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A&E: Patty melts ‘Yuletide’ hearts

It’s been a good number of years since I’ve joined what seems like half of central Indiana at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s “Yuletide Celebration.” That’s no slight to the institution, just a reality of my arts going-I tend to gravitate toward the new experience rather than the familiar. And traditions of any kind are built on familiarity. Which sets me against the flow of concert- and theatergoers this month. After all, December is the time of Nutcrackers, Scrooges and carol-based…

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Commentary: New library ready for Digital Age

Dec. 9 was slated to be the Big Day for Indianapolis’ new Central Library. After five years and more than $150 million, the project-which seemed preposterous from the start-has finally come to fruition and sits ready for a grand opening. From the beginning, I wondered how you even move an entire library. What’s more, how do you set it up in a new location, then tear it down and move it back? Imagine moving hundreds of thousands of books, magazines…

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Six teams in running for public art award: Commission will choose two winners in January

Six finalists have pitched their visions for public art projects as part of the Arts Council of Indianapolis’ second “Great Ideas” competition, aiming to inspire and educate area residents-and encourage them to slow down and contemplate life. The contest kicked off in 2005, when two artists each got $40,000 in funding from the Indianapolis Cultural Development Commission. This year, a seven-person panel will weigh the proposals and select two winners, each of whom gets a $3,000 stipend and $15,000 to…

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Businesses, educators teaming up for education: Two sides join forces with Common Goal initiative, which aims to reduce Marion County’s dropout rate

Business and education leaders are hanging up their boxing gloves in favor of working together to stem the local high school dropout rate. “We’ve typically been at odds with the education community,” said Roland Dorson, president of the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce. Long-standing finger pointing has had businesses issuing mandates that schools educate their students better and educators claiming they don’t receive the help they need from businesses, Dorson said. “We get beat up by business and professional groups…

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‘Voluntourism’ pioneer wants to go corporate: Once province of colleges, Ambassadors branches into business

Companies wanting to build camaraderie and teamwork often send their employees on the all-too-predictable retreat. A couple of hours down the road, in a restful setting, they’ll do role-playing games and problem-solving exercises. These corporate chums will cap it off with a bar tab equivalent to the national debt of Belize. Sally Brown thinks she has a better alternative to the typical company retreat. Why not send those employees to Belize? Or how about El Salvador, or even India, for…

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Commentary: There’s an upside to this fiasco

Psst. Come closer. Want to double your money? I’ve got a deal for you. No guts? Turn the page now. OK, you didn’t turn the page-Finish Line Inc. stock closed Nov. 26 at $2.94 a share. It’s time to buy. Finish Line is a leader in the outdoor and lifestyle footwear, active wear and accessory field. Basically, the company sells shoes. It has 693 Finish Line stores, mainly in enclosed malls. It also operates nearly 100 Man Alive urban-apparel stores….

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Community’s socio-demographics drive retail decisions

In a perfect world, developers and retail brokers would poll community residents to find out which stores, restaurants and services they want. And, then we’d send nice letters to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, or the Cheesecake Factory and Steak n Shake, and we’d tell them that the neighborhood is clamoring for soy milk or a double chocolate shake. That would make things so much easier. In the real world, it’s much more complicated. And the final vote is always…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Be vigilant of cyber risks to protect your company

Remember when securing an enterprise meant investing in an alarm system to protect your inventory and a fireproof cabinet to keep your documents safe? In today’s expanding cyber world, threats to security extend far beyond walls and paper trails. With facilities, employees and customers all over the world, companies offer unprecedented access-but behind that convenience lurks vulnerability. Unless, of course, the corporation has truly managed to secure the confidential information stored online and throughout file-sharing networks. Unfortunately a lot of…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Reforms could create barriers to homeownership

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Maybe it is because no one wants me to help cook, or perhaps it’s due to the stream of college football. Mostly I think I like it because it is such an unhurried, fun, shared day. This year, many of us gathered for Thanksgiving at family homes and we gave thanks for the many gifts life brings us in this nation. What many of us didn’t conscientiously dwell on is how important the simple act…

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‘BUILD YOUR BUSINESS by investing in it’:

Creative Street Media Group has come a long way-literally and figuratively-from its humble beginnings 23 years ago. The small video production company has become a corporate conglomerate, with 67 employees in five facilities who handle everything from promotional materials to interactive education. Oh yeah, and they also crank out some award-winning TV shows-like the Emmy Award-winning “Vietnam Nurses with Dana Delany.” For all its progress, Creative Street is not done growing. Any day now, the company will expand its reach…

