Dear Clients and Friends of Resource Interactive, We are thrilled by the outstanding response we have received from the iCitizen Symposium we hosted last month. Everyone in attendance got a sneak-peek of our upcoming book, Open Branding, due for publication next year, and the related insights we have gleaned from our own research. We know that consumers are increasingly seeking deeper brand engagement and more on-demand experiences. We also know that more and more consumers are placing trust in others like them - people in their "community" - so we are looking at new and innovative ways that our clients can strengthen their digital pulse to be more "open." As 2006 comes to a close and we look to next year, we'll be anxious to help brands do just that. POSTSCRIPT: We welcomed clients, some favorite authors, digital populists and friends into town and took two days to explore the life of this most engaging of characters - the icitizen, a consumer-turned-producer who is shaking up brands from A to Z. Read a summary of the iCitizen Client Symposium.   iCitizen Symposium Our strategists keep up on the pulse of popular opinion. And periodically, we take a deep, intensive dive into a topic that has captured our interests. This time around we logged some quality time with the latest - and perhaps what is the next greatest - generation to hit the scene, the group we call digital millennials, or Gen Y. This tech savvy group is at the forefront of open branding and are influencing household decisions with unprecedented influence. Soon to be over 100 million strong and spending more than $200 million annually, their expectations and lifestyles are causing brands to re-think their approach to the web. Some of these findings are posted on our MySpace page with slides, commentary and actual video footage from our DM research. Check it out.  www.myspace.com/RuReady4us Read our research. Download Litmus.
	We partnered with the world's largest flooring manufacturer to make it easy for do-it-yourself shoppers to select flooring with their newly launched online home. Raising the bar for branded manufacturers online, shawfloors.com applies retail merchandising best practices and innovative web development technology from multiple partners including Endeca and Scene7 to create powerful visualization and browsing tools. A desire to build overall brand awareness and drive visitors to the re-launched Shaw site led us to develop an attention-getting sweepstakes designed to create buzz about the Shaw brand. Working closely with ePrize, this HTML and Flash-based banner campaign features an opportunity to win an area rug every hour for 60 days! Plus, everyone can register to win a grand prize of a whole house full of new flooring valued at $10,000.
	The extensive site redesign at http://www.walmart.com/ was given life via a partnership between our retail studio and the Wal-Mart web team. It's part of the brand's commitment to upgrade the online shopping experience and to connect more closely with customers across channel. Driven by intensive customer interviews, eye tracking studies and use of proprietary research methodologies, the redesign has a sophisticated look and feel with large, sharp images, more product details and a streamlined navigation to deliver the simplicity and ease of use customers crave. The site incorporates rich-media technology to support quick access to product details and streaming video to highlight shows of its new fashions.
	The Chico's, White House|Black Market and SOMA family of brands each have a unique and distinct personality. And they needed three equally distinctive online experiences to support their evolving brand identities on a rapid turnaround. For operational efficiency, we leveraged a common back-end process to support all three brands. Wow! Three compelling visual experiences, strenuous QA testing and a host of technologies - the sites launched in just four months! For the second year in a row, Business First officially named Resource Interactive the "Best Place to Work" in Central Ohio! Employees evaluated their employers on ten different qualities including team effectiveness, goal alignment and work engagement. Lead developer, Kris Schultz, a devoted Adobe product user, teacher and evangelist since 1995, and specialist in Flash and Flex development, shares his insights in the latest Adobe newsletter, Edge. Kris presents four best practices in an article titled, "Tips for testing a Flash-based interface." Read the article.