Second Life Community Convention 2006: SAN FRANCISCO!

The Second Life Community Convention (SLCC) organization team is proud to announce that the second annual 2006 convention will be held in San Francisco! The first convention was a huge success and was held on the east coast, in New York city, so this time, we're going to hit the west coast!

Why San Francisco?

While owning property in San Francisco is very expensive, the cost of hotels, restaurants and drinks isn't nearly as high as you would find in many cities, like Boston or New York City. Its a beautiful city with a lot of history, great museums, and culture. Linden Lab is also located in San Francisco, and there are more residents from the bay area than any other major metropolitan location, allowing for maximum SL citizen participation. Most of the SLCC organizers are from the far east coast of the United States, so this decision is not made lightly!

When will it be held?

We haven't nailed down specific dates yet, but we're thinking very late summer or early fall. We're currently looking at available spaces.

How many people attended last year? How many are you expecting this year?

Last year, we had 160 people register and attend; plus, press, NYLS guests, and so forth. Since then, the population of Second Life has more than tripled in under FOUR MONTHS. We're doing some research now into how many people we can expect give the current population size and rate of growth. It is becoming increasingly clear that regional conventions will be needed in the near future!

What will it be like this year? Same as last year?

While just about everyone we received feedback from who attended last year's convention agreed it was a great time, we've also listened to constructive criticism. Most comments revolved around the convention feeling somewhat rushed, the desire to hear from more resident panels, and the opportunity to spend more social time with residents. We've taken all of this into account and are going to try to create an agenda with more choice, as well as let the community come up with ideas for panels and speakers which can then be voted on. More on this to come.

We hope to see you at this year's SLCC 2006; many more details to come as information is available!

Warmest regards,

-Flip, on behalf of the SLCC team

I'm excited that we're getting such an early start to things this year.

-Hiro
SLCC 2006 Team

argh.. this is both awesome and aggravating information, as it will take significantly more planning on my part if i wish to attend this year. last year i was able to wake up half-way through sunday and decide on a whim to go ahead and drive in to the city and catch what i could for the remainder of the day.

but, it sounds like an awesome iddea! you can be sure i'll do everything within my power to be there!

dag nabbit.. i gotta run.. i'll come back and comment more thoroughly..

but.. HUZZAH!! i've been awaiting this announcement since sunday night of SLCC 2005!

Ooh o.O

I hope I can go this year!!

WOOT!

I was BORN in San Francisco. Twice, if you count my SL rezzing.

But I haven't been back since my parents moved away in 19## (cough).
I am SO there.



P2

What great news! I'm excited to be involved with the "planning committee" again this year and everyone at Linden Lab looks forward to another great community event!

I might even attend if I can forge a pass to say I'm someone else.

For L$5000, we will make you a pass with the code name "Philip Linden."



P2

IMHO, since most of the Lindens will have almost zero expense to attend this year's SLCC, that they should each sponsor a resident. And Robin and Philip should each sponsor several.



P2

So much for the 'well LL is on the west coast so we'll hold it on the east coast' line of thought. Not to mention the 'we really dont have much time so we'll go with NYC, we will consider another east cost spot next year' knee-jerk reaction

Yay for center of the universe, all over again!


- Newfie

Flip...

announcing that the next SLCC will be in SF does not equal taking over the world.

I'm just sayin....

I put forth Vegas as a suggestion last year

Put it forward again this year too.

I would sign up for that.

I have a hunch that given the rate SL is growing at, pretty soon there may be several locations per year. When we did the last convention, we were at about 40,000; now we're at 120,000, and probably close to 250,000 by the time the con happens. We can't always please everyone with the locations chosen, but if someone is up for doing an east coast one this year, I'm pretty sure I'd be happy to attend one I'm not involved in running so I can point and laugh instead of vice versa!

Regards,

-Flip

Since, I only live 1 1/2 hour away from SF. This is very exciting news. Grim and I look forward to it

MJ

Let's swap IDs Siggy, so we get our asses kicked by entirely different groups of people?

Hmm... so you can point and laugh instead of laugh and point?

LOL!

P2

I guess that's where the difference lies - to many people this isn't a situation for pointing and laughing at. If anything, it's more of a sad development.


-Newfie

As I said, you can't make all the people happy all the time. Weren't you within easy striking distance of last year's SLCC? We're still at the size where there are many more factors we need to consider than what makes it convenient for special cases. It makes sense to me: one year east coast, one year west coast, and if someone wants to run one in Europe, South America, or your own backyard... feel free to host your own gathering.

We've selected the two major metropolitan areas that have the most Second Life residents in the two years we've been doing this. We allow people to attend in RL or SL with our attempts at being the first group to do mixed-reality gatherings. We're not trying to keep a monopoly on Second Life gatherings or anything; why so many sour grapes on this issue, Newfie? I just don't understand.

Regards,

-Flip

I wanted it in Austin this year, but SF is good too! I'm hoping it is scheduled for October. I'll be there with bells on. And probably other things too... don't wanna be arrested for indecent exposure on my first trip to SF!

I love San Francisco. It's such a beautiful city. I always wondered where the LL headquarters were whenever I went there.

I'm a bit close ... but I dunno. Have to think about it. I'd basically be going up there by myself. But knowing it's in the same state now does make me feel like taking a lil peek.

I was hoping you'd go there

In short, the sour grapes is because when the first SLCC was planned, it was plainly obvious the answers given regarding NYC was just a patronizing-patting-on-the-head in an attempt to brush off those that thought NYC was not a good choice. But rather than use my words to demonstrate, I'll use yours and others on the SLCC committee:

As quoted from one of last year's SLCC posts:


And further in the same thread:





A year later, it was obvious that no other east coast location was even given the slightest consideration, and I'd even say that the location is picked not in consideration of the entire SL community (otherwise a central-US location would make sense overall), but instead was chosen at whim by a select set of individuals.

Now given the above responses, and given that SanFran already has (and likely will have) many LL-related events there, I'm of the opinion that this year's location is singularly the worst choice to have a conference that involves all of the SL community.

Like I said about NYC last year, there's more to the world than NYC, and for this year there's more to SL than San Francisco. Perhaps if the decision was one that made that actually involved the SL community, it would sound more like an authentic SL Community Convention.


- Newfie

Now THAT sounds like a very good plan! I'll get you a fuzzy kangaroo and an acubra hat to wear!

I lived in SF for the Dot com boom/bust

I'd move back in heartbeat if I could.

Hmmm *resubmits appliation to Linden Labs.

Now I'm curious as to where you would have suggested SLCC be held?

MJ