The Virtual Worlds Forum London 07: interview with Justin Bovington, CEO of rivers run red

I am glad I managed to spend some time with Justin Bovington at The Virtual Worlds Forum. Justin is a regular speaker, and I missed him when I covered the ad:tech event in London a couple of weeks ago.

His company, rivers run red, is one of the most experience companies in virtual worlds. It was the world's first creative agency to establish a working presence within a virtual world. They help companies like ING, Vodafone, Intel or Coca Cola to build compelling and entertaining virtual worlds to their customers.
   
Interview with Justin Bovington
Justin is passionate about social / digital media, web 2.0 and virtual worlds. Justin believes that virtual worlds are for the internet what television was for the radio. He created his company to help the leading global companies extend brand experiences into virtual worlds.

Nowadays, thanks to broadband we have access to deeper, richer, experiences on our desktop. Justin explains why your company should be on a virtual world, and probably on Second Life, the best metaverse out there according to him... and IBM.

Virtual worlds: part of the communciation mix
Virtual worlds are becoming part of a global communication mix. They are not everything themsleves, they are very powerful when used in combination with the total mix of communication that you have. You bring your community into theses spaces, and you reward them: you give them more and richer experiences.
 
Virtual worlds: test new product ideas
Virtual worlds enable you to test new product ideas and new environments (like Deutsche Bank and its Q110 initiative - a innovative branch in Berlin and its equivalent in Second Life): you get real time analysis from several hundreds of members, you can study their behaviour patterns, and usually they react differently online.

Virtual worlds: behind the firewall
Virtual worlds are extremely useful "Behind the Firewall" too: it enables people to work differently. They don't need to travel that much, which translates to hard cost benefits. As a consequence, it increase s productivity. Contrary to conference calls or webex, people are more focused during the meeting. They can also prepare their meeting and continue the point they want to make online afterwards.

User generated content: an opportunity more than a threat
Companies have a tendency to be more reactive than proactive. Social media and virtual worlds enable companies to develop collaborative spaces very cost effectively.
 
Justin and I share the same vision on web 2.0 & User Generated Content (UGC): even though it is potentially a threat, it should be seen more as an opportunity. You just have to seek guidance, implement the right moderation process, and dedicate some resources to engage with your members.

The Virtual Worlds Forum London 07: interview with Rick Reesen and Klaus Hammermueller, IBM

This is my second video interview with the IBM Digital Convergence Team at the Virtual Worlds Forum.

In my first interview with Paul Ledak, we talked about IBM's expertise in virtual worlds, without insisting on the banking industry. I also had the chance to spend some time with two of IBM Digital Media experts specialized in the banking industry: Rick Reesen, System Architect based in the South of France, and Klaus Hammermueller, Digital Media Architect based in Austria.

During the interview, Rick and Klaus shared their expertise and talked about second life, IBM's financial services showcase in Montpellier and their recent integration of a virtual ATM in second life to test some of the processes, and Deutsche Bank's innovative Q110 project.
 
Interview with Rick Reenes and Klaus Hammermueller

The Virtual Worlds Forum London 07: interview with Paul Ledak, VP at IBM

I met quite a few people from IBM's Digital Convergence Team at the Virtual Worlds Forum last week.

It is a global team: I met people based in the UK, the US, Austria and in France.

IBM takes 3D Internet and virtual worlds seriously: they use Second Life internally extensively to foster innovation, communicate in an interactive and cost effective way, train people, urge their employees to express themselves, interact, and collaborate.

With such a big workforce, spread all over the world, it is an excellent way to engage their employees. For IBM, it is also an excellent marketing tool: it gives them a lot of exposure in the press, it helps them build a strong expertise and credibility in that space, it demonstrates that innovation is at the heart of their strategy.

The IBM team was great, and I want to address a special thanks to Lisa Smith in Marketing : despite a busy schedule, Lisa and her colleagues immediately accepted to do the video interviews. After just a couple of minutes I was sitting upstairs in the speakers area with 4 virtual worlds experts from IBM.

Interview with Paul Ledak
My first interview was with Paul Ledak, VP Development Digital Convergence. Paul was invited to speak about interoperability and share his views on how close we are to a multi-world integrated framework.

Paul is an expert in virtual worlds, and he is not directly involved in the banking industry. During my interview, we discussed about IBM's experience in Second Life, B-to-C virtual worlds versus "BTF" (Behind The Firewall) virtual worlds, and interoperability.

The Virtual Worlds Forum London 07

The Virtual Worlds Forum was well attended: most delegates came from media agencies, venture capital firms, research firms and IT companies.


I spent just half a day at the conference, on Thursday 26th October. I spent most of my time working the room and meeting with exhibitors. I attended the session with the venture capitalists.

To find out more about the show, I invite you to check the official website with a few podcasts and the official blog.

Good networking opportunity
I met 17 people from the following companies: SXSW, Forrester Research, Hawkpoint, Drakeford & Kane, There, IBM, rivers run red, theguardian, The Electric Sheep Company, Ambient Performance, Techmedia and VastPark.

Interviews
It was another productive day for me and my blog Visible Banking. I managed to shoot three video interviews:
* Paul Ledak, VP Development Digital Convergence at IBM
* Rick Reesen, System Architect at IBM, and Klaus Hammermueller, Digital Media Architect at IBM
* Justin Bovington, CEO at rivers run red
 
Photos