Thursday, January 28, 2010
My Trip to Seattle by Bob Allen
In the age of the “social network” it's more than ever about who you know. But, before there was ever a Facebook or Twitter, there was hanging out at the gym. A few years back (OK, double digits), I met up with a guy in Orlando through my old boss at Disney. He and his wife ran a personal training business and he took me on as a client. After about a year of working out under Jeff’s watchful eye (he once came in my house and actually dragged me out of bed to work out) I got in tremendous shape and Jeff and I and his lovely wife Michelle (who we still call Mike to this day) ended up running two marathons together one of which was the first ever at Walt Disney World. Well, as luck would have it, Jeff surfaced recently at a trade show in Orlando and came to see me. He is now a new business development executive with a company that makes the most advanced fitness equipment in the world. It turns out these guys have wangled a way to include a pretty cool screen and interface with a lot more capacity to provide content for those long and lonely (and in my case sweaty and breathless) hours (or minutes) on the treadmill or the elliptical trainer. Just a long way of explaining why I flew corner to corner from Orlando to Seattle for a creative session tomorrow about just what kind of content might be cool in this new media. What do you want to see on your treadmill screen? Let us know!
Monday, January 25, 2010
The Power of Story
Last week was a nice reminder to us of what we call The Power of Story. It's not some mystical or “magic bullet” concept (and there is a lot of that going around about story these days). We conducted one of our signature StoryJams for a client who is developing a new resort-one that has both challenges and opportunities that are unlike any other and at a time in history when conditions are unprecedented.
There were 35 people in the group and they ranged in beliefs from “Let’s Go!” to “You gotta be kidding!”. Many, we were warned, were not into being “warm and fuzzy”. Cut to the bottom line, by noon the group was deliberately and creatively crafting this new resort. Effortlessly changing their own paradigms and willingly donning the guise of their guests as they took the plan to a new level. Some of the biggest and most thoughtful contributors? All of the people who we were told “might not get into it”.
In the other case, we got a chance to help an institution harvest and collect some of the core stories of their origins. This is, to us, sacred tribal knowledge and when the holders of it move on, retire or pass away, organizations can be forever disconnected from the stories that define their purpose. Not so in this case. Two great days of dialogue and sharing of stories from the people who made history for our client resulted in a cache of real treasure-now preserved and useful for generations. Two great stories we think!
There were 35 people in the group and they ranged in beliefs from “Let’s Go!” to “You gotta be kidding!”. Many, we were warned, were not into being “warm and fuzzy”. Cut to the bottom line, by noon the group was deliberately and creatively crafting this new resort. Effortlessly changing their own paradigms and willingly donning the guise of their guests as they took the plan to a new level. Some of the biggest and most thoughtful contributors? All of the people who we were told “might not get into it”.
In the other case, we got a chance to help an institution harvest and collect some of the core stories of their origins. This is, to us, sacred tribal knowledge and when the holders of it move on, retire or pass away, organizations can be forever disconnected from the stories that define their purpose. Not so in this case. Two great days of dialogue and sharing of stories from the people who made history for our client resulted in a cache of real treasure-now preserved and useful for generations. Two great stories we think!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC) Recap
The Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC) was held last week here in Orlando, Florida. It is fascinating to see the number of technology offerings available to those in the education industry. From SMART boards to classroom response systems, companies continue to gear up to meet the needs of teachers and their students. Although seeing all of this technology was “cool,” the more important question that people were asking at the conference was, “How are teachers using this technology to improve their craft?” And, “Does all of this technology actually enhance the way teachers teach and students learn?” It seems to relate in many ways to the same debate that Richard Clark and Robert Kozma had in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The debate revolved around whether or not the media (or technology) you use to deliver content improved one’s learning. There have been many arguments made on both sides of this discussion, but at the end of the day most would agree that the technology you choose has to make sense for the content you are teaching and the instructional strategies you are using. The two go hand-in-hand.