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Commentary: Of Blue Cross and Blue Chip

WellPoint CEO Angela Braly must be thinking to herself, “Enough with the most powerful and influential stuff already!” In the course of the last several months, Braly has been named the 16th-most-powerful woman in the world-that’s in the world-by Forbes magazine, one of the 19 mostinfluential women in central Indiana by IBJ, and the top woman to watch by the Wall Street Journal. That’s heady stuff, to be sure, but I know for a fact that her two school-age daughters…

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Acquisitions fuel growth for Consona: Former Made2Manage roars back after struggling as public company

Building Consona Corp. into a billion-dollar company is well within the sights of CEO Jeff Tognoni. But for now, he’s content with a recent growth spurt that is earning national recognition. Indianapolis-based Consona, formerly known as M2M Holdings Inc., grew at a clip of 131.4 percent last year, landing it on Software Magazine’s annual list of the 10 fastest-growing software firms in the nation. While Tognoni is proud of the achievement, he’s reticent to toot the company horn too loudly….

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SPORTS: Purdue, IU athletic directors have a lot to chew on

I’m not an athletic director, but I do get to play one in IBJ. So play along with me: Purdue University should keep Joe Tiller as its football coach. Indiana University should do likewise with Bill Lynch. Add this to what I’m sure is plenty of unsolicited advice directed at Morgan Burke and Rick Greenspan, the respective athletic directors at Purdue and Indiana. They can thank me later. Of course, by the time you read this, the futures of both…

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Commentary: Let’s welcome Hilbert back

You gotta love Steve Hilbert. He conceived of an idea and had the strength and focus to achieve an extraordinary result that he sustained over a number of years. … He will undoubtedly return to the grand game of entrepreneurship. If given the opportunity, I would be inclined to invest in his next venture. -July 10, 2000 I penned the above prediction in this column on the anointment of Gary Wendt as CEO and savior of Conseco Inc. After Stephen…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Subprime concerns overblown; so spend, spend, spend

An emerging holiday tradition in my family is for the womenfolk to rise very early on the Friday after Thanksgiving to go shopping. The same thing happens across the nation. This event aptly named Black Friday, corresponds to the unofficial beginning of the Christmas shopping season. For the record, I would rather spend the weekend in a chain gang than tag along, but this year I will be encouraging them to shop. Here’s why. The subprime mortgage mess has not…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Existing work force is our biggest education challenge

As Hoosiers, every time we open our wallets and pocketbooks, we should think about going back to school. For the last three decades, Indiana’s per capita income growth has lagged the rest of the country, to the point where the average Hoosier earns less nized for work force development use a combination of state and local dollars and even lottery funds (as in Georgia). Private management of the Hoosier Lottery, as proposed during the last legislative session, could provide the…

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EDITORIAL: Stunning victory a call to change: But Ballard shouldn’t forget past

Stunning victory a call to change But Ballard shouldn’t forget past The shock has faded and reality is starting to set in. Indianapolis really will have a new mayor in 2008. Republican Greg Ballard’s victory over two-time incumbent Mayor Bart Peterson was more than an election stunner of historic proportions-it was a rare case of voters turning over a city to someone they knew little about. Ballard, under-funded and under-supported by his own party, pulled off his epic upset for…

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West-side group promotes ethnic eateries: Will visitors see gems among strip malls?

The Lafayette Square neighborhood is known for its aging mall and the ongoing struggle to keep tenants there and in the surrounding sea of strip centers. But some advocates want to promote a success story: the demographic diversity that has given rise to a plethora of ethnic eateries in the area. Visitors who take a trip through some of the retail centers and outlots off West 38th Street can find the ubiquitous pizza, gyros and sushi-along with more unusual Ethiopian,…

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New tourism ads paying off for city: Ten-second promotions attracting more visitors

When Indianapolis promoters were deciding what to do to lure leisure travelers to the city over summer break, they decided being short and to the point was the way to go. So, the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association partnered with eight area attractions to produce extremely brief television and radio travel commercials. The resulting ad campaign was wellfunded-with a budget $240,000 more than the previous year-and produced stellar results, including more awareness of Indianapolis attractions, more nights spent in Indianapolis,…

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