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Too quickly the major activity of our summer is coming to a close – life with the South Riding Stingrays. This Summer swim team experience helps truly define the community as a whole, drawing in over 300 swimmers each year into three separate league competition series (ODSL, CSL, MiniRays) - yet operating and entertaining itself as one big family. Who needs summer camp? The swim team is a suburban and neighborhood institution that covers all basis of summer family fun and entertainment, plus many other benefits…it’s been this way for decades – I recall my own childhood Summers revolving around swim practice, meets and cookouts, along with the obligatory inner tube water polo, pool movie night, pot-lucks, tie-die night, float night, Swim-o-Ween costumes, pep rallies, midnight swim parties, relay carnivals, swim-a-thons and belly-flop contests (back when most pools had a high dive).

Today is no different – boys and girls 4-18 essentially compete and enjoy team-building activities all on the same team, from the end of school through August (with the best swimmers continuing on to Divisional and All Star meets). On the one hand, it’s a lot easier on parents of multiples; unlike the Fall and Spring soccer seasons, there’s no driving frantically among Ashburn, Sterling, Aldie and South Riding to catch age group games. The swim team is a single, co-ed team – older kids helping younger ones, and opportunities to compete and win ribbons for everyone. On the other hand, swim meets do require a lot of planning, volunteers and good hard work by the parents to succeed – everything from manning the “Mini Ray Café” to timing and judging the swimmers, to setup/breakdown of the pool area and organization of team events. All parents are expected to participate, and most of the older kids end up in volunteer or paid positions as coaching assistants – padding their resumes for college with community service, leadership and teaching experiences. It's an interesting mix on Wednesday nights - kids large and small, parents working and watching, and a steady stream of Clackers (you know them, Federal employees and contractors with ID badges around their necks) filling the pool deck as they escape their DC commutes to catch the early races.


This Summer burst of community participation and inter-age group camaraderie is multiplied across nearly every community in Northern Virginia – hundreds of thousands of children are busy every day practicing and learning new strokes, coming together on Wednesdays and Saturdays for donuts AND very exciting, well-orchestrated team competition. Many continue in year-round competitive swimming programs all over Northern Virginia. Why? Excelling at swimming isn’t simply a route to advanced competition, including high school and college sports participation – and possibly more than that (i.e. Olympics and other International competition).

From an exercise perspective, the non-impact, full body workout (in a cool pool!) the kids get with their friends every day of an otherwise lazy summer is pretty much the perfect diversion from TV and video games in the dark, cool basement at home. It’s also a life-saving and lifelong exercise skill that in my opinion, should be a required public education component. We frequently joke that our kids are on swim team mainly so they can rescue us when we “fall off the party boat” – built in lifeguards. Envision this test with your kids - they're sitting on a dock in a chair by themselves, fall over backwards into the water...are you reasonably confident that they'll surface and swim safely to get out?

South Riding Stingrays – “Eat our Bubbles, Feel our Sting!”.

Today’s Loudoun Economic Development Commission, Membership and Business Retention Committee (MBRC) meeting officially earned Loudoun, its residents and businesses their “Gov 2.0 street cred” on the Internet. An official Department of Economic Development (DED) strategy, roles and supporting cast are in place, the SEO and website analytics are turned on, the chicklets are published, a “badge” is under development, and the Loudoun online SoMe scene is now fully engaged by its local government. What’s it mean, even down here in SoLoCo?

Some of the beginning goals, per the DED, are to “increase our engagement and influence with our target audiences (initially Loudoun’s existing business community) – to build credibility…to create more advocates for our efforts…tracking the sentiment of our interactions…as we intelligently execute..our organic foray into social media..beyond our traditional communications channels…” Some of the channels that are already reaping rewards include Loudoun’s LinkedIn and Facebook groups, Twitter accounts and YouTube channel – serving up content ranging from DC’s Wine Country productions to Public Information Office announcements and Loudoun Farms discussion. From this catalyst of Internet activity should emerge a much more integrated, collaborative, helpful and ultimately rewarding community network of online Loudoun business stakeholders, driving the ideas, conversations and eventually investment into Loudoun’s shared economic recovery engine.

It’s interesting that “Phase 1” of the LCDED SoMe initiative was launched this April, at about the same time that an equally appealing approach to regional, yet hyperlocal journalism put up its first blog entry, over at TBD.com. This collaborative online news effort under the Albritton flag is harnessing the community reach and brainpower of nearly 100 blogs and a team of SoMe-savvy journalists and community managers who are, as they say, “determined to report news that’s important to our community; determined to develop a prosperous business model; determined to engage the community in our stories..”

So, there’s quite the perfect storm developing for local businesses, organizations and residents, for successfully leveraging their energy, assets or simply tax dollars into real-time ROI that matters. How might it work? Let’s say you’re a growing Dulles South area business, like the mainstay family restaurant in South Riding, the local Insurance Representative or Spas and Game Tables merchant in Chantilly, or a favorite Roofing Contractor, HVAC services provider in Sterling or Ashburn handyman. You want not only to promote your business online, but find new customers and get more involved in the local community – benefiting both your business and the residents nearby. Contribute something interesting, useful into the SoMe community, and it’ll spread quickly, with both intended and unintended benefit. Tell a story – for example, your last expert job or special event was particularly satisfying and well-received, with testimonials, and “it just so happens that this success will soon be parlayed into expansion plans in terms of community support, new employees or enhanced products and services”…it’s called “contextual advertising”.

The important part is to self-publish into these developing and synergistic “nodes” of the government-business-media network, through comments, wall postings, tweets, whatever – your YouTube posting link and Visit Loudoun Facebook comment may get retweeted by @loudoun, discussed by members of the Loudoun EDC LinkedIn group and noticed by a future supplier, employee or alert hyperlocal journalist. The result? More credible word-of-mouth referrals, actual business and overall positive sentiment about a Loudoun-centric, socially-active business and its clientele. Maybe the Donald could live-tweet a golf round at his newly-designed Loudoun golf course.

A unique Loudoun County business leadership meeting took place on Tuesday (at the brand new , Doubletree Hotel Dulles Airport-Sterling) among key leaders and representatives of the Loudoun CEO Cabinet, the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce (LCCC) and the Loudoun Economic Development Commission (EDC). This was billed as an exchange of ideas, goals and strategies for 2010, and introduced the realignment of the Loudoun CEO Cabinet officially now under the LCCC. Notable government reps included Supervisors York, Water, McGimsey; Board of Education reps Hatrick and Stevens; VA State Delegates Greason, May and Herring.
Here’s some of the newsbytes that resonated across the group and panel.

Some pics over at Loudoun Times - BizLoudoun, June 22..

Ralph Buona, SVP for Business Development of Telos Corporation delivered the LCCC message, including:

The Chamber is large, healthy and growing, with a recent survey indicating that 96% of members thought the Chamber was very relevant to their business – though room for improvement included a retention rate of 77% and 81% satisfaction with marketing efforts. The recently approved merger of the Greater Manassas/Prince William County Chambers will displace Loudoun as the DC region’s largest Chamber. 2010 initiatives underway include a “Political Process Committee” to help groom business leaders for political office, improved LCCC brand development and a number of new non-profit support initiatives.

Scott Hamberger, CEO of Sterling-based Fortessa Inc. (a Tableware Company), followed with the Loudoun CEO Cabinet overview:

“We’re experiencing an awakening of the Loudoun business community, like lights going on in a previously dark house. Loudoun is at an inflection point…and we can either learn from other areas with similar growth patterns (like Charlotte/Mecklenburg and Austin) or continue as a DC bedroom community”. The affiliation of the CEO Cabinet under the LCCC helps consolidate activity, focus and align outreach and information-sharing between the business community and the Loudoun County government (i.e. ostensibly taking the “shadow government” issue off the table). The CEO Cabinet helps drive professional education and outreach, foster an informal “neural network” of professional information sharing, raise funds for actions taken on behalf of the overall business community and alignment with neighboring jurisdictions, but has no desire in advancing purely parochial interests.

John Wood, Chairman and CEO of Telos followed with the EDC comments:

“We’re at a stage of enlightened self-interest in terms of the business community, with much more focus on children and education, employee needs, congestion issues (both physical and virtual, online), and infrastructure needs. He laid out the simple math of “unpacking the commercial tax base”, comparing the fact that every dollar of commercial tax revenue generates 93 cents profit to the County, while for every dollar of residential real estate property tax raised, the County actually spends $2 to support. So with the forecast growth in residential properties and school cots, we’re looking at over $400 million in near term incremental expenses that aren’t covered by projected tax revenues…this is a clear indicator of the need for the County to drive commercial location/relocation here to Loudoun. He also included some remarks regarding how the EDC, supporting the Department of Economic Development (DED), is a reasonably effective voice to the BoS – though he supports the concept of more “at large” Supervisors, since the concept of “District Supervisors” is an inherent conflict of interest.

Discussion followed - by far the best exchange was with Lori Waters asking the panel how the BoS was actually doing, in supporting the shared strategies of the Economic Development Commission, CEO Cabinet and LCCC - the fundamental answer revolved around "too many 5 to 4 BOS votes", as John Wood put it, and other evidence of an extremely unpredictable and partisan BOS with respect to the issues that current and future County business investors care about.

An historic meeting, for sure, but hopefully the first of many more, and with many more businesses represented...

What's better than the finest American craft beers, the best DC area live bands, the Loudoun countryside in the Summer, and World Cup USA? All in one day?

Through the combined efforts of Vintage 50 Restaurant & Brew Lounge, OnPoint Digital Solutions and the quick action of Capital Party Rentals, we are able to provide the Vintage 50 and On Point Sports Lounge at the Loudoun Northern Virginia Summer BrewFest in Leesburg this weekend. YES, that means the USA vs. Ghana Soccer match will be viewable on two 50” tv’s under a 900 square foot tent. In fact, all of the soccer matches will be available as well as other weekend sports.

Thanks to Anthony Cavallo at Vintage 50, John Dwyer at OnPoint Digital Solutions and the fine folks at Capital Party Rental!

After all this is a Celebration of American Beer, and a nice hot summer day! GO USA!!

DC and Northern Virginia's 2010 premiere outdoor live music festival centered on craft beer and breweries is preparing for its 3rd annual incarnation, Saturday to Sunday June 26-27. The Northern Virginia Summer Brewfest and its "Celebration of American Beer" will feature over 50 of America's best breweries and beer sampling in Loudoun County at Leesburg's Morven Park, along with a wide variety of interesting food, a family fun area for the kids, local artisans, a cigar stand and a spectacular collection of DC, Maryland and Virginia regional bands performing live, outdoor music. A lone, but exemplary representative of DC's Wine Country joins the fun as well.

For craft beer, microbrew and local beer lovers here in DC's Beer Country, this festival is marking a resurgance of local breweries and brewpubs, including the Vintage 50 Brewery in Leesburg, the new 28 North Brewhouse (soon to be producing versions of their Rhinochasers beers onsite), the Holybrew gang producing and distributing from Leesburg, and other great local restaurants like Leesburg's Fireworks Pizza that sell oodles of fantastic regional variations on "the good brew".

(Follow the latest local brew news @NovaBrewFest on Twitter!)


