AHA! - News

News
	Designing woman March 05, 2010 We’ve made a gold-medal addition to AHA! with designer Britta Anstine. She’s been a star performer for us as a contractor, and now we’re happy to suit her up and send her into the game as an official member of our design team.

	Bau-biologist pays us a house call February 10, 2010 Longtime friend of AHA! and Bau-biologist Mary Cordaro stopped by recently and gave us an intro to maintaining healthy, green (and blue) indoor environments. Mary was the latest guest in our green speaker series and in her talk, Green + Blue = Healthy Interiors, she took us for a deep dive into one essential ingredient—water—in terms of conservation, health and wellness. She also shared some helpful pointers and tips for our homes, and for living with and using water in healthier, more sustainable ways. Mary, environmental healthy home consultant, founder and president of Mary Cordaro, Inc., specializes in consulting on healthy, green home building and remodeling, diagnosing and solving "sick building syndrome,” and education. You can learn more about Mary here.

	Praxis is here! January 15, 2010 For 12 of its 15 years, AHA!, has published a collection of short stories, personal essays and poetry written by staff members. Praxis gives us a chance to practice our craft and share our creative writing with clients, friends and communication compadres. We’re thrilled to announce that this year’s Volume 12 is printed, bound and ready to be opened! Happy New Year! Find out more about Praxis and get your own copy here.

	Certified for good December 11, 2009 We’re thrilled to announce that AHA! account manager and Green Team advisor, Mistie Josephson, has another credential to add to her list after completing the University of Oregon’s Sustainability Leadership Certificate Program this month. The New York Times recently highlighted the program as an example of sustainability-focused continuing education that’s at the forefront of a growing national trend. Mistie’s corporate responsibility know-how has already improved our own company’s sustainability efforts and has proven to be invaluable to our clients. Congratulations, Mistie!

	Giving thanks November 24, 2009 To recognize the upcoming holiday, we want to say how thankful we are for two additions to the AHA! team. Amy H. Taylor and Gena Williams recently landed on our shores, and we couldn’t be more grateful. With rich backgrounds in marketing communications, they hit the ground running, devouring challenges like they were Thanksgiving turkeys. Please join us in welcoming Amy and Gena to our table—and savor their bios to learn their stories.

	Opening our doors to Greater Portland November 13, 2009 We’re lucky enough to work in a gorgeous LEED-certified space, and we’re smack dab in the center of all things sustainable, so we figure it’s only right to invite some of Portland’s brightest (green) minds in for an afternoon. The Portland Metro Climate Prosperity Project, which includes Greenlight Greater Portland members and other NW sustainable leaders, recently convened at AHA! to discuss how to create a thriving green economy that results in new jobs and talent, products and technologies, and energy and cost savings. Glad to have you—come back any time!

	AHA! hearts bikes September 25, 2009 AHA!’s dedicated bike commuters aren’t in it for the glory. They’ll tell you they climb on their bikes each morning for the fresh air, adrenaline rush and the chance to leave their cars at home. But it’s nice to be recognized too! AHA! has been named a bike-friendly business by the League of American Bicyclists. The award recognizes the efforts of businesses that encourage their employees to bike by providing bike-friendly facilities like covered bike parking, lockers and showers; education and incentives. Encouraging our employees to find low-impact ways to commute—whether by bike, foot, mass transit or carpooling—is just one of the things AHA! is working on to become a more sustainable company.

	And now a few words about our sponsorship... September 1, 2009 Businesses of all sizes trust us to craft unique and meaningful stories about their sustainability efforts and progress. So, it’s only natural that we’re a sponsor of the 2009 Sustainable Industries Economic Forum in Portland. The event brings together Northwest business leaders to examine current economic realities and look ahead to the future of social responsibility and environmental innovation. Entrepreneur, environmentalist and author Paul Hawken kicks off the morning with a keynote presentation, followed by a panel discussion featuring sustainable industry experts. Be sure to stop by our table! Sustainable Industries Economic Forum September 16, 7–10:30 a.m. Governor Hotel, Portland, Oregon

	AHA! snags two for the trophy case July 16, 2009 Not to brag, but … We were recently recognized for work on two excellent communications pieces. The HP Green IT Action Plan that we developed with Zoom Creates was awarded a Silver Magnum Opus Award in the Best CSR/Green Series or Article category. The Magnum Opus awards, in conjunction with the Missouri School of Journalism, honor excellence in custom publishing. And with the help of our friends at Murie Design and Curious Media, we developed another winner. “Remanufactured Cartridges: The Inside Story”—also for HP—won an Apex Award of Excellence in the Special Purpose Electronic & Video Publications category. Recognizing overall communications effectiveness and excellence, this year’s Apex Awards drew 3,800 entries. Not too shabby. Check out more of our work here.

