Shuffling off...

From Jim Wareck: As I bring LA 1.0 to a close, in advance of a several month hiatus starting in Idaho, I went exploring and caught my first glimpse of the elusive Al Kerr in his natural habitat."

Then I did the same with Andy Stewart!

Good luck with your transition away from LA, Jim!

UPDATE: 9/9/20:

From Jim's FB post today:

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack. And you may find yourself living in another part of the world. If you find yourself in Boise this Fall....scenes from the drive. Snake River Canyon, ramp for Evel Knievel's failed attempt. The Golden Spike joining East and West .

More Madden! The interview...

Want to learn exactly how Dave Madden is going to change the console/PC gaming world?

Watch this for 8 minutes!

https://www.beet.tv/2020/08/console-games-are-ripe-for-tv-like-ads-simulmedias-dave-madden.html#.Xy1Vmt51VgI.linkedin

Or read this:

LOS ANGELES – TV-like advertising is starting to find a place in video games that people play on consoles like Sony PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox as the entertainment software industry undergoes a massive shift in the way games are distributed.

Pioneering the effort to put commercials into video games is Simulmedia, an advertising technology startup whose financial backers include venture capital funds and AT&T’s WarnerMedia. The company recently began testing video ad inserts in console games — one of the last vestiges of ad-free gaming — in a move that could revolutionize the way marketers reach target audiences who are elusive to other media channels like linear TV.

Dave Madden, who used to oversee in-game advertising and brand partnerships for video game giant EA, this summer joined Simulmedia to lead its push into console gaming advertising. In this conversation with Beet.TV, he describes how a growing number of gamers are willing to trade a few seconds of their time to watch a TV commercial for in-game rewards.

“That’s the big opportunity for video game publishers and advertisers to work together,” he said, describing console games as ripe for a more modernized business model that includes advertising. “Games are maybe the largest media format worldwide right now.”

Advertisers including credit-reporting company Experian, Unilever’s Dollar Shave Club and Turner Broadcasting have tested Simulmedia’s platform to connect with target audiences, The Wall Street Journal reported.

‘Scalable Model’ for Advertisers

Traditionally, console games have been ad-free, with video game publishers making almost all their money from sales of compact discs or downloads. As smartphones become gaming devices, video game publishers started to experiment with different revenue models including “freemium” games that were free to download, but charged money for in-game content.

They also started to experiment with ad formats like rewarded video, which asks players to watch a commercial in exchange for rewards like upgrades, vanity items and virtual currencies to help progress more quickly through the game. Simulmedia is bringing that revenue model to console games that are in millions of households.

“The big opportunity and area for brands to participate is building a scalable model around helping unlock all that valuable added content for free in exchange for engaging with a 15- or 30-second ad,” Madden said. Video ads also look much better on a bigger TV screen than on a smartphone, he said.

More than 214 million Americans play video games, and 73% of them own a game console, according to the Entertainment Software Association, a trade group for the gaming industry. Thirty-eight percent of gamers are ages 18-34, compared with about 23% of the general population, making them a key audience for advertisers.

Increasingly, those gamers are playing “live-service games” like “Fortnite,” the multiplayer battle royale game from Epic Games that has 350 million players worldwide. “Fortnite” has experimented with different kinds of advertising including sneak peaks of movies and an award-winning effort by burger chain Wendy’s, whose ad agency VMLY&R created a branded avatar in the game.

With so many people playing video games on consoles, phones, tablets and personal computers, they’re harder to reach through traditional media channels like linear TV — and that’s where Simulmedia sees opportunity.

Opt-In Audience

Simulmedia is mindful of the sensitivities of gamers who don’t want their gameplay to be interrupted with intrusive ads. That’s why its platform only shows ads to audiences who have opted-in to see them. The company found in a survey that 75% of console gamers would be willing to watch commercials in exchange for content.

“The difference with gaming in terms of an advertising medium is that it has to be permission-based,” he said. “If you were to insert an ad into a video game that was interruptive and the player didn’t expect it, by and large you would expect some pretty big backlash from the playing audience.”

Social

David Morley and his Bahamian commercial real estate company have been more prevalent on social media recently.  I thought this was a good shot of our classmate.  Keep on keepin' on David!

Happy Summer!

Here's Nelse Clark with his daugher exploring an eastern shore.  Hope your summer is as wonderful!  Thanks to Vivian Clark for posting on Facebook...

He IS the game...

Congratulations to Dave Madden on becoming the undisputed expert and leader of "in game advertising".  He was just poached from EA Sports to lead all in game ad development for Simulmedia.  Incredible stuff! Announced in a post by Simulmedia Founder & CEO...

https://www.simulmedia.com/blog/2020/07/27/video-game-ads-dave-madden/

Simulmedia to Integrate Premium Video Game Ads, Welcomes EA’s Dave Madden to Lead the Efforts

Dave Morgan

Founder & CEO

JUL 27, 2020

Simulmedia is excited to announce a strategic extension of our business and an exciting new hire to lead it. We are augmenting our linear TV ad platform to include the distribution of permissioned, video ads in premium console-driven video games. Dave Madden, EA’s longtime head of in-game advertising and brand partnerships, has joined Simulmedia as EVP/ Games & OTT.

While we have long led the market in providing advertisers with automated, data-driven buying across all of the top 115 national broadcast and cable TV networks in the US, our advertising clients have urged us to deliver performance and reach beyond the audiences that watch linear television. They also want high-reaching video streaming channels to be available on our platform, and premium video gaming represents an enormous opportunity to do just that.

Playing video games is one of the largest and fastest growing media activities for young adults and teens in almost every major market in the world. We know that integrating high quality video advertising into these environments will take a thoughtful approach, a deep understanding of gamer sentiment, and critical technology developments to ensure uncompromising privacy protection, frequency control and trusted audience measurements.

We have spent the past 10-plus years bringing a digital approach to TV advertising to solve similar challenges, and Dave Madden has more experience than any other executive in the world in introducing successful, gamer-friendly ad formats into premium video game environments.

Dave has been pioneering player friendly models for brands to interact with gamers for two decades, first with WildTangent, the company that invented Brand Boost, the “rewarded ad” for games, and then as the head of Electronic Arts advertising/sponsorship and brand partnerships. His teams have built cutting edge partnerships with global brands such as Coca Cola, Gatorade, McDonalds, Unilever, P&G, Adidas and Nike across games including EA Sports, FIFA, Battlefield and The Sims, as well as establishing industry leading eSports sponsorships, including the first ever virtual stadium in competitive gaming for Pizza Hut in the Madden 20 NFL Championship Series.

We believe that this could be a massive market opportunity. John Frelinghuysen of LEK Consulting projects that ads in premium video games could represent a $3-5 billion market in the US in five years.

So, what are we doing?

First, we are spending a lot of time talking and listening to advertisers, publishers, platforms and, most importantly, gamers to understand how to best accomplish the integration of TV advertising and premium video gaming.

Second, we have begun running pilot tests delivering opt-in, rewarded video ads within premium game environments to better understand how gamers will respond to them.

Third, we are working with Nielsen to incorporate their smart TV viewership data into our new metrics as a way to help advertisers and publishers better understand how video game audiences compare to TV.

And fourth, we have begun significant development efforts to build out the needed infrastructure to deliver high value advertising in premium gaming environments and to insure not only the protection of gamer privacy and publisher proprietary data, but to avoid many of the problems of today’s programmatic digital ad ecosystem, including receiving irrelevant, redundant ads, finding yourself retargeted, and turning over delivery decisions to bidders in an auction.

Here are what some of our clients and collaborators are saying:

“Experian is always interested in reaching more new customers in engaging, fun, premium media environments, especially younger audiences that are harder to reach on TV,” said Steve Hartmann, Head of Integrated Marketing at Experian. “We work with Simulmedia to help deliver our television advertising and are looking forward to supporting its new efforts to extend its platform, measurement and distribution to the enormous audiences playing Triple-A video games.”

“An emerging challenge for many advertisers is understanding how their video game audiences compare to those they reach on linear TV,” said Kelly Abcarian, general manager, Advanced Video Advertising, Nielsen. “With the addition of our smart TV viewership data into Simulmedia’s new premium video game ads metrics, we are helping build transparent and robust metrics for one of the media industry’s fastest-growing new markets. With this latest offering, Simulmedia is serving a specific market need by delivering advertisers a new, unique and verified ad inventory that connects with consumers wherever they are consuming content.”

I expect many of you reading may be asking, “When will this in-game inventory be available?” While we’re eager to scale it, for now we’re completely focused on delivering an experience that’s right for gamers, advertisers, studios, publishers and hardware manufacturers. A handful of them already have been working with us for months to help us build something that will work broadly. We’re so grateful for their support and commitment.

Rocky Mountain Highs

John Knight bumped into Don Hindman at a Denver restaurant recently.  Don explained that for photos with a mask on, your eyes need to be more expressive.  You can see the result.  John's daughter complained about her father's mask because "it looked like his underwear".  JK helped us confirm that suspicion.

Also in state briefly was Doug Cruikshank and family and JK took advantage to see his friend of 39 years.

ICYMI: Stay Strong Whit!

From July 11 - Facebook post:

I’ve given it quite a lot of thought and believe that the benefits of sharing this outweigh any cons:

So ... I was diagnosed with malignant melanoma (there’s no such thing as a non-cancerous melanoma) in late May after the removal of a seemingly innocuous mole on my back. I then had surgery to remove tissue around the mole site and to biopsy a few lymph nodes taken from under my armpit(s). That biopsy confirmed spread “promoting” me to the next stage of treatment, which included CT, PET and MRI scans (all of which came back negative for additional metastasis). I did have an anaphylactic reaction to some radioactive contrast dye during the MRI - got violently ill within 30 seconds of being injected, swollen eyes (Edema - no fun at all), hives, the works.

Drove down to Duke Univ. Hospital a few days ago for a 2nd opinion on treatment options. Managed to squeeze in 9 holes of after that visit, so it wasn’t all bad I start prophylactic (i.e. preventative) IV immunotherapy treatment on Wednesday, July 15, every six weeks for the next year. The treatment is designed to wipe out any lingering malevolent cells and to prevent any recurrence or further spread.

My oncologists at VCU Health say my prognosis is good and that I have every chance of living a long, productive life. My chances of that outcome are way better than if I’d been diagnosed even five years ago.

Perhaps you know someone who’s been affected by skin cancer, perhaps not. Mine likely resulted from the cumulative effects of UV radiation, e.g. sun exposure. If there’s one thing you can do for me, it’s simply to be smart and mindful about your time in the sun and vigilant about applying SPF30 or higher on yourselves and your kiddos.

I have excellent at-home support, as you can see below, and my daughter, her mom and my family have all been great throughout. A cancer diagnosis indeed brings occasion to “embrace the suck,” but in my case it has also brought some gifts in its wake. I’m focused on those positives and my own healing moving forward. And looking forward to a few restful weeks on Martha’s Vineyard in the wake of a challenging past couple of months. Blessings to all who read this Whit

POSTSCRIPT: Thank you, thank you everyone far & wide for the kind words/thoughts in response to the post. It reminds me that I’ve met special, caring people at each of my various stops.

Weekdays Make A Difference (DA83 HH#4)

Well worth the shift to a weekday, we were thrilled to be joined by first timers Spence Brown (CT), Tim Ehrhart (NJ), Drew Schiff (Long Island), Craig Pattee (VA) and John Munro (CT). John Cianciolo (RI), John Knight (MA), Eric Suher (MA), Chris Flagg (NY), Ben Patton (NY), Bob Kierstead (IL) and Jim Wareck (CA) rounded out the lineup.  We've got expertise on bottle feeding a steer, how soon a vaccine will appear and where to heli-ski in this class!  Stay tuned for our next event - probably mid July.

DA83 Happy Hour #4 is Wednesday at 8 pm et

Look for the invite in your email.  It's from "@du.edu".  Or email JK directly for the link at jgknight83 AT gmail.com.  (AT=@).

Will be fun to see some new faces!

Covid Contest?

Currently leading in the Hair category: Hank LeMieux!

Brian Steward interviewed by the Rivard Report in San Antonio

"I Could Have Been George Floyd": Black Professionals Share Stories of Racial Profiling

(Full Article HERE)

Brian Steward, Attorney, Ketterman, Rowland & Westlund

Brian Steward grew up on the near East Side in the 1960s and ’70s. He attended San Antonio Academy before transferring to the prestigious Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. He then went to Duke University, earned his law degree at St. Mary’s University, and has gone on to have a successful career as an attorney. But in the Northwood neighborhood, Steward is afraid that one day, when he’s outside with his 5-year-old daughter, neighbors will mistake him for someone with ill intent.

“Whenever I walk with my daughter, I make a point of having her stand with me – not behind me or in front of me but with me. So that when other vehicles pass or we walk by homes, they will see that she is with me and comfortable with me as opposed to it looking like I’m stealing this fair-haired girl,” Steward said.

Steward is black, his wife is white, and their daughter, he said, “is very light, and if you – if you look quickly and couldn’t really see her features, you would probably think that she was a white child.”

Steward has had to navigate being a black man in a predominantly white environment for most of his life. For the seven years he was at San Antonio Academy, he was the only black student in his class. And when he’d return from prep school to hang out with his San Antonio Academy friends, he’d face experiences they didn’t, including being the only one stopped and questioned by Alamo Heights police despite being with other white kids. He always carefully navigated the drive from college in Durham, North Carolina, back home. So he understands all too well how quickly an opinion about a person or a situation can form.

“We make a point of waving to anyone and everyone, whether you’re in your yard, whether you’re in your car, we wave to you,” Steward said about walks with his daughter. “We also don’t walk after the sun goes down or before the sun comes up. We always want to be visible, we always want to comply with all traffic laws and be as wonderful and joyous as we possibly can when people see us. And I’ve told her that people are looking at us, but really, what they’re doing is they’re looking at you, and then they’re looking at me. And if they felt like there was anything happening or anything inappropriate going on with you, they are going to assume that I am the bad guy. I’m doing something wrong.

“And, you know, she’s just 5 and she doesn’t really understand that, but I think she’s starting to get it and see there’s a difference in the way people are treated.”

The ol' Vermont Pivot

Huge thanks to Jeff Silverman for making the most of his tools while his business is in a brief lull...

https://svhealthcare.org/COVID-19/3DPrinter/

Interview with Jeff Silverman: 3D Printer

Jeff Silverman is a Wilmington native, a volunteer firefighter, and a business owner. From an addition to his Whitingham, Vermont, farm house, his company, Inertia Unlimited, develops camera technology for broadcast television.

"We make them out of thin air," he says.

Actually, he uses a 3D printer to make prototypes and one-of-a-kind cameras for very specific purposes, including those that sit in the dirt in front of a batter during Major League Baseball games and the ones built into NASCAR racetracks.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jeff has printed 463 face shields for first responders in the Deerfield Valley and healthcare workers at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center and other places. He has delivered them free of charge.

When and how did you first become interested in printing shields for first responders?

In one day, every job we had disappeared. We went from having 20 – 30 jobs to zero in one day. Our first thought was that we would use the materials and talent we typically use to sew the pouches for our cameras to make masks. But we quickly found that the proper materials and techniques were not available to make effective masks. Plus so many other people were making them. They had it covered.

On Sunday, March 22, I read in the New York Times that a company in Syracuse, NY, had made a design to 3D print face shields available online. By noon that day I was printing. Since then the printer has not stopped.

How does it work?

The printer converts the design into a 3D object using filament that is the width of a human hair, adding layer by layer. The printer takes 2 hours to print one shield. I have produced 380 shields so far. That's 1000 hours of printing. I take from midnight to 5 a.m. off. We've done more 3D printing in the last month and a half than we had in the previous 5 years.

Describe the shields.

It was important to me to produce something that was good quality. Sometimes the ones you buy don’t clean up very well. These can survive UV light and other sterilization. They are rough and tough.

Where have you distributed them?

