Event Notices From July 23-25

Eastern Michigan University Professional Education Center Offers Social Media Seminar: As marketing expands into the social media realm, companies are wondering how to measure results, increase exposure, and strengthen their company brand -- and how to do it efficiently. The Professional Education Center  in the College of Business at Eastern Michigan University will present "Social Media's Compelling Pull," Thursday, Aug. 12, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Livonia campus. Advance registration is required. The cost is $179. For more information, call (734) 487-3566. The seminar will feature several experts from the field to discuss today's social media impact on marketing, measurement and business-to-business communications. Speakers will include Mitch Lipon, CEO of Xspond; Charlie Kondek, Social Media Director of MS&L, Ann Arbor; Nathan Bomey, Business Journalist, AnnArbor.com; Wendy Williams, Online Marketing Specialist and former Toolshed Vice President; and Larry Eiler, CEO of Eiler Communications and Adjunct Marketing Professor at EMU. "Social media isn't a fad, it's a fundamental shift in the way we communicate," explained Eiler. "Marketing measurement has always been a problem and social media is evolving the way we measure results." Participants will learn how to tailor a social media campaign effectively to fit their businesses' needs, no matter the type or size. Bringing together experts with knowledge from multiple aspects of the field and experience from across the nation, "Social Media's Compelling Pull" will cover social media campaigns regarding all types of companies, including businesses as small as Humphrey Slocombe Ice Cream, a 14-seat shop in San Francisco that gained nearly 300,000 Twitter followers. Examples also include national businesses such as Ford Motor Co., the brand that asked 100 young bloggers to talk about the Ford Fiesta car experience online for six months. Ford's social media campaign received positive feedback because it showed that the company cared about customers' honest opinions. The panel will delve into how social media can elevate your business, ways to actively participate in the online conversation and a plan to execute a rewarding marketing campaign by reaching your target audience and accurately measuring your ROI. For more information about EMU's PEC or the upcoming "Social Media's Compelling Pull" seminar, visit www.cob.emich.edu/pec or contact Sandi Nielsen at (734) 487-3164 or email pec@emich.edu

SolidThinking To Show Off To Designers: The Troy-based concept design software developer solidThinking Inc. will preview the capabilities of its upcoming software releases at the 2010 Industrial Design Society of America International Conference to be held Aug. 4-7. The conference will focus on the effects of "DIY Design" and will be held at the Hilton Portland & Executive Tower in Portland, Ore. SolidThinking product specialists will offer live software demonstrations at conference booth No. 7. The company's next software releases for solidThinking and solidThinking Inspired will focus primarily on delivering solutions based on user feedback and designed to create a more intuitive user environment. The new releases reflect solidThinking's mission to consistently improve product designers' ability to quickly and easily explore new design directions. In addition, solidThinking Inspired will offer new flexible features and enhanced computational tools to help enrich and accelerate the product design and development process. The software will be available in the fall of 2010. As product developers continue to streamline and accelerate product lifecycle management, solidThinking is compatible with leading design manufacturing and engineering software, encouraging improved computer-aided design collaboration and productivity between industrial designers and engineers during product development. The NURBS-based software offers a variety of user-centric features, including conceptual 3D modeling, high-quality visualization tools and fast real-time rendering for design presentation. Its ConstructionTree technology allows designers to experiment with designs in real time without having to start from scratch when changing direction. For more information about the IDSA International Conference, visit http://idsadiy2010.org/. For more on solidThinking, visit www.solidthinking.com.

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