The conference is scheduled for August 24-26 in Chicago. Be sure to look for SecondCasters Lordfly Digeridoo and Johnny Ming

USC’s partner, the MacArthur Foundation will appear this Friday at noon EST for a discussion with Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale to discuss philanthropy in virtual worlds.

This episode also features a special interview with Jerry Paffendorf (SL: SNOOPYbrown Zamboni) who along with Christian Westbrook (SL: Christian Prior) produced the exhibit “Destroy Television”, an interactive virtual art installation, which operated for 10 days in Second Life and in the NYC Fuse Gallery. More information on the Destroy Television exhibit can be found here and the Directors cut of the entire event can be downloaded here.

The Secondcasters are joined by guest host Roslin Petion of Roslin Petion of Tete A Pied and SecondStyle Magazine.

The group interviews Jen and Corey of Bucket a podcast about many hilarious things including Second Life. The group discusses Fluffy Bunny and Bucket’s Nowhereville Concert series, kicked off by Rich Palmer in May.

Can avatars get thirsty? They may not thirst for real life beverages, but certainly they seek exciting virtual experiences. C.C. Chapman (SL: Cleon Goff) and Steve Coulson (SL: Gideon Television) of Crayon join the podcast to discuss Coca-Cola’s Virtual Thirst contest.

The contest, which is accepting entries through May 25th, is a search for the ultimate Second Life Coca-Cola experience generator. Winners of Virtual Thirst will win $500,000 Lindens and a trip to San Francisco to have their contest entry turned into a Second Life design by Millions of Us.

You can send in your entry by email, video, or in Second Life.

Moderator:
Eric Rice

Panelists:
Jason Stoddard, Managing Partner, Interactive, Centric
Robert Gehorsam, President, Forterra Systems Inc.
Paul Ledak, VP of Development, Digital Convergence, IBM
Michael Wilson, CEO, Makena Technologies

Leo Burnett Detroit helped its Pontiac client launch a presence in Second Life in November. Pontiac’s launch of its six-region land mass called Motorati Island began with a twist–an offer of free “land” for Second Lifers to create a vibrant car culture within the community. Staying true to the spirit of Second Life, which empowers members to build the community, Pontiac has provided parcels of land around Motorati Island to Second Life entrepreneurs and artists who wish to create their own projects devoted to car culture. This session will give attendees an inside glimpse of how Motorati Island came to be, and key learnings from being a major marketer in Second Life.

Keynote:
Sibley Verbeck, The Electric Sheep Company

With the advent of virtual worlds networks, individual channels and individual shows can now create interactive versions of their franchises and engage fans directly, immersing them into the environment. Find out how to successfully extend a television brand, including measuring audience participation and extending the advertising business model.

Never before have there been so many new outlets for marketing. Find out from leading experts how to create a virtual worlds presence that integrates and complements your existing marketing activities.

Moderator:
Greg Verdino, VP/Director of Emerging Channels, DIGITAS

Panelists:
Joel Greenberg, Sr. Planner, GSD&M
Roger Holzberg, Vice President – Creative Director / Walt Disney Parks and, Resorts Online
Randal Moss, Manager of Futuring and Innovation Center, American Cancer Society
Paul Hemp, Senior Editor, Harvard Business Review

Under his leadership IBM has formed an emerging business born from the IBM Innovation Jam around emerging technologies and virtual worlds. Join Colin to hear how IBM has been experimenting in virtual worlds for business in three key areas: virtual commerce and work with clients to apply virtual world to business problems; driving new kinds of collaboration and education; and experimentation in pushing the limits with a broad community on what might be possible in virtual worlds.

Moderator:
Corey Bridges, Co-founder, Executive Producer, & Marketing Director, The Multiverse Network (moderator)

Panelists:
Jerry Paffendorf, Resident Futurist, The Electric Sheep Company
Reuben Steiger, CEO, Millions of Us
Mark Wallace, Journalist, 3pointD.com
John Donham, VP Production, Areae Inc.

The SecondCasters welcome guest host Starr Sonic of SLCN.tv and teen grid members Lucky Figtree and Alex Harbinger. The group discusses the Teen Grid Unification proposal, Project Open Letter, Barbie World and a myriad of other riveting topics for your edification.

Congratulations to Lordfly Digeridoo for his marriage proposal and engagement!!

The CDC has established a presence in multiple virtual worlds in an effort to meet its particular objectives. This unique session will highlight separate efforts in two separate virtual worlds – Whyville and Second Life. Understand the challenges and opportunities on multiple platforms from one entity.

Presenters:

Erin Edgerton, E-Health Marketing Division, National Center for Health Marketing, Coordinating Center for Health Information and Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

John P. Anderton Ph.D., M.P.A., Acting Associate Director for Communications Science, National Center for Public Health Informatics (NCPHI), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Are virtual world consumers trend setters? Are they early adopters? Understand the demographics of virtual world participants so you can plan your presence accordingly. What do they respond well to? How do you communicate your efforts… from launch to day-to-day management… understand the “in’s” and “out’s” of your audience. Are virtual worlds the MySpace-killers?