Of particular interest to us last week was to see how educators are using technology to improve their own professional development. Since the creation of our TeacherStudio product (http://www.teacherstudio.com/), we have participated in many conversations that revolve around this topic. Several sessions were focused on this subject and we enjoyed learning about how others are approaching this very important task. It’s no surprise that teachers are doing more with less, and it is important that they still have time for their own professional growth. Some school districts are partnering across state lines to share best practices. Others are looking to “free” online tools, such as Moodle and Ning, to provide their teachers with online support. The reason we put “free” in quotes is because although these tools do not cost any hard dollars, per se, it does require someone’s time within a school or district to get these sites set up and organized. Great progress has definitely been made in this arena and it is exciting to see.
We attended Diane Lewis’ presentation where she talked about how her district, Seminole County (Florida) Public Schools, is using a palette of professional development options to meet the diverse needs of their teachers. From face-to-face training to an educational world in SecondLife they offer a wide array of options. However even with all they were providing – there was still a gap. They needed a way to give their teachers just in time training and a way to see exemplary teachers in action. Our TeacherStudio product is proving to be an answer to that question. It gives districts a way to offer an affordable online professional learning community for their teachers. It makes sharing of best practices easy which lets districts maximize face-to-face time with their teachers, as well as dollars. Although this is just one solution, it definitely offers online tools that teachers and administrators can use.
For more about IDEAS go to http://www.ideasorlando.com/ and for more about IDEAS Learning go to www.ideaslearning.com/
Of particular interest to us last week was to see how educators are using technology to improve their own professional development. Since the creation of our TeacherStudio product (http://www.teacherstudio.com/), we have participated in many conversations that revolve around this topic. Several sessions were focused on this subject and we enjoyed learning about how others are approaching this very important task. It’s no surprise that teachers are doing more with less, and it is important that they still have time for their own professional growth. Some school districts are partnering across state lines to share best practices. Others are looking to “free” online tools, such as Moodle and Ning, to provide their teachers with online support. The reason we put “free” in quotes is because although these tools do not cost any hard dollars, per se, it does require someone’s time within a school or district to get these sites set up and organized. Great progress has definitely been made in this arena and it is exciting to see.
We attended Diane Lewis’ presentation where she talked about how her district, Seminole County (Florida) Public Schools, is using a palette of professional development options to meet the diverse needs of their teachers. From face-to-face training to an educational world in SecondLife they offer a wide array of options. However even with all they were providing – there was still a gap. They needed a way to give their teachers just in time training and a way to see exemplary teachers in action. Our TeacherStudio product is proving to be an answer to that question. It gives districts a way to offer an affordable online professional learning community for their teachers. It makes sharing of best practices easy which lets districts maximize face-to-face time with their teachers, as well as dollars. Although this is just one solution, it definitely offers online tools that teachers and administrators can use.
For more about IDEAS go to http://www.ideasorlando.com/ and for more about IDEAS Learning go to www.ideaslearning.com/
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
IDEAS Healthcare Practice- Part 3
The final installment on our Healthcare Practice. Once our 4-step approach is followed (talked about in our previous entries), we believe an organization's staff can now learn concrete steps to improve patient satisfaction based on our groundbreaking qualitative research and experience design expertise. We help teach an organization what we have learned about the patient’s perspective, and how nurses, physicians, and non-clinical staff can make a tangible difference in the non-clinical aspects of patient care that are integral to the HCAHPS performance.
We teach 6 New Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction
1. How to Identify Patient Satisfaction Drivers: The organization must attend to the 6 core drivers of the patient experience to guarantee positive patient satisfaction. We explore these drivers work, and show how to make them work for the organization to make a difference for patients.
2. How to Bridge the Gap between Patient & Caregiver: Clinicians and patients live in two separate worlds and speak two different lead to huge disconnects for patients, how staff can learn to see the world through the patient’s eyes, and what they can do to bridge the gap.
