Day 15. June 9, 2007.The day began with a 7:00 AM breakfast and a flurry of last minute "details" for the 2nd round of presentations: GomezPhotography. The Accelerator teams have done an amazing job with this project - and really stepped up their game.
At 8:00 AM, the Gomez panel and the Accelerator teams assembled in Averbuch auditorium and the final presentations began. After the last presentation, the Gomez team gathered around the storyboards of the teams for a discussion of the various branding ideas generated for Gomez, the logo concepts that were developed, letterhead, web-design concepts and slogans.
At 9:30, the Gomez team announced their final decision. By a close call of voting, Team 5 won with Team 3 in a close second. Presenters from Team 5 were Leigh & Brad). Presenters from Team 3 were Ray McGill and Andrew Grumney.
Winning (Team 5) Members are:
Team Leader: Burleson Smith
Operations: Brad Kemph
Marketing Lead: Leigh Taylor
Financial Analyst: Greyson Daugherty & Adrian Reif
Market Research: William Hennessy & Chapleigh Denman
Industry Research: Cindy Zhang & Carlos Aro
Close 2nd (and "winner" of the peer vote of best presentation - Team 3) Members:
Team Leader: Mike Puchon
Operations Leads:Mallory Schafer & Cory Carpenter
Marketing Leads: Andrew Grumney & Michael Gottfried
Finance Lead: Emily Agostino
Industry Analyst: Mark Watson
Market Research: Chris Kierstead
Special Projects: Ray McGill
In an intervew after the presentations Gomez commented that there were elements of all 5 teams they plan to use in the marketing. Best logo went to Team 1 (Patrick) for "go.mezmerize". Best campaign for buiding recognition was Team 2 (Matt) for their design to work with the Special Olympics. Team 4 (Meg) created a great video that will be used for brand building events and parties. Given the feedback, all of the teams really won.
At 10:30, Dr. Owens led a session on Team Dynamics and teams gave peer feedback on contribution of each team member on the Gomez project.
After lunch, We moved on to project work on American Airlines till 3:00 PM. The teams are finishing their Web and New Media concepts and formalizing their research. At 3:00 PM, Kimberly Pace led the final "Personal Branding."
The Accelerator teams finished their day with a second round of project work on American Airlines. We ended day 15 at 7:30 PM.
At 7:30 PM, I had the pleasure of hosting the winning team from the "Urban Adventure" race to dinner at Fleming's Steakhouse (www.flemingssteakhouse.com). This team included: Ahsaki Black, Meg Clayton, Jeff Fettig, William Hennessy, Ashley Ledlow, Mark Bowling, Adrian Reif, Leigh Taylor and Travis Bernard. All other Accelerator teams had the evening off for a bit of rest.
Tomorrow is Sunday - we begin at noon. Lunch will be a Southern classic: Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Mac & Cheese, Green Beans and Biscuits. I expect an early crowd of Accelerators...
