Honoring the first, and last men on the moon.

We all mourn the loss of Neil Armstrong, the first human to walk on the surface of the moon. We honor that small step all those years ago and his passing is one great loss for mankind.

I never got to meet Armstrong, not a lot of folks did unless you worked directly with him. It was his nature to quietly go about life as a pilot, engineer and teacher.

I was fortunate to see two men who walked on the moon, including Buzz Aldrin who followed Armstrong to the lunar surface as the 2nd man to walk on the moon.

A couple of years ago I got to see the the last man to walk on the moon, Gene Cernan. He was honored by Wings over the Rockies Air and Space Museum with the 2010 Spreading Wings Award.

Here's a video we produced of his speech that night. While we remember Neil Armstrong for being first, let's not forget those who followed in his foot prints and more importantly, when if ever, will we go back.



Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations

Facebook Fatigue

I think I'm suffering from Facebook Fatigue. Granted it's not as bad as the heartbreak of psoriasis but it is what it is.

This has nothing to do with the over-hyped and underwhelming IPO by the company. It's all been documented, once in a while accurately by local and national media. I'll leave any thoughts of buying Facebook stock to you, your investment advisor and possibly your pastor. I'm not any sort of financial expert but Facebook is essentially a platform for about a billion freeloaders. I've never bought a product or service through Facebook and likely never will.

My question about Facebook is exactly what is it good for? (See above paragraph) It's supposed to be a fun place. One friend described her circle of friends as an online "Class Reunion" on demand. A cool notion for sure.

From a business point of view, it is a good platform to engage customers. Some businesses do a great job, keeping followers posted on good deals, new products and responding quickly to suggestions and complaints. Too often however, most companies presume that it's the 20-sometings who "get" social media because, well, they're kids and are experts at all things social.

Wrong.

Social Media, like traditional media is all about messaging and content. To paraphrase a great Duke Ellington tune, "It don't mean a thing if it don't mean a thing."

My main cause of fatigue however, is just how hateful so many posts are becoming. The source of it all is the current Presidential Campaign. One recent post from a friend accused GOP Candidate Mitt Romney, and by extension the entire party of "Hating women." Poppycock. Another post had a picture of President Obama next to a communist flag. Disgraceful. Whether or not you disagree with the man, respect the office.

Yes I agree that Candidate Romney should disclose more tax returns than he has, but at the same time I'd like to see the sealed school records of President Obama. Sealed? Why? But both can be asked for politely, and discussed politely. Granted it's the campaigns, sadly that are setting the tone for all this, but why must we be sucked into the cesspool?

Both campaigns produce lots of dubious graphics and videos, post them, then too many of us blindly click the "share" button. Which in turns ignites the firestorm of responses.

Then there's the foul language in so many posts. Why? Aren't we supposed to be friends? What ever happened to civil discourse?

I'm not going to leave Facebook, it's so much fun to see pics of family and friends, or hear about what they're doing and where. Love it. I've got so many friends I haven't seen in person for years, but this is the next best thing. I don't want to lose touch.

But the other stuff, at least right now is simply so much hoo-haw so no offense, if you post crap, I'm cutting you off. Glad to re-engage after the election.

I'm just so fatigued.

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations

Bonfils Blood Center: A Community Treasure

 The folks at Bonfils Blood Center just released their annual report, and they did it online. The report impacted me in three ways:

1. We were honored to again produce the video elements of the report. (Pages 4 and 14)
2. I'm a regular donor, recently donating my 51st pint of O-Neg blood.
3. The fact the report is online, easily shareable and much more cost and message effective than the traditional glossy report you get in the mail.

But as Paul Harvey used to say, "Now ...for the rest ...of the story." We spent the first day of shooting video for the report at a blood drive, following the collected blood back to Bonfils HQ, watching the exhaustive testing and preparation of the blood supply to it being picked up by area hospitals. As smooth a running operation as I've ever seen.

We did all this on Thursday July 19. Very early the next morning, a gunman opened fire on theater-goers in Aurora, CO. Many died, many were critically injured and taken immediately to area hospitals. They survived because highly trained surgeons and ER staff had the most precious of elements available to them; Human Blood.

I talked with Dr. Eric Lung of Sky Ridge Medical Center afterwards. He told me, "Without that supply of blood, people would die." Bonfils made sure the blood was there and people survived. When I first heard the news of the shootings, I immediately thought about all I'd witnessed the day before, especially that box of blood being picked up by an area hospital.

