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Ken English: marketing, event promotion and public relations This page is being developed... |
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Online Audio
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Online Video
Web 2.0
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305.335.4857 |
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Over the years, I've been involved with most aspects of marketing, sales promotion and public relations. Although I was reading about the internet in the late 1990s, I didn't become active online until 2003 while working with a travel marketing company. I became the webmaster because I had worked for a magazine and knew how to write and take pictures, but I didn't know how to get the content online. I knew I wanted to shoot, edit and upload video, but bandwidth was a major concern. Today, more than 60% of internet users have a high-speed connection to the internet. The number is much higher in major urban areas. In October 2006, I uploaded my first video to YouTube, ripping the track from a promotional DVD we did to promote Miami Beach scuba diving. I worked with DVDPeanPro and Windows Movie Maker. I've evolved to Sony Vegas Movie Studio. When I learned how to use Audacity, a free audio editor, I realized I could put together a nice online video. I have 220 on YouTube, and other video sites, at the present time While at an internet marketing conference in 2007, I heard about an internet radio platform called BlogTalkRadio. I signed up as a host and began producing shows on topics of personal interest. After hosting a couple of dozen shows, I realized the platform would provide communication between the director of an organization and the organization's members. While they could do it themselves, I know if I am the board operator, and co-host when necessary, the director of the organization only had to call in and talk, something they all can do. I set up the www.BlueGreenNetwork.com to develop new programs. The first such show was EcoAlert with Nadine Patrice, the executive director of Operation Green Leaves, an environmental organization dedicated to planting trees in Haiti - www.oglhaiti.com. It was quickly followed by Caribbean Sunday with Eddie Frederick. A Caribbean broadcaster living in South Florida, Eddie syndicates a 10 minute news clip to various media outlets. On the weekend, he does a 60-minute 'life-style' show that is on the BlueGreen Network, via BlogTalkRadio.com. I have orginated BlogTalkRadio shows from several conventions, most recently the Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I've done a couple of shows walking among exhibitors with a cell-phone while at a festival. BTR has a pod-cast element, so I have taken mp3 recordings, uploaded them to the switchboard and played them during the show. BlogTalkRadio is a simple to use platform with global reach. If you have something to say, you can now say it online. Background I began a marketing and promotion career when I joined Great Gorge Ski Area as the manager of Group Sales in 1972. I enjoyed putting a new soundtrack to the 16mm movies that I would show during a presentation. In 1974, I became the Director of Group Sales for two ski areas in the Poconos - Jack Frost Mountain and Big Boulder. Following stops at the Arizona Snow Bowl and Eagle Rock Ski Area, I moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to be the Director of Marketing for a new resort hotel group. I thought I missed the snow and accepted an offer to be the marketing position at Greek Peak Ski Area in Upstate New York in 1979. Two years of snowless winters encouraged me to go back to Florida. This time, I was the Public Relations Manager for a small cruise line. The company was acquired by another cruise line in 1982 and I became a 'consultant.' My first client was a motivational speaker. I set up and handled his AV system while he spoke and mixed music for VHS presentations. Later, I became the executive director of the Miami Foreign Trade Association in the mid-80s, then the executive director of the Greater Miami Hotel & Motel Association. I discovered an interesting element of radio while with the Foreign Trade Association. I realized I could have a radio program on an AM station, if I found sponsors to buy the time. For the next 10 years, I produced and hosted a variety of programs, ranging from international trade to a Miami Beach waterside festival called Sinko de Mayo. Because the radio was used to promote special events, I'd have a 13 or 26 week run, then start over. During my final year on AM radio streaming technology was being introduced. So, I decided to look into internet radio. A few years later, BlogTalkRadio made its debut. |
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