	Little house—big impact June 1, 2009 Ever looked around your garage or your basement or your kitchen and wondered how you got all that stuff? Ever had the urge to give it all up? For our second special guest in the AHA! Green speaker series, we met one woman who did just that. In 2004, Dee Williams sold her three-bedroom house in Southeast Portland and moved into an 84-square-foot house on a trailer—that she built herself using salvaged cedar, remnants of jeans for insulation and solar cells for power. As we shared a salad lunch with our neighbors, Dee shared her story with all of us and showed what a big impact we can make by learning to live smaller.

	We’ve taken the next step May 22, 2009 The Natural Step, that is. The Natural Step is a nonprofit organization that helps businesses learn how to work more efficiently and effectively while reducing their impact on the environment. We’re pleased to announce that four of our AHA! colleagues completed The Natural Step’s one-day workshop. Brett Thacher, Dan Larson, Jamie Elsbury and Pamela Fiehn, aka the AHA! Green Team, attended the May 21 training here in Portland, Oregon. They came back to the office with a deeper understanding of sustainability as a business opportunity, and with guidelines and practical tools we can use to continue forging our path toward becoming a more responsible business. Learn more about The Natural Step—it’s good for business!

	Lessons from the elevator May 7, 2009 Picture this: You have exactly six floors to sell someone on your company or your expertise. What are you going to say? On May 6 at the Communicopia conference, a roundup of Portland-area business communicators, our own Betsy Henning drew a crowd sharing her insights about the essentials of a successful elevator pitch. This year’s conference covered aspects of effective communications in a digital age, and the event was abuzz with talk of how social media is transforming business communications. And while many things around us are all atwitter and aflutter, Betsy reminded attendees that the fundamentals of good communications remain the same—be true to yourself (or your brand) and make a human connection with your audience.

	Bradbury shines spotlight on Pacific Northwest climate change May 1, 2009 AHA! kicked off its own formal sustainability efforts by inviting former Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury to give a Northwest-specific version of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” slide show. His presentation at AHA! on April 29 brought into focus Mt. Hood’s shrinking glaciers, the Oregon central coast dead zone and the increasingly volatile Rogue River—all of which have tremendous impact on our environment, economy and health. Invited by AHA!’s newly formed “green team,” Bradbury is a longtime sustainability advocate and a knowledgeable, delightful and inspiring speaker. He currently serves on the Oregon Environmental Council board. Bill Bradbury discussed climate change in the Northwest in a brief interview before his presentation.

	And the Orchid goes to … April 23, 2009 Betsy Henning for her business acumen. It’s kept us on our toes for years; what’s news is recent recognition from outside our four walls. Portland Business Journal has named Betsy one of the top women entrepreneurs of the year. At AHA!, she’s known as our head honcho (aka principal, co-founder, chief inspiration officer, CEO, etc.). Betsy, along with other outstanding women business leaders in the Portland area, were honored at the 2009 Orchid Awards presentation during the Women in Business Expo at the Oregon Convention Center on April 23. Congratulations, Betsy! Don’t know Betsy? You should!

	AHA! leads development of HP customer global citizenship report April 13, 2009 HP recently issued its 2008 global citizenship report, detailing its progress and goals in areas such as environmental sustainability, human rights and labor practices, and privacy. The full report was accompanied by a shorter customer version, which AHA! played a lead role in developing. Modeled on a business magazine, HP’s customer report complements its comprehensive web-based version with articles featuring ideas, insights and best practices that enterprise and public sector customers can apply to their own businesses. AHA! helped develop and refine the report’s creative concept, and wrote and edited its content. HP’s customer report is available in 11 localized versions, and supported by an integrated internal and external marketing communications campaign that AHA! also had a hand in creating.

	Lucky Laura! April 3, 2009 Our own Laura Parisi, writer extraordinaire (we’re not shy about superlatives when they’re due), employed her considerable writing and social media marketing talents to win the top prize in Culinate’s Almost Spring Blogging Contest. The contest called for food lovers to vote on their favorite foodie blog entries. Laura launched a campaign asking friends, family, co-workers, loyal blog readers and Twitter followers to vote for her story, The Carrot Quandary, a sweet musing on veggie ontology. She won kudos and the top prize of a $100 farmer’s market gift certificate, a box of organic fruit, packages of seeds and three cookbooks—all of which translates into more BAKED GOODS for the hungry denizens of AHA!