First I gave them to the firefighters in Wilmington and Whitingham, where I am a volunteer. Then I gave some to the Deerfield Valley Rescue. I have sent 324 to Southwestern Vermont Health Care, some to SVMC Deerfield Valley Campus; Golden Cross Ambulance Service and Sojourns Community Clinic, both in Westminster, VT; and Rescue Inc. in Brattleboro. I sent some to a dentist in Portland, ME, who asked, and 10 to North Central Bronx Hospital to a friend who works there.

What's your greatest accomplishment?

I went to Wilmington High School in the late 70s, and Dave Larson, who was the social studies teacher and former longtime VT state representative, had a video camera. He let me borrow it to film field hockey games. At the end of the season, they gave me a varsity letter for my film work. I have won Emmys since, but that varsity letter is special, because it represented the beginning.

What's next?

We look forward to reopening. For us, it's the easiest thing in the world. No client ever comes here. We didn't lay anybody off. We hired locals. All are full-time with benefits. We think Vermont is a great place for low-impact companies like ours, and we hope more companies discover Vermont and come here to provide well-paid jobs.

And I am really looking forward to turning the printer off.

On behalf of Southwestern Vermont Health Care's frontline staff, thank you to Jeff for his tireless efforts to provide vital equipment to our teams. We appreciate it!

DA83 Zoom HH#4 has been scheduled!

SAVE THE DATE: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 at 8 pm ET!

Some non-participants for whom Saturdays were challenging have asked for a weekday offering and we have delivered.  Invite will be mailed next week.

Supply Chain Thoughts

Nathan Blain with Korn Ferry (and colleagues) with an interesting article.  Well Done!

https://www.kornferry.com/insights/articles/unpaid-invoices-partnerships-coronavirus?utm_campaign=5-21-20-twil&utm_source=marketo&utm_medium=email

Not Paying Bills, Staying Friends?

The number of companies overdue on bills has risen by 50 percent, one estimate finds. Will business relationships become another victim of the pandemic?

The caller may try to strike a tone as corporately and politely as possible. But the gist still smacks of a
mob enforcer: You owe me money. When are you paying me?

With the pandemic continuing its brutal assault on top-line revenues, companies across the globe are
finding themselves in the awkward position of not paying up on bills with business partners and
vendors alike—and not promising when they will. The hope, of course, is that the delinquency ends as
soon as the pandemic fades, but that’s still tough on the partners and contractors, which have their own
bills to pay.

The financial impact is starting to make itself known. As the quarterly earnings season wraps up,
publicly traded companies from paint manufacturers to entertainment powerhouses have set aside
hundreds of millions of dollars more for uncollectible bills. But while they may have set aside the
money, there are thousands of conversations daily trying to work out payment. How those talks go
likely will determine not only when the bills are paid but whether the companies will do business
together in the future. “It’s a test of how strategic your business relationship is,” says Nathan Blain,
Korn Ferry’s global solution leader of organizational strategy.

Not paying bills on time isn’t new, of course; the debt collection industry is built on the fact that
individuals and companies sometimes are delinquent on invoices. But experts say the pandemic could
create an epidemic of delinquency. Already, Sidetrade, a payment software firm, says that nearly 31%
of the corporate invoices in western Europe it helps process have gone unpaid at least 10 days past
their due date. (Before the pandemic, the average was about 19%.)

Experts say the onus is on procurement officers to develop tight relationships with their counterparts at
suppliers and customers. In pre-pandemic times, that meant building relationships on flexibility and
collaboration, not just cost. Even as the coronavirus has disrupted business in China, some farsighted
procurement officers started looking to bring in cash quickly. Some airlines, for instance, worried about
a sharp decline in travel, told their debtors that if they paid half of what they owed immediately, the
airline would consider the debt paid, says James Day, leader of Korn Ferry’s Supply Chain, Operations;
Procurement Practice Centre of Expertise in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Now, procurement officers have to get very creative, giving some customers extra time to pay in
exchange for exclusive supply agreements, additional payments later, or other incentives. Payment
terms are being ripped up daily. “The people who are really good at this are worth their weight in gold,
” Blain says. For her part, Cheryl D'Cruz-Young, a Korn Ferry senior client partner who leads the firm's
 chief procurement officer practice, says that typically involves strong communication and compassion
skills. "Understanding the true situation a debtor is facing removes the wishful thinking and allows for
effective planning (i.e., when payment will actually arrive)," she says. 

