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We are pretty certain it is. But we’ve got so much going on in our lives, sometimes it is hard to pick which causes to support. And it is interesting to see where those causes might lead. For example, I was first introduced to Keymer (where I obviously now work) via a press release I received for my blog. What I’ve found helpful, is finding out what your friends and clients love, and then leveraging your skills to help their causes out.

With that in mind we’ve found a way to support the St. Johns Riverkeeper and Atypical Arts upcoming kids concert at tonight’s Art Walk. Our client Black Sheep Restaurant Group, was moving out of their downtown space to prepare the opening of their historic new construction project at 1534 Oak in 5 Points. They needed to move out their stock of fancy soda pops from their downtown location. Within minutes we had a low-fi phone-generated graphic (below) hawking the availability of delicious sodas for $1 outside of Burrito Gallery tonight. All proceeds will be dedicated to the two non-profits. We’ll even recollect the glass bottles and donate them to my mom who uses them in her reclaimed glass art.

Hope to see everyone downtown

(TA)

I recently had the pleasure to speak on behalf of the Chamber newest project called Jax Boldest. I was on the best-of-class show, First Coast Connect with Melissa Ross. You can hear the show here, click the Tuesday button, my segment starts at 23:00, its worth listening to as there are numerous call ins and anecdotes.

Jax Boldest is an interesting look at amazing things that are happening here on the first coast. What has blown me away is the rapid adoption of this contest. Typically video contests and user submitted content projects are slow to gain steam. I thought this might be true of the Chamber’s demographic (formed 1885). Lets face it, many businesses and non-profits are trying to hang in there and probably don’t have a lot of time for self promoting video initiatives. But something different is happening here. There are already dozens of submissions. This is very encouraging. As a firm who is always looking to help innovators tell their story, we have found, at times, Jacksonville can be very comfortable, maybe even reserved about exciting things happening in our area.

We love that the Chamber has dusted off its shoulders (a bit) and is aggressively looking to promote all levels of entrepreneurship and invention and is using an avante-garde approach to illustrating what is so great about who we are and where we call home.

Tonight is the Chamber’s 127th Annual meeting. I’m going as a guest of my great friends over at Content Design Group. I can’t wait to discuss this project with folks and with any luck meet Mr. Kahn!

(TA)

As I write this blog post, in another tab in my browser, I have a live feed from One Stadium Place where a press conference is about to start to announce the Jaguars new head football coach. Coach Malarkey will presumably say a few words but, like the rest of Jacksonville, my eyes will be searching for a certain mustached billionaire. Mr. Kahn, who only recently bought the Jaguars has become an instant celebrity in our fair city. He has made a few strong moves already including the hiring of Malarkey. There is something beguiling and yet comforting about Mr. Kahn’s mustache that really connects to Jacksonville. It can’t hurt that the deal to buy the team was announced in Movember. The iconic turn-of-the-century-before-last stache has spawned a flood of twitter-fueled marketing love and hipster fitted screened t-shirts. One is not sure whether to believe Shad Kahn when he says he didn’t know his mustache had super powers.

The energy around the stache, the Jags and Jacksonville itself seems palpable right now. Our business community is gaining steam on several fronts. When you combine the sale of the Jaguars to Mr. Kahn, the sale of Winn Dixie, and the announcement that Embraer will be building their jets in Jacksonville, you are looking at more than a billion and a half dollars in business and transactions in December.

So what can we do be a part of this amazing Jacksonville and Jaguar renaissance? Here is something! With a click of the link you will find the first of many opportunities to see Mr. Kahn and Coach Malarkey together with some key Jaguar players, the Roar, and thousands of your closest Jaguars friends.

But how do we know Mr. Kahn knows and loves this city?
Discounted concessions and $2 beers! Clicking the link now aren’t you?! That’s turn-of-the-century-before-last beer pricing!