3. How Physicians Can Become 10-Second Heroes: Physicians often miss the mark with patients, and consistently receive the worst satisfaction ratings of all clinical staff. We’ll teach how they can improve the way patients perceive their care in six easy steps that won’t require any significant time commitment.
4. How to Protect and Nurture the Caregiver’s Circle™: We’ve learned in great detail how caregivers and family members are frequently pulled out of what we call the Caregiver Circle. We’ll show what the organization can do to optimize how staff enters that circle, decrease patient isolation, and improve patients’ perception of care and support.
5. How to Utilize the Patient Journey to Develop New Service Offerings: Patients are on a distinctive journey in which their clinical care is just one facet. We’ll show new ways to view the patient journey through the patient’s eyes and help discover unique opportunities for improvement.
6. How to Escalate the Perception of Care: Clinicians communicate with patients on a continuum that can directly impact patients’ HCAHPS evaluations. We’ll show how to move clinical staff from “clinical” to “informative” to “empathic” care, and how the latter is the most valued and remembered by patients.
We teach 6 New Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction
1. How to Identify Patient Satisfaction Drivers: The organization must attend to the 6 core drivers of the patient experience to guarantee positive patient satisfaction. We explore these drivers work, and show how to make them work for the organization to make a difference for patients.
2. How to Bridge the Gap between Patient & Caregiver: Clinicians and patients live in two separate worlds and speak two different lead to huge disconnects for patients, how staff can learn to see the world through the patient’s eyes, and what they can do to bridge the gap.
3. How Physicians Can Become 10-Second Heroes: Physicians often miss the mark with patients, and consistently receive the worst satisfaction ratings of all clinical staff. We’ll teach how they can improve the way patients perceive their care in six easy steps that won’t require any significant time commitment.
4. How to Protect and Nurture the Caregiver’s Circle™: We’ve learned in great detail how caregivers and family members are frequently pulled out of what we call the Caregiver Circle. We’ll show what the organization can do to optimize how staff enters that circle, decrease patient isolation, and improve patients’ perception of care and support.
5. How to Utilize the Patient Journey to Develop New Service Offerings: Patients are on a distinctive journey in which their clinical care is just one facet. We’ll show new ways to view the patient journey through the patient’s eyes and help discover unique opportunities for improvement.
6. How to Escalate the Perception of Care: Clinicians communicate with patients on a continuum that can directly impact patients’ HCAHPS evaluations. We’ll show how to move clinical staff from “clinical” to “informative” to “empathic” care, and how the latter is the most valued and remembered by patients.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
IDEAS Healthcare Practice- Part 2
In a previous post I talked about our 4-step process for improving the patient experience in hospitals and health care organizations. Through the patient’s eyes, we have developed a proven custom program to enhance and transform their experience and satisfaction ratings, throughout an entire hospital system. Here's the 4-step model for improvement:
Step 1: Culture Mapping
We begin with “Culture Mapping” the stories of patients, their families, and both clinical and non-clinical staff. Out of this time “living” in every corner of the institution—interviewing,
talking, listening, and watching — comes a matrix of stories and observations. Then, using StoryAnalytics, we distill this material into focused and actionable conclusions that become the seedbed for understanding the cultural drivers and the gaps that exist between the current patient experience and the optimal experience the institution is striving for. As a bonus, the staff is invigorated by inclusion in the process.
Step 2: StoryJam
Does the organization have a vision and mission that the staff is passionate about? Can the organization articulate the kind of experience they want to deliver to their patients? Through our years of creating entertainment experiences, we have crafted a rigorous story development process that can be applied to real life business issues in practical ways. In StoryJam, we make a safe and creative environment for 25 to 40 people from the organization. Over two days of iterative story making as part of our creative team, we draw out a clearly articulated vision of the patient experience within the organization. This is not traditional brainstorming. It harnesses the power of storytelling to engage the imagination of participants on the deepest level, and reinvigorates their vision of their work and future. We’ve used it to help organizations as diverse as Novant Health, Roche Molecular, Booz Allen Hamilton, and the United States Air Force Research Labs.
