Tomorrow I fly off to London for the Virtual Worlds Forum. I will be in London until Thursday morning, when I fly back.

I am looking forward to exploring London a little bit — I have never really gotten to wander around it very much, for a variety of reasons. I have some free time on Wednesday, if anyone wants to tour me around or meet up.

I’ll also be at the SXSW party. And I do expect to corner Richard Bartle and recite poetry at him for hours and hours.

More directly related to the purpose of the trip, the conference looks quite good. I will be on a couple of panels with some great folks. i am sure that VWF would love some late registrants, so if you are up for flying to London on short notice, or if you happen to be in the vicinity, I recommend stopping by.

3.45pm–4.30pm

Web 2.0 strategy and virtual worlds

Integrating virtual worlds into your web 2.0 strategy – harnessing social networks, virtual worlds and MMOs to create community

• Playing to the strengths of social networks and virtual worlds – what are they each good at?
• How can they be mixed and for what? What role might casual gaming play in their integration?
• What should a mass market casual virtual world look like?
• How interested are social network players in adding virtual worlds to their offerings? How is partnering developing?
• Will virtual worlds grow into social networks themselves? How good are they at supporting them?
• Looking at the collision of mobile social networks and virtual worlds – where will people consume?

Raph Koster, President, Metaplace
Marco Behrmann, CIO & Entropia Universe Community Director, MindArk PE AB
Mirko Caspar, CMO & Co-founder, Metaversum
Burckhardt Bonello, Founder & CEO, sMeet
Stuart Dredge, Freelance journalist and blogger, covering games, music and technology

4.40pm–5.30pm

Future of virtual worlds

What is the future of proprietary and non proprietary virtual worlds?

• What plans do the major players have for the next 12 months?
• How many proprietary virtual worlds can coexist?
• There is a gap in the market that needs filling – will existing players reinvent what they do?
• The future of virtual worlds – the melding of man, mind and machine – what new applications will peripheral devices enable?
• How might emerging markets start to be served by localised (or generic) virtual worlds?

Jessica Mulligan, COO, ImaginVenture SA
Raph Koster, President, Metaplace
Frank Campbell, Chief Business Officer, MindArk PE AB
Bernard Horan, Senior Staff Engineer, Sun Labs
Ginsu Yoon, VP Business Affairs, Linden Lab