On screen: Meco's virtual
cybercafe
The Meetings Community
(MeCo), a listserv launched about 15 months ago, is taking its
approximately 1,400 members into a new virtual realm with the MeCo
Mansion (www.meetingscommunity.org), which launched April 1.
Designed by MeCo creator and moderator Dan Parks, president and CEO
of Dana Point, Calif.-based Corporate Planners Unlimited, the MeCo
Mansion is an innovative planning resource found within the widely
popular online 3-D game, Second Life (www.secondlife.com).
Among the features are a boardroom that
“seats” 30, where attendees can take part in a seminar or view a
supplier’s product. Need a legal resource? Duck into the law
library stacked with advice and how-to articles by Atlanta-based
meetings industry attorney John Foster of Foster, Jensen &
Gulley. And if it’s tech advice you crave, chances are you will
find it in Corbin Ball’s Technology Den, where Ball, a speaker,
consultant and founder of Bellingham, Wash.-based Corbin Ball
Associates, will feature a monthly article and a product
demonstration.
“It’s only logical that MeCo progress
to the virtual world,” says Parks. “The next generation of planners
behind the old guard have been handling this technology their whole
lives. This is the world they are used to going to for sources and
information.”
But it’s not all work at the MeCo
Mansion. The game room is stocked with a poker table and several
gaming tables. There’s even a fully loaded bar. Just click on the
booze of choice, stir or shake, then kick back and relax with your
fellow members. Who knew the life of a meeting planner was this
good?