Step 3: Experience Design
Culture Mapping shows us the “actuals” of your patients’ experience and StoryJam weaves a rich tapestry of the “optimals.” Experience Design creates the operational architecture for bridging these two, with guidelines for the organization's culture, offerings and physical environment to deliver an engaging new patient experience across the organization. It includes global elements as well as distinctive offerings for unique points-of-touch to delight the patients wherever they are in their journey.
Step 4: Enculturation
With the design in hand for improvement and transformation, the our Learning Team, in collaboration with the client's HR professionals, develops a suite of Enculturation tools, media, and supporting programs - online, on screen, or in a classroom- to roll out the new Patient Experience to staff and embed behaviors so they aren’t a brief blip, but consistent, daily and authentic.
More later this week.
Step 1: Culture Mapping
We begin with “Culture Mapping” the stories of patients, their families, and both clinical and non-clinical staff. Out of this time “living” in every corner of the institution—interviewing,
talking, listening, and watching — comes a matrix of stories and observations. Then, using StoryAnalytics, we distill this material into focused and actionable conclusions that become the seedbed for understanding the cultural drivers and the gaps that exist between the current patient experience and the optimal experience the institution is striving for. As a bonus, the staff is invigorated by inclusion in the process.
Step 2: StoryJam
Does the organization have a vision and mission that the staff is passionate about? Can the organization articulate the kind of experience they want to deliver to their patients? Through our years of creating entertainment experiences, we have crafted a rigorous story development process that can be applied to real life business issues in practical ways. In StoryJam, we make a safe and creative environment for 25 to 40 people from the organization. Over two days of iterative story making as part of our creative team, we draw out a clearly articulated vision of the patient experience within the organization. This is not traditional brainstorming. It harnesses the power of storytelling to engage the imagination of participants on the deepest level, and reinvigorates their vision of their work and future. We’ve used it to help organizations as diverse as Novant Health, Roche Molecular, Booz Allen Hamilton, and the United States Air Force Research Labs.
Step 3: Experience Design
Culture Mapping shows us the “actuals” of your patients’ experience and StoryJam weaves a rich tapestry of the “optimals.” Experience Design creates the operational architecture for bridging these two, with guidelines for the organization's culture, offerings and physical environment to deliver an engaging new patient experience across the organization. It includes global elements as well as distinctive offerings for unique points-of-touch to delight the patients wherever they are in their journey.
Step 4: Enculturation
With the design in hand for improvement and transformation, the our Learning Team, in collaboration with the client's HR professionals, develops a suite of Enculturation tools, media, and supporting programs - online, on screen, or in a classroom- to roll out the new Patient Experience to staff and embed behaviors so they aren’t a brief blip, but consistent, daily and authentic.
More later this week.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
IDEAS Healthcare Practice- Part 1
One of the lesser known but very important parts of our business is our work in the healthcare industry. So how do you diagnose, prescribe, and rehabilitate when the one needing treatment is the hospital itself? By seeing through the patient’s eyes, we have developed a proven custom program to enhance and transform their experience and satisfaction ratings, throughout an entire hospital system.
Applying “guestology” know-how derived from our years of designing intentional experiences for theme parks, resorts, and Fortune 500 companies, we offer healthcare organizations a fresh way to understand their patients’ experience, and shine a light on the practical pathway to improvement of HCAHPS scores. Our qualitative approach delivers the actionable results patient surveys are calling for and addresses the “invisible factors” that are often difficult to identify through surveys alone.
We use a 4-step process that provides a complete solution pathway for improving the patient experience – assessing the current state of the organization, envisioning the ideal patient experience the organization would like to deliver, developing the experience architecture for implementing it, and creating the necessary enculturation tools to transform and sustain it within the organization.
