I suddenly find myself involved in a project to fund a Sci-Fi indie bookstore/tavern here in Charlotte and naturally, I'm wondering what a VRM bookstore would look like from a software / infrastructure / services / features perspective. It is early days in the project and I'm not a financial partner (although I'm backing the Kickstarter) but I do have considerable influence with the aspiring owner, there are no software or policy impositions from above, and it is a green field opportunity. Obviously the store should share transactional data with customers and all the stuff I usually rant about. But I want to know what other VRM-y things you think it should do, keeping in mind its various constituent communities: readers, bar patrons, authors, publishers, convention organizers and local venues, the surrounding neighborhood. We often talk about VRM in terms of the customer and the vendor but this project has opened my eyes to a whole spectrum of stakeholders. It is my belief that an indie bookstore, a creature probably eligible for the endangered species list, has a lot to offer to all these communities if it approaches them from a VRM standpoint and perhaps this approach helps invigorate that entire vertical. It would be REALLY helpful if the answers to this referenced existing capabilities or things close enough to beta that the owner could install them within a few months of now. It will be tough enough to get the store funded and built out, the guy can't be expected to write code for all the features we suggest as well. But for those of you with viable product, here's a brand new business with no software or hardware sunk costs and a VERY sympathetic person close to the leadership. For the curious, the project is here and it is *really* cool: http://iopt.us/16kN6E1 Our hashtag is #cltwow if you think it is as awesome as I do and are moved to tweet or post about it. The campaign intro is pasted below: What if there was a place that was kind of like a sports bar, where fans would gather and have a good time, but instead of being for sports fans it’d be for science fiction fans, and comic book fans? Where maybe on the big screens, instead of football, there’d be Doctor Who or anime or Sharknado. Where the noise level would be moderate enough for playing board games or card games like Magic the Gathering, or to just talk about cool books you’ve read or movies you’ve seen . The drinks could be named after fantasy characters or authors. There’d be live entertainment, but they’d be things like chiptunes, nerdcore rappers, writers talking about books, and bands that rock songs about the X-Men. We could do stuff like show old cartoons on Saturday mornings, host nerdy trivia, and have karaoke where people wear costumes and maybe even sing in character. Now what if, on top of all that, this place was a bookstore? But focused on science fiction and fantasy and speculative fiction, like horror and some paranormal romance. Graphic novels. Manga. A place with a great selection, and real book loving people who are passionate fans themselves and are enthusiastic about connecting folks to good books. Have you ever been to an author signing where, afterward, everyone left to go for drinks and hang out with the author? Wouldn't it be great to have that experience without even having to leave the store? That place could be so cool. I’d call it Worlds Of Wonder. Kind regards, -- T.Rob I have availability! For a good time (with IBM MQ) call: T.Robert Wyatt, Managing partner IoPT Consulting, LLC +1 704-443-TROB (8762) Voice/Text +44 (0) 8714 089 546 Voice |
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