An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest... Nightclubbiz.com

If you're a new startup:

Here's your chance to test drive a real operating nightclub in a highly sophisticated simulated environment

• It's a tiny fraction of the cost of a real life nightclub

• It encompasses many of the operational responsibilities of a real life venue

• It will allow you to test your concept in a virtual environment

• Your potential market draw spans across over 125 countries

• Or you may market to the same demographic as your real life startup

• Learn how to really read and understand the social mindset of an audience

• You'll become familiar with hiring and managing a crew of staff

• You'll be faced with many of the same complaints a real life nightclub experiences

• You'll be dealing with DJ's and managing entertainment format

• You'll be putting on events, promotions, and contests

• You'll be hiring and training managers

• You'll understand the essence of entertainment product and how it affects an audience up close and personal

• You'll get an idea of how to build traffic and keep it

• You may couple with working partners or go solo

• You have access to your operating nightclub from anywhere in the world 24 X 7

For exsisting nightclub operators

• If you're open just 2 or 3 nights a week… You could extend that to 24 X 7 with a virtual nightclub addition

• 100 times the power of a website, as guests are actually immersed in your world… Your brand… Your party

• An interesting way to keep you guests focused on your brand well beyond the typical operating hours of most nightclubs

• Implemented correctly, there's potential to expand your market share and exposure substantially

• Run promotions, contests, and special events throughout the week in your virtual nightclub

• DJ's can fully interact with the live audience

• During the nights your real life club is open… Broadcast your music and DJ's into your virtual nightclub as well -operating them in parallel

• Want eye candy that will absolutely kill? Login to your virtual nightclub… Feed the video from the Laptop into your big screen Plasma's… Now your audience is watching the party taking place in your virtual nightclub in near HDTV quality. And… Now they know where to hangout when you're going to close for another 4 to 5 nights.

• Configure your own broadcast system, where you control the style of music format 24X7. You can also program it to play different types of music based on the time of day

• You can insert custom voice overs into your broadcast, which automatically play in rotation at set intervals. Create voice overs to promote your real life clubs events, or the ones coming up in your virtual one.

• The possibilities are endless….

If you've read this far, some of you are likely going to have a number of questions at this point. We'll try to provide answers to those:

Are you for real Nightclubbiz.com?

LOL… We are absolutely for real. We would not be suggesting this possibility unless we were certain it had merit. In a day and age where almost everything is going virtual, this is really not that much of a stretch, however this particular technology is truly outstanding in terms of its unrivaled potential.

All sounds like fun, but I know nothing about setting up shop in a virtual world

We provide help services for this. No doubt, most of you will want to focus on operating the club -not investing months or years into learning how to build in a 3D physics environment, and or the numerous technical intricacies encompassed in the underlying technology.

I am confused… What am I building on and how big is the space?

Inside the virtual world of Second Life, you may purchase or rent a variety of real estate parcels. These ranges from homes, shopping malls, bare land, condos, and entire islands, otherwise known as 'private estates'. Now you're probably thinking… So what type of parcel do I purchase or rent for a social entertainment venue of sorts?

Pay close attention here… Purchasing land is similar to purchasing space for a website. You're provided an allocation of CPU resources, hard drive space, and bandwidth. Now… If you're building a small website consisting of a few pages, you can get away with a very small allocation of resources. If on the other hand, you're planning to pack your pages up with large graphics, audio, video clips, flash, and or running a PHP based site, with a Mysql backend, your website will choke if more than 5 people are viewing it at once.

Purchasing land in Second Life is the same… You're not just purchasing land, but also simulator resources, which determine how much you can build on that land. Objects consume simulator resources, as does every person who comes onto your land. On a web server, you are sometimes limited to a certain number of files, i.e. jpg's, gifs, html pages and so fourth.

On a simulator, we call them primitives, but more commonly prims. Each parcel of land you purchase is provided with a set number of prims. Prims are used to build everything from a chair, floor, and of course… Your nightclub. You getting this so far? Every item in the virtual world starts out as a Prim. The prim is manipulated and molded to be whatever you want.

