This is all possible due to the many scholarship and memorial funds established at JBBBS by caring members of our community.  Thanks for making these dreams a reality year after year!

Want to hear for yourself what this experience means to the children and parents who benefit?  Check out this great video!

Well I wish all of my artists did this…and it’s a wonderful promotional idea for all artists, thus my sharing this phenomena.  In fact, I was prompted because she has been offered a couple of book jobs lately (and other publishing interest as well) due to one or more of these ‘little ditties.’  And that pleases us no end!  The artist is Priscilla Burris and many of you know her…. if not through SCBWI, then through her blog and well, her ‘ditties!’  And yes, she is just like her loveable characters.  Priscilla hasn’t always done this, but in recent times she has been taken over it would seem….and it’s a good thing!  Think about it all…. let those characters and their stories OUT!  it’s spring…let them bloom.

There is a new demographic emerging in America, of young people whose main mode of communication and cultural exchange is through social media and the Internet.  These young adults, many just beginning to enter the workforce and establish their own identities, are often passionately committed to social justice and willing to make time in their busy lives for causes they care about.

We hope that our new embrace of the Internet 2.0 will not only allow JBBBS to share valuable information with our community, but that it will allow our volunteers and beneficiaries a platform to share their personal stories—why they are involved, what the agency has meant to them, and why others should become involved.

We’d love to hear your story.  Contact us at info@jbbbs.org or leave a comment in this post.  Hope to hear from you soon!

Our fledgling PR agency is flying to Austin, Texas to attend the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference & Festival – which runs from Friday 8 March to Sunday 17 March 2013 . SXSW offers a convergence of emerging technologies and music and is celebrated as a launch pad for new creative and digital applications and content.  Twitter famously caught the attention of the tech world at SXSW in 2007. Last year speakers included Al Gore, Sean Parker, Pinterest founder Ben Silbermann and Bruce Springsteen. There were over 1000 conference sessions and 25,000 attendees.

Rule 5 Managing Partner Rob Brown who will be representing the agency said “this is where the great minds in emerging technologies gather every year to think and talk. If you want to know what’s next in communications SXSW is the place you are most likely to find out”.  The many hundreds of sessions will include ‘How Twitter Has Changed How We Watch TV’, ‘Advanced Social Media Monitoring’ and a meet up with Sir Tim Berners Lee.

In 1919, Judge Lewis Goldberg saw a need in his community. As Jewish families were moving to Boston from across the pond, many were struggling to assimilate to life in America. Many of these families were poor, lived in one-parent families, had limited access to education, or were in need of adult guidance. Providing that adult male as a mentor or friend, Goldberg thought, might make the transition into American life a bit easier for these boys and would help strengthen the Jewish community. And thus were the beginnings of Jewish Big Brothers of Greater Boston

Ninety-three years later, the agency continues to serve Jewish boys but has expanded its programs to both male and female children regardless of religion as well as adults with disabilities. Each year however, the waiting list for Big Brothers continues to grow and fewer men are stepping up to the plate.

This year, our 93rd year of serving children in need, we hope to recruit enough volunteers to match every boy on our waiting list with a Big Big Brother, every girl with a Big Sister, and every adult with a disability with a Friend.  The needs of our community are many, but with your help, we can strengthen families and make a significant difference in individual lives.

Baseball season is around the corner. Take a few practice swings and step up to the plate. We can’t wait for you to join our team of all-stars.

Visit www.jbbbs.org/volunteer to get started today.

At its heart, OTA is a network of creative community builders and change agents. A series of spotlights on OTA’s website focused on the best of the best. Jason Alley, Principal/Creative Director of Message, was among those selected to represent the Black Hills region.

View Jason Alley’s profile here:
http://ota.is/portfolio-item/jason-alley/

OTA:
OTA offers extraordinary experiences and engagements that educate, empower, and serve as creative catalysts for community-builders and change agents to improve the lives of all people living in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota. Now in its fourth year, more than 1,000 attendees have gathered to find inspiration and learn from 30 global leaders specializing in design, technology, entrepreneurship, community building, innovation, non-profits, branding, marketing, social media and movements. To learn more about OTA, visit www.otasessions.com

OTA 2013:
Online registration for the 2013 OTA Sessions is officially open! The event will take place on March 15th, 2013 at the Edith Mortenson Center on the campus of Augustana College. We have a limited number of tickets this year, so be sure to register early so you don’t miss out on this year’s amazing line-up.

Attendees will enjoy:

• An entire day learning from internationally-renowned thought leaders through presentations & performances
• Connecting with other attendees over breaks to take the conversation to a deeper level
• Special gifts from OTA
• A free lunch (and snack breaks)

Speakers in 2013 include: Aaron Draplin of Draplin Design Co, Ash Huang of Pinterest, Adam Braun of Pencils of Promise, Peter Buchanan-Smith of Best Made Co, Shaifali Puri of Scientists without Borders, Adam Leipzig of National Geographic Films, Nate Utesch of Ferocious Quarterly, and Jazzrock pianist ELEW.

