Day 25: June 22, 2009

We started our day at 7:00 AM with breakfast. Following breakfast, our first studio of the day was at 8 am with Professor Brian Griffith. Professor Griffith wrapped up his last session with the students focusing on the experience and growth he has witness in our students and recapped some of his previous studios. He drew our attention to the 5 elements of leadership and active listening. Following Brian’s session, Professor Cherrie Clark provided some brief insight into investment with a number of examples from Warren Buffett.

Following a short break, we broke out into team sessions and started to work on Coca-Cola. We will present Coca-Cola on Thursday and the team’s presentations are really starting to take shape. We have 6 executives coming from Coca-Cola to do the judging who will remain for our farewell dinner on Thursday night.

As many of our students majoring or minoring in finance or accounting, we invited representatives and current students from the Masters of Accounting to host an information session about Vanderbilt’s program. The MAcc representatives joined our students for lunch after the info session and networked with our students in a more relaxed atmosphere. We also had representatives from the “Big Four” firms: Jessica Hagler, KPMG; Elliott Benator, KPMG; Bob Guido, PwC; Kevin Walker, Ernst & Young; Jena Riggs, Ernst & Young; Michelle Adams, Deloitte; Mary Hus, PwC; Chichi Onuzu, Deloitte. Joining them was David Mayer, a current MAcc student at Owen that will be finishing next year.

At 1 pm, our teams started their final team session for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee (BCBST) / Gordian Health Solutions with their deliverables due at 4:30 pm.

After their final BCBST team session, Professor Bart Victor met with our students on Business Ethics.

Following Victor’s studio, our teams finalized their presentations during dinner as BCBST dress rehearsals started at 6:30 pm. Our teams spent the rest of the evening working on BCBST and we closed up the building quite late. The last team left about 2:30 AM. The projects are looking great and we can’t wait to see BCBST’s response tomorrow!

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 24: June 21, 2009

We started the day at noon with a traditional southern meal: fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, yeast rolls, green beans, and peach cobbler. Following lunch, we broke the group up into two sections – Vanderbilt and Non-Vanderbilt students to assess how we can improve in marketing our program around the nation. As we ask our students to constantly be open to feedback and improve, we are looking to improve the program as well.

Our teams next broke into their Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee (BCBST) teams and continued to work on that project; they will present BCBST and Gordian on Tuesday and today will be one of the last times that our teams have to finish crafting their idea.

Around 3:00 pm we broke up into two groups again. Teams 5 – 8 met with Paul Frankenberg while teams 1 – 4 Professor John English. Teams that meet with John English learned about commonly asked interview questions and interview etiquette, as well as how to affectively express their strengths and weaknesses. Teams with worked with Paul Frankenberg reviewed previous interview situations that our students had experienced and how interviews would interpret their answers.

The rest of the evening was dedicated to working on our Coca-Cola sustainability project. We ended the day around 9:00 pm. Only four more days until the program ends and we are all making the final push.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 23: June 20, 2009

Our day started with our standard 7:00 AM breakfast followed with a studio lead by Cap Gemini’s Matt White. Matt was an Accelerator coach in 2007 and continues to help us organize during the program and teach sessions on consulting. Today, his studio focused on Perceptual Maps, a strategic tool to map the transformation of a company or business unit over a period of time.

Following the studio, our teams spent the next 3 hours working on our Coca-Cola project surrounding corporate responsibility and sustainability. Teams were busy completing surveys of other college students and tabulating the results. As of this AM, we have completed over 1,500 surveys.

After lunch we worked on the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee (BCBST) / Gordian project. For BCBST / Gordian we are creating a business model that will help the insurance heavy weight use a social media strategy to engage consumers in conversations about health, wellness, and managing diseases.

We finished out the afternoon with a session led by Paul Frankenberg, CEO of Kraft Search Associates. Drawing on his experience as an Executive Recruiter and placement professional, Paul led a discussion on creating effective resumes. He suggested ways our Accelerator participants could improve their resumes as well as the types of profiles and candidates that human resources departments are looking for.

Dinner was ultra casual: hamburgers, hot dogs, grilled chicken and pasta salad by Charlie Bob’s. Good outdoor cooking on a hot June evening.

After dinner, we returned to the work on the BCBST / Gordian project. We ended the day around 8:30 pm and will take the morning off tomorrow before we start our last week of the program.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 22: June 19, 2009

We began our day with a 7:00 AM continental breakfast – teams rehearsed their Sony presentations while we set up the building for the Sony Music project judging. Following breakfast, our teams cued up to present to Sony. Each of the 8 teams presented their recommendations for building a 360 degree contract process for the music / entertainment industry and suggested ways to promote this type of contracting for the industry.

The judging panel from Sony Music included: Joe Galante, Chairman; Tom Baldrica, VP Marketing; Paul Barnabee, Sr. VP Sales & Operations; Heather McBee, VP Digital Marketing; Tom Banks, VP Finance; and Butch Waugh, Executive VP.

Even though we were up very late the evening before, the team presentations were just amazing! First place was a virtual 4-way tie after the initial judging input was received. Ultimately, there can only be one winner, so once the judging was complete, the winning teams were:

Presentation: Team 8 took 1st Place (Riley Strong, Cat Wearn, Chris Cooper, Nicole Quinn, Olivia Cotton, Tommy Crespo, Rick Hayer and Charles Welch). Team 5 took 2nd Place and Team 3 took 3rd Place.

Storyboard: Team 1 took 1st Place (Stephanos Stroop, David Jogwe, Erin Steigerwald, Ryan Stutler, John Zic, Mallory Mahan, Ali Thompson and Anna Laptook). Team 8 took 2nd Place and Team 4 took 3rd Place.

Research: Team 1 took 1st Place (Stephanos Stroop, David Jogwe, Erin Steigerwald, Ryan Stutler, John Zic, Mallory Mahan, Ali Thompson and Anna Laptook). Team 7 took 2nd Place and Team 5 took 3rd Place.

In Ranking the Presentations as the Client Ranked Them: Team 8 took 1st Place (Riley Strong, Cat Wearn, Chris Cooper, Nicole Quinn, Olivia Cotton, Tommy Crespo, Rick Hayer and Charles Welch). Team 1 took 2nd Place and Team 5 took 3rd Place.

Teams also voted on their Most Valuable Player: Erin Steigerwald, Alex Dowd, Melinda Moyo, Mark Shesser, Abi Stavrand, Steph Milne, Hewsan Pang, Adrian Rossi-Mastrassi, Olivia Cotton and Charles Welch.