New this year are extended hours (11-9 PM Saturday, 11-7PM Sunday) plus several shuttle options for offsite parking (check the site for updates), including from the Vintage 50 Brewery in Leesburg and possibly (to be announced) from the Vintage 51 Brew Lounge in South Riding.

Saturday Northern Virginia Live Music

1:00 - White Ford Bronco

2:45 - Gypsy Sons

Wrong Side Of The Tracks

The Gypsy Sons | MySpace Music Videos

4:30 - Miguel Aubertin

6:15 - What Mama Said - two sets!

Sunday

12:45 - Big Mouth

2:30 - American Giant

4:15 - Monster Band - two sets!

TMB at Seacrets

The Monster Band | MySpace Music Videos

...And here are the breweries and beers! (list subject to some change)

• Abita Brewing Co.
  
  
• Allagash Brewing Co.
  
  
• Anheuser Busch
  
  
• Baltimore-Washington Beer Works
  
  
• Bear Republic
  
  
• Bells Brewing Inc.
  
  
• Boston Beer Co.
  
  
• Brooklyn Brewing Co
  
  
• Callys
  
  
• Clipper City Brewing Co./ Oxford B.C.
  
  
• Dogfish Head Brewing Company
  
  
• Fordham Brewing Company
  
  
• Harpoon Brewing Company
  
  
• Hook and Ladder Brewing Company
  
  
• Lagunitas Brewing Company
  
  
• Lancaster Malt Brewing Company
  
  
• Mad River Brewing Company
  
  
• Magic Hat brewing Company
  
  
• Mendocino Brewing Company
  
  
• New Holland Brewing Co.
  
  
• Old Dominion Brewing Co.
  
  
• Otter Creek Brewing Co./ Wolavers
  
  
• St. George Brewing Co.
  
  
• Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
  
  
• Stone Brewing Company
  
  
• Stoudt Brewing Co.
  
  
• Starr Hill Brewing Company
  
  
• Victory Brewing Co.
  
  
• Vintage 50 Restaurant and Brew Lounge
  
  
• Wild Goose
  
  
• Flying Dog
  
  
• Williamsburg Ale Works
  
  
• Yuengling Brewing Company
  
  
• North Coast Brewing Company
  
  
• Kona Brewery
  
  
• Lexington Brewing Company<
• Smuttynose Brewing Co.
  
  
• Oskar Blues Brewing Co.
  
  
• Fisherman Brewing Co.
  
  
• Coors Brewing Co.
  
  
• Blue Moon Brewing Co.
  
  
• Miller Brewing Co.
  
  
• Leinenkuegals Brewing Co.
  
  
• Pyramid Brewing Co.
  
  
• Mad Fox Brewing Co.
  
  
• Anchor Brewing Co.
  
  
• Spoetzl Brewing Co.
  
• 
  

Celebrate South Riding is here - 15 years of community growth (25,000 residents and counting) celebrated over two days of Summer fun, Friday and Saturday June 4-5th! We've seen this event grow very quickly and professionally, and this year looks to be amazing. It's relocated, however, now to the Dulles Multipurpose Center grounds at 24950 Riding Center Drive. Here you'll find a farm-themed children's area, "Extreme Scene" rides and games for the older kids, four live bands on the main stage, and the very special "15 Year Tribute" Friday night light and laser show - capped off Saturday with the traditional South Riding fireworks finale.

Also new this year is a greatly expanded cafe' area called "Corks, Kegs and Crafters", hosted in cooperation with the Vintage 50 Restaurant Group and Vintage 51 restaurant in South Riding. Enjoy 20 different microbrews from local and regional breweries, and learn some tips from the Vintage 50 Master Chef and Brew Master. Keep the summer fun rolling over at Vintage51 in Market Square this weekend - the pet-friendly outdoor patio's open, free wireless Internet (it's our new favorite business lunch location), plasma TV's and projectors, plus of course over 14 micro/craft brews and LIVE entertainment Fridays and Saturdays (John Kaplan this Friday, 6/4).

This is a great way to kick off the Summer brewfest and craft fair season here in DC's beer country; next stop is the extremely popular Northern Virginia Summer BrewFest series, on Saturday and Sunday June 26-27 - tickets are on sale now, for seven (!) live bands, very local and interesting food options, over 70 microbrewery options to try, and even a lone, local loudoun winery to sample.

Last night's VIP reception at the Belmont Country Club was very well attended,well organized and overall a very successful event, bringing together the business and government leadership engaged in promoting Loudoun County's economic development. The German economic development contingent from Main-Taunus-Kreis (MTK - Loudoun's "sister county") was in attendance to help enjoy Loudoun wines, a fife-and-drum performance, a brief rain shower and Supervisor Susan Klimek-Buckley's address to the crowd and BOS/BOE and other County notables present. Buckley's remarks focused first on the successful unfreeze by Governor McDonnell of the Local Composite Index (LCI), led in part by rigorous opposition from the County government, business and education communities, that resulted in $34M restored funding for Loudoun education. We had an especially engaging discussion with VA State Senator Mark Herring regarding Loudoun Internet Marketing and Social Media, encouraging he and his staff to jump on board the kind of Internet economic development initiatives Loudoun County is rolling out, and participating more in government/citizen online social media forums like GovLoop. All-in-all, a great event!

Pictured below is Supervisor Klimek-Buckley's address

Discovering that your child needs accelerated learning opportunities here in Northern Virginia, Fairfax, Arlington or Loudoun is a slow surprise for many of us, and one that’s not easily accommodated or fostered by typical school systems – public or private. Certainly it might be evident to you as a parent that by preschool, you’re finding your child is very bright, has unusual potential, quickly picks up new skills and is beginning to outpace many peers and the instructional resource available. It’s much tougher to convince most schools and teachers, however, of what you intrinsically feel and know as a 24 hour parent – when the school system only has a limited perspective of your child’s accomplishments, and are also measuring your child’s needs against the many demands and realities of educating hundreds of students from all kinds of backgrounds - especially in Virginia under both a difficult economy and the institutional pressures of the “Standards of Learning” (SOL) program.

An advanced learner or gifted student in Northern Virginia is, however, pretty easy to recognize as early as Kindergarten and 1st grade, when they’re rapidly learning early reading, writing and math techniques. It’s even more evident that your child needs a differentiated or accelerated curriculum by mid-late elementary school, when the realities of say Loudoun or Fairfax gifted school offerings are beginning to fall dramatically below those necessary to sustain an educational trajectory that leads to successful placement in competitive high schools and academic programs, success in advanced “AP” or “IB” classes and ultimately matriculation at the best country’s best universities. In the public school systems (i.e. Fairfax and Loudoun), true “gifted and talented” programs do become available by middle school, but these basic “enrichment programs” may be too little, too late to truly offer your advanced child the challenges they need and deserve.

In Loudoun County, the “SEARCH”, “SPECTRUM” and “FUTURA” programs are enrichment programs that are provided to those that meet minimum criteria including a student profile, teacher rating, ability test scores and achievement test scores. The modest differentiation offered through these programs, however, is limited to the simple additional pool of students thus identified, and not to individual learning needs nor are they fully immersive (i.e. full-day). Fairfax does offer a more targeted and flexible Continuum of Gifted Services in grades K-12 with more options for individualized attention, yet still suffers from very high class sizes (up to 32) and corresponding high student-to-teacher ratios (and therefore much less individualized attention) across all programs.

Northern Virginia private schools are an option to seriously consider to successful fulfill your child’s differentiated learning needs. Most DC metro private schools in the area, however, are simply more controlled, exclusive settings with additional enrichment opportunities and smaller class sizes, along with somewhat more independence on the part of the faculty to be flexible about class assignments and adding or removing extracurricular programs. Only one school in this area is exclusively and successfully focused on the individual academic needs of truly academically gifted students. This includes a teaching environment that’s caring and attentive, respectfully acknowledging of parental input, is led by true “Master” teachers and is utterly responsive to each individual child across the entire spectrum of their whole-school experience - the Nysmith School for the Gifted in Herndon, VA.

The Nysmith School for gifted and talented learning in Fairfax, Loudoun and surrounding areas is a truly unique, award-winning, fully accredited and nationally recognized coeducational K-8 school with a myriad of benefits over and above other Northern Virginia public, private or religious schools. Fairfax full-day school, preschool and after-school programs are available under an admissions process that carefully identifies the need for accelerated instruction and individualized academic attention. The classes include a very diverse yet warm and loving group of children and teachers at ratios ranging from 1 teacher per 7-10 students, with 2 teachers in every class.

Nysmith School for the Gifted provides an academic environment that is thoroughly advanced and specifically designed to meet the unique educational, social, and emotional needs of gifted learners in Fairfax, Loudoun and surrounding Northern Virginia and DC metro area (bus service is available). The school boasts many academic honors and awards each year, in internationally-recognized programs ranging from Odyssey of the Mind, Wordmaster and MathCounts, to a recent Top 10 listing on the very prestigious Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth “2009 CTY Talent Search”.

Many successful student alumni are currently attending the very prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, along with other nationally-recognized high schools in area including Episcopal, Madeira, Foxcroft, National Cathedral School, Landon, St. Pauls, Lawrenceville, Phillips Exeter, Durham Academy, Bullis, Sidwell Friends, Flint Hill, Emma Willard, the George School, and Wakefield. Many others are in Fairfax, Falls Church, Loudoun County, and Prince William County Schools taking AP courses or following the IB or Cambridge Programs for advanced students. After high school, Nysmith graduates have attended top universities around the country, including UVA, Virginia Tech, MIT, USC, SUNY, Brandeis, Dartmouth, Brown, Mary Washington, George Mason, the Air Force Academy, University of Saint Louis, and Rensselaer.

If you are discovering, or already know, your child’s unusual and limitless academic potential is being underserved by your local school offerings, visit the Nysmith School for the Gifted private day school and full-day preschool in Northern Virginia. As current Loudoun parents of a bunch of very happy, motivated and inquisitive children at Nysmith, we highly recommend this Northern Virginia private school as the most challenging, experienced and yet successful, individually-flexible and wonderfully attentive school and teaching staff available in the area.

Great news this week for long-suffering Dulles South residents, concerning final approvals after 8 years of wrangling for the new HCA Loudoun Dulles South StoneSpring Medical Center 164-bed hospital on Rt. 50 in Loudoun County – set to open late 2015. The hospital should provide a much-need local economic recovery boost to this Gateway to Loudoun region, as well as much-need alternatives to those of us living in places like South Riding, with nothing but traffic-bogged alternatives for critical medical care beyond that which the local Dulles Urgent Care Centers can provide.

Set your calendars on May 20th (Thursday) for the Dulles Greenway Drive for Charity – your opportunity to cruise up to 65 mph through the scenic Loudoun spring vistas and support great local charities at the same time. The Dulles Greenway is donating all tolls raised on this day to charitable organizations supporting Loudoun, including the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy, the Loudoun Abused Women’s Shelter, and the Dulles Greenway Citizenship Award & Scholarship. The very next day you can ditch the car, yet continue to support the environment – it’s National Bike to Work Day, Friday, May 21st (but not on the Greenway!)

