Bruno Echegaray, Second Life's famed promoter and marketer for all things italian, scored a coup recently when he brought global management consulting company Accenture into Second Life.

Echegaray (Bruno Cerboni in Real Life), through his content creation firm Virtual Italian Parks, has built eight new sims called Experience Italy, one of which is an exhibition hall for Accenture.

Accenture, which was voted by Fortune magazine as the most admired technology information services company and had net revenues of U.S. $16.65 billion last year, will send executives to Echegaray's exhibit hall on Thursday, May 4 between 7 a.m. to 12 a.m. SL time to do consumer marketing.

At the exhibit hall, avatars can learn about some of the projects that Accenture is working on, such as kitchens of the future. Accenture staff will explain how, in the future, people can take pictures of food products with their mobile phone and have experts send them a customized diet plan; choose a product from a grocery store shelf and receive cooking suggestions on a monitor; and get product information via bluetooth on their mobile phone from interactive advertising posters.

Accenture executives will ask avatars marketing questions, and the results will be presented at the ECR Europe forum in Milan, May 8 to 10. Accenture is a sponsor of this event.
The forum features CEOs from the world's largest consumer companies such as Barilla, Nestle, Tesco, Carrefours, L'Oreal Kraft, Coca Cola, and Procter & Gamble.

Avatars who participate in the consumer questionnaire have a chance to win a bottle of fine Italian wine, mailed to their home. Echegaray, who lives in Italy, says he has a cantina with 500 bottles of Brunello di Montalcino. Participants can also receive a virtual " Accenture high performance golf kit" free t-shirts and caps.

Echegaray is working on several other projects for his eight Experience Italy sims. One sim will be the re-creation of the famous Georgio Armani store in Milan, Armani di Manzoni 31. Another is a recreation of the Square Coliseum in Rome, which has been undergoing renovation for three years. The building will offer an exhibition of Italian style and design seen in textiles, architecture, fashion, automobiles and artwork.

A third sim is reserved for the Costa Cruise lines. A new ship in the cruise line, the Costa Serena, will be Christened May 19, in real life and in Second Life. In real life, the ship will be docked in Marseille, France.