NEW PEOPLE
I am pleased to announce that Andrea Tracey-Stone is our new Sales Executive. Andrea brings more than 10 years of experience in media business including print and broadcast mediums, and a lifetime of knowledge and experience of the Grand Bahama market. She also worked in Abaco for more than four years. Andrea is a great addition to our team and we are excited about being able to increase our ability to serve you better.

Also, we are pleased to have Rico Thompson on our team heading up our media production area. Rico is a multi-talented young man that has already taken on advanced video and audio editing projects, still photography and video shooting jobs. Many of you may know Rico for his performances at Regency Theatre and as the headlining act at the Thursday evening show at the Casino at Our Lucaya. Also, Rico is the on-camera host of our all-new original show, Island View (see more below). We are excited to have Rico bring his wide array of talents to the Keen i Media team.

NEW VENTURE
Many of you may have already heard about the ’soft’ launch of Grand Bahama TV (GBTV) on September 1st. We’ve had an amazing response in less than three weeks! GBTV is a 24×7 online TV channel that streams video content that is totally focused on Grand Bahama. We also offer more than a dozen shows available on demand — you start, pause, rewind and stop them when you want. We have theatre shows, documentaries, local features and news programmes that will help you keep up and stay connected to what’s going on in Grand Bahama in a unique and entertaining way. As we build our repertoire of exclusive shows on GBTV, such as our wildly popular Island View show and several other new projects on the way, we’re sure you will agree that Grand Bahama is finally going to get the exposure and entertainment that it has been sorely lacking. Click HERE now to start watching GBTV now.

GBTV also provides an entirely new outlet for advertising and promoting your business. Through everything from 30- and 60-second TV spots, to infomercials, to public service announcements, church services and many other options, GBTV makes a powerful new medium available to the masses at a drastically lower cost than traditional TV-based advertising. For example: a 30-second spot on ZNS TV in Grand Bahama will cost you around $100 per showing. A 30-second ad on GBTV can run for an entire month — with unlimited showings — for just $450. That means in less than a week of nightly showings on ZNS TV you will have already paid for a month on GBTV. It’s a great value. Write to us at ads@grandbahamatv.com for more details or to make a booking.

NEW CAPABILITIES
In the last month we have added two great new features and capabilities to our range of services:

• Multi-camera video switching: we can now cover events that require multiple cameras (up to four), such as church services, conferences, panel discussions, TV shows, training situations and more. We can do this with our fully digital (meaning, excellent quality!) video switcher and either record this to digital tape or stream an event live to the web on GBTV or do both at once.
• Audio Engineering & Amplification Service:  Need sound for your next event? A press conference or panel discussion? Birthday or cocktail party? Graduation? Grand opening? We’ve got all the sound gear and expertise you’ll need to make that happen. We can also provide digital recording and audio CD duplication and custom packaging service. We’ve got more than 25 years of in-house experience in sound engineering so we’re confident we can handle it.

And, of course, we can put these things together to deliver multi-camera video shooting and audio engineering with live web streaming or recording. Our light can also help illuminate a stage for any of the above type of events. We can make it all happen and at very competitive rates.

NEW PROJECTS
We’ve completed a few new projects of interest recently:

• Mentioned above, Island View is our all-new TV show that takes you inside some of the more interesting and unusual places in Grand Bahama. With a fun, upbeat and entertaining style, host Rico jumps right in to what’s going on so you can see how things work. Our first two episodes are showing now on GBTV and available there on demand. New episode coming next week!
• Early in August we were contacted by a New York production company and hired to shoot a celebrity photo shoot at Atlantis, Paradise Island. We didn’t know it at the time but we soon found out that the celebrity was actually Kim Kardashian, model and star of reality TV. The footage of the photo shoot was shot entirely by Keen i Media and was then featured on PEOPLE Magazine’s PEOPLE TV on their web site. Check it out by clicking HERE.
• A few months ago we established a relationship with The Counsellors Ltd, a well-respected and experienced media production company in Nassau, to produce Grand Bahama-focused segments for their TV show, Bahamas@Sunrise. Bahamas@Sunrise airs live on Mondays and Fridays at 6:30am, and Monday’s show is  rebroadcast on Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. and Friday’s show airs again on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. To date, Keen i Media has shot more than half a dozen segments for Bahamas@Sunrise, including two just last week which will air soon on national TV.
• GBTV News is on the beat! We are now covering locally relevant stories that we think you want to see, whether it is an announcement from the GB Port Authority about the new bridge planned for the Grand Bahama Highway or the crowning of a new Miss Grand Bahama, GBTV News is there to get the story and deliver the most important information to you. We’re constantly developing this service to provide greater coverage and we would love to receive your reports and video from things around town. This segment of GBTV News that we’re calling iWitness News can include your cell phone video or video from your home cameras. Just capture the news as it happens and we’ll get it out to the people! E-mail us at news@grandbahamatv.com.
• Keen i Media designed, produced and hosts the all-new web site for The Garden of the Groves, launched just last week. The new site features a number of great photo galleries, FAQs, and a high resolution downloadable map of the Garden. Check it out at http://www.TheGardenOfTheGroves.com.