Following lunch, our Accelerator teams had the opportunity to hear from a team from Capgemini on the consulting business and how they might get engaged in consulting as a career. Representing Capgemini were: Susan Wood, Principal; Deepak Jahagirdar, Senior Consultant; Paul Egan, Senior Consultant; and Matthew White, Senior Consultant. Our students had many questions for this team and were able to spend about 20 minutes after the session networking with the Capgemini team. It was a fantastic event.

At 4:00 PM, our teams worked on the Coca-Cola project – a strategy to evaluate how college students perceive the firm’s Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability initiatives. We worked on surveys of college students and benchmarks of CRS initiatives.

After dinner, our teams turned their attention to our Gordian Health Solutions – BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee project. We are working on developing a Social Media strategy that will help move the business toward a Business-to-Consumer.

Given the late hour of close last evening, we closed the building at 9:00 PM so that everyone could get some rest. Tomorrow we will dive into the Coca-Cola and Gordian Health Solutions projects.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 21: June 18, 2009

We began our day with a working breakfast at 7:00 AM to provide an overview of Career Day. Following breakfast, our teams cued up to present to Cisco & Presidio. Each of the 8 teams presented their recommendations for building a marketing plan for TelePresence. Once the judging was complete, the winning teams were:

Presentation: Team 2 took 1st Place (Patrick Widen, Alex Dowd, Melinda Moyo, Fred Tang, Tyler Hagen, Adair Meaden, Grayson Sharpe and Vince Nord). Team 3 took 2nd Place and Team 6 took 3rd Place.

Storyboard: Team 2 took 1st Place (Patrick Widen, Alex Dowd, Melinda Moyo, Fred Tang, Tyler Hagen, Adair Meaden, Grayson Sharpe and Vince Nord). Team 7 took 2nd Place and Team 8 took 3rd Place.

Research: Team 4 took 1st Place (Will Parker Roe, Stacie Pawlicki, Jamie Kaplan, Nick Cromydas, Rachel Sullivan, Scott Greer, George Boghos and Abi Stavrand). Team 1 took 2nd Place and Team 3 took 3rd Place.

In Ranking the Presentations as the Client Ranked Them: Team 8 took 1st Place (Riley Strong, Cat Wearn, Chris Cooper, Nicole Quinn, Olivia Cotton, Tommy Crespo, Rick Hayer and Charles Welch). Team 6 took 2nd Place and Team 1 took 3rd Place.

Teams also voted on their Most Valuable Player: Ana Laptook, Patrick Widen, Yens von der Linden, George Boghos, Fark Tari, Lyle Holmes, Eppa Rixey, Westley Taylor, Alexandra Brown, Riley Strong and Chris Cooper.

At noon, we began Career Day. Companies participating that are looking to offer internships or full-time jobs were: ALOC Group, Beecher Carlson, Bernard Health, Clayton Associates, Council Ventures, Credence Health, Gordian Health Solutions, HealthLeaders InterStudy, HealthStream, Morgan Keegan, Now Playing Nashville, Paradigm Group, Posta Shoppe, Technology Council, Vanderbilt and Zumi Sushi.

We began our Sony Music dress rehearsals at 6:30 PM – it turned out to be a very long night. All our teams are so driven to win the Sony Music competition – at midnight, there were still 3 teams working through final rehearsals. The last team cleared the building at 3:15 AM. I went back to the dorm, showered (a long hot shower), donned my suit for Friday AM, and returned to open the Owen Graduate School for those coming in at 5:30 AM to do their final preparation for the Sony Music presentations. I know I’ll sleep well Friday night.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 20: June 17, 2009

We began our day with our usual 7:00 AM breakfast. Our first Studio of the day was run by Prof. Cherrie Clark – she wrapped up the Project Management series of Studios, helping our teams think about the packaging of their solutions for our clients.

At 9:30, our Accelerator participants moved to their team rooms to wrap up their work on the Presidio – Cisco project and get all their deliverables ready to turn in. By noon, we were getting a bit stressed, only 4 of the 8 teams had completed all their deliverables. They continued to work through lunch – we’ll get these finished up this afternoon so that we can begin our dress rehearsals for the client this evening at 6:30 PM.

Following lunch, Prof. Neta Moye conducted a Studio on “your first 100 days on the job” – it was just awesome. She shared insights of how our participants can hit the ground running in their first jobs and secure a strong beginning to their careers.

Following a short break, Prof David Furse conducted a Studio called “Connecting the Dots” – our final strategy session of how to meet and exceed client expectations using strategy tools.

At 3:30, teams who had completed their Cisco – Presidio work turned their attention to our Sony Music client. The remaining 4 teams worked to finish the Presidio deliverables.

We began dress rehearsals for Cisco – Presidio at 6:30 PM – these ran till just after 10:00 PM. Teams continued working into the night to polish their recommendations and to prepare for the arrival of Cisco and Presidio tomorrow morning. I turned out the lights at 1:00 AM in the business school. When I arrived at the dorm (a bit bleary eyed), there were still about 10-12 of our participants practicing their presentations.

What a transformation in just a few short weeks – these young men and women are driven to success and expect to delight their customer. I’m impressed. While I know it’s a grueling schedule – our goal is to show them what’s possible – and to stretch them to do more than they ever imagined they were capable of doing. They’re also learning how much fun meaningful work can be!

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 19: June 16, 2009

Tuesday is here!

We are out of bed by 5:45 AM, dressed and loading the buses with our luggage by 7:15 AM. We had breakfast at the Marriott Hotel and then moved into the meeting room to launch the Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) project. We worked with Kristina Guillen and Dave DeCoster of CCE to put this project together.

Our teams were given a great overview of the Coca-Cola Brand, CCE, and CCE’s Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability program. We heard from Lori Lambert, Jim Gulley, Melanie White, Kristina Guillen, Jessilyn Horne, Carmen Roberts, Alex Clark and several others with the CCE organization.

Our challenge will be to survey college students regarding their level of awareness of Coca-Cola Enterprise’s Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability and suggest opportunities to further engage this group. This will be a FUN project. We’ll present to Coca-Cola in about one week.

Following the project launch, our Accelerator teams broke into their groups to work on the details of the project and organize their work. Members of the CCE team circulated throughout the teams to answer questions.

After lunch, we were given the opportunity to tour 2 of the Coca-Cola Plants – we toured the College Park Plant (near the Atlanta airport) and the Marietta Plant (in North Atlanta). It was simply amazing to see these incredible facilities. The College Park facility produces over 40 million cases of product each year – the assembly lines are processing over 2000 cans of Coke product per minute. The Marietta facility produces bottled beverages – this was an equally awesome tour.