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We’re pleased to announce at this time that our family will be accepting Family and Small Business Headquarters Relocation Financial Incentive Bids from DC Metro, Northern Virginia and Suburban/Southern Maryland jurisdictions. Tax subsidies, grants and other benefits may reflect those now being offered to Northrop Grumman to relocate its headquarters to the area, though are expected to be comparatively greater, due mainly to the much higher relative value gained by relocating (or retaining with improvements) our family members, associates and stakeholders, rapidly-growing small business, and associated relationship and community assets.

Our family and small business corporate leadership is seeking bids at this time, due to many factors - including rapidly aging headquarters facilities and fully-depreciated assets, the need to reduce corporate leadership risk, negative health profiles and commute expenses (due to daily inbound DC commute), the need for extensive improvement in continuing and accelerated Primary education and team recreation opportunities, the need for better access to “offline” social collaborative obligations, venues and amenities directly related to our small business development activities, the need to reduce our tax burdens not directly reflected in productive benefits to our organization, the need for more stable and reliable telecommunications and power grid services, the need for a more small business-friendly political representation at both a local and regional level, the need to reduce our overall carbon footprint and contribute more directly to satisfying environmental preservation initiatives, the need for improved variety and quality in family-oriented dining and entertainment venues, and the need for physical proximity to a real German deli and bakery.

Benefits to the successful bidder range from significant enhancement of location-specific Internet business and community profiles and associated online commerce, to solid contributions to the quality of educational, athletic and community service/nonprofit initiatives in the form of family member participation, leadership and investment. “Long-tail” benefits include heavy marketing and active professional and social “pull” of similarly-inclined and valuable family/small-business units into the same jurisdiction. Benefits also include very significant contributions to local employment (in the woman-owned, local small business category), local economic development/recovery assistance and taxable income generation, and dramatic reduction in local energy and utilities consumption (we are a "Green" company). Introduction of additional methane-producing livestock is not anticipated, and direct advertising support for the successful bidder and their political representation is negotiable (prominently displayed on personal attire, yard signs, websites, bumper stickers, etc.).

Successful bids will include an aggressive, timely and comprehensive package containing real property tax abatement applied to either a lease or purchase, a grant covering a wide range of relocation costs, including those for predevelopment services (such as architecture and engineering for a build-out), tenant improvements, furniture, equipment (both residential and business), leased transportation (should include water-based), facility, laundering and grounds maintenance, technological upgrades, relevant local business leads and partnership opportunities, construction and any other relocation costs required by this expected mixed-use property. Locations considered will fall outside the generally-accepted eastward-oriented radioactive and biologic contamination fallout zones. Successful bidders will also offer location-based amenities, including proximity to premiere academic institutions (i.e. nationally-recognized), a location that doesn’t require utilization of Rt. 66 or the Beltway for any business-hours reason, ever, and of course walking or rapid-delivery service from a great German (or otherwise tasty European-style) deli/bakery.

Bidding is now open, please provide references. Incumbents are encouraged to apply (this means you, Dulles South); U.S. or WHTI jurisdictions outside the DC Metro area with local, outdoor flora that includes native palm trees are also most welcome to apply.

At yesterday's Loudoun Economic Development Commission (EDC) meeting, as reported by Hannah Hager, most discussion revolved around the opportunity for Loudoun to really "pop", coming out of the economic slump. This mainly comes from Loudoun’s unique opportunity at the moment to set its own destination (in terms of property types and styles) for undeveloped land in the primary commercial districts (nearly 90 million sq. ft.). “Close in” jurisdictions like Arlington and Fairfax don’t have any more “new” real estate to develop in zoned business districts; they’re faced mostly with more expensive and constrained redevelopment. Add to this the pending Loudoun Metrorail, a new Rt. 50 Dulles South Hospital, a potential GMU campus and Kincora Loudoun Baseball stadium, and a perfect storm seems to be developing for sustained "offline" economic recovery.

In terms of Loudoun Internet/online real estate (i.e. websites) – this is still pretty much undiscovered country, for Loudoun businesses. It’s like 1892, right before the Oklahoma Land Rush, after the worst American economic depression to date; domain-squatters and online website marketers have already set their stakes, professional “shingles” hung out on the Internet are simple and uninspired, the gap between local and urban media technical sophistication is widening quickly, and 1990’s era communications or membership fiefdoms doggedly persist among government entities and associations. Sure some bright spots exist, like a few high-tech companies with significant online presence; but the taxable, in-county revenues driven by these anomalies seem slim, compared to the potential.

Read more of this Loudoun Business Blog from Loudoun Times...

Here's a quick Poll regarding what's the best social media/new media forum to leverage for supporting Loudoun County Economic Development...see current discussion on LinkedIn or Facebook.

Note this Poll's results will be aggregated across a number of different sites; results to be posted in a few weeks!

Take the Poll

(From Kurt Krause, LinkedIn "Loudoun" Group)

This is a great opportunity to express our need for a Class A gateway into our county.

Anyone interested in the future of the Route 28 Corridor in Loudoun County VA is invited to attend one of two upcoming Route 28 Stakeholders Workshops. The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors is evaluating land use policies within the Route 28 Corridor and would like to hear from members of the public. The workshops will be held Friday, March 19, 2010, 8:30-11:00 a.m. or Saturday, March 20, 2010, 9:00-11:30 a.m. at Claude Moore Park Recreation Center, 46105 Loudoun Park Lane in Sterling.

RSVPs are appreciated. Please contact the Loudoun County Department of Planning, 703-777-0246 or e-mail: dop at loudoun.gov.

Please note that these meetings are identical in format and have been offered at different times to accommodate as many people as possible. Additional information, including the agenda will be available online at www.loudoun.gov/route28 the week of March 15.

Future workshops are planned for April 26 and May 24. Details will be announced later.

Loudoun area Bloggers for Good - Next Meetup March 10!

From Bloggers for Good:

Greetings Bloggers!

Our next meetup and benefit will be Wednesday, March 10 at the new Buffalo Wild Wings in Ashburn near Wegmans.

Our event will benefit the Loudoun Museum, a great local resource that has suffered lately due to budget cuts and a mold issue. They will be reopening this spring in their repaired historic Leesburg location.

Buffalo Wild Wings will generously donate a percentage of all food sales to the Loudoun Museum all day March 10. Just mention Bloggers for Good or the Loudoun Museum.

Please spread the word and join us on March 10! See you there!

This week's Odyssey of the Mind competition for District 13 (Western NOVA) featured some pretty incredible displays of teamwork, ingenuity and downright hard work on the part of the students, coaches, and supportive families. Nysmith School in Herndon sent 3 teams to the State Finals, and 2 teams received 3rd place finishing honors. The teams ranged from Elementary to High School students, from very experienced to first-timers - like the Nysmith 6th grade team pictured below (comprised of students from both Loudoun and Fairfax Counties). This team, coached by Jen Hogan and Kelly McLaughlan, truly reflected the spirit of comaraderie and inventiveness of the program, and all the children thoroughly enjoyed working together - and are looking forward to next year!

As the Loudoun New Media experiment grows, I'll point out that there is actually strategy in play, one that's taking shape and getting executing rapidly as a result of the "Open Government Directive". I'll start laying out the strategy through some upcoming blog postings, but suffice it to say, the strategy includes utilization of ANY and ALL social/new media channels that may be relevant. Different channels and social media tools are more or less useful for different purposes. Basically, we should use what we have, that works, as it's intended to be used.

(By the way, as this EDC activity is business-focused, similar initiative can and is starting for other interests...who'd like to start a Dulles-Loudoun Social Media Club? In the same manner as the DC Social Media Club...)

For example, tweeting is very different than blogging, which isn't really the purpose of LinkedIn.

Note that I'm writing this as a blog, vs. a discussion item, though the content automatically ends up in many other social media channels and search engines (by design). Try it now - search for "made in loudoun" in Google...

So, there are several new media channels available now that can reflect this Loudoun New Media Group's initiative - and that will be increasingly integrated and cross-referenced over time. Below is the list, with some guidance for use:

* Warning - some technical content and terms ahead; all part of the learning experience :) *

LinkedIn - "Loudoun" group - for brief discussions, relationship management, news and information updates; very professionally-oriented - this is the "Master Contact List" so to speak, of our core group, and most EDC/MBRC Social Media Subcommittee news will start here. Note that group updates and discussions aren't easily (nothing's really private on the Internet) publicly accessible or indexable by Google - but "Status updates" are.

Facebook - "Loudoun" Fan Page - for social interaction and brief status updates; a bit more entertainment-oriented, casual and personal, can grow quickly, and will likely include a lot more "accidental tourists"

Twitter - "Loudoun" account, "Loudounbusiness" Twitter List - this is set up to automatically relay tweets from members who provide me their Twitter ID. (There are several other Twitter accounts that will relay information and news about this initiative, to other microblog formats (like Google Buzz); all to spread the word!). If you post about our Loudoun Social Media experiment, be sure to use the hashtag #madeinloudoun or #loudounbusiness!

Wikia - "Loudoun" page - this is a "Wiki", which is a great place to collaborate on building "encyclopedia-style" information pages; anyone can edit/update, and there's lots of good collaboration and some document management. This is a good place to start (it's brand new) a repository of information, documents and links (so long as you don't mind learning "Wiki" editing skills), and is a "industry-neutral" site. Some material here might actually be better stored over at "Loudounpedia", a wiki started under the auspices of the Loudoun librarians.

GovLoop - "Loudoun" group - this is a Ning-powered Social Media collaboration site intended to bring government employees together with the public, for purposes of collaboration on government services and initiatives. At the end of the day, this may be truly the right "home" for most collaboration, relationship-building, and information sharing - though the current theme of our experiment is more business than government-focused, and therefore a future public/private initiative for the purpose of supporting Loudoun general government activities might be better suited....time will tell.

Blogs - most significant, user-generated content that are in narrative, research or article format really should be published on a blog (as a blog entry, or as comments to someone else's), or at least on a website that auto-generates RSS feeds of the content. Several local blogs are available I can post your article to (if you don't have your own blog); including "Gateway to Loudoun" and "Made in Loudoun", and "Northern Virginia Business News, Loudoun". Some of these are being automatically populated with streams and content from other sources, including this group. In any case, if you post a blog entry, be sure to let me know the RSS feed, so that I can make sure entries on this topic are automatically pulled into our other social media channels, and shared with everyone.

Email - do you simply want to email info to the group? Two ways to do it, such that it spreads through our channels....One is to post a discussion item in LinkedIn; that gets sent out in email updates to those who subscribe. Second is to let me know you'd like to - and I'll hook you up with access to Loudoun.Posterous.Com - it automatically accepts emails (with multimedia!) and publishes as a blog. Since this is a "New Media" initiative, I believe we'll try to avoid traditional email lists.

Myspace - you know, I'm just not going there for this particular initiative...

Multi-media - Just use the tag "Made In Loudoun" or perhaps "Loudoun Business Community" in photo-sharing sites like Flickr or Photobucket, and if you find you've got video to upload, tag it in the same manner.

There are lots of other possible choices, tools and forums, and probably lots of other places you may personally communicate with others, using new or social media. Just let me know the RSS feed of these places, along with some direction regarding how the right material can be identified, and we'll get this content pumped into the Loudoun new media machine!