While Bonfils was literally mobbed with people wanting to donate blood after the shootings, the hard fact is only 4% of eligible donors in Colorado actually donate. The two most common reasons for not giving are understandable. They hate needles and think it's a very time-consuming process.

The 4% who do give have just one reason for doing so. They know that when they donate, they save a life.

So let this 6+ gallon donor put you non-donors at ease. First, the Bonfils staff is highly trained and while you feel a bit of a poke from the needle when donating, it's just that, a little poke. Secondly the whole thing takes less than an hour.

Less than an hour of your time to save a life. Think on that. Bonfils' operating hours make it possible for must about anyone to fit that hour into their schedule.

Bonfils has 400 dedicated and talented staff. From the professionals who takes your donation either at a blood drive or a Bonfils Blood center, to the people that work so hard to make sure the blood supply is safe to those who prepare it for delivery to area hospitals, all are incredibly dedicated.

It's great that so many folks offered to help out after the theater shootings. But the need for blood is year-round. For accident victims, cancer patients, even routine surgeries the need is daily, make that hourly.

If you've never donated, I urge to try it just once. When you're done, know that you've saved a life.

It's a nice feeling. Even better when you've done it 51 times!

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations

Let's hear it for the Techies!

A couple of events the past week or so remind me to give a big SHOUT OUT to the techies who love and work among us.

This week's landing by NASA's Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory is nothing short of extraordinary. The darn thing took 8 months to get to Mars, and there was about a 8 minute window of disaster where they had to slow it down from 13-thousand MPH, release a drogue shoot, then this rocket hovercraft kind of doo-hickie slowly lowered the lander to the planet.

Extraordinary doesn't come close to describing the engineering skills that went into getting Curiosity to Mars where it's going to supply us with all sorts of data over the next couple of years. NASA needed the PR shot in the arm too, what with the Space Shuttle retired and us having to hitch a ride with the Russians to get to the space station.

Then there's the Olympics. We've seen some amazing performances, made even more amazing the the digital video technology being used. The best example being events like diving and gymnastics. Spectacular multi-image views of dives to vaults instantly. Plus we're watching on a multitude of video pipelines. As I write this I have one set of events on TV, another on my iPad.

A large number of the folks involved in bringing it to our various screens are actually controlling it all from New York, "Across the pond" from England.

Back to the Mars mission, Curiosity is sitting on a planet about 56 million miles away. How far is that? Well, it can take anywhere from 5-25 minutes for the signals carrying the picture data to reach earth. That's after the 8-month trip to get there in the first place.

The next big test will be to send a probe to Mars, then have it take off and return home to earth.

All of the above proof positive that science and technology is anything but boring. Thank goodness there are still some folks willing to dig deep into the science of it all, so the rest of us non-geeks can sit back and watch in awe.

Which this non-geek is doing!

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations

The Unsinkable Missy Franklin

As I write this, 17 year old Olympic Swimmer Missy Franklin has won 2 out of a possible 7 medals; a Gold and a Bronze.

**** THIS JUST IN****

Make that TWO gold medals and a Bronze, Missy won her second Gold Medal in the 4X200 freestyle relay!

A huge success by any measure but Missy isn't finished yet.

While Missy got a lot of attention here in Colorado leading up to the games, the national and international media stayed tried and true to the stale concept of their made-up heroes. I doubt that Missy cared. She lives to swim, not for the headlines.

Well, the world now knows better. There is nothing made-up about her. Missy is a superstar in the pool, but in life as well. Leading up to the Olympics she stayed true to her school, Regis Jesuit. Others in her position, and we wouldn't have blamed them, would have put 100% focus on London, not a high school swim team.

Not Missy, who swam at the Colorado State Swimming Championships because that's who Missy is. Loyal to her school and community and Team USA.

After the horror of Aurora, near where Missy calls home, we needed the smile and infectious enthusiasm that is unique to Missy. I haven't met her, but know several folks who are friends of Missy and her family and they assure me what you see on TV is what you see in real life. Including busting those dance moves!

Missy has, and will be deluged with huge endorsement offers. All will be turned down. Missy is staying amateur so she can swim for Regis during her senior year and what ever college is lucky enough to snag her after graduation. At 17 years old, there are plenty of Olympics and endorsement opportunities ahead.

Since she was 5, Missy Franklin swims because she loves it. She's an honest, decent, smart and hardworking kid.

All of America and the world for that matter, can learn a thing or two from this 17 year old.

Athletes as role models? In the case of Missy Franklin, oh yeah,

Thanks Missy for all you do and especially who you are. We're proud of what you've accomplished, but more importantly the person you are,

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Pubic Relations