About 3:00 PM the buses were rolling again and we were on our way back to Nashville. We arrived in Nashville about 6:00 PM. After unloading, our teams went to work on the Cisco / Presidio projects. We present to this client in 36 hours.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Coke Zero vs. "The Beverly"

So, I did it.

We were in the tasting room at the World of Coke. All the Accelerator students kept telling me how great this “Beverly” beverage is and that I should give it a try. Now, I’m guessing this is a total trap, but I’m a good sport and I’m thinking… “how bad can this be…”

Well, it was HORRIBLE!

The camera crew was standing there, ready to capture my expression. I thought I’d share it with you. My all time favorite beverage is Coke Zero – Accelerator students will tell you I’m never without one in my hand. I immediately found a Coke Zero to “cleanse the palate.” The Beverly is not for me.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

World of Coke

We arrived in Atlanta at 4:00 PM and checked into the Marriott. We loaded our buses again about 5:15 and headed downtown Atlanta to the World of Coke. What an amazing place! From the movies (3-D!) to the iconography, to the tasting room - the entire experience was a total Wow!

After our visit to this shrine to the Coca-Cola brand, we then shared a meal with the Coca-Cola Enterprises team to get acquainted and talk about tomorrow's launch of their project. We ended the day about 10 PM and returned to the hotel.

We'll launch the Coca-Cola project tomorrow AM!

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael BurchamFaculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 18: June 15, 2009 - The Challenge

The Challenge:

To create a Social Media strategy for BCBST and Gordian that protects an individual’s right to privacy while providing the opportunity to link to others either at the work place or from home to share relevant information about wellness and illness.

The strategy should utilize social media tools and applications to engage individuals interested in specific topic areas on an opt-in basis. The strategy’s overarching concept should be on transforming BCBST and Gordian’s interaction method from a Business to Business (B2B) methodology to a Business to Consumer (B2C) methodology. It should include methods for gaining access to resources and expert opinions as well as allowing individuals to track their own progress toward goals. An effective strategy will incorporate methods that will dynamically assess and present the value of the service. Specific deliverables from our teams:

• Suggest what type of Social Media tools or applications might be effective for BCBST and Gordian brands when engaging consumers.
• What elements should be included in a Social Media platform?
• Identify key needs of selected segments of our target audience and how to best engage them in this new platform.
• Propose a structure that addresses disease and wellness, expert content, conversation, informational postings, and other media that might be relevant
• Suggest a plan to roll out or pilot the platform in Tennessee; specify the relevant population(s)
  

After lunch, we were provided a tour of this impressive campus. We finished the final Q&A about 1:30, said our farewells, and headed toward Atlanta. We’ll see the Gordian and BCBST team again next Tuesday when we provide them our recommendations.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 18: June 15, 2009 - BCBST & Gordian Health Solutions Launch

It’s another Manic Monday…

By 7:00 AM (Eastern Time I might add), we were all dressed and loading the buses with luggage. We rolled out the hotel parking lot at 7:45 AM and arrived at the Cameron Hill campus of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee about 8:00 AM. What an impressive place!

One of the largest building projects in the history of Chattanooga, BCBST’s new corporate headquarters consists of five buildings and a total of 950,000 square feet. Over 1,428,165 pounds (714 tons) of structural steel was used to construct the buildings that stand 73’ high. This glass and steel structure is not only breathtaking – its design embraces the health and wellness philosophy of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee.

By 8:30 AM, we had cleared security, downed our first cups of coffee and juice, and were underway with the BCBST and Gordian project. Chris Hunter, Danny Timblin, Rod Wolford, Janet McConnell, Linda Andreae, Jed Dodd, Phil Hadden, Eric Rosenfeld and Tim Wade provided insight into the project while additional members of the team helped with Q&A and provided individual coaching to the Accelerator teams.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 17: June 14, 2009 - On Top of the Mountain

We arrived at the Lookout Mountain Golf Club about 6:00 PM. What an absolutely beautiful setting for an evening with Gordian Health Solutions and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. Chris Hunter, CEO of Gordian, had key members of his team there (Jed Dodd, Phil Hadden, Eric Rosenfeld, Tim Wade) along with key members of the BCBST team (Linda Andreae, Danny Timblin and many others – too numerous to mention). All in all, we had about 20 folks from this client there to get to know our teams and set the stage for this important project. It was a very impressive group.

We enjoyed a fantastic meal following by a briefing on the project with Chris Hunter and his team. Each of the Gordian and BCBST team introduced themselves and shared their passion and vision for this project – it was a fantastic way to launch our engagement. Following dinner, the Accelerator teams had the opportunity to spend some one-on-one time with these folks. We took the above photo just as the sun was setting over the mountains of East Tennessee. It was one of those evenings that you just don’t want to come to an end…

We headed back to the hotel – the Chattanoogan – about 9:00 PM. We officially launch the project in the morning at the new BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee campus.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 17: June 14, 2009 - Road Trip to Chattanooga

Sunday is here – everyone gets a few extra hours of sleep!
We began today at 11:00 AM.

Arriving with luggage in hand, we got everything loaded on our 2 charter buses. Mellow Mushroom arrived with pizzas. Our teams devoured 27 pizzas in about 30 minutes. It was something to watch.

With our tummy full of carbohydrates – we boarded the buses for the 2 hour drive to Chattanooga, TN. We’re on our way to launch our healthcare project with Gordian Health Solutions and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. This is going to be a fantastic opportunity for our teams to get immersed in President O’Bama’s healthcare initiative and to design ways for Gordian and BCBST to extend their business model directly to the consumer using social media.

Within 20 minutes of our departure, most everyone was asleep. This picture captures the essence of the bus ride – Rachel, Lily, Mallory and Anna are all fast asleep (so is everyone else). We arrived in Chattanooga about 4 PM. We checked in the hotel, freshened up, and headed up the to the top of Lookout Mountain to the Golf Club for an dinner with Gordian Health Solutions and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Let off Steam!

Ever have that moment when you're caught by the camera and you think, what the heck - let's just ham it up! Thomas Bernstein, our Accelerator camera man, videographer, and all around technology coach caught this candid of Stacie Pawlicki during team session.

Stacie tells me it was a combination of too much coffee and shear excitement for the Sony project... It was just too good to resist.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 16: June 13, 2009

It’s Saturday. We now have 3 projects and presentations behind us – and Sony as well as Cisco / Presidio are underway. Our Accelerator participants are learning the art of managing “life” in the business environment – the daily multiple priorities, life without a syllabus, and responding to the customer. They’re making amazing progress.