Valentine's Day gifts and last minute ideas, from local Dulles, Chantilly or Loudoun businesses:

Buy your hubby, love(s), significant other, etc. a:

Vintage 51 South Riding Restaurant Valentine's Day Dinner (and ice-warming beer!)

A new Loudoun Hot Tub or Pool Table (nice in the snow!)

A Loudoun Home Repair/Handyman Visit (to fix those gutter leaks!)

A Coupon for Loudoun replacement vinyl windows this Spring (now that we've seen what a blizzard can do!)

An appointment for some early spring cleaning and Loudoun junk removal, of that garage (still can't find all the old shovels and sleds?)

The thought struck us last year, and again lately (with the rapid uptick in social media-driven local business economic development advocacy activities) - that a new (or extended) breed of "Chamber of Commerce" may be developing - the "Online Chamber of Commerce" or "New/Social Media Chamber of Commerce".

Sure, many traditional Chamber of Commerce institutions around the country are beginning to leverage social/new media to help attract, retain and empower their membership...but there exists a "business divide" in this model, in the form of paid membership requirements.

Most Chambers of Commerce require an annual membership fee for businesses and their representatives to participate - this covers in-person meeting venue costs, organization operating expenses, etc. Many Chambers offer "sliding scale" membership fees, i.e. reduced rates for smaller businesses; however, this fee hurdle in many cases is simply one that a lot of small businesses (in particular) can't afford or choose not to invest in. Therefore, such a Chamber may not truly and fully represent the interests of the entire business community, and its stakeholders.

There are, however, facets and benefits of typical Chamber membership that are more and more often able to be achieved through the use of online, public, free (or much lower cost) Internet new media - open to all. Online business networking, fund raising and information-sharing, for example. This sort of activity also may bring with it far more useful online promotion and marketing benefits than typical Chambers are able to deliver. (In our research, most Chambers in the DC region, for example, do not offer members the advantages of optimizing their online directory listings for search visibility, nor do they offer members opportunities for free promotion via contributory discussions, for example hosting a membership-generated "business articles" forum ).

Online, public, self-regulated groups have also proven adept in many ways, at achieving collective mass for purchase power, government advocacy and political influence - much like any Chamber of Commerce.

What does the future Chamber of Commerce look like, in this era of New Media and grass roots civil AND business advocacy? Does it evolve to embrace New Media, in a way that reduces expenses and opens the "tent", or does it focus, and establish a "business liaison network" with other grassroots (and free) off/online business advocacy groups?

(Summary from the Washington Times):

"With so much information at buyers' fingertips, Realtors and homeowners are not only competing for buyers with the folks selling the house down the street, but also with hundreds of other sellers with similar homes. The process of narrowing the list of prospective homes used to consist of endless drive-bys but now can be accomplished with the click of a computer mouse.

...Kelly McLaughlan, chief executive of KME Internet Marketing in Northern Virginia, says, "It is absolutely essential for Realtors to maintain an active, integrated, multimedia online presence in order to attract new customers, engage current or potential clients, and establish themselves as reputable community leaders and local real estate experts."

She says it's all about professionally engaging clients in the online context with which they're comfortable, whether it's through their own Web sites, third-party Web sites or advertising venues or using social media.

"Maintaining your brand and reputation across all these channels is as important as distributing effective and appropriate listing advertising," she says.

Ms. McLaughlan adds that online buyers and sellers typically will review an agent's profile, community presence, knowledge and their listing inventory in less than 10 minutes and suggests that Realtors be "findable" across all outlets. She offers real estate agents and others a checklist on getting started promoting their business online (www.kmeinternetmarketing.com/internetchecklist.html). "

Read more about DC and Northern Virginia Real Estate Online Marketing and Social Media....

Explore more Northern Virginia, Maryland, Prince William and Loudoun Real Estate opportunities, and Northern Virginia Real Estate information and news.

Being thankful that our power stayed on, it was pretty fun (and sobering) monitoring the tweet-streams (http://www.twitter.com/loudoun) for real-time updates on hashtags #snowpocalypse, #snowmageddon, #snowtoriousBIG, #snOMG, etc.

We got just about 30 inches here in our South Riding, Loudoun County backyard...now the big dig begins, as does many more days of children with cabin-fever...

It's taken about a week for the energy and enthusiasm of the first "Big Ideas Big Action" (#BIBA) new media forum to sink into the sausage-making cavities of my unconscious, resulting in a far-too-typical 3 AM wake-up call to blog...but the ideas are percolating now as quickly as the coffee at this pre-snowpocalyptic-3 hour, and I'm thinking pink mixed with silver to make gold.

As you may know, the Dulles Metro "Silver Line" is finally now under construction, extending heavy rail service from East Falls Church out to Tysons Corner, Dulles Airport and eventually into Ashburn VA (Loudoun County) by 2016 or so. This significant investment in the region's economy is sure to sustain any long-lasting economic recovery trend that may be developing now, but it's still a ways off (though you might think it was coming a lot sooner from the proliferation of speculative real estate investment already visible along the Toll Road).

As you probably don't know, but should soon, the "Pink Line Project" is the wholesale revitalization of the DC art scene, a "catalyst for the culturally curious" - started by a BIBA guest speaker Philippa P.B. Hughes. Started as a series of local art "salons", the effort is now the trend-setting source of information and events for emerging art collectors, art enthusiasts and artists. What's also relevant here is the extensive use of DC social media channels to collect, relay and discuss Pink Line happenings.

This emerging theme of regional business and cultural revitalization on the heels of a lousy economy and global-warming induced weather patterns, lubricated by a rapidly-maturing social media ecology, is taking shape even here in Loudoun - at the very ends of the Silver and Pink Lines, and far afield from the "H Street Project". I'll borrow apologetically but thoughtfully from Philippa, and call this the "Gold Line Project".

What's happening is the awakening and convergence of business and cultural leaders in person and online to collectively share and leverage new media assets, in a long-overdue effort to seriously promote Loudoun County as prime investment material...in other words, bring your business, your organization, your family and your dollars (i.e. "heads in beds") here to the end of the Silver Line, but no need to wait for the train. This is taking shape (informally in concert with our grass roots "Made in Loudoun" online awareness campaign) as the Economic Development Commission's new "Loudoun Social Media Subcommittee".

Created in 1995 by Loudoun’s Board of Supervisors, the Economic Development Commission (EDC) is a public/private partnership responsible for promoting the county’s economic development. Its membership includes a wide range of local business and community leaders, volunteering their time on committees such as the "Marketing and Business Retention Committee" (MBRC) to, among other things, help "coordinate economic development and marketing activities among groups in the county". Its association with the Loudoun government, through the Department of Economic Development, is a different structure than that of the comparable institution to our east, the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (i.e. EDA, which is a fully non-governmental institution).

Lately there's been a lot of discussion regarding whether Loudoun should move from the EDC to EDA structure to help attract businesses to the County, enabling infusion of private-sector funds and operation with an incentive-based pay-structure, outside of the control of the BOS. Regardless of the outcome, it's apparent that some change is necessary in these entities, and closer coordination with the parallel activities of the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce and Loudoun Convention & Visitors Association.

Change in fact, is evolving quickly beyond the Silver Line - to the Gold Line - with the EDA's submersion of its constituents and stakeholders into the local and regional social media ecology. If you'd like to participate in this "project", helping bring investment and economic recovery to our pre-Silver Line Loudoun (and eventually perhaps an exurbia extension of the Pink Line) - get involved. Join the LinkedIn "Loudoun" group. Follow and support Loudoun DED-related activities and initiatives. Use your own new media assets and online business networking skills to promote the County and its wealth of cultural and community assets.

The initial planning session was held today at the Loudoun National Conference Center for the new Loudoun-centric "Social Media Subcommittee", an initiative of the Loudoun Economic Development Commission's "Marketing and Business Retention" Committee.

This public/private grassroots initiative will focus on engaging the Loudoun economic development stakeholders on the Internet, using social media and other new media collaboration and marketing techniques, to help promote the County as a great place to live, work and invest. Expected contributors and participants will include businesses, nonprofits, associations, residents and government input.

Much more information to come: initial discussion and information-sharing will take place via a LinkedIn.com group named, simply, "Loudoun".

Game On!

Here's the latest Dulles District Update from Stevens Miller...

Planning Commission

I want to welcome Cliff Keirce as the new Planning Commissioner for the Dulles District. Cliff has a history of long-standing involvement in our community. He is president of the Broadlands Homeowners Association and has served Loudoun County for the last two years as a member of the Facilities Standards Manual Public Review Committee. Cliff is well known and respected throughout the Dulles District and I am sure his appointment will meet with widespread approval.

I am grateful to Sandra Chaloux for all her hard work and long hours on the Planning Commission. She worked diligently for two years for the residents of the Dulles District and Loudoun County and I wish her all the best.

(DSO - why can't we vote for this position?)

Dulles South Public Safety Meeting Sponsored by LCSO

The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office will hold a public safety meeting for Dulles South on Monday, January 25, 2010. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the Dulles South Station Community Room located at 25216 Loudoun County Parkway.

The Loudoun Sheriff's Office hosts quarterly public safety meetings in each of the four service areas of the county. All residents, homeowners associations, community groups, and town representatives are invited to attend. Items to be discussed are recent crime and crime trends in the area, traffic safety concerns and other public safety related issues. The meetings will be led by a Loudoun County Sheriff's Office Captain who represents the Dulles South area. Also in attendance will be supervisors from the Criminal Investigations Division, the Special Operations Division, Community Police Officers, and Crime Prevention Deputies.

(DSO - this is a must-see event)

New Traffic Light in Operation

The new traffic signal installed at the intersection of Gum Spring Road (Route 659) and Braddock Road (Route 620) went into operation last month. The response has been all positive as traffic seems to be flowing better through that intersection.

(DSO - Hallelujah!)

Budget for FY 2011

Public Hearings on the FY2011 budget will be held at 3:30 pm and 6:30 pm on Wednesday, February 24th and at 9:30 am on Saturday, February 27th. An additional hearing on Thursday, February 25th will be added if needed. It is important, especially with the challenging economy, that citizens participate in the budget process. I want to continue to hear your thoughts, suggestions and ideas on how you would like to see the budget balanced.

(DSO - Mr. Miller - what are your strategies and actions to assist the DED/EDC in attracting business investment to the County?)

New Park and Ride Lot Beginning January 25th

Loudoun County signed an agreement with the Christian Fellowship Church at 21673 Beaumeade Circle in Ashburn for use of 123 existing parking spaces to be designated commuter parking. Service at this new lot will begin January 25, 2010. Commuter parking will be permitted only in the clearly identified spaces that are designated with signs and gold striping, Monday through Friday. Some of the operations of this lot will be combined with the Ashburn North lot. The County hopes this new lot will help alleviate some of the overcrowding that is continuing to occur at Dulles North. More information and bus schedules can be found at http://www.loudoun.gov/Default.aspx?tabid=785 .

(DSO - Good Move!)

H1N1 Vacine (sic)

Loudoun County Health Department is now offering free H1N1 vaccinations on a walk-in basis every Tuesday and Thursday from 1:00 to 7:00 p.m. on the upper level of Dulles Town Center by Nordstrom. H1N1 vaccinations will also be available Saturday, January 23, 2010, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the same location. The free vaccinations are also available Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Health Department’s Leesburg Clinic, at 102 Heritage Way, NE. For more information, visit www.loudoun.gov/flu.

