You Are Not an Island October 31, 2011 @ 10:05 AM | By Eric Vidal

I’ve been talking for the last several weeks about how virtual environments can help organizations expand their reach while maintaining a budget. Last week, there was an announcement that is the perfect example of this, making an island (literally) more connected.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2011 Hawaii Host Committee and the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii recently launched the Hawaii Virtual Business Marketplace, an online space where local businesses can advertise their products and services and virtually engage with global audiences during APEC Leaders’ Week next month.

InterCall Virtual Environment was chosen to create the Hawaii Virtual Business Marketplace, which will serve as a virtual campus modeled to look like a regular physical convention or major meeting, including booths, exhibition space and a networking lounge. The best part is that it will help connect local Hawaiian businesses with the 21 APEC Economies and U.S. mainland companies. If this isn’t the epitome of using technology to eliminate any distance barriers, I don’t know what is.

The organizers of the event are setting it up so Hawaii companies can feature their products or services as well as other company images, videos and marketing materials in their “booths” — all of which will be featured at http://events.unisfair.com/rt/hvbm~hawaii. During the event, a showcase hall will highlight the state’s key industries and a resource center will be available to provide a knowledge bank of important and useful resources to help enable the easy exchange of information and promote seamless business transactions. And what event wouldn’t be complete without a networking lounge where attendees can chat with each other in real time.

Delegates will be able to log into the site from their own laptops or tablets available at the Hawaii Convention Center during Leaders’ Week. The event is expected to attract approximately 20,000 attendees including the leaders of the 21 APEC economies, ministers, business leaders and news media.

Have you tried to bring your ‘island’ closer to the mainland? I’d love to hear about examples of how you’re creating new business virtually.

Eric Vidal is considered a leading voice and expert in virtual business, which expands from marketing to collaboration to learning. He has more than 15 years experience in developing, implementing and optimizing strategies in these areas for numerous organizations and Global 2000 companies. As the director of product marketing for InterCall’s event services, Eric manages the strategy and initiatives for the virtual technologies that include virtual environments, streaming, event management services and operator assisted services. Previously from WebEx, Eric managed the virtual classroom product, as well as brand advertising and new media. Over the last several years, Eric has held management positions at Cisco, WebEx, IBM, BBDO Worldwide and Macromedia.