Full-screen, full-motion video. Rich, dynamic graphics. Interactive feedback. Engaging content. Learning that is actually fun. Not exactly what we’ve come to expect from conventional Web-based training, but Starwood Hotels and Resorts is ready to change that.

This month, Starwood—the parent company of such hotel chains as Sheraton, Westin and W—launched an internal Web-based program that will aim to train Starwood staff through engaging, interactive, full-motion video and graphics that are viewable at full-screen on their PCs.

Using a new networking technology from SightPath, the applications will be delivered to employees at Starwood’s more than 700 properties worldwide from one central server located at the company’s headquarters in White Plains, New York. Content will be streamed through LAN playback via an Internet device on the employee’s desktop, then tracked and managed as the employee interacts with the program at his or her own pace.

“We’ve always felt that high-impact learning requires high-impact media,” says Paul Reynolds, vice president and chief learning strategist

at Cosmic Blender, the Boston firm hired by Starwood to develop several of the system’s training applications. “Until this technology became available, we couldn’t do that on the Web. We think it really does mean a revolution ahead in corporate training.”

Adds Bill Churchill, Cosmic Blender’s president, “We also think this kind of scenario-based soft-skills training is where the majority of

Learn More About It Cosmic Blender Phone: 617-924-3737 Web site: www.cosmicblender.com Cisco Systems Phone: 408-526-7208 Web site: www.cisco.com

corporate money will be spent.”

Obviously, so does the Internet giant Cisco Systems. Cisco acquired SightPath earlier this year, renaming the technology the Cisco

Content Distribution Network.

Cosmic Blender’s first program for Starwood is WineBUZZ, featuring the master sommelier Andrea Immer. With her experience at New York City’s Windows on the World restaurant and on Quench, a show she co-hosted for the Food Network, Immer is already well regarded in foodie circles. “She’s a visionary who wants to blow the cobwebs out of the industry,” says Reynolds.

Cosmic Blender used Macromedia Director and Adobe Photoshop to design an easy-to-use interface that matched Immer’s detailed take on selling, serving and enjoying wine. The program walks staff through everything, from the basics of grapes to the finer points of pairing a wine with a given entree.

Eventually, Starwood expects to roll out the Cisco technology to all of its properties worldwide, Reynolds says. If that goes smoothly, the company might even consider using it to deliver in-room services.

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