Monday, December 10, 2012

Website Spotlight: Maestro Market

Maestro Market is a unique platform that connects people with their ideal experts, or even heroes, announced its official launch today. They have also announced a partnership with Mom’s Choice Awards®, with a special page dedicated to their Honorees.

Dawn Matheson, executive director of Mom’s Choice Awards® provided this quote about the partnership:
"All over the world, parents, educators, retailers, and members of the media look for the MCA, Mother-and-Child Honoring Excellence, seal of approval when selecting quality products and services for children and families. Now, thanks to Maestro Market, we can directly connect consumers and educators with our award-winning subject matter experts!"

I had a chance to do an interview to find out more:
1) What was the inspiration between starting Maestro Market?
Ian Shea, founder and CEO of Maestro Market, conceived of this platform while seated next to Scot Schmidt, a famous extreme skier, at a banquet dinner. An avid skier himself, Ian was thrilled at this rare opportunity, even as it occurred to him that such experiences don't need to be rare at all. And so, the inspiration for Maestro Market was formed.

Ian realized that there are maestros in just about every field and that many people already know who their maestros are or what affinity they are drawn to and immediately thought of a number of scenarios where maestros come into play. For, example, people often read the last page of a book and think, "I am dying to talk to the author!" Many want to improve their performance in a sport by asking questions of the best in the game. Some are intrigued by a painting or photograph, and want to pick the brain of the person who made it. These are the situations that inspired Ian to dig deeper and create a platform that would allow people to find and connect with influential, exceptionally skilled people in unique and personalized ways.

2) Why did Moms' Choice Awards® decide to partner with Maestro Market?
The foundation of the Mom's Choice Awards® is to help families find the best in family friendly products, services, and resources. Their esteemed judges and Honorees (their name for award winners) include business and medical professionals, educators, and entrepreneurs, as well as published authors. What attracted the Mom's Choice Awards® to Maestro Market was the opportunity to reinforce its mission of "helping families grow emotionally, physically and spiritually."  This partnership is a win-win for everyone. Parents, educators, entrepreneurs - people just like their Honorees - are seeking advice or inspiration from our Maestros. For their part, Mom's Choice Awards® Honorees have the chance to share their expertise and introduce themselves to a broader audience.

3) How are products and experts chosen?
Maestro Markets works to identify partners that already have a portfolio of credible experts from organizations that include magazine publishers, book publishers and/or online communities.  Mom’s Choice is a great example of this. In addition, we have team of editors and content curators that manage these groups to help best promote their experts across the site and in relevant categories.

4) What are some of your top picks or ideas for unique gifts?
For the holidays the team at Maestro Market has curated a list of experts that will make great gifts. They can be found here: https://maestromarket.com/unique-gifts

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