We recently launched a new blog called ColumbusING.com… you can check it here:  www.columbusing.com

“The most powerful force in business isn’t greed, fear, or even the raw energy of unbridled competition. The most powerful force in business is love. It’s what will help your company grow and become stronger. It’s what will propel your career forward. It’s what will give you a sense of meaning and satisfaction in your work, which will help you do your best work…” Tim Sanders.

Every year around Valentine’s Day, I remember the book and the Fast Company article by Tim Sanders.

Brilliant. The book may be a bit dated, but still a great read.

Check the Fast Company article on his book here… and Happy Valentine’s Day.

Things have been pretty hectic around the office… new clients, new partnerships and, our newest hire Jen Marlatt. We’ve known Jen for many, many years through her various stints at Rigsby’s, and Bodega (Jon’s fav spot) as well as Viking Studio. Luckily for us, one drunken night at Bodega, we chatted her up, and discovered that she’s got mad design skills… both graphic and web. We had no clue. So, we asked (actually I begged) her to dust off that CCAD degree in design, and now several weeks later, we can’t imagine work without her.

Jen, thanks for being a part of Fresh.

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We have a rat on Gay Street… a union rat. Every day now for the past two months, the “union rat” is set up right next door to our office.

Before I go on a rant about the rat, let me tell you the purpose of a inflatable “union rat”… “rat” is an epithet used to describe a non-union contractor, and the large inflatable rat is typically set up outside construction sites that us non-union laborers. Apparently Ruscilli Construction is using non-union labor for demolition work. Anyways…

Every day between 11:00 and 2:00 the inflatable “rat” is set up at the construction site, which is right next door to our office along with picketers yelling and trying to antagonize the non-union guys… the chant goes something like this

You rat, you rat, you dirty dirty rat! Who’s the dirty rat? Columbus Drywall!

Every damn day.

Effective? Nope. Columbus Drywall is there working their asses off every day. The union guys? They’re yelling schoolyard taunts to innocent pedestrians who don’t really really don’t care who’s doing construction work… union or non-union.

Solution? How about the inflatable “rat” visits Columbus Drywall corporate offices and harrass them instead of screaming at us innocent office workers here on Gay Street.

In the meantime, I’m having some remodeling work done at the house and am planning on calling “rats” for a quote… thanks for the referral fellas!

ThisWeek newspaper has an article on the city’s Attract and Retain initiative. NextGeneration consulting of Madison, Wisconsin has been appointed to lead up this initiative and report back to us what is cool.

Ryan said at the time that she would develop, over the course of 12 months, using surveys, focus groups and peer interviews, a report that will inform local government and business leaders where they stand with Gen X. It will also include recommendations on how to improve the community’s standing with young professionals.

So twelve months from now when we get this report, we’ll get an idea of what we could have done (last year) and what people thought… a year ago.

Ryan admitted that some of the techniques she would employ in gathering data for the report “may seem odd,” but would appeal to the “Myspace generation.”

LOL.. Ok, I don’t even know what to say on this one.

I’m quoted in the article sharing my thoughts.

Myers, a partner in Fresh, applauds the desire of city officials and business leaders to attract more people of his generation, but not the process being employed.

“Right mind set, wrong execution,” he said last week.

“I think initially it was how we were spoken to … ,” Myers said. “Personally, I felt like it was a bit condescending.”

You can read more of my two cents in the article.

Effort at attracting, retaining Gen-Xers moves ahead

Few days go by that we aren’t approached by someone “with an idea”, which is awesome. We welcome it. The thing with ideas is - they are ideas. Ideas particular to the web tend to be an evolutionary thing, anticipating and reacting. In a perpetual state of “beta”. Anyway, I came across a great rant about ideas.

The moment [an idea] is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.

Source: Ten ideas about Ideas

2006 was a great year here at Fresh. Looking back, we had a lot of fun and we accomplished many of our goals. We built some interesting sites for ourselves (like GlanceTV), and quite a few for our clients. We also developed some great relationships like the HB2 Web guys and the folks over at NCT Ventures.

One of our goals was to be a bit more active on our blog which I suppose will be a 2007 resolution. Another was to actually build a real website for ourselves. Maybe next year…

We got a lot of press in this year - BBC (British Broadcasting Co), LA Times, Boston Globe and the Chicago Tribune were just a few of the places you could find us in 2006. We also logged a lot of miles in 2006. SXSW (South By Southwest), TechCrunch Meetup NYC, and Ad:Tech were just a few of the events that we attended. We also got to meet some really cool people including Donny Deutchse (of CNBC’s, the Big Idea With Donny Duetsche) and Craig Newmark of Craigslist. And got to eat some Nuclear Tacos with the president of SXSW and had some awesome barbeque with the austin frog design crew.

Not a bad first year for Fresh…

Moving forward, we are excited about 2007. We have some killer ideas in the works including the “Fresh Idea Factory” which will be a fund/incubator for the “really-early-startup”. We’ll be looking for the groundbreaking, back-of-napkin, kind of stuff that makes us ask the question… Why didn’t I think of that? We also have a startup that’s currently in stealth mode and a bit too early to discuss… but I can say that its the kind of disruptive technology that will forever change the industry we’re about to enter.

Thanks to all of our clients, partners and friends of Fresh for helping make 2006 a fun one.

Cheers to 2007! Have a safe and Happy New Year.

-Dave & Jon

So the other day I was CC’d on an email regarding the Mayor’s Initiative on the Columbus Brain Drain Study. The goal of the email was to solicit “young professionals” to participate in a study created by a 3rd party organization.

The incentive? A chance to win a 30GB iPod.

I decided to click on the survey link in the email, and found the typical survey questions. My first concern was that I found the typical survey questions (Name, Age, Race, Sex, Income, etc.), which to me seems pretty easy to game if I wanted to really be a part of the in-depth surveys, which are to follow. Also, you could just sense that this was a survey (purchased by SurveyMonkey.com) that has been repurposed over-and-over again in every 2nd tier city in the country.

Next, I noticed that the “Initiative” was sponsored in part by Chase Bank… now I have nothing against them, they are a great organization, we even bank with them. However, wouldn’t a group of creative agencies or a technology firm make more sense to partner with than a bank? Nothing “cool” about the banking industry.

Lastly, it seems to me there should be an easier way to reach “young & talented professionals” than to offer a chance to win an iPod (doesn’t every professional between the ages of 24-35 already have one?).

Thoughts?

Saturday night saw the introduction of the free fresh’tini at the streetspace after-party brought to you by alive!, Due Amici and fresh. There was free pizza (courtesy of Due Amici), music and the drinks kept everyone fresh all night. Some picture highlights:

Click Here for the full slideshow.

Jason Kottke waxes on how to curate and spread ideas.

Seth Godin, who ruminates for a living, wrote a little something about how ideas are transmitted last year:

For an idea to spread, it needs to be sent and received.

No one “sends” an idea unless:
a. they understand it
b. they want it to spread
c. they believe that spreading it will enhance their power (reputation, income, friendships) or their peace of mind
d. the effort necessary to send the idea is less than the benefits

No one “gets” an idea unless:
a. the first impression demands further investigation
b. they already understand the foundation ideas necessary to get the new idea
c. they trust or respect the sender enough to invest the time

Seth hits the nail right on the head with this. When I’m deciding what links to post here, I’m essentially curating ideas, collecting them to “send” to you (and to myself, in a way). And unconsciously, these seven points factor into my decision on what to post here.

Read More: How I Blog | Kottke