Welcome and Engage! Expo Main Keynote
- Christopher V. Sherman, Executive Director, Virtual Worlds Conference

Fireside Chat
With Jack Buser, Director of PlayStation®Home Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA).  Interviewed by VirtualWorldsNews.com Editor Joey Seiler

Tap Into the Emotional Triggers Of Tweens
So you have spent a lot of money attracting tweens to your virtual world. Now how do you keep them coming back? The key to engagement is the five C’s: creativity, competition, collection, community and caring--and how well you use them. Adults are often under the misconception that it’s all about the wow-factor of graphics. In reality it comes down to a good old fashioned, fun play experience combined with the present day trends of social networking and connecting with others online. Learn how to use the five C’s and user feedback to build an engagement model for your target age group and an understanding of cultural and global differences to help identify the next opportunity for your brand.
- Sally Schmidt, Executive Producer, Circle 1 Network

Teen Spending And Finance
Most online gaming and virtual world companies know that the emphasis on credit cards makes it harder for youth to spend online than adults. What those publishers don’t know are the actual dynamics that affect this spending. For example, while many teens have savings accounts that come with debit cards, they can only be used to withdraw cash at ATMs instead of purchasing online. The life of a teen is cash-based, and a vast majority of their spending happens locally. In this session will give you the teen spending market research you need to know to target teen customers.
- Ted Sorom, CEO, Rixty, Inc.

International Strategies: VWs Around The World 
This session will provide an overview of virtual world strategies from around the globe. By focusing on a historical examination of a major virtual world platform audience will gain an understanding of how strategies differ in different regions of the world.
- Jouni Keranen, President, iLemon

Narration And Engagement In Virtual Worlds: The Future Of Narrative
Interactive narrative is not new - all narrative was interactive before we started printing books. What is new are the host of technologies that allow storytellers and audiences to work together or even groups of listeners and viewers to tell their own stories. That change requires adaptation: listening to your audience does not mean ceding narrative control, but rather engaging in an exercise of call and response and selecting focus. Without narrative engagement, virtual worlds are merely part of the chatter before the show begins. If we want the global village to sit down around the 3d fire, we have to be ready to tell them stories that will keep them hooked.
- Jesse Cleverly, Connective Media

Narration and Automated Animation: Cost-Efficient Fun for Virtual Worlds
Delivering narrative fun, up-to-date content and animation to an ever-demanding audience in a cost-efficient way is a serious challenge. Dynamic and context-sensitive automated animation inspired by television and movie concepts opens the road to limitless narrative entertainment. Interaction with intelligent automated 3D avatars contributes to the most efficient and up-to-date user experience for total immersion. The presentation is illustrated by real-case examples of automated narrative animation.
- Philippe Moitroux, CEO, TAATU

Immersion Through Narration: Bringing Life To Virtual Worlds
In this day and age where young consumers may turn away from passive media like radio and TV, virtual worlds offer an engaging alternative. The inclusion of classic media content into the 3D environment enables an interactive and engaging experience which has not been possible before. Users can not only consume the content, but actively share and contribute their “personal touch” to it. A big challenge but also a great opportunity of narrative and interactive entertainment within virtual worlds lies in the live aspect in comparison to social network functionalities…
- Daniel Buelhoff, Head of Business Development & Community Management, sMeet

The Collision of Games, Virtual Worlds and Social Networks
Join us for a discussion of the convergence (or maybe it's more of a collision?) between new games, platforms, user-generated content, new payment and aggregation methods, and new forms of marketing, all of which are happening at the same time. Many, probably most new MMOGs/VWs are being created for use in the browser with some form of UGC and various forms of free-to-play + microtransactions. How do these interact? If I can create an item, can I turn it into a virtual good? Can I turn it into a salable good/gift on which both the creator and the world operator make money? Come join the debate.
- Mike Sellers, CEO, Online Alchemy
- Dan Ferguson, Founder and Director of Game Development, Blockdot, Inc.

Case Study: Seventeen Magazine and MTV
After researching many options, Seventeen Magazine entered MTV for a campaign to promote its December/January celebrity and style issue. The digital team brought all new editorial content, virtual goods, events, and real-world sales opportunities to a brand new MTV environment. The collaboration brought recognition and new audiences to both brands. Come learn from their experience and hear about next steps.
- Julie Hochheiser, Senior Web Editor, Seventeen.com