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It was when he mentioned we could teleport to our next meeting that I got a little skeptical.

I'd been chatting with Eilif Trondsen, program director of the Virtual Worlds Consortium for Innovation and Learning at California's SRI Consulting Business Intelligence. He was in town last week to deliver a series of presentations to Industry Canada, OCRI and the National Research Council on the growing importance of 'virtual worlds' (VW) – those quasi-geeky, online simulated realities such as Second Life – in the business world.

"The key message is corporations are recognizing that these are technologies they need to understand better," said Mr. Trondsen, with a distinguishable Scandinavian lilt, just before heading off to the NRC early last week.

"It might not be something they can spend millions of dollars on off the bat, but they need to figure out how they can leverage these technologies."

Mr. Trondsen even said VWs – typically, computer-generated realities where each user can explore and interact with other users – are positioned to usurp tele- and web-conferencing as the next big thing in meeting and convention technology.

It seemed a little too much like Tron redux, from my perspective. So I did a little research.

It turns out he was right.

Not only are VWs gaining traction in more traditional business circles, but a note from U.S.-based IT leviathan Gartner last year outlined the relative benefits and risks for businesses who want to go virtual.

"Large companies are beginning to take virtual worlds seriously, with enterprises such as Intel, IBM and Sun setting up virtual offices in Second Life, and using it to hold press conferences and even internal meetings," read the note, though it cautioned VWs are exposed to the same security risks as any other computer network. Confidentiality, the note said, is also an ongoing issue.

As Mr. Trondsen explained, however, VWs make even more sense for high tech or other companies with offshore operations where team members may be separated by thousands of kilometres. "It creates a more immersive environment that people can do things in – they can socialize and collaborate," he said.

"Many companies have far-flung teams," he said, "and one of the rules for virtual worlds is that it can be like a virtual water cooler. You meet your colleagues, you socialize and build trust."

Personally, I'd probably prefer an old-fashioned beer and a handshake. But what do I know?