We began today with a hearty breakfast – scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and biscuits – all southern comfort food. At 8:00 AM, Greg Stielstra, author of Pyromarketing, taught a studio on new media marketing techniques. Through Greg, our teams will have access to a tool (Radian 6) to measure web traffic, conversations, and do comparative statistics of social media tools.

Following Greg’s studio, our teams worked on the Cisco project – continuing to refine their work on building out the TelePresence marketing plan. Bob Isherwood helped our teams think about the “big ideas” and how to frame these for the client.

After lunch, Greg did a follow-up studio showing specific applications of Twitter, VidoBlogs, etc. within a Social Media strategy plan. This was followed by Team sessions to work on the Sony project.

At 4:30 PM, our teams returned to Averbuch auditorium for a studio with Professor Cherrie Clark on the process of project management – and, as consultants, creating the “wow” for our clients.

Our participants spent the rest of the day working on their Sony and Cisco-Presidio project. We wrapped up the day about 9 PM.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 15, June 12, 2009 - Isherwood

After lunch, we were joined by Bob Isherwood during a session on World Changing Ideas. Mr. Isherwood was the Worldwide Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi (one of the most successful advertising agencies in the world) for 12 years. During his time with Saatchi & Saatchi, he created the Saatchi and Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas with the intent of attracting and supporting extraordinary inventions and initiatives aiming to make the world a better place. Bob shared his personal philosophy for success with our students as well as examples of advertisements that strongly capture the audience.

Bob shared with our Accelerator participants the ingredients to creating successful brands and ideas: make them original, make them relevant, and make them emotional. He shared is own story - a most inspiring story of struggle, success, and self discovery. It is riveting.

Our participants spent the rest of the day working on their Sony and Cisco-Presidio project and for the first time in a week, we closed Owen’s doors before 9 pm!

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 15, June 12, 2009 - Nshville Chamber Presentations

Promptly upon completing their second networking event, we moved to Averbuch auditorium at 9:00 am to present to the Nashville Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber was so excited about our teams’ ideas that over 20 members joined us for the judging including Janet Miller, Chief Economic Development and Marketing Officer. Once again our teams “wowed” the judges with their branding campaigns for the city. In the end however, Team 7 came away with the win. Later in the program, Team 7 will be attending a networking event at Vanderbilt University’s Chancellor’s residence, with the top 50 executives in Nashville in addition to a $100 cash prize for each participant. On Friday, June 19th, the winning team will be presenting their ideas to the Mayor of Nashville, the Honorable Karl Dean.

Presentation Winners: Team 7 took 1st place for their presentation. Members are George Boghos, Lyle Holmes, Anna Laptook, Andrew Lossing, Adair Meaden, Hewsan Pang, Alli Thompson, and Charles Welch. Teams 1 and 2 took 2nd and 3rd place for their presentations.

Research Winners: In our research phase of the competition, Team 2 took 1st place (Austin Campbell, Christina Chen, Jenny Duty, Jamie Kaplan, Stacie Pawlicki, Meaghan Rymer, Stephanos Stroop, and Jens von der Linden). Teams 5 and 8 took 2nd and 3rd place for their research.

Storyboard Winners: Within the storyboard phase of the competition, Team 7 took 1st place (George Boghos, Lyle Holmes, Anna Laptook, Andrew Lossing, Adair Meaden, Hewsan Pang, Alli Thompson, and Charles Welch). Teams 1 and 2 took 2nd and 3rd place for their storyboards.

Client Ranking Winners: Teams also compete to rank the recommendations in the same order the client firm will rank the teams. Team 5 took 1st place in this category (Lily Chen, Stephanie Coe, Olivia Cotton, David Jogwe, Tanner Rice, Adrian Rossi-Mastracci, Ryan Stutler and Westley Taylor), followed by Team 7 in 2nd place and Team 4 in 3rd place.

Most Valuable Players: The individuals named MVP for this round of work were: Patrick Widen, Stacie Pawlicki, Raul Perez-Gurdian, Ryan Foley, Tanner Rice, Scott Greer, Adair Meaden, Andrew Lossing and Danielle Levy.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 15, June 12, 2009 - Biz Breakfast

While we had a lot of fun last night at CMA Music Festival; we started the morning with our final Business Breakfast, which was even more successful than our first! Over 60 company executives joined us at breakfast including ALOC Group, Corporate Communications, Council Ventures, General Mills, HCA, Johnson-Poss, Nashville Area Red Cross, Nissan, NMG Advisors and Resources Global. After meeting with our stellar students, multiple companies decided to hire one of the participants for the rest of the summer and will be joining us on Career Day next Thursday.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 14, June 11, 2009

We launched our 5th project of the program, Cisco and Presidio, this morning at 8 am. The challenge for the project was led by Todd Brinegar, Chief Marketing Officer for Presidio Networked Solutions and a team of folks from both Cisco and Presidio. Our corporate guests presented our students with the challenge of developing a marketing message and plan that promoted TelePresence technology as an effective business communications tool among Millennials. After the presentation and Q&A session, our students broke out into their new teams and delve into the material until lunch at 12:00 pm.

From there, our participants quickly switched gears and presented their Nashville Chamber of Commerce projects to a panel of core faculty during their team dress rehearsals. The teams quickly synthesized their critics and finalized the presentations by 3 pm before joining our guest lecture, Professor Tim DuBois.

Professor DuBois has almost 20 years of experience in music industry. He has worked as a producer, record executive, manager, and songwriter throughout his career and has worked on five No. 1 hit songs for various country groups. Professor DuBois gave our students an overview of current challenges within the industry and helped clarify issues to help the participants as they craft their Sony project ideas.

Following Professor DuBois session, we surprised our students with Sony surveys, maps, and tickets to the CMA Music Festival! As we explained on the bus to downtown Nashville, we were going to collect some primary research for the Sony project by interviewing CMA Music Festival attendees. After obtaining the survey results, we joined the festivities and watched the concerts in LP field (where the Titans play) as well, complements of Sony. The line-up for the evening included Brooks & Dunn, Reba McEntire, Rascal Flatts and Brad Paisley. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun today and need to call it a night before presenting to the Nashville Chamber of Commerce tomorrow.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 13: June 10, 2009

We have had a lot of late nights at the Owen School of Management recently, and tonight was no different. However, in spite of the extremely busy schedule that is challenging our students, they all were on-time to breakfast at 7:00 am this morning and met their new teams. We launched Sony at 10 am and wanted to give our participants an hour to get to know and adjust to their new team dynamics.

