Virtual Worlds 2008- Day Two roundup

Belatedly but as promised, here is a roundup of day two of the Virtual Worlds 2008 show in New York.

As with the prior day, there were multiple tracks (five, to be exact) focusing on the different questions around Kids and Teens, Marketing and Entertainment, Technology and Results, the Virtual Worlds Conference, and a un-conference around the enterprise opportunity for virtual worlds. They keynotes kicking off day two of the conference were a returning Jeff Yapp from MTV, and Kyra Reppen from NeoPets.

The individual sessions were standing-room only, however the real action at the show was in the hallway deals being struck as well as the pre-show deals cut to create buzz and relevance for the various companies there.

Overall, the conference had more activity but less energy than the 2007 New York conference, possibly due to the larger venue and the hangover from the negative press this technology has been receiving of late. Second Life bashing was de rigueur on the panel I participated on, causing even yours truly to exclaim surprise when people attempted to prevent Gene Yoon from responding to the explicit and implicit accusations.

I am compiling a 'direction of the virtual worlds industry' snapshot to accompany a follow up to my June 2007 'crystal ball' post of future projections. I will be posting that in the next 48-72 hours.