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