(Originally published at SLNN.COM)

Over the coming weeks, there will be several interesting opportunities for people interested in Second Life business opportunities to network both in world and beyond.

Gartner Group recently released a report urging organizations to use caution before entering virtual worlds like Second Life. Yet this is not hampering groups from organizing business oriented conferences in and about Second Life.

Starting Saturday, United Business Media’s Think Services division will host Life 2.0 Spring 2008. The event will take place in Second Life, and will offer seven tracks with over “100 keynotes, presentations, panels and tutorial”. The schedule of speakers is not yet available, but Mitch Kapor, chairman of Linden Labs spoke to Life 2.0 last spring and is expected to speak there again this year.

Life2.0 will run through March 21st. Then, on March 22nd, from 10 AM to 4PM SLT, Wings of Hope Magazine will be hosting an in world Business and Networking conference. Puglet Dancer, of the Alliance Library System will be the keynote speaker. The conference will include live music and numerous vendors.

Then, on April 3rd and 4th, Virtual Worlds 2008 will take place at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. This conference, sponsored in part by key Second Life players such as Linden Labs, IBM, Cisco, Electric Sheep and Millions of Us, is also sponsored by companies involved with other virtual worlds, such as There.com.

One of the challenges that Second Life faces, according to the Gartner Group report is the emergence of “other, more scalable virtual environments” Some of those platforms are likely to be represented at Virtual Worlds 2008, and all three events are expected to offer a great opportunity to get a better understanding of the potential of business in Second Life.