Employee Spotlight: Ryan Drescher

May 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Ryan Drescher

Ryan Drescher has the most diverse resume of any Point Insider.  He’s received 3 college degrees and worked as an auto mechanic, a bank teller, a maintenance worker, and a commissioned artist.  Now he’s the Content Team Manager at Point Inside, starting in 2011. Ryan’s career is a great example of the opportunities available at Point Inside. He was hired as a Data Content Technician, promoted to a lead, and then later promoted to his current role as manager. He manages a team of around 30 Content Technicians and Graphic Designers.  He wears many hats in his role by managing … [Read more...]

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Craig Dowden Wins the May BFA Award

May 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Craig Dowden Wins BFA Award

May’s winner of the BFA employee award goes to Craig Dowden, Group Program Manager. BFA award winners are employees who go above and beyond the call of duty.  Craig has done that and more recently by traveling 6 out of the last 7 weeks to visit a customer on-site.  He is the important liaison between retailers and Point Inside, facilitating smooth communication, resolving issues, and ensuring projects are completed on schedule. Congrats Craig! We appreciate your work in doing whatever it takes, including being a red eye flight regular. … [Read more...]

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Employee Spotlight: Zina Pozen

May 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Zina Pozen, Point Inside employee

  Meet Zina Pozen - a search guru, a talented linguist, a software engineer, an accordion player, and a mom.  Not only does she have a fascinating story, but she also has the biggest smile at Point Inside! Originally from the Ukraine, she and her parents immigrated to New York in 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  She transferred from Moscow State University to NYU as she began her life in the U.S.  She’s been a developer at start-ups and at Microsoft where she worked on every Windows release from 2000 to Windows 8. After switching majors from linguistics to … [Read more...]

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Springtime and Local Events in Seattle

April 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Panelists at the LBMA local chapter launch. From left: Alison Bumgardner, Neil Crist, Asif Khan, Jeremy Lockhorn, Todd Sherman, Robb Walters

One of our favorite things to do at Point Inside is to contribute to the conversation on indoor location and mobile technologies.  Last week was a great week for that in the Seattle area. First, we launched the Seattle Chapter of the Location Based Marketing Association (LBMA) on Tuesday with VenueLabs at Razorfish’s new Seattle headquarters (with an amazing waterfront view).  The launch event, titled “Why Location Matters” focused on how location-based marketing will change the marketing landscape, and highlighted some creative and effective ways to monetize it.  Over 40 people … [Read more...]

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Employee Spotlight: Kris Zentner

April 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Kris, Point INside employee, playing fiddle

From holding down the Point Inside IT fort to Celtic style fiddle playing, Kris Zentner, a Manager of Technical Operations at Point Inside, has many talents. Kris learned the IT ropes in Silicon Valley during the dot.com boom.  School brought him to Seattle, where he graduated from University of Washington with a degree in Linguistics.  Kris was one of the first Point Inside app aficionados, and found his job match made in heaven at our Bellevue office.  That was over 5 months ago, and now Kris is one of the most important people employees meet on their first day.  After all, you … [Read more...]

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How To Avoid Being an Office Fashion Twin

April 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Point Inside Twins

There are some days where you wake up, go to work, and then realize....you are dressed exactly like someone else. It happens.  Don't let this be you. Here are some simple tips to avoid walking in and seeing your twin. Tweet your outfit in advance so no one duplicates it. Leave a second set of clothes in the office - just in case. If you spot someone wearing the same ensemble, don't get close enough to them to allow someone to take a picture. These things can live on for years in a connected world. Adriann, a Project Manager, and Kirstie, a Graphic Designer, dressed almost … [Read more...]

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Employee Spotlight: Steighton Haley

April 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Steighton Point Inside

Steighton, a Senior Software Engineer, joined Point Inside in October of 2012.  He works on everything from programming location features to working with customers in sales engineering projects.  His real technical passion is computer security and cryptography, bringing a critical skillset to the Point Inside team and platform. Steighton grew up in Lansing, Michigan, where he found an interest in music early on.  He started playing the violin in 5th grade and continues to play today. He and his wife, Heather, play together in the Ravenna Second String Orchestra. His other main hobby … [Read more...]

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Loud Song of the Day

April 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment

It’s sometime between 3-4pm at Point Inside.  Blasting music pours through the office, interrupting the task at hand.  It’s time for the Loud Song of the Day. The loud song of day started out in 2011 as a way for the Point Inside team to get to know each other.  One employee selects a song, and explains why they selected that song.   That song is played around the same time everyday for a week.  This year it expanded into the Loud Song of the Day where an employee selects a 5 song playlist, highlighting a different song each day.   The Loud Song of the Day has expanded the … [Read more...]

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Employee Spotlight: Joel Valentino

March 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Joel Valentino, Point Inside Graphic Designer

When you join the Point Inside team, one of the cooler perks you’ll get is a personalized avatar created by Graphic Designer Joel Valentino. Joel’s created about 50 avatars so far, and you’ll see them chat, email, and on the Point Inside wiki. Joel started sketching avatars for the graphics team on their office whiteboard. People loved them, so now he draws them for the whole company! Joel moved from sunny Southern California to Seattle in 2010 to work for Point Inside. He started out as a mapper and then moved to graphic design. At the company, he’s created graphics for maps, … [Read more...]

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Meet Amy, Our Newest Team Member

March 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Point Inside's newest Team Member, Amy

If you’ve ever gone to our website, you’ve seen Amy, the blue-haired shopper who uses her mobile phone to update her shopping list and find the best route in store.  Since we love her so much, we decided to have her in the office everyday!  She was a big hit with the Point Inside team, and we’re sure visitors will enjoy greeting her in the lobby. If you visit Point Inside, be sure to say hi to Amy!             … [Read more...]

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