US Certified Public Accountants have taken the virtual world Second Life to new levels by holding the Maryland Business and Accounting Expo in it.

The two hour workshop allowed the CPA to carry out a continued professional education programme with the second hour featuring a speaker linked up from his office in San Francisco

Byron Patrick, an IT director at Katz, Abosch, Weindesheim Gershman & Freedman, which was the first CPA firm to join Second Life, said: 'We realised there is a real economy growing in there and every good economy needs CPAs, so we figured we needed to be there, too.'

People attending the event participated with microphones to chat with the presenters, or via chat applications which allowed them to ask questions and offer comments.

John Zsanowski, chief financial officer of Linden Lab, the company that created Second Life said: 'In the future as the technology continues to improve, I expect to see virtual world's become immersive experiences that are difficult to differentiate from the real world.' He added that in the not too distant future virtual worlds would be as prevalent as emails.

Further reading:

BDO enters Second Life

Profile: John Zdanowski, Second Life finance chief