Panelists:
Ren Reynolds, TerraNova (Moderator)
Jeska Dzwigalski, Community Developer, Linden Lab
Betsy Book, Director of Product Management, Makena Technologies
Teemu Huuhtanen, President, North America & EVP Business Development, Sulake Corp
Linda Zimmer, President & CEO, MarCom:interactive

Presented by Christopher Barry, VP, Digital Media and Business Strategy, Sundance Channel.

How to ID your goals and strategies within virtual worlds. Look at prior considerations from established players and hear planning that worked and planning that didn’t. What opportunities do virtual worlds hold over other, more established, media formats. How do you insure that your campaigns quantified and verified. What does ROI mean to you?

Panelists:
Adam Pasick, Second Life Bureau Chief, Reuters (moderator)
Reuben Steiger, CEO, Millions of Us
Ben James, Communications Strategy Director, Rivers Run Red
Adrienne Meisels, Former VP New Business Ventures, AOL

This session will examine the new technologies and platforms. Speakers will discuss the alternatives that are available for the various platforms. The virtual worlds medium offers unique complexities including interactivity, immersion, scalability and intense user involvement. New technologies now leverage those elements. New and emerging platforms will also be discussed.

Panelists:
Jerry Paffendorf, Futurist, Electric Sheep Company (moderator)
Corey Bridges, Co-founder, Executive Producer, & Marketing Director, The Multiverse Network
John Bates, Evangelist, Entropia Universe
Joe Miller, Vice President, Platform & Technology Development, Linden Lab
Rick Giolito, President, Trilogy Studios

Viacom has emerged as one of the new media leaders combining television, 2D web and 3D virtual communities in one integrated system. Virtual Laguna Beach to Nickelodeon’s Nicktropolis, Viacom is helping define the next-generation media and advertising models. Virtual worlds allow media and entertainment innovators unprecedented new ways to engage consumers with the franchises they’ve enjoyed in front of their television screens.

Presenters:
Matt Bostwick, SVP, Franchise Development, MTV Music Group
Jeffrey B. Yapp, Executive VP, MTV Networks
Steve Youngwood, Executive VP, Digital Media, Nickelodeon

This session lays the groundwork giving you the numbers you need to understand how to take advantage of Virtual Worlds today. We’ll also look at forecasts for where Virtual Worlds are going. What are the growth projections? And what are the factors that will promote or inhibit growth.

Panelists:
Daniel Terdiman, Senior Writer, CNET News.com (moderator)
Chris Collins, Business Analyst, Linden Lab
Sibley Verbeck, CEO, The Electric Sheep Company
Joe Laszlo, Analyst, Jupiterkagan
Steve Prentice, Distinguished Analyst & Chief of Research, Gartner
Justin Bovington, CEO, Rivers Run Red

The cast discusses the debate and the technical ins and outs of the recent search beta for Second Life by Sheep Labs with guests Christian Prior of Sheep Labs and Hiro Pendragon of Infinite Vision Media. Furtherment is actually a word. Heh.

This will work much like a call-in radio show where we’ll be taking callers one at a time with panel discussion in between. To participate, you will need to create a login on TalkShoe when you follow the link above. There is currently no plan to meet in Second Life for the taping so this is just a voice event.

Topics are TBD but will probably include the Virtual Worlds 2007 conference, SLCC and banning, SL Framework for Drupal, and BanLink.

“Escape – The Second Life Song” is by Niko Donburi.

Winners of the Second Life Relay for Life Promos:

#1 – Dixie Starr
#2 – Diana Wolfe
#3 – SamBivalent Spork
#4 – Trader1 Whiplash and Nuala Maracas
#5 – Rhiannon Chatnoir

Don’t forget to bum rush the charts on March 22nd!!

Johnny talks with Philip Linden, Joe Linden, and Oz Spade using the voice beta released earlier today on the Second Life Preview Grid.

The show ends with a new version of of the SecondCast theme song by Estee Music. Let us know what you think!

VON (San Jose, CA – March 18-19) The convention for “voice, video and vision” has asked Johnny Ming to speak on a panel about “Peripheral Communities in a Virtual World” on Monday March 19th.

Virtual Worlds Conference 2007 (New York, NY – March 28-29) Johnny Ming, Walker Spaight and SNOOPYbrown Zamboni will be just a few of the Second Life people attending the 1st annual conference geared exclusively towards businesses looking to enter the virtual world space.

PodCamp NYC (New York, NY – April 6-7) Johnny Ming and Walker Spaight will be speaking on a panel at PodCamp NYC about “Social Media Convergence and Virtual Worlds”.

Second Life Community Convention (Chicago, IL – August 24-26) Johnny Ming, Walker Spaight, and Lordfly Digeridoo have confirmed they will be attending SLCC in August! Plans are still in the works but you can expect a live show or two and panel discussions.

Of course, Walker Spaight and Johnny Ming are regulars at the Brooklyn Metaverse Meetups so look us up when you are in town! They always make for great casual discussion and exploration!