Our Get Grounded Program Goes Global

While my colleagues were busy settling into our new office, helping The Children’s Hospital move across town and producing and directing a reality show competition, I had the opportunity to experience a different kind of reality. In early September, I joined 22 other volunteers from across the country in Ladakh, India as part of the dZi Foundation’s (www.dzifoundation.org) dental and vision clinic. During the course of a week, we partnered with The Himalayan Dental Relief Project (HDRP) to bring dental care to 484 children in that region -- ages 3 to 18. We also screened more than 700 kids in the vision clinic. If the child required glasses, we measured the refraction of their eyes and assembled prescription glasses immediately, on a no-fee basis. How did we do this on the spot? The fabulous Foco-Meter. The Foco-Meter is an amazing instrument, the size of a soda can, and does not use electricity. Once we measure the refraction of the child’s eyes, we can create a pair of prescription glasses by using generic frames and interchangeable lenses. Additionally, when a child has more than a refractive correction and needs a lens specifically ground, the team would e-mail the prescription to Delhi. The prescription lenses are then ground and put on the plane and flown up to Ladakh within the week. The glasses are distributed to the child by dZi’s in-country staff and then the child is re-tested to make sure the glasses are perfect.

People often ask if I had training in either field. Truth is, I have an incredible fear of dentists and I am blinder than a bat. Fortunately, the program directors were wonderful and worked with each one of us so we felt confident in our respective roles prior to ‘suiting up’ the first day of the clinic. I was given the role of registering each child as they entered the clinic as well as teaching them about dental hygiene while they waited to see the doctors. My new friend, Patti Cogswell, and I spent hours singing songs (quite comical given the language barrier) and holding a giant plastic mouth and enormous toothbrush as we demonstrated the best way to properly brush their teeth.


If you ever have the opportunity to get away and volunteer, be sure to consider the dZi Foundation. The organization was founded nearly a decade ago with the desire to give back to the people of Nepal, a society which had so openly accepted the dZi founders into their culture. In 1997, founders Kim Reynolds and Jim Nowak, on one of their many trekking and climbing trips to Nepal, were inspired to support a small Kathmandu safe house for girls at risk, called The Friendship House. Following successful fundraising for the safe house, and several more climbing and trekking trips in Nepal, the decision was made to expand the foundations efforts.

When I started GroundFloor Media nearly six and a half years ago, I told myself I would take some time off after I hit the five-year mark. As you can imagine, time off while growing a business is hard to come by. Fortunately, I am now surrounded by an incredible team who I trust with my life. I feel blessed by all that we have and wanted to give back to those who have not been as fortunate. My time in India is really difficult to describe. Suffice it to say, the friendships I developed and the children I was privileged enough to work with, changed my life.

Namaste - Laura

What do a magician, a palm reader and an elf have in common? GroundFloor Media of course!

Yep, you read that right. Last Thursday we officially unveiled our new office to friends, family and clients with a Holiday Open House that included a magician, a pair of face-painting elves, a palm reader and, of course, plenty of fabulous food and drink (thank you Whirled Peas catering). While it might sound a bit more like a carnival than a holiday party, no one can say they didn’t have a great time!

The appropriately named magician, Magic Rob, was by far the favorite of the kids – providing them an endless supply of balloon animals, flowers and weaponry (I’m still waiting for my sword). For the adult guests, the palm reader kept everyone entertained with fortunes that were a mixture of eerily spot-on and downright hilarious. Whether the fortunes were right or wrong - and I guess we’ll have to wait a while longer before we know for sure - they were definitely entertaining and offered guests a great way to break the ice and get to know each other a little better.


Thanks to everyone who helped make our open house a success (shout out to Carrie and Kristina) and to all our friends, family, clients and business partners who took the time to come share a cup of eggnog with us all. We are truly blessed.

Happy Holidays!!!

GFM's Flu Team Strikes Again!

The bad news: It’s flu season again (groan). The good news: Last Saturday, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment provided the public with free flu vaccines as part of the largest mass vaccination exercise in the country. And GroundFloor Media was there – at the Denver County “dispensing site” in a parking lot near Coors Field and at the state health department’s command center – to lend a helping hand.

About 12,000 people in Colorado received a free flu vaccination as every public health agency in the state tested its plans to vaccinate a large number of people in the event of an outbreak of pandemic influenza. The National Guard and Blackhawk helicopters helped deliver some of the vaccine stockpile to the southern-most corners of the state. (Ramonna tried to hitch a ride, but she couldn’t pass security clearance.) It was a well-oiled, three-day event that was three years in the making.

Amy and Katherine were on hand to facilitate media interview requests with Dr. Ned Calonge, the state’s chief medical officer – and ODd on peanut butter cookies.