Again… Going back to the website example, there are also scripts. Scripts are used to bring your prims alive. For example, a waterfall, opening doors, dance routines, and yes.. Even a light show. Not all prims use scripts. If you're placing a rock on your property for example… It's a still object, so no scripting would be used.

What is most important to be aware of here is that similar to a web server; scripts also consume CPU and memory resources. Or in this case… Simulator resources. So there you have it… The three main components that consume simulator resources:

• Prims

• Scripts

• Avatars (people)

What happens if I don't have enough simulator resources?

A few things… Firstly, you'll be limited to very few people and because your actual build is consuming the bulk of simulator resources. Secondly, you'll become very familiar with a term in the virtual world called "Lag". Similar to a web server, if you consume all your resources, your site comes to a crawl. Web pages take forever to load and even then they do… They're dog slow.

Lag is very similar, except when visitors arrive at your club, they can barely walk. When they attempt to do so… There is a delayed response, so everything appears to be running in very slow motion to them. And yes… Guests become extremely irritated over this and WILL complain to no end sometimes! In VERY extreme cases, guests trying to enter your land will be rejected with a "Region Busy" message, meaning the simulator is now completely out of resources. Not fun…

So what resources do I require to build and operate a virtual nightclub?

Land parcels begin in size and price for as little as $5.00 a month for 512 square meters. All land resides on a 'full' region. An entire region is 65,000 square meters, which is often divided into many smaller parcels for residential and light retail use. The real estate market is a booming business in the virtual world and totaling hundreds of millions a dollars yearly.

Social entertainment venues should NEVER purchase anything less than a FULL region!

Virtual world nightclubs are amongst the most intensive applications to be running on a simulator, and largely because of the fact they can draw so many people onto the land they reside on. Some have tried to start out with smaller parcels, but alas… They end up bogged down very quickly. In the virtual world, nothing will scare your guests away faster than a simulator, which is over taxed and so bogged down, it's almost standing still.

Land costs:

A full region costs $1,000 to purchase and a maintenance fee of $295.00 a month. This is a class 5 simulator. You own the full 65,500 square meters, or 16 acres of Tropical Island, which resides on open waters. This is the highest performance simulator in existence and offers a full 15,000 prims. Unlike other smaller parcels of land where you are actually sharing your resources with neighbors, when you own a full region, you own 100% of the simulators resources. Trust us... You don't want it any other way for an application, such as a nightclub.

What is the maximum number of people I can pack into my venue?

The class 5 simulator can accommodate a maximum of 100 people, but that is in its naked form before you actually build on it. Your actual build consumes simulator resources, so while you want to create a beautiful venue, you need to keep in mind that adding too many toys, bells, and whistles will use resources and lower your maximum people capacity. Ideally, you want a clean build, rich in detail and nuance, but not a big sloppy mess of scripts and other extraneous effects, which is taxing the simulator to no end. Pro builders do this very well.

Ideally, a good build will consume about 25%, to 35% of the simulators resources. So 65, to 70 people is more realistic in terms of maximum capacity. Again… You don't need to dive deep into the technical intricacies of the underlying architecture unless you're planning on becoming a builder yourself. You want to be an entertainment operator, so you'll likely hire a builder and just like you would in real life.

An island? Why would I want an island for?

All class 5 estate simulators ship as warm sandy islands. While the focal point of your island will be a entertainment venue, you can develop the entire island if you want. Most owners Terraform the land, creating higher points, mountains, streams, waterfalls, and even their own personal residence. Just envision owning your own island in real life and all the things you could do with it. That's pretty much the way it is in this case. Many build out their islands over time, focusing on the core concept first.

Why type of venue should I build?

That's up to you. If you have conceptual drawings of a nightclub you plan to build, you could create a perfect 3D fully working model of it in the virtual world. You can test out your floor plan, look, feel, colors, sight lines and more. You can open it to the public… Get a feel for how it functions.

