To counter the multi-million dollar, mechanized/chemical attack planned for the exquisite Malibu Lagoon by out-of-touch California State officials, the Wetlands Defense Fund and Malibu residents have come up with a “kinder, gentler” plan. This one involves 7 steps to remove invasive non-native plants by hand with community volunteers, plant appropriate wetland plants in areas along shoreline and pathways and use muscle power – not bulldozers and chemical herbicides – to improve water quality and maintain the current thriving ecosystem.
The State’s plan will kill or permanently displace all plants, birds, fish and insect species now living harmoniously in the Malibu Lagoon. Their plan calls for ripping out the three charming bridges and central pathway system for a longer peripheral path far removed from most of the wildlife. Please visit ww.SaveMalibuLagoon.com for the details.
The 2011 Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters have raised awareness in the official emergency response communities as well in business and civic groups. Ventura County is one of the most disaster prone counties in California. Are you “Red Cross Ready?”
Soundbites are from Civil authorities, business leaders and US Navy personnel.
I’m fascinated by the promise and accomplishments of biotechnology. It has been one of my proudest accomplishment that has become such a conduit for telling the stories of the Biotech world to the greater public. This is often in concert with Ahmed Enany, CEO of Southern California Biotechnology Council (http://www.socalbio.org) I love biotechnology because it shows that profit can go hand in hand with innovation and doing good for the world.
Last week I recorded the SoCalBio networking forum at UCI focused on “Digital Marketing by Bioscience Companies.” It covered current trends in web, cloud, mobile and social media applications and featured speakers from Advanced Medical Optics, Edwards Lifesciences, DevicePharm and Simple Steps IT. The video will be available on YouTube this week.
The San Francisco Chronicle just published an article about how early-stage biotech companies are competing for extremely tight funding.
The article states that, “The top 20 percent of U.S. biotechnology companies raising money garnered 82.6 percent of funding in 2010, while the bottom 20 percent drew 0.4 percent, according to a report released Tuesday by consulting firm Ernst & Young.” Just 0.4 percent? Yikes! That means for a new firm in biotech trying to secure funding, it will be harder than ever. You have to do something to get your ideas and potential products in front of investors.
Have you thought about making a video about your firm? Or present what you want to do with funding to start a firm? A picture tells a thousand words, as the saying goes and a video tells a million words. Have you seen the “Story Of Stuff”? A viral video that millions of views later made kids and adults actually enjoy hearing about environmental issues? (http://bit.ly/jFh8M)
Instead of immediately approaching investors with an idea, gain viral and grassroots support first! This will give you way more credibility. An on-line video is the way to do this especially if linked to a social media effort. Check out my website to see more about my work in Biotech and please contact me if I can help you tell your story.
I am a huge fan of “Man On The Street” style video interviews. We hit the street to find out what people thought about PR. Always interesting, often surprising and very, very human.
In Workarounds That Work, Russell Bishop—an expert in personal and organization transformation—teaches the art of the workaround: a method for accomplishing a task or goal when the normal process isn’t producing the desired results. Workarounds help you break through the tasks and systems that keep you from the important stuff. They even help you bring lasting change to your organization by doing away with frustrating institutional inefficiencies once and for all. So glad to help out on this!
If you are a frequent reader of my Twitter or Blog, you will know that a key tenant of PRVideo.TV is that commerce and charity can go hand in hand. I run my business to make money and provide a living for myself and my family, but I would not be able to enjoy my work if I did not have a passion for it. While a lot of my passion comes from my love of cameras and the technology and telling a story, my other passion comes from helping the community and the environment and the joy of working with the terrific people I encounter.
On May 25th, 2011 Nikon hosted a ‘Save Malaysian Turtles’ Media Retreat and it is a perfect example of how profit and “doing good” do not have to be separate. The 40 journalists and photographers enjoyed the three-day, two-night retreat/workshop held to foster good relations between Nikon and the media. The theme of the retreat was ‘Save the Malaysian Turtles,’ with Nikon Malaysia organizing a special visit for media members to the Cherating Turtle Sanctuary. The participating journalists and photographers had the opportunity to learn about the conservation efforts being undertaken for Malaysian turtles that – without immediate intervention – are slowly becoming extinct.
