npMarketing Blog: Second Life Relay for Life Impressions

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Second Life Relay for Life Impressions

I spent some time in Second Life participating in Relay For Life and to be honest, I'm pretty blown away. I had read all about it before and thought I knew what was going on but was unaware at how comprehensive and complete the experience would be.

I jumped in via the SLURL and was impressed with the instructions and tools provided. I grabbed my HUD and started walking around the course. There have been plenty of write ups about what was built (different cities, environments etc) like NYC, Italy, Ireland etc... and once you are in SL, it becomes immediately apparent that the amount of work involved is incredible. The details, course layout and interactivity all stunned me. It seems as if they missed no details - integrated mission moments, appropriate ways to donate and lots of folks mingling around. Wow.

It's the grassroots organization and execution that is most amazing to me about this - way more than the $40k raised or any of the publicity garnered for ACS. From what I've read, ACS has put very little staff involvement into this, instead relying on SL volunteers to organize, develop and execute a massive (virtually speaking) event.

My own experiences within SL leave much to be desired because I don't have a gaggle of helpful, technical volunteers, nor do I have the staff or experience (or organizational approval) to do much of anything on my own.

I took a bunch of pics and posted them to flickr if you want to see!