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The latest entrant to the raft of virtual worlds conferences planned for this year is the Virtual Worlds Forum that will take place in London on October 24-25. I’m going to try to make this, even though I’ll have been in California two weeks earlier for the autumn edition of Virtual Worlds 2007 (which we reported earlier), which takes place October 10-11. The London forum is already featuring an impressive list of confirmed speakers, including Corey Bridges of Multiverse, Mike Wilson of There.com, Raph Koster of Areae, Richard Bartle of MUD1 (the first virtual world), and many more. Registration should open later this week; we’ll try to give you a heads up. Text of a recent press release after the jump. (Pay no attention to the first word of the headline.)

FIRST EUROPEAN VIRTUAL WORLDS CONFERENCE ANNOUNCED, OCTOBER 24th - 25th 2007 IN LONDON

LONDON - June 27, 2007 - The Virtual Economic Forum, the independent think-tank for virtual worlds business, today announced the first European Virtual Worlds Forum. The conference is to take place in London, October 24th - 25th 2007, to provide a forum for business leaders to discuss and evaluate the different opportunities of virtual worlds and their impact on business, converging media and corporate collaboration, as well as brand marketing and consumer engagement. www.virtualworldsforum.com

The Virtual Economic Forum has created the conference in response to the increasing number of businesses involved in developing both consumer experiences and enterprise applications on virtual world platforms. The aim is to provide industry insight into what works, what the different opportunities and limitations are, and to help develop industry standards with regards to metrics, return-on-investment and understanding intellectual property issues.

Hence, the two days will cover the business of virtual worlds and the 3D web, from both an immersive brand engagement and consumer marketing point of view, as well as from an enterprise corporate collaboration perspective.

Key conference topics will include:
- Brand engagement: consumers or community, social networking and virtual worlds platforms
- Convergence: mobile, games, entertainment
- Measurement metrics and ROI
- Business models, real-money making and trading, IP, regulatory and tax issues
- Collaborative working, virtual offices, organisational development and internal communications
- Technology development: platforms, games, machinima and micro-content
- What are the VC investment opportunities?

Confirmed speakers include:
- Corey Bridges, Co-founder, The Multiverse Network
- Mike Wilson, CEO, There.com
- Raph Koster, CEO, AreaE
- Dr Colin Paris, VP, Digital Convergence, IBM Research
- David Erixon, Director, Brand Strategy and Manifestation, Vodafone Global Marketing
- Timo Soininen, CEO, Sulake / Habbo
- Meg Pickard, Head of Communities, The Guardian
- Thomas Bidaux, NCSoft Europe
- Steve Prentice, Group Vice President and Chief of Research, Gartner
- Joe Little, Digital Communications & Technology - Chief Technology Office, BP
- Ben Holmes, Principal, Index Ventures
- Betsy Book, Marketing Director, There.com
- Marco van Veen, Manager, Web, Innovatoin and Collaboration Center, Heineken
- Greg Nuyens, CEO, QWAQ
- Professor Richard Bartle, University of Essex, author, “Designing Virtual Worlds”
- Justin Bovington, CEO, Rivers Run Red
- Mark Boyd, Creative Director and Head of Content, BBH
- Mike Butcher, Editor, Mbites.com
- Paul Hemp, Senior Editor, The Harvard Business Review
- Aleks Krotoski, Journalist, The Guardian and virtual worlds researcher
- Ren Reynolds, Terra Nova
- Alice Taylor, Wonderland blog

The event will create a community of senior executives at corporates, brands, agencies, media and entertainment organisations, technology and finance companies, all responsible for brand engagement and corporate collaboration enabling them to gain cross-industry insight into the 3D web, while sharing experiences and learning.

The Virtual Worlds Forum boasts an impressive board of advisors who are all involved in the business of virtual worlds and are pioneers within the area, a number of them will be speaking at the conference or leading workshops.

Virtual Worlds Forum Europe 2007 is sponsored by Rivers Run Red, the leading virtual worlds development company; Makena Technologies, the creator of the popular virtual world, There.com. The Virtual Worlds Forum is part of the London Games Festival, and supported by the IAB, AOP, ELSPA, Creative London and NMK.
Ends

Notes to Editors:
About The Virtual Economic Forum Ltd
Virtual Worlds Forum Europe 2007 is produced by The Virtual Economic Forum Limited, a company leveraging decades of expertise in the delivery of media events.

The Virtual Worlds Forum advisory board includes:
o Professor Richard Bartle, University of Essex, author, “Designing Virtual Worlds”
o Justin Bovington, CEO, Rivers Run Red
o Mark Boyd, Creative Director and Head of Content, BBH
o Mike Butcher, Editor, Tbites.com
o Paul Hemp, Senior Editor, The Harvard Business Review
o Aleks Krotoski, Journalist, The Guardian and virtual worlds researcher
o Ren Reynolds, TerraNova
o Alice Taylor, VP Digital Content, BBC, Wonderland blog

Virtual Worlds Forum Europe 2007 takes place October 24 - 25, 2007 in Central London.

Online registration will open shortly and to ensure you’re kept up to date, sign up to our mailing list at www.virtualworldsforum.com

For further information, please contact:
Sasha Frieze, Executive Conference Director

E: sasha@virtualworldsforum.com