Fiberspar will call its future facility in McWhinney’s Iron Horse business park home due to its close proximity to a strong potential labor market, its oil and gas customers, as well as the Great Western Railroad (which Fiberspar will use to transport its goods). Thanks to a very skilled and efficient team at McWhinney, as well as cooperation from Fiberspar and Johnstown officials, the negotiations that began in January this year have been speedy. The goal is for the facility to be operational by October 2012. 

A big kudos to McWhinney! For more information on the project, visit http://www.reporterherald.com/business/northern-business/ci_20681861/oil-and-gas-pipe-maker-locate-east-loveland, http://www.ncbr.com/article/20120522/NEWS/120529977/0/SEARCH.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?   
Sitting in a cabin in the mountains somewhere with my family and friends, cuddled up in a cozy sweater with a giant cup of coffee.
 
Which living person do you most admire?
My dad. He is the most hard-working and selfless person I have ever met, and all around, just a great guy. He owns his own mortgage company and is extremely dedicated to his work. With that being said, he makes it a point to spend quality time with his family and friends and treats everyone he meets with the utmost respect. He travels to Haiti at least three times per year through a Christian organization. It is his greatest passion, and I wish that I was as dedicated as he is in helping those less fortunate.
 
What is your greatest extravagance?
My purse collection. A girl can never have too many purses!
 
What is your current state of mind?
Excited! School’s out, already loving my internship at dovetail, I’m going to England in 3 months… shall I go on?
 
Which talent would you most like to have?
I wish I could sing. When I belt it out in the car, it’s not pretty. In my mind I’m a rock star.   
 
What is the most unusual thing about you?
I can wiggle my ears!
 
What is your motto?
I saw a quote once that said, “Do not settle for less than exactly what you want. Your heart’s desires are there for a reason. Chase them. Pursue them relentlessly. Do not lose sight of your goals. They are your very reason for being.” I believe that everyone should go after their dreams and never give up. This quote sums that up perfectly. I also believe that the best thing one can do in life is to be kind to people.
 
Would you rather be able to hear any conversation or take back anything you have said, and why?
Hear any conversation. I wouldn’t want to take back anything I have said because you learn from mistakes.
 
You have a time machine that will take you backwards to any time from 1800 to the present. What decade do you most want to visit, and why?
The 1940s. I love the clothes and big band music! Everything seemed so classy, vibrant and exciting during that time.
 
If you could be on the cover of any magazine in the world, what would it be, and why?
Bon Appetit because I absolutely love to cook.

From solar to accounting to non profit and pr... the answer: YES! It was unanimous that each individual in their line of work is "cautiously" optimistic.

For more information about Metro Denver EDC please visit: http://www.metrodenver.org/

Project C.U.R.E. was founded in 1987 and is based in Centennial. The organization provides the medical supplies and equipment that medical personnel need to deliver healthcare to their underserved communities.

Project C.U.R.E. has an interesting model. It does not manage or operate international hospitals or clinics. Instead, the organization works with recipient partner organizations by donating the medical supplies and equipment they need to provide healthcare to the people in the local community. These partner organizations can be government facilities or medical facilities owned or managed by private or religious organizations.

Project C.U.R.E. literally saves the lives of thousands of children and at-risk adults each year. If you would like to help support Project C.U.R.E., you can donate money, donate medical supplies.

My biggest takeaways that I hope will resonate with you:

-The circumstance that had the biggest effect on getting her on the road to Harvard when she was a homeless teenager was the death of her mother due to HIV and drug addiction. She was overwhelmed with the realization that she was alive, well and had the power to take control of her own life by not falling victim to repeating the patterns her parents had set in motion. “Later” was a word she abolished from her vocabulary, and she began doing incredible things every day that helped her inch along the path toward her dream of finishing school.

-She credits a teacher at her alternative high school, Perry, as the force that provided her with the most support and mentorship, prodding her to set standards high so that she’d have amazing achievements to reach for, including admission to Harvard. This is just one of the many stories I’ve heard that reminds me that teachers have one of the most influential and important jobs in America – a job we should value higher than most, and we are nowhere close to doing that. This hit particularly close to home for me on April 5. I’d found out an hour before that my brother-in-law had just accepted a teaching position with the Denver Center for International Studies at Montbello, a northeast Denver Public School with a student population that will surely benefit from his tutelage and caring nature. I was filled with pride for him.

-I was given another example in which a news story made a huge, positive difference to someone. When Liz entered Harvard, people who’d read her story in The New York Times offered their support in any way they could—food, clothes, books for class and money for rent. The one she remembers most was of a woman unable to offer monetary support but instead offered to do her laundry every week for a semester, saying, “I can’t do much, but I can do that.”

-Liz Murray is an amazing motivational speaker that absolutely deserved the standing ovation she received – she commanded the room by giving herself to us in such a gentle, candid and sincere way. I’d recommend paying attention to her speeches to see if you can adopt any of her methods to improve your own public speaking persona. Here’s a short clip to give you an idea of her style. 

She left many of us with a few tears in our eyes and the challenge to always have the courage to transform our lives and the lives of others – not later, but today.

Kent Thiry, CEO of DaVita, closed the event with this fitting Karen Rayn quote:

“Only as high as I reach can I grow

Only as far as I seek can I go

Only as deep as I look can I see

Only as much as I dream can I be”

Resources to help you learn more about Liz Murray:

-NPR’s “One Woman’s Journey From Homeless to Harvard”

-Read her New York Times bestselling memoir, Breaking Night.

