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