There is a lot to like about doing business on Airport Road in our home community of Columbia-Tusculum photo, on the eastern end of Cincinnati. Traditionally referred to as the East End, it’s a diverse, urban neighborhood – one of the region’s oldest actually, dating back to 1788 – with an interesting character and energy. Columbia-Tusculum is a mix of new retail, new and older residential and office development, emerging out of one of Cincinnati’s oldest industrial neighborhoods, where steamboat and railcar manufacturing once thrived. Humble residences share the block with 1940s storefronts and other commercial properties, from small offices to machine shops, small manufacturers and distribution businesses. The hills rising above the main road, Columbia Parkway, feature some of the finest, most colorful rehabs of circa-1800s homes in the city. At the far eastern end – in an area once known as “Turkey Bottoms,” is Lunken Airport, established in 1930 it is still considered one of the finest municipal airports in the country. Everything from private, recreational aircraft to ad-banner planes to blimps to corporate jets fly in and out of Lunken daily, characterizing this end of Columbia-Tusculum as active and vital.
Truth is, it’s a step back in time – and a pleasant one. As loud and active as the area is, serenity permeates. Perhaps it’s the popular jogging and biking trail surrounding the airport or Reeves Municipal Golf Course that settle the place down. Or maybe it’s the timeless style, friendly staff, comfy menu and regular clientele at the Sky Galley Restaurant, nestled inside the art-deco style Lunken Airport Administration Building, that make the area a bit of an emotional oasis. To us at Kucia And Associates on Airport Road, the whole scene is a work of art. Our own building, in fact, was an aircraft parts warehouse serving the area’s aircraft hangers. In our immediate neighborhood there exists a genuine sense of a business community at its best. Mostly small to mid-size firms, arriving early, working late, trying to make a go of it. You hear planes, trains, trucks, cars, ambulances, conversations on the streets, motorcycles and not just in the distance. We know the mail carriers, