July 28, 2011—AUSTIN, Tx—Sparksight is currently working with the Texas Department of Transportation to create videos to be played at rest areas around Texas. The videos will contain imagery indicative of Texas and Texas history. The Sparksight team has compiled videos shot at on-sight locations, as well as images, offering a look into Texas’ wide variety of land, culture, and wildlife.
The rest stop videos will run for approximately three to five years and will offer entertainment while taking a break on the road. Viewers who are visiting Texas for the first time, or simply passing through on their regular route, will be able to experience the state through videos containing both unique and distinct aspects of Texas.
Be on the lookout for Sparksight’s TxDOT videos at a rest area near you!
AUSTIN, Texas—July 11, 2011— In June, Spredfast rolled out their Social Media Pocket Guide to provide helpful and accessible tips for businesses on when, how, and why to use social media in order to benefit their company. This 40-page guide offers useful information and tactical implementation strategies for building up and managing a social network. Sparksight was tapped to help lead the graphic design efforts, and created all the illustrations used in the guide.
The Social Media Pocket Guide showcases Spredfast’s knowledge and thought leadership in the social media space, and they are offering the guide as a free download to anyone interested in learning how to run an effective social media campaign. With more than 2,000 downloads within a month of publication, this guide has proven to be a valuable resource to businesses across a variety of markets.
Spredfast is an Austin based software company that helps companies manage their social media initiatives better. They provide a Social CRM system (sCRM) companies use to monitor, manage and measure activity and engagement across multiple channels.
More information about Spredfast, their software, and their goals can be found on their website.
AUSTIN, TX—June 20, 2011—Recently, Sparksight produced and offered live event support to Waters International for an Augmented Reality Video, which augments a real-world environment with a virtual representation of their product.
The new Augmented Reality technology “displays multidimensional computer-generated graphics in real time, enhancing what you can perceive on screen.” Its purpose is to show the difference between what a regular and 3D mass spectrometer can show, the latter providing more information about the chemical composition of the object being displayed on screen. The demonstrational video is posted on the Waters website, along with step-by-step instructions to follow, allowing anyone to try the technology for themselves.
In addition, Sparksight assisted Waters with their hospitality suite at the American Society for Mass Spectrometry in Denver, CO on June 6, which included the production of a branding video, a live Augmented Reality trial station, and a Leading Reach kiosk.
AUSTIN, TX—20 June, 2011—On May 23, Sparksight helped create a corporate overview video describing the unique proposition of the National Surgery Network. The video, featured on the main page of their website, highlights key ideas and features offered by the company.
Similar to corporations such as Kayak or Priceline that work to find lowest cost and discounts for various needs, the Nationals Surgery Network strives to provide the best deals for the top medical facilities around the country. Network members can then be treated at these facilities for an often significantly lower cost than what they would regularly pay for surgical procedures.
As stated in the video, the NSN health plan finds the greatest value and maximum savings for medical procedures, including access to the best facilities around the country and doctors who have consistent medical results. By saving more on common, yet expensive, procedures and treatments, a company’s overall health care plan costs can then be reduced.
LAS VEGAS, Nevada—Tuesday, 31 May 2011—Forrester’s IT Forum 2011 was held in Las Vegas last week on May 25-27 and designed to help IT leaders build new relationships with business partners and improve both their business and technology strategies.
Sparksight client Hoover’s exhibited at the IT Forum and offered attendees a digital document delivery experience using Sparksight’s Leading Reach touch screens. Matt Slabaugh of the Sparksight team attended the conference to install Hoover’s kiosks and offer technical support throughout the event.
Forrester Research, Inc., the host of the forum, works to provide a wide variety of new ideas and advice to professionals about the constantly changing world of business and technology.
AUSTIN, Texas—26 May, 2011—Austin’s Habitat for Humanity has recently asked Sparksight to help them rebrand their Home Repair initiative, which works to help repair and maintain the homes of low-income homeowners. The goal is for the Home Repair logo to become just as recognizable to the public as the Habitat for Humanity logo, in order to build the program’s identity.
The newly designed logo for Habitat’s Home Repair will appear on staff and volunteer t-shirts, on the organization’s van, and on yard signs outside homes receiving repair, so be on the look out for it around Austin within the next few months! Sparksight will also design a brochure with information about the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative, which includes the Home Repair and the Housing Counseling programs—the brochure will be offered in both English and Spanish.
The Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative is a national effort to encourage Habitat affiliates to help improve housing conditions and the quality of life of low-income neighborhoods by teaming up with other organizations within the community and expanding their services beyond building new houses. The goal is to help repair and maintain homes to help them reach their maximum potential. Under this effort, the Home Repair program provides volunteers and funds for completing repairs on the homes of families in need of assistance. To ensure the families are able to maintain the repairs, their homes, and families, the educational Housing Counseling Program offers one-on-one support and advice to devise options and plans to fit their specific needs.
Sparksight is excited about the opportunity to contribute their design expertise to help Habitat achieve their goals.
SAN FRANCISCO, California – 23 May 2011 – At this year’s DemandCon conference on May 18-20, Sparksight’s CEO Christopher Justice gave a keynote presentation which focused on demand generation and ‘the seven technologies’ that will impact marketers over the next seven years and how to adopt and utilize them to the advantage of an organization. Sparksight’s Leading Reach technology was also present at the conference, including three touch-screen kiosks for DemandCon attendee surveys and electronic delivery of the speaker presentations, and a document delivery kiosk for Sparksight client, Hoover’s.
In his presentation, Christopher explained that “there are no secrets…everything is public knowledge”—technology makes finding information on someone increasingly faster and easier. As the next seven years approach, businesses must figure out how to efficiently use and benefit from new, yet already existing technology; he explains this through ‘the seven technologies’ including Lead Capture (as opposed to email), cardless transactions, appliance applications, single log-ins, Cloud/Hive storage, hybrid digital identities, and touch screen advantages. He says that these seven technologies “are already here, and can change the way that we do demand generation.”
A few specific points that Christopher includes, for example, are that email addresses are disposable and invaluable, as there are more efficient and unique ways to capture an individual’s information, and that credit/debit cards are becoming obsolete with the development of apps that, in addition to performing transactions, can find out data about the individual’s experience with the particular company—he says for marketers to “change the process, not the brand.” He explains that with “more rich data than ever before” offered by our digital identities, “we, as marketers, can create more and more applications that collect data that increase our demand funnels and our marketing funnels.” You can watch all of Christopher Justice’s keynote presentation at this year’s DemandCon Conference on YouTube.
BALTIMORE, Maryland — May 24, 2011— The sixth annual Convio Summit customer conference will be held in Baltimore, Maryland on October 3-5, 2011, to increase client’s knowledge of new products, partners, and ideas for networking.
With the size of the Convio Summit increasing yearly, Sparksight’s involvement within the conference has significantly grown since the first year it was held. In 2010, in addition to all of the environmental branding, including signage and graphic design, Sparksight was in charge of the A/V staging, vendor coordination, renderings, video production, and generally, bringing everything technologically up-to-date. Sparksight also provided Leading Reach kiosks used to display session materials. This year, Sparksight will have similar involvement in the Summit, though the event itself is predicted to be even larger than it was in 2010.
Convio creates software for their customers, all of which are nonprofit organizations, in order to increase their efficiency and maximize their potential. They host the Convio Summit once a year, offering a variety of marketing ideas and techniques, such as networking and social media, that nonprofits can use to increase awareness about their organization. For more information about this year’s Convio Summit, visit http://www.convio.com/summit-2011/.
AUSTIN, Texas -- May 19, 2011 -- Over the past few months, Sparksight has added three full-time members and two part-time interns to their team. This is what they have to say about their roles and contributions to the team and what makes working at Sparksight unique to them:
Matt Slabaugh has been around the longest of the new members, joining the team about eight months ago. Though he jokes about simply ‘trying to look busy’ on the job, his vital position at Sparksight includes everything from graphic and web design to kiosk building and development—not to mention he brings tacos every Tuesday. During his time at Sparksight, Matt has enjoyed working with a small, yet great team of people. He says that everyone gets along extremely well and they have become quite a close-knit group, which is especially advantageous to the efficiency in the workplace. To find out more about Matt, visit his Sparksight Bio.
Though Drew Wolber started out working freelance at Sparksight in January, he was added to the full-time team in March and has since been in charge of running the video accounts. In addition to producing various video projects, he serves as the art director and cinematographer on set and oversees the creative vision on projects. While his favorite aspect of Sparksight is playing in the said 'company ball-pit,' he greatly values the diverse group of people and culture of the team.
A native Austinite, Erin Miles has been with Sparksight for about a month and serves as an account executive. Her role is to prospect and build relationships with customers potential clients for Leading Reach, Sparksight’s interactive lead generation system. Like Drew, Erin’s favorite aspect of Sparksight is the culture and people; more specifically, she appreciates the fact that every employee has a different personality and interests, yet everyone gets along so well. Though she has a knack for sales, she loves working in and contributing to a creative environment.
