Country music singer and entrepreneur Kix Brooks of Brooks and Dunn has an issue most businesses would love to have. His charming Nashville-area winery, Arrington Vineyards and Winery, is so popular it’s considering growing to accommodate more events.
Brooks is taking a unique approach to this expansion. He’s turning to students from the Vanderbilt Accelerator Summer Business Institute to create a physical space plan and operating plan for the Williamson county business that would produce new earnings streams without jeopardizing the integrity and mission of the vineyard and winery.
The Accelerator Summer Business Institute is an intense month-long business “boot camp” run by the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management. In the program, college students and recent graduates from across the country are immersed in a competitive business environment, working to create the winning solution to real challenges from top local and national companies. The students hone essential skills in marketing, sales, finance, real estate, research and corporate strategy, while participating companies receive the brain power, creativity and proposals of at least eight teams of highly motivated millennials.
Brooks will launch the Arrington Vineyards project on June 3. The teams will give their final presentations to Brooks and other Arrington executives on June 9.
Other Accelerator projects include:
- Sony Music Nashville: Aid Sony Music to further develop the 360-degree concept with artists, building on the idea that Sony creates brands – and those brands extend beyond music to live venues and concerts, merchandising, websites, etc.
- Coca-Cola Enterprises: Interview millennials to see if they’re responding positively to Coca-Cola’s recent corporate responsibility and sustainability (CRS) efforts and create marketing ideas to help promote Coca-Cola’s CRS goals.
- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee: Create a social network for BCBST and Gordian that protects an individual’s right to privacy while providing the opportunity to link people with similar illnesses, interests and wellness goals to share relevant information. This forum would also be a method for people to gain access to resources and expert opinions.
- Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce: Help launch Nashville’s Entrepreneurship Initiative – including Web presence, marketing plan, etc. and help re-brand the city as an entrepreneurial hotbed, while respecting the “Music City” brand.
- Cisco & Presidio: Engage millennials in creating a marketing message and go-to-market program on the “intersection” of WebEx and TelePresence technology as an effective business tool by leveraging the “connected generation” of workers today.
For more information on Accelerator visit http://www.owen.vanderbilt.edu/accelerator. To follow the progress of the Accelerator students and their projects, check out Accelerator faculty director Michael Burcham’s blog at http://accelerator2009.blogspot.com/.
Media Contact: Amy Wolf, (615) 322-NEWS
amy.wolf@vanderbilt.edu