STAY IN TOUCH
If you want to stay in touch with what’s going on in the media business and at Keen i Media in particular there are a few ways you can do that. You can follow us on Twitter (@keenimedia), become a fan on Facebook, read our blog, check us out on YouTube, or watch GBTV for our latest productions. Oh yeah, you can phone us (242-351-5339), visit us at our studio on Queen’s Highway (Orlando House, next to OBS Marine), or e-mail us (info@keenimedia.com), too (isn’t it funny how those things seem so…quaint?).

SOMETHING FREE!
It’s hard to find anything of value nowadays. But if you are interested in learning more about sales, marketing and the new economy, be sure to download the audio book called ‘FREE: The Future of a Radical Price. Click HERE [iTunes store link] to get it..for FREE.

Finally, if you are in range of Love 97FM (or click HERE to listen to their online stream) tune in this Saturday, September 19 from 10:00 to 10:30 a.m. when I will be the guest on ‘Nate Lewis in the A.M.’ talking about the arts and media in the Bahamas.

Take care,

~ejr~

At first I think, Oh great, as if I have time for this. Then, usually, I figure that my friend, associate or distant cousin of someone I met on Facebook is looking out for me. They don’t want me to get mugged by some vagrant in a parking lot, become a victim of a gang initiation or want me to avoid that ‘mayonnaise’ in that fast food chicken sandwich because it might really be pus from a tumour.

I appreciate the thought and the concern—really, I do, when it is genuinely intended—but, folks, seriously, let’s not just accept everything that passes in front of our eyes. The near instant nature of e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and text messages makes it just too easy to pass along something that is more than a little silly; and if we would just pause for a second to think about it we’d realise just how silly it is.

Perhaps it is because I am a photographer but I also often am forwarded photos that seem too freaky/cool/unlikely to be true—and there is a very good reason for that: they usually are too freaky/cool/unlikely to be true.

Sure, occasionally I’ll come across a photo that is genuine and awesome (like THIS series of authentic photos of a lightning storm in the middle of a volcanic eruption). But that’s far less often than the pretty-obvious-to-me faked photos (’fauxtography’) like THIS one of tourists about to be eaten by a very familiar-looking shark.

I get these e-mails pretty frequently, in fact, in the last year or so I have been getting a lot more direct e-mails outright asking me if something is real, as if I have some sort of special Web.bs filter, which I guess, in a way, I do. I would say the majority of the time I can tell at first glance when something just isn’t legit. The rest of the time I can usually find out in less than 60 seconds with a well-worded Google search or, more likely, a visit to Snopes.com.

Snopes.com specialises in discerning fact from fiction. They research the topic at hand, often speaking directly with those purported to be involved. They will publish a photo and show how it was faked (like our not-so-hapless SCUBA-diving tourists).

So, the next time you’re just not sure if stingrays really do migrate en masse in the Gulf of Mexico, or if Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was denied access to Disneyland in 1959, check it out on Snopes.com.

And stop bothering me!

The all-new original show, Island View, gets you inside some of the coolest/interesting/unusual places on the island.