Te Malaysian environmentalists also released about 100 newly hatched turtles into the sea. Later in the night, the media members were taken on a 15-minute journey to Pantai Teluk Mak Nik at the Terengganu coast to watch green turtles lay eggs. At the beach, journalists witnessed two giant turtles quietly laying their eggs. It was incredibly serene and touching. Nikon was also able to include a selection of new cameras to try out as well. They were given a presentation on Nikon’s range of Digital SLR cameras, lenses and Digital Compact cameras (Coolpix models). They even made the whole weekend interactive by having a video-shooting contest with new Nikon D5100 cameras and Coolpix P300s to shoot the most creative and exciting videos using the FULL HD video recording capability of the D5100.
This event inspired me to continue combining my love of photography to expose the world to urgent environmental and social issues. I hope other camera companies take heed that profit can go hand in hand with the environment. For more info on the event check out: http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=588920
This has been an exciting few months for video. Last month we talked about the power of video to bring about revolution and change in the Middle East. Today I want to focus on the power of video when it comes to Public Service Announcements. Public Service Announcements don’t have to be the boring clips that keep you from whatever TV show you wanted to watch. They can actually be, you know, engaging and informative!
To illustrate these points I want to direct you to seven 30-second PSAs I did for CERT. CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team. The basic idea of CERT is that when a major
disaster strikes, professional emergency workers will not be able to handle the demand or make it to your emergency in a timely manner. With CERT, if the community volunteers are trained, then they can help save lives, especially in disasters with no warnings like an Earthquake. A major component of the training is to raise “situational awareness” and work in teams of two in order to avoid becoming another victim while trying to help others. In other words, don’t touch that wire lying on the ground as it may be “hot” and could kill you; don’t immediately run into a partially-collapsed building to search for victims since it could further collapse and, again, kill the CERT volunteer.
I am such a fan of CERT and have seen how the program worked first-hand during the annual Malibu fire season that I wanted to do these PSAs for free and make them sort of “home-spun”. Since we only had 30 seconds running time, we wanted to focus on just one
idea per PSA and really get that across to the viewer. We covered topics such as packing your emergency kit, how to safely turn of your home’s gas supply, and proper way to use a fire extinguisher. At the end of each spot, we gave contact info for how citizens can get involved. We found that by putting the viewer into that “emergency situation” through the power of video, we had great results with people wanting to be prepared.
With the reach of digital video distribution, I feel that the PSA is more important than ever. That’s why I have transferred all my old ones and put them up on YouTube so we are not just limited to whoever happens to be watching TV that day, but to anybody in the whole world! Instead of interrupting your favorite program, the future of PSAs will be informing your favorite website or on-line video programming or search results. The key is to make them quick, to the point, and interesting, just like video has always been. Same as it ever was!
PRVIDEO.TV loves showing off our Spanish skills! This was a California Poison Control System press briefing in Los Angeles bringing experts and families together to measure a variety of common products available to children — toys, paint, candy and other items – for the presence of lead with a special lead detecting device, an XRF Analyzer Gun. This is especially important as Halloween is Sunday and imported candy, costumes and decorations can contain lead.
Poison Control System (www.calpoison.org) is observing National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week and wants to educate consumers about lead that can be found in a variety of children’s products, especially during Halloween. Lead poisoning is the most common environmental illness in California children and can cause lifelong learning and behavioral problems. Hispanic children are especially at risk.
As you know I am very active in Tortoise Rescue. Anytime I can use video to get the message out I do it. American Tortoise Rescue (www.tortoise.com) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 1990 to provide for the protection of all species of tortoise and turtle. We offer permanent sanctuary to abandoned and lost tortoises though we no longer do adoptions. “Special needs” and injured turtles and tortoises that cannot be placed stay in the care of American Tortoise Rescue for the remainder of their lives. ATR was founded and is run by Susan Tellem and Marshall Thompson.
The Southern California Biomedical Council is a nonprofit, member-supported trade association that supports and promotes life-science research, development, manufacturing, job creation and overall economic growth in the six counties of the Greater Los Angeles region (Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties).
The Councils programs help local firms gain access to capital, potential partners and business support services. The annual SoCalBio Investor & Partnership Conference has grown to become the region’s premiere showcase for emerging life-science companies and technologies. What an honor to shoot!
SoCalBio also promotes technology transfer and workforce training, while informing policy makers and the public at-large about the benefits of the regions life-science industry. SoCalBio is open to membership by firms and organizations engaged in life-science technology development and commercialization.
has become such a conduit for telling the stories of the Biotech world to the greater public. This is often in concert with Ahmed Enany, CEO of Southern California Biotechnology Council (