(DSO - keep up with all Loudoun Health news on Twitter @loudounhealth)

Stay Connected

I want to hear from residents regarding ideas and thoughts on how the Board is doing. I am on Twitter, so you can easily provide me with your thoughts and comments. Send me a Tweet @DullesSuper and I’ll try to read your messages in real time while the Board of Supervisors is meeting.

(DSO - "on twitter" is a relative statement, though a sign of hopeful things to come - look for much more here on this topic in the near future!)

We’ve been asked from time to time by businesses about how to educate employees on using Social Media – from two perspectives. One perspective is simply as part of a broader Internet use policy, to help employees stay safe and protect information assets. Another perspective is to encourage employees to support their business in their daily online activities, should they choose to do so. This is essentially giving employees as “social media enthusiasts” the tools and guidance they should get, to help them positively contribute to the overall online marketing efforts of their employer.

Check out this Template for Employee Social Media Use, by KME Internet Marketing. It can be tailored for individual businesses or organizations, and should be shared with employees. It provides 10 tips as straightforward guidance regarding promotion of an employer using online bookmarking, social media sharing, email, links, and other Internet techniques and tools.

Here's to some holiday luck against the Cowboys!

Join Vintage 51 in South Riding in their Holiday and New Year's Eve specials....

Vintage 51 Family Restaurant in South Riding is the "sister" restaurant of Vintage 50 in Leesburg, and serves uniquely traditional American entrees with local, organic ingredients, along with a spectacular selection of craft beers, wines from Loudoun and around the country, and live Dulles area music.

Here's some of their specials, from their website:

Holiday Gift Cards are now available!

New Years Eve '09, Vintage 51 Style -
Vintage 51 Menu

Vintage 50 New Years Eve Charity Masquerade Ball - Loudoun Community Health Center Presents "A Night in Venice" New Years Eve 2010 -
Event information; Order Tickets

Vintage 50 Growler Amnesty - Bring them to V50 or V51

Vintage 50 Has a New Signature Growler going on Sale in Time for the Holiday Season - click here to see it and place your order

Although the last decade here in Loudoun County hasn’t officially ended (we’re in the 10th year, after all), 2009’s economy and a double-digit change in years is enough for us to officially declare an end to the first decade of the 21st century. We entered the decade helping businesses and government agencies design websites and portals for maximum “user experience”, application performance and browser compatibility, all in the name of attracting and converting visitors. We end the decade designing for the same, albeit with a lot of change in the definitions of “users”, “experience”, “applications”, “performance” and “browsers”. Business marketing and systems engineering objectives remain the same for this new year, like every year - but the tools, methods, costs and audience are dramatically different.

Businesses like yours and ours use information technology to help manage and deliver many elements of our trade, from performance reporting and financial management, to data security and storage. “What” we need to do, to support our underlying sales and service processes, hasn’t changed – but the tools we can use sure have. For example, many more options will crowd the market this year for “cloud computing” services; basically made-to-order, flexible computing capabilities accessed over the Internet. Many more devices will enter the mainstream consumer market pre-wired for Internet access, from cellphone/PDA variants to personal game consoles and entertainment devices.

There’s simply a tremendous shift in attention and expertise required for successful business marketing from the platform or technology with which it’s delivered, to the channel and circumstances when and where it’s absorbed or delivered – more often than not in geosynchronous real-time.

While the fundamental methodology for online Loudoun business marketing won’t change (appropriate content through the right channels to the right audience, backed by analytics and right time customer service) – new methods are required to deal with new contexts.

Read more from KME Internet Marketing...

Here's the newest Loudoun County Department of Economic Development Newsletter...

Inside you'll find:

- Guernsey Office Products Moves National Headquarters to Loudoun
- Digital Bridge Completes Equity Round
- Another Loudoun Acquisition for Digital Realty Trust
- Rural Economic Development Council (REDC) Gears Up for 2010 Initiatives
- Five New Commissioners Join EDC in 2010
- Pegasus Logistics Group Opts for Beaumeade
- French Client for Brainware, Inc.
- DED's Warren Howell Retires
- Russian Embassy Selects Loudoun-Grown Tree in Annual Tradition
- Loudoun Places upcoming events.

The Loudoun DED is at http://biz.loudoun.gov/

Some light home reading under DC blizzard conditions today...Happy Holidays and New Year!

When we started our “2009 KME Online Loudoun County Promotion Business Challenge” this year, the economic downfall was in full swing, and it was apparent that the County could use some help from its resident businesses and citizens to attract new economic investment – especially on the Internet.

While the Loudoun County Department of Economic Development (biz.loudoun.gov), the Economic Development Commission (EDC) and the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce are only just beginning to evolve their online marketing strategies, the Loudoun Convention & Visitors Association (LCVA - at visitloudoun.org), as an independent but government-supported entity, appears has actually made an inspired “Web 2.0” online impact in highlighting the value and attractiveness of investing for business in Loudoun. Outside of this activity and those of our own (as subject-matter experts in Loudoun County Internet Marketing and Media), there clearly existed very little substantial online activity on the part of the Loudoun business community in promoting the County.





Therefore, we challenged the Loudoun business community to use their own online assets and reach to help market the County as a great place to invest in business. That’s the core tenet of what’s now our 2009 KME Made in Loudoun County Online Business Leadership Award. "Award" winners will receive some free public recognition and online marketing exposure of their business (a purely voluntary and non-monetary recognition by us), in Loudoun County and the Northern Virginia/Metropolitan DC region.

After a year, it’s become evident that the only local industry (besides Online Marketers like us) most actively, aggressively and successfully promoting the core economic values of Loudoun County is the Residential Real Estate industry. This is probably to be expected, for by promoting Loudoun and its work/life values, real estate property is therefore more valuable. It was, however, interesting to discover that the Loudoun business community, aside from Real Estate, simply does not actively and voluntarily help to promote Loudoun online to the outside world – rather, it relies on the local EDC and Chamber of Commerce. Not only are real estate agents and brokerages most actively using the Internet and Social Media to cover and distribute Loudoun-centric hyperlocal news and information, but they’re also the only businesses who specifically call out Loudoun advantages to home owners and investors on their websites.

Note that the Commercial Real Estate industry did recently get a boost from the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce in late October, with their “Virtual Realty Tour” under the catch-phrase “Loudoun – Land of Opportunity”; but aside from a single Washington Post article and a few local media announcements, this marketing message was no further distributed or promoted online. A great comment from this forum came from a panelist who said “I still feel Loudoun doesn’t have a corporate image”. We’d point out that successful corporate and government images these days absolutely require a well-formed and actively maintained Internet presence, across ALL online media channels.

An excellent example of this can be found right to the east...the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority has made a lot of recent investment in its online presence and advertising. Add to this a recent announcement by Prince William County to form a public/private Economic Development Task Force to “rethink” the county’s current economic development strategy; Northern Virginia’s government-driven online business promotion and marketing competition is likely to get very competitive, very fast.

The recent Loudoun Chamber of Commerce Small Business Awards ceremony was another great opportunity to promote Loudoun businesses and market the economic vitality of the county – but unfortunately, no online or offline marketing of the event and winners was actually executed until many days after the awards – in fact, it was impossible to actually learn of the winners online until Leesburg Today’s video news update the Saturday afterwards.

The “Search Engine Optimized” (SEO) phrase we initially selected through marketing techniques was “Loudoun Virginia business DC location great community invest”. This keyword phrase was designed to catch most online instances of Loudoun businesses promoting the County. We searched the Internet using this phrase and many variations, using Google, Bing, Yahoo, SocialMention, Twitter, YouTube, etc. After monitoring this phrase and related ones for the past year, and filtering out all results that are either not relevant (for many reasons) or are directly attributable to our own efforts (or those of our clients who already promote Loudoun County, like Ingrid Myers, Northern Virginia Realtor), we can name this inaugural year’s Made in Loudoun award winners – note the winners are as reflected in online search results for the Loudoun business investment terms and topics we covered. For this first year of our initiative, there’s no absolute clear winner – so we’ll promote the single group of winners – the “KME Made in Loudoun Business Leaders”.


The “KME Made in Loudoun Business Leaders” are, in no particular order:

• 
  
• Danilo Bogdanovic and Tony Arko (Market Advantage Real Estate)
  
• Heather Elias (Century 21 Redwood Realty)
  
• Kelly Gaitten (Prudential Carruthers Realtors)
  
• Marilee Murphy (Long & Foster Real Estate)
  
• 
  

Profiles and comments from two of our winners...


Danilo Bogdanovic (http://LoudounScene.com - http://LoudounForeclosures.com - two of the originial Loudoun real estate blog sites.) Real Estate Consultant and REALTOR with Market Advantage Real Estate, specializing in real estate consulting and sales in Loudoun County/Northern Virginia. Focused on staying on top of today's housing market conditions and the latest technologies and tools in order to properly serve the best interests of buyer, seller and investor clients. Currently serving on various committees at the local and state REALTOR association level.

“Loudoun is an attractive place to relocate your existing business or to start your new business for a number of reasons. (1) The proximity and accessibility to the rest of Northern Virginia, Washington, DC and Maryland; (2) lower cost of real estate/rent (residential and commercial) than Fairfax County, Washington, DC and many other neighboring areas; (3) short and long term future growth within the county (residential and commercial sector; (4) demographics of county residents including median income; and (5) the strong need for more businesses in the county to serve the growing needs of local residents.”


Heather Elias (http://www.locomusings.com - “It's not just crazy talk!”) LoCo resident, wife, mother, and full time real estate professional and blogger with Century 21 Redwood Realty in Ashburn.

“Aside from LoCo's obvious close proximity to Washington DC and all of the benefits that entails, the people of Loudoun County are tremendously supportive to local businesses and extremely loyal. I love how Loudoun flows from an urban hub of activity in the east to beautiful vistas in the foothills of the western part of the county; there is something for everyone here”.


Note that no businesses we could find on the Internet, other than ourselves and these Realtors, significantly and explicitly promoted Loudoun County online as a great place to invest in, and move a business to – using online marketing techniques. We did find a few very appealing accounts of life and business in Loudoun on various other sites, but these were either too far down in the rankings to matter, or simply not optimized appropriately to reflect the intentions we were seeking. A notable cadre of local bloggers, Loudoun tweeters and social media experts are actively representing and highlighting Loudoun news and life online, but not necessarily with consistent, explicit or implicit Loudoun County business marketing messages.

What does this all mean? It’s essentially a 2010 New Year’s wake-up call to Loudoun’s business community, and the media, associations and government departments that cover or represent them. It’s also a great pat-on-the-back to all Realtors and Brokers who tirelessly promote (online and offline) the advantages of their local communities to incoming residents and businesses. It’s time to start promoting not only our own businesses, but those of our neighbors and the overall Loudoun County business environment.