More later this week.
Applying “guestology” know-how derived from our years of designing intentional experiences for theme parks, resorts, and Fortune 500 companies, we offer healthcare organizations a fresh way to understand their patients’ experience, and shine a light on the practical pathway to improvement of HCAHPS scores. Our qualitative approach delivers the actionable results patient surveys are calling for and addresses the “invisible factors” that are often difficult to identify through surveys alone.
We use a 4-step process that provides a complete solution pathway for improving the patient experience – assessing the current state of the organization, envisioning the ideal patient experience the organization would like to deliver, developing the experience architecture for implementing it, and creating the necessary enculturation tools to transform and sustain it within the organization.
More later this week.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Wild First Week of 2010
Everyone starts out a new year with wide eyed optimism. You can go to sleep on December 31 burnt out, disgruntled and generally down in the dumps but then wake up on January 1 a new person full of enthusiasm, optimism and feeling like a million bucks. And our company is no exception.
So this past Monday January 4, 2010, the first work day of the new year, we showed up and besides everyone freezing their butts off, we all were fired up for the start of the new year. When we left before the holidays we had sent out a couple of important proposals and we were looking forward to getting positive feedback on some of those. Monday came and went and we heard nothing. Not completely unexpected since it was the first day back. Tuesday was a different story but not the way we wanted. We found out two proposals would be put on hold and the largest would be, at the very least, delayed, but more than likely gone. The optimism of the new year quickly turned in to a kick in the stomach.
Wednesday was a new day though and Tuesdays disappointments quickly turned in to Wednesdays accomplishments which lead in to Thursdays and Fridays. On Wednesday we finalized a handful of new tasks for one of our best clients. For a variety of reasons we have not done much for this client over the past couple months so it was great to get back on the horse. Then we made a great step forward on phase 2 of an important project that we finished about 6 weeks earlier. When you finish a project and you're able to go to phase 2 it's a great piece of positive feedback that the client is satisfied with the work. Then Wednesday night a couple of us had a great dinner with some clients to talk about 2010. I don't think the meeting could have gone any better. On a scale of 1 to 10 the dinner was a 12. We went to dinner hoping we would have the opportunity to do a fair amount of work with this client in 2010 and the volume of possible work for us is far more than we could have hoped.
And then it got even better. Thursday, out of the blue, we got a call for a very important and meaningful opportunity. All of us do things because it's good for business because, quite frankly, every company has to pay the bills and every employee needs to collect a paycheck to live. On the other hand, some projects are far more important than the money and are worth doing because they are good for people, a lot of people. We started the process of working on a project like that Thursday morning. Before the end of day Friday we had three members of our team booked to leave Monday night coming back Wednesday to spend the day Tuesday with this client figuring out to what extent we can help them and how quickly.
At the end of day Friday I was exhausted. It's hard enough getting back to a five day work week after 2 weeks of break and partial work weeks because of the holidays. But then when the first week is such a roller coaster it makes it that much more exhausting. I'm ok with the roller coaster as long as by the end of each week the highs are much higher than the lows. I hope to look back at this blog at the end of 2010 and say that this was the first great week of many more in 2010.
So this past Monday January 4, 2010, the first work day of the new year, we showed up and besides everyone freezing their butts off, we all were fired up for the start of the new year. When we left before the holidays we had sent out a couple of important proposals and we were looking forward to getting positive feedback on some of those. Monday came and went and we heard nothing. Not completely unexpected since it was the first day back. Tuesday was a different story but not the way we wanted. We found out two proposals would be put on hold and the largest would be, at the very least, delayed, but more than likely gone. The optimism of the new year quickly turned in to a kick in the stomach.
