The senior director of online publishing at gaming giant Electronic Arts Europe, John Burns, was recently been announced as a keynote speaker at this year’s Virtual Worlds Forum Europe 2008.

The event, which takes place between 6-8 October at The Bridge in London, has also secured sponsorship from IBM, Unity3D, Linden Lab and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Disney, among others.

In addition, support has been confirmed by: Freggers, a flash-based virtual world; Second Interest, a full-service virtual worlds agency; Daesign, a video-game based interactive training solutions and serious games provider; Paynova, the worldwide payments service for MMOG's and virtual worlds; Testronic Laboratories, specialists in multi-media quality assurance; Outso, which designs, creates and implements 3D real-time interactive environments; and Sloog, a specialist on tagging the New World.

As well as working with sponsoring organisations, the Virtual Economic Forum has drawn up partnerships with a number of organisations to benefit this year's delegates. As a result, the event will provide delegates with:
- A 3 months complimentary subscription to the FT.com
- The Gartner research report: Virtual Worlds: The Grand Challenges – what to expect in 2009
- A 4-day members pass to the private member's club for the creative industries, The Hospital Club

"We are very excited about the huge amount of interest and support we are garnering from both large and niche companies, a true sign of the increasing importance of the business in and of virtual worlds,” said the forum’s executive conference director Sasha Frieze. “We are also happy about the great deals we are being able to offer attendees of the event in partnership with some of the leading businesses within their area."

As a precursor to the Virtual Worlds Forum, London’s Borough Bar sees the regular Virtual Worlds Salon on 24 September.

For more details on the Virtual Worlds Forum, visit www.virtualworldsforum.com

For more details on the Virtual Worlds Salon, visit http://virtualworldssalonseptember.eventbrite.com