	Congratulations are in order March 24, 2009 We’re pretty darn proud of the company we keep around here at AHA!, and we sing each other’s praises every chance we get. In that spirit, we’re thrilled to announce the promotion of Kristine Cloyes to account lead. She’s been with us more than ten years (isn’t that like 70 in agency years?) and has served Hewlett-Packard clients for the bulk of that time. In her new role at AHA!, Kristine oversees messaging and packaging projects and teams for HP hardware, supplies and graphic arts divisions. We’ve also given our marketing team a shot in the arm this year by adding Melina DeFrancesco to the roster as marketing specialist. She holds a bachelor’s degree in mass communication from California State University, Sacramento, and brings a wealth of agency experience and knowledge in account management, public relations and experiential marketing. Melina is spearheading new marketing initiatives and developing strategic marketing partnerships for AHA!. Hats off to you both!

	The right mix for Going Green March 10, 2009 What ingredients are essential for a message that builds credibility, trust and ultimately enthusiastic support? AHA! founder and principal Betsy Henning shared wisdom on the subject with greentech CEOs, researchers and investors at the annual GoingGreen East conference held March 9–11 in Boston. GoingGreen East brought together more than 500 industry leaders to discuss the most promising emerging green technologies and progressive entrepreneurial opportunities. AHA! is proud to be a sponsor of the 2009 event.

	New beginnings January 2, 2009 With this new year, we say farewell to Brenda Alling, one of our founders, who helped move AHA! out of the upstairs bedroom and on to the "Top 20" list of women-owned businesses in the Portland area. Brenda's moving on to chase after other dreams and goals, but we'll hold her penchant for perfectionism in our hearts forever. We miss you already, Brenda!

	How green is your IT? December 10, 2008 Green IT is one of the top ten technology trends facing businesses today—a must for companies looking to cut costs and environmental impact. Resource-intensive printing and imaging present a huge challenge but also a tremendous opportunity for IT to show leadership by driving business results. AHA! created a Green IT Action Plan for HP that outlines how IT leaders should evaluate their organization’s current environment and offers step-by-step guidance for developing tactics to standardize, streamline, and efficiently manage printing and imaging. The action plan is drawing serious interest from customers and some positive press from ZDNet.

	AHA! writer makes Best Food Writing 2008 November 10, 2008 Michael Pollan. Calvin Trillin. Mark Bittman. And don’t forget Alice Waters. Some of the biggest names in food writing made the cut for the just-published Best Food Writing 2008. We’re also very pleased to announce that “rising star” and AHA! writer and editor Sona Pai earned a seat at the table with her piece “Mangoes, memories—and motorcycles.” Congratulations on your well-deserved recognition, Sona! Want to get the book? Here’s one way.

	Applying our communications expertise in spooky economic times November 10, 2008 With the fall of prominent banking institutions in September and October, we can’t say we were surprised to see the sharp increase in financial services advertising and marketing communications. It was everywhere—daily newspapers, industry trade pubs, TV, radio and email inboxes. With all the buzz, we called a special all-company session on Halloween to evaluate a wide cross section of these pieces. We split them across small groups for detailed critiques to identify audience, clarity and authenticity of message, and what a piece said about the brand. Then, we came back together to discuss approaches, gauge effectiveness and share what we might have done differently. Everyone agreed: sessions like these are great tools to help us stay current on the industry and exercise our creative muscles. If your team would benefit from a similar creative session, drop us a line. We can help.

	Moving words and pictures tell the inside story November 10, 2008 Sometimes words need moving pictures to tell a more complete story. Working with design partners at Murie Design and Curious Media, AHA! encapsulated the inside story of remanufactured print cartridges, lifting the lid on what millions of people who print consider almost every day—the true cost of printing. To tell the story in a compelling way, we used Flash animation, print samples and a whole lot of industry knowledge to debunk myths, define terms and convince customers that using supplies designed for their printers is the best way to glean printing value—and it’s better for the environment to boot. This highly intuitive, comprehensive tool is used by HP’s North American Supplies Sales force to back up an already solid story.

	“Vancouver agency AHA! has a Yahoo! moment” October 3, 2008 A recent article in the Oregonian—business section, front page features AHA! The piece, written by Allan Brettman, chronicles our story and highlights our clients from HP to Yahoo! One copyedit required: the article states that we don’t write packaging copy, website content and internal communications. In fact, these critical client communications make up a hefty portion of our business, as emphasized in the overall article. We know how those pesky buggers—a don’t, for example, that should be a do—can slip past the most scrutinizing eyes and how one word can change the entire meaning of a sentence. In short, we’re flattered. And we had a fantastic time showing the Oregonian crew around our office. Give it a read and let us know what you think.