Assaf Avni redesigns American Academy of Advertising Website

Assaf Avni, a PHD candidate in the Department of Advertising, has taken over the role of Webmaster of The American Academy of Advertising (AAA). The AAA is a professional organization for advertising scholars and industry professionals who wish to contribute to the development of advertising education.

Assaf redesigned the AAA website to increase efficiency and add features. A survey he conducted with a number of AAA members revealed that members wanted greater online functionality and increased collaboration. Functionality relates to issues such as online conference registrations and payment of membership dues, and collaboration relates to features such as bulletin boards and an active membership directory where members can share information about research interests and communicate with each other online. "I was trying to make the site as easy as possible to navigate. There are about 1000 members on the AAA database and my vision was to create an online community where members can meet, exchange ideas and collaborate," said Assaf when asked about his philosophy when redesigning the website.

The AAA site now includes useful resources for advertising scholars and professionals such as an organizational calendar, discussion boards, extended search features, educational resource center, conference proceedings, collaboration tools, job bank, and voting privileges on online polls. Our thanks and congratulations to Assaf! You can visit the site at www.aaasite.org.

Assaf Avni is an assistant instructor in the Department of Advertising. He holds an MA in Advertising from UT Austin and a BA in Advertising from Michigan State University. In addition to his academic path, Avni worked as an art director and a web designer for a number of years and has recently founded an online community dedicated to bridging the gap between theory and practice in advertising. Avni is currently researching management of creative teams and a course in the Spring 2007 semester on Advertising and Popular Culture. His research interests over the past few years have been in the areas of creativity, creative process in teams, nurturing creativity in teams and organizational innovation. For comments, questions or suggestions, you can email Avni at: creativity@mail.utexas.edu.

11/30/2006