Opportunistic VMS builds event-planning powerhouse
Local hospitality firm’s early work with Lilly helped it carve out a major niche in the pharmaceutical market.
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Against the odds, Emmis grows publishing division: Unsung unit now one-fourth of company’s revenue
At a time when many print publishers are wringing their hands at the prospect of losing readers to the Internet, Emmis Communications Corp. is experiencing surprising growth in its magazine division. With the acquisition of Orange Coast last month, Emmis owns seven city-based magazines and one nationally distributed magazine. And the publishing division, with 406 of Emmis’ 1,300 employees, is the company’s fastest-growing. “City magazines like the ones Emmis has are doing quite well,” said Abe Peck, chairman of journalism…
Fringe Festival seeking next level in 3rd year: Growing downtown theater festival hopes to draw cash as well as bigger crowds
Pauline Moffat, executive director of the Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, expects a big turnout for this year’s two-week salute to alternative stage productions. The event takes over the Massachusetts Avenue Arts District Aug. 24 to Sept. 2, offering 228 individual performances staged by 40 theatrical troupes and presented at five different venues, including Theatre on the Square, The Phoenix Theatre and American Cabaret Theatre. Moffat hopes this season will bring a third year of attendance growth and take the event…
Local elder care service courts working care givers: My Health Care Manager partners with local firms to reach children of aging parents on the job
Local startup My Health Care Manager has found a faster way to get its elder-care message out. It has persuaded five local employers to direct their workers to My Health Care Manager if they need help finding and coordinating care for one of their aging parents. As of Aug. 1, law firms Barnes & Thornburg, Ice Miller and Hall Render Killian Heath & Lyman, accounting firm Katz Sapper & Miller and the Indianapolis office of the Publicis advertising firm all…
SPORTS: There’s still time to savor a championship season
The Indianapolis Colts are back at it, and with their arrival in Terre Haute (which is French for “terribly hot”) comes the first round of predictions. Will they or won’t they back up their Super Bowl championship? Hey, we’ll all find out in the dead of winter, not the heat of summer … how’s that for not being either bold or profound? But words in the first week of August are just so much blah, blah, blah. So, too, as…
SURF THIS: With tech tasks, define success before measuring it
I had a boss once who was infamous for his adages, always having one of these nuggets immediately at the ready. True, he would occasionally misfire, tossing off a “let’s throw it against the wall and see what sticks” when the situation may have clearly called for something more genteel like “run it up the flagpole and see who salutes.” But most of the time, he was right on the money. One of his favorites was the old “How do…
EYE ON THE PIE: Property tax problem here to stay
“I haven’t sung yet,” Frances the Fat Lady said. We were at the Bulging Buffet, which is open 24/7. Frances, one of the state’s biggest experts on public finance, had stacked her plate with bacon, sausage, eggs, pancakes and a variety of sweet rolls. “This property tax debate is not over yet,” she said as we took a table. “Despite the fact that only a few counties are really up in arms, there may be enough momentum for something realistic…
One motorcycle race gained, thousands of seats lost: Speedway officials think revenue from MotoGP race will make up for Indy 500 and Brickyard 400 losses
The changes to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course to accommodate motorcycle racing means the track’s operators will forfeit around $500,000 annually in ticket revenue for the Indianapolis 500 and Brickyard 400. Due to modifications just south of pit road and directly north of the oval’s first turn, several thousand seats on the inside of the first turn will be removed after this year’s Brickyard 400. Work to prepare the track for next year’s MotoGP motorcycle race-which includes laying 13,300…
MICKEY MAURER Commentary: Banker’s exit won’t end good deeds
Indiana, as you know, has not escaped the inevitable crush of consolidation in the banking industry. No one should have been surprised by the announcement that First Indiana Corp. was selling itself to an out-of-state bank, Milwaukee-headquartered Marshall & Isley Corp. In spite of the best efforts of M&I, The National Bank of Indianapolis, of which I am chairman of the board, will add business as a result of this transaction. Some of First Indiana’s customers prefer to deal with…
SPORTS: Awaiting a tainted ‘greatest’ moment in sports
Do the words “integrity” and “sports” belong in the same sentence? Worse, does anyone care? By the time you read this, Barry Bonds, a Giant in uniform but hardly a giant of a man, may have become baseball’s alltime home-run king. His inexorable pursuit of Henry Aaron’s magical mark of 755 has been well-documented. So, too, has been the overwhelming evidence implicating Bonds as a user of steroids. Thus, what should be one of baseball’s greatest moments is instead one…
