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2009 Year End Wrap Up
Putting together a year-end wrap has been a revelation to us. We get so deeply involved with the project of the moment that we loose all context with the year, as a whole. Yet, looking back, this has been a year of incredible progress, with great clients, great events, new partnerships, and more.
Projects Launched and In Development
The year began with the launch of the Florida's Water: Ours to Protect project for the Water Resources Management division of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and progressed with a number of content and web development projects, including Flash-based eLearning modules, videos and print ad campaigns.
As we close the calendar year we have several projects in development that will be launched in early 2010. Notably, we're completing two different content and web development projects for the Gift of Life Donor program in Philadelphia, and a project for the Conserve Wildlife of New Jersey Foundation in New Jersey.
Additionally, we're involved with conversations about projects on multiple fronts ranging from B2B content strategy to multiplatform storytelling about the National Parks, and more.
View Fusionspark Media's 2009 Projects
2009 is The Year of Online Video
As with much of the online world, 2009 was the year that online video became firmly established with our clients. Although we've advocated audio-visual storytelling with all our clients since we started in 1999, it's really not until this year that we've seen widescale implementation of video into projects.
For example, the following channels were built for client's web sites this year:
Dive Rite TV - DiveRite.com
Dive Rite made a major commitment to the use of videography to further engage their community. As part of their strategy to become a trusted, definitive resource, they have invested resources into producing an ongoing series of educational videos.
The Water Channel - Florida's Water: Ours To Protect
Fusionspark Media produced over an hour of original audio-video-slideshow content for the Stories of Water Protection and Restoration section of the Water Channel; additionally, many of the Animation and Interactive Features on the page were produced by Fusionspark, for other Florida-related projects.
The Cougar Channel - The Cougar Fund
Tom Mangelsen and Cara Blessley Lowe, co-founders of the Cougar Fund, both had amazing, rare footage of wild cougars, from 16mm film of wild cougar cubs, to a dramatic video documenting a cougar hunt. This content, plus several original productions by Fusionspark Media, are presented in the Cougar Channel.
Pinelands Channel - Pinelands Preservation Alliance
Fusionspark Media co-founders Russell and Kevin Sparkman spent much of their youth exploring the woods, marshes, swamps and cranberry bogs of South Jersey's Pinelands. This series of videos, produced by Mitch Smith, helps dispel the image of New Jersey as nothing but refineries and turnpike exits.
The Island Channel - Whidbey Camano Islands Tourism Site
Although the videos that Fusionspark created for the Whidbey Camano Islands tourism site were produced and launched in 2008, an update to the homepage in 2009 formally created the "Island Channel."
Ongoing Relationships & New Strategic Partnerships
Kevin and I are grateful once again to the dedicated team that's worked so hard on our projects this year, including Roger Los, Jack Penland, Diane Penland, Laura Urban Perry and Noriko Sparkman.
In an effort to expand our New Media marketing services, we've created some new strategic partnerships this year.
For branding and identity, we've teamed up with Christopher Baldwin, of Christopher Baldwin Design. We've enhanced our HDV video capabilities by teaming with Bill Phillips of White Rain Films, producers of HD films.
To strengthen our commitment to storytelling, we've team up with Brent Friedman, of Electric Farm Entertainment, to add his creativity and imagination to projects on a consulting bases, and we're joined by Tom Kennedy, formerly of the WashingtonPost.com, to work with us on New Media journalism and documentary projects.
And we've teamed up with Randy Olson, of Rolson Design, to produce animated motion graphics for videos, including animated logos, title slides, and more.
Awards, Events & Other News
Russell Sparkman, left, moderates a New Media related panel at the 2009 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. Panelists include (from L to R) Nigel Pope of BBC, Merove Heifetz of Arkive and Alexandra Cousteau of Blue Legacy. Photo: Sherry Mays
In Event News, Fusionspark Media produced the New Media 2012 event, to great acclaim. We're planning a follow up event, to be produced under the umbrella of the Langley Center for New Media, for late April 2010.
When not planning and producing our own event, we attended several major events this year, including the New Tee Vee Live 09 event in San Francisco and the Custom Publishing Council's event in Miami.
This year, we were invited, and agreed to join, the Board of Directors of the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. Representing Fusionspark on the festival's board is Fusionspark CEO Russell Sparkman. Russell attended this year's festival, where he was instrumental in planning and orchestrating the festival's New Media track.
In the award arena, the Cougar Fund web site won a Silver Davey Award this year in the Activism category. The Davey Awards were established to recognize the achievements of small communications agencies around the world.
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