How creative they get may depend on how critical the relationship is. If the debtor supplies a critical
service or product, a payee may be willing to negotiate. The whole situation gets more complicated
when a company is both a supplier and a customer to another organization. A tech software company,
for example, could be trying to collect payment from an automaker that uses its services,
but at the same time delaying payment to the same automaker for the cars it bought for its sales force.
“One pragmatic solution has been to align payment terms to 30/30 or 60/60 whereas previously they
may have been unequal," says D'Cruz-Young.

However, there are some companies that just won’t pay. Some retailers have told their clothing suppliers
 to take their clothes back because they won’t pay, Day says. It’s a strategy that could save cash for the
debtor now, but it could cost them in the long run. “Organizations that owe are taking a ruthless approach,”
says Day. “They are taking a chance that they’ll go out of business.”

AUTHORS

Nathan Blain

Senior Client Partner,
Global Leader, Organizational Strategy
& Digital Transformation

James Day

Practice Leader, Supply Chain, Operations & Procurement, Professional Search, Emea

Cheryl D’Cruz-Young

Senior Client Partner, Chief Procurement Officer, Coe

Oceans 9

Another wonderful Zoom Happy Hour on Saturday 5/23.  Our third. Was great to see Andrew Witherspoon, RJ Harrington and Whit Armstrong for the first time on Zoom.  Lots of great conversations and business ideas floating around.  Also good intel on what it's like in other parts of the country.

The attendees continue to ask for more Zoom calls and encourage others to join when they can!  Stay tuned for another invite - that will come from john knight's email address at the University of Denver (@du.edu). If u aren't receiving them - email jgknight83ATgmail.com ("AT"=@)

Pivot Recognition

Kudos continue to float in for Don Hindman and his Johnson United Moving Co.
This time from Colorado Chamber of Commerce.


https://youtu.be/7I0c5f0znbI

*Don't forget DA83 Zoom Happy Hour # 3 on Saturday at 6pm ET.  email JK (or reply to this email) if you need the link.

DA83 Zoom HH #3 is 5/23 at 6pm ET

Haven't had enough Zoom time?  Wonder who in the class has grown a beard? Catch up on all the class news during our Zoom Happy Hour #3 on Saturday, May 23 at 6 pm eastern

Look for an email from JKs university of denver email address or reach out to him at jgknight83ATgmail.com (AT=@) fior the invite.

Rowing toward Rio

David Morley's daughter, Emily, is featured in a 25 minute film as she trains for the 2016 Olympic rowing competition. "The only Bahamian female that has ever rowed in an elite regatta." Lots of Dad in this film too!

https://youtu.be/p0PoouZGrDo

Sincerest Condolences

We've just become aware that Brian Tenenbaum lost both of his parents to COVID-19 within a short period of time.  The empty spot in his heart must be enormous and the class sends its sincerest condolences to Brian and his family. The City of Savannah, Georgia will miss them dearly as well.

https://www.wsav.com/news/family-friends-remember-legendary-savannah-couple-both-tested-positive-for-covid-19/

https://www.wtoc.com/2020/03/31/family-remembers-chatham-co-couple-that-fell-victim-medical-issues-covid-diagnosis/

Zoom HH #2 - some old, some new!

Another fun Happy Hour on Zoom occurred - and it was great to see some new faces!  Welcome to Charlie Gagne (CA), John Cianciolo (RI), Sean Nottage (Bahamas), Scott Pryce (VA) and Bob Keirstead (IL).  Thanks for returning Doug Cruikshank (NY - points for the DA hat!), Jim Wareck (CA), Whit Sheppard (VA), Eric Suher (MA), Chris Flagg and PB Weymouth (NY) and JK in CO.

