Jack D. Smith
President, Arrow NewMedia Inc.

E-Mail: SalesForce@ArrowNewMedia.com
Phone: (434) 825-2168

Jack D. Smith has been a trailblazer in online entertainment for over two decades. He is founder and president of Arrow NewMedia Inc., a leader in helping companies build and retain online communities. Arrow NewMedia's client list reads like a corporate who's who including companies like Sesame Street, Playboy, Fox Sports, Microsoft, NBC, Electronic Arts, AOL and TV Guide.

The corporate motto is "Magnetic Content for the Web."

He has consulted for AOL, Microsoft, Delphi and other online services on issues of community and digital marketing. He was one of the early proponents of using online games and entertainment as user acquisition and retention tools. Arrow NewMedia was chosen by Sesame Street to develop a special game to help them celebrate their 30th anniversary and by NBC to help them when it needed games and activities for its Summer Olympics site.

Smith has been involved in the online industry since its infancy… or at least since its toddler years. At General Electric, he was a key employee with GEnie, their online service (and at one time a primary force in the online industry). Many of the business models and systems now used by industry leader America Online (AOL) were developed at GEnie.

In the early 1980s, he was one of the first to recognize the marketing and promotional potential of the online environment. As the proprietor of Writers' Ink, a digital writers' community, Smith developed the first Virtual Book Tour for online author promotions. He worked with well-known writers like Tom Clancy, Michael Crichton, Clive Barker, Lawrence Block and Anne McCaffrey, making them available to thousands of fans online. Writers' Ink included online poetry slams, a screenwriter's school and numerous workshops.

Smith was involved in the development of online games and worked with industry leaders like Electronic Arts, Kesmai and Simutronics. Before Ultima Online, Asheron's Call and Everquest, there were Gemstone, Island of Kesmai and Stellar Warrior. Smith worked in the realm of these massively multiplayer games from 1984 through 1996.

Smith's infectious enthusiasm for all things Web has attracted much of the finest technical and creative talent to be found in and around Charlottesville, Va. - an area that is rapidly gaining a national profile as a high-tech center. Smith himself has one of the highest profiles in the local tech community. As co-founder of the Neon Guild, an organization that accommodates the sharing of ideas, resources, and opportunities among the local high-tech community, he keeps a finger on the pulse of new web developments, strategies, and technologies. As an employer, his reputation is that of a savvy and determined entrepreneur who recognizes talent and provides a dynamic, worker-friendly environment.

The Arrow NewMedia offices are located in a 19th century haunted house in Charlottesville, VA. Smith can usually be found there either designing online activities for one of his clients... or playing games.