The good news: Coloradoans rose to the challenge and came out in droves to help emergency workers prepare for a health pandemic. The bad news: We don’t know where to find more of those good cookies!

The Real World - GFM Style!

Nine strangers. Picked to live in a house in downtown Denver. And have their lives taped for three days. To find out what happens when an emergency strikes – and you’re not properly prepared.

“Reality TV producer” is another title GroundFloor Media can now tout. Don’t believe us? Check out www.WhatIfColorado.com/episodes.asp to watch all the fun – and meet Bob, Cameron, James, Julia, Kary, Ken, Matthew, Michael and Sophie, our good-spirited contestants!

The reality competition was part of “What If? Colorado,” a statewide campaign launched in July 2007 to educate Coloradoans about the need for emergency preparedness. Sponsored by the Emergency Preparedness and Response Division of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the campaign invited Colorado residents to submit an audition video to participate in the “What If?” reality competition. We asked applicants to answer one question in their video: “In an emergency, what five items could you not live without and why?”

Boy, did we get some interesting (and in some cases, entertaining) answers! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3BrbU_TfpQ] More than 120 adventurous people from across the state auditioned for the show, and after our team of experts at the health department helped whittle down the contestant pool to 31 semi-finalists, the public voted online for their favorite finalists – and the rest is history!

Do you know what items belong in a home emergency preparedness kit? Could you rustle up a tasty and nutritious meal if you couldn’t go to the grocery store for several days or weeks? Could you survive a night without power, water or outside communication? What would you need to bring in the event of an evacuation? How can you help prevent the spread of influenza? We put our contestants to the test, and without spoiling the surprise, the overall winner received a cash grand prize of $2,500.

And how did GroundFloor Media fare? Well, after a week of hauling props and designing “emergencies,” we all felt a bit like walking disasters ourselves! But the competition turned out better than any of us ever anticipated – and the laughs we shared throughout the process made all those sleepless nights worthwhile. Now, we’re excited and ready for the sequel!

The Best Place to Work!

What an awesome honor to have our employees exclaim that GroundFloor Media is the best small company in Denver to work for! That’s what happened this morning when GroundFloor Media accepted the #1 Best Place to Work honor (small company category) at the Denver Business Journal’s annual awards breakfast.

The award is based on a confidential “Employee Engagement” survey that measures items across 10 different themes including team effectiveness, people practices and trust. And the survey was conducted during September 2007 – the busiest month yet in our growing company’s history!

We’re proud to have survived five new baby boys, the media relations surrounding the move of one of the nation’s most prestigious children’s hospitals, the launch of a reality competition for the State of Colorado and several new product and service launches throughout the past year. Our team members are truly amazing, and their hard work, dedication and penchant for laughter really do make GroundFloor Media the best place to work!

~Ramonna

Thanksgiving is in the air…

There is a great a deal to give thanks for this holiday season so today we celebrated with an early Thanksgiving lunch. I personally give thanks for my great group of co-workers who collectively survived a reality competition, an Ancho Chile Barbeque Sauce launch, a massive hospital move, a client product launch that was rescheduled twice, several pancake pitches “on the fly,” and an office move in 48 hours – all within 30 days. Now we can move into the holiday season and celebrate new arrivals, new engagements, new clients and a new office that is starting to feel a lot like home.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone - Laura

What If GroundFloor Media Caught the Flu?

It’s not quite our nature to hold our tongue when there’s news to share, but we’ve been doing just that since spring – and we can’t keep it quiet any longer.

Earlier this year, GroundFloor Media was proud to be named the Agency of Record for a new campaign from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Office of Emergency Preparedness and Response.

The new statewide campaign, “What If? Colorado” (www.WhatIfColorado.com), launched July 19 with simultaneous launch events in Denver, Colorado Springs and Grand Junction. But before we could officially announce the campaign, GroundFloor Media was fast at work laying the groundwork by developing messaging, establishing partnerships and conducting a series of “summit” meetings with statewide local public health agencies – who will work to implement the campaign locally throughout the summer.

