If you've ever looked for an excuse to try out the 3-D online environment called Second Life, here's a good one: Virtualis, an eye-popping event island complete with convention center, exhibition spaces, and The Joan Eisenstodt Learning and Community Matters Center, a way-way-way-outside-the-box venue.

Virtualis is best seen to be appreciated,but highlights include meeting rooms with full audiovisual capabilities, such as streaming live video; and dramatic architecture and exquisitely rendered details, from swaying trees to working escalators to a sculpture that morphs every few minutes. The exhibition spaces can support up to four media sources, and in the smaller Eisenstodt center, up to 40 attendees at a time can convene in “meeting spaces” that can simulate a variety of environments, from a stalactite-filled cave to the Amazon jungle to an underwater environment.

For more information, contact Virtualis creator Dan Parks, president and creative director of Corporate Planners Unlimited Inc., at cpudan@mac.com.