I have attended dual-mode sessions in Second Life, and I have to say, that I felt more connected to both the live audience and the virtual audience. I'll speculate on why here:
- The moderator was great! She was not dedicated to just the virtual room. She introduced the speaker to both audiences and took questions from both equally.
- I was able to see the presenter. This can be done one of two ways: 1. Stream the live event into SL. However, I believe there may be some lag. 2. Provide two screens in SL - one with the presenters picture, one with the ppt.
- I believe (not sure) that the action in SL was streamed into the live conference room.
- Greater social presence - I felt more connected to the virtual audience. Perhaps, this feeling of connection was projected to the live audience as well, or perhaps, I no longer needed to feel connected to the live audience.