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Sprockets
Think of our blog as a window where you can see what's new with us, our clients and the demand creation world we operate in. To close the loop between advertising and sales, we find ourselves in interesting places: cornfields, laboratories, retail stores, bank lobbies and more. Enjoy our tales. Be sure to share yours.

Monthly Archives: April 2010

Volcano 1 : The Miner’s 0

The Eyjafjallajokull volcano (10 bonus points for pronunciation) has put our director of creative services, Scott Miner, and his new wife, Julie, on hold for their much anticipated honeymoon. According to the newlyweds, flights to Germany are still booked up as they are clearing the backlog of stranded passengers queued up ahead of them.

“I was quite surprised by the lack of disappointment from my colleagues who promptly put me back to work after our flight was cancelled!,” said a stranded Scott Miner. “Who would have imagined our honeymoon would be put off by an Icelandic volcano whose name I can’t even pronounce. Luckily we were able to re-schedule everything. So fingers crossed, Eyjafjallajokull stays quiet,” said Miner.

We wish the Miners a fun and happy postponed honeymoon and look forward to Scott’s return to the office.

Here are some terrific photos from Eyjafjallajokull.

Open House in Charlotte

Technekes welcomed 100 friends from the Charlotte area to celebrate our 10th Anniversary and christen our new headquarters location this evening.

Great food, wine and an extensive selection of our very own “Gear Beer*” were enjoyed by all.

The evening featured interesting antics with bobble-head dolls, a quasi-official ribbon cutting ceremony, and a Technekes original party favor, tins of Create Demand® Thinking Putty.

Yee haw!!!

*A special Technekes thanks to Luke Williams, our Marketing Interaction Center Director and official Brewmaster!

Friends enjoying our new HQ Open House

Jack prepares to cut the ribbon on our new home

Great food and Technekes "Thinking Putty" for all!

Technekes and Xceleration Align to Launch Ignite B2B™

Technekes is pleased to announce that it has established a strategic venture with an industry-leading provider of incentive and recognition solutions, Atlanta-based, Xceleration, Inc.

The new venture, Ignite B2B (www.IgniteB2B.com), marries Technekes’ extensive demand creation capabilities with Xceleration’s comprehensive incentive and proprietary RewardStation® technology.

“Ignite B2B is a perfect marriage of competencies to provide clients with turnkey marketing and sales programs,” said Steve Amedio, Technekes’ president and chief operating officer. “I’ve worked closely with the senior executives at Xceleration for 10 years. RewardStation is a fantastic rewards platform that has application in virtually every demand creation program that we execute for our clients,” said Amedio.

“By the same token, we run rewards and recognition programs with a number of world-class B2B clients. All of these companies need support in their efforts to generate demand for their products and services,” said Ben Levenbaum, Xceleration’s president and chief operating officer. “Technekes adds exceptional demand creation expertise to our capabilities,” said Levenbaum.

“We have our first client implementation well underway. We’re working with a new client to create demand for its products among distribution channel partners by implementing a fully customized rewards program for sales people to learn more about our client’s products and promote and sell them over the next quarter, said Amedio.”

Ignite B2B has hired Pickett Yon as director, marketing solutions. She is working closely with Technekes’ and Xceleration’s management and account services teams to bring unique and comprehensive demand creation and incentive services to market.

Technekes and Xceleration Executives in Charlotte

Pictured (Left to Right): Pickett Yon, Ignite B2B; Ralph Burton, Xceleration; Ben Levenbaum, Xceleration; Steve Amedio, Technekes; Scott Miner, Technekes

Kristin Terdik: Eight Years at Technekes and Eight Years of Magnificent Hair!

Congratulations Kristin on your eighth anniversary at Technekes – our longest tenured employee! What an amazing job that you’ve done since your very first day, April 11th, 2002.

As Jack likes to say, you are indeed the “heart and soul of Technekes!”

Thank you most sincerely. We appreciate your incredible effort, talent and magnificent hairstyles!

A sampling of some of our favorite Kristin Do’s…

Bugs & Weeds Beware!

Creepy crawlies and weeds all over our great state have officially been put on notice, as 13 of Technekes’ Ag Practice team have now successfully completed requirements for their NC Pesticide Applicators License!

“It’s vital that we understand all aspects our clients’ business,” said Technekes’ Jodi Hasekamp, who just aced North Carolina’s Department of Agriculture’s 50-question Pesticide Applicators exam. “Our team learned about pesticide handling, mixing, application and safety. It’s just one more thing that we do to bring value to our customers. We routinely meet with growers, retailers and consultants to understand how they make decisions and purchase our customers’ products,” said Jodi.

Entomologists are predicting insect infestations at a 30-year all-time high. I guess the entomologists didn’t know that we had so many qualified applicators available to take care of the problem!

- Ashley