Voice of the Customer

TMCnet - The World's Largest Communications and Technology Community
 
| More
Voice of the Customer Featured Article Archive

TMCNet:  New Kids On The Block: Lego KidsFest Comes To Hartford This Weekend With Contests, Seminars, Races And Just Plain Fun: SUNDAY

[November 19, 2009]

New Kids On The Block: Lego KidsFest Comes To Hartford This Weekend With Contests, Seminars, Races And Just Plain Fun: SUNDAY

Nov 19, 2009 (The Hartford Courant - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Since Connecticut is the North American home to Lego systems, it's fitting that the Lego KidsFest opens in Hartford this weekend.

Fitting, of course, is what the world of the little plastic building blocks is all about. And while it won't quite be LegoLand at the Connecticut Convention Center this weekend, there will be almost as many components as a Mindstorms robot building kit.

Because the three Lego Master Builders are based at the Connecticut headquarters (possessing the coolest job possible in the eyes of many kids), there have been plenty of chances to catch their creative skills in the past, with constructions including presidents, monuments and movie icons.

But if the Indiana Jones replication looks a little more squat than, say, the life-sized Santa Claus, it's because the Master Builders are replicating the purposely stylized Lego version of Harrison Ford. It was licensing movie brands that gave the 75-year-old Danish toy company a boost in the 1990s. Going back to basics is giving it a boost now.

"Hands on" is the motto at Lego stores opening in malls nationwide. And so it is at LegoFests. At the event, there will be no shortage of play tables, building contests and ramps on which freshly built Lego model cars can race. Indeed, 50 schools have been busy for a while working on replicas of local landmarks; the top three will win prizes.

Enthusiasts can show off their own models as well (if they're pre-registered to do so at the website) and be eligible to win a "people's choice award." But there will also be elaborate displays of models, landscapes and trainscapes made by professionals, including life-sized models of Batman, Darth Vader, Thomas the Tank Engine, Harry Potter and SpongeBob SquarePants. A Lego video game gallery will be there, for those who enjoy that version of hands-on play. And a parents' resting area will let some sit and watch football and have a cup of coffee.

Live demonstrations will be augmented by a roster of entertainment and activities on stages, featuring spelling bees, building contests and a fashion show. (If it involves clothes made out of interlocking bricks of colorful acrylonitrile butadiene styrene plastic, then it truly would be something to see).

Scores of other vendors will show off their goods as well, including Big Y, Bowl-O-Rama, the Rock Cats and Six Flags.

Rides will be offered on a Roaming Railroad. Kids can race cars on a Roaming Raceway track.

A number of charity events tied to the holidays will be part of LegoFest, including an invitation to bring an unwrapped toy to donate to the Marines' Toys for Tots campaign. Kids can have their pictures taken with either a human Santa or a life-size Lego model of one.

For $1, kids can design their own Lego ornaments and hang them on the Christmas trees at the show. Proceeds go to the Village for Families & Children in Hartford, and the ornaments will be donated to the Connecticut Children's Medical Center and to the downtown Festival of Lights.

Already, two "Star Wars"-themed meetings of the Lego Club Saturday and Sunday are sold out. But there will be an opportunity for the AFOL -- Adult Friends of Lego -- to meet and show their intricate designs.

And of course, a retail center will be set up, showing off the newest Lego products for those wanting to get a jump on the gift-giving season.

-- THE LEGO KIDSFEST is Friday through Sunday at the Connecticut Convention center, 100 Columbus Blvd., Hartford. Hours are 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $14; $12 for kids 2 to 12. Kids younger than 2 are free; seniors 65 and older are also $12. Anyone younger than 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Advance tickets, which have a $2 discount, are available through 9 a.m. Friday. Group tickets are also available. Information: 860-953-0444, x 146 or www.legofest.com.

To see more of The Hartford Courant, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.courant.com/. Copyright (c) 2009, The Hartford Courant, Conn.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

[ Back To Voice of the Customer Community's Homepage ]


FOLLOW US

FREE Voice of the Customer eNewsletter

Subscribe Now

Featured White Papers

  • Seven Best Practices for Speech Analytics: Speech analytics is valuable for identifying issues in the contact center. However, limiting its use to the contact center only considers a portion of all customer interactions and subsequently only reveals a small part of the voice of the customer. This paper discusses how organizations can optimize their Speech Analytics implementation strategy to realize the promise of this exciting technology.
  • Understanding the Voice of the Customer: Today's contact centers involve a sea of information that must be captured, processed, and distributed on a daily basis. Effective use of this information enables companies to remain competitive in an increasingly aggressive and customer centric marketplace. An overwhelming percentage of the information that circulates in a contact center's audio recordings, documents, web pages, and emails is unstructured in that it resides outside of a normal structured database and cannot be managed efficiently. These unstructured items contain valuable information, yet this information historically has been difficult to organize, categorize, and access.

Case Studies

  • Aflac: Aflac, the leading provider of guaranteed-renewable insurance turned to Autonomy to help them automate the process of monitoring their contact center agent for quality and compliance. The company now has a system that can offer continued improvement in agent quality and productivity while enhancing the customer experience. ...
  • Avaya: Avaya, a global leader in business communications, inherited 880 websites as well as numerous intranets and extranets when it was spun off from Lucent Technologies. The sheer volume and diversity of the sites and the over 500 content creators resulted in inefficient content distribution rife with divergent branding, messaging, and product information. ...

Video Showcase

    Interview with Autonomy: Rich Tehrani interviews Simon Hayhurst, SVP of Autonomy

Featured Events

  • Multichannel Analytics with Autonomy Explore: In today's world of constant connectivity there are a variety of direct and indirect channels of communication between an enterprise (or a brand) and its customers. 80% of these valuable interactions are generated in a human-friendly, unstructured format across multiple touchpoints and channels. With this ever growing mountain of information how do you extract the emerging trends and topics of interest to the enterprise? ...
  • SES Chicago 2011: Marketers and SEO professionals attend SES Chicago each year to network and learn about topics such as PPC management, keyword research, SEO, social media, local, mobile, link building, duplicate content, multiple site issues, video optimization, site optimization, usability and more. The conference offers 70+ sessions, intensive training workshops, and an expo floor packed with companies that can help you grow your business. While you're at it, network with peers and leading industry vendors. Programmed by the SES advisory board, you can be assured - SES content really is king! ...
 
 
| More