Eboni Khan

Less than 1% of SL goes to SLCC. If SLCC was the soul, the soul really sucked.

Ayesha Lytton

Yes, but the 1% includes many of the best and brightest in SL. Creators, educators, business owners, charity representatives, musicians (until last year). If the conference was better and more affordable, more would attend.

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bladyblue

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Imnotgoing Sideways

In this situation, the customers ~are~ the product. (._.)

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Imnotgoing Sideways

SLCC won't kill the soul of SL. But, pulling back on Edu discounts, SL#B events, ignoring legit DMCA claims, and a shopping list of other cold corporate acts will. (>_<)

Kick Frenzy

Well, that sucks.

It seems they don't "get" what SLCC was about if they're pulling it due to LL terms.
It was never supposed to be run by LL in the first place!
It was a convention for the community... BY the community.

Kinda pissed I missed the last one (last year) after attending every single one previously. (I had good reason though... I was getting married a week or two later. )

But seriously... fuck that.
If they were basing SLCC on an LL contract, they were heading in the wrong direction anyway, no?
I'm just really pissed at what comes across as flippant dismissal of the community.
Just... wow.
You'd think they would have posted something in the past few months... ANYthing to throw us a bone about what was going on.
yarg


Maybe we'll have to "grass-roots" a new SLCC in another year or two.
Of course, it would help if there was a new spark for SL in general.
I don't know... I'm just...

It's a really fuckin sad end of an era.

SLCC

I suppose I gotta mention that I entertain the possibility that AvaCon may have had a slim choice in the matter, but when I think of the origins of SLCC... LL involvement was a plus, not an absolute requirement.
(Unless there's some new expensive trademark shit or something?)
(And maybe it's just for this year? I obviously don't have all the background facts, so um... seems fucked up, but maybe not?)

Katydid Something

You know.... you all have good ideas..... why don't you step up to the plate and help organize the convention. Last year 3 of us each worked a good 25 to 30 volunteer hours a week on top of our other jobs to produce a convention in a horrible time frame because LL didn't license the use of "Second Life" in the ".....Community Convention" until the end of May (although we began negotiations in early Feb). After a wrap up meeting after the convention last August it was clear that LL wasn't interested in helping sponsor the next convention since so few came (because they were so late in allowing the use of the name).

The organizing body... AvaCon, Inc. discovered that using Second Life (circle R) in the trade name of the convention was counter to the mission of providing a forum for all virtual worlds and metaverse activities. (and accepting the license to use Second Life in the name but opening the event up to the entire grid was breaking the agreement spelled out by LL).

But the important point is.... AvaCon and a metaverse convention.... whatever the name should be.... need people to help produce the convention. 3 people cannot.... and after last year.... will not ... produce a convention that will be of interest to a great cross section of interests.

Folks, if you want a convention, you need to step up to the plate... not just wishful think!!! People need to add their own ideas, expertise and a bit of elbow grease to produce a quality event. If you are willing... come forward and let us know at AvaCon, Inc.

Kick Frenzy

Thank you... I know you probably didn't see my post yet, so I'm sorry that it immediately proceeds your comment, since I now kinda look like a douche.
(I'll leave it as is though, just for context.)

You're right... running a convention that size would be insane for just three people to run.
I get that AvaCon wants to run metaverse events, but I also don't think SLCC should become a general event.
I think there's room for both.
Granted, you would need a significantly bigger staff and I get that you simply don't have those resources.
It just feels weird seeing the convention being morphed into something it was never meant to be, from what I got from it.

That being said, it sounds like the limitations and timing of LL were a bit of a cock-block and that sucks.
I'm truly sorry to hear that it has to be such a battle, not to mention the tiny staff.

It's just... it's kind of a shock to the system, yeah?

DrFran

AvaCon Declines to Organize a Second Life Community Convention in 2012 | AvaCon, Inc.

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Daniel Voyager

Lordfly Digeridoo

Eh. Can't say I didn't see that coming.


while SLCC 06 and 07 were tons of fun, I got the impression that the conventions never established a core group of folks. It was a weird mix of "serious business" people trying to talk up the benefits of SL as a platform, "hardcore SL users" who wanted to meet, party, and drink, and "what is this and I am 12" first-time Con goers (who were not just 12) that didn't grok the whole thing.

In other words, the people that showed up to SLCC were too fragmented even before the first panel.



The good news is, you can drink anywhere.

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Khamon

You didn't mention the educator core that attended 2009 in force, conducted a number of constructive workshops, and made clear to Linden Lab that they were well organized and ready to promote the platform mightily pending a few modifications.

These were, BTW, all mods the users had been requesting since 2004.

Glibden Lab promptly cancelled the educational discount and sent them all packing.

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Chrono Cogshine

I`d be very interested to know what the "conditions" were and why they caused a problem. Considering how the lab does everything these days, they probably said something like "pay us a truck load of money if you dare use our trademarked stuff on anything".

See also "pay us for sims if you dare to have a birthday celebration that will promote our product"

and also "be our adult hub, increase our user retention, but pay us to do so while we do absolutely nothing to support you whatsoever, despite making constant demands on you for your "service".

Basically, the lab views anyone who is "not the lab" as the enemy and a threat, regardless of what they are trying to do. If you were a lifeguard and they were drowning, they would probably expect you to pull out your credit card and pay them before they allowed you to save their lives.

FlipperPA Peregrine

So for the first two SLCCs, we had no problems. We formalized a contract with LL allowing us use of their trademark (Second Life) and offering free speakers and a yearly sponsorship. I don't know why that contract went south.