Please join the Keymer crew as we welcome Shad Kahn and Mike Malarkey to Jacksonville on Tuesday the 17th at the ‘Bank, and lets keep this momentum rolling like Jones Drew on 3rd and short!

Though we are well-known for development and implementation of communications strategies that drive forward our clients’ agendas, we are, perhaps, less well-known for our Knowledge Services programs – services that are additional to our core offer in which we have extensive experience and have earned the title of “expert”.

Our knowledge services include: Social media consulting, Writing Services, Media and Messaging Training, General Business and Political Intelligence, Accounting Intelligence, Research and Polling, and Recruitment.

We can provide our clients with a tailored program suited to their needs! If you are looking for expert assistance in one of these areas, please contact us.

Check out the Knowledge Services page for more information.

KP

A full two-thirds of the Jacksonville office are at the Florida offices of Hamilton Campaigns working on media training today. In campaigns and in business, doing well can mean a great deal. Doing poorly can lose an election.

There is little doubt about the importance of doing well when the cameras are rolling and microphones are on. And in this day and age, if you are a business leader, an influencer, or a politician, being well prepared and keeping your composure makes all the difference in the world.

As a firm that utilizes effects-based public relations, much of what we do is preparation for the lights, cameras, and microphones. Whether its an ambush interview or a moment you’ve been waiting for all of your life, taking the time to train and prepare will have you watching on loop or cringing for years to come.

There is so much to be thankful for. We hope everyone has the opportunity to be with their loved ones and has time to hug, to talk. We hope that with the commercialization of the holiday season, before we get too caught up on what we don’t have, we stop and reflect on how much we have.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The latest from our friend and colleague Frank Salinger in DC. Follow Frank on Twitter @annapolislawyer

November 2011
THOUGHTS ON BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT
Behind the Budget

The New(er) Math

I’m no math wizard. I was not terrible at arithmetic—when I remembered to carry my numbers—but the wheels came off when Maryland public schools adopted what was then called the “New Math.” This short-lived experiment in educational faddism included using a base of 8 numbers rather than 10 and, as far as I recall, you could end up with different answers to the same problem. Worse yet, some numbers really meant other numbers. I never could figure our why a “7” was no longer a “7” and pretended to be a “9”. Didn’t we already have a “9”? Satirist Tom Lehrer even wrote a song called New Math that went “It’s so simple, So very simple, That only a child can do it” before concluding that “13-5=7.” Famously, even the Soviet Union rejected this scheme and taught traditional math. No wonder they were able to fire Sputnik into space. It’s the reason I’ve always been sanguine about school prayer. I prayed to every religion, monotheistic or not, before every math quiz, test or exam until I escaped 10th grade with a merciful (and passing) D in math.

Compared to federal budgeting though, New Math was almost rational. We all know that the GOP cut spending by $38 billion in 2011. We read that in all the press releases so it must be true. We’ve read Paul Krugman and other liberal economists claim all this austerity brought on by government spending cuts has been a drag on the economy. Vice President Biden’s staff chimed in to claim government spending cutbacks led to sharp losses in state and local employment.

Using real (i.e., Old Math), one can quickly see that both the Right and the Left are completely wrong. During the first nine months of this year, federal spending rose $120 billion higher than in the same period in 2010. That’s a 5% increase (for these purposes a “5” is really a “5”). Even worse, the deficit climbed another $23.5 billion.

The states haven’t curbed their profligacy either. Total state outlays in 2010 were almost 10% higher than in 2008, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers’ annual State Expenditure Report which also concludes that general fund spending — which makes up about 40% of total state spending — is expected to climb 5.2% in 2011 and 2.6% in 2012. Far from laying off teachers and public safety workers—the President’s standard camping trope—the number of state and local government jobs has fallen just 2.3% since 2007—far less than the beleaguered private sector.

The point I’m making isn’t to call for more spending cuts—although I think that is sound and necessary public policy—but to suggest that the half-truths from both sides of poach spectrum are one reason the American people find politics so distasteful and, to some extent, why a quintessentially establishment figure like Mitt Romney can’t close the deal with GOP voters. Not that any of this is his fault, but who can trust establishment figures of either stripe?

