NWN Events maestro Rik Riel rounds up his favorite 2007 picks
These picks obviously reflect my own personal preferences and biases. But hopefully those of you planning events for next year can look to these for ideas on how to make your event as successful as possible. Looking back on the past twelve months of parties, classes, fund raisers, art openings, concerts and wacky Second Life happenings, I'm daunted by the task of picking my ten favorite events of 2007. So many cool events to choose from! But somehow I have winnowed down my "bests" into nine categories: Art, Charity/Non-profit, Commemorative/Memorial, Conference/Convention, Cultural, Educational, Live Music, Multimedia, and Political Event. They run the gamut from a massive relay race to chaotic collaborative art to a leftist blogger fest to alt-folk holodeck-enhanced concerts.
Please feel free to comment with your own faves in the Comments section! And now, without further ado, here are Rik's top ten event picks for 2007...
Best Art Event: Opening of Cannery Art Gallery
On August 29, a grungy, decrepit, rat-infested art space called the Cannery Art Gallery (click here to teleport) opened to the public, and it's been going strong ever since. Created by virtual developer Rezzable, the Cannery came about as a result of a bunch of SL photographers, including well-known artists Shoshana Epsilon and Vint Falken, finding each other through the community photo site Flickr. They decided that they needed a common virtual space to exhibit their work and hold events -- and thus the Cannery was born.
Runners Up: "Olmannen" Second Life Ballet Performances, Brian Eno's "77 Million Paintings" (June 29), Opening of the Open Source Museum of Open Source Art (April 25).
Best Charity / Non-Profit Event: SL Relay for Life
The SL Relay for Life from July 27-28 is the hands-down most successful charity event of 2007, not only because it raised well over US$100,000, but also because it inspired hundreds of residents to put on their own self-organized fundraisers in the weeks running up to the relay. Organized by the American Cancer Society, the Relay is a great example of an event put on by a non-profit that understands SL culture and knows how to leverage the platform's strengths.
Runners up: Fight Hunger: Walk the World (May 13), The "MS Fly" (June 10-17), MacArthur Foundation Address on Philanthropy in Virtual Worlds (June 22), Opening of the Nonprofit Commons (August 14).
Best Commemorative / Memorial Event: Virginia Tech & 9/11 Memorials (Tie)
Tragedies and misfortune have spurred Residents to come together in creative and emotionally powerful ways. Two notable examples in 2007 were the Virginia Tech and 9/11 memorials.
On April 17, in the aftermath of a savage massacre at Virginia Tech university, several shrines and memorials sprung up throughout SL. At Info Island, Residents left candles, flowers and even tiny sculptures to grieve the 33 innocent lives lost. Meanwhile Milosun Czervik, a research associate at Virginia Tech, created his own personal shrine and invited others to join him.
As in past years, there were several temporary 9/11 memorials that were held on September 11. But this year, Liam Kanno designed a permanent World Trade Center memorial (teleport SLURL) complete with a giant wall inscribed with the names of the victims and a beautiful reflecting pool. As I visited in the days running up to September 11, I found small groups of avatars, many wearing black suits and dresses, gathering to share their memories and comfort each other. Having an avatar hug my avatar never felt more real.
Best Conference / Convention: Second Life Community Convention
The 2007 Second Life Community Convention took place from August 24-26 both in Chicago and distributed among a dozen sims in-world. Residents had their choice of several in-world events, from art shows to music concerts, storytelling, a "leather and lace" masquerade ball, and a "magic mushroom hunt." And for those curious about the real-world presentations, audio of many of the panels and keynotes was streamed into more than 50 sims. With over 800 real world participants, and hundreds more virtual conferees, this completely volunteer-run event continues to grow and get better every year.
Runners Up: SL Combat Expo (March 26-April 2), International Technology Expo (April 20-23).
