New Business Horizons Wins ‘Best Use of Technology’ Award

June 19, 2008 - Press Dispensary - Virtual world business park developer New Business Horizons (http://www.nbhorizons.com) is celebrating its scooping of the prestigious ‘Best Use of Technology’ award from the Docklands Business Club and the East London Chamber of Commerce.

New Business Horizons (NBH) runs the Blue Horizon business park in the online virtual world of Second Life, where it provides managed offices and other business centre facilities for a wide variety of clients, from lawyers and TV producers to artists and photographers.

Founder and chief executive Alan Haymes explains the business model: “The cost of opening an office in Second Life – from acquiring the land to building the premises – can easily top £50,000: money that’s difficult to recoup quickly. Blue Horizon, on the other hand, can have businesses up and running within a few days for as little as £3,000 a year, with the shared benefits of a fully manned reception, conference facilities and even a nightclub. ”

During its first year of operation, the park has attracted the Californian legal firm Plachta, the charity Macmillans Cancer Support and the rock band Oasis, among many others, and has hosted the launches of a ‘real world’ best selling book, ‘The Rules of the Game’ and the 2007 Oasis DVD, ‘Lord Don’t Slow Me Down’.

It was this business model that led to the technology award. Alan Haymes – whose Second Life avatar name is ‘Dr Hickman’ – comments: “The award recognises the potential offered by virtual worlds to both large and small businesses, in terms of new sales opportunities, reduced costs and enhanced communication between geographically separated staff and other stakeholders.”

At the same time as being judged for its technological prowess, NBH was also finishing its most ambitious project to date: the design and build of a virtual business complex spread across four Second Life islands for Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s leading music company, whose artists include Amy Winehouse, Elton John, Gwen Stefani and U2.

The centre piece is a 200 seat auditorium for concerts and lectures, while the auditorium’s outer ring is devoted to internal presentations for UMG’s international division. The installation also includes a training facility, a night club, an office complex, a garden area and a beach.

Alan Haymes remarks: “The UMG project extends our experience in providing business park services and shows very well the sorts of facilities we can provide for larger clients.”

In its recent first use, a two day conference, the facility welcomed about 130 people from the UK, US, Australia, China, Japan, France, Finland and other locations, who assembled on the UMG islands for a series of presentations and to ‘meet’ their geographically diverse colleagues.

Haymes continues: “What we’ve done for UMG’s international division exploits a key business benefit of Second Life: its ability to bring people from all over the world to meet and work together. UMG joins the ranks of IBM and Cisco in making such a major commitment to Second Life as a communications tool for geographically diverse staff. But, of course, the same resource is available to any business that joins the Blue Horizon business park. Several of our clients hold staff and board meetings there.”

NBH is looking to form strategic alliances with companies such as software houses, web companies and marketing agencies whose clients might benefit from a presence in Second Life.

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Notes for editors
New Business Horizons is a Second Life 'full service developer' with offices in London and Montreal, and is the creator of the ‘Blue Horizon’ virtual business park. New Business Horizons helps clients reap Second Life rewards in terms of marketing, sales, collaboration and networking, amongst many other benefits.

For further information, please contact:
Robert Shepherd, New Business Horizons
Tel: 0845 430 4433
Email:
Site: www.nbhorizons.com