I love being surprised by the multi-talented people in CLT.
Everyday I'm treated to a new and fascinating experience that is unique
and uplifting. Yesterday, I happened to come across a rare but
altogether amazing sight: The Windsor Flattes Pose of Excelsior the
Legend. Few understand the power and majesty behind said pose. It
invokes feelings of pride and humility at the same time.

This mighty vision has given me passion to write; only the bravest of
souls will attempt such a dangerous feat. Kudos to you Nick...kudos to
you.

What you cannot see from the photo is that Nick's right foot is
actually about 2 inches off the ground. If executed properly, this
pose, made famous by Excelsior the Legend, will allow momentary flight,
and/or spontaneous laughter. If executed without the necessary
preparation, this maneuver can end with a sore belly and red face.
You've been warned!

We had an in-house Fashion Expo last Thursday that was put on by our Designer, Couture and Salon teams in our Fashion group. They did a great job! There were 15 brands represented and we had the opportunity to learn about their products and plans for next season. We also got sample items and if we got all the vendor boxes marked off on our "passport" we were entered into a drawing for some pretty great prizes!

Here’s a video flyby of the room – I just did a walk through with the camera held high. (Graham M. will be doing a blog post with video of one of the runway shows.)

Here’s a “in good fun” behind the scenes video clip. That’s Brian T. singing away and some of the ladies resting up and prepping for the next runway show.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with the “stealth” video but people are starting to figure it out and they act all normal as soon as they see me coming with the camera. Hey, Zappos people are smart and catch on quick!
Guess I’ll have to get one of those concealed cameras. I’m pretty sure some people will “get me back” one day.

Thank you for a lovely event,Fashion Team! Thanks to our Scheduling Group that arranged an orderly flow of people from our CLT team so they could attend the Expo and learn more about some of the brands we sell.

And a BIG thanks to our vendors who came out and spent the day with us! Celine, Christian Lacroix, Cole Haan, Donna Karan, Emilio Pucci, Givenchy, Juicy Couture, Kate Spade, Lacoste, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Mark Nason, Stuart Weitzman, Taryn Rose, Ted Baker, and Vince Camuto.

Up in the sky? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope, it's firmly on the ground. ZU stands for Zappos University but we're definitely having a lot of fun with the "Zoo" wordplay. Mark, our ZU Director is nicknamed the "ZU Keeper" and the entire team is also called the "ZU Crew."

About a week ago the ZU Crew assembled for their first ever group picture. It will be used in our new Employee Handbook which has a yearbook theme. I think the kids in the foreground are power napping. About a half hour earlier I saw them hammering away on the Dance Dance Revolution in the lobby. Missy had everything under control with our Easter recess visitors. The ZU crew will also be "shepherding" a yearbook for 2008. Yep, club and team pictures, a superlatives list (best/most likely to x, y, z), "letterhumans", a Prom Court, the whole 9 yards.

Now ZU also has a very serious purpose at Zappos. Our culture is not just about having a positive attitude. We know we also need the best possible training so we can develop and maintain top caliber skills. ZU will be rolling out 3 broad, overlapping initiatives soon:

PE - Professional Growth & Enrichment
O&A - Outreach & Assessment
Life Styles – Personal Growth & Enrichment

One of the first classes will be the inaugural session of “ZULE” which stands for Zappos University Leadership Essentials. It will be in the PE category and the first class will have many of our senior managers.
The feedback they give will be incorporated for following classes. We’ll let you know how it goes!

So... this will be my last "Dunk Tank" posting, but I didn't want to let Fred and Mark off the hook, since both Galen and Chris have already been victimized by my Flip Video. Again, as part of "Carnival Day" at Zappos.com, Directors and Managers climbed into a dunk tank to benefit the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation, and here we get to see the artist formerly knows as SVP as well as the ZU Keeper both take the plunge for the kids. Thanks for the "Fun and a little weirdness", boys!

<Dramatic Dunh Dunh Dunh music> All good things must come to an end and Thursday was the last day for our brave band of Las Vegas Encounter adventurers. They visited with both Marketing and Creative Services and then met with our Life Coach, Dr. Vik. Our Marketing team has grown more than most departments at Zappos in the past year. We’ve become much more visible online, in print, and now, on television. We’ve also become much more active on the relatively invisible side of the internet by more closely planning and managing our online presence.

Our Creative Services team has also grown a fair amount, both here in Las Vegas and in Kentucky.
As the number of items we carry increases, the number of photographs taken and the number of web pages, complete with fresh graphical elements, also increases. These Zappos blogs were a recent project for Creative Services with help from Marketing, Development and System Administration. A huge commitment is our website renovation project. That’s a fine balancing act right there – too little change and what’s the point – too much change too fast and that’s not good either.

And of course no trip to Zappos in Las Vegas is complete without a visit with Dr.Vik, our fulltime, onsite Life Coach. Besides the bestowing of paper crowns and pictures sitting on the throne, everyone is encouraged to speak their mind, about good or bad, personal or public, to Dr. Vik. He’s an essential element to keeping our culture just right!

Next, we took some group pictures at the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign. Here’s the group on the backside of the sign. They are spelling out "LVE KY" with their bodies.