A project that takes place in the virtual world of Second Life, has won the top accolade in the TEC Intraverse2008 Awards.

At a dual ceremony in Paris (real) and in Second Life (virtual), Shell and Unfrozenmind received the award for their development of a virtual Shell island complete with learning centre, laboratory and other business facilities.

Philip Rosedale (real), Chairman of Second Life’s Linden Labs, and his avatar (virtual) jointly made the presentation commenting: “While many companies are using 3D environments for areas such as marketing, Shell and Unfrozenmind have developed a wonderful example of how the businesses of the future will use 3D environments such as Second Life to drive collaboration”

From a concept developed by GameChanger, Shell’s innovation group, the island has been created as one of a possible suite of tools to stimulate collaboration, learning and creativity among employees.

Jan van derEijk, Chief Technology Officer of Shell said of the 3D environment, “Collaboration with others from beyond our disciplines and beyond our industry will be of increasing importance. This virtual world and other social networking tools that we are currently reviewing could play a role in enabling that collaboration -helping us in our innovation journey to deliver real world progress by drawing out the creativity of our vast technical -and non-technical -community.”

Unfrozenmind Ltd designed and developed the project as a part of its BrandNewPlanet 2.0 strategic collaboration offering, with technical support from partners Community Chest SARL. Toby Coop, Principal of Unfrozenmind said “from the outset, Shell have recognised the importance of horizontal collaboration in their organization, as one of the keys that will enable them to unlock the potential of their employees to drive strategic innovation. Through the use of interactive architecture, BrandNewPlanet 2.0brings together a logic of innovation in a 3D immersive environment which allows organizations to collaborate globally, to test ideas, and simulate scenarios etc. We are delighted to have won this award with Shell and with support from our partners.”

About Shell GameChanger:

GameChangeris Shell’s innovation group comprising full-time Shell professionals with diverse backgrounds in business and technology in the energy industry who operate outside the constraints and priorities of Shell’s day-to-day business. Several GameChangerteams work together to help develop ideas that are “between and beyond” the company’s existing enterprise. GameChangerinvests in and provides support to new and unusual technology or business ideas from within the company or from external parties that can contribute to the delivery of responsible energy.

About Unfrozenmind:

Unfrozenmind is a Strategic Innovation Think Tank focused on changing the governing principles of the global economy through fostering the concept of Noble Business… business as a force for good. As the driving force of the global economy moves from products and services to human talent, Unfrozenmind shows how the business of innovation is the business of personal and organizational transformation. Focusing on Strategic Innovation, Collaboration, Horizontal Communication and Virtual Leadership Development; Unfrozenmind helps organizations to Design Legends.

Unfrozenmind is powered by Community Chest, our strategic technology partner. Community Chest is the first marketing and communication agency established both in Paris and Second Life and has clients such as Michelin, ArcelorMittal, Jean Paul Gaultier, Lacoste, and Première Urgences.

For further information on Unfrozenmind (powered by Community Chest) please contact

Alexei Levene, Marketing Director alexei_levene@unfrozenmind.com

Or visit us at www.unfrozenmind.com

Or our 3D Academy at http://slurl.com/secondlife/UnfroZenMind/169/72/36

For more information on Community Chest please visit http://community-chest.com

About the TEC awards

TEC Paris is a technology fair that has, been organized by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Paris (CCIP) for the last three years. In 2008, a new prize has been awarded with 7 categories and Intraverse2008, rewards the best uses of 3 dimensional metaversesby enterprises. Sponsored by BNP Paribas, Google and Lazard, the awards judges were assembled by the organizers and were composed of representatives from major professional, government and research associations: For more information please see http://www.tec-paris.com/

Having won 1^st prize at the TEC awards ceremony in Paris for their design and development of 3D Immersive environments with Shell, Unfrozenmind won an additional 2^nd prize for their work in Virtual Leadership Development.

TEC Paris organises an annual awards ceremony that recognises innovative corporate projects using 3D environments and for serious gaming. Other winners this year include L’Oreal, Michelin, BNP Paribas and Shell. The award for their work in Virtual Leadership Development awarded to Unfrozenmind by Philip Rosedale (real) and handed to the team via his avatar (virtual).

Virtual Leadership Development using Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) is a new area that is rapidly gaining the mindshare of corporate Human Resource heads looking to cutting edge techniques and technologies to develop their executive talent. “Its about learning the skills of Web 2.0 in highly competitive virtual scenarios , where collaboration and leadership can be intensively trained, and best of all it is a lot of fun” says Unfrozenmind Marketing Director Alexei Levene.

By enabling Virtual Leadership Development programmes that are globally scalable, and encourage diversity, Human Resource Executives can bring innovative development techniques to their executives that are less costly and faster to implement and scale than more traditional Leadership Development courses.

About Unfrozenmind

Unfrozenmind is a Strategic Innovation Think Tank focused on changing the governing principles of the global economy through fostering the concept of Noble Business… business as a force for good. As the driving force of the global economy moves from products and services to human talent, Unfrozenmind shows how the business of innovation is the business of personal and organizational transformation.