The fast-paced TV show is hosted by Grand Bahamian Rico Thompson, who brings his own brand of enthusiasm and excitement to the screen. Rico is certainly not afraid to get his hands dirty, whether it is figuring out how aluminum recycling works or just how many puppies (well over 100!) are at the Humane Society of Grand Bahama’s shelter on Coral Road.

The show was launched on September 1, simultaneously with the launch of Grand Bahama TV, a.k.a. GBTV, which is Grand Bahama island’s first dedicated TV channel. The channel is currently streaming online 24 hours a day with many hours of news, information, features shows and entertainment from some of Grand Bahama’s finest performers. At the GBTV web site you can also choose from more than a dozen shows available “on demand”, including all episodes of Island View. Simply click on a show from the list and it begins to play immediately, and you can pause, rewind and fast forward. The channel plans to launch live TV shows in October.

To get a glimpse of what Island View is all about, watch the promo video below and then go to GrandBahamaTV.com to watch Island View’s first two episodes, with new shows coming soon.

Enjoy!

~ejr~

What we find most amazing about this is that there is any discussion at all. The proposed amendment to Bahamian law — late coming as it is — will formalise by law the protection of women against violence.

We recently stood dumbfounded as we listened to a man scoff at the proposed changes. His argument was that men have to deal with long, difficult days and that when they come home they just need to “deal” with their “needs”. If “their woman” doesn’t cooperate then that’s not right; she should know her duty and meet it.

This not-so-subtle comment is sadly the way of thinking of many men in the Bahamas. To believe that there is a unmitigated and unchecked right to have your way with any woman — acquaintance, girlfriend, wife, daughter — is staggering and speaks to a deep-seated issue that may permeate areas of our society that should concern every citizen — regardless of gender — in the Bahamas.

If someone can say that rape of a stranger is wrong but forced sexual relations with someone known to them is acceptable, there is a major disconnect between the morality of the act and the act itself.

How is it that any person with belief in God as Creator and Jesus as Saviour could possibly find justification that women should be under violent submission to men? To use the Bible to rationalise such a belief is a distortion of God’s character and an abomination against His grace. In Christ there is no distinction between male or female (Galatians 3:26-28) and this fact is borne out in Jesus’ own ministry as He broke down societal and cultural boundaries between men and women. And when He did this it was the religious leaders of the day that were His greatest opponents!

Every respectable citizen, resident and visitor should be supportive of these changes to our laws. We suspect that the resistance to the change is based on a lack of understanding of the specific changes proposed, an allegiance to historically-entrenched yet morally bankrupt beliefs, and a distorted perspective of the rights and equality between the genders.

If you genuinely want to understand the proposed changes, ask sincere questions about the impact on our society if the changes do and do not go through, or to just get a better grasp on the issues at large, seek out the opportunities to engage the open meetings that are being held.

To read the actual proposed changes, click this link.

~ejr~

The dispute appears to be regarding the late payment of rent for three restaurant spaces at Port Lucaya Marketplace, the waterside shopping centre that has become the de facto hub of retail commerce and entertainment in Freeport.

The three restaurants, La Dolce Vita, EAST, and The Pub at Port Lucaya (in the space formerly occupied by ‘Pussers’), are operated by Mr Hayward (son of Sir Jack Hayward), who has asserted that he has been a tenant for 22 years and has paid out more than $3.5 million in rent during that time.

According to court documents and legal papers filed, and subsequently reviewed by this writer, the landlord charges that Mr Hayward has failed to pay rent for those locations for the past ten months, and is in arrears just shy of $230,000.

Last week, the staff of the these businesses arrived to commence work to discover the doors locked and a noticed posted to advise that the landlord had exercised its right to control access due to the overdue sum and that it could further repossess the goods to recover any losses or expenses.

As a result, at least 75 Grand Bahama residents are out of work; while Mr Hayward has promised to continue to pay the workers while the problem is addressed, at the very least the future employment of these workers—and the livelihood of their families—are in jeopardy.

On the surface, it seems that a landlord is rightfully taking action to recover fees owed by a tenant that has fallen behind in a major way, especially given the amounts involved. No landlord can sustain its operation if it must carry such heavy losses over a long period of time; it just doesn’t make good business sense to do so.