Best Cultural Event: Burning Life
Image from a Burning Life recreation by Hamlet Au
From September 28-30, the Fifth Annual Burning Life Festival nearly took over the entire grid. "Burning Life" is a week-long bacchanal of art, music and chaos in homage to the real world Burning Man festival that takes place in the Nevada desert around this same time. A host of cool events, concerts and activities took place (see the official schedule) on a massive virtual playa spanning over 22 sims. While this year there was some controvery regarding "adult themed" content on some of the builds, the spirit of invention and wild abandon makes "Burning Life" one of the most fascinating SL happenings of the year.
Best Educational Event: Opening of the Abyss Museum of Ocean Science
This category was a stumper. There were literally hundreds of pontential classes and workshops to choose from. In the end, I chose the launch of one of my favorite educational builds. On November 10, the Abyss Museum of Ocean Science opened to the public. Created by Second Life artists Rezago Kokorin and Sunn Thunders, the Abyss is an open air and underwater exhibition of our planet's oceans that combines art, science, and education. Where else can you get up close to an electric eel and swim through old wrecks as you learn about hydrothermal vents, coral reefs, and oceanography? At Gun (click here to teleport.)
Runner Up: EduIsland Education Festival (October 13).
Best Live Music Event: Musimmersion with Grace McDunnough
In November and December, a few lucky Residents were able to see alt-folk musician Grace McDunnough perform her
show "Musimmersion." Click the image to watch a video clip of her show, which uses scripted environments that add complementary visual elements to the lyrics of her songs. Although currently limited to only 20 audience members at a time to limit lag, "Musimmersion" demonstrates the rich potential for live music performances in virtual worlds. Don't miss it, if you get a chance to catch Grace's show!
Runners Up: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Streamed Concert (September 14,) Suzanne Vega Concert (July 13),
Best Multimedia Event: Four-eyed Monsters
On January 9, the Sundance Channel presented an in-world showing of the indie film "Four-eyed Monsters" on their Sundance sim (click here to teleport), with a dozen other sims simulcasting the film. Immediately after the movie, the creators of the film Arin Crumley and Susan Buice appeared both via video and as avatars to discuss their work and answer questions from the audience. While the movie viewing was not without technical hiccups (upside down screens, buffering problems, super laggy sims, etc), over 300 residents were able to participate in an event that pushed the envelope on what is possible with virtual technology.
Best Political Event: YearlyKos Convention
Whatever your political stripe, the entrance of a major American
forum of political bloggers, activists and politicians into SL is big
news. From August 2-5, the Yearly Kos Convention drew a thousand or so progressive-types to Chicago and a hundred plus SL Residents to Progressive Island. Virtual attendees were able to watch streaming keynotes by every Democratic candidate for the US presidency, participate in breakout sessions, and press the digital flesh. Building on the success of this event, YearlyKos organizers continue to hold regular parties and discussions with prominent progressive activists and bloggers.
Runners Up: Save Internet Radio Ten-hour DJ Party (May 12), Discussion on Constitutionality of Guantanamo Bay at Virtual Gitmo (September 17), Venezuelan Anti-Chavez Protests (June).
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Join Rik's group on Eventful.com to stay up to date on what's happening in SL-- info on submitting event notices below. Visit Rik's blog, Click Heard Round the World.
SUBMITTING EVENTS FOR COVERAGE IN NWN
New World Notes often highlights events for the upcoming week. If you'd like an event to be considered, send the description and event link to Rik Riel via IM or e-mail him at [email protected].
Main guidelines:
- Events for the coming week must be received by Monday Noon SLT.
- Events posted in SL's official listing board greatly preferred.
- Events with artistic, cultural, scientific, political, creative, and/or educational value preferred.
- Events sponsored or promoted by real world corporations are usually not appropriate to NWN Events. Instead, consider advertising your event on New World Notes.
- Bonus consideration given to game-related or machinima events, and for events with "I've never seen that in SL before" value.
Someone asked me to respond to this with regards to SL Woodstock.
I'll post my thoughts on my own site, but I agree with the Musimmersion selection 100%.
Posted by: Crap Mariner | Wednesday, January 02, 2008 at 11:28 AM