Focusing on Strategic Innovation, Collaboration, Horizontal Communication and Virtual Leadership Development, Unfrozenmind helps organizations to Design Legends.

Unfrozenmind is powered by Community Chest, our strategic technology partner. Community Chest is the first marketing and communication agency established both in Paris and Second Life and has clients such as Michelin, ArcelorMittal, Jean Paul Gaultier, Lacoste, and Première Urgences.

For further information on Unfrozenmind please contact

Alexei Levene, Marketing Director alexei_levene@unfrozenmind.com

Or visit us at www.unfrozenmind.com

Or our 3D Academy at http://slurl.com/secondlife/UnfroZenMind/169/72/36

About the TEC awards

The landscape of organisational and leadership development is being radically transformed by three major trends: The first, “Globalisation”, has opened the doors to new markets, new revenues and new growth opportunities. But it has brought in its wake a level of complexity both on a micro scale (dealing with the tactical and operational processes and decisions that make the business more efficient and effective) and on a macro scale dealing with the socio-political context of your business- that places Talent development and Organisational Design in the forefront of developing competitive advantage.

Whilst globalisation is a word that may seem to have lost some of its currency in business executives circles, without a doubt your competitive advantage will be eroded or dented severely because of this major force. Having a “quality” driven organisation focused on getting things right is your entrance ticket into today’s marketplace, not the end result. The conclusion in business terms is that “The World is Flat” (i): the “bottom-line” has dropped out of externally-based business strategies. The concept of “economic value” has mutated in the marketplace from a quantitative measurement of success, to a qualitative hierarchy of ideas. This transition from economic value to economic creativity marks a paradigm shift from the “Box-Economy”, measured by the optimisation of moving boxes, thinking in boxes, putting people in boxes and exchanging boxes, to the “Ideas-Economy”. “Quality” has morphed from a technical and mechanical emphasis to a subjective one. It is the qualities of your people in driving creativity, innovation, communication, and collaboration that will transform your competitive advantage. (ii)

Technical and or numerical advantages will only have a limited life span in this context. Corporations seeking to out-manoeuvre each other by squeezing the last juice out of their supply chains have unknowingly become ensnared by the inherent fault-line of the digital information race.

As the information playing field becomes levelled out by the speed-trap of technology, “Business @ the speed of thought” paradoxically results in a technological “groundhog day”. Speed has now become commoditised, reducing “efficiency” and “effectiveness” to “table-stakes”(iii). Thinking in straight lines, digitally or otherwise, will keep you going round in circles.

The second trend is the move towards “Distributed Teams”, which refers to the way business teams are spread across the globe communicating and meeting virtually when the situation demands it. Hierarchical line management has been replaced by flexible project management structures whose characteristics are based on the fitness and relevance of skills. Power and positional leadership models are now replaced by situational leadership styles in which people step up or are chosen by the team on the basis of skills- such as planning, collaboration, communication and problem solving. Leadership skills are faced off against the “task” and as such may require different leaders for different projects and even multiple leaders within the same project.

These abilities and skills stand in stark contrast to the vertical machinery that holds most organisations together. As the driving force of business moves from marshalling numbers to innovation, central tenet of its pedagogy moves from the logic of control and management, to the logic of collaboration and situational leadership. The model of business has been transformed from a mechanical structure focused on optimising delivery, to a horizontal structure focused on collaborative breakthroughs and situational leadership.

The third trend is the virtualization of the worlds of B2B and B2C. The key forces driving Web 2.0 are about user-created content and experiences across collaborative networks. Social networking, 3D immersive environments and online role-playing games (MMORPG) are providing the examples and tools to enable business organisations transform their competitive advantage through collaboration. Leaders and organisations enmeshed in vertical managed cultures will find these changes both threatening and incomprehensible. Ask yourself the question, “How much experience have you of second-life, social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and online role-playing games such as World of Warcraft, Age of Conan and Eve?” The in-built cultural models of senior management thinking which decide what is right and wrong are being fundamentally challenged by experiences being driven by technology which digitally connects people across communities and cultures, transforming meaning and identity. Revolutions have been started using these technologies, from Burma to Columbia. US and French Presidential elections have seen parties and candidates supporting and connecting with people in ways previously considered impossible. Organisations like Shell, Michelin or IBM recognise that 3D immersive environments will transform their capacity to deliver new value models, new ways of doing business that transcend the traditional analytical models now in use.

Understanding, experiencing and gaming in these virtual worlds is a training ground for the senior management teams of today and the future.

i. Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat, FSG, 2005

ii. Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat, FSG, 2005; Tom Peters, Re Imagine, DK, 2003; Michael Newman, Creative Leaps, Wiley, 2003; Kevin Roberts, Love Marks, Powerhouse Books, 2004; W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne, Blue Ocean Strategy, HBS, 2006.

iii. Michael Newman, Creative Leaps, Wiley, 2003, see Kevin Roberts, CEO Saatchi & Saatchi, presentation on CD included with book.