Seven students in one of North Salem High School’s business classes are designing a marketing plan for Westchester service website, Zoomnia. The students are charged with developing — and presenting — strategies to grow Zoomnia’s business into a national company.

Zoomnia.com is a free online service that enables people to receive advice from local experts on subjects ranging from acupuncture to plumbing, psychology to window installations.

Zoomnia is sponsoring the four-week program, From the Classroom to the Community, involving nine Westchester high schools. Teams will analyze Zoomnia’s current situation relative to the demands of its market and creatively devise solutions that will be successful in the real world.

UPDATE 3/25: WINNERS ARE ANNOUNCED. PLEASE READ ON FOR MORE INFORMATION. 

North Salem High School teacher Suzanne Masotto adapted a unit in her Sports Marketing class to take advantage of the Zoomnia project, which will give students real-life experience working with marketing professionals. Each school has found its own way to participate: At Byram Hills High School, for example, students in the after-school club, Future Business Leaders of America, have taken on the challenge.

The North Salem students are working under the guidance of a representative of the global management consulting firm ZS Associates to teach students a structured “hypothesis based” approach to problem solving. Students spend one class a week on a conference call with Namita Kalyan of ZS Associates, who is based in Philadelphia. Zoomnia has also provided students with a detailed framework of how to go about developing their plan with tips on such things as interview and brainstorming techniques.

The contest ends March 17 when students from all nine schools will present their plans giving an eight-minute presentation and limited to just three slides. The presentations begin at 7 p.m. at the PepsiCo Theater and SUNY Purchase.

(Report courtesy of Fiona Mitchell/BOCES)
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OR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Local Businesses Bring Student Learning From the Classroom to the Community
Award ceremony recognizes achievements of participating Westchester high schools

Westchester County, NY (March 24, 2008)— Local businesses, seasoned entrepreneurs, expert consultants and education professionals joined forces to provide high school students in Westchester a 5-week hands-on learning experience, which culminated in a presentation and award ceremony on March 17 at Purchase College SUNY’s PepsiCo Theater.

From the Classroom to the Community program, a goodwill initiative created by Zoomnia, showcased the work of students from nine high schools across the county.  The program challenged student teams with an exercise to create solutions and growth plans to transform Zoomnia from a local business to a national craze by analyzing its current situation relative to the demands of its market.

The Next Westchester Entrepreneurs

In front of a crowd of fellow students, parents, teachers, principals, and media, school teams presented their findings.  Under the bright stage lights, students shared their ideas with PowerPoint presentations on a movie-sized screen.

While getting on this stage may have been somewhat intimidating for students, host Dale Allen assured students being a little nervous is perfectly natural: “There are two kinds of people: those who admit they are nervous before a presentation and liars.”  Allen, a veteran of corporate and commercial communications who has represented companies such as BMW, Gillette and Canon, provided the students with advice on how to give an effective presentation.  Keynote speaker, Beth Polish, spoke to students about entrepreneurship. The former CFO of iVillage and Goldman Sachs Ventures told students to always have a solid plan and to learn from their mistakes and successes.

Team presentations were judged by Zoomnia co-founders Steven Wolk and David Goldberg; Jim Kenton, Zoomnia Senior Vice President; J.J. Raoult and Angela Bakker-Lee, both principals with ZS Associates. Teams were scored on their analysis of customer needs, strategies, conclusions, organization, delivery, and use of visuals among other things.

Winning teams included: Blind Brook High School (Rye Brook) in 1st place, Hendrick Hudson High School (Montrose) in 2nd place, and Roosevelt High School (Yonkers) in 3rd place. Each winning team received a glass trophy and each winning team member received a one-hour consultation with College Planning Services, Inc.  All participating students received a certificate of achievement.

“All the students who participated in this program have already won,” said Wolk. “They have worked hard, expanded their knowledge and gained skills that will serve them well throughout life.  We were impressed with all teams, and choosing a winner was a tough decision.”

Coming Together for Education

Through Zoomnia.com, consumers ask questions and receive free advice from relevant professional Westchester businesses. Zoomnia management designed the From the Classroom to the Community program with the same idea—to match eager high school students with professional business consultants. Zoomnia selected ZS Associates, a global sales and marketing consulting firm to provide guidance to the student teams as they worked on their projects.

When developing the award ceremony, Zoomnia staff turned to their own service to find needed expertise. Using Zoomnia.com they found and hired members of the Zoomnia network of Westchester businesses including Milestone Photography to photograph the event, Accel Printing and Graphics Corp. to print the programs, and Happy Go Lucky Graphic Designs to design the program.  All three businesses donated their services to make the event a night to remember for the students.

From the Classroom to the Community reflected the creativity of a diverse student base with participating high schools hailing from all corners of the county, including: Fox Lane High School (Bedford), Bronxville High School (Bronxville), Hendrick Hudson High School (Montrose), North Salem High School (North Salem), Roosevelt High School (Yonkers), Byram Hills High School (Armonk), Sleepy Hollow High School (Sleepy Hollow), Blind Brook High School (Rye Brook) and New Rochelle High School (New Rochelle).

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About Zoomnia
Zoomnia.com provides personalized advice and assistance from the top dentists, yoga instructors, attorneys, and more in Westchester County. Through Zoomnia.com, consumers anonymously ask questions in specific categories, and representatives from relevant businesses personally respond with free guidance and answers. The Zoomnia network consists of over 1,300 specialists in 152 categories who are committed to providing advice and assistance to everyday issues. Zoomnia management is composed of individuals who have developed strategies for Fortune 500 firms, turned around ailing companies, and started successful companies, among other accomplishments. For more information on Zoomnia, visit www.zoomnia.com.

About ZS Associates
ZS Associates is a global management consulting firm specializing in sales and marketing consulting, capability-building and outsourcing. The firm today has more than 1000 professionals in 15 offices around the world and has assisted over 700 clients in North America, Europe and Asia. ZS Associates has experience across a broad range of industries, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical products and services, financial services, transportation, and high-tech. For more than 25 years, ZS consultants have combined deep sales and marketing expertise, intelligent innovation and rigorous, fact-based analysis to help business leaders develop and implement sales and marketing strategies that create long-term value. For more information on ZS Associates, call 1.847.492.3602 or visit www.zsassociates.com.

Contact:
Collette Pelletier
Co-Communications
860.658.5700
collette@cocommunications.com