Won't you join me in helping build a new concept in retail, a technology learning and discovery center. This will be a non-profit focused on helping busy people overwhelmed with all the constant stream of new technology blasting into their daily lives, learn, leverage and even master the world of social media, social networking, content creation and publishing.

1. Your technology learning and discovery center for life!

2. Chicago: The Gateway to “The Experience
Economy” *Best-Selling Authors, Pine
&Gillmore,The Experience Economy

3. The Networlding Center will be a non-profit
technology discovery center for individuals,
companies and families to learn about and create
new technology through one-on-one and smallgroup facilitated experiences.
The first center will be located in Chicago because
it is one of the top “experience economy” centers
for retail in the country. (Pine and Gilmore: The
Experience Economy, one of the top 100 business
books of all time)

4. The Future
Is
Now!
© The Spark Center4

5. Thrive
in this
busy, noisy
tech world

6. Our Values
•Making a Difference
•Integrity
•Innovation
•Collaboration

7. The Networlding Center Main Offerings
Our offerings will be thoughtfully planned out, presented, and rotated throughout
each week to create a high degree of engagement and ongoing interest and
participation.
A breakdown of the offerings are as follows:
• Spark Start:Get previews of all the offerings in the center where many
are free while others will have a fee.
• Spark 1-1:Wework with you to discover your specific technology needs
and interests and then create a simple, cost-effective, tailored learning
plan so you can learn at your own pace.
• Spark Tank: Experiencethree unique products or topic-learning
sessions from a variety of thought leaders in various fields. ($30 a
session or 4 sessions for $99.)
© The Spark Center4

8. Spark Start
Learn about the
latest offerings and
discoveries in the
Center.
© The Spark Center4

9. Spark 1-1
TheSpark Bar
• Info Concierges – people with
masters in library science and/or
technology will help visitors learn
about the newest discoveries in
technology.
• Spark Menu – The menu of services
offered in the center.
• Consulting –From social media
support to learning about the latest on
a particular product, you can get
answers to your daily tech questions.
• Spark Plan – A tailored learning plan
for optimal learning. Each person who
buys a membership will also receive a
three-month planning session.
© The Spark Center4

10. The Spark Tank
The Spark Tank
will begin by
offering learning
in:
Social Media
Social
Networking
Entrepreneurship
Publishing
© The Spark Center4

11. The Spark Tank – How Does It Work?
(1)You see the Info Concierge at The Spark Bar
but you are also helped by Spark Guides on
the floor.
(2) You’re directed to Spark Start to get a free
overview or you go directly to The Spark Tank
if you have signed up online.
(3) In the Spark Tank you get to visit 3 of 5
different tables for 25 minute segments for a
total of 1 ½ hours. Each table will have a
different expert host providing a facilitated
learning and connection experience on a
variety of topics. The cost of these sessions
are $30 or 4 for $99.
(4) Learn and connect with others at each table.
After each session you will receive power
points of your sessions via email as well as
links to other interesting, complementary
resources and sessions within The
Networlding Center.
© The Spark Center4

12. Marketing Plan
The SmartShoppe
Small clusters of workstations will
enable both individual and small
group access to the center’s online
resources as well as collaboration
with the experts in this center and in
other centers as they open. Here you
can also purchase experiences.
We will continuously invite local
software developers to load both their
commercial and prototype software
products under development into
these workstations to gain real-world
testing and expose visitors to nextgeneration technology tools.
.
© The Spark Center4

13. The Spark Advantage
Community: developing relationships creates
community and sustains it.
Hands-On Experiences: interaction with new,
innovative products and services helps move from
ideation to product creation faster.
Cross-Country and Global Connections: we
will partner to create centers in top innovationcentered cities to help accelerate the success of
centers insub-prime areas to gain more of a level
playing field really bridging the ever-growing digital
divide. In this unique collaboration between leading
non-profits.
Affiliate Relationships: YWCA of Chicago,
World Business Chicago, The State Street
Alliance, SBA, State of Illinois and the Women’s
Business Development Center, The City of
Chicago: Treasury Office are just a few of our
many partnerships where we will help support
decreasing The Digital Divide through our
offerings.
© The Spark Center 10

14. Timeline
Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug
© The Spark Center 11

15. JOIN US!
JOIN US!

16. A NEXUS for consumers to meet
technology product creators at an
earlier development stage as well as
to create their own
new tech products.
Igniting Innovation!

17. Marketing Plan
Spark Networking
The Center will also offer special
networking sessions to help visitors
innovate and
collaborate with one
another most effectively. Melissa has
been offering live networking sessions
throughout the Chicagoland area since
1990 when she had her second book,
“Make Your Connections Count”
published by Dearborn Publishing.
Since then Melissa and her team at
Networlding have provided hundreds
of live, facilitated networking events
both in and outside of Chicago. Her
clients have included: Motorola, CNA,
Accenture, Deloitte, CDW, American
Express, Office Depot, The University
of Chicago, Loyola, Depaul and
Northwestern MBA Alumni as well as
The Chicagoland Chamber and many
non-profits that serve in the city.
© TheNetworlding Center

