Springdale, AR – Genofish (www.genofish.com) - a jointly owned company between owners of Rockfish Interactive in Rogers, AR and owners of SVI in Springdale, AR - has named Bill Akins as President this week. 

Genofish engineers a highly sophisticated Learning Management System that is designed for today’s time-drained business executive while keeping simplicity at the forefront, whether it is a single user or an entire enterprise. Its online learning community accents the best of both worlds from the two companies that incubated it before standing it on its own.

Bill was tapped to lead Genofish largely due to his fourteen years of experience in the Walmart vendor community, as an entrepreneur in the IT sector, and for his passion as a teacher. He has worked in management positions for large consumer packaged goods companies like Pfizer and U.S. Cotton, as well as information and retail technology powerhouses like Nielsen, Redbox, and Shiloh Technologies. Regarding his new post, Bill recalls, “While I have certainly learned an enormous amount from my peers and customers throughout the years, teaching night classes at the collegiate level has been where I have grown the most due to my students while simultaneously fulfilling a deep passion I had for information exchange in real time.” His involvement in the business world and academia will drive future development and corporate integration with clients such as Walmart.

Bill holds a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing from California State University and an MBA from the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. His valedictory address as an undergraduate spoke on the topic of balancing technology and humanity, and Genofish is Bill’s “realization of this charge to his classmates many years ago.” His community involvement includes Big Brothers Big Sisters and personal financial management counseling as an instructor for Financial Peace University at New Heights Church in Fayetteville, AR. He was chosen by the NWA Business Journal as one of the “40 Under 40” in 2006. Along with his wife Karen and son Henry, Bill resides in Springdale, AR.

We're in the process of making Genofish 2004 SCORM compliant, which means the following:

1) You can import your existing SCORM training into Genofish.

2) Existing Genofish training can be exported as a SCORM package and used in a different SCORM compliant LMS (although why would you want to use any other LMS besides Genofish!?).

3) Any training you upload into the Genofish LMS will be converted to a SCORM package adding portability, flexibility, and value to that training immediately.

4) We'll be offering a desktop application that will generate a SCORM compliant training package separate from Genofish altogether.

And do you want to know the icing on the cake?  We're doing all of this in Adobe Flex and AIR, which means we'll be providing this functionality with the best user-interface experience available.

If you have any questions or are interested in purchasing the Genofish SCORM Content Generator, contact us today.

For years the world, especially the HR and OD world, has begged for an open online learning system that isn’t cheesy, complicated and incomplete. I come from the advertising industry – an industry that knows how to deliver cool, fresh and relevant ideas. Genofish is the coolest, freshest, most relevant idea brought to the learning and development industry in my lifetime for sure.

Learning management systems (LMS’s) are dinosaurs today. They’re dinosaurs because they are tired, costly, complex, closed, linear learning destinations. Today, the speed of knowledge can’t afford the traditional learning / training model. Genofish is not a learning destination, but rather, an open and JIT learning community that is extraordinarily user-friendly and can adjust to any number of needs and requests from its users. Genofish is free to access and is easily scalable for the single user or for the multi-national conglomerate.

We look forward to seeing this learning community grow and experiencing your contribution – whether you’re a content provider for Genofish or a user of the community. Let’s grow together in the 21st century.

Welcome Genofish.

Onward!

Mike Thompson

The Center for Retailing Excellence (CRE), through a strong partnership with retailer and supplier industries, is one of the foremost internationally acclaimed centers for retail studies focused on research and the development of students as future leaders in the retailing and related industries.  The Center provides a bridge between academics and industry for developing future leaders.

The CRE has developed in in depth, two year mentor program to provide an opportunity for students to be exposed to a variety of learning experiences with CRE Board Member companies.  The intention of this program is to give students a better understanding of the needs and necessary skill sets required by industries.  Companies participating in this program include powerhouses such as Bayer Healthcare, Frito Lay, Idelle Labs, Lowes, MARS Advertising, Nestle Purina, Nice-Pak, The Nielsen Company, The NPD Group, Procter & Gamble, Sam's Club/Wal-Mart, The J.M. Smucker Company, and Time/Warner Retail.

Genofish is supporting this program as a collaborative platform for mentors and mentees to share learning.  All the materials for the program are available to the mentors and mentees in Genofish.  In addition, the mentors can upload training specific to their company and industry to further enrich the mentee's experience and learning during this program.

Genofish is proud to play a role in this innovative program and looks forward to its success.