Team 1: Kyle Clay (Coach), Stephanos Stroop, David Jogwe, Erin Steigerwald, Ryan Stutler, John Zic, Mallory Mahan, Alli Thompson, Anna Laptook

Team 2: Dave Thomas (Coach), Patrick Widen, Alex Dowd, Melinda Moyo, Fred Tang, Tyler Hagen, Adair Meaden, Grayson Sharpe, Vince Nord

Team 3: Eric Bilbrey (Coach), Meaghan Rymer, Jens von der Linden, Mark Shessesr, Ryan Foley, Lily Chen, Mary Lindley Carswell, Danielle Levy

Team 4: LaDonna Thornton (Coach), Will Parker Roe, Stacie Pawlicki, Jamie Kaplan, Nick Cromydas, Rachel Sullivan, Scott Greer, George Boghos, Abigail Stavrand

Team 5: Erin Anderson (Coach), Fark Tari, Donny McCunniff, Geoff Miller, Mary Beth Gribble, Ingram Carpenter, Lyle Holmes, Andrew Lossing, Steph Milne

Team 6: Jeff Freude (Coach) Eppa Rixey, Priscilla Arellano, Austin Campbell, Courtney LeBow, Stephanie Coe, Westley Taylor, Hewsan Pang, Joseph Wu

Team 7: Akadius Berry (Coach), Kate Grumbles, Christina Chen. Jennifer Duty, Raul Perez-Gurdian, Alexandra Brown, Adrian Rossi-Mastracci, Kaity Morris, Charlie Boyd

Team 8: Macee Bumpus (Coach), Riley Strong, Cat Wearn, Chris Cooper, Nicole Quinn, Olivia Cotton, Tommy Crespo, Rick Hayer, Charles Welch

Before launching Sony, our participants had their last session with Professor Steve Hoeffler, and then we were off to the Musician’s Hall of Fame to launch what will be an amazing project! During the launch, our young men and women learned about the current state of the music industry as a whole as well as specific constraints faced by country music. After providing our students with a strong foundation, they challenged them to develop a new business model to dress the significant decrease in profits the music industry.

We left the Musician’s Hall of Fame; we split our program into two groups. Teams 1 – 4 attended a studio with Paul Frankenberg. Mr. Frankenberg talked to our students about their resumes and how to conduct themselves in an interview – specifically how to prepare, read the interviewer, and obtain a strong feeling about job / program through the interview. During this time, teams 5 – 8 worked with Communications professor on how to prepare answers to commonly asked questions during interviews and how to portray themselves in the best possible light during interviews. Teams 1 – 4 and teams 5 – 8 will switch and meet with either Mr. Frankenberg or Professor English later in the program; however, the next hour and a half was devoted to beginning the research process for the Sony project.

We quickly broke for a working dinner and then the rest of the evening was dedicated to finishing the Nashville Chamber of Commerce project. Teams finalized their storyboards, bibliographies, handouts and presentations and in an effort to make their projects perfect we did not end up closing down the building until 1 am! Tomorrow is going to be another busy day at Accelerator, with a special surprise for our students surrounding the Sony project. Tune in tomorrow to read all about it!

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at: http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Out of Gas...

At some point in Accelerator, everyone just simply "hits the wall..." The adrenaline and coffee wear off. We captured this "quiet moment" with Brad Cayer. Brad is one of our 10 Coaches that have provided help and guidance for our students throughout the program.

Brad and I were here till after midnight last PM. He's done an amazing job coaching our teams on the great research library here at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt. This particular "cat nap" was only about 10 minutes.

I've captured about 20 shots like this so far. My goal will be to get a "..zzzzz...." picture of each participant by the end of the program. It's sort of a "right of passage" of the program.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 12: June 9, 2009

We opened our doors at 7:00 am this morning for breakfast and promptly jumped into an Operations studio with Professor Nancy Lee Hyer. Professor Hyer’s session focused on teaching our participants how to increase productivity of operational systems and involved a simulation to demonstrate this point.

Throughout the morning, our Accelerator participants had their professional photos done by Gomez Photography. These will be used as our student participants become involved in interviews with our partner companies.

After her session, our students finished any last minute details on the Arrington Vineyards project and presentations started at 1:00 pm and all of the presentations were fantastic. 5 of the 8 teams had a first place vote! Therefore, it was extremely difficult for our Arrington judges to determine which team idea was the best because all of their ideas were so strong and applicable to the company.

After reminding our judges that we could not have a five-way tie for first, Arrington awarded Team 3 first place honors with Teams 1 and 7 coming in 2nd and 3rd respectively. Team 3’s members consisted of Nick Cromydas, Mary Beth Gribble, Geoff Miller, Melinda Moyo, Raul Perez-Gurdian, Rachel Sullivan, and Cat Wearn. 2nd Place in the presentations was awarded to Team 1. Team 7 was awarded 3rd Place.

In addition to judging our teams on the best overall idea and presentation, the core faculty and library coach judge the teams on their storyboards and quality of their research. In the 2nd round of competition, the winning Storyboard was awarded to Team 1. Members include: Priscila Arellano, Alex Dowd, Katie Grumbles, Donny McCunniff, Eppa Rixey, Will Parker Roe, Riley Strong, Fark Tari, and Patrick Widen. Team 3 was awarded 2nd Place for their Storyboard and Team 8 was awarded 3rd Place for their Storyboard.

In the Research Category, the best research was awarded to Team 2. Members include: Austin Campbell, Christina Chen, Jenny Duty, Jamie Kaplan, Stacie Pawlicki, Meaghan Rymer, Stephanos Stroop and Jens von der Linden. 2nd Place was awarded to Team 8. Team 7 was awarded 3rd Place in Research.

Our teams also determined that their MVPs for the Arrington Vineyards project. MVP’s for this 2nd Round of Competition for Arrington Vineyards were: Eppa Rixey, Jamie Kaplan, Rachel Sullivan, Fred Tang, Adrian Rossi-Mastracci, Mallory Mahan, Ali Thompson, Hewsan Pang, and Abi Stavrand.

Teams are also graded on their ability to “predict” which recommendations the client (Arrington Vineyards in this case) would find most appealing (after seeing all the presentations). The teams that won this aspect of the competition were: 1st Place: Team 2 and Team 7 Tied, 2nd Place: Team 5.