For Mr Hayward’s part, today’s economy makes it difficult to continue to pay salaries, insurance, rent and license fees, purchase goods and supplies, and attend to all the other expenses that go along with operating a restaurant business—or three. To do so in a way that ensures that workers are paid regularly and staff levels are kept steady while bearing the constant weight of such costs can be difficult, if not impossible, as business volume steadily wanes.

Mr Hayward contends that his rental fees have more than doubled in the last five years, and he has challenged these increases that he claims have been unjustified and unsustainable.

One of Mr Hayward’s primary objections to the lockout action is that he believes these steps are motivated by the running feud between the owners and management of Port Group Limited, which has involved Sir Jack Hayward, the St George Estate and chairman Hannes Babak. While the ownership dispute and disagreement over management rights remains outstanding, Rick Hayward seems to believe that last week’s clash over his rental debt is driven more by the Port Group Limited than Bourbon Street/Port Lucaya Marketplace.

Such a belief is based on the fact that Port Group Limited’s management issued a letter of demand for the rental payments to Hayward’s company back in Aril 2009—yet Port Group Limited is not the landlord to which Hayward owes the outstanding amounts.

This week, Hayward’s legal counsel stated that the demand from this “third party” was ignored as it was not involved in the matter, which then lead Port Group Limited to respond by locking the doors of the rented space.

Mr Hayward has acknowledged his debt and acquiesced to Bourbon Street’s right to seek relief through the courts to recovered the sums owed. What Mr Hayward has rejected is the involvement of Port Group Limited, as he believes that there are other unrelated motivations spurring such aggressive steps.

While the true motivations and intentions of all the parties would be nigh impossible to decipher, what is clear to most outsiders is that such discord and conflict is nothing more than a gaping wound. This is just another symptom of a cancer that has been slowly disintegrating the integrity and sustainability of Freeport and Grand Bahama.

While the entire Bahamas faces the facts of a globally faltering economy, the evaporation of discretionary spending, and the threats of increasing regional competition (helllloooo, Cuba), Grand Bahama struggles to find its own footing as the very investors, regulators and managers that are charged with its stewardship continue to bicker.

That is not to say that there aren’t real and important matters to be settled, but we have heard from all corners—licensees, gas station attendants and expatriate visitors alike—that it just needs to be done.

The parties should fully appreciate that the lingering dispute is negatively affecting the lives and collective future of the residents of Grand Bahama, and ultimately, the Bahamas. The personal agendas, egos and lack of effective communication are hampering potential investments and stagnating Grand Bahama.

Stop muddying the waters when there are fish to be caught. Stop playing the fiddle while our city burns. And stop holding our futures in limbo while we wonder where our next paycheck is coming from.

~ejr~

NOTE:
Late Thursday evening, July 2, 2009, a statement was issued by Port Group Limited stating that an agreement has been reached between the parties regarding the rental dispute. Click HERE to read that statement.

As someone that has extensive experience in the public eye, she knows how to handle herself under pressure, and is well connected among several industries, including the financial industry, the entertainment business, and, of course, politically.

What is less obvious is whether her diplomatic acumen is sufficient to address the challenging issues that may lie ahead, not the least of which are the matters surrounding international copyright law and its application in the Bahamas.
The fact that this new ambassador is a female (the second for the Bahamas; the first being Ambassador Carol Boyd-Hallett, who served from 1986-1989), and an African-American (also the second for the Bahamas; the first being Ambassador Sidney Williams, who served from 1994-1998)—and the first African-American female ambassador—could mean that this personal perspective will help build on the affinity that the Bahamas already enjoys with the United States.

As Cuba’s tourism influence looms large in the Bahamas’ future, extending and securing our relationship stability with the United States is essential for our economic survival.

~ejr~

Nicole Avant talks about the Obama inauguration:

]]> http://keenimedia.com/blog/2009/06/18/new-u-s-ambassador-for-the-bahamas/feed/ 0 http://keenimedia.com/blog/2009/06/03/look-its-another-holiday-which-one-is-this/ http://keenimedia.com/blog/2009/06/03/look-its-another-holiday-which-one-is-this/#comments Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:45:06 +0000 ejr http://keenimedia.com/blog/?p=378 This past Monday and this Friday are public holidays. Quick: can you name what those holidays are?

