The second keynote of the morning featured Andy Nulman, President and Chief Marketing Officer, Airborne Mobile. To say Andy is enthusiastic would be an understatement. Unlike many speakers, Andy asked everybody to turn their cellphones on and up. His company is in the mobile content delivery business, a ringing cellphone is [...]

Day two of the Strategy & Innovation Forum kicked off with a general session by FAO Schwarz CEO Ed Schmults. Ed talked about the challenge of expanding their reach, while protecting their brand.

FAO has been around since 1862. There were two recent bankruptcies in 2002 and 2003. However their direct-to-consumer business is [...]

There are not many retailers that have not heard of the long tail (if not go check out Chris Andersen’s book). The final breakout session of the day featured Jack Jia, CEO, Baynote and Brian Elliott, President and CEO, Alibris discussing how the long tail applies to online sales.

Jack Jia from Baynote was first [...]

The second panel session of the day discussed the integration of user-generated content (think customer reviews, etc) into internet initiatives. The panel featured: Brian Platter - General Manager, Home Delivery, Peets Coffee and Tea, Carol Snyder - VP Internet Merchandising, Community, & Multichannel QVC.com. Terry Nelson - Director of Marketing, Fair Indigo and Darren [...]

The afternoon at the Strategy & Information Forum featured two concurrent tracks. I attended the panel focussed on monetizing Web 2.0. On the panel were: Brett Hurt - Founder and CEO Bazaarvoice, Paul Martino - CEO Aggregate Knowledge, Joe Chung - CEO Allurent, Jim Calhoun - CEO Popular Media and Steve Papa [...]