www.FocalPointMarketing.com
Focal Point Marketing & Multimedia

8551 W Gage Blvd, Suite K
Kennewick, WA 99336

The Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce had a ribbon cutting today for Focal Point Marketing & Multimedia. There was a large turnout for this event. Of course it never hurts attendance when wine and h’orderves are served!

Located next to Tony Romas near Costco, this new Tri-City business combines state-of-the-art technology with industry-proven marketing strategies to maximize marketing budget value. Focal Point specializes in almost everything marketing: strategy, media productions, web vignettes, print media, branding, broadcast placement, electronic press kits, communications, and web design. Their facility houses a fully equipped HD digital post suite, a media design center, and a first-rate sound booth. The design center not only has a state-of-the-art production studio but also has a 30-foot green screen.

I was impressed by the equipment they had out on display. Besides the video and computer hardware, the steadicam video camera looked quite impressive. Here is wishing them the best of luck in their new endeavor!

Last night was the 5th annual Second Harvest Tri-Cities signature fund raising event, “Taking a Bite Out of Hunger” at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick. What better way to raise money to fight hunger than bringing together hundreds of individuals and businesses for a silent auction and food tastings from different local restaurants as well as wine and beer. My wife, Von, and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. This is the 3rd year that our office has purchased a table at the event and we are looking forward already to attending again next year.

Nineteen of the areas finest restaurants provided samples of their signature dishes. But to call them samples is to do them injustice. I am not sure I was able to visit all the restaurants’ tables before I was overfull. I should have skipped breakfast and dinner!

I did have a glass of wine early in the evening but soon found the microbrewery table. Five area microbreweries supplied one of their brews on tap. The Atomic Amber was the darkest beer available and so was my first choice and I was not disappointed. Later, when I returned for more I realized this was a perfect opportunity to try them all. Over the course of the evening I “forced” myself to accomplish this daunting task. Of the remaining four brews the one that stood out was the “Steamy Cream” from Prosser’s Whitstran Brewing

The entertainment for the evening was a fun performance by Danny Vernon as “The Illusion of Elvis”. I tried to get Von to have her photo taken with him but she must be allergic to Elvis cause when he came near our table during part of the performance she disappeared faster than I could pull out my camera.

While taking a bite, all who attended also were able to take a bite out of hunger in our local area by bidding on items in a silent auction as well as purchasing items outright. All the money raised is used locally to help those in need. Von bought a ‘grab box’ with three bottles of wine for $50 and I purchased a John Clement print of the Wallula Gap and Two Sisters for $395. Nice to be able to help and enjoy ourselves at the same time.

Fighting Hunger, Feeding Hope

From the 2nd Harvest website:

Second Harvest Tri-Cities brings community resources together to feed people in need through empowerment, education and partnerships.

• Since opening in 1997, Second Harvest Tri-Cities has increased food distribution and improved services to people in need throughout the Columbia Basin.
• The 5,000-square-foot warehouse in Kennewick distributed 2.7 million pounds, including 1.5 million pounds of fresh produce and other perishable products, last year.
• More than 80 partner charities, including neighborhood food banks and meal centers, receive food to provide to people in need.

Second Harvest Tri-Cities is committed to ensuring a safe and nutritious supply of food is available to families, children and seniors in need in our neighborhoods. Thanks to generous community partners, Second Harvest is able to provide six pounds of donated food for every dollar donated. This makes every donation to Second Harvest a valuable investment in fighting hunger and feeding hope.

The Yoast article on Google & Microformats caught my attention. I have been working on the address links for my company’s website (you can check it out for great car, home, or renters insurance) and, from what I was reading, realized that I should use the microformat with each office’s address.

However, the use of microformats, a set of agreed upon HTML conventions used to describe content, can give you more control of the snippets displayed in Google SERPs. Once your site is properly using rich snippets, you will see them also appear in your Google custom search and Google site search results, so this technique is definitely worth exploring if you use those tools as well.

Google, of course, does a great job figuring out addresses, etc from a a web site but why not help it out and label what’s what. The microformat does this. I had no idea what microformats were set up but was about to learn.

