Myriad Gardens with the Fremont Experience
Steve Lackmeyer from The Oklahoman’s business desk gave me the above footage to compile into a video. Good stuff. It includes footage of the Myriad Gardens lit up, it’s like the Fremont Experience in Vegas.
Terror on 10th Street: the uncut tour of an OKC haunted house
With October rolling around, Oklahoma gets better weather – usually mild, enjoyable days with little drama. It also means I get fatter due to higher consumption of Halloween candy.
To accompany The Oklahoman’s coverage of haunted houses for people to enjoy during October’s weekends, I shot a tour of the haunted house near NW 10 and Penn Ave in Oklahoma City.
The people at the house, I counted 4-5, stayed in character the 45 minutes I was there. Honestly, I thought it was fun and a little more enjoyable than the typical cattle herd process of stumbling through a dark warehouse maze. But both have their upside.
I debated using a Canon 7D to shoot this, but figured I was better off using something that required less skill. Also, it was very dark in there and I didn’t want to destroy a lens by bumping into a Freddy Krueger. Or plastic skull.
About 5 seconds into this house, I’m fumbling for the nightshot on the Sony A1U HVR, which is near the lens. One thing I quickly realized, the lens cover on this camera eats into the nightshot’s range. So to compensate, the video is actually resized larger in post production. The result is a little less annoying than wondering why the top third is completely black the entire time.
3 Things You Should Know: The Plaza District
As always, my friend and colleague Steve Lackmeyer has done a fine job with his latest article on the Plaza District, and how events held in that area are drawing business. You can read his article on NewsOK.com and watch the above video for 3 Things You Should Know about The Plaza District.
It’s time for Startup Weekend
Local financial pro Adam Dani has been on Twitter (@adamdani) the past few weeks promoting OKC’s Startup Weekend. Now, it’s time for our local biz peeps to see what they can come up with.
Twitter is great for learning of events like this. And meeting new people. I haven’t had a chance to personally meet Dani yet, but this event is a very cool idea. He passed along his contact info via Twitter and Angi Bruss knocked out the interview.
Watch the above video to learn more from Dani about Startup Weekend.
Says Dani, “I think we will all be shocked at what is possible when you get 50-60 wickedly talented people together and have them crank out companies in 54 hours.”
I appreciate Dani taking the time to visit OPUBCO Studios and share more about the event. Here’s the schedule:
Friday, March 5th: (Pitch ideas, Form Teams)
5:30pm: Doors open, meet and greet, discuss what would be interesting to build.
7:00 Pm: Pitches start!
Anyone can get up and pitch an idea. This is a self-selection process. People form teams around ideas that they think are interesting and would like to work on for the weekend. Ideally, you’d like a group between 5 and 10 people — but groups of 2 or as large as 10 are acceptable. Teams are not limited to working on web only applications. Generally, these make the most sense given the nature of the weekend and those who register. But if you really feel like working on that new cupcake business, go for it!
9:00pm: Vote on top ideas and form teams around those ideas based on interest and skill sets required to build the ideas. Teams solidify their concept and create an elevator pitch.
Midnight: Leave for home after brainstorming with team.Saturday, March 6th: (Build Build Build!)
9:00am: Start development.
12:00pm: Lunch break.
9:00pm: Gut check on the product; basic prototype building; group get-together for drinks and to talk about the products everyone is working on.Sunday, March 7th: (Build, Demo, Wrap Up)
9:00am: Get back to work on projects.
10:00am: By now, you should have a live splash page up with an email capture and a simple blog.
12:00pm: Projects are being developed, lunch
6:00pm: Sink or swim time for those looking for a weekend launch.
7:00pm: Presentations from each company. Talk about what worked, what didn’t, what could go better.
10:00pm: Wrap up and move out.
Learn more at the official site here.
OKC Auto show returns, will the warm weather?
The 2011 Jaguar XJ is holding court at this year’s OKC Auto Show. Angi Bruss interviews John Wilguess about the show. And the car. And the other cars. All pretty sweet.
I didn’t attend this year’s opening night for the first time in about 4-5 years. Not feeling the best this week. I remember last year’s debut of the new model Mustangs. A few years ago I played keyboard at the show – some background music next to the BMWs. Tough gig.
Steve Lackmeyer doesn’t like me
A few weeks ago I interviewed Steve Lackmeyer about the 2009 business storylines of downtown OKC. We conducted the interview on top of a downtown parking garage with the streetscape canyon behind us. Throughout the interview, Steve drifted away from me. We started the interview in one parking space and ended in another. In fact, you can watch Steve get his gangsta lean away from me in the video below.
Just kidding around here. This year we launched the video component to OKC Central. Steve has taken on his weekly video segment with seriousness, something I appreciate. He does a great job finding interesting interviews with the top movers and shakers around town.
Somewhat fun fact: Mike Koehler appeared out of nowhere (actually the nearby elevator) by the end of the interview. He was parked just behind David Jones who was shooting this segment.
