Second Life - The Digital Dodo Bird | 6Connex Virtual Venue Solutions

The Dodo was a flightless bird living on the island of Mauritius, but is long extinct. In this blog post we are reviewing why a particular Virtual Event Platform, Second Life, never took off (much like the Dodo)…

Digital Dodo – Second Life for Businesses

Second Life was a once-hailed platform where businesses would conduct meeting and meet their stakeholders. Large blue-ship companies spent large budgets on building campus, meeting places and holding meetings inside the 3D world.

The analysts firms were not late jump on the bandwagon. Gartner predicted that by 2011, 80% of all Internet users would have an active presence in a virtual world such as Second life.

Total number of registrants on Second Life is around 40 million users – and even though Gartner referred to Second Life, it is not hard to claim that Second Life for Businesses became a digital Dodo.

Life at Second Life Today

Today, the activities in Second Life focus on games and adventure and fantasy activities. Reports speak about a core user group of around 500k people visiting the environment on a monthly basis. Mentions of Second Life being use by business are non-existing since years. 

Learning from Our Digital Dodo – Second Life

• For true success online, don’t replicate the physical world. Take the strengths of online and focus on building a kick-ass virtual event experience. If you try to replicate the physical world we have too often seen users referring to the online initiative as “second-grade”.
• Innovation for the sake of innovation has limited value. Consider if users will truly use the tools you put in place.
• Embed the digital activity within the existing business processes, not as an add-on sitting outside the organization. The higher the level of involvement, the higher the chance of success.
• As with any project where you try to change behavior: you have to get the timing right. Second life came out early when Internet connectivity was still not that great, slow connection and slow computer power meant a poor experience.

How 6Connex applies what we learned from experiences like Second Life:

Although visuals are important, take away gimmicky features. A clean visual interface with clear buttons where to click makes navigation easy.

• Make it easy to engage. In our virtual event platform we have many ways to connect and interact. 1-1 chats, signs to request to book a meeting, live interaction with experts etc. Two-way communication is key to create a “sticky” experience where people spend a lot of time.
• Keep the overall goal of the program in sight. Enable easy and fast feedback routes so that managing the project is easy. Integration and automation of reports and detailed 24/7 reporting at your fingertips allow companies to shorten lead turn-around times and create tailored learning paths.

Stay current and stay relevant. At 6Connex, we make sure we constantly develop our virtual event platform to allow you to meet your project goals.

About 6Connex Virtual Event Solutions - Our Digital Experience

6Connex is the leading provider of virtual and hybrid event solutions. Our secure, cloud-based platform expands audience reach and drives in-depth content engagement for marketing, sales, recruitment, training, and HR communities to make for successful online events around the world. Our product portfolio includes virtual environments, learning management, and webinars. Demand more from your virtual and hybrid event solution. Request a virtual event demo with 6Connex, or contact our event software experts for more information.

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Have Questions? Please call 1.800.395.4702 or email us at sales@6connex.com.