Example

—- start code —-
<div class=”vcard”>
 <span class=”fn org” style=”display:none;”>
  <span class=”organization-name” style=”display:none;”>Mid-Columbia Insurance</span>
  <span class=”organization-unit” style=”display:none;”>Kennewick</span> 
 </span>
 <strong><a href=”http://www.MidColumbiaInsurance.com/Kennewick” class=”url” title=”Car Insurance Kennewick, WA”>
  <img src=”/images/Kennewick-145.gif” alt=”Kennewick, WA Office” title=”Kennewick Insurance Office” border=”0″ /></a></strong>
  <div class=”adr”>
  <span class=”street-address”>8601 W Clearwater, Ste A</span><br />   <span class=”locality”>Kennewick</span>,
  <span title=”Washington” class=”region”>WA</span> <span class=”postal-code”>99336</span><br />
 </div>
 <span class=”geo”>
  <span class=”latitude”>
   <span class=”value-title” title=”46.208625″ />
  </span>
  <span class=”longitude”>
   <span class=”value-title” title=”-119.237502″ />
  </span>
 </span>
 <span class=”tel”>
  <span class=”value”>(509) 783-5600</span>
  :<span class=”type”>office</span><br />
 </span>
 <span class=”tel”>
  <span class=”value”>(509) 783-0954</span>
  :<span class=”type”>fax</span>
 </span>
</div>
  —- end code —-

—- display start —-

Mid-Columbia Insurance Kennewick

8601 W Clearwater, Ste A
Kennewick, WA 99336

(509) 783-5600 :office
(509) 783-0954 :fax

  —- dispaly end —-

Now I have to look at other applications where I can use microformats, most likely for book reviews!

Links & More Info:

• Yoast: Google & Microformats
• Yoast: Implementing hreview in your WordPress theme
• Microformats.org Blog, wiki, & discussion
• Wikipedia: Microformats
• Google Webmaster Central
• Google Documentation on Rich Snippets
• Rich Snippets Tips & Tricks
• Rich Snippets Testing Tool

Ideas for later

• Personal Page: Jared Hanson, Roger King, Tim Van Damme

Pete Fromm and Jess Walter were the guest authors at this month’s Mid-Columbia Literature Festival. These were actually encore performances as both authors participated in the LitFest 2 years ago. Pete Fromm jokingly mentioned that this was the first time a group was ever willing to listen to him a 2nd time.

Pete Fromm

Pete Fromm’s latest novel, As Cool As I Am (2003), earned him an unprecedented fourth Pacific Northwest Booksellers Literary Award. Earlier winners were his novel How All This Started (2000), a story collection, Dry Rain (1997), and a memoir Indian Creek Chronicles (1993). Hailed as one of “America’s best-kept literary secrets,” he has published four other story collections, as well as more than 100 stories in magazines. His short story, Dry Rain, was recently made into a film that opened at the 2008 Seattle International Film festival. He lives with his family in Missoula, Montana.

Fromm joked that he did not want to read from his latest novel because he is afraid that he might just repeat the same reading as last time he was was here and, even worse, repeat the same jokes. Instead he read a chapter from his current writing project telling the protagonist’s heroic, yet quixotic struggle against M.S. The story was both hilarious and sad. I am definitely looking forward to reading this book when it comes out.

Jess Walter

Jess Walter is the award-winning author of five novels and one nonfiction book. His book, The Zero, was a finalist for the National Book Award. His work has been translated into more than 20 languages and his essays, short fiction, criticism, and journalism have been widely published in Details, Playboy, Newsweek, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe among many others. Walter also writes screenplays and was the co-author of Christopher Darden’s 1996 bestseller In Contempt.

Walter mentioned that when giving readings in Portland and Seattle, the mention that he is a Spokane Writer has about the same effect as saying one is a Umatilla Ballerina. Spokane is his home though and so, appropriately, he read a short work of his entitled, “Statistical Abstract of My Home Town, Spokane, WA”. It gave many facts about Spokane, most hilarious, starting with the fact that Spokane has more adult men riding child-sized BMX bikes than any other city. These men all wear caps, baseball caps in the summer and stocking caps in the winter, pedaling with their knees up above their ears. Even though he is sure that the Spokane Chamber of Commerce is not thrilled with the picture he paints of Spokane he concludes his statistical story with a very telling point: “Hating the place you are from is just another form of self-loathing”

Definitely was a fun evening with these two authors. They had a natural sense of humor that really clicked with me and the rest of the audience. I hope to get a chance to read some works from each of them. I do see that the Mid-Columbia Library carries both authors.

The next LitFest event is April 20th, featuring Tod Marshall on Poetry. Come if you have a chance!