For local and regional media, start evolving your hyperlocal news coverage by partnering with those who already know what’s going on around the county, and report about it online – i.e. the Real Estate community and those that market or represent them. It’s actually pretty easy – simply write, online, about how great investing in Loudoun County is, and how the community and business climate is working for us. Write this not on glossy printed brochures, full page color newspaper advertisements, in graphic-only banner advertisements (i.e. “banner ads”), buried in emails or on roadside signs – but write this on our collective high-traffic websites, blogs, twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and other Internet Media assets.

Ask your Loudoun Realtor, or Loudoun Internet Marketing and Media Firm, what you can do to promote your business and the community it represents. Search your website for the term “Loudoun” – hopefully something positive pops up, or will, soon – and your business will be the winner of the next valuable and prestigious “2010 KME Made in Loudoun County” award!

Made in Loudoun ™ is a marketing trademark of KME Internet Marketing, Loudoun County, VA.

Learn Integrated Online Marketing/Advertising, Branding, Web Design, SEO, Social Media, Analytics and Internet Video - in Northern Virginia, DC metro area.

As 2009 draws to a close, it’s become very apparent that 2010 will continue to be an extremely challenging year for businesses seeking new customers, and new ways to market and advertise their brand and services. As well, the ability of Northern Virginia and DC-area professionals to effectively learn and leverage new Online Marketing and Internet New Media/Web 2.0 skills is hampered by the current lack of expert yet cost-effective, local and hands-on Internet Marketing/SEO training. Add to this the dizzying proliferation of Social Media publishing and analytic tools, the rapid change in the search engine technologies and video media industries, and the quickly-growing competition for eyeballs and click-throughs from the web – it’s about time for some local solutions.

Local Internet Marketing and Media Workshops

KME Internet Marketing (KME) in the DC metro area is holding the first of an upcoming series of professional Internet Marketing and Media Workshops on January 29th, 2010 – from 9AM to 2PM, at Trivision Studios in Chantilly, VA.

KME is the region’s industry leader in providing cost-effective yet engineering-grade solutions for online marketing, social media optimization and analytics-driven Internet marketing management. Trivision Studios is a full service global creative design, branding and media production group, operating a 12,000 square foot, state-of-the-art studio facility complete with staging, lights, cameras, two-story loading dock, meeting space, media room, and omnimedia edit suites.

Our special guest Workshop lead is Melanie Alnwick, an instantly-recognizable local DC TV anchor, reporter and journalist. Melanie will be providing significant insider-knowledge and guidance regarding attracting broadcast media attention to your business and story, preparing for interviews, producing and submitting highly-effective video for broadcast or online business purposes. Kelly McLaughlan, CEO of KME Internet Marketing, will lead sessions on SEO, PPC and Google Analytics. Trivision Studios will provide corporate branding and web video production and distribution expertise. Ted McLaughlan - Enterprise Information Management and Media Architect - will provide professional insight into Digital Asset Management and Internet Media Distribution.

What You Get

This packed 5 hour hands-on Internet Marketing and Media workshop will deliver a package of information and guidance you can immediately use, including:

• 
  
• Online Branding and Creative Design
  
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Website Reporting (Google Analytics)
  
• Digital Asset Management, Optimization and Distribution (RSS) – for Advertising and Marketing
  
• Pay-per-Click (PPC) Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – Local and Regional
  
• Social Media Optimization and Reputation Management – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube
  
• Online Web Video Production and Optimization
  
• Harnessing and attracting Broadcast Media Exposure
  
• 
  

There simply doesn’t exist a more comprehensive, experts-led, cost effective or personally-tailored workshop event in this area for business owners, marketing and communications managers, journalists, new SEO/SEM professionals or other technology and new media practitioners. Don’t bother with online, out of state webinars or academies, online or offline degrees costing thousands of dollars from questionable sources, community-center seminars by industry amateurs, or other less-than-professional sources for a rapid, intense and ultimately valuable infusion of truly local Internet Marketing and New Media knowledge.

• 
  
• Where should I post my advertisements online?
  
• What are the short and long term priorities for better search result rankings, for my website?
  
• What are the keys to successful PPC investments?
  
• Is my marketing budget being spent wisely, integrated and balanced across relevant channels?
  
• How can I make sure my brand supports my marketing goals?
  
• How do I use reports and analytics to support my marketing objectives?
  
• How much time should I spend on Social Media, and why? Can or should I do this myself?
  
• Can my web designer deliver SEO services?
  
• What should I do to get free, effective exposure for my business in the press or news?
  
• What should be in my marketing videos?
  
• 
  

We’ll explore these questions and collaborate in the workshop sessions to arrive at the best answers for you and your business in the Northern Virginia, DC or Suburban Maryland region. You’ll get some immediate answers, some strategies to follow and resources to help.

Who Will Benefit the Most?

• 
  
• Local and regional business owners whose websites haven't demonstrated success in drawing highly targeted traffic for more sales
  
• Affiliate marketers who want to increase conversion rates by getting their product pages to come up higher in search results
  
• Webmasters, graphic designers or photo/video experts who want to offer their employer or clients more comprehensive services – not just website building, creative design or basic media products
  
• Bloggers, writers and journalists who need their content distributed and ranked high in search engine results
  
• Anyone who wants to make a career change – to work in-house as an SEO/SEM specialist or begin SEO consulting by learning the latest SEO techniques
  
• Marketers, Advertisers, Communications and PR professionals in a highly competitive industry who are under pressure to increase their brand’s visibility to reach the correct audience, while keeping costs under control
  
• 
  

Take charge of your business marketing and advertising budget, get involved in the Web 2.0/Social Media evolution, promote and protect your brand on the Internet!

For more information about the KME Internet Marketing and Media workshop, including upcoming dates, times, location and registration, visit KME Internet Marketing – SEO Training and Education.

Announcement from Stevens Miller, Dulles District Supervisor, Loudoun County

FY 2011 Budget Community Meeting Tomorrow Night

Don’t forget! 12/09/2009 (Wednesday night) is the first district community meeting about the budget at Legacy Elementary School. It will be an interactive, town hall type meeting. I hope you are able to attend and share your opinion about funding priorities.


Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 7pm
Legacy Elementary School - Cafeteria
22995 Minerva Drive
Ashburn, VA 20148


If you are unable to attend tomorrow evening, please consider coming to one of the other Dulles District community meetings:

Tuesday, December 15th at 7:00 pm, the Nature Preserve in Broadlands
Wednesday, December 16th at 7:00 pm, Mercer Middle School in Dulles South

Vintage 51 Restaurant, Brew Lounge and Live Local Music



The past 12 years here in the Rt. 50 Corridor/Dulles South exurbia area of Northern Virginia's Loudoun County have been an exercise in waiting - waiting for a real local music scene, waiting for decent restaurants, waiting for more upscale martini bars and brewpubs, waiting for the traffic, schools and economy to improve....Basically, waiting for the Dulles South region (Eastern Loudoun, Western Fairfax and Western Prince William counties) to evolve its entertainment, retail and cultural offerings in the same manner as the Dulles North area already has (i.e. Ashburn).

The wait's over, finally - at least for those in the Chantilly/South Riding area who enjoy professional and local live music, handcrafted and locally-sourced classic American meals in an "urban lounge" setting, and a spectacular selection of custom martinis, Loudoun wines and regional craft beers not seen to date this side of Rt. 15 and the Dulles Toll Road.

Vintage 51 Restaurant and Brew Lounge fully opened recently in South Riding's Market Square, at the intersection of Rt. 50 and the Loudoun County parkway. Vintage 51 is an extension of the very popular Vintage 50 Brew Lounge in Leesburg, already voted one of "Loudoun's hottest new restaurants".

Loudoun's Best Beer
While Vintage 51 in South Riding is currently unable to serve handcrafted brews created over at its own Leesburg microbrewery, it does serve an inspired selection of wines, custom martinis and cocktails, and a huge selection of great beers (in the spirit of the Northern Virginia Brewfest series) from breweries including Clipper City, Flying Dog, and Dogfish Head. We purchased our own custom "Vintage Growler" with Bell's Two-Hearted Ale for some Thanksgiving cheer...

Loudoun's Finest Wines
For the Loudoun wine lovers, the Vintage 50/51 restaurant wine bars offer over 200 wines by the glass or bottle - ranging from international to very local Loudoun winery selections including Chrysalis and Fabbioli Cellars.

Loudoun's Best Live Music
The live music scene in Loudoun County and Dulles South is dramatically improved with the addition of Vintage 51 live performers and local music events weekdays and weekends. We'll provide a lot more information on this Dulles South/Loudoun music scene shortly - last night at Vintage 51, for example, we thoroughly enjoyed the smooth, reggae-infused, heavily-improvised acoustic rock classics by Purcellville's own Miguel Aubertin, a popular favorite and regular around the Loudoun vineyard and Vintage 50 music venues. Sample his music at http://www.myspace.com/miguelandros09.

Loudoun's Hottest New Restaurant
The Vintage 50 and Vintage 51 menus are a savory collection of locally-raised beef, lamb, pork and wild fowl dinners, fresh seasonal vegetables, herbs, fruits and cheeses, creative seafood appetizers, and classically modern, innovative New American comfort food. The "Made in Loudoun" initiative is clearly in play here - from the delicious lunch sandwiches with local ingredients and handmade sauerkraut, to organic meat entrees made with local ingredients from Loudoun's own organic farm at the Fields of Athenry.

Check out the new Loudoun and Dulles South restaurant, brew lounge and live music scene now on a regular basis - in South Riding.

Happy Thanksgiving 2009! Hopefully your travels, entertaining and family events are safe and healthy this year. We're looking forward to a little downtime and giving thanks for the highlights of what's otherwise been a difficult year for many businesses. While hiring and long-term business investing hasn't exactly picked up yet, there are many signs of pickup among Loudoun and Northern Virginia small and home businesses, as consumers and other small businesses begin to pick up buying activity or at least begin planning to do so.

New this Thanksgiving - keep track of all the growing business news in Loudoun County and Northern Virginia, at Northern Virginia Business News online. A new online business and marketing publication service of KME Internet Marketing, Northern Virginia Business News (or "NOVABizNews") provides fully search-optimized and free exposure of all Northern Virginia Business News events, press releases and social media announcements. Follow us also on twitter, @novabiznews.

Sponsored Message
Keep in mind while entertaining this Thanksgiving that on occasion cleaning accidents do happen. A spilled glass of wine or food dropped on the carpet or new furniture is pretty common - along with extra mud tracked in from the annual family football contest. No need to worry, give Mister Kleen's Special Services Division a call and they will have things looking brand new in no time. Save 20% right now on any Northern Virginia carpet and/or upholstery cleaning services, for any commercial or residential properties. Call 703-719-6900, or visit Mister Kleen Northern Virginia and Loudoun Commercial Janitorial Services online.

November 10, 2009 Dulles District Newsletter‏

Proposed Site for HS-7
There is good news for everyone who has been waiting anxiously for information concerning the location of a new high school in Dulles South. On Tuesday, October 27th, the School Board voted to approve the purchase of 101 acres of land for construction of HS-7 and a future elementary school. The land is located on Goshen Road on the western edge of the Stone Ridge community. The School Board has worked closely with the Board of Supervisors these past months to find a site that is located near the population that it will serve. HS-7 is scheduled to open in the fall of 2012.