Purchase OTA tickets here:
http://ota2013.eventbrite.com

Rapid City marketing and communications firm Message won 8 gold and 7 silver ADDY awards for work entered in print, integrated campaign and design categories at this year’s Black Hills  American Advertising Federation ADDY Awards. The agency also won a prestigious Judge’s Choice award for the Lakota Voice Project integrated campaign. The People’s Choice and Best of Show awards were given to the Black Hills Ammunition integrated campaign.

Winning agency clients included Black Hills Ammunition, Lakota Voice Project, Pennington County Emergency Management, and Rapid City YMCA.

Ross Johnson was presented with the Silver Medal Award, which recognizes those who have made outstanding contributions to advertising and have been active in furthering industry standards.

Notable firms/agencies participating at this year’s AAF-Black Hills ADDYs included TDG Communications, Robert Sharp & Associates, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Black Hills State University and Black Hills Power.

The 2012/2013 ADDYs were judged by nationally recognized creative directors from Denver firms such as Philosophy Communication and Jay Roth Creative.

View all AAF-Black Hills ADDYs Winners

View work here

Judge’s Choice Award- Lakota Voice Project

View work here

People’s Choice + Tommy Award/Best of Show- Black Hills Ammunition Integrated Campaign

View work here

The first installment of our two-part blog on last week’s BBC Future Media Event looked at the developing technology of Perceptive Media and what this might hold for the communications industry. In this second follow-up blog, we look at two key areas of interest arising from discussions with the CBBC and Digital Sport teams, starting with the launch of what the Beeb is calling the first ‘safe, real-world’ social network…

CBBC launches the first ‘safe’ social network for children

Children under the age of five have never known a world without the iPhone and so naturally demand that their technology is slick, quick and ahead of the times.  The CBBC website hosts around 1,700 games and is available on a host of different devices. In a move that breaks ground in the online social space, it is soon to launch what it is calling the first ‘real world’, safe social network for kids. Allowing children to connect with their friends online in a space named ‘Vs’, the new CBBC hosted network ensures that children trade user names in the playground rather than digitally, so it’s completely transparent as to whom they are connecting with. The development has not only benefited children and their parents; investing locally, the Beeb has awarded independent developer contracts for a number of its upcoming digital projects in pitch processes that include over 300 agencies. An example of which is Manchester-based Young , responsible for developing the new Cbeebies ‘Music Mash-Up’ game-app.

BBC Sport: Mobile browsers first

The success story of the night came from the digital sport team. Ten million people per day watched the 2012 Olympics on the BBC Sport website, which typically receives 6 million hits per day. Seven-hundred thousand people watched Bradley Wiggins race for gold on their mobile and athletes and journalists utilised the ground-breaking live stream technology to watch team mates compete while keeping abreast of all events.

Head of the sports team, Chris Condron, explained the importance of first optimising the site’s mobile browser, which receives more traffic than the Apple and Android sport apps combined. A device’s market share is the key factor in building the critical mass that warrants a bespoke app development, bringing to light the need for a fully optimised mobile browser on all devices. This is especially significant when you consider 2014’s packed sporting calendar, including World Cup, Winter Olympics and Commonwealth Games.

Want more?

Sparked your interest? You can learn more about BBC Future Media here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/careers/what-we-do/future-media

Follow them on Twitter @InsideBBCFM

Like them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/InsideBBCFutureMedia

Hangouts allow you to video conference in real-time with up to 10 people in a virtual room which makes it a great tool for new business. 

A Google Plus Hangout is a free group video chat that rivals platforms such as Skype, FaceTime and Facebook Video Chat. Google Hangouts focus more on “face-to-face-to-face” group interaction.

You can include up to 10 locations at a time in your Hangout. Each location can include one or more people.  More often, it will be one person per location (via their built-in laptop camera). Google continues to roll out new features to Hangouts which are making it more useful for video conferences, seminars and other online events.

Included below are some thoughts and ideas on how you can engage prospects and use Google Plus Hangout as a tool for agency new business.

Here are some advantages for using Google Plus Hangouts:

1. Impress your prospects by scheduling video conference calls. You will probably be among the first to provide them with such an invite. A majority of agencies have yet to even set-up a Google Plus account to take advantage of this feature.
2. Live video sessions provide a very personal, interactive opportunity for prospects to learn about your agency.
3. Easily conduct client testimonial video interviews and save them to YouTube. Google will be offering a recording feature soon, but in the meantime there are a number of free tools you can use such as  ScreenCastle, Pixetell or Screencast-O-Matic.
4. If you are at trade show or speaking at a conference, you can invite people who are unable to physically attend.  You can also record the event and post it on YouTube allowing you repurpose it through your agency blog and other social media outposts.
5. Showcase your capabilities and share your industry knowledge.
6. Hangouts are a great place to do internal training or to spotlight a new product/service with a demo.  Recording and repurposing these type sessions will allow you to get the most out of your time investment.
7. You have the ability to create focus groups and gather feedback on your services and positioning.
8. Give your prospects the behind-the-scenes look at your agency.  This could be an agency tour or staff interviews.
9. You can use a Hangout to conduct private meetings with your new business team, meetings between your remote offices or prospective client meetings.  If someone is unable to access Google+, they can still conference in with a voice call.
10. Easily collaborate on projects or have collaborative sessions with others in business development.

