More Technology Day and emerging marketing tools

The panel discussion moderated by Susan Reda, Executive Editor of Stores magazine was incredibly thought provoking. The panelists were Kathy Savitt, Chief Marketing Officer, American Eagle Outfitters and David Polinchock, Founder and Chief Experience Officer, Brand Experience Lab.

I reached out to Susan Reda after reading her cover article for the February issue of Stores Magazine titled “Do You Tube?” Managing the Next Media Channel” that explored YouTube and other forms of social media (Facebook and MySpace) as the next generation of marketing tools for building brand awarenenss and generating sales growth. Susan had interviewed both Kathy and David for the article.

Kathy and David talked about the problems that arise when companies simply “dabble” in emerging technology. You can’t just “dabble.” You have to be committed – otherwise the exciting new media is more likely to weaken your brand rather than strengthening it.

David provided and provides on a daily basis so many examples (good and bad) of emerging technology on his blog. I really urge everyone to check it out. He travels the world and the web and picks up examples everywhere! The blog is called Experience Manifesto.

That really makes me think about the beginning of e-commerce. Everyone really thought it would be the demise of the brick and mortar store. In the beginning companies did not understand how to use the internet to their best advantage. Many companies simply threw product on the web without any thought or more importantly without an understanding of the importance of merchandising the site in the same way they merchandised their store. Of course I will also never forget the holiday season when ToysRUs turned off so many of their customers by not being able to fulfill the promise to deliver gifts by Christmas.

It’s interesting that AE is going to launch an on-line business for kids product (77kids by american eagle). There will be no traditional overhead and limited inventory exposure. Makes incredibly good sense. As Kathy said – to be able to execute a national launch in the traditional retail store model they would have to open physical stores (and lots of them) across the country. This way, they are in essence opening one store that will provide national exposure. It’s not wonder that the web now generates more sales than any single location for so many specialty retailers. What better way to test product? Test it on the web and see who buys it (or not).

All of this pertains to how companies will figure out how to use YouTube and Facebook to their best advantage as well as how they will learn to integrate Second Life into their business model. It will take time but those who figure it out and get it right will be the big winners.

More on Technology in the Classroom

I invited James and Meredith to my classroom where they played with SynchronEyes about two weeks ago.  While they were there, all worked just fine.

On March 31st, I had the same issue with SynchronEyes as before – I pushed a student’s desktop out to all and had her manipulate the screen – same problem as before. All was fine on her screen but all others became corrupt – including the projected image.
I was playing around with the quiz function yesterday while my students were taking their midterm – looks pretty interesting for a quick and efficient way to reinforce the previous week’s lesson.

I would love to hear how others are using or plan to use SynchronEyes – perhaps a roundtable discussion in the CET or what about WebEx…?

Technology in the Classroom update

I used SynchronEyes in my Fashion Planning & Allocation class on Monday afternoon. During the first portion of the class my goal was to push out my desktop view to my students to provide a demonstration.

Pushing my desktop to theirs worked just fine. The problem arose when I began to manipulate my screen. As the looks on my students faces began to change – giggling from behind their screens – I realized that as I was making changes to my screen, their views of my screen became corrupted with words stretching and ultimately becoming illegible.

I am hoping that there is a way to fix this so SynchronEyes works for the demonstration portion of my class.

After this small snafu I was able to maximize the thumbnail views of my student’s screens and project them so the students could show each other how they completed in-class exercises that requires them to navigate the Allocation software we use in the classroom. This worked really well and it gave various students the opportunity to present their results and explain their methodology – exactly what I had hoped for.

Next Monday I will use “Pass the Chalk” to see it that component of SynchronEyes is successful in the classroom. I didn’t want to push my luck any further.

I will be meeting with Calvin on another topic tomorrow in my classroom and plan to show him SynchronEyes at that time. Perhaps he will have some suggestions.

To be continued….

Technology in the classroom

To counterbalance the second life theme on the TDT blog I feel that I must go back to my computer classroom.  I am teaching for the first time with SynchronEyes.  This technology is installed in a number of computer classrooms on campus.

SynchronEyes is a really fantastic tool.  It allows the instructor to do a number of things:

1.See all the students computer desktops as thumbnails on the instructor monitor

2. Force the instructor desktop view out to the student desktops which is great if you want to provide a demo before your students begin a project or a new application

3. Project a student desktop and allow the student to drive a demo

4. Use a tool called “pass the chalk” that allows the instructor to give the instructor mouse to a student

I like the interactive nature of this since it will allow students to explain their work and  improve their presentation skills.

I plan to use these more interactive applications in my class on Monday and will report back on the outcome.

Exciting panel added for Technology Day!

I am very happy to announce the participants of one of the panels joining the Technology Day line-up. Susan Reda, executive director of Stores Magazine, will moderate a panel discussion between Kathy Savitt, chief marketing officer at American Eagle Outfitters and David Polinchock, founder and chief experience officer of Brand Experience Lab. Both of these panelists contributed to Susan Reda’s article “Do You Tube?: Managing the Next Media Channel” that appeared as the cover story in the February issue of Stores Magazine.

In advance of the conference I urge everyone to visit American Eagle’s 77e as well as the Brand Experience Lab (BEL) website and their blog, Experience Manifesto. The blog includes informative and entertaining category postings that pertain to many courses we teach about the state of the industry, emerging technologies, virtual advertising, and lots more.