Boston - July 28, 2008 - Semper International, a leading printing, graphics and interactive media staffing firm, today announced its use of Google Lively, the latest web-based virtual environment and social networking application.  Semper was the world's first staffing firm to use Second Life  as a recruiting platform and its entry into Lively confirms Semper's commitment to cutting edge interactive and multimedia job recruiting. 

    "Virtual worlds continue to draw our attention," said Brian Regan, president of Semper International LLC. "At Semper, we look at them from a marketing standpoint; but we're also using them to enhance our internal process and how we interact with ourselves as well as our clients and candidates." 

    Google Lively (www.lively.com) is a user-friendly virtual world described by Google as "a chat experience in which you can communicate and express yourself using avatars in your very own space."  Semper has created a variety of rooms in Lively for conducting interviews, as well as integrating a main public room into the Semper website (http://www.semperllc.com/lively/).  Semper recognizes the importance of meeting the needs of a new breed of job applicants and is committed to matching staffing profiles in a compatible landscape.  As they've accomplished with their Second Life location, Semper will utilize Lively as an internal collaborative tool as well as establishing its external role as an interactive space for multimedia and video game job seekers.

    "Virtual spaces like Second Life and Lively create interesting opportunities for social interaction. Lively and its chat-room style approach will enhance initial interviews and eventually help our recruiters work with interactive media job applicants as they register through our website," says Regan.  Semper refuses to play catch-up with major technology shifts, preferring to map new ground, establishing new industry templates along the way.  While Regan is quick to point out that Lively is "not quite advanced enough to be used as a business grade application," he recognizes "a clear potential for consolidation. The ease with which we can integrate the chat room to a web page makes its widespread use a no-brainer - especially when interacting with Digital Natives."

    Semper's global strategy is to continue to identify and establish new and better ways of reaching the widest spectrum of online multimedia job applicants.  The integration of virtual worlds like Google Lively is only the beginning of a long term adventure.