Virtual Worlds and Innovation(s).

We have spent the last two years researching, and developing virtual world experiences in numerous experiments internally and with clients - all with the goal to understand how Generation Virtuals will change and impact the future consumer/customer landscape.

Some of the interesting findings that we have determined are:

1.) Generation Virtuals (children ages 3-14) socialized on Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin, or WebKinz look at virtual worlds as an extension to their real worlds.
2.) Generation Virtuals will continue to have multiple personas intergrated into both their virtual experiences and real life experiences.
3.) Generation Virtuals love the multi-media, colorful and rich 3D interactive experiences and find 2D experiences on the web boring and lacking "fun factors."
4.) Generation Virtuals will choose customer experiences that leverage 3D "fun" experiences into traditional purchasing experiences.

The Entertainment Economy is rapidly evolving as Virtual Worlds continue to integrate with real world and digital intelligence content and distribution models(mobile, web, etc).

From our research, the Asian communities are rapidly leading in this evolution and for Innovation to occur more rapidly in Canada - Canadians must rapidly understand entertainment, artistic design, and social media experiences integrated into traditional processes. Governments are stimulating national policy to promote V worlds for eLearning and new solution delivery models, in particular in Singapore.

What we have seen in the Canadian environment is a very weak receptivity to Virtual Worlds in leveraging how these solutions can add value to the enterprise for eLearning, recruiting, employee on-boarding experiences, product development and many other solutions.

There are some bright lights slowly starting to emerge as companies like Rogers experiment with Virtual worlds to train their distributors in Second Life, the ten pound gorilla. Other companies like IBM are the most prolific in this space in Canada globally with over 33 islands. They are also leading the global virtual standards movements so objects developed in diverse virtual world environments can easily be transported from one VW platform to another to achieve increased ubequity.

The Ontario Government have also been successfully experimenting for recruiting new employees using second life learning experiences, however their continued marketing of their investments and community building efforts are not up to par to drive traffic to their websites and create sustainable community participation.

Helix is very committed to helping our clients develop successful business models that tap future capabilities. Virtual Worlds is one key enabling solution that as Canadians striving for increased innovation capacity need to learn 4 key things:

1.) What are these solutions?
2.) How can they be applied to the enterprise?
3.) What are the best practices,and lessons learned?
4.) How do I successfully get started?

We have recently issued our NEW Virtual World Research Report and it is available for purchase now at our new publishing center.

We also have developed a conference center that our clients can experiment in to learn how to use these solutions in a low risk learning lab environment, with instructional guides or event planning resources to support learning and growth for leveraging these new solutions.

Helix has also developed a NEW virtual worlds community to help our clients learn more about these capabilities.

We hope you will join us...and together we can learn how these new business models will shift current and future business models.

Call us at(647)477-6254 to learn more or post a blog comment.