A Night at the Opera

On Thursday evening, Delvinia had the privilege of sponsoring the Canadian Opera Company‘s performance of Gioacchino Rossini’s Cinderella (La Cenerentola) at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

Delvinia CEO Adam Froman and President Steve Mast accompanied a group of 20 guests to the show, including clients from Ryerson University, RBC Royal Bank, the Richard Ivey School of Business, St. Michael’s Hospital, Microsoft, Sirius and Loblaw. Several Delvinia employees also attended the performance.

The evening began with a pre-opera talk about the COC’s current production, created by the Spanish artist collective Els Comediants and led by director Joan Font, and Rossini’s rendition of the beloved fairytale.

After the final curtain, the group took part in a backstage tour followed by a post-production reception hosted by COC General Director Alexander Neef in the Henry N. R. Jackman Lounge.

Since 2008, Delvinia has worked closely with the COC as its Digital Marketing Sponsor, developing the opera company’s overall digital strategy and experience design, initially relaunching the COC’s website, coc.ca, in January 2009. Last month, the COC unveiled a newly redesigned website, created by Delvinia as part of a larger rebranding exercise undertaken by the opera company.

Delvinia has also redesigned the COC’s online subscription renewal process, launched a web simulcast of CBC’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera broadcasts, hosted a live webcast of the press conference announcing the 2010/2011 season and conducted a social media readiness survey, which laid the foundation for the COC’s social media strategy.

Should Canadians have the Opportunity to Vote Online?

In an interview Tuesday with CTV’s Marcia MacMillan, Delvinia CEO Adam Froman weighed in on the question: Should Canadians have the opportunity to vote online?

During the panel discussion, which aired on the CTV News Channel, Adam talked about Delvinia’s experience with the Town of Markham—the first major Canadian municipality to implement Internet voting.

“Back in 2003, the Town decided they needed to engage their voters more. It was a pretty groundbreaking move that they stepped out and said, ‘Let’s introduce Internet voting as an option,’” Adam said. “My company was there to help them communicate and create the public engagement around Internet voting.”

In addition to helping the Town raise awareness of Internet voting in the 2003, 2006 and 2010 municipal elections, Delvinia also conducted in-person and online surveys to collect data regarding public attitudes, feelings and beliefs toward Internet voting in each of those elections.

That data not only demonstrates the feasibility of Internet voting, but also provides a foundation for any government that is considering the use of online voting in an election, Adam told MacMillan.

“What we’re seeing in the data is a 99 per cent satisfaction rating of those who are participating in [Internet voting in the] elections,” he said. “Canada is not only successful in implementing Internet voting, but Canada and municipalities like the Town of Markham are global leaders in doing it.”

Watch the entire interview on the CTV News website.

U.S. Grocery Chain Offers Scan-As-You-Go Shopping

As of Monday, shoppers at the U.S. grocery store chain Stop & Shop can now scan their purchases using an Android or iPhone app called Scan It! developed by Modiv Media. The shopper begins by scanning their Shop & Stop loyalty card with their iPhone’s camera. The app uses the camera to scan the bar codes of items the shopper adds to their shopping bags. The purchases are totalled through the app and the shopper checks out using their debit or credit card without unloading or interacting with a cashier. It’s an honour system, but the store will do random checks to make sure shoppers are scanning and paying for everything in their bags.

The smartphone apps build upon the existing Scan It! technology that previously required proprietary hand-held scanners, and more importantly lowers the cost of the system per store from $80,000 to only $7,000. Relevant offers can be sent to the phone based on the shopper’s previous purchasing habits. The system can use the store’s Wi-Fi network to determine where the shopper is located and then send relevant offers for products located in that immediate area.

The first question that always pops into my mind with these technologies is, “Do shoppers really want this?” It seems like it would take twice as long to shop if I have to stop, turn on my phone and app, scan the code and then move on to the next thing on my list. Not to mention deal with all the tips and special offers (I assume I can turn those off or set a limit). After watching the Scan It! demo video, I’m thinking that all this activity would slow down the shopping experience.

I know from talking to people that design store flow that slowing down the shopping experience is not a good thing. Stores are designed specifically for flow, with the idea of getting an ideal number of shoppers through within a defined time period. And if even a few of those shoppers are stopping to scan items as they shop, or to consider offers, crisscrossing the store to take advantage of related product offers, the whole shopping flow will bog down.

I do believe that large grocery stores will eventually have a self-shopping experience but it’s not going to include busy shoppers visually scanning each item with their smartphone. A method of scanning items using a contactless system is a much better solution. Items that are added or removed from a shopper’s cart are automatically totalled with a final transaction occurring as the shopper exits the store – and the amount of the purchase is removed from a user’s account according to pre-defined methods.

The intelligent shopping experience has always been the dream of futurists, allowing shoppers to move freely from store to store without having to reach into their wallets and purses for cash or a credit card. I for one would love to see store employees freed up to assist customers rather than spend time tapping buttons and making change.

Thoughts?

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