Christner, Barton James

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• Owner of the Barton James' Studio, Bart Christner has focused on corporate marketing and knowledge management, intellectual brands and property assets, and the convergent digital media. A seasoned marketing professional for over a dozen years, his results include large corporate media projects for ATT, Bayer, IBM, Alcoa, Carrier, Fisher and others.  Mr. Christner earned his terminal degree, an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art, from Goddard College specializing in Digital Media, Photography and 3D Animation. He received his BS in Graphic Communications, with a concentration in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Clemson University, South Carolina.
• Further post baccalaureate experience includes Business Administration at Eckerd College in Tampa, Florida and Computer Science and Television Production at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mr. Christner also taught evenings as an adjunct faculty instructor for Robert Morris throughout the late 1990's in marketing and multimedia.
• Previously a Client Partner, Marketing, with Cambridge Technology Partners, Director of Marketing for Dicks Sporting Goods, and an account manager with USWeb/CKS, Marketing, Mr. Christner has sat on many advisory panels and trained executives throughout the United States. Mr. Christner has also served as a guest speaker in marketing seminars and technology forums such as that hosted by Senator Jay Rockefeller.

Detailed Profile

• As Client Partner, Marketing, with Cambridge Technology Partners, Mr. Christner has worked with retired Sr. International V.P. of B.F. Goodrich, Senator Rockefeller, (view article) and others, speaking to audiences with regards to successful strategy, management, and delivery of marketing, digital media, and online projects. Interacting with executives of Mellon, PNC, and Federated Investors, he managed functional, cognitive, and creative solutions such as PNC Advisors Website. (Novell completed it's acquisition of Cambridge in Q1, 2002).
• While with Cambridge, Mr. Christner conceived and initiated the MESPIN (Media Specifications Institute) prototype website which proposes a professional association providing standards in marketing "project lifecycle" activities: Discover, Define, Design, Develop, Deliver, and Process Control. A manuscript for "DESIGN101", his first in a series of five related marketing books, is presently under review. Additionally, evenings and weekends, Mr. Christner partnered with two colleagues, seeking monthly residuals, to produce/direct a video targeted for mass market retail sales, holiday season 2002 (Kitten Kommotion Children's Video).
• Prior to Cambridge, Mr. Christner had worked for USWeb/CKS where he advised Dick's Sporting Goods executives about marketing. He later accepted the offer to become Director Marketing and Production, reporting directly to the President, responsible for in-house agency, growth and production as well as customer service during the initial versions of the Dick's Sporting Goods Website. Mr. Christner managed over 50 people and 40,000 SKU's with responsibilities for establishing six agency departments: product identification, digital photography, copy, content, media, and customer service. (Today, Dick's out-sources website maintenance to Chicago based Global Sports, specializing in online sporting goods retailing. Full story in techyvent article).
  Initially as Marketing Media Producer for USWeb/CKS, Mr. Christner was later promoted to Sr. Account Manager, Marketing. He secured website, video, and print media work with Bayer, PNC Bank, CENTRIA, Alcoa, and Dick's Sporting Goods. He initiated client engagements, managed clients and projects, and lead teams to domestic and foreign locations, such as the International Bayer Headquarters in Leverkusen, Germany. (USWeb/CKS and Whitman Hart, later merged to become MarchFIRST)
  As Director of Market Development for the Pittsburgh based marketing firm InVenture Group, Mr. Christner researched, architected, and invented an electronic, point-of-purchase audio "shelf talker". He proposed to the management of USWeb/CKS, to co-market this invention with their retail clients True Serve and Rite Aid. The experience resulted in the founding and divestiture of the SMG (Sound Marketing Group). Subsequent to InVenture acquiring TDR (Training and Development Group), Mr. Christner facilitated on-site Multi-Source Feedback training to ATT human resource executives in over a dozen cities, nationally. Hired initially as a Project Manager with InVenture Group, Mr. Christner coordinated nine international software labs, incubating and developing the IBM BESTeam and IBM Premier channel programs (targeted primarily at resellers and distributors). This included the first ever, globally synchronized,  comprehensive publishing of product collateral on behalf of IBM's 250+ software products. (InVenture and TDR were later acquired by Condor Group).
  Prior to InVenture Group, Mr. Christner was the Multimedia Marketing Manager for Fisher International's upstart, Fisher Technology Group, developed workflow and production efficiency, and produced Fisher's first online catalog: 100,000 products, 11,000 images.  Concurrently, Mr. Christner had proposed, developed, and for several years taught as an adjunct evening instructor, Robert Morris University's first curriculum in Multimedia Marketing and Design. (Fisher Technology Group was later acquired by Computer Associates). Performing contract work with USWeb/CKS, Mr. Christner wrote and performed voice overs for WTAE TV/Radio stations, on behalf of IBM, Heinz, Kraft Foods, ATT, TDR, The Food Gallery, others.
  Mr. Christner has received the PICA Edgar H. Snider Scholarship, the GATF Dispatch Print Scholarship,  Dean's List, and a distinguished NSTF Fellowship toward Post-Baccalaureate marketing and design studies. His continuing academic experience includes Business Administration at Eckerd College in Tampa, Florida, and Robert Morris University, in TV/Radio, and 3-Camera Studio Production, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
  Mr. Christner graduated with a B.S. in Graphic Communications concentrating in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Clemson University, South Carolina. (Today it is the nations largest national program for print production: flexography, lithography, gravure, and digital pre-press). He received recognition in GATF's national scholars catalog (leading to two summer internships and three full-time post-graduate job opportunities with W.H. Brady, Nameplate, Chapel Hill, NC, Printer's Software Inc., Sarasota, Fl, and Information International Inc. (Triple-I), Los Angeles, CA).
  He has formally studied various marketing media, static and dynamic data, and imaging technologies performing certificate work in MCSE client/server, Alias|Wavefront and Softimage 2D/3D modeling, CAD, and digital technologies, as they apply to marketing channels. Extracurricular and academic pursuits have included coursework in relational and hierarchical databases, software languages, Robert Morris'  3-camera television studio, broadcast radio production, and Pittsburgh Filmmaker's Avid/Adobe Premier non-linear digital video editing, CG (computer graphics), and animation.
  Mr. Christner was a varsity fullback on Pennsylvania's 3rd ranked WPIAL high school soccer team, and a part-time videographer in his early college years with MS&T (Mountain Streams and Trails Outfitters). He captured highlights of whitewater expeditions on the Youghiogheny and Cheat Rivers for same day video viewing and sales to rafting customers.