It all culminated with our first summit meeting with Western Slope local public health agencies on June 21 in Grand Junction. GroundFloor Media staffers Amy Moynihan and Jim Dissett traveled across the divide in a big rental truck filled with bottles of Eldorado Natural Spring Water (one of the campaign’s partners). The summit was the first semi-public unveiling of the six-month What If? campaign – which will leverage local events throughout the state to help spread the word about emergency preparedness and pandemic influenza. The focus of the campaign is threefold:

 To inform people about emergency preparedness and urge them to develop home emergency preparedness kits
 To inform Coloradans about pandemic influenza and how to protect yourself and your family during a public health emergency
 To encourage citizens to get influenza vaccinations this fall and winter

In order to engage citizens of the state, What If? Colorado is staging a Colorado-based reality competition open to residents across Colorado. Throughout the summer, local public health agencies across Colorado will hold live “auditions” for citizens 18 and older to solicit participants in the What If? Colorado reality competition. The auditions are simple, a person simply needs to state their name, age, where they live and answer the question: “In an emergency, what are the five things you could not live without?”). Coloradans can submit auditions three ways: at one of our live events, by U.S. mail and by direct upload to our YouTube What If? Colorado page. On Sept. 1, a panel of judges will critique each submission and select up to five auditions from each of nine state regions. These semi-finalist videos will be posted to our Web site and Coloradans will vote for one contestant from each region to live together in a house for three and a half days – where they will face a series of “emergency challenges” (each with an educational message). All house “residents” will receive a 30 gigabyte Apple iPod and one participant in the end will be crowned the winner and will receive $2,500 – the prizes are courtesy of our valued partner HealthONE.

As auditions are being collected, campaign partner King Soopers/City Market will conduct promotional activities in August and September, highlighting items throughout their 140 Colorado-based stores that residents can purchase to complete their home emergency preparedness kits. Specially priced items will be on sale each week during the promotion, with the idea of encouraging residents to purchase a few emergency kit items each week – allowing them a cost-efficient method of completing an emergency preparedness kit over time.

In addition, the entire campaign is being supported by public service announcements on our three TV media partner stations (KCNC in Denver, KKCO in Grand Junction and KOAA in Colorado Springs). And Eldorado Natural Spring Water has developed specially branded What If? Colorado water bottles that local public health agencies will be distributing at their events during the summer.

Residents of Colorado can keep up with the campaign by visiting www.WhatIfColorado.com, where campaign updates will be posted, audition videos will be viewable and finally, activities leading up to and during the competition will be available as streaming video.

We never felt so good to catch the flu!

Caffeinated and Adult Beverages -- All in a Day's Work at GroundFloor Media

What do 25 blue & white models and 500+ volunteers have in common? They all helped GroundFloor Media execute two major client events last week.

Friday, May 19 was Cold Activated Bottle Activation Day nationwide, and GroundFloor Media helped Coors Light promote the new, innovative bottle in Denver through a unique consumer promotion, in which models -- painted white and blue -- informed adult consumers around Downtown Denver about the new bottles. Special ink on the label of Coors Light’s new Cold Activated Bottle turns the mountains from white to blue when the beer is cold enough to drink, preventing adult consumers from ever drinking a warm beer again!

As if that weren’t enough excitement, we executed and celebrated the second annual Starbucks Passion for Parks event on Saturday, May 19. More than 500 volunteers turned out to help revitalize the Burns and Sopris Gardens of City Park in Downtown Denver. Starbucks made a $100,000 contribution to Denver Parks & Rec to make the revitalization possible, and nearly half of the 500+ volunteers were Starbucks partners (employees). Several GroundFloor Media team members worked and volunteered at this great event, making us very proud to work with a community-minded client like Starbucks.

The highlight of the Passion for Parks event was the unveiling of a mosaic designed by East High School student Megan Carlson. It will be permanently placed in a historic fountain that had previously been filled with concrete because the plumbing no longer works. Megan’s artwork is absolutely breathtaking and brings the fountain back to life!

It was amazing and gratifying to see so much being undertaken at once over such a short period of time! Thanks to everyone who made it happen.

GFM’s Beltway Connection

It was a big day in Washington, D.C., for GroundFloor Media’s very own Wendy Artman and the Artman family as Wendy’s husband, Carl Artman, was sworn in as the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs on April 18. Although he was supposed to be the focus of the day, the Artman rabble rousers (otherwise known as Wendy and Carl’s children) stole the show as they posed for cameras and entertained a large crowd of Tribal leaders and government employees by jumping off the stage and doing their best impressions of Superman!!

Their Dad gave a motivating speech on his goals for Indian country in the coming years – fighting meth problems on reservations, providing better educations for Indian children, and relieving the bottleneck processes that plague the Bureau of Indian Affairs. But somehow, that speech managed to put the boys to sleep. This made Wendy very happy since both refused to stop moving or talking during the formal event.

Congratulations, Carl! And a big thanks and congratulations to Wendy, who just celebrated her third anniversary at GroundFloor Media!

-- Jim

“Forty Under 40”

GroundFloor Media was surrounded by a few of our client stars at the recent Denver Business Journal presentation of their annual “Forty under 40” honorees March 16.

