Large Conference Possibility Question

[Anne Smith 2]

Hi Ilan and Oren, I have a large conference hosting question for you.

I have designed Sparrow Mountain and I understand it could host 60-80 avatars (based on the initial information at creation of the sim).

I have some colleagues who usually run a youth conference in Australia and of course the Corona-virus has led them to explore other alternatives. I have offered the use of my sim Sparrow Mountain free of charge. Their sessions range from 60-1500 in attendance, so we were looking at some YouTube live streaming as well so it could be inclusive of virtual and online. But, do you have any creative suggestions as to how avatar attendance numbers could be boosted? I suspect the organisation would eventually create their own sim, but at the moment we are brainstorming ideas. I don't have the organisational grid plan (hope to do this in the future), so that could be something to explore as well. Thanks in advance for any input!

[Selby Evans]

I have some suggestions on a related subject:
Can virtual worlds support large lecture classes? The past is not the future
https://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com ... orlds.html

Large numbers of people can't interact with each other. But if they are listening to a presentation, you don't expect them to interact, you expect them to listen. If you want them to interact, you break them up into small groups, perhaps based on familiarity or shared interest.

Your colleagues will probably use YouTube streaming for the large audience presentation. That does not need a virtual world but it can be done in Kitely. You just use several regions and put 60 people in each. I have one they would be welcome to use, free.

If the objectives include attendee interaction, the conference would form multiple small groups and put them in separate parcels with voice limited to parcel so the discussions don't interfere. The groups are given a task and asked to report. This plan is used to cause the participants to think about what they just learned and to integrate it with what they already know. The plan is especially useful if the objective is for the people to take some action.

[Anne Smith 2]

Hi Anne,

Holding big events in Kitely, such as the one you described, can be done as follows:

First, a general comment:

World capacity depends on the world's World Type and on what is placed and done inside the world. The more complex the world the less server resources will remain for providing visitors with good performance. As that is the case I'd highly recommend optimizing your world then testing the capacity before you hold big events. In addition, if you want people with lower-end computers to be able to get a good frame rate then I'd recommend limiting the number of visitors you place in each world to a lower number than the one actually supported by the world's World Type. Rendering a lot of avatars, especially ones that aren't optimized, can really slow down people's viewer FPS if they are using a computer that doesn't have a good graphics card.

Next, get an Organization / Kitely virtual grid:

My first recommendation is that you use our Organization / Kitely virtual grid service instead of trying to address the needs of organizations using our consumer offering (the Kitely grid). Organizations will help you create and manage the worlds and users for your events with a lot more ease. They enable you to batch create users (unlike our consumer offering, this doesn't require you to provide an email address for each account you create). They provide the Setup Kitely app that enables people to configure their computer to access your virtual grid and select their initial avatar from an Avatar Library that you define.

Organizations also enable you to customize the viewer login page for your virtual grid and they provide an API so that you can automate the management of your virtual grid and integrate it into your own event registration website.

Another feature is the World Archive library which enables you to create stored copies of a world that can be used to quickly create new worlds or replace the contents of existing ones (this is done much faster than using an OAR file and doesn't require the contents of your world to be exportable).

Organizations provide a lot more features and benefits. Among which is the ability to define what world each user will be logged into. You can read more about Organizations on our blog, starting with: https://www.kitely.com/virtual-world-ne ... ual-grids/.

Creating events using an Organization:

Each Kitely world can hold a limited number of users (as described above) but that doesn't limit how many people can visit different copies of that world at the same time. For example, if you determine that your particular world will perform well with up to 50 people inside it and you want to host an event that may hold up to 1600 users, you'll need to have 32 copies of that world. You can use the World Archive feature to create all those copies and use various existing and (more advanced) upcoming features to divide your visitors between those worlds.

Once inworld your visitors will be able to listen/view the same presentation using streaming media or Shared Media ("media on a prim"). They'll be able to communicate with those around them using local chat and positional audio. They'll be able to communicate with the people in other world copies using group chat.

We'll be writing a more detailed blog post about holding big events once we add some additional event-related features to our Organizations offering.

[Anne Smith 2]

Thanks Ilan. I will discuss this with my colleagues. If the sims were multiplied as you suggest, what costs (roughly) would you envisage? I suspect we would have them active for 3-4 weeks.

[Selby Evans]

The price will depend on several factors:

1) The Organization type you get and how long you get it for. Note you'll probably need to get it at least a few days before the event to configure everything to your requirements, create users, test, etc. If you need to have more than 400 users or 40 worlds in your Organization then you won't be able to use the Standard Organization option and will need to contact us privately for a quote. Please contact me via email with detailed requirements and we'll continue from there.

2) How many worlds you get, what world types they use, and how many months you'll need them for. For big events I'd recommend sticking to Advanced Worlds even if you only need a region-sized world or intend to keep the number of users per world below the capacity of Standard Worlds. Advanced Worlds provide you with more RAM and CPU resources to handle inworld activity without creating lag and it's always good to have as much headroom as possible.

Note that we may provide an events-focused worlds option once we roll out the aforementioned improvements to Organizations, but that option isn't available yet so my replies are assuming you're using our existing offering.

[Anne Smith 2]

Thanks Ilan. I will consult the Director of the youth organisation and see what they would like to do. Thank you for the details as this will assist the discussion. Much appreciated.

[Anne Smith 2]

Thanks Selby, I always appreciate your input in the different threads. I am really loving the Kitely community. It really makes it a great experience and certainly enhances the trouble shooting and learning!

Thanks also to you Ilan. You are so vigilant and informative with the posts. It certainly boosts my confidence in asking questions and learning as I progress. Much appreciated

[Anne Smith 2]

Hi Everyone! Just an update.

My colleague who was interested in running a large conference virtually, won't be doing so for 2020. She was very appreciative of the input and loves the idea, but there were a few non-virtual hurdles. So, I wanted to thank you all, especially you Ilan for your input. However nothing is in vain. My interaction with my colleague has raised more learning for me! So, I have posted another question on the forum, separate to this post, so as to avoid confusion.

Once again thank you all!