Watch video from the conference: Clip 1 | Clip 2 | Clip 3 | Clip 4

NO MATTER how much I played with it, the tie would not sit right. Somehow it appeared to be fixed to my chin or to float a foot from my face. After clicking and clicking my mouse I gave up and went tie-less. I needn’t have worried about being so formal. At last week’s Sunday Times/PA Consulting conference on Second Life one person turned up as a female goth, face obscured by black and red hair, another guest turned up as a yellow alien and one man appeared to be on fire.

Second Life is a virtual world that aims to be 3D version of the internet. It has become a favourite talking point with big businesses - many of whom now have a presence there, launching new hotels, testing cars and opening virtual stores and offices. Despite some slow down after the huge initial hype, it looks like there is more to come. According to research house Gartner 80% of internet users will visit sites like Second Life by 2011.

The Sunday Times/PA conference, 'Getting real about business in Second Life' aimed to start a debate on whether, and how, businesses should take advantage of Second Life.

The conference took place in front of a live audience of around 90 people. While numbers had to be capped for technical reasons the conference is believed to have been the largest event of its kind yet held in Second Life. Guests arrived from Shanghai to Surrey and from companies including ABN Amro, the BBC, BA, Cisco, Dell, FirstDirect, Shell and Reuters.

Newbies were given training by PA to create virtual selves - or avatars - that represent them in Second Life.

Had the conference taken place in the real world it would have cost thousands and generated somewhere between 120 and 180 and tonnes of carbon.

The panelists were PA’s virtual world’s expert Claus Nehmzow, ABN Amro’s business development manager Pascal Spelier, Cisco’s Randy Sisk and myself.

Outlining the appeal of a 3D environment Spelier said: “3D is closer to reality than 2D. Second Life offers more interaction. When you look at a web page on the normal internet you can’t see that a lot of other people are looking at that page. But in Second Life you can see people standing around you and you can interact with those people looking at the same information.”

As the first European bank to open in Second Life, Spelier said ABN has attracted a lot of publicity. “Free publicity was never our goal we wanted to learn about virtual worlds and what it can mean for communication with our customers,” he said.

“Learning is all about experimenting,” said Spelier.

“We don’t have a clear view whether it will be a success within a few years but are convinced that virtual worlds will have a future. The internet and the real world will intermingle more and more - it’s called inter-reality. Nowadays we don’t just surf the internet for information buying products and services, the internet is becoming more and more a communication channel. “

He said ABN was looking to Second Life to find out how the bank could communicate more personally with its customers, how customers behave in virtual worlds and what sort of information they want to find there.

Nehmzow, Second Life name German Guru, said that at any one time there was still a relatively small number of people in Second Life. The site has 8m registered users but there are now about 50,000 users online at any one time, up from 2,500 in March last year.

“We are not sure if Second Life will dominate the space in a few years or if somebody else will and that doesn’t really matter. The lessons learned with this new medium are so interesting that it will be easy to adapt them to another world when it comes along,” said Nehmzow.

PA hired human greeters to work in its space welcoming people and guiding visitors through its interactive exhibits. Nehmzow said the greeters had been one of their most successful ideas.

PA has also built a virtual bank branch for one client to try out different bank formats, a petrol station and an air terminal with an Airbus 380 cabin to get feedback from business partners and consumers and eventually for use for training and marketing.

Nehmzow said the 3D, interactive world was ideal for conferences, like this one, and for training and some areas of recruitment.

Cisco has four islands in Second Life and uses them to show case its products and services in 3D. On one island visitors can explore a hi-tech house while another offer corporate information and videos about the company.

After the presentation was over visitors mingled on the virtual platform, networking as they would in the real world.

Talking about the recent backlash against Second Life “Zac Su,” an avatar in grey suit, black beard and bright red hair, said: “I think many business people’s expectations about Second Life are dead wrong. People think it’s about selling virtual products but it’s really an opportunity to engage consumers in a different way.”

Zac, in real life Singapore-based Phillips executive Carl Griffiths, said: “It’s too early to say whether Second Life will dominate a 3D internet, But something like it will. We should all take notice and learn what we can.”

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