It is a virtual Japanese garden. Cherry blossoms are doing their pink and dreamy thing overhead, paper lanterns sway in a breeze that does not technically exist, and a man in a top hat is standing on a glowing purple disc that reads “SM (Stage Manager) anywhere on the floor.” Nearby, colorful platform discs labeled HOST and Stage are scattered across what appears to be a serene koi pond path. There is a yellow sign that says SILENCE DURING ROLE PLAYS. Someone, and I respect this person deeply, made a sign for that.
Welcome to SL23B volunteer training. Population: controlled mayhem.
For those of you who have been living under a virtual rock, the 23rd annual Second Life Birthday celebration, SL23B, runs from June 18th through July 19th, 2026. It is the kind of event that makes you remember why you fell in love with this ridiculous, wonderful, chaotic, magnificent platform in the first place. I am, once again, going in as an exhibitor, doing my very best to show off the awesomeness that is SL to anyone who will stand still long enough to listen. But this year, I added a second role to my already full plate: hostess for entertainment.
Now before you picture me floating around in a pretty dress handing out virtual canapés, let me clarify. Hostessing in this context involves training. Multiple orientations. Multiple role play sessions. A hierarchy so lovingly documented and organized that my anal retentive German soul practically wept tears of joy the first time I saw it laid out.
I am not ashamed of this. Structure is beautiful. Structure is how civilization was built, probably.
The training process is not something you waltz into. You attend orientation first, thanks to the flexibility of the main Bozz Leondra. My first one was with a collection of seasoned stage crew; it was great. Then you attend more orientations, because one is never quite enough when the stakes involve coordinating live entertainment events in a virtual world populated by thousands of people who are simultaneously trying to do twelve other things. Then come the role play sessions, where you practice your duties in a simulated environment so that when the real event arrives, you are not standing on the HOST disc looking like you accidentally teleported there from a potato farm.
Yesterday, the 5th of May, I attended what I can only describe as Stage Crew Training RP Session: “The Reckoning”, led by Adolfh. Adolfh, bless him, runs these sessions with the kind of calm authority that suggests he has seen things. Many things. The sort of things that happen when you put enthusiastic volunteers near a stage manager disc and a schedule board the size of a small building.
That schedule board, by the way, is something else. It is glowing magenta, color coded, detailed, and displayed in the middle of this gorgeous garden setting like a surprise spreadsheet dropped into a Monet painting. I respect it enormously. It is clearly the work of someone who does not believe in leaving anything to chance, and I am here for every single pixel of it.
The role play sessions themselves are where things get lively. You practice the flow. Who stands where. Who speaks when. What happens when a performer is late, or early, or decides that this particular moment is a good time to question the fundamental nature of their character arc. You learn the chain of command. You learn that the Stage Manager, hovering serenely anywhere on the floor on that purple disc, is not someone you interrupt unless you want to feel the particular weight of a look that could silence an entire sim.
After two orientations and three role play sessions, I can now say with full confidence and only mild residual panic: I am ready.
The garden is beautiful. The cherry blossoms are fictional, but I choose to believe in them. The top hat gentleman on the Stage Manager disc has seen things and emerged calm. The HOST disc awaits.
SL23B, June 18th. Come find me. I will be the one who actually knows where she is supposed to stand.
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