This Week's Herman Trend Alert The Consequences of Virtual Meetings

The Herman Trend Alert March 12, 2008 Second Life Revisited Last year the virtual world Second Life (SL), secondlife.com received quite a bit of media coverage when several Fortune 500 companies staged events or built virtual presences there. Not so long ago, we covered the use of SL for market research. (www.hermangroup.com/alert/archive_3-21-2007.html) Now, we revisit this topic to discuss some important developments. Second Life now has eleven million registered users with an average of 18,000 new people joining everyday. In November, the hit TV drama CSI:NY aired an episode tracking a killer into this virtual world. At the end CBS aired a commercial, inviting viewers to go to their website to find a branded link to join Second Life and "continue the pursuit". The result: an extra 100,000 people signed up. B2B and Consumer Products companies have also used SL for product development, recruiting activities, and staff meetings. Corporations, like IBM, bring in authorized staff from around the world to have virtual meetings that may include PowerPoint presentations, audio, video, interactive surveys on the spot, and more. Manpower has its own SL location and holds periodic job fairs. Now, the Social Research Foundation, that provides the First Opinions Panel (the largest consumer research panel in SL), offers the groundbreaking Second Life Business Brief. To subscribe, visit http://www.slbrief.com. It is simply the best way to keep up with corporate doings in SL. And just like our Herman Trend Alert, the Second Life Business Brief may be co-branded, i.e., other organizations may send these e-zines to their lists under their own names. We agree with Prince Charles who complimented the CEO of IBM for holding a corporate meeting in SL, instead of flying his leaders from all over the world. That is why we were so excited about the opportunity to deliver a presentation in SL. Aliza Sherman, a/k/a, Cybergrrl Oh is an event organizer and consultant for this new universe. She has engaged Joyce to deliver a brief presentation titled "The Future of Marketing" on March 24 at 3pm EDT. You must join Second Life to attend (It's free). To learn more about Sherman's leading edge services, email her at alizapilar@msn.com. As a professional speaker, Joyce expects to deliver more presentations in SL in the future. © Copyright 1998- by The Herman Group, Inc. -- reproduction for publication is encouraged, with the following attribution: From "The Herman Trend Alert," by Roger Herman and Joyce Gioia, Strategic Business Futurists. (800) 227-3566 or http://www.hermangroup.com. The Herman Trend Alert is a trademark of The Herman Group, Inc." BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND: RETENTION SPECIALIST PROGRAM A growing number of people have expressed an interest in attending our Employee Retention Specialist Certificate Program. We'd like to schedule on that's convenient for those who want to attend, but need your feedback to do so. Please place RETENTION SPECIALIST in the subject line and Joyce will personally call you back to schedule the workshop. Or you can call Joyce directly at 336-210-3548 (PDT this and next week). BUSINESS IS PICKING UP Most employers are unprepared. The recovery will bring a new set of challenges for employers that have been in prolonged contracted mode. They will need more skilled workers or will need now to begin to upskill their current staffs. But organizations can not engage in Strategic Workforce Planning, when they don't know how. That's where The Herman Group can help. We can help you with your "People Review"----large or small---so that you will know who you will need and when you will need them. . . and we can also guide you to the best sources for the people you will need. For more information, call Joyce at 336-210-3548 or e-mail joyce@hermangroup.com. FIND OUT WHAT YOUR EMPLOYEES REALLY THINK AND FEEL Discover what’s really going on in the hearts and minds of your employees. Our InnerViews interviewing service uses SPHRs and PHRs, certified human resource professionals to probe for the information you really need to know. Exit and Stay Interviews, as well as Why-Didn't-You-Take-Our-Offer Interviews. Call Rosalie Catalano at 937-416-7066, or read more at: http://www.hermangroup.com/retentionconnection/exit_interviews.html. Herman Trend Alerts are produced by the Herman Group, strategic business futurists, Certified Management Consultants, authors, and professional speakers. New subscribers are welcome. There is no charge for this public service. The Herman Trend Alert is received by over 30,000 subscribers in 78 countries, in addition to other websites and printed magazines. Do you enjoy receiving this weekly e-mail update? Contact us about our co-branded Trend Alert service. Click here to sign up for the Herman Trend Alert. Subscribe or Unsubscribe to weekly Herman Trend Alert View this week's Herman Trend Alert Archived Weekly Herman Trend Alerts

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