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Second Lifers Will Convene In Tampa, Sans Avatars

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 13, 2008

TAMPA - Tampa is about to get a life.

Denizens of Second Life, a virtual online community, will hold their annual convention at the Tampa Marriott Waterside hotel, according to Kevin Alderman, a Lutz entrepreneur who sells sex toys in Second Life.

Alderman is serving as local spokesman for the convention organized by the Future United, a nonprofit organization of Second Life inhabitants. He said close to 1,000 people are expected to attend the convention, scheduled for Sept. 5 to 7.

It will be the fourth annual gathering with the previous conventions in New York, San Francisco and Chicago, Alderman said.

Why not just have a convention in Second Life?

Alderman said there will be a simultaneous online convention.

But the real-world gathering is an opportunity to meet the people behind the avatars.

"You play and work with these characters every day," he said. "Most of us spend very little time in front of the television. Our lives are all encompassed by our computers. We get our news, and most of our purchases are done online."

The convention, he said, is "an opportunity to meet someone face to face you may talk to every day. You may spend hours a day with them as an avatar."

There will be tracts on business, education and socializing, Alderman said.

And, of course, the man who called himself "the Hugh Hefner of the digital millennium" plans to play.

Alderman, whose Second Life persona goes by the name "Stroker Serpentine," plans to host Strokerz Ball, an adult-themed masquerade ball, at Banana Joe's at Channelside Bay Plaza on Sept. 6.

For information on the ball, go to www.strokerzball.com.

For information on the convention, go to www.slconvention.org.

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

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