After our Arrington Vineyards judges left thrilled with the final product, Professor Kimberly Pace led the faculty again in helping our students improve their presentation skills and Professor Brian Griffith assisted our teams in addressing their team dynamics and learning how to become more effective as a team. After a quick break for dinner, our teams continued their work on the Nashville Chamber of Commerce project. We will present the project on Friday and know that our teams will continue to “wow” our clients with their projects.

Tomorrow we launch a new project with Sony Music!

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 11: June 8, 2009

Happy Monday everyone! Breakfast began at 7:00 am this morning and our opening studio session on Strategy Tools was led by Professor Furse. These tools will help our Accelerator teams with their projects for Sony Music and Cisco – Presidio.

Tomorrow we will be presenting our Arrington Vineyards projects and our teams were furiously working on their handouts, presentations, bibliographies, and story boards throughout the day. After spending the rest of the morning working on Arrington, we broke for lunch at 12:00 pm. While a couple of teams had finished their materials in time to have a relaxing lunch, the majority of the program continued to work formulate their ideas on how to create a multi-functional space plan for the winery to use to accommodate larger corporate and social groups.

For a change of pace after lunch, we broke up the groups up into two sections. Teams 1 – 4 joined Professor Michael Lapre for his now famous “Beer Game.” The “Beer Game” is an operations / process flow simulation that aimed to teach students the importance of communicating between different sectors of the process line effectively. While Teams 1 – 4 worked with Professor Lapre, Teams 5 – 8 spent two hours with me as I explained my business philosophy and how I navigated my life from by birthplace in Booneville, MS to where I am today. At 3 pm, the two sections switched and Teams 5 – 8 joined Professor Lapre, while Teams 1 – 4 joined me.

Dinner was served at 6:00 pm and we started Arrington Vineyards team dress rehearsals promptly at 6:30 pm. Once again, each team had 10 minutes to present our core faculty with their expansion idea for the winery. Afterwards, our core faculty provided the team with feedback on how to improve their presentation before they present their ideas to Arrington Vineyard’s judging panel. All of the presentations looked great tonight and I can’t wait to see how our young men and women perform tomorrow afternoon (especially as some of our students chose to stay until 1 am last night to continue to perfect their project!).

Hopefully we will all get a little more sleep tomorrow!

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

What Have We Consumed Thus Far?

In running a program like this, the conversations always turn to "so how much does a crowd like this consume?" For those of you following the story, I thought I'd share some fun facts with you.

Thus Far, We Have Consumed:

2,660 Meals (about 1,064,000 Calories)
3,600 Bottles of Water
2,304 Cans of Soda
36 Gallons of Juice
18 Gallons of Milk
6,542 Cups of coffee
1,492 Bags of Chips, Candy Bars, Snacks
27lbs of Hot Tamales, Skittles, Gold Fish, M&M’s


Calorie Consumption in the First 10 Days:

Juice & Milk: 86,800 Calories
Soda: 133,920 Calories
Snack Consumption: 658,732 Calories
Meals: 1,064,000 Calories

Total Calories: Approaching 2,000,000 Calories Consumed.

Favorite Snacks:
Fruit Snacks, Hot Tamales, Gold Fish, Skittles and Peanut M&M's.

Favorite Beverage:
Coke Zero, Coffee and Red Bull

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 10: June 7, 2009

For the first time in over a week, our students got to sleep in and relax! We started our day at 12:00 pm with a traditional southern Sunday lunch – Fried Chicken, potatoes, green beans and banana pudding.

At 1:00 PM, Professor Dave Owens taught our young men and women about innovation in the first studio of the day. We have two presentations during the upcoming week – so our teams will be using the content of his studio to prepare for both their work for Arrington Vineyards and the Nashville Chamber of Commerce.

After the teaching studio, the teams spent the next couple of hours in team breakout mode working on their Nashville Chamber of Commerce project. Before taking a break for dinner, the teams had their final session with Professor David Franklin on entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship.

After dinner, our participants finalized their projects for Arrington Vineyards – working on Storyboards, Bibliographies and PowerPoint presentations. We shut down the building just after 9 pm.

We have a huge week ahead of us with two project launches (Sony Music Entertainment and Presidio / Cisco), two project presentations (Arrington Vineyards and the Nashville Chamber of Commerce), and another Business Breakfast Friday.

Personally, I hope the students had a relaxing night off last PM and this AM - because we are about to “Accelerate” into high gear!

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 9: Talent Show

After the immense success of last year’s first talent night, we decided to bring the event back this year and give our participants a chance to relax and get to know each other in a non-business environment. With over 20 student acts, almost every student participated in one of the funniest two hours event in Accelerator history.

Eric Bilbrey, one of our coaches, kicked off the evening with a rewritten patter song that named every participant, coach, and staff member in the program and followed that up with a country classic. During the course of the show, we also had comedic acts from Vince Nord, Fark Tari, and Eppa Rixey. As well as vocal stylings by CoCo Chalfant, one of our staff members, and spoof songs about the program written and performed by Thomas Bernstein, Brad Cayer, AJ Axelrod, Ethan Dunham, and Greg Harvey (aka “The Non-Coaches”).

The night really started to get going when Westley Taylor performed a snapping feat (difficult to explain but memorizing to watch) and came in third play overall! Rachel Sullivan wowed and surprised us all with a belly dancing number. Charlie Boyd and Geoff Miller serenaded one of our coaches, Macee Bumpus, with the classic Righteous Brothers hit “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling”. In another high light of the night, Prisiclla Arellano and Raul Perez-Gurdian came in second with their steamy Salsa routine. Fred Tang made us laugh by making farting noises with his stomach and our Communications Professor, John English, got the crowded clapping and on their feet by singing and playing the harmonica to a Ray Charles classic. The night was Tommy Crespo and Erin Steigerwald’s though. The duet played a medley current and past hits with Tommy on Bassoon and Erin on the keyboard and was the overall winner of the night.

In addition to our individual acts, we had a team competition as well with the prize being an extra hour of sleep during the upcoming week and our students went all out. Team 5 started up the night with girls dancing to “Macho Men”, dressed in basketball shorts, t-shirts, and ties and the guys dancing to “Pretty Woman” wearing phenomenal dresses. I have to give Westley Taylor, Tanner Rice, David Jogwe, and Ryan Stutler particular praise for wearing the dresses, lipstick, and heels so well. Team 3 serenaded our Marketing Professor, Cherrie Clark, and got her dancing with a performance of Enrique Iglesias’s “Hero”. In honor of their newly-wed coach, Jeff Freude, Team 6 chanced the lyrics of “Jesse’s Girl” and sang what will surely be an instant hit, “Jeffrey’s Girl” while Team 1 went the more traditional route by singing another classic song, Bonne Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. Team 7 got creative and re-enacted Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” with flash lights. While all of the team acts were amazing, Team 2 was the big winner of the night with their comedic skit spoofing all of the core faculty and professors.

