Holding events in Second Life of one kind or another is not new: people have been doing this since this virtual world started back in 2003.

As more businesses enter Second Life, the idea of including this virtual world as a channel in broad marketing and PR planning makes a lot of sense.

In its simplest sense, Second Life gives you an opportunity to create and develop a personal connection with people in a place where there are no real-world manufacturing or service costs and few barriers to what’s possible.

It represents a completely new way to interact and communicate with people via the internet, enabling you to experiment and learn how to adapt business, marketing and communication models to a new and emerging marketplace, either complementing existing plans or developing new ones. It’s also about breaking new ground and making connections with the Second Life community.

A good example of much of this was the virtual press event for the movie 300 which took place at Silverscreen Island in Second Life on Friday night.

I was there in two related roles. First as a meeter-and-greeter (disclosure: because I’ve been working with Warner Bros Pictures and London-based film marketing company PPC for the past month on communication and planning for this event), and secondly as a participant like everyone else.

I was keen to savour the complete experience of a press event in Second Life about a new movie that had a live question-and-answer session via real-time audio with not only the leading actors and the director but also with legendary graphic novelist Frank Miller on whose graphic novel the film is based.

And the experience did not disappoint.