LESSONS LEARNED: PAUL KNAPP CEO, Young & Laramore: ‘Shoot for the Stars ‘
LESSONS LEARNED PAUL KNAPP CEO, Young & Laramore ‘Shoot for the Stars ‘ Paul Knapp isn’t one to declare victory. Nor is he eager to toot his own horn. But even he has to admit that something’s working at Young & Laramore. The Indianapolis advertising agency Knapp leads has a stable of national accounts, is opening a satellite office in Canada, and has projected capitalized billings in 2007 will hit $80 million. So what’s the secret of its success? Y&L’s…
WRTV to launch massive marketing campaign: New news anchors to tour area in RV ahead of sweeps
With the pending arrival of two new lead anchors, WRTV-TV Channel 6 is preparing to embark on a big marketing campaign that station management hopes will lift it out of third place in the local ratings. The campaign, which is set to begin next month to promote changes within WRTV’s news division, will be marked by a flurry of billboard, radio, newspaper and, of course, television advertising, said WRTV General Manager Don Lundy. But the centerpiece of the campaign takes…
Some Indiana colleges revolt against survey: U.S. News’ peer assessments called too subjective
The influential U.S. News & World Report college rankings come out next month, a rite of summer that causes many college administrators to groan. Some administrators in Indiana and elsewhere, in fact, have grown so disenchanted with the survey-and see it as so flawed-that they have decided they’ll no longer participate in at least part of it after this year. Nearly 100 private schools nationwide-including DePauw University and Earlham College in Indiana-are pulling out of the peer-assessment portion of the…
Commentary CHRIS KATTERJOHN: Air rage: on runways, at gates, beyond
The summer of 2007 will likely go down in history as the Summer of Terror in the Skies. Well not exactly terror in the skies, more like terror in the skies as it relates to waiting at the gate area for your plane to arrive, as in sitting on the runway for two hours waiting for your plane to take off, as in wondering if you can possibly make your connecting flight now that your original flight is three hours…
VIEWPOINT: Art is good for business and the community
The Arts Council of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Cultural Development Commission recently launched a campaign to encourage individuals and businesses to buy art from local artists. I couldn’t agree more with the message. In addition to the “Be Indypendent, Buy Indy Art” stickers you’ll no doubt see all over town soon, the campaign includes a Web site, www.beindypendent.org, with a downloadable “how to” guide, plus links to the Arts Council’s artist database that includes the work of more than 400…
Synagogue project a sign of times: Northward migration of Jews brings temple to county
Some folks consider Congregation Shaarey Tefilla’s move to Carmel historic. After all, its new synagogue at 116th Street and Towne Road will be Hamilton County’s first. To others, it’s simply the latest development in the local Jewish community’s century of northward migration. For Rabbi Arnold Bienstock and his members, it’s a homecoming. “There’s a lot of support here,” he said. “People need that if they’ve just moved to an area.” Carmel welcomed Bienstock with open arms 15 years ago, when…
Advertising in high-definition still fuzzy
Production companies here say advertisements they’ve produced using high-definition technology are being held hostage by local television affiliates that have no way of showing them. The TV stations counter that they’re working as fast as they can to get up to speed.
Physician assistants taking on larger role: New law allowing prescribing power makes profession more appealing
Indiana’s physician assistants received a collective shot in the arm earlier this month when their authority to prescribe medicine to patients became effective. The profession had long lobbied lawmakers for the right before the Legislature relented with the passage of House Bill 1241 this year. July 1 officially marked the milestone in which Indiana became the last state in the nation to grant prescribing powers to physician assistants. “It’s the right thing to do,” said Dr. John Lucich, director of…
SPORTS: Tennis tourney healthy but needs a new home
A significant Indianapolis sporting event with international appeal is preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2011. The Indianapolis 500? Well, yes, that too. Far less-wellknown and recognized is that the origins of elite-level competitive tennis in Indianapolis also date back to just after the turn of the century … the last century, that is. Records show that the Western Tennis Championships, which led to the U.S. Clay Court Championships, which led to the U.S. Hardcourt Tennis Championships, which led…
MICKEY MAURER Commentary: Should trysts sink a career?
“There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” – “Anthem,” by Leonard Cohen How outrageous does executive behavior have to be before it should be deemed unacceptable by corporate America? Are we experiencing a trend toward greater scrutiny of our executives’ personal lives and is this a good idea? What should be the peccadillo standard for the executive officers of public companies? Witness the recent forced resignation of David Colby, chief financial officer and…