Benson Thottiyil is currently working at Sparksight as a web development intern, with duties such as creating websites and web-based applications. During his experience at Sparksight, he hopes to learn more programming languages and how to work with different people in a team, which he says is always a new experience. So far, he believes that the people at Sparksight are very approachable and willing to help. Benson is a senior at the University of Texas and is majoring in Management Information Systems.
Also originally from Austin, Sarah Knowles is now a marketing intern at Sparksight--her tasks include, but are not limited to, writing news updates for the website, updating the company’s social media plan, and graphic design. She believes that the smaller group of people working at Sparksight allows for a unique, hands-on experience, in which she will be able to gain the knowledge of marketing she is looking for. In a creative and inspiring environment, she is eager to learn from the diverse group of people that work here. Sarah is currently a senior English major and Art minor at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN.
AUSTIN, Texas -- May 9, 2011 -- Sparksight helped produce the Governance Retreat for St. David’s HeathCare, held at Barton Creek Resort & Spa. The event offered the opportunity for doctors and healthcare professionals to come together and discuss the changes in healthcare today, including the various challenges that the medical industry will be facing in the future, as well as arising opportunities. Speakers from across the country, including Greg Ip, the U.S. Economics editor of The Economist, Leah Binder, the CEO of the Leapfrog Group, and Elliott Fisher, Director of Population health and Policy of The Dartmouth Institute, discussed the most effective actions to take to remain cutting-edge in the competitive realm of the medical field.
Sparksight’s production of the invent included audio/visual support as well as video recording and editing of each of the speeches. Sparksight also created a password protected website to host the videos for attendees to revisit and watch each presentation on demand. A survey is also included on the website to allow participants to provide St. David’s with feedback on the event.
AUSTIN, Texas -- May 17, 2011 -- Sparksight has been working with St. David’s HealthCare to create online videos that provide an interactive way to stay updated on recent events, medical trends, and various services they offer. The videos include interviews with patients and doctors, as well as first-hand accounts of surgeries.
Generally, the patients are filmed post-recovery to discuss the surgery process, the outcome of the surgery, and recovery time, while the doctors talk about their specialization, their account of the surgery, and the specific equipment they use. Dressed in scrubs, the Sparksight team not only captures the great relationships between the doctors and patients at St. David’s, they also work to document the ever-changing and expanding technologies and developments in the medical field.
Around fifteen videos have already been made and with another already in the works, Sparksight will continue to make informative videos for St. David’s. Videos can be seen on the St. David’s website with more coming soon!
SAN FRANCISCO, California -- May 17, 2011 -- On May 18-20 2011, DemandCon will hold an educational conference in San Francisco, CA, with the mission to improve the skills of marketing and sales professionals through informative programs, presentations, and discussions. Sparksight is partnering with the DemandCon organizers and Sparksight’s CEO Christopher Justice will be giving a keynote speech on the “Demand Generation in 2018: What Marketers Must Do Right Now.” His speech will discuss ways in which marketing and demand-generation will be changed and advanced by certain technologies in the next few years.
In addition to the keynote speech that Christopher will give on the 18th, Sparksight’s Leading Reach touch screen technology will also be used by event organizers to digitally distribute presentations and survey the attendees on key issues related to the conference. DemandCon exhibitor and Sparksight client Hoover’s will also showcase a Leading Reach interactive kiosk at the event which they will use for digital content delivery and tracking the usage of their digtal content after the show in order to measure the effectiveness of the booth’s marketing efforts.
Information on the event’s success and Christopher’s speech is soon to come!
Sparksight worked with Big Dog Productions to completely redesign their website and increase compatibility across platforms. The old site used heavy Flash elements, increasing load time and decreasing user experience on mobile devices.
The new version employs a clean and easy-to-navigate interface built on Joomla, an open source content management system. This allows users from Big Dog to seamlessly input and edit their own content. Sparksight also built a custom portfolio to showcase Big Dog's work in an organized, user-friendly experience.
Big Dog Productions an event production company that specializes in producing and staging corporate meetings and special events.
AUSTIN, Texas – November 17, 2010—Sparksight was in Las Vegas this month to support Prestolite’s booth and kiosk at the 2010 SEMA show, the premier automotive specialty product trade show event in the world. SEMA attracts more than 100,000 industry leaders in more than 100 countries.
Sparksight's Leading Reach software powered an offline touch screen kiosk with a custom user interface designed by Sparksight. The kiosk served as a point of interest in the Prestolite booth, attracting potential leads. Attendees were able to interact with the kiosk, view videos that featured Prestolite's products, and send informational PDFs directly to their inboxes. Sparksight also provided on-site set-up and support.
