Virtual Economy Experts from Digital Chocolate, IMVU, Ohai and More Gather at GDC to Tackle the Big Issues Facing the Rapidly Growing Industry

SAN FRANCISCO - March 11, 2010

Social Gold, the leading virtual currency and payments solution for thousands of online games and virtual worlds, today launched the first-ever Cha-Ching! Workshop: Realizing Revenues Through Virtual Economies. The workshop will provide a platform for industry experts to discuss the opportunities and critical issues facing this rapidly growing billion-dollar industry.

“We designed the Cha-Ching! Workshop to be both informative and collaborative,” said Vikas Gupta, CEO of Social Gold and host of the Cha-Ching! Workshop. “Our goal is to encourage business leaders to engage in conversation about the virtual goods space, analyze past successes and brainstorm how to tackle future challenges in this innovative virtual marketplace.”

The first Cha-Ching! Workshop will provide insight from a number of the virtual goods industry’s leaders, kicking off with a panel discussion led by Charles Hudson, host of both the Virtual Goods Summit and Social Gaming Summit. The panel, which will be focused on the evolution of the social gaming, casual gaming, and virtual worlds industries, will include:

• Trip Hawkins, CEO of Digital Chocolate
• Lee Clancy, Senior Vice President of Product Management and General Manager of Direct Revenue at IMVU
• Susan Wu, CEO of Ohai
• Prakash Ramamurthy, CTO of Lifelock and former SVP of Product, Engineering and Operations at Gaia Online

Later in the day, Markus Weichselbaum, CEO of TheBroth, will be sharing insight into the game mechanics behind their addictive new casual title, Hoop Fever Live. The game is one of nine titles featured on MySpace’s new Games Gallery, launched earlier this week at GDC.

“With Hoop Fever Live, we’re aiming to bring both synchronous and asynchronous gameplay to social gaming,” said Weichselbaum. “The next generation of titles will need to combine the best qualities of casual gaming with socially meaningful interactions if they want to stand out and be successful in the social gaming market."

Finally, keynote speaker John Zdanowski, CFO of Blue Mars and former CFO of Linden Lab, will provide his insights into the growth of the virtual economy. In addition to the speakers and panels, attendees will participate in interactive forums to discuss the rapidly expanding virtual goods market and learn strategies for optimizing dynamic virtual economies from top business leaders.



Follow updates from the workshop on Twitter: http://twitter.com/socialgold