Face Time? Managing employees in Second Life.

Last November, IBM CEO Sam Palmisano stood on the steps of Beijing's Forbidden City and addressed 7,000 IBM employees as a virtual representation of himself. He then took questions from employees, who were represented by their own avatars. Think The Sims, only in a corporate setting.

Could this work for your growing business? A company with 40 employees can likely shell out at least $5,000 for a basic but permanent Second Life meeting space and possibly pay someone to create and maintain the space.

The ability of a virtual venue to keep employees' attention may well offset the cost. "It creates an interesting element of a meeting that you wouldn't have otherwise," says John Beck, president of The Attention Company, a consulting and executive training firm.