Competition setup

The Virtual Venture Competition was arranged in four stages.

 

Stage 1 - Write your business plan
In the first competition stage, the participants explored Second Life and learned the requirements for building up a business in a virtual reality. At the end of this stage, teams submitted their business plans in an attempt to win VVC funding for their ideas.

 

Stage 2 – Realize your plan and build up your business
During the second stage, funded teams had 45 days to build up their business in Second Life based on the business plans they had handed-in. The best teams were invited to the third stage: The Analyst Conference.

 

Stage 3 – Present your business results to a jury
The Analyst Conference took place in October 2007, where 12 invited teams in total presented their businesses in front of a jury. These events were held in the main auditorium of the VVC Infocenter island inside Second Life.

 

Stage 4 – Compete for the first place in the real world final
After the teams had proven their case in the virtual world, the final evaluation of the best entrepreneurs took place in the real world. The six best teams from the Analyst Conference were invited to the Real World Final in Kitzbühel, a lovely place in the Austrian Alps. There they had to present their businesses, their overall strategy and how they would react to given future scenarios.

 

 

The Jury

The jury in either the virtual and the real world final was comprised of a set of high caliber experts.

 

Academia – Prof. Miklos Sarvary: Marketing Professor at INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France). Professor Sarvary’s current research focuses on social networks and new media, and how these technologies transform the marketing function

 

Media – Dr. Christian Stöcker and Holger Dambeck: Editors at “Spiegel Online”, covering science and digital worlds. Christian Stöcker is a renowned expert on Second Life, and has recently published a book on his avatar’s adventures in Second Life.

 

Business – Florian Schweitzer: Co-founder of the venture capitalist BrainsToVentures AG. BrainsToVentures has been investing in several Web 2.0 businesses – as such contributes the “real VC’s” perspective on the VVC ventures.

 

VVC – Dr. Christoph Glatzel: Partner at McKinsey & Company where he is a member of the European Retail Leadership mainly serving large consumer goods clients. He is also the Partner in charge of the Virtual Venture Competition.

 

VVC – Fabian Blank: Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company focusing on the telecoms industry, serving e.g., mobile operators. He has been leading the VVC project together with a set of dedicated consultants.