April 19 social media workshop to feature iPad Today co-host Sarah Lane

Sarah Lane, co-host of iPad Today, the Social Hour and Tech News Today, will be the featured speaker at an April 19 workshop, Communicating in a Changing World: Social Media Workshop.

The event will be from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Shilo Inn. It is sponsored by Media Network Idaho, Idaho ANS and ComDesigns.

Lane worked several years for KRON-TV in the station's San Jose, Calif., bureau, starting out as a production assistant before eventually becoming a series producer and director. Focusing on hi-tech, she produced weekly half-hour newsmagazine programs, documentaries, and wrote for the nightly news.

In February 2001, she was hired by TechTV to be a senior segment producer and an on-air contributor to The Screen Savers, a television show centered around computers, new technologies and their adaptations in the world.

She moved to the TWiT network in 2010, joining Tech News Today and eventually becoming a daily co-host. She and Leo Laport launched a weekly Apple iPad podcast, iPad Today, that July and in March 2011 she and Amber MacArthur co-hosted the first episode of The Social Hour, a weekly podcast focused on social media.

Here is a link to iPad Today 88, which aired March 8: http://twit.tv/show/ipad-today/88#.T2ngfNZrUJ0.blogger

Other speakers at the event will be Mike Hart of ComDesigns, an Idaho Falls company; Cynthia Price of ChildFund International; Misty Benjamin of the Idaho National Laboratory; and Paul David Menser of BizmojoIdaho.com.

I don't know what the others are going to say, but I am collecting my thoughts on my 35-year media odyssey, from proportion wheels and rubber cement to the agonizing decision of whether to buy an iPad now or wait three months for the newer version (I still occasionally use the Olympia typewriter my parents bought me in high school.)

For more information on this event, contact Teri Ehresman at 521-9882 or at Teri.Ehresman@inl.gov. Cost is $30 IANS and NFPW members and $40 for the public.

Special screening Wednesday of 'Casablanca' at Edwards Grand Teton theater

Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in 'Casablanca,' the Warner Bros. classic that will be screened Wednesday at the Edwards Grand Teton Stadium 14.

I would like to encourage anyone who hasn't seen "Casablanca" to get the the Edwards theater on Wednesday, where they will be showing the classic at 2 and 7 p.m.

The movie is being presented by Turner Classic Movies, and I'm sure the print and picture will be pristine.

Shot in black and white, "Casablanca" is unlike many movies you are likely to see in our day and age. What does it have that today's movies lack? Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, for starters. It has wit, romance, great acting, great music, a fantastic script and nobility of spirit.

Bet you didn't know that Ronald Reagan, a contract player for Warner Bros. in 1941, was originally slated to play expatriate saloon owner Rick Blaine. I have a hard time imagining what the movie would have been like with anyone other than Bogart. History would have been different.

"Casablanca" is exactly two hours long, and I promise you it will seem like less time than that. I am willing to personally refund your money if you do not come out of "Casablanca" feeling like you have seen one of the great movies of all time.

Here's looking at you, kid.

Ruminations on what might have been

Legendary investor Peter Lynch's guiding principle has always been "invest in what you know." In other words, if you use Tide, buy Proctor and Gamble. If you use Rubbermaid, buy Newell.

When it comes to computers, I am a longtime Apple man. Although I had a Leading Edge 286 PC in the early '90s, I have used Macs since 1997. Even before Steve Jobs' return to the company, I found them easier to use.

If I had used Lynch's thinking and bought 100 shares of Apple stock this day in 1997, it would have set me back $403. Those same shares today would be worth $60,110. If I had spent $1,000 on Apple stock, I would now have $149,156.

Excuse me while I pour myself a drink.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=AAPL&a=02&b=19&c=1997&d=02&e=19&f=2012&g=d&z=66&y=3762

Idaho Falls indoor trampoline center opens

iJump owner Jacob Lundquist and his son Ezra. Lundquist and his wife, Natalie, have opened an indoor fun center with nearly 6,000 square feet of trampolines and foam.

iJump, an indoor trampoline center with close to 6,000 square feet of bounce, opened this evening at 6. The address is 2670 E. 14th North, which means you turn off Hitt Road at Majestic Auto Body and proceed east for about 1/4 mile.

Owners Jacob and Natalie Lundquist got the idea for the business from similar places in the West, and wanted to run a business where kids and families could have fun and enjoy physical activity. iJump features a Wee Jump area, a dodge ball court, an open jump area and foam pits. There is a mezzanaine area for birthday parties and an eating area.

Everyone must have a signed waiver to jump. Those under 18 must have their parents sign and complete the waiver and those over 18 must have current ID with them.

To visit the Facebook page, go to https://www.facebook.com/ijumpidaho. They will be giving away free jumps when they hit 1,000 likes.

The regular Web address is http://www.ijumpidaho.com. For more information, call (208) 881-5108

AmeriTel begins rebranding Ammon, Idaho Falls hotels

The new lettering at Ammon's La Quinta Inn was half-finished Friday at lunchtime. The Boise-based AmeriTel chain is rebranding most of the hotels it owns. While the Teton Spectrum hotel is now a La Quinta, the Lindsay Boulevard hotel will become a Hampton Inn next month.

The new signs went up Thursday and today, and the AmeriTel Inn at the Teton Spectrum in Ammon is now a La Quinta Inn. In mid-April, the AmeriTel on Lindsay Boulevard will become a Hampton Inn.

This doesn't mean AmeriTel has left the business. "We still own the hotels," said Chuck Everett, the Boise-based chain's vice president for operations. "We needed to reinvest in the properties, and we decided the best way to leverage the reinvestment costs was to rebrand the properties. It's increasingly difficult these days to operate as an independent hotelier."

The Lindsay Boulevard hotel opened in June 1996 and the Ammon hotel opened in May 2000. Since then, the local environment has become increasingly competitive, especially since the openings of the Fairfield Inn and the Hilton Garden Inn.

The conversions have been in the works for two years, and are part of a company-wide rebranding. The Ameritel in Twin Falls recently became a La Quinta Inn and the hotel at the Boise Spectrum will be a Hampton Inn & Suites by May. By this summer, the only AmeriTels left will be in Pocatello, Coeur d'Alene and Boise.

La Quinta and Hampton Inn are both owned by the Blackstone Group, but operate independently.

Given the Hampton Inn already on Channing Way, the Ammon AmeriTel couldn't be rebranded a Hampton Inn. There are a lot of considerations that go into rebranding and remodeling a hotel, Everett said. The other main thing is whether a franchise can be fit into an existing property.

To convert the Lindsay Boulevard hotel into a Hampton Inn & Suites, which they would have liked, it would require a two-story lobby and tearing out rooms to generate more suites. Nevertheless, the look and feel of the Hampton Inn on Lindsay Boulevard is going to be completely different from the AmeriTel, Everett said.