AUSTIN, Texas – November 12, 2010—Public Citizen recently launched My Energy Co-Op, a website aimed at sharing information and best practice tips on energy co-ops. Sparksight built the website using ExpressionEngine's Multiple Site Manager technology, which allows leaders from each state to maintain autonomy over their state sites. The site also has a forum to encourage discussion among members.
Participants of the site include members of co-ops, past, present and prospective co-op board members, leading experts in energy efficiency and clean energy solutions, experts in the (legal and) financial management of consumer-owned electric cooperatives, and lawmakers at the state and national level.
AUSTIN, Texas – November 10, 2010 The fifth annual Convio Summit was held in Baltimore, Maryland and Sparksight contributed to the event's success by providing a full range of production services.
Convio’s annual summit is a conference providing clients, partners, and industry experts with innovative ideas and real-world examples of proven techniques that can immediately improve their fundraising, advocacy and marketing efforts. This year’s summit was expanded to a full three days and took place October 25-27 at Baltimore's Mariott Waterfront Hotel. Over 1,100 attendees from all over the country were in attendance. The keynote address was given by Stacy Allison, the first American woman to summit Mt. Everest.
Sparksight provided logistics and coordination services, video production and A/V support, and event branding and graphic design. In addition, Sparksight filmed and produced live interviews on the Nonprofit Live TV stage with immediate uploads to Convio's nonprofitlive.tv channel. Convio also utilized a custom version of Sparksight Leading Reach kiosk, which gave attendees paperless, real-time access to Convio collateral and partner materials.
About Convio
Convio is a leading provider of on-demand constituent relationship management (CRM) software and service that provides nonprofit organizations with solutions to inspire and mobilize support. The company’s online marketing suite offers integrated software for fundraising, advocacy, events, email marketing and web content management, and its CRM system helps organizations efficiently track and manage all interactions with supporters.
Convio clients include nonprofits organizations, Institutions of Higher Education, and Associations and Faith-based organizations world-wide such as American Red Cross, American Diabetes Association, Center for Responsible Lending, Children’s Cancer Research Fund, Conservation International, Easter Seals, MAP International, Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, National Trust for Historic Preservation, UNCF, and Yellowstone Park Foundation. For more information please visit www.convio.com.
AUSTIN, Texas – October 8, 2010—Convio’s Nonprofit Live TV website recently underwent a major facelift with the help of Sparksight. Changes include easier navigation, video categories and keyword functionality. The design also integrated more dynamic functionalities, including automatically updating videos to the site via RSS feeds from YouTube.
Nonprofit Live TV is a site created by Convio, dedicated to showcasing insights and foresights of some of the top minds from both the nonprofit and technology sectors on how the Internet has changed the nature of nonprofit fundraising, marketing and advocacy.
AUSTIN, Texas – July 2, 2010—Convio is launching a series of webinars and tip sheets to educate their clients on the different kinds of social media. Convio's social media experts and other leading nonprofits will show how to best utilize the most popular and effective social media platforms. The platforms include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogging.
Sparksight branded the project, built the landing page, and created the tip sheets and HTML emails.
AUSTIN, Texas - June 28, 2010—Austin LifeGuard teamed up with Sparksight to create three commercials for an abstinence campaign. The quirky ads address the issues of sexually transmitted diseases and are meant to elicit awareness and to educate. Two target audiences were kept in mind; teenagers and their parents, aiming to get parents to talk to their children on sexual education.
The spots will on broadcast television in September on the CW Austin and can be found online. Sparksight wrote, filmed and produced the PSA’s.
Austin LifeGuard Character and Sexuality Education is the abstinence-based comprehensive teen sex education program of Austin LifeCare. The program aims to provide Austin area teens credible, factual data about the risks, potential consequences and options regarding their sexual activity.
Sparksight delivers customized electronic registration system and website for annual conference under 72 hour deadline
AUSTIN, Texas - May 18, 2010-- The Texas Asian Chamber of Commerce (TACC) will host their annual CONNECT 2010conference on June 18, 2010 which brings together small business owners, companies, government contractors and corporate professionals interested in effectively supporting the growing Asian business community in Texas. Sponsors for CONNECT 2010 include: Bank of America, Dell, Farm Credit Bank, New York Life Insurance, HEB, Seton Family of Hospitals, Tokyo Electron, University of Texas: Center for Asian American Studies, University of Texas: Division of Diversity and Community Engagement.
Sparksight was chosen to build the event website, including a custom e-registration system, with a 72-hour turnaround to have the site up and accepting registrations through a process that recognized the different needs of attendees, exhibitors and sponsors. Additionally, Sparksight will support scheduling, on-site registration and managing the live CONNECT 2010 event.