By checking ‘Enable Hangouts On Air,’ you can now broadcast your live hangout —from the Google+ stream, your YouTube channel or your website — around the globe. With just a few clicks, you’ll be able to:

• See how many viewers you have. During your broadcast, you can look inside the hangout to see how many people are watching live.
• Record and re-share. Once you’re off the air, you can upload a public recording to your YouTube channel, and to your original Google+ post.
• Bloggers have a new tool at their disposal for live blogging, interviews and more.
• The possible uses for Hangouts on Air are limitless.  Including presentations, virtual conferences, panel or roundtable discussions. Some in the music industry are even holding live online concerts.

Getting started is simple. All you need is a computer with high-speed internet, a web camera and microphone. Before you Hangout for the first time, Google offers suggestions to provide the best experience:

• Check out the system requirements to make sure you’re using a supported browser and operating system, and that your processor and bandwidth are sufficient.
• Download and install the latest version of the plugin.
• Make sure you have the latest drivers for your webcam.
• Webcams don’t work well in low light situations. For the best quality webcast, make sure you’re well lit from a light source that’s coming from behind your camera.
• Use a head set! Headphones with a built in microphone will dramatically improve your Hangout experience.
• If a hangout isn’t performing well, try closing down all programs running in the background. You may also want to try restarting your computer.

Here’s how to add people to Start a Hangout:

• Click Start a Hangout on the top right side of your screen.
• Add entire circles or just individuals that you want to hang out with.You can choose to make the hangout only available to people who are 18 or older by selecting the check box next to Restrict minors from joining this hangout. Other hangout participants won’t be able to invite minors and the 18+ restriction cannot be changed once the hangout has started.
• Invite phone participants to join the hangout by clicking the Telephone tab at the top of the page and dialing the phone number you wish to invite. Learn more about inviting phone participants.
• Click Invite to start the hangout and send the notifications to the people you chose.
• You can’t have more than 10 people in a hangout at once.

In addition to video chatting, Google Hangouts users can share their screens, sticky notes, documents, scratchpads, images, SlideShare presentations , Google Docs and YouTube videos with other users.

Thanks Michael Gass for the great article.

The agency has been selected by British Cycling to handle PR and social media on for the UCI BMX SuperCross world championships, which will take place at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester in April.

The agency, which launched in November, also handled the social media campaign for the Track Cycling World Cup at the new Velodrome in Glasgow during its first month of operation. “We looked around for agencies with the right combination of location, cycling and social media expertise and we ended up with a very short list” said British Cycling Cyclesport and Membership Director Jonny Clay. “We were also really impressed with the programme and the results that Rule 5 delivered on our behalf in Glasgow.”

The new win follows the appointment of two new staff; Senior Account Manager Carolanne Bamford in January and Trainee Account Executive Kirsty Usher earlier this month.

We’re so excited to launch our brand new JBBBS blog!  As an agency that is constantly at work, we want to keep you up to date with the latest happenings within our organization.  In addition, we see this blog as a great way to share the resources that make JBBBS the fabulous agency that is, with a wider audience.

While our official launch is today, we’ve been working hard behind the scenes for the last several months, to make sure this blog is full of useful information, interesting news and our most powerful and inspiring stories.

Want a sneak peek of what is to come?

• volunteer interviews 
• match moments
• links to articles and resources
• photos from events
• messages from JBBBS staff, Board of Directors and President, Harvey Lowell
• expert advice and support from our clinical team

Be sure to add this blog to your newsreader or sign up to receive new posts via email so that you don’t miss a moment.  If you have ideas or suggestions we’d love to hear from you as well!

We look forward to connecting with you, our community, in this space.

Thanks for reading!

-JBBBS

Ladda Tammy Duckworth is an American politician who has been the United States Representative for Illinois’s 8th congressional district since 2013. We love this Democrat for her often-times uncanny ability to turn an interview on it’s head. Duckworth doesn’t allow the societal perceptions of men and women get in the way of speaking her mind on the “real issues” of women participating in front-line combat.

Did we also mention she was gunned down in Iraq in her black-hawk fighter jet and lost both her legs in front-line combat? Ms. Duckworth speaks out frequently on the rights of women to engage in combat if they so choose – stating emphatically – that it “would improve the nation’s armed forces” if they did.

We say – “YOU GO Tammy Duckworth!” ETC Photographer Thomas Chadwick was there to capture her in a recent interview for the NY Times Magazine. Read on …