Wednesday was a new day though and Tuesdays disappointments quickly turned in to Wednesdays accomplishments which lead in to Thursdays and Fridays. On Wednesday we finalized a handful of new tasks for one of our best clients. For a variety of reasons we have not done much for this client over the past couple months so it was great to get back on the horse. Then we made a great step forward on phase 2 of an important project that we finished about 6 weeks earlier. When you finish a project and you're able to go to phase 2 it's a great piece of positive feedback that the client is satisfied with the work. Then Wednesday night a couple of us had a great dinner with some clients to talk about 2010. I don't think the meeting could have gone any better. On a scale of 1 to 10 the dinner was a 12. We went to dinner hoping we would have the opportunity to do a fair amount of work with this client in 2010 and the volume of possible work for us is far more than we could have hoped.
And then it got even better. Thursday, out of the blue, we got a call for a very important and meaningful opportunity. All of us do things because it's good for business because, quite frankly, every company has to pay the bills and every employee needs to collect a paycheck to live. On the other hand, some projects are far more important than the money and are worth doing because they are good for people, a lot of people. We started the process of working on a project like that Thursday morning. Before the end of day Friday we had three members of our team booked to leave Monday night coming back Wednesday to spend the day Tuesday with this client figuring out to what extent we can help them and how quickly.
At the end of day Friday I was exhausted. It's hard enough getting back to a five day work week after 2 weeks of break and partial work weeks because of the holidays. But then when the first week is such a roller coaster it makes it that much more exhausting. I'm ok with the roller coaster as long as by the end of each week the highs are much higher than the lows. I hope to look back at this blog at the end of 2010 and say that this was the first great week of many more in 2010.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
2009 Year in Review
A year and two days ago I wrote our first blog. A year later and 144 blog posts later, it's now 2010. So just like everyone else, I thought I'd do a year in review post. Obviously the thing that dominated our 2009 was our move. I looked back at the first blog posting and it was about hoping we'd finalize things with the landlord for the new building. I read some of the early posts and I can't believe it's been a year since some of those things. I also look back at some of our early Making Of webisodes and think the same thing. So January was dominated with finalizing the new lease. Then February was focused on getting the build out going, which began before the end of February. I remember March 1 coming along and thinking "holy crap, we're moving in a month". March was a whirlwind of packing and getting the build out completed. I read through the blog postings and can't believe all of that happened in just one month.
Then April 3 happened, the big moving day. I will never forget it. Started at the old place, it was so calm and quite. Then the movers arrived and it was crazy. Then the rain came and everyone sat around for 2 hours. Once it stopped, movers finished packing the trucks, and got down to the new place and the craziness went from the old building to the new place. A lot of boxes and only some minor damage later, everything was in the new building. What a day.
The rest of the year was a lot of firsts in the new building. First client meeting, first edit session, first margarita Friday, which by the way has become a regular occurrence. We celebrated our 8th birthday this year as IDEAS, our first birthday in our new home. We also had our first Thanksgiving in our new home. We hosted a couple events at our new home. We had an event with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer in which he welcomed us to Downtown Orlando and we presented him with original artwork we created for Orlando's Creative Village, we hosted a Women & Film & Television quarterly meeting with the Film Commissioner of Florida, and we have hosted a number of staff meetings for our friends at Vitamin Water. All of this of course is on top of the hundreds of client meetings we have had since moving in.
Once we were in the new place it was back to 100% focus on the business. Operating business in the new place was different than the old building. We got to meet a lot of great people, from new clients to people from the Mayor's office. From a business perspective it's been an interesting year. Here's some breaking news, the economy has been tough on everyone. We've have clients who have been a regular client go to nothing. We have had clients who typically pay in regular 30 day payable intervals now pay in 45-60 days if not longer. And there have been a lot of clients who want and need our help and we get all the way to contract and they have to pull back.
On the other hand, we have found new clients who have been very creative in how to work us in to their budgets. And we have found ourselves also being more creative in finding new clients and new ways to work with our old clients. In the end, it is what it is and we're optimistic about 2010 when it comes to current clients as well as some great new ones.
