Power failure in San Diego provides a good test run - are you prepared for a natural or manmade disaster?

The afternoon and night of September 8, 2011 in San Diego County was an interesting time. It was the largest power failure in San Diego history. The power when out to over 1.5 million homes. It spread from Arizona to Southern California. Parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Baja Mexico were also affected.

For those of us prepared for natural disaster it was a great test run to see how our equipment and supplies shaped up. When the power first went out, we stepped outside to see if it was just us or the neighborhood. All our neighbors said their power was out. We turned on our battery powered radio to find out it was County wide. Two of our neighbors had no battery operated radios so we shared batteries and information.

With this wide spread of an outage I knew power would not be restored quickly. As darkness fell I fired up our Colman gas lantern, got out emergency candles and prepped our small generator.

We had a nice evening on the patio reading and listening to the radio. I ran our generator for an hour to charge cell phones and the power the refrigerator. All worked as planned.

Now that the power has been restored we have to start boiling water for a few days. But last night it was nice to know our plans and equipment were ready to go and worked just fine. It was a good test run.

For emergency supplies and equipment check out companies like:

www.essentialpacks.com            www.lifesecure.com

               

Emmy Awards night in San Diego a big success

This year I was asked by my friend Craig Bentley to co-producer the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Pacific Southwest Chapter, Emmy Awards night. I was the on-site live event producer at La Costa Resort & Spa in San Diego.

 

In addition to my television experience I have a great deal of live event experience with corporate awards shows. My approach to live awards shows stems from many live events I have worked on all over the world. This year's Emmy show was no different. The approach was to make this a memorable event to those attending.

The positive feedback we received was overwhelming. Some saying it was the best awards show in the 20 years they have been attending.

This is just one of the kind emails we received:

I just wanted to say that this was my first Emmy ceremony since moving to San Diego.  I’ve been to lots of them in San Francisco and Washington, DC, but this was by far the best production, (and party) that I’ve seen.  This NATAS Chapter has its act together!  Congratulations to all of you for your hard work all year long to pull this off.

Best,

Maura

KPBS Senior Producer

The real thanks go our excellent crew, volunteers who gave freely of their time to make the show a big hit. With set design by Donald Benke and video direction by Donn Johnson; the crew is too large to mention everyone by name, but they did a super job.

Many thanks also go the NATAS Board members who pulled it all together: MaryEllen Eagelston, Brian Birk, Suzanne Bartole-Owen, Jeanne and Devin Scott, and our executive director Amy Bosler.

Emmy Awards in San Diego

June 18th is Emmy Awards night in San Diego. This year I am working as the event Co-Producer for the Pacifica Southwest Chapter of the National Television Academy.

 

Emmy 2011 is being held at the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California. The Gala night includes live entertainment, standup comedy and should prove to be an exciting night for those who are honored by their peers and receive the coveted Emmy Award for excellence.

 

The purpose of the Emmy Awards is to recognize outstanding achievements in television by conferring annual awards of merit in the Pacific Southwest region. The Pacific Southwest region includes San Diego, Bakersfield, Palm Springs, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Santa Maria, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada.

The annual presentation of these awards is intended to be an incentive for the continued pursuit of excellence for those working in television and to focus public attention on outstanding cultural, educational, technological, entertainment, news and informational achievements in television.

I have been an Academy member for many years and it's a great thrill going on stage to receive an Emmy Award, but this year I will be working behind the scenes to create a special night for this year's recipients.

For more information about the Academy:          www.nataspsw.org

 

Peace Officer Training

I am just getting started on a video training project for State of California peace officers. It's a two week course for new supervisors or police sergeants. If you are a peace officer and get promoted to a supervisors position you are required to take this course. I am directing two dozen video segments that are part of the course. We are filming at the CHP Academy in Sacramento.

I have produced many projects for government organizations over the years. But what makes this a very special one is the involvement of The Ken Blanchard Companies. This course utilizes the Blanchard Situational Leadership II program as part of the training course:

  

"Situational Leadership^® II (SLII^®) is the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and practical method of effectively managing and developing people, time, and resources in the world. SLII is a model and a set of tools for opening up communication and helping others develop self-reliance. It is designed to increase the frequency and quality of conversations about performance and development between managers and the people they work with so that competence is developed, commitment is gained, and talented individuals are retained." www.kenblanchard.com

 

I have been involved with Blanchard and their training approach for over 20 years and I think it's one of the best. This training program is a real win-win for helping new peace officer supervisors get their job done properly.