Wednesday, September 23, 2009

FountainBlue’s First Annual Virtual Worlds Conference

FountainBlue's Virtual Worlds Annual Conference on the topic of Virtual Worlds: Where We Were, Where We're Going, What Does It Mean to YOU?, is scheduled for Friday, September 25, 2009, from 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. at Sun Microsystems, 4030 George Sellon Circle, in Santa Clara.

Location and Parking
Sun Microsystems is located at 4030 George Sellon Circle, and parking is available along Palm Drive and in the Building 22 parking lot on the southwest side of the Auditorium. Limited parking is also available on George Sellon Circle, west of the Auditorium. A map and directions is available at
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/venue/20041.

Agenda

If you are planning to attend the whole event, please arrive between 8:00 and 8:30 a.m. and stand up to network to ensure that you have an optimal networking opportunity. We have a very full agenda, so please assist with keeping our program on time.

Please allow yourself to be herded efficiently to and from networking and other sessions.

Please help us start the program promptly at 8:30 and help us move through the welcomes, a presentation, two panels, a break, a lunch and an entrepreneur pitch session.

Please disarm all electronic devices which might interrupt our conversation.

If you have to come late, leave early, or otherwise enter in the middle of a session, we thank you if you could do so as discretely as possible.

We welcome you to excuse yourself quietly during the program and have set up demo tables for the presenting entrepreneurs upstairs. Please feel free to visit the demos throughout the day, but the doors will close at 12:15, just prior to the entrepreneur presentations.

A rough agenda is below for your reference.

8:00 Registration and Networking

8:30 Welcomes and Thank Yous

8:45 Presentation on Virtual Worlds – What is it, Where Has it Been?

9:15 First Panel Discussion: Virtual World Business Trends

10:15 Morning Break, with Corporate Exhibits

10:30 Second Panel Discussion: Virtual World Case Studies

11:30 Lunch Break, Featuring Corporate Presentations

12:30 Entrepreneur Presentations

2:30 Adjourn and Further Networking until 3:00; Exhibits will stay open until 3:30 p.m.

Internet Access

Sun Santa Clara campus has graciously provided an on-site wireless network called "sunwifi". After you have connected to that network and have opened a web browser it will ask you to register as a guest user. Once you have filled out a small registration form it will allow you to fully access the internet for up to 12 hours. We will also have a table in the back with access to power for re-charging.

Please do not leave your laptop plugged in, and extend the cord down the aisle as it is a fire and safety hazard. Thank you.

Please be courteous about how often you use it and how long you plug it in so that the maximum amount of people may have access.

Demo Tables

We will have four demo tables downstairs: Sun, Stanford, CloudMach and IdeaBuilder. You are welcome to visit the demo tables during breaks and throughout the event. Thank you for doing this discreetly during presentations.

Each of the presenting entrepreneurs will also have demos on display in the upstairs conference room, from around 8:15 until around 12:15, just before the presentations start. You are welcome to visit the demo room and ask questions during those times.

Your Contact Information

To encourage ongoing connections, we are providing the attached attendee contact information in soft copy format. You are welcome to forward these confirmation details and the invitation below to interested others, but please DO NOT FORWARD the contact list to ANYONE, as we have permission only to share with other attendees. In addition, please let me know if you change your mind and would prefer not to share your e-mail and phone number with the group and it will not be included with the final notes sent to the attendees.

Networking Policy:

Although we encourage everyone to network, please practice the 'tell, not sell' policy, and do not aggressively promote your organization or its products and services during introductions, during the networking time, or afterwards via e-mail. Please let us know over e-mail if you aggressively approached by a fellow attendee so that we can directly address any violations in our policy while keeping your input anonymous. Thank you for your support and cooperation as it will help ensure ongoing quality networking experiences for everyone.

FountainBlue Membership:

If you elected to share your contact information, we have invited you to join the FountainBlue community on BigTent. If you have not received an invitation, please check your spam folder, or visit http://tinyurl.com/cbb5ua
and select the 'resend existing invitation link' at the bottom of that page. Membership costs are $40 annually or $90 for an ongoing membership, and are prorated. Membership benefits, including a $5-$10 discount for each FountainBlue event, are highlighted at
http://www.fountainblue.biz/aboutus/membership.html.

Please Promote:

The quality of the audience makes a big difference for the networking and educational opportunity for any event. Please feel free to forward the invitation below to interested corporate and/or entrepreneurial executives in your network who may be interested in attending. Please note that the pre-registration deadline is Thursday at noon, and that there is NO on-site registration.


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