2011 Recap and Host Favorites 1-2-12

PositivelyPittsburghLive!

2011 Recap and Host Favorites

1-2-12

Guests:

JoAnn Forester - hosts syndicated show called Empress of Biz – airing 9 am on Thursdays

Mary Pam Kilgore – hosts syndicated show called Planner’s Pointers – airing 4 pm on Mondays

JoAnn Forester, host of Empress of Biz, focuses her show on suggestions for small business owners on how to grow and thrive. This show is for dreamers who want to be successful.

Mary Pam Kilgore, host of Planner’s Pointers, focuses her show on helping the event planners of the world by offering resources and advice. One of the events Mary Pam was involved with was recently listed in one of the Top 25 Events in Pittsburgh in the Pittsburgh Business Times. Her blog on this topic is plannerspointers.blogspot.com.

So what were some of the favorite moments of 2011 for our hosts? Let’s start with JoAnn Forester and hear about some of her favorite Positively Pittsburgh Live shows.

JoAnn Forester- Well anything I am on is good! Just joking. I really enjoyed the shows that highlighted organizations that are doing good things for our area. Make The Connection is one that stands out. They host an event every April honoring the many volunteers in Pittsburgh and they have been doing this for over 10 years. These people are really the heralds of the City and its people like this that make our community such a great place to live and do business.

One of the women I admire, that was interviewed on PPL this year, is Grace Robinson. Her organization, Tomorrow’s Future, Inc. helps to mentor young adults as they get ready to enter the real world. They learn about business, about the social skills they will need, and how to land that great job. This year they held an award ceremony for the graduates of this program at Point Park University (a big supporter of Grace) and I don’t think there was a dry eye in the building as the students told their stories. PPL did a live broadcast at this show and it’s really something to listen to and one I will remember.

Another great show was the one focusing on all the sports teams we have in this area that aren’t as well-known as the Steelers or the Penguins. There are many women’s teams that people aren’t aware of, and I like that this show is done annually, to keep people abreast of all the opportunities out there. The Pittsburgh Passion, The Dragon Boat racers and The Steel City Derby Demons were just a few highlighted this year.

Building Bridges for Business has posted some videos which I think were very interesting, the show on Pittsburgh parks was excellent, and I liked the show on the awards that the Small Business Administration give out every year to those that are making a difference in their efforts to promote small businesses.

Now, Mary Pam Kilgore shares her favorites:

I listen to TechnoGranny a lot so I’d like to highlight some of those shows from 2011. The show that brought attention to Busy Deal, a brand new website that is similar to Groupon was very interesting. Instead of focusing on consumers, Busy Deal is a B2B practice and it has grown a lot since it’s appearance on the show.

The shows where we discuss what technologies have ceased to exist anymore is always a good time. Things change so quickly and it’s fun to go back and talk about fax machines or all the old-world ways of doing things and how different things are in just a few years time.

There are also a lot of good scoops on this show. Eventsburgh, Big American Giveaways, these were just a few companies that were in their infancy when on the show and are now are doing some great things.

Now, Joanne Quinn-Smith shares her favorite shows:

I really loved doing the interviews with the Military Writers Society of America. I got a lot of fantastic emails from people saying how excited they were to hear the stories of these writers. I had the chance to speak to World War II writers, Korean War writers, and there will be some TV interviews posted to PPL Mag soon where you can catch up on a lot of these.

The Family House Polo Event was a lot of fun. I got to do some super  interviews there like with polo player Dante Tidaldi, and the voice of South Beach Polo, David Anders.

PBT members Robert Moore and Julia Erickson perform "Swan Lake."

Doing the live show from Swan Lake was quite an experience. We interviewed some of the young ladies who came with their parents to see the show and that was special.

One of my favorites was definitely Life After Football with Robin Cole and JT Thomas. These former Steelers gave some remarkable insight into life on the field in the 70s and how things have really changed. They didn’t make a lot of money back then, so a lot of their income was supplemented by going and speaking at public events. They spoke about how the community just embraced them and that was awesome to hear. 

The Kudos for Pittsburgh Preview show is one I really enjoyed, which featured a local media panel and some great tips on PR for your business.

Now to JoAnn Forester for some of her favorites Empress of Biz shows:

I got to interview some great people this year including Tom Link, Manager of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, Carl Knoblock, Director of the Western PA Small Business Administration, Janet Lang, President of National Women Business Owners Corporation, and Ruth Byrd-Smith, Director of the Department of Minority, Women and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise.

Now to Mary Pam Kilgore for some of her favorites from Planner’s Pointers shows:

I interviewed Dawn Penfold of meetingjobs.com which is a great website for helping planners find jobs and gain useful information from webinars and articles. I also spoke with a techie from Seattle, Corbin Ball, that seems to know all the new technology that is going to come our way. He even called it years back that we would drop the hyphen in the word email. And thanks to Joanne Quinn-Smith for letting me know how much she enjoyed the book reviews we do on the show.

Now to some New Year’s resolutions for Pittsburgh. 

First up: JoAnn Forester

1. Pittsburghers getting excited about going through the hills and bridges and visiting ALL the cities of the Burgh

2. City and County working together to build small businesses, such as the new organization Building Bridges for Business, NAWBO, African American Chamber of Commerce

3.  Fair and equitable tax base established for all in the area

4.  An economic windfall to fix all the pot holes

5.  All of us realizing that we are in this together and if one neighborhood fails we all fail

6.  The Pittsburgh Promise becoming a beacon for people to come back to the Burgh

7.  A high-quality grocery store in downtown Pittsburgh

8.  More movies coming to the Burgh (I'd like to be cast in one!)

9.  A Women Hall of Fame established

10.  I become Empress of the Burgh

Next up: Mary Pam Kilgore

1. City and County government getting along
2. Rich Fitzgerald gets a chance for success
3. Reassessments go away

And lastly, Joanne Quinn-Smith:

1. Get more people to visit PPL Mag, post their news and events
2. Get your Google on, create a channel on PPL Mag 
3. Get people to care more about the good news and less about all the bad.
   Demand good news!

An inspiration for me starting this the PPL show was my mom telling me to turn on the news, watch the weather, and turn it off because nothing on the news was good news. Bill Flannigan, of Our Region's Business, was also a big inspiration for me. He really cares about Pittsburgh and has done an amazing job of promoting all the good news stories in the area.

Get in touch with Mary Pam Kilgore and JoAnn Forester below:
Mary Pam – 412-260-4178 or marypamkilgore@gmail.com or on Twitter @marypam
JoAnn – 412-440-6969

This was reported as a reproduction of PositvelyPittsburghLive News done by

Joanne Quinn-Smith.
Listen to the show in its entirety here.

(c) Joanne Quinn-Smith and PositivelyPittsburghLive(TM) 2012 All rights reserved.

Tara Darazio is a Positively Pittsburgh Live reporter, an independent copywriter, blogger, article writer, and social media strategist. If you are in need of writing assistance, or need help with your social media efforts connect with Tara on LinkedIn here.