Have a nice club stuck in your head? The 3D physics environment makes it easy to build from scratch. Talk to a builder… Show them at least, a basic picture of what you want… Then start building the base architecture… See where it goes. Keep adding to it.

Are you planning to target the virtual world universe demographic, or limiting your reach to your own local demographic?

You need to really think about one. The most popular type of nightclubs /social entertainment venues in the Second Life virtual world are built under the stars, where water, palm trees, waterfalls, and more of a warm, tropical /nocturnal theme dominates the environment. People love to be outside, and the virtual world has a remarkably amazing way of emulating the look, feel, and sounds of very exotic environments. Most people will tell you… It actually feels as if they're there.

In the virtual world, there are NO limits to what you can create. As a result, people here expect something of a highly exotic nature. But not too far out… You need to create a highly enchanting environment. One that you can then build a real entertainment offering on. Beware… Many really mess this part up, so don't be too quick to go nuts with some idea you believe is going to blow peoples minds. This physical atmosphere is your first impression, however it needs to mesh with a solid product offering.

What if I build a state of the art LA, New York, or Miami style nightclub in Second Life?

Well... You certainly could. And many already have. The only problem is, the virtual world demographic is a little beyond that. The demographic here is 29, to 44 and older. Unfortunately, a big loud club with lighting affects galore is not in high demand from this broader level, international demographic. They want… Something that is… Astounding, enchanting, amazing… And Sexy. Again, outdoor entertainment venues are very popular here, despite an equal number of conventional indoor venues.

Could I do both venues?

Actually you could. The class 5 certainly has enough resources to, plus you have 16 acres of island. You could build a primary venue… One that targets the virtual world demographic. If you want to build a working model of your real life concept, do so on another part of the island. It should also be mentioned that you can build in the sky here too. So… Simply go up 7,000 feet and build your model there. As we keep mentioning, there is not a lot you can't do here.

How much does the build cost?

You hire a builder… The cost of developing a virtual world concept can run anywhere from $1,000, upwards to $3,000 or more depending on the detail and sophistication of it. Some start out small by developing the core concept first, and then adding to it over time. All depends on your budget and what you negotiate with a builder.

Hey that's a lot of money!

Not really, when you consider the fact that building something comparable in real life could run into several million. Consider it like going to nightclub operations school. Similar to a flight simulator, you engage in 80% of all conceptual, operational, and marketing procedures you would in a real life nightclub. All that's missing is the liquor.

Do hiphop, techno, or hard-core dance clubs work in the virtual world?

Not really and if you go this route, you can really skew your demographic reach. If you already have a market, i.e., a nightclub you are currently operating, and you can bring many of these people into your virtual nightclub, that may be a possibility. You could also use that traffic and buzz to gain an additional following from the virtual world demographic. Between the two… You might be able to sustain decent traffic.

What virtual world nightclubs show the most promise?

Slow jam venues are really hot in here. Again, people want to mingle and the atmosphere these venues can create is very favorable to that. You may be thinking… how boring. Hmm… Wait until you try a few out first.

The most popular up tempo venues, and the ones drawing the largest combined North American and European followings are those that stick to 'radio friendly' top 40, dance, pop, 90's, 80's, and even some 70's disco tunes for good measure. If you venture too far outside of these parameters, it's not to say that building a following is impossible, but you become more of a specialty /'niche' venue, while no longer being on the radar of the mainstream masses.

Could I really pitch this to an investor?

Why not? If you can raise several million by pitching an entertainment proposal on paper, why wouldn't you be able to pitch them on a fully functioning, live model of it? You can walk them through it… Create the surrounding landscape… Even fill it with people.  Sort of like a proposal that actually speaks for itself, or... You can spend $3,000 on a business plan and go knocking on doors to see if you get lucky.

I have more questions than ever now!

Grab one of one our introductory consultations and we'll give you a 60-minute power session on everything you'll want to know about launching a virtual world nightclub.

The future belongs to those who see it coming…

Dave H
http://nightclubbiz.com/