The authors' team has been working with virtual worlds since 2006, deploying them in diverse contexts including secondary schools, special schools, vocational education and training, higher education and the community sector. Here the authors outline their operational experience of the complex web of interrelated factors involved in running virtual world projects. The authors discuss project development models, institutional politics, activity types and working with teachers and students. They conclude that embedding virtual worlds in education can be rewarding but also difficult at times, with qualities of nimbleness and self-reinvention required of project teams.