We learned that Cianciolo is engaged, Keirstead is retired from the Air Force, Pryce works in commercial real estate and the Bahamas lock down has been tougher, and more effective, than most other countries in the world. We also learned that Jim Wareck is Jewish and that JK has no idea how to "print screen" on his Mac desktop.

Look for another invite from "john.g.knightATdu.edu" (AT=@) for DA83 Zoom HH #3 - to be held SATURDAY, MAY 23 at 6 pm ET.  Share the invite with anyone else in the class you'd like to see on the call - JK might not have their email address and it might have never made it to them.

Helping

Kudos to Don Hindman and his moving company, Johnson United, as he has pivoted to helping the COVID-19 response.

Craig Pattee's wife, Bridget, started a concierge moving service to help get abandoned belongings home from schools and campuses.  Makes sense, since they have two kids away at school!

I'm sure many more of us are finding their own way to help.  Thanks for doing that.

That was fun. Zoom HH #2 scheduled for May 2

Thanks to those classmates who braved the first Class of 83 Zoom Happy Hour!

Great to See and hear from Brian Steward (TX), John Knight - Don Hindman and Will Piersol (CO), Adam Feiges (IA), Eric Suher and Ben Patton (MA), Dean Singewald (CT), Jim Wareck and Alex Kerr (CA), Whit Sheppard (VA) and Chris Flagg - PB Weymouth and Doug Cruikshank (NY).

We all agreed to do it again and to try and expand the attendee list!

One classmate also recommended a book to the group: "The Classmates: Privilege, Chaos and the End of an Era" by Geoffrey Douglas.  Big picture - it follows five classmates from the class of 1962 at St. Paul's School - John Kerry among them".  Sounds interesting!

Class of 1983 Zoom HH #2 will be May 2 at 6 pm ET.  To get the invite - ask any of the attendees from HH #1 or email "jgknight83 AT gmail.com".  (HINT: use @ for "AT")

The more the merrier!!!

Kudos to Dean Singewald for the DA Dining Hall as his virtual background!  Maybe we should call it "Sit-Down Happy Hour"?

Reminder: Virtual Happy Hour - Saturday

This Saturday, April 18 at 6 pm ET (5 CT / 4 MT / 3 PT) we'll hold a (first?, last?) virtual happy hour for the class.  Just a chance to see each other again and check on everyone's health.

To get the invitation, please email JK (jgknight83ATgmail.com) by 2 pm ET on Saturday and he will email you the Zoom link.  No penalty for signing up and not making it.  All classmates welcome.

JK

Class of '83 Virtual Happy Hour

This Saturday, April 18 at 6 pm ET (5 CT / 4 MT / 3 PT) we'll hold a (first?, last?) virtual happy hour for the class.  Just a chance to see each other again and check on everyone's health.

To get the invitation, please email JK (jgknight83ATgmail.com) by 2 pm ET on Saturday and he will email you the Zoom link.  No penalty for signing up and not making it.  All classmates welcome.

JK

San Antonio Man

Brian Steward was interviewed on a San Antonio podcast (The Alamo Hour) recently and he tells some great stories about his childhood.  The podcast is centered on the legal community and there is a lot going on in the reproductive rights space right now, which is much of the content.  Things happen fast sometimes in the legal world and Brian was invited back a second time to follow up on his first interview.

It's fun to hear Brian be an expert and also to hear him tell stories about his childhood.  He even details the 24 hours before he was born!

Part One (60 Minutes, apple podcast player, click Alamo Hour link for other player options)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-alamo-hour/id1504139910?i=1000471091050

Part Two (30 Minutes)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-alamo-hour/id1504139910?i=1000471091049

The Alamo Hour page = https://the-alamo-hour.captivate.fm/

Bonus links: If you listen to the first hour, Brian tells a story about his parents and their work, and about the deposition his mother gave the day before she gave birth to him.  Here's the link to the case: https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8534927028802510905&q=Christine+Steward&hl=en&as_sdt=3,44 and here's the link to that Christine Steward Deposition: (coming soon)

Making Lemonade - DA Student style

Students at Deerfield are at home but they can still make music together.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/405519831?autoplay=1

We're aiming for a Virtual Class Happy Hour next Friday or Saturday, so keep an eye out!