Archive for April, 2008
In honor of Earth Week and our pledge to plant a tree for every card sent this past holiday season, SonicRim employees partnered with Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District to plant approximately 5000 trees in an effort to improve water quality, provide critical wildlife habitat, and help maintain the rural characteristics of the area.
For more than 60 years, Franklin Soil and Water has been working with farmers, landowners, townships, municipalities and citizen groups to improve and protect our county’s valuable natural resources. This year, they are proud to partner with Plain Township, New Albany – Plain Local School District and local business, including SonicRim, in what they hope becomes the first of an annual event which brings community members together to plant trees and raise awareness of the importance of healthy stream ecosystems.
Check back for photos from the tree planting to see us planting your tree!
SonicRim CEO Uday Dandavate will teach a week-long module on translating insights into concepts during Module 5 of the 180 Academy for the first class of the Innovation University in Denmark. 180 Academy is a praxis-oriented academy in people-centered concept making. The program educates organizations (not individuals alone) on the ability to develop, design, and execute radical business concepts.
Catey Corl, Director of Research at SonicRim, conducted a workshop on “Co-creating a branding strategy.” This workshop was for a class taught by Peter Chan, a Professor in the Department of Visual, Industrial, and Interior Design at The Ohio State University. The students belonged to a variety of academic disciplines, including Design, Marketing, communication, and Psychology. The workshop focused on using co-creation tools to develop a collective vision of a branded experience at a grocery store. The students worked as a team to develop a strategy for creating a branded experience for Taco Bell (if Taco Bell was provided an opportunity to open a restaurant inside Whole Foods Store).
The Newspaper Association of America recently invited SonicRim CEO, Uday Dandavate, to organize a panel discussion on Consumer-Driven Product Development at its 2008 Marketing Conference at the Orlando World Center Marriott, February 24-27, 2008.
Over 2000 representatives of the newspaper industry attended this panel discussion. The audience had a great interest in the future of digital medium and the media consumption habits of the younger generation. The newspaper industry wants to use generative methods to explore the future of media products and to identify appropriate marketing/advertising strategies that align with emerging behaviors and aspirations of the audience.
The panel of speakers was comprised of Mike Seery of The Economist Group, Anna Kirah of Future Alliances, and Uday Dandavate, Founder and CEO of SonicRim.
During his presentation, Uday presented an overview of new tools, new rules, and emerging opportunities for the newspaper industry in a convivial society. Dandavate emphasized that people need new tools to work for them rather than tools that force them to adapt. The three new tools he highlighted as part of the emerging convivial society included Wikipedia, YouTube, and the Web. He explained that the rules for delivering content have changed; people want to configure content the way they want it when they want it. He proposed that newspaper companies could develop innovative products and marketing strategies by harnessing people’s curiosity, imagination, and creativity.
On the second day of the recent 7th CII-NID Design Summit, CNBC anchor, Suresh Venkat, interviewed a panel comprised of: Bruce Nussbaum, Assistant Executive Editor, Business Week; Vikram Kirloskar, Vice Chairman, Toyota Kirloskar Motors Pvt. Ltd.; N. N. Prasad, Joint Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Planning, Government of India; Arun Jaura, Senior Vice President, R&D, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.; and Uday Dandavate, Founder and CEO, SonicRim. The topic was “The Road Ahead: Transformation through Design.” The session was telecast by CNBC on January 2th and 13th (repeat telecast).
The design community’s growing interest in India is reflected in the formation of an international initiative called Design with India (www.designwithindia.com). A number of organizations and individuals interested in developing opportunities for partnering with India have come together under the banner of Design with India to facilitate discussions that will ultimately help clarify these partnership opportunities with India. Uday Dandavate, Founder and CEO of Columbus, Ohio-based design research company, SonicRim; Surya Vanka, Senior Manager, User Experience, Microsoft Corporation; Sudhir Sharma, Founder, Elephant Design; Hari Nair, Director, Global Consumer Design Asia, Whirlpool Corporation; Prof. Prasad Boradkar, Arizona State University; Jacob Mathew of Idiom Design; Poonam Bir Kasturi of Shristi School of Art, Design and Technology; Seema Gupta of the Confederation of Indian Industry; and Shilajeet (Banny) Banerjee of Stanford Joint Program in Design, have formed the core team that will drive organizations of similar design summits around the world under the banner of “Design with India.”
SonicRim Founder and CEO, Uday Dandavate, was this year’s commencement speaker at the Shristi School of Art, Design, and Technology in Bangalore. In his presentation, Uday emphasized the need for designers to cultivate empathic mindsets, which are required for co-creation, rather than seeking credit for their creative contribution. He believes that designers seeking recognition as heroes will only have a limited influence on the world. On the other hand, designers who can inspire the creativity of an organization are likely to be rewarded with long-term relationships with their clients, and will have a lasting impact on their client organizations.
In continuation of the collective efforts of the Design with India initiative, SonicRim CEO, Uday Dandavate, participated in a collaborative effort in organizing the 7th CII-NID Design Summit in Bangalore, India. India is fast emerging as a laboratory for creative communities from around the world who are eager to take on new challenges and meaningful engagements that enable them to make a difference. The Design Summit in India was a great meeting place for companies and individuals who want to participate in India’s plans for transforming itself through design, both through home-grown infrastructure building and partnerships with leading international design and innovation organizations. The organizations represented at the Summit included IDEO; Fitch; Continuum; Design Central; Unilever; Autodesk; Toyota Kirloskar Motors; Whirlpool Corporation; Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts, and Design, Sweden; ReD Associates, Denmark; 180 Academy, Denmark; Domus Academy, Milan; Honeywell; RKS Design; NextDesign Leadership Institute, New York; Stanford Joint Program in Design; Intel; Microsoft; SonicRim, Motorola; Confederation of Indian Industry (CII); National Institute of Design (NID); Shristi School of Art, Design, and Technology; Elephant Design; Idiom Design.
SonicRim President, Kevin Schmidt, conducted a workshop at the 7th CII-NID Design Summit on Establishing Experience Platforms for Global Design. A number of professional designers from India, who are currently engaged in helping Indian clients explore opportunities for expanding their markets globally, participated in this workshop. Kevin emphasized the need to get inside the imagination of the people in the emerging markets, and to better serve them with new products, brands, and retail experiences.
Understanding people, cultures, and trends.