San Francisco meets the Metaverse at the upcoming Nonprofit Commons Grand Opening Gala Event. 32 Nonprofits and their supporters will host a grand opening celebration Tuesday, August 14, 2007 at 5:30 p.m. PST/SLT, in their new locations at the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life (SL).

The Nonprofit Commons is a nonprofits-only space generously donated by the world's first virtual millionaire, Anshe Chung, and managed by TechSoup. The Nonprofit Commons creates and houses a community of nonprofits in the online virtual world of Second Life. Entirely volunteer-run, the Nonprofit Commons hosts organizations from around the world and to-date has created a community blog, wiki, and held mixed-reality events, workshops, and regular weekly town hall meetings.

The Gala event will be a mixed-reality launch party, complete with networking and a panel of speakers, featuring Susan Tenby of TechSoup and Jeska Dzwigalski of Linden Lab in the live-event, and Anshe Chung in Second Life. Audio and video content will be streamed live between the two worlds.

The live-event in San Francisco will be a part of NetSquared's Net Tuesday. The Gala event's activities include:

5:30 p.m. Meet and greet

6:00 p.m. Speakers and event

7:00 p.m. Tours of the Nonprofit Commons

The events in Second Life will be at the same time, working in conjunction with the events in the real world, live event. Nonprofit organizations in the Commons will also be hosting their own events in conjunction with this Grand Opening Gala. To find the Nonprofit Commons search the places tab in Second Life for nonprofit commons or go here. This event is free of charge, but space is limited, so please RSVP via email to Susan Tenby (susan@techsoup.org) for in-world attendance to this event or IM Glitteractica Cookie in Second Life. Join the TechSoup group, in-world in Second Life to receive announcements about this event and future nonprofit events in Second Life.

Attire: Avatar fabulous. If possible, dress as your avatar or your favorite avatar.

RSVP for attendance to the live, real-world event on the San Francisco NetSquared Meetup site.