the benefits and applications of Second Life technology. Themed “An Experiment with Second Life”, the two partners ran the same content in both a real-life scenario at the NEC exhibition Event UK and through virtual Second-Life technology the very next day. They then surveyed delegates about their experience. The results of those surveys show:- · Delegates scored registration and joining instructions 11% higher for the live event than the virtual · Speaker feedback was consistently better, with an average 9% higher scores, in the real life event versus the virtual · Ease of interaction with delegates and speakers was scored higher in the virtual conference than in real life by 2% and 10% respectively · Those attending virtually would have expended approximately 690 Kg of CO2 by attending the real life event Commenting on the experiment, Paul Tilstone, ITM CEO said, ”Those who attended the virtual event seemed to comment very favourably on the format but there are clearly some lessons to be learned on the engagement with delegates prior to the event and people preferred hearing from real-life speakers in the flesh. The statistics on interaction, however, are interesting as it demonstrates that virtual technology actually aids interaction rather than hinders it as one might expect, so clearly this aspect could drive the technology application for certain types of event” Izania Downie, Eventia CEO, presenting her association’s views on the experiment, said, “It was a really interesting exercise and demonstrates the exciting areas we can work together on as two associations coming at the same space from different angles. I think the results highlight that there is a potential application for the technology in the events arena but the evidence to date seems to suggest it is predominantly on a complimentary basis to real-life events and won’t replace the benefits people get from face-to-face interaction.”

Date: 19 Oct 2009

Title: Intel saves over 75% of their conference budget by adopting Immersive Workspaces Author: Justin Bovington Read the Intel Case study pdf: When Intel’s bi-annual Embedded Channel Conference (ECC) was canceled as a cost-savings measure, the conference organizers sought a less expensive means to deliver the same content and level of interaction to 150 employees and business partners. Encouraged by the work other groups at Intel were already conducting in Second Life, ECC organizers unanimously decided to execute their conference in the virtual world. The virtual ECC conference (vECC) saved Intel $265,000 of the $300,000 budget for the real world event that they cancelled – not including saved travel expenses. The vECC was executed using The Immersive WorkspacesTM solution, a virtual world meeting and collaboration product developed by Rivers Run Red to operate exclusively in Second Life. Chosen by Intel as the most innovative, cost-effective option to execute their conference, Immersive Workspaces accommodated up to 150 people participating in the vECC with numerous keynote presentations, live product demos, and social networking.

Date: 19 Oct 2009

Title: The second wave: Continued support and recognition of the power of virtual worlds for business Author: Justin Bovington Continued growing support and recognition of the Immerisve Workspaces' solution chosen platform Second Life. The true killer application of virtual worlds is not consumer experiences, the power of collaboration and corporate usage is yielding real ROI and tangible results ITbusiness article I admit it; I need to give Second Life a second chance. In the past I've been dismissive of virtual environments like Second Life, largely because I found efforts to blend the real and virtual worlds generally superfluous and sometimes even kind of silly. While I was dimly aware that companies like Amazon still did recruiting in Second Life, it had been well over a year since I'd given Second Life a second thought. And I wasn't the only one. As MercuryNews.com's Chris O'Brien wrote, "Second Life dropped off the radar, for reasons that aren't entirely clear." Here's the nutty part: While many of us in the technology press moved on to knocking Twitter and Facebook for their lack of compelling business models, Second Life began making money. O'Brien throws out some stats: Second Life user hours grew 33 percent year over year to an all-time high of 126 million in 2009's second quarter. During the same time period, the in-world economy grew 94 percent year over year. In an e-mail exchange with the Industry Standard, Mark Kingdon, CEO of Second Life parent Linden Labs, says 250 companies, including IBM, Intel and Northrop Grumman, use Second Life for collaboration, training, meetings and conferencing, prototyping, simulation and product design. A product called Immersive Workplaces allows companies to conduct meetings or host virtual events in Second Life. Like other variants of video conferencing, virtual worlds can save companies time, money and productivity otherwise lost to travel, always a nice value proposition but especially so in the rocky economy.

Date: 19 Oct 2009

Title: The Industry Standard: Coverage of Immersive Workspaces Author: Justin Bovington The Industry Standard: How is the partnership with Immersive Workspaces going? Mark Kingdon: Our partnership with Rivers Run Red -- one of our 35 Gold Solution Providers -- first announced about a year ago, is going well. Their Immersive Workspaces product was the first of several comprehensive business solutions developed in Second Life. With very minimal set-up, a company can be holding meetings or hosting virtual events in Second Life. Immersive Workspaces are available both in Second Life and in the standalone behind-the firewall version of Second Life (which is in private beta -- codenamed Nebraska).

Date: 17 Oct 2009

Title: CIO Magazine: virtual worlds for business Author: Justin Bovington CIO Magazine reports on collaboration within virtual world with mention of Immersive Workspaces, IBM, Intel, Northropp. Mark Kingdon the CEO of Linden Lab: "Our partnership with Rivers Run Red -- one of our 35 Gold Solution Providers -- first announced about a year ago, is going well. Their Immersive Workspaces product was the first of several comprehensive business solutions developed in Second Life (more here). With very minimal set-up, a company can be holding meetings or hosting virtual events in Second Life. Immersive Workspaces are available both in Second Life and in the standalone behind-the firewall version of Second Life (which is in private beta -- codenamed Nebraska)."

Date: 15 Oct 2009

Title: Advertising Age: The time has arrived for virtual worlds Author: Justin Bovington Advertsing Age When I met Dusan in Second Life, he teleported me to someplace called Immersive Workspaces, which focused on highlighting some of the most cutting-edge innovations. He introduced me to Jon Brouchoud, inventor of something called Wikitecture, which, to my mind, allows laypeople, interior designers, developers and architects to collaborate on virtual spaces as they might relate to the real-world building of a clinic in Nepal, one of the examples he cited and demonstrated. The experience of Wikitecture and Immersive Workspaces reminded me of the scene in "The Matrix" when Neo and Trinity enter the Loading Construct, a white room that the operators of the various ships use to program items for crew members about to enter the Matrix. One of the most exciting things I noticed when I logged in to Second Life is that it supports the most intriguing VoIP innovation. Not only does Second Life allow you to voice chat but it also supports true surround sound, allowing one to track where people are based depending on where their voice is coming from. When someone's close by, his or her voice is loud and clear. When the person walks away, the voice diminishes. And when they circle around you, voices shift from ear to ear, representing physical placement -- location awareness. This is really cool and offers a more cinematic experience that truly separates Second Life from simply being a very resource-intensive IRC.

Date: 09 Sep 2009

Title: Harris Broadcast - broadcasting media giant adopts Immersive Workspaces Author: Justin Bovington Built Within the Immersive Workspaces™ Solution and Hosted on the Managed Second Life™ Platform, New Online Experience Offers Innovative Approach to Engaging with Customers Harris Broadcast - in assocation with our partners FutureSource - launch their virtual world built on the Immersive Workspaces solution. Launched at this year's IBC 2009 event in Amsterdam, Netherlands Read the press release "We see Harris Virtual World as an ideal addition and occasional alternative to conference calls, which can lack stimulus, or to physical meetings, which take up a lot of travel time and financial resources," said Scott. "Our vision is that Harris Virtual World will become a central hub for the Harris Broadcast team, as well as for customers who wish to engage with Harris in a dynamic, yet economical manner."

Date: 27 Aug 2009