Dr. Erick Thompson

Co-founder and partner of Interactive Knowledge Solutions LLC, Erick moved from his first career as an equine (horse) veterinarian to employment in multinational companies like 3M and Travelers and now  to developing state-of-the-art collaboration and interactive systems for companies of all sizes.

His private practice experience and passion grew into developing and launching small-animal hospital businesses.  This real-life experience and entrepreneurial approach attracted 3M to hire him to manage professional services for their animal health business. Later, St. Paul Companies (merged with Travelers Insurance) invited him to establish an enterprise Knowledge Management system.

The trajectory over those years led him to focus his experience in deploying collaboration and Knowledge Management solutions and incorporating pragmatic business contexts. He has a natural way of stimulating the business brainpower to help people execute a competitive advantage for their companies.

• Co-founder and current president of the Twin Cities Knowledge Management Forum.
• Co-founder and member chair of the 2.0 Council, a peer group of Fortune 100 companies sharing practices around Web 2.0
• Co-founder and member chair of Knowledge Leadership Forum, a leading peer group of KM pioneers. 
• Member of several conference-planning committees, including BRAINTRUST Knowledge Management conference.
• Founding member of CPSquare  Knowledge Management consortium, executive committee member and past chair of the Conference Board’s Learning and Knowledge Management Council.

Chad Trice

Co-founder and partner of Interactive Knowledge Solutions LLC, Chad remembers his first technical / creative spark occured when he mixed Garfield the cat and a TRS-80.  At the age of six, his first computer program plotted out a very pixelated image of the famous cat. That unlikely merger turned Chad's artistic interests from the canvas to the digital realm.

Having attended a fine-arts college for painting, furniture and graphic design, Chad began his first career as an illustrator creating drawings and design specs for retail products. With the dawn of the desktop computer he mastered the digital side of graphic design using design applications to produce product packaging and advertising campaigns.

Over the years Chad has become multi-lingual--mastering scripting languages, databases, code libraries, animation applications, whatever would transfer his design skills from conceptual to architectural. Chad has become what many refer to as a "hybrid". He represents the unique combination of artistic skill and computer savvy.

• Developed interactive solutions and lead project architectures for companies including 3M, HP, Glaxo Smith Kline, St. Paul Travelers, Thomson Reuters, Newell Rubbermaid, Ecolab, Bayer, Hormel, Wenger and many leading advertising agencies.

• Specialties include: Online Collaboration Systems, Knowledge Management Systems, Content Management Systems, Learning Management Systems, e-Learning Application Development, Flash Application Development, Interactive Presentations, Web Development, Graphic Design, Branding and Identity, Product Illustration