KIP Ireland!

Hello Again!

I am now back in Bloomington for my last seven weeks of business school! I'm terribly sad to be graduating - but thrilled that Spring is here! Bloomington in the Spring is simply amazing, and if you've never experienced it I encourage you to visit!

But! Where I have been? I have been with 16 other IU grad students traveling around Ireland! The full roster was 13 MBA students and then 3 other students (partners of MBAs who also happen to be grad students at IU). In any case, we had a great time!

The whole purpose of our KIP (Kelley International Perspective) Trips is to get a sense of what it's like to do business in other countries. This includes cultural as well as business experiences. KIP Ireland was completely student led - with guidance from our faculty advisor.

We made three stops on our journey - Dublin, Cork and Galway. There were some heated debates among our group as to which city was "the best" - but I don't think a winner was ever designated. Most of our company visits were in Dublin or near Dublin - so that was the largest portion of our trip. We were so lucky - our company visits were stellar! Each company rolled out the red carpet for us - and gave us great background and information to really get a sense of the challenges and opportunies each company faced. I'll only mention three - but we had great visits across the board!

Our first stop was Arnotts - a department store in Dublin! If you ever are in Dublin, I *highly* recommend you take the time to visit! The store was HUGE! And just enjoyable to walk through! We met with representatives from HR, Stores, Merchandising and Marketing - we got a great sense for their business. My classmate/tripmate Bill and I come from retail backgrounds, so it was very interesting to understand their model, vs the US ones we were used to. THEN! They invited us to their Spring/Summer Fashion Show! SO much fun! When I was working at Macy's, I'd attended a few fashion shows (in house at Herald Square, at other stores and then even Fashion Week) - and I have to say this fashion show was definitely up to our New York City standards - perhaps even a bit better than a few of the ones I've seen!

The second company I'll mention is the Cooley Distillery (the Kilbeggan Distillery). SO MUCH FUN! And so informative! We learned about the distilling industry, entering this industry and developing new brands within the industry. We also tasted what my boyfriend (also on the trip) declared to be the best whiskey I'd ever taste in my life. We spent time with the CEO and other key people in the business - we couldn't have even imagined this level of access! A tremendous visit, and I think each of four brands we tried - Kilbeggan, Connemara, Greenore and Tryconnell - walked away with some new loyal fans. For you future Ireland tourists out there - the Kilbeggan Distillery is 1.5 hours from Dublin (on your way to Galway) and it is definitely worth the visit.

And finally, before you lose interest and stop reading completely! we closed our company visits in Dublin with Facebook! Perhaps there's more to it than just poking, friend-ing and tagging. Rick Kelley from Facebook spent over an hour with us - and answered all of our questions - No we didn't ask them about a "dislike" button. We learned about all of the marketing capabilities companies have with Facebook - and especially for me, headed to a Consumer Products Company, it was great to see all of the opportunities that exist with this great social media site!

(I can't seem to find my picture of this... so please refer to www.kipireland.com for the picture & more details!)

Looking at this post, I've already taken up way too much space... But! I do need to do my shout-outs to Cork and Galway - beautiful cities! We ended our trip in Galway for St. Patrick's Day. We kicked off the day at the St. Patrick's Day parade and then celebrated with the rest of the city! We had a great time and hopefully the pictures help tell the tale!

Until next time...

xoxo

VitaCraves

Hello Again!

I have added Blogging to my weekly to do list so I'm hoping to post a decent amount this spring! (Well possibly a brief hiatus during my trip to Ireland and London... but more on that later!)

In any case, the purpose of today's post is to recognize what I consider to be the greatest product innovation in recent history... VitaCraves.

Have you had these yet? They are Gummie Complete Adult Multivitamins - and you know, I think they've changed my life. I've always bought into the vitamin thing - and I go with One-A-Day vs. Centrum and I'm actually a loyal One-A-Day consumer. I will say however, I do switch around on which vitamin variant I choose to go with, sometimes the Energy, sometimes Women's Health, totally depends what I'm doing when I go to buy my vitamins. Let's be real though, these are BIG pills, big guys with a moderately nasty aftertaste and you cannot eat these on an empty stomach - ick, not a nice feeling if you do. So that being said, I try to take them after breakfast and with Orange Juice because that will nearly (but not completely) cover up the taste. Still, it's something I don't look forward to in the morning.

Right after I graduated college, I used to switch it up with Flintstones Vitamins (yes, they are for kids) in the rotation as well. I would take two a day hoping that would do the same job... but I knew that wasn't exactly right. So in my mid-late twenties, I am stuck with the BIG vitamin pill.

Enter VitaCraves. God I love these things. They taste like Gummies! I like Gummies! Who doesn't like Gummies? Orange, Cherry, Some sort of other Berry that looks like a Raspberry but is Blueberry Blue? Unclear what that flavor is but don't worry, it tastes good too! These are fun to take, they taste great, and I can chew them - it's like they are a treat! I've actually recently had a problem because I suspect my boyfriend is eating more than two a day... hummmm

In any case, today, I salute you VitaCraves for revolutionizing the Vitamin Industry.

License Plates

And we're back... back from our holiday break and ready for recruiting season to begin!

Well internship recruiting for the first years that is! More on that later... first something that I noticed over the holidays.

Driving back and forth from Bloomington, I covered a lot of ground through many states and that's when I noticed it: I was a stranger. I'm from New Jersey, and my car still has Jersey plates. Now, going to school in Indiana, you'd think that I'd be quite aware that I was a stranger every day that I drive to and from school. But that's the funny thing, I'm not. I am one of MANY cars on the road with NJ plates... and although you'd think even with some of my NJ pals out there, we'd still be overwhelmed with Indiana drivers - we're definitely not! In addition to the NJ and IN cars in Bloomington there are Ohio, Illinois, New York, Maryland, California, Oregon, Texas, North Carolina and Kentucky cars! (There are more out there, I just listed the ones I've seen within the last few days).

In Bloomington, with all of these license plates proudly proclaiming the home states of many of the students, faculty and guests that travel here - it's very hard to feel like a stranger. It's quite funny actually, with all of this home state diversity, I feel just as at home here as I do in New Jersey. It's only when I leave Bloomington and drive through Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York that I realize that I am the only car with New Jersey plates around me - and that's when I'm aware I'm not in New Jersey anymore.