We are very proud of the work we accomplished in 2009. If I listed notable projects I'd forget plenty so I don't want to do that but generally speaking, we look back and realize that we worked on a couple broadcast television projects. We worked on a couple projects that entertain kids and a major project to help kids stay safe in weather emergencies. We worked to help returning veterans from Iraq and Afganistan and we're working with other branches of the government and military to help those involved with our military. And we continue working in various areas of the helthcare industry, trying to improve things for workers and patients. We are proud of the work we did in 2009 and look forward to more projects in 2010 that make a difference in the world.
So here we are, the end of 2009/beginning of 2010. A lot has happened since this time last year. But don't we say that at the beginning of every year? Every year we look back at the past year with some good memories and some bad. And we look forward to the possibilities of the new year. This year is no different so we start 2010 with the same optimism and excitement. We look forward to the possibilities of the relationships we have been building over the past few years, especially those we have built since moving to our new home last April. We will work harder in 2010 than ever before. And I'm quite certain at this time next year we'll have some good memories and bad of 2010. But I think there's going to be a lot more good memories than bad.
Then April 3 happened, the big moving day. I will never forget it. Started at the old place, it was so calm and quite. Then the movers arrived and it was crazy. Then the rain came and everyone sat around for 2 hours. Once it stopped, movers finished packing the trucks, and got down to the new place and the craziness went from the old building to the new place. A lot of boxes and only some minor damage later, everything was in the new building. What a day.
The rest of the year was a lot of firsts in the new building. First client meeting, first edit session, first margarita Friday, which by the way has become a regular occurrence. We celebrated our 8th birthday this year as IDEAS, our first birthday in our new home. We also had our first Thanksgiving in our new home. We hosted a couple events at our new home. We had an event with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer in which he welcomed us to Downtown Orlando and we presented him with original artwork we created for Orlando's Creative Village, we hosted a Women & Film & Television quarterly meeting with the Film Commissioner of Florida, and we have hosted a number of staff meetings for our friends at Vitamin Water. All of this of course is on top of the hundreds of client meetings we have had since moving in.
Once we were in the new place it was back to 100% focus on the business. Operating business in the new place was different than the old building. We got to meet a lot of great people, from new clients to people from the Mayor's office. From a business perspective it's been an interesting year. Here's some breaking news, the economy has been tough on everyone. We've have clients who have been a regular client go to nothing. We have had clients who typically pay in regular 30 day payable intervals now pay in 45-60 days if not longer. And there have been a lot of clients who want and need our help and we get all the way to contract and they have to pull back.
On the other hand, we have found new clients who have been very creative in how to work us in to their budgets. And we have found ourselves also being more creative in finding new clients and new ways to work with our old clients. In the end, it is what it is and we're optimistic about 2010 when it comes to current clients as well as some great new ones.
We are very proud of the work we accomplished in 2009. If I listed notable projects I'd forget plenty so I don't want to do that but generally speaking, we look back and realize that we worked on a couple broadcast television projects. We worked on a couple projects that entertain kids and a major project to help kids stay safe in weather emergencies. We worked to help returning veterans from Iraq and Afganistan and we're working with other branches of the government and military to help those involved with our military. And we continue working in various areas of the helthcare industry, trying to improve things for workers and patients. We are proud of the work we did in 2009 and look forward to more projects in 2010 that make a difference in the world.
So here we are, the end of 2009/beginning of 2010. A lot has happened since this time last year. But don't we say that at the beginning of every year? Every year we look back at the past year with some good memories and some bad. And we look forward to the possibilities of the new year. This year is no different so we start 2010 with the same optimism and excitement. We look forward to the possibilities of the relationships we have been building over the past few years, especially those we have built since moving to our new home last April. We will work harder in 2010 than ever before. And I'm quite certain at this time next year we'll have some good memories and bad of 2010. But I think there's going to be a lot more good memories than bad.
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