Ad2 Charlotte

Thomas Krotkiewski walks us through some of the useful and cutting edge features of the new McKinney site. We start with a brief introduction of how to use the dialogue box, followed by a demo of how the site can print page content. Then Thomas shows us how the site can be viewed on multiple browsers (including mobile), and how the site’s content, even though it’s flash based,  can be indexed by Google. From here Thomas takes us on a tour of some of the really cool features of the site; like the cloud view, the conversation engine and the semantic aspects of the site.  

The first episode of the AD2 Charlotte Podcast is now up. (You can download it from the site  straight into I-tunes and take it with you). In this episode, I’m speaking  with Thomas Krotkiewski, of Othersource, the company that developed the new McKinney website. This site is being heralded as one of the first Web 3.0 sites because you can actually interact with it, ask it questions, etc. The site was unveiled in February and was ranked among Creativity’s Top Ten for that week. This podcast is pure audio, the interview was conducted via Skype due to the fact that Thomas was in Boston when we spoke. You gotta love the freedom and flexibility of new media. It’s a beautiful thing.  There will be a short video showcasing some of the new features of the  McKinney site coming out later this week. And look for future Ad2 Podcasts to be much more video based.

A lil' Screen Shot of the McKinney Site

Wednesday 2/18/09 was a cold, rainy and all around nasty day.  But still there were hundreds of people camped out, in the freezing rain for the Grand Opening of Ikea.  Below is a quick video of Ikea’s big day here in Charlotte.

I got there at 5:30 am, and there were already lines of people waiting to be the first to shop. People were huddled under tarps, camping out in tents, and just waiting in line. The network news stations were there with their crews and remote vans.  I’m probably not the target market for Ikea, but is their furniture really that great?  I’d never been to an Ikea before, so I went inside, and even grabbed a bite to eat (Swedish Meatballs and lingon berry sauce).  I was impressed by the layout of Ikea, as well as its overall aesthetic and the energy of the day, but I’m still not sure why it was such a big deal.  Did anyone else go to the Ikea Grand Opening?  They gave away a free chair to the first 100 shoppers, did Ikea run any other Grand Opening promotions to drive traffic through their store on the first day?  How much of this is just hype about having something new, and how much do you think is actual excitement about Ikea products?  What can we learn from Ikea, their Grand Opening (Bands, DJ’s, News Crews, opening ceremony), the promotions they ran to bring people out en masse, and the whole “shopping as an experience “vibe they have going on?   (Similar to the Apple Store in that respect.)  Feel free to answer these questions, leave comments and add some questions of your own.

Check out Jason Hausman’s presentation from the “I’m Kind of a Big Deal” speaker series. Jason is a kick ass audio engineer and owner of Hot Sake.