There will be a community information meeting about HS-7 and a future elementary school on November 18th at 6:30pm in the Mercer Middle School auditorium (42149 Greenstone Drive, Aldie). The design plan for the high school is 1800 students and 875 for the elementary school. The meeting will provide the community with an excellent opportunity to receive more information about the proposed school site and plans. I hope you are able to attend.

For more information, please contact:
Dr. Sam Adamo, Director
Department of Planning and Legislative Services
Loudoun County Public Schools
21000 Education Court
Ashburn, VA 20148
Phone: 571-252-1050 Fax: 571-252-1101
Email: lcpsplan@loudoun.k12.va.us

Commentary - this is indeed good news, albeit a year delayed

Letter to Governor Kaine
In 2006, Governor Kaine set a goal to preserve 400,000 acres of land before his administration leaves office in 2010. The benefits of this goal include preserving water quality, providing additional opportunities for recreation and preserving wildlife habitat and historic landscapes. As of September 15, 2009 the state has permanently protected 352,623 acres.

Recently four large, multi-parcel properties located in the Dulles District went into foreclosure. These four properties, Greenfields, Broad Run, Lenah and Arcola, comprise 4,154 acres. Three years ago, a proposal to allow 15,000 homes on these properties was narrowly defeated.

I believe the foreclosure of these four properties in Loudoun presents a unique opportunity to help meet Governor Kaine’s preservation goals as well as the increasing demand for a state park in the Northern Virginia region. At my request, the Board unanimously voted to send a letter to Governor Kaine requesting the Commonwealth purchase one or all of these properties for a state park in Loudoun.

Commentary - we believe this is also a unique opportunity to bring much-needed revenue, community services and opportunity to Loudoun and the Dulles South area, were this land set aside for things like a University Campus, Recreational fields/sports park, Environmental Educaation/Research facilities, an Arts/Entertainment Center, etc...let's be a little more visionary and serious about this?

Budget for FY 2011

As the budget process begins, the Board of Supervisors would like to hear residents’ opinions about budget priorities. There are two public input meetings about the budget scheduled in early December. I am also planning to host a few community meetings in Dulles regarding the budget. More information soon!

Budget Public Input Sessions:
- Tuesday, Dec. 8 at 6:30pm in the County Government Center in Leesburg
- Thursday, Dec. 10 at 6:30pm in the School Administration Building in Ashburn

Residents can begin signing up for either session beginning Tuesday, Dec. 1 by calling 703-777-0200.

Commentary - one area we'd like immediate, serious budget improvement and focus on, is Economic Development and Loudoun County Marketing, to attract and retain businesses, assist small businesses, attract research/educational centers, etc...hand-in-hand with this would be significant improvement in the quality of education, including teacher recruitment and salaries, research programs, advanced and continuing education in science/technology/business, etc.

Gum Spring Regional Library
The long awaited groundbreaking for the Gum Spring Regional Library was held Saturday, November 7th. The ceremony was an exciting beginning to what will be a great asset to the Rt. 50 corridor. The library is scheduled to open in 2011. http://www.leesburgtoday.com/articles/2009/11/09/news/9997library110909.txt

Veterans Day
Please remember that November 11th, is Veterans Day. This day is set aside to honor the brave men and women who have served in the armed services. Many have given a lot to keep us safe and free. Please take a moment to thank a veteran for their service and recognize their honor, bravery and service to our country.

This week's Loudoun County Marketing and Business Retention Committee meeting (the MBRC is a part of the Loudoun County Department of Economic Development, or DED) was quite interesting, with many discussions revolving around the status of Loudoun's marketing efforts to attract "heads in beds" as well as new business investors.

What was missing, from our perspective as a Loudoun-based professional Internet Marketing firm, was a concrete marketing plan and progress report with measurable performance indicators and objectives, that most businesses typically use to gauge the effectiveness of their integrated online and offline marketing and communications efforts. While the Loudoun County Visitor's Association (LCVA, a non-profit association mostly funded by the DED, as "primary programmatic element of Loudoun's travel and tourism promotion") is doing a fantastic job of creating online web-based marketing material and beginning to leverage social media/Web 2.0 tools (follow @visitloudoun), there's quite literally no similar effort or investment (in our opinion) for doing the same online to promote Loudoun's non-tourism related business community.

Here's the interesting tidbits we learned:

- The MBRC has recommended that the DED fully fund the LCVA for the upcoming fiscal cycle - this is a good thing, and frankly funding should be increased - though making sure that the LCVA capabilities and programs are executed in a way that they can be integrated and reused for other DED programs, the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), and the Chamber of Commerce.

- The Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce 2010 Public Policy Positions paper, regarding Economic Development, was discussed and generally received approving remarks - though we'd suggest the word "Internet" or "Online" be used once or twice. The paper does recommend twice that "measurable performance goals and metrics" should be developed and implemented, and that Loudoun leverage in its marketing the "County's strongest economic assets, including industry sectors where Loudoun possesses a clear competitive advantage". Absolutely correct.

- "Rural Tourism" initiatives should be moved to the LCVA program - this is also a good idea, as LCVA is in name a "whole county initiative".

- Loudoun's got over 4 and 1/2 years worth of vacant buildings, and it evidently costs more to provide residents with Government services than businesses - this "upside down" and otherwise bleak indicator of the economy is actually an marketing opportunity waiting to be leveraged, i.e. Loudoun's competitiveness in the DC region in terms of low-cost, accessible and environmentally-attractive places to work and recruit employees.

- One of the MBRC/DED's biggest priorities is to do a better job recruiting new businesses to the county, overcoming the persistent perception that Loudoun's incredibly difficult to do business with...what was particularly interesting about this discussion, was that despite this perception, there really are very good examples of business investment success, and very real methods and routes to successfully purchasing and operating properties in the County - these examples and information, however, are simply not marketed.

- The initial foray by LCVA into online marketing and social media is well-received and is evidently generating positive economic impact, but can be much more aggressive and infused with professional Internet Marketing and Social Media ROI tracking methodology...for example, there were "0" new subscribers to the Industry eNewsletter in September; sales numbers were significantly down this quarter because (in part) of the absence of a sales person (an online sales campaign can be much more self-propagating); there appeared to be no online paid advertising at all; overall "IT Marketing Economic Impact" was down nearly 10% since last year; and there was "no data" by which to judge economic impact of the social media activity.

- There was discussion regarding the many events recently held or being planned, including a "Teacher's Internship Project", a "Vendor Opportunity Fair", the "Breakfast of Leaders", etc...but these events simply aren't marketing or published effectively using available online tools and outlets (just try to find them using Google; one meeting attendee remarked that the Local and Regional Media outlets simply don't provide as much coverage of Loudoun/DED-related news as they should).

- There was much other discussion about "print-based" marketing and signage associated with existing or planned rest stops (to be re-opened, according to our new Governor!), visitor's centers and other community centers - all good things, but with low ROI compared to online methods.

In all, we'd classify the road ahead for the DED and MBRC as "awash with overwhelming and real opportunities for professionally-managed success, use of Internet New Media, and immediate tactical collaboration with the local business and technology community".

Quite a lot of news, analysis and conferencing has been going on lately about the challenges of the traditional news community, both online and in print. The advances of “citizen journalism” catalyzed by Internet social media tools like Twitter and real-time search are contributing to far-reaching outcomes - from the demise of long-lived newspapers like Colorado’s Rocky Mountain News and the shuttering of the Washington Post’s hyperlocal LoudounExtra.com experiment, to interesting conversations at the recent REBlogWorld and DC Twitter Conference regarding both opportunities and competitive animosities between journalists and bloggers competing for online “eyeballs”.

When we first moved to Loudoun County in the late 90’s, comprehensive local news was an afterthought to the large newspapers and regional broadcast media, and seemed mostly relegated to the entrenched local papers like Leesburg Today and the Loudoun Times. Of course, the citizen and business population was quite lower, too. Actual or “near real time” news was only gained via local radio and special TV reports, perhaps a radio-shack emergency band scanner, and the growing proliferation of neighborhood online chat, discussion and email groups. Very few non-personal blogs existed, but picking up the phone was still useful to contact local authorities and reporters.

Today, our “situational awareness” of local and regional events is multi-channel and immediate, and can be filtered to precise interests, sources or level of abstraction. This past Friday night, for example, large explosions permeated our neighborhood – a bit odd for this time of year, but immediately provoking both memories of a deadly natural gas explosion in 1998 and our latent, persistent homeland-security uneasiness. Finding out what was happening was pretty efficient – a few searches on Twitter, a look at the local events calendars, a call or two to the neighbors…a homecoming football game fireworks display was the culprit. “Traditional media” coverage was to be found the next day, in game reviews and search engine results…but event-to-analysis lag was at least 12 hours.

Where then, and why, should we be going to find the best “hyperlocal” news as a Loudoun County resident? Is “hyperlocal” truly relevant, particularly in this area of interstitial communities, long-ranging commuters and multi-county politic, economic and government service dependencies? Can traditional publishers of general interest news and the journalists they support coexist with or ultimately become the “Internet Media” Geoff Livingston alluded to in his prognostications for the future of social media?

This particular blog is an example of a constantly evolving solution to our Loudoun County and regional news interests. While started many years ago in response to a hyperlocal “Comprehensive Planning Amendment” (CPAM) issue in the Braddock Road/Dulles South area, it’s grown to include and syndicate information about mostly business, education and community interest items not only in the Loudoun County/Dulles South region, but in Western Prince William, Western Fairfax, and other Northern Virginia areas. We broadcast information through most online social media channels (such as @loudoun on Twitter), aggregate and curate great material from Loudoun-centric news sources, citizens, businesses and nonprofits (for example via @loudoun_news), and syndicate this material as necessary to regional and national channels (for example through BlogNetNews.com, our Loudoun Times blog, @northernva_news, and many social media sites including Mixx and LinkedIn.).

We asked other prominent local bloggers and journalists who’ve routinely covered Loudoun County local and regional news what their perspectives were to these questions. For example, Dan Sousa, a self-described “old newspaper guy who has worked for newspapers for more than 30 years” relates; “When I speak to high school journalism classes and ask how many kids read a paper daily and not a single student raises their hand - then the writing is indeed on the wall! What will replace the newspaper as the "hyperlocal" news deliverer? Probably not 1,000 competing blogs, but the future may lie in a collaboration or network of these new journalists into portals that present their niche offerings to the public as part of an overall patchwork of Loudoun coverage.”

Sousa’s broad and detailed coverage of local Loudoun sports (prep/high school and youth) at http://www.vivaloudoun.com and LoudounPrepSports reflects his opinion that “even though Loudoun is home to far-flung commutes and a wide array of interests and cultures, "hyperlocal" news still matters especially in those areas closest to home such as education and high school and youth sports. Where is the next high school going to be built? What about recent crime in my neighborhood? How did the local football team do Friday night? What time is the local book fair Saturday? These are all questions that tie a community together, whether the neighbors are transplants from New Jersey, lifelong Loudoun residents or a family that recently emigrated from India.”