The winners? Drum roll please… Nick Agro of Whirled Peas Catering, Phil Smith of Starbucks Coffee Company and Karl Maier of Market Force Information, Inc. – as well as past winners, Whirled Peas’ Marc DesRosiers and GFM’s own Laura Love. Thus, the GFM table was literally bristling like an entrepreneurial Energizer Bunny – though the Fantastic Five managed to quiet their Blackberrys just long enough to applaud the achievements of the other deserving honorees during the two-hour luncheon.



And no honoree seemed more deserving than Slavica Park. The Dean of the English as a Second Language Department at Emily Griffith Opportunity School, Ms. Park sparked a wave of humility throughout the capacity crowd when she stood to accept her place as one of the 2007 honorees. A 34-year-old refugee of the Bosnian civil war, Park arrived in Denver in 1997 after surviving sniper attacks and other horrors of war – not being able to speak a word of English. However, in 10 years she has not only mastered the English language but has presided over the school’s program, significantly enlarging the department and doubling its funding. Now that’s starting something from the Ground Floor!

Being one of the (just slightly) older members of the GFM table, Jim Dissett applauded loudly when DBJ Publisher Scott Bemis jokingly remarked that – since honorees seemed to get younger every year – perhaps the paper should start at “Fifty Under 50” program in the near future. Jim’s all for that, Mr. Bemis. After all, some folks don’t hit their stride until middle life – just ask Whistler’s Mother.


Here’s to next year and to another round of Denver’s up-and-coming leaders taking their places beside a proud “Forty Under 40” alumni group. Let’s just hope none of them have to face down sniper fire to make it to the podium.

GroundHog Day at Gold Lake

If Punxsutawney Phil spotted his shadow this year in the annual Groundhog Day ritual, the news didn’t make it to Gold Lake Spa & Resort, where GroundFloor Media staffers celebrated GroundHog Day with revelry and camaraderie on Feb. 3rd. Although the mood was warm, the wine inviting and the company, well…fabulous, the weather was decidedly un-spring like. Arctic gusts topping 40 mph kept everyone on their toes (barely) as they scuttled their way from the parking lot to the resort’s dining room and bar as the night began – and a few hardy GFM-ers even arrived early to take advantage of the OUTDOOR hot pools (hello, Linda, Phil, Stephen and Laura – what were you thinking?).

Once safely ensconced in the warm glow and embrace of the lodge and their fellow teammates, the GroundFloor team did what PR people do best: talked, laughed, shared secrets, laughed, gossiped and mingled. Oh, and did I mention that we laughed?

Laura and Ramonna took to center stage during a break in dinner to hand out statuettes to each team member signifying a “contribution” they had made during the past year. The good-natured ribbing (mine referenced Carl Lewis because I always seem to be racing to get to meetings on time) drew cajoles from the crowd – but perhaps that was mainly because the wine glasses had been happily clinking for some time prior to dinner. We even learned a few things over the course of the evening, too. For example:

**Regan needs a little more practice following the birth of her baby boy to get back up to speed on the party circuit (here’s to spring training)
**Ramonna has her sign language skills down pat (can you say, “read between the lines?”)
**Stephen looks dashing in a bathrobe (not that there’s anything wrong with that)
**The bar closing at 1 a.m. is a very, very good thing (did I say VERY good thing?)

In the morning, we awoke to a healthy continental breakfast – most of which was consumed by Stephen – and enjoyed a hearty wrap-up with each other of the previous night’s events (again, another trait of the PR crowd – we LOVE to re-cap, review and re-evaluate!). Here’s to next year’s GroundHog Day event – and let’s hope that there is a spring in between now and then sometime.

The GFM Rock n' Rollers Limped Home...

The Rock "N" Roll Arizona Marathon - TEAM GFM!!

Well, we survived below freezing temperatures, delayed flights, blisters and Band-Aids placed in strategic locations, Stephen carrying around P.F. Chang’s leftovers for three days, Kristina and Carissa’s intruder, Jim ‘Tools’ with his leopard hat in the hot tub, SJ, well, just being SJ (most of which I could never put in an email), Rebecca as the new hotel IT director, Ro running with bronchitis, Carissa claiming I abandoned her at the last minute, Jim Reilly for just managing to put up with us (always with a smile on his face) and Jen ‘smiling’ as she made it through the finish line! Did I mention Stephen qualified for Boston with a 3:03 time? He even made it on the local news! The rest of us, well, we were just happy to drink a beer at the end of the day. Thanks to this amazing group of troopers. I am so happy to work – and run (hobble) -- with each and every one of you!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=3AcNGzNu3Yueg
Laura

PS – Best of luck to Shawn Wills this week as he tries to make the cut for the golf tournament. You are my hero for offering to run the stadium stairs with Kirby immediately after we crossed the finish line. I thought I would literally pass out the minute she suggested it.