18. TheCenter and The
Experience Economy
Pine and Gilmore, authors of one of the
100 best selling business books of all
time, The Experience Economy, state
that one of the biggest problems today is
that "the world is saturated with goods"
but the wrong kinds of goods.
The authors propose that adding
"transformational experiences" to new
products and services creates value and
the higher dollars needed to grow the
economy better and faster.
© The Spark Center4

19. TheIdea
Made Tangible
I began working on this idea more
than ten years ago. Over the past
decade I have worked on developing
the concept through partnerships and
facilitated networking events with
many of my clients, top organizations
inside and outside the city of Chicago.
Opening up a physical location for
new technology learning and
discovery will increase the economic
impact of innovations in Chicago and
around the world.
Melissa G Wilson

20. Marketing Plan
Melissa G Wilson Timeline
1987: I start Service Showcase, Inc.–a marketing
and management consulting firm with a unique
focus–helping consumers and businesses find
trusted service providers. The company was an
early “Angie’s List.”
1988: I bring on an angel investor and grow the
company to about 8 employees, starting in the
Chicagoland suburbs.
1989: Service Showcase grows to more than 100
services represented on the consumer side and,
after getting some major national press, I decide to
expand to also market business services.
1989: Service Showcase grows to more than 100
services represented on the consumer side and,
after getting some major national press, I decide to
expand to also market business services.
1993: I decide to downsize my business and reinvent myself as a speaker, consultant and trainer
on the subject of marketing for entrepreneurs. I also
sell a number of people, nationwide, my process for
starting a service-based referral network.
© The Spark Center4
1994: I secure another book contract, this time to
write about my newly-found passion–networking.
My book, Make Your Connections Count: Six Steps
to Build Your MegaNetwork is published again by
Dearborn and, this time, I am asked to work at a
major accounting firm and teach accountants
around the country the science of networking.
1997: I partner with colleague, Dick Whitney, to
bring out a book that, to this day, still sells very well
called 75 Cage Rattling Questions to Change the
Way You Work: Shake-Em-Up Questions to Open
Meetings, Ignite Discussion, and Spark Creativity.
1998: My book, The Power of Two: How
Companies of All Sizes Can Build Alliance
Networks that Create Business Opportunities, is
published by JosseyBass,co-authored with John
Conlan, at that time head of Internal Alliances for
Accenture.1999:

21. Melissa G WilsonTimeline, Continued
1999: I collaborate with Jocelyn Carter Miller, first
Chief Marketing Officer of Motorola, to
writeNetworlding: Building Relationships and
Opportunities for Success picked up by Jossey
Bass.
2000: Networlding is released and hits the #10 spot
on Amazon (in Chicago) for an entire year. I partner
with The Chicagoland Chamber bringing 1000
people through the Networlding process at the
chamber’s offices.
2006: The Wisdom Network: An 8-Step Process
for Identifying, Sharing and Leveraging
Individual Expertise comes out published by the
American Management Association. This is a
book I co-authored with the Chief Knowledge
Officer of UBS at the time, Steve Benton. The book
is a model for building successful collaborative
networks within organizations.
2007: I am gifted a center on Michigan Avenue for a
year by Regus shared office space centers called
The Networlding Entrepreneur Center. I am able
to pre-test my ideas for a support center for
entrepreneurs.
© The Spark Center4
2008: The Nanosecond Networlders: Changing
Lives in An Instant Forever -A Modern Business
Fairytale comes out by my publishing division,
Networlding Publishing, set in the form of a
powerful business fable that takes place from New
York to Spain to Paris. Melissa wanted to further
help people understand the power of networking in
the new digital age.
2009 TheNetworlding Guidebook: Building
Strategic Relationships Through Networking is
published by Networlding Publishing, a division I
created to publish additional books that would
support the the thought leadership I was creating
around the science of networks.
2012 Networking is Dead: Building Relationship
that Matter is released at the end of the year and
hits #5 on The Wall Street Journal best seller list
and number #1 on Barnes and Noble.
2013: Networlding and Networlding Publishing
continue to grow where I assist ten top thought
leaders a year write, publish and market their
books. I decide it is time to work on The
Networlding Center.

22. Sponsorship Packages
Our sponsorship packages offer you a unique opportunity to showcase your product
allowing consumers to interact extensively with your brand on a daily, weekly and
monthly basis. Options include:
•
•
•
•
•
Unique, exclusive pop-up stores or kiosks in the center
Facilitated product discovery
Merchandise sales
Food and beverage sales
Sponsorship or co-sponsorship of a topic table within the
Spark Tank
• Sponsorship or co-sponsorship of theme events
• Sponsorship or co-sponsorship of the week, month or
months
© The Spark Center4

23. The Networlding Center
Sponsorships
We’re looking for top, innovative
companies that want to get closer
to their customers to realize the
best return on their marketing
dollars. Investments will range
from as low as $5,000 for nonexclusive, monthly sponsorships to
$100,000
to
$500,000
for
exclusive, six-month sponsorships.
Sponsors receive daily promotion
of their brand both in the center
through ongoing activities and
showcases offered in the center
six days a week, from 8-8 daily as
well as online, 24/7.
© The Spark Center4
Future Sparkster

24. JOIN US!

25. Contact us at:
melissa@networlding.com
(312) 560-0982