Some of Second Life's brightest stars will help shine a light at the at the Leadership in Business fall conference, Oct. 27-29 at the Beta Business Park.

Amanda Van Nuys (known in Second Life as Amanda Linden) and Doug Thompson (Dusan Writer) will be among the presenters at the conference, which will be held in the virtual space devoted to meeting the needs of entrepreneurs in this expanding platform.

Van Nuys is the executive director of enterprise marketing at Linden Lab, owner of Second Life. Her role is head of marketing for everything non-consumer, which encompasses government, education, nonprofit, and the developer community.

Thompson is the CEO of Remedy Communications and a driving force behind Metanomics, a popular weekly panel discussion about virtual worlds that attracts some of the best minds, bridges real and virtual worlds, and tackles some of the trickiest problems facing entrepreneurs.

The conference is expected to attract business people with a wide range of knowledge and experience, representing non-profit, governmental, educational, and private sectors and organizations of all sizes sizes. And don't feel limited by the environment. This event is as much about business as it is doing business in virtual worlds. There will be general professional development opportunities as well as the chance to tap expertise in the fields of virtual worlds, business management and cutting edge technology.

• Gwyneth Llewelyn, now Beta Technology's CTO, has been a manager in several other high-tech firms, She has experience in international business, contracts, billing, finance, marketing, and promotion. She will be speaking on e-commerce solutions in Second Life.
• Garrett Glaser (Garret Nirvana), a former CNBC reporter, will discuss dealing with the media and getting your message out in the virtual and physical worlds.
• Neil Canham (Richard Meiklejohn) will explore the uses of immersive technologies in collaboration and teams and will be previewing the new product his company, Flying Island, is launching to facilitate them.
• Paul D'Ambrosio (Nicolo Anthony) will focus on the efforts of the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., to establish itself in Second Life over the past two years. D'Ambrosio, the vice president and chief curator, describe how a mid-size art museum in a rural area navigated virtual world issues.

The conference schedule's variety should benefit three types of conference attendees: Those that have no experience in virtual worlds but want to see what it's all about, those who have a foothold in virtual business but want to explore the full range of possibilities and those who have realized the benefits of a business in Second Life but want to add context and depth to their ideas.

The conference environment offers the chance not only to learn and absorb new ideas through a variety of presentations, but it also allows you to explore those ideas in depth and brainstorm other possibilities with the conference attendees. Finding people who share or complement your ideas is simpler in a virtual world, where you can pull up a colleague's bio at the click of a mouse.

The conference will also include music/mixers and expo displays by all the presenters and the B2P tenants.

So leave the standard conference supplies behind -- the plastic bags, comfortable walking shoes, overstuffed laptop bag and overpriced hot dogs -- and realize the greater potential of virtual worlds and sharpen your skills overall at the Leadership in Business fall conference, Oct. 27-29 at the Beta Business Park.