We knew our participants are extremely bright, dynamic, and driven; however, we were all taken aback by their creativity and wide range of talents. It was an incredibly fun night filled with some priceless moments and a great way for everyone to learn more about each other. A special thanks to all of our participants who were brave enough to take our stage, Eric Bilbrey and Eppa Rixey for loaning us their personal sound equipment, our fantastic judges, and Erin Anderson and CoCo Chalfant for coordinating the evening’s event.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 8: June 5, 2009

Today was a huge day for our students in our very busy program. Our Accelerator participants started at 7:00 am this morning and were joined by executives from 41 companies at the first Business Breakfast Social of the program. Participating companies this year included Bernard Health, Credence Health, Habitat for Humanity, Nashville Business Journal, Now Playing Nashville!, Inception Captial Advisors, US Cyrogenics, Caterpillar Financial, Zumi Sushi, and many more.

After successfully navigating their first networking event, we proceeded to Averbuch auditorium at 9:00 am to present the projects for Video Gaming Technology (VGT). 4 representatives from VGT joined us including their CEO Jon Yarbrough and Doug Edwards, Chief HR Officer. The teams presented their ideas in order they selected based upon the time they completed their “deliverables” for VGT. Each team had 10 minutes to make their presentation and 5 minutes for Q&A with their clients. Following the presentations, the teams left the auditorium and ranked the presentations themselves and voted on their most valuable player (MVP) for the project while the VGT representations studied the teams’ Storyboards and Handouts and ranked the teams from best to worst in their project designs and presentations.

Overall, VGT was thrilled with our exceptional students and their ideas and found it incredibly difficult to choose a winning presentation. Upon finalizing their decision, all of the Accelerator participants came back into Averbusch and VGT presented their decision. Starting with 8th place and moving to 1st, VGT highlighted the parts of each presentation they enjoyed and provided the student with feedback on areas that they could improve.

While all of the presentations were strong, Team OneShot (Team 1) came away with the win in 1st round of competition. Team members include: Priscilla Arellano, Alex Dowd, Kate Grumbles, Donny McCunniff, Eppa Rixey, Will Parker Roe, Riley Strong, Fark Tari, and Patrick Widen. VGT gave each of Team OneShot’s members a glass slot machine styled trophy and $50 gift card. Team 7 and Team 3 came in second and third place respectively.

The “Best Research” recognition went to Team 4. Team members include: Alexandra Brown, Christopher Cooper, Ryan Foley, Courtney LeBow, Nicole Quinn, Mark Shesser, Erin Steigerwald and Fred Tang. Team 2 and Team 5 came in second and third place respectively.

The “Best Storyboard” recognition went to Team 2. Team members include: Austin Campbell, Christina Chen, Jennifer Duty, James Kaplan, Stacie Pawlicki, Meaghan Rymer, Stephanos Stroop, and Jens von der Linden. Team 3 and Team 7 came in second and third place respectively.

Each team also selected MVPs (Most Valuable Players). MVPs for this first round of competition: Priscilla Arellano, Austin Campbell, Nick Cromydas, Catherine Wearn, Erin Steigerwald, Ryan Stutler, Tyler Hagen, John Zic, Lyle Holmes and Vince Nord.

Following the award ceremony, Kimberly Pace led the faculty in evaluating the presentation skills of each team before breaking for lunch (yes, they did all of this before 12:30).

After lunch, the students attended Steve Hoeffler’s marketing lecture. Mr. Hoeffler introduced the students to a couple of the extremely successful marketing campaigns (Burger King, Dove, and BMW specifically) and how to use the internet as an effective marketing tool. Students then had their first team feedback session where they focused on identifying the successes and failures of their first project and how they could improve for their next 6 projects. Our participants spent the rest of the day working on the Arrington Vineyards project we will present next week and we closed up the day around 9 pm.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 7: June 4, 2009

We kicked off the day at 7:00 AM with breakfast in the Owen lobby with the coach’s introduction to the Business Breakfast. This was followed by Day 3 (the Final Day) of Froebonomics - Prof. Luke Froeb and his famous “Rational Actor” paradigm. Next, Prof Steve Hoeffler continued his work with our teams on marketing and branding strategies.

Following these AM Studios, we took a short break and then moved to our team rooms to work on the Chamber of Commerce project. Our Accelerator teams are working on a campaign to brand Nashville as an entrepreneurial city. This team session continued through lunch.

At 1:00 PM, David Furse led a studio on Strategic Tools in problem solving (Porter’s 5 Forces, etc). This was followed by a studio with Kimberly Pace on Personal Brand. Our teams did their final work on elevator pitches in preparation for the Business Breakfast tomorrow AM.
After a short break at 3:45, our teams moved back into the team rooms to continue their work on the Arrington Vineyard project.

Following dinner, we began dress rehearsals for the Video Gaming Project. The teams were so impressive in this first round of presentations – and I know that with a bit more work, they will be really amazing by the morning...

Our laundry / dry cleaning came back today. The photo above gives you a bit of insight to the volume of dry cleaning and laundry for the first few days.

We ended the work day very late (about 11 PM) – a bit bleary eyed, but filled with excitement for Business Breakfast and the first presentations of Accelerator to Video Gaming Technology. I can hardly wait!

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 7: More News Stories on Accelerator 2009

We received some wonderful press regarding our project with the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and a working plan to brand the city of Nashville as an Entrepreneurial Center. We were also on the evening news with the local NBC Affiliate - Channel 4. Our teams are really looking forward to working with the city of Nashville on this project. The link the newspaper article is below:

Nashville enlists students in Vanderbilt program to brand cityThe Tennessean - Nashville,TN,USABy Naomi Snyder • THE TENNESSEAN • June 2, 2009 The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce is working on a new marketing or "brand campaign" to get people to ...See all stories on this topic

Day 6: Local Press in Nashville's Tennessean

We received some nice press coverage on our visit to Arrington Vineyards. Here’s the Arrington Vineyards story link in today’s paper:

The Tennessean: Brooks turns to grad students to plan for winery expansion
Country music singer and entrepreneur Kix Brooks of Brooks and Dunn is turning to students from the Vanderbilt Accelerator Summer Business Institute to create a physical space plan and operating plan for Arrington Vineyards.