A very similar perspective comes from Erin Rice at http://www.suburbanfizz.com (and the organizer of the very successful Loudoun “Bloggers for Good” charity support events), who says “I've found hyperlocal news to be incredibly helpful in ad hoc but frequent and repeatable situations. I use local sources to learn about community events, opportunities, and news events. When there was a violent crime in my neighborhood, local news was extremely important. I relied on it to find out what happened, the status of the investigation, and how it affected me. As rumors circulated and panic mounted, it was local -- and reliable -- news websites that kept me informed and even influenced my behavior, suggesting ways to get involved and stay safe. The importance of local news grows as community ties grow stronger. The more skin we have in the local "game," in areas like schools, public safety, access to health care, traffic, government, taxes, real estate values all increase the dependence we have on hyperlocal news. National news is critical, but access to local information is equally important. Frankly, on any given day, construction on Route 7 or a new school lunch policy can affect my world more than any bill before congress.”

Here at Gateway to Loudoun, we’re not journalists in the formal professional definition. We are, however, recognized subject-matter experts in many areas (mostly enterprise systems engineering and architecture, social media, internet marketing and business management), and we know many other SMEs who have much to add to the intellectual conversation and analysis of Loudoun-related material. The timely and relevant insight available from these SMEs ranges from widely-covered technology issues to very local Loudoun politics, sports, education, real estate, business services and wine making. This network of SMEs and contributors is a hugely valuable source of information, and does include trained journalists. Much of our own analysis and research for use in publishing (whether for business, marketing or community use) certainly leverages the work of journalists, and much of it doesn’t – especially the more “real-time” material, or very subject vs. event-specific topics. I’ll point out that information posted by SMEs, journalists, media, bloggers and everyone else on the Internet is equivalently classified as “unverified open source” by the government when it comes to authoritative sources of information for real-time incident management operations – it’s all scanned, it’s all considered and much very quickly does become “verified” in context, on merits of trustworthiness and substantiated relevance.

Therefore, we’ve created a citizen-sourced “Loudoun Internet Media” hub of sorts - that while somewhat subjective to our interests, is published, personalized, accessible and syndicated in a manner that it can quickly, in near real-time provide a broad cross-section of Loudoun news and information from citizen and business perspectives, and routes to find more. It’s also helpful to include some advertising – this ensures the capability to keep the hub operating and brings local businesses and nonprofits to the table to communicate their own events in an equitably recognized manner. We’d expect other blog-centric Internet Media hubs to develop, and the network of blog hubs with attending links of relationship-vetted contributors and SME-vetted material to become a truly verifiable source of news as you need it in Loudoun.

While Internet search will continue to be a primary channel find a lot of this, as Google and Bing move towards more “real-time indexing” of sites like Twitter, the need for a constant destination site or “dashboard” will remain (as will, we predict, the need for the armchair dashboard – i.e. printed newscopy). Some local news sites are evolving this way, for example the Loudoun Times with its local and well-known blogger corps mix of employed and citizen journalists, its balanced use of multi-media and granular RSS feeds, its not-too-intrusive advertiser promotion, and its quickly growing and conversational Twitter presence.

Keep up with Loudoun County Internet Media AND Traditional Media sources here at Gateway to Loudoun County, through the sources and web channels of those mentioned in this article (we’ve conveniently assembled a list of notable Loudoun-news tweeters here; all media sources are aggregated under @loudoun_news), and through subscriptions to other Internet Media services who cover or syndicate what our hyperlocal knowledge community produces.

The Loudoun News BlogRoll

Here’s The List of notable, active, general Loudoun news-centric blogs to follow – not just from Loudoun, but about Loudoun.

• 
  
• Gateway to Loudoun County (http://www.dullessouthonline.com/loudoun_county_gateway/)
  
• Loudoun Stats (http://loudounstats.com/) – by Tony Arko, Realtor
  
• Our Loudoun Schools (http://blog.loudounschools.org/) – by John Stevens, Loudoun School Board
  
• Loco Musings (http://www.locomusings.com/) – by Heather Flynn, Realtor
  
• Suburban Fizz (http://www.suburbanfizz.com) – by Erin Rice
  
• Viva Loudoun (http://www.vivaloudoun.com) – by Dan Sousa
  
• Living in Loco (not the old LoudounExtra one) – (http://livinginloco.blogspot.com/) – by Vicky Chrisner, Realtor
  
• Loudoun Times (A whole gaggle of great Blogs) – (http://www.loudountimes.com/blogs/)
  
• Loudoun Education Alliance of Parents (LEAP) (http://leapforloudoun.blogspot.com/)
  
• Every Restaurant in Leesburg (http://every-restaurant-in-leesburg.blogspot.com/)
  
• DC's Wine Country/Visit Loudoun (Loudoun Convention and Visitor's Association) (http://dcwinecountry.blogspot.com/)
  
• Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy (http://www.loudounwildlife.org/blog/)
  
• Loudoun Landscapes (http://www.loudounlandscapes.com/pastoral/)
  
• Realtor Ramblings (http://ginatufano.blogspot.com/) - by Gina Tufano
  
• Loudoun Scene (Real Estate) (http://loudounscene.com/) - by Danilo Bogdanovich
  
• 
  

There do exist other blogs, directories and websites associated with Loudoun in one way or another, though not as focused on actually delivering news and information about Loudoun - or simply not very well-maintained or delivered. KME Internet Marketing has the entire list of Loudoun-centric online traditional and social media websites, blogs and directories, along with the return-on-investment estimates (ROIs) for local advertisers to use them (if they accept advertising)...contact us if you'd like to take advantage of this.

- Ted & Kelly

Here's some good H1N1 advice from the Pediatrics at Nite folks (at Dulles Town Center):

(edited for readability)

"Dear Friends:

We closed the week with yet another very busy week. We keep trying to keep working with you and for you.

This weekend we heard that Loudoun Emergency Department was on an 8 hour wait. That people could not find Feverall or Motrin on the shelves. There has been no Tamiflu suspension for a couple of weeks now.

The Influenza H1N1 vaccine program is delayed. We anticipate only 45% of the vaccine allotment for the coming week and 50% for the following week. We have yet to receive any vaccinations. Please see the updated info at CDC : http://www.cdc.gov/H1N1flu/vaccination/top10_faq.htm

Please keep calm. If there is a question about H1N1 read our web site or email - PHIC@vdh.virginia.gov Please do not call your pediatrician's or school nurses at this time for routine question on H1N1, or if your child is mildly ill, is not under 2 years of age, asthmatic, diabetic or otherwise at risk. We need to keep the phone lines open to the parents that need help with sick children.

Avoid the Emergency Departments, Retail Nurse Clinics or Adult Urgent Cares. You are going to experience long wait times and the adult retail clinic and urgent cares are not experienced to take care of young or sick children.

We are moving to open at 2 pm Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday of this week, and at 3 pm on Monday and Friday. We will continue to see patients from 10 am to 10 pm Saturday and Sunday, and we are working to add physicians to both shifts.

We are suspending all non-clinical functions, shifting all of our staff to taking care of patients and have gone to paper forms to speed up our ability to see and take care of patients.

If you need to go to the Emergency Department we highly recommend that you use the INOVA Fairfax Hospital For Children. It is staffed by pediatricians with special training in Emergency Medicine.

Best

The Pediatrics@nite Team"
Twitter

Are you using Twitter? Think of it as another channel on your TV - turn it on every once in a while (or simply stare at the feed all day long on your blackberry, as we do!), and scan what's happening. Follow your favorite "tweeple", meet some new ones, and check these handcrafted, knowledgeable sources out for more info about Loudoun...

@loudoun - our primary Twitter
@loudoun_news - a hand-curated, metered aggregation of Loudoun-centric media and tweeters
@northernva_news - another aggregation, but covering all of Northern Virginia
@fairfax_county - another aggregation, covering Fairfax to the east

(Note these are not "official" government channels - though most gov't sources are included in these aggregated feeds.) For example:

@loudouncountyva - official Loudoun County
@fairfaxcounty - official Fairfax County

There's also now a new Twitter @loudounhealth we've set up to monitor Loudoun health/H1N1 media, and to monitor various physician/health center page updates on the subject. Not much info is readily available in social media from Loudoun providers at the moment, without going directly to particular websites or news outlets.

Find some other notables at this "Loudoun News/Info Twitter List"

Send us more suggestions of the very best Loudoun-Centric news, business, education, community information blogs!

Most of us have memories extending to childhood of visits to the dentist. They’re not always very happy memories, though your regular early dental care went far towards the great smile you’ve got today (especially if you lived through the agony of braces and retainers). Visits to the dentist today are quite a bit more comfortable and efficient, for typical cleansing and routine oral care. The fluoride treatments taste better, the drills aren’t quite as loud, and some offices even provide ceiling mounted TV or Internet access to take your mind off the proceedings (if you’re not texting or dentweeting away).

Many dental procedures, however, still provoke anxiety, fear and legitimate discomfort no matter how comfortable the dentist’s chair is, how reassuring your dentist is, or how ergonomically advanced the oral care or surgical instruments and tools are. After all, your teeth and gums are very sensitive, most significant procedures require a lot of intrusive, painful activity in your mouth, and it’s really hard to ignore the high-pitched drills and associated sounds of uncomfortable, invasive foreign machinery in your head. Suction, please – now rinse and spit. Bleah.

No wonder “sedation dentistry” is now quickly building a popular following among the legions of us who truly fear and loathe the dental visit, regardless of the extent of work to be done. Sedation dentistry in DC and Northern Virginia is used to provide a relaxing and anxiety-free experience for certain people receiving dental treatment, enabling those who may be too afraid to go to the dentist to receive the dental care they need, while avoiding a common apprehension called “dental phobia”. You’re actually happy to be there – and certainly feel good about the results.

Sedation is a process used to establish a relaxed, easy and calm state through the use of sedatives. Sedative drugs (tranquilizers, depressants, anti-anxiety medications, nitrous oxide, etc.) can be administered in a variety of ways. Patients do have alternatives to the traditional methods of inhalation (nitrous oxide or “laughing gas”) and IVs – a "no needle” (meaning, no injection) approach very commonly used for oral sedation tends to appeal to most people. The medications create such a comfortable experience that most patients don’t remember the visit; it’s as if they slept through the whole treatment (this is very helpful for longer and more complicated procedures, and can reduce the number of successive procedures required – i.e. the “Teeth in a Day” concept, a real time-saver). However, oral sedation dentistry does require an appropriate level of consciousness in the patient for proper medical safety and cooperation.

As one of the pioneers of sedation dentistry in Northern Virginia, Dr. Winkler with our friends over at the Winkler Centers for Sedation Dentistry in Burke have helped thousands of people overcome their fears and create many new, healthy smiles :). Dr. Winkler’s passion for helping people has revolutionized the art and science of sedation dentistry and greatly contributed to the evolution of the overall anesthesia dentistry field. Dr. Winkler is on the cutting edge of implant dentistry in the DC area, and has been placing dental implants for 20 years. He has also utilizes the concept of “Minimally Invasive Surgical Techniques (MIST),” utilizing lasers and micro-surgical techniques to reduce healing time and provide optimal results with minimal discomfort – a “Total Dental Solutions” outcome.

Find out more about the leading methods, practices and advantages of sedation and anesthesia dentistry in Northern Virginia, by contacting the Winkler Centers for Sedation Dentistry or visiting their website, at http://www.winklersedation.com.