-Watch the Lifetime movie.

-Check out her website and/or consider booking her as a keynote speaker.

We know from our model of Strategic Community Investment here at dovetail that many people do many things to help; I’m not suggesting that no one ever helps others. In fact, the bystander effect only relates directly to emergency situations and does not take into account volunteer work or donations. However, there are applicable lessons that apply to our model of Strategic Community Investment.

We work to help clients establish connections in the community, which then further help our clients with business development. However, this process can be a daunting one at the start. When those who surround us are not engaged in the community, it can make the task seem even more intimidating for those who would like to become involved. So we tend to make excuses about our lack of time or abilities to help. And while it is important to be realistic about your availability and level of involvement in the community, I guarantee that every person can help in some way, somewhere, regardless of the amount of time you have to give. So I encourage everyone who reads this to be that brave person to step forward and help. You’ll be amazed at what you can do, once you stop the negative thoughts blocking your eagerness to help.

While it PR professional meme is laced with humor, its underlying argument is real. A PR professional could be anyone of these images, but it’s important to remember they are not all of them. When a potential client and PR professional look to collaborate, complete transparency and honesty must be revealed from both parties to secure the most ideal partnership. This means the client must not expect the PR professional to be every image, and the PR professional must not pretend he or she can be. Otherwise a tired batman might wander on to President Obama’s stage without removing his costume and no one wants that.

While these memes are fun and easy to browse through, I urge you to take a minute and think about why society has such vast ideas about something and how you can learn to avoid stereotypes and continue to be misinformed in the future.

And a funny thing happens during these games: the fans begin rooting for the teams they don’t know. I watched tiny Norfolk State (a #15 seed) challenge perennial powerhouse University of Missouri (a #2 seed) on Friday, and both the fans in the arena and the people around me watching on television were cheering loudly for Norfolk State.

Few, if any, of these people had any connection to Norfolk State (or anything against Missouri), but the power of the underdog took over, and suddenly these fans were cheering for Norfolk State as hard as if they had graduated from the small school. Americans love an underdog. And it’s not just in sports.

I have worked with a number of crisis-communications clients over the years, and one of the first things I share with them is that there is a rhythm to how a crisis plays out. Critics and the media will take their shots at your reputation, but over time (the length depends on how strong your reputation was before the crisis and how well you handle it) the tide likely will turn in your favor as the public starts to view you as the underdog.

It is not a lot of fun taking the slings and arrows of critics when your company has made a mistake, but quickly accepting responsibility and taking steps to make it right go a long way toward getting public opinion on your side.

When most people think about the biggest crises of the past few decades, typically what come to mind are things like Tylenol’s cyanide poisonings, Odwalla’s E.coli outbreak, Coca-Cola’s “New Coke” debacle, JetBlue’s week-long operations collapse and Toyota’s massive car recall.  But all of these companies have the same thing in common: they survived their crisis and remain strong companies today.

And part of the reason is that the American public stopped viewing these companies as the goliaths they were and started thinking of them as underdogs.

•    Public relations specialist employment is projected to grow by 22 percent during the next ten years.
•    With expansion of the industry and individual firms, opportunities for career advancement abound.
•    Internships and student groups within professional organizations such as the Public Relations Society of America offer excellent avenues for finding an entry-level position.

Real-time news cycles, full and diverse client rosters and the constantly changing landscape of how humans communicate keep the job fast-paced and exciting. And by fostering true partnerships with clients and other stakeholders—serving as counselors and not just order takers—public relations professionals can continue to raise the profile of the industry, foster its growth and attract talented employees.

This month’s theme investigated the state of education in Metro Denver.  It was eye- opening, disheartening and encouraging all at the same time.  Since my work has been very focused on the state of real estate and development for a long while, I’ve known for quite some time that government alone cannot solve our infrastructure problems any longer.  Through Impact Denver, I’m being exposed to many other important, complex local issues that individuals, companies and the government will need to collaborate on in order to find solutions.  This is exactly the kind of strategic community investment dovetail solutions encourages our clients to engage in.  I would encourage any of my clients to jump in and help solve the education crisis in our state – it’s good for business no matter how you cut it.

Below is a very brief overview of the things we touched on and additional resources to learn more.  Call us if your company would like to commit to helping Colorado solve its education problems so that we can strategically align you.

An example of a serious education problem: Lobato v. Colorado Case

Colorado’s constitution requires that the state’s school-funding system “establish and maintain a thorough and uniform system of free public schools,” but the plaintiffs in the Lobato case have sought to have the current system declared unconstitutional, asserting that K-12 schools are severely underfunded and that there is no rational connection between what Colorado spends on public schools and what the state expects the schools to produce.  If District Judge Sheila Rappaport’s landmark ruling in favor of Lobato is upheld, it could have multibillion-dollar implications for the state budget.  There’s no doubt the best business minds will need to help solve this major funding and quality education problem.

Here are two great resources to keep up on the issue: Education News Colorado and Children’s Voices

An example of a serious education solution: Denver Preschool Program

Various studies have shown that early childhood education can make the biggest difference in a child’s long-term success. The Denver Preschool Program (DPP) is the result of a voter-approved initiative to provide tuition credits for parents and quality improvement resources to preschools. DPP is open and voluntary for all Denver children the year before they are eligible for kindergarten. A Denver family may use the tuition credit with any preschool provider that is licensed by the state and enrolled with the Denver Preschool Program, regardless of where that preschool is located.  Financing programs like this leads to a high return on investment for our community.

To learn more, visit Denver Preschool Program