It must be akin to watching your child go off to their first day of kindergarten – feeling pride, worry, and hope. These are the same emotions I felt on Friday morning as I got into the office to go through everything (again). Yes, the day was finally here. My baby – the project that not only me, but an entire team of folks, poured their heart, soul and sweat into, and who lost countless hours of sleep over – was finally going live.

What am I talking about? The launch of Crowne Plaza’s The Place to Meet Island in Second Life - and the live event that was held to kick it off. Quickly, The Place to Meet in Second Life provides private, corporate meeting rooms (free). Users are able to reserve space, invite attendees and upload media for a close-to-real-life meeting experience - only without the travel or expense of a real life meeting.

With a prestigious panelist and expected media coverage I was nervous, to say the least. Hours before, the functional team gathered in a small conference room, huddled over computers awaiting the hour.  A small hiccup occurred at the beginning, a box needed to be checked to allow users (i.e. press) to teleport into the island. Box checked, the media was let in and with little distractions, the event began and stress levels started to go down.

In the control room in the back, safely out of sight, I was controlling the slides with the media manager that is chockfull of functionality.  It not only provides you with the functionality of changing media but there is a complex logic built into the script to dynamically generate the menu and files that have been uploaded through the equally complex scheduling site. 

Reflecting elements of design from various Crowne Plaza hotels, the rooms have been created to facilitate almost any type of meeting.  The island itself was beautifully crafted, composed of tropical trees and plants that form an idyllic environment to put any user at ease.

The amazingly brilliant team that worked diligently to bring this project to life has to be commended on a job more than well done. Of course, none of this would’ve been possible without the excitement and encouragement that the Crowne Plaza team displayed. Embracing this new medium and technology could have been fraught with tension and hesitations, but they jumped right in.