Day 6: June 3, 2009

We kicked off the day at 7:00 AM with breakfast in the Owen lobby. This was followed by Day 2 of Froebonomics - Prof. Luke Froeb and his famous “Rational Actor” paradigm. Next, Prof Steve Hoeffler continued his work with our teams on marketing. Today he focused on branding and ads that work vs. those that do not – we saw several examples of the types of marketing that really connect with the audience.

Following these AM Studios, we took a short break and then returned to Averbuch Auditorium for a preview session to our real estate and space development project. Our guest was Mr. Thom Meek, a noted local architect (famous for his work on the Delta at Opryland, the Wildhorse Saloon, and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center). He lead our teams through a discussion of what to look for in the site plan and how to think about the planning and development of a specific site from an architect’s point of view.

Following a quick boxed lunch, we boarded the charter buses at 12:30 PM for the drive to Arrington Vineyards. Arrington is about a 40 minute drive, located off the 840 loop on the south side of Nashville. We arrived at Arrington Vineyards and was greeted by Kixx Brooks & John Russell (Owners), Christel Foley (Business Manager) and Ryan Cochran (General Manager).
We had a 2 hour briefing with the owners (Kixx Brooks of Brooks & Dunn led the discussion) – outlining their vision for the expansion of the Winery & Vineyard. Following the overview, the Accelerator teams had a tour of the wine production process led by the Ms. Christel Foley, Business Manager for the Winery. Mr. Brooks stayed around all afternoon to answer questions. We also had the opportunity to walk the property to gain a full perspective of the space.

At 4:30, we head back toward Owen for dinner and to complete break-out sessions to launch this project. After dinner, our teams spent the evening clarifying the data from the launch and gathering the additional research required for this great project.

We ended the work day at 10:00 PM – the energy in the building was just off the charts. Tomorrow will be another amazing day!

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 5: June 2, 2009

We kicked off the day at 7:00 AM with a “Strength Finder” Breakfast in the Owen lobby. Students focused on their Top 5 strengths from the profile assessment.

Shifting our focus a bit, we began the day immersed in Economics with Prof. Luke Froeb – and his famous “Rational Actor” paradigm. The Kerr Magee and Christie Auction cases are always a hit with the Accelerator teams. Next, Prof Clark continued our work with the teams on project management skills.

Following these AM Studios, we moved to the team rooms to continue our work on the Nashville Chamber of Commerce projects. Teams, using the FOCUS Model, are now in the “C” stage where we clarify the data and develop the teams Top 3 recommendations for the client.
After lunch, Prof. Owens continued his sessions on creating innovation. Prof. English then continued his teaching sessions on preparing for public speaking. Prof Pace ended the day with a session on Personal Brand – we had a blast hearing the students’ “elevator pitches” – a 30-45 second way they introduce themselves to others. They will all have the opportunity to use them on Friday morning – we are expecting about 40 Nashville businesses to join us for a 7:00 AM networking session.

After dinner, or teams spent the evening finishing their Presentations, Storyboards and Research Bibliographies for Video Gaming Technologies. It was a VERY LATE night. Team 4 (Brown, Cooper, Foley, LeBow, Quinn, Shesser, Stigerwald, and Tang) shut down the building, finishing their final work just prior to midnight.

Tomorrow, we launch a project with one of County Music’s most well know stars – Kix Brooks. It will be another amazing day!

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 4: June 1, 2009

We kicked off the day at 7:00 AM with a Continental Breakfast in the Owen lobby. Prof. English lead a studio at 8:00 AM on presentation skills – the central theme of which involved the methods used by Aristotle in speaking: to persuade your audience that your ideas are valid, or more valid than someone else's. The Greek philosopher divided the means of persuasion into three categories--Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.

Next, Prof Clark led a studio on Project Management – sharing with the participants a Bain & Co. method of crafting the “story” for the client.

After an early lunch, we boarded everyone on 2 charter buses and headed for the offices of Waller Lansden in downtown Nashville to launch our project with the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce. The view from the 27th floor is amazing.
Janet Miller, the Chamber’s Chief Economic Development & Marketing Office and I launched the project. Panelist included: Ralph Schutz, Mike Shmerling, Mark Montgomery, Butch Spyridon, and Tod Fetherling. Joining us from the chamber was Blewett Melton, Cartyle Carroll, Courtney Ross, and Judith Hill.

After an overview of Nashville, the Chamber team issued the following challenge to the Accelerator teams: Determine how to brand Nashville as an entrepreneurial city and as an entrepreneurial leader in America. This campaign must leverage the “Music City” brand (the world-wide known brand of the city) which is used in external marketing campaigns for tourism, conventions, and economic development. The teams met in individual rooms at Waller Lansden offices to frame the opportunity and assign team roles, frame the issue, and begin the process of creating a viable solution for the city. Our teams will present their ideas in 1 week.

At 4:00 PM, we boarded our charter buses and headed back to Owen for a session with Prof. Owens on creating innovation – the subtitle: “Create People Must be Stopped…” After dinner, or teams spent the evening working on solutions for the Nashville Chamber.

We ended the day about 10 PM.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009

Day 3: May 31, 2009

We kicked off the day at 7:00 AM with a Peer Breakfast an opportunity to meet with other team members who are in similar roles on other teams – Team Leaders met at one table, Research Leads at another, etc.

Prof Griffith continued our studio session on team dynamics. Dr. Furse led a studio on new product development. We studied the attributes and conditions that drive wealth creation within companies: the need for products and services to be Valuable, Rare, Difficult to Imitate, and the firm must be organized to exploit these attributes.

Professor Pace continued our Personal Branding sessions. Using the “StrengthsFinder” assessment, Accelerator participants developed their strengths profiles and shared insight with these traits with one another. After a short break, Hilary Craiglow, Rahn Huber, and Brad Cayer led the teams in a studio on research methods. Each team must produce a full bibliography of research-based support for their proposed recommendations to our partner corporations.

This group of young men and women are fully armed with i-Pods, i-Phones (some Blackberrys) and laptops – they are connected – virtually and constantly. They walk around with volumes of information (and tunes) in their heads and even more information at their fingertips. I saw this phenomenon first-hand today while they researched data for the VGT project. With lightening speed, fingers were gliding across keyboards, data was flashing on the laptop screen, and global data searches were initiated.

This afternoon, the Accelerator teams worked to finish their presentations for VGT to design a new casino game. In 3 days, these 8 teams of young men and women will present their design to the VGT executive team. We’ve begun the journey of transformation.

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009