The anti-establishment (or perhaps new establishment) trends and tools are changing all manner of things including government relations and lobbying. In an era when a political ad showing Herman Cain’s campaign manager smoking a cigarette can go viral and everyone under 30 (including Capitol Hill staffers) are well versed in social media, I’m struck by the reluctance of many companies to engage.

It’s odd that the nonprofit world is so much more adept at social media. For example, the Chronicle of Philanthropy found 92% of charities linked their web site to a Facebook page and 90% link to Twitter feeds. The number in the for-profit world is nowhere near that. I expect some of this is due to corporate legal departments’ fear of saying anything. After all, it’s hard to attach a disclaimer to a 140 character tweet. Nevertheless, social media is an effective and inexpensive tool to reach lawmakers and to get your company’s message points into the public policy arena.

Let’s get started.

Frank M. Salinger

Earlier this week, Tony was on WJXT4 The Local Station talking about 3 apps you might not have heard of. He spoke about the value of Evernote for business and well, everything; Klout for seeing your true influence; and photofunia for placing your images in unexpected places (from your phone). This link shows the second half of the segment. Check out these apps for yourself and stay tuned for more useful tips from http://www.social-effects.com.

(KP)

The team at Keymer is thrilled to announce that just after midnight on Labor Day (September 5), Simon became the proud father of twin boys, Hope and Hector Keymer. Hope and Hector join an excited big sister, Daire at the Keymer home.

Simon had been very outnumbered at home with the Keymer’s dog Kim even being a female. Needless to say, Simon is relieved that with the addition of the boys, the count is now even! Welcome Hope and Hector!

I have been lucky recently to have been invited to retreats and conferences at some of our country’s finest resorts. I’ve had a butler and a caddie for a couple days. It is nice to have a team on the road but I’m not getting soft. And don’t worry, like Joe Scarborough, I’m coming home.

These places do make doing business feel like a vacation. I am presently writing from an overwhelmingly beautiful suite at the Lodge at Sea Island as the Packers and Saints slug it out on my very large television. Before dinner I watched President Obama give an almost stemwinding speech to congress in hopes to pass his American Jobs Act with broad reaching business implications.

The President’s speech was timely as I have been able to discuss the macro economic condition for the last couple of days with a group of successful business owners. Even in the midst of the luxury of Sea Island, with private jets thrusting overhead every 15 minutes or so, it is clear to all, it hasn’t been a good couple of years. Growth is non-existent, progress is stymied, Congress enjoys a 6% good/excellent rating, lending isn’t happening despite rock bottom interest rates and Washington seems like a bad reality show cat fight. When a possible future President of the United States calls Social Security a Ponzi scheme, I believe its a good sign we’ve lost our way.

But I found an interesting conversation taking place with each of these business owners. Something every one of them were discussing. Schools. If you want to talk about where America is heading, head down to your local elementary school. Do you like what you see? While I did hear conversations about pricing and service and banking and golf, I also heard about people moving to neighborhoods just for the schools. I heard of Initiatives to support schools by businesses in their community. There is a focus on our future, and one has to wonder if we are looking to our younger generations for glimmers of hope as we lean on the ropes. Sure, its about our kids, our families. But it is also about our business and our economic future. Just today my golf partner today missed the awards dinner to rush home to his daughter’s magnet school open house.

If we can get passed ideological differences and roll up our sleeves and work together to improve our educational infrastructure we will be investing in America, something the President has included in the American Jobs Act. Throw out partisanship rhetoric and talk parenting and cultivating entrepreneurs and an educated workforce.

We’ve got catching up to do with the rest of the world, but more importantly than that we need to be creating jobs with innovation and forging new opportunities for the children of America. I intend to do more and be more involved, and I know I am not the only one.

(TA)