Anthony Zuiker, the creator and executive producer of the CSI television crime drama franchise, will deliver the opening keynote at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo on October 10 in San Jose.

Virtual Worlds Management, who produces the event, says Zuiker will be talking about how CSI: NY plans to extend the TV property into the interactive virtual world space to engage with customers, partners and employees. Could a virtual crime scene investigation be in the cards? We'll have to wait and see!

Broadcast TV pros are finding a lot of common ground in virtual worlds. Just recently at the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival, Peter Cowley of reality TV bigs Endemol also talked about the affinity for virtual worlds as a natural extension of broadcast properties like Big Brother and Deal or No Deal. Writer and TV producer Lee Sheldon is set to keynote the Writing for Games track at the Austin Game Developers' Conference in September, to discuss how some TV traits, like episodic content, have a lot to teach the multiplayer online gaming and social space.

"With the advent of virtual worlds, television franchises can now engage fans directly, immersing them into their brands, producing an exciting extension to the creative process," says Christopher Sherman, Virtual Worlds Conference Executive Director.