We’re willing to bet that the overwhelming majority of people can’t name them, but who cares!? They’re holidays, and that’s all that matters!

We overheard this comment this past weekend and chuckled to ourselves, although on further reflection we wondered, what’s the point of a public holiday if the general public doesn’t know what the holiday is and why it even is a public holiday?

You can check the Wikipedia web page to learn more about Whit Monday and you also check out the (minimal) reference to Labour Day in the Bahamas. But finding out what the holidays are for isn’t the same as knowing why they are important enough to be holidays.

Another recurring instance of this unfortunately common ignorance is the holiday that falls on the first Monday in August, often referred to as ‘August Monday’, and also known as the start of the crawfish season. But the holiday in the Bahamas is actually Emancipation Day, when we remember the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 was enacted. (See: Remembering the past and protecting the future, August 2, 2007)

It’s easy to blame the government or the schools for our people not being better aware of the history and importance of these holidays. But we think it is primarily parents’ responsibility to ensure that their children grow up understanding the history of our country, how and why it affects them, and why they are important enough to shut down commerce and education to commemorate them.

But to do that, parents need to be more aware themselves! Internet searches and history books (you remember books, don’t you?) are a good place to start. Talk to the elders of your community about their Labour Day memories, talk to your minister about how Whit Monday fits into the formal church calendar, and, students, ask your teachers to spend some time talking about emancipation and the history of slavery in the Bahamas.

All this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy the time off work and school, of course! Spend time with family, get out to the beach, relax and recover from recent stresses; but take some time to remind yourself of the the significance of the day.

Stay safe.

~ejr~

Take two things I love and put ‘em together: crazy/amazing technology and the Dallas Cowboys. And what do you get?

This HD TV makes your HD TV beg for mercy.

~ejr~

Most of the time there is no shortcut to success. Even so-called ‘overnight sensations’ usually have to work hard and long to get to the ‘sensation’ part; the ‘overnight’ could last years – decades even – until the critical mass has been reached.

We have been pleased to see a heightened interest in web-based content, even over the last six months since Christmas 2008. Subscribers to our weekly e-mail newsletters (Grand Bahama Info and Nassau Info) have increased dramatically, with more than 300 new subscribers added in just a few short months.

Even more significant has been the boom in the number of visitors that are drawn to BahamaIslandsInfo.com on a daily basis. We are always attentive to the many ways that people discover — or stumble upon —  BahamaIslandsInfo.com, because we want to be sure we are doing everything reasonably possible to get the word out about our web site.

We spend considerable time every day refining, improving and expanding BahamaIslandsInfo.com to make it more useful, more accessible and more accommodating to our web site visitors’ needs. We don’t just want you to visit our web site once, we want you to come back every day — several times a day! — to stay up to date with the news that affects you.

To help get the word out we focus on three main methods:
1. Make sure the content is relevant to those either living in the Bahamas or those that visit (planning to for the first time, planning to return, or those that live in the Bahamas seasonally);
2. Work hard at ensuring that the content is as current as possible; and
3. Pursue as many different external methods to spread the content and word around through other online resources.

Relevance is more than just seeing if the word “Bahamas” shows up in an article; any five-year-old that can spell “Google” can find thousands of articles and information about the Bahamas online. But sifting through the clutter to discover those that are the most salient and pertinent to people with a genuine interest in the Bahamas is the key.

Whether it is a shark attack or shark conservation, a serious crime or a new investment that will bring jobs and income to Bahamians, a government initiative that will impact our lives or a storm that will impact our homes, we strive to dig deep into the content that will be of greatest interest to our readers.

Some web sites will tell you that they focus on “the positive” side of life in the Bahamas; a valiant intention, to be sure. We wonder, though, how well informed their web site visitors will be after weeding through a clutter of flashing lights only to find half-baked feel-good anecdotes and press releases with little to no substance.

We respect our loyal web site visitors’ intelligence and maturity enough to believe that they are more than capable of enjoying informative and entertaining feature articles right along with the whole truth of the local, national and international news. We seek out reliable and legitimate sources for content, not the ill-informed or agenda-laden bloggers that try to pass off their bias as news and rumours as fact.

