TEDxIdahoFalls speakers announced

Organizers of TEDxIdahoFalls are pleased to announce the eight presenters at the TEDxIdahoFalls event scheduled for Feb. 20 at the MC Theater, located at the ARTitorium on Broadway.
The speakers were selected from a pool of 23 potential presenters who either applied or were recruited.

“We are extremely pleased with the caliber of presenters we’ll have at the event and are looking forward to the opportunity to hear exciting ideas on a variety of subjects,” Brad Christensen, the event organizer.

The speakers are as follows:

• Kristie Scott — Creating quintessential sensoryscapes
• David Pennock — Community dialogue, Galileo, and the powerful potential of museums
• Joo Yang — The price of love and freedom
• Rita Foster — Power internet
• Michelle Ziel-Dingman — Love > Fear
• Fahim Rahim — How to trap an alien
• Aaron Turner — It doesn’t matter where you came from, it’s where you’re going
• Janet Allen — Rebounding from bad outcomes: A formula for resilience

Also, the application process for attendees has been closed and there is no more seating available. Anyone interested can watch the live stream on www.TEDxIdahoFalls.com on the night of the event.

More information about each of the speakers and their presentations is available at the Web site.

Netmark.com names new CEO

John Broadbent

Netmark.com, an Idaho Falls-based internet marketing agency, has named John Broadbent its new CEO. Josh Dalton, the former CEO, is maintaining an administrative role for several months to help the transition.

"John was made for this new role,” Dalton said, in a press release. “He's an amazing individual with many extraordinary talents. It's only a matter of time before more people within our industry recognize him as one of its key leaders.”

Broadbent was originally hired in 2012 and was promoted to chief operating officer at the beginning of 2014. His accomplishments at Netmark include improving systems and processes within the company’s marketing, sales and fulfillment areas. He has been involved with Internet marketing since 2006.

Regarding his new position, Broadbent said, “We intend to revive the identity we possessed as a boutique Internet marketing agency and infuse that throughout the current enterprise."

Social media guru to speak at Ad Fed 'Lunch and Learn'

Bart Miller

A nationally-acclaimed authority on social media and online marketing strategies, Bart Miller will be speaking Feb. 19 to the Idaho Falls Advertising Federation at its monthly “Lunch and Learn.”

Based in Idaho Falls, Miller has been a key presenter all over the United States, helping large and small businesses with Web marketing and planning, strategy development, revenue growth, sustainable cost reduction and business process redesign. He owns several businesses, including a Web development company called Go Fast Web and a video production company called Go Fast Video.

For a look at his YouTube videos, follow this link: http://thebartmiller.com/bart-miller-blog/. Or take a look at the video posted on using YouTube for search engine optimization.

Lunch starts at 11:30 a.m. at Dixie’s Diner, 2150 Channing Way. Cost is $12 for members and $15 for non-members.

A peek at real estate numbers from the past 10 years

Now that the groundhog has seen his shadow, I figured it was time to look at real estate statistics from the past year. Thanks to the Snake River Multiple Listing Service I was able to "drill down," and in fact I drilled a lot deeper than I initially planned.

When it comes to looking at charts I believe you're as capable as me at figuring out what the numbers mean. One reason I decided to go back 10 years was that I became increasing fascinated with finding out when things went south and how far they'd fallen from the overheated days of the second Bush administration.

I think you'll agree that while last year, 2013 and 2012 represent comeback years, after 2011 there was nowhere to go except back up. Splitting the years into five-year chunks, it's obvious there were more houses selling faster and for more money than there have been since the new decade started.

Musings from the development doldrums

My decades in conventional journalism make it impossible for me to post rumors, scuttlebutt and assumptions under the guise of news.

Talk among yourselves as you might -- and I know some of you do -- I cannot tell you why the west side Walgreen’s, at Broadway and Skyline, has taken so long to finish. Considering how the project got started in early summer 2014, one might have reasonably assumed the store would have been open by Christmas. It didn’t happen. I have been told why by a credible source, but it was unofficial talk and I could not possibly print it (not that it's anything shocking or out of the ordinary). I suppose that for the sake of protecting my flank I could call the company and the contractor and ask, but at my age I have experienced enough futility in my life.

Here’s some things I do know, which can be documented. At the Sandcreek Commons shopping center, Cabela’s is hiring and Hobby Lobby is looking at opening this summer.

My regular visits to the Idaho Falls Building Department show a site plan has been filed for the railroad crossing on Utah Avenue, near Carl’s Jr. That would indicate to me that something could be happening with the big piece of ground to the east, which was cleaned up the summer before last.

That’s about it for now. Considering that spring is little more than six weeks away, we could be seeing a lot more happening before long.