This iReport is part of an assignment:
Stories from Second Life
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Posted March 27, 2008
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Location
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
Assignment
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Wings of Hope Magazine Sponsors SL Business Conference
On March 22, 2008 over 25 vendors displayed their products, services and programs at the Wings of Hope conference center. The displays range from simple setups to the complex with audio and visual feeds. All were creatively crafted with pride and professional showmanship. Many different types of stores, services and programs were represented, such as The Instant Gardener for landscaping, Motor Loon Cycles, art work by R&L Photos, Fugley Jewelry, custom-made shoulder pets by Qetra Designs and beautiful antique reproductions by GAG.OFP. For spiritual needs, Lifechurchtv, Eternal Creations and Jesus House were showcased. In addition, Enraptured Designs promoted their casual clothing line for the budget minded, Venus Photography Studio showed samples of their unique, personalized portraits, Venice highlighted their sim's many offerings and Kerhop Seattle dazzled visitors with his inventive gadgets. DJ services by Custom Club Gear was also at the conference, along with SLTronics media, Community Builders and a wide range of musical instruments by Paul Ge. There was even a virtual animal shelter with talking animals. Wings of Hope Magazine unveiled their last online issue at the conference. In July, the magazine will become a real life subscription based print publication. The magazine will cover Second Life issues and stories, as well as concerns and topics from the physical world. The family friendly format will include articles about faith, social issues, education, health, testimonies, mission work and more. There will be a new teen and college aged section with real life and teen grid contributors. In addition, the newly expanded Entertainment News section will offer interviews and reviews of real life musical artists, such as Matthew West who had the number 1 single on the Christian billboard the week of March 3, 2008. The highlight of the conference were keynote speakers, Puglet Dancer, Alliance Library System and Sioban McMahon, West of Ireland. Dancer, a real life library director with the Cullom-Davis Library in Illinois and faculty member with Bradley University, spoke about building a successful business model in Second Life. To get her staff on board with the project of creating a virtual library, Dancer dangled an incentive by offering them "a new computer in exchange to explore SL." When asked how her group marketed their library system in SL, Dancer said they relied on word of mouth and basically held to the theory that if they built it, the customers would come. And, indeed thousands come to ask questions. ALS's newest project is The Land of Lincoln. It was built to honor Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States and also because it is the only president to hail from Illinois. Dancer's closing remark was that if she could change anything about SL it would be to "make it easier for those not familiar with gaming." Sioban McMahon, West of Ireland spoke community building and their highly successful fund raising efforts for Project Children. Project Children is a real life organization that sponsors an exchange program between Catholic and Protestant children to foster cultural understanding. They recently raised $L649,912 at their last event for St. Patrick's Day which was used towards purchasing airline tickets for the children. McMahon, a marine biologist by day in real life said that the program exists because "laws have changed, but hearts haven't completely yet." To have a successful sim McMahon recommended many customer service strategies, such as greeting every visitor by name, maintaining a warm, friendly atmosphere and keeping the sim staffed as many hours as possible around the clock. She also insisted that owners should be available on their sim and to take the time to talk with guests. The vendor displays will remain open to the public through March 30, 2008. Come visit the Wings of Hope Conference Center, get some free gifts from the vendors and learn about the diverse business opportunities Second Life has to offer. For more information about advertising with Wings of Hope Magazine or to subscribe, please visit them online at either www.myspace.com/woh or www.wohmag.com
- TAGS:
- secondlife,
- sl,
- business,
- wings,
- of,
- hope,
- magazine
- GROUPS:
- Tech and science
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