Sure, we get phone calls and e-mails telling us about something that seems incredible or newsworthy to some, but a few short questions later we can often determine that the source is questionable and the story is shaky; we take our responsibility to you seriously. We aren’t saying we haven’t (or won’t) make mistakes, but we work hard at trying to discern the truth and present it to you for your own consideration.

Our team and many of our frequent readers and contributors are constantly hunting down the information that we believe you want. And we listen to your feedback and pay close attention to the factual statistics on readership and clicks on articles. This tells us what people are seeking most. We use every tool available to us to watch out for trends and activity that we believe to be representative of our readers’ interests.

Ensuring that our content is current is just as important as making sure it is relevant. To be sure that current content gets to you as fast as possible, we post new articles every day of the week, even on public holidays and late into the night.

Every single week we repeatedly see articles that we have posted on BahamaIslandsInfo.com show up in newspapers and web sites days later. This is just further affirmation that we we not only are delivering you the right content, but we are getting it to you faster than most others on any given day.

We also use every available means to get the broadest possible visibility for our content; getting it in front of more people is a vital part of being a successful web-based service.

To accomplish this goal we have built relationships with other Bahamas-focused web sites that hold similar values of design excellence, content integrity and true relevance. One excellent example of such a relationship is BahamasLocal.com. This well designed and executed web site is a cross between a Bahamas search engine and a business directory; businesses can list their company information for free and there are options for enhanced listings for greater exposure. As BahamasLocal.com creator and co-owner Jason McDowall has often noted, the web site has given exposure to companies that otherwise might not get web visibility.

BahamaIslandsInfo.com delivers all the news content for BahamasLocal.com; not only does this enhance the content at BahamasLocal.com but it reveals the features and benefits of BahamaIslandsInfo.com to a wider audience.

There are several technology tools that we have embraced to help spread Bahamas news and information to a wider audience. Our Facebook page has touched a massive new segment of the online Bahamian community of over 50,000 people.  And our series of Facebook advertisements have been viewed more than 4.5 million times and drawn nearly 3,500 visitors to BahamaIslandsInfo.com.

Our news content is continuously picked up by Google News, with articles showing up in search results as little as four minutes after being posted to our site.

The content aggregator feature RSS (real simple syndication) is a way that many people keep in touch and up to date with the content across many web-based services. While some Bahamas-based web sites are just discovering this useful tool, BahamaIslandsInfo.com has been providing it since the day it was launched. (If you want to use our RSS feature just click the RSS icon near the top of the right-hand column of almost any page.)

Our most recent addiction…er, addition…to our technology tool arsenal has been Twitter. Still very much on the inclining slope of popularity, Twitter is an excellent way to get brief updates and info from friends and businesses online. On our Twitter feed (add us on Twitter @bahamasnews) you’ll get Bahamas news updates mere seconds after content has been added to BahamaIslandsInfo.com. When you spot a headline of interest you can easily click from the Twitter notification to jump straight to the full story. Hundreds of people follow us on Twitter and we have seen readerships stats jump by a factor of two or three for any article posted on our Twitter feed.

One of the great things we have seen over the last few months has been the substantial spike in other web sites around the world cross-linking to BahamaIslandsInfo.com stories that have particular regional, international and global interest. Web sites such as those operated by MSN, The Wall Street Journal (including a special section dedicated to President Barack Obama), and several Bahamas-focused travel web sites including About.com’s Caribbean Travel Blog, have all picked up articles from BahamaIslandsInfo.com that they believe their readers will find of interest.

These efforts have brought BahamaIslandsInfo.com to the place where it is now a significant contributing force in the Bahamas news and information sphere. Averaging between 1,000 and 1,500 visitors every day with traffic coming from dozens of countries and referring web sites, BahamaIslandsInfo.com has truly come into its own, just a year and a few months into its life. We thank you for helping to make that happen.

But all of these things, as effective and important as they are in operating a web-based service, are only truly effective if we know that our readers are satisfied and well-served by our efforts. We have always appreciated the encouragement, criticism and comments from you in the past and we welcome it in the future. Please write to us at info@bahamaislandsinfo.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and share your thoughts and your ideas.

~ejr~