The shame of it all is, if I had the energy, I now have space I could use for free at The Wharton School. I'm hosting the Wharton Web Conference right now, today, with keynote Steve Wozniak. Cool guy!

But clearly, I've moved on.

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Alexa Lioncourt

I'm sad that I missed last year too...

I looked forward to seeing old and new friends at SLCC and making great memories. I was fortunate to meet so many of our SLU family there and it really made me appreciate how amazing all of you are.

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Hitomi Tiponi

I don't think that is quite true - they regard their users as a resource to exploit in whatever way they can. They expect you to make stuff to draw in new users, hold events to retain them, and even help them fix the bugs and write new features for their software.

And to thank you they won't tell you what they have done or are doing most of the time. LL is an example of user exploitation, not engagement.

Da5id Abbot

Here are Fleep's thoughts on the matter.

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bladyblue

I believe if Zimmerman can raise nearly a million dollars from murdering someone, I am sure that if organizers of SLCC set-up a PayPal account and solicit donations for a year, that they would raise more than enough to produce a stellar event.

Han Held

Then there's the harassment and bullshit that she mentioned.

To be honest, it sounds like even if the $$$ was there, it would still not have been worth it.

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bladyblue

Well, someone isn't qualified to organize a convention if they can't handle a mega amount of harassment and bullshit. I think the SLCC organizers handled drama quite well.

Hopefully some folks will combine the SL Musician's event with SLCC in the upcoming years and it will be a great hit. I think they should just re-name it Virtual-Con and make it about all of the related virtual worlds with Second Life at the centerpiece.

Aki Shichiroji

To be honest I'm not terribly surprised. While I've only gone to 2010 in person, I've watched the programming stick heavily with educational and commercial programming rather than catering to the casual market (and that's speaking as someone who has worked within the developer community since mid 2007).

Convention programming dropped from 7 extremely packed business/educational streams in 2010 to 4 sparsely scheduled ones in 2011, although to be fair there were more content creation sessions than previous years. Whether this is the result of lack of other programming or other factors is up for debate - there was drastic falloff of enterprise and educational clients in 2010; enterprise had just closed several months earlier and educational discounts were discontinued as of Phillip's Saturday keynote, sparking vocal opposition from the educational community.

Cost is also a factor. I paid $240 in 2010 to attend (and even that was discounted due to an offer code via NWN); I was told attendance had dropped to the lowest it had ever been that year. I only considered paying this because it is a business expense for me. Had I been merely a casual Resident, I probably wouldn't have shelled out the money for admittance, lodging and travel. Even if I lived in Boston, it would have been a stretch; I know several Boston-area Residents who declined to attend based on cost alone.

While conventions such as WorldCon do regularly cost between $200-300 dollars per ticket, this is rare. WorldCon travels the world and there's only one of those. There are various lower tier travelling variants such as Westercon or Eastercon - admittance typically lies between $80-150. It should also be noted that part of the cost of the ticket for many upper tier speculative fiction conventions is a voting membership to decide where future events will take place (based on available bids from interested representative groups).

For local hotel-based conventions, it's not uncommon for fees to be kept around the $60-80 mark.

What did Avacon see SLCC as being? A business conference or a convention for the community? The proportion of the developer community (and its clients) compared to the rest of SL is really quite small. I can't help but feel like SLCC as a brand had become known as a place where only people who make big money off SL could afford to go.

Eboni Khan

I would never personally attending (for a variety of reasons one being the event happens during football season), but I would be more than happy to sponsor, if the opportunity was available and there was notice (6 months). If they started fundraising right after a convention ends for the next convention, it would be much easier to raise the money from the community. And in world events would actually make people aware, 90% of SL does not read blogs or forums, you need to connect with people in world so they can know about events, fundraisers with participation and sponsorship from major SL brands, donation booths at every fair during the year, etc would raise in world awareness.

Every convention I have ever attended in a professional capacity announces the next location and dates at the end of the current convention. If there was more stability like this there could be more sponsorship. SLCC could skip a year and come back better than ever in 2013.

Ask for more volunteers and not just on your website. I feel I am pretty connected to what is going on in SL and I had no idea the group was having this much trouble with the event. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, etc.

Grandma Bates

Most recurring events do this not just professional conferences. It is standard operating procedure to schedule a meeting during the conference with the board to take proposals and take a vote for who will take on the next event. Anything less is guaranteed to fail since every year you have a non-trivial probability for things to fall through when you do not have a serious commitment for the next event.

So... what to do... tell you all what. I will sponsor this year's event. Meet me in Byward Market in Ottawa this Saturday at 4:00pm. We will meet at the ice cream stand on Rue George and load up on ice cream and beaver tails. After that we go bar hopping taking in as much beer and poutine possible. Finally we will walk over to the park where the Tulip Festival is held and relieve ourselves in the flower beds. It will be better organized than some past events and will result in just as many hours in jails and claim just as many lives do to poor hygiene and unhealthy lifestyle choices.

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Fleep

We always wanted to do exactly that, but both years AvaCon organized the convention, LL would only give us a contract to use the trademark until December 31st of whatever year the convention was in - not even a full year. So every year we had to re-negotiate anew, and every year they would hold up the process and we wouldn't get a signed contract until late May, which led us to have to scramble like idiots to do everything in a few short months..

That was one of the non-negotiable terms for us after last year. We wanted a 2 year contract so we could make the bi-coastal convention plan a reality - so everyone would know in advance exactly when and where the convention would be held and we wouldn't be left trying to plan, market, and execute everything in 12 weeks.

But, well, as I said in my post, they weren't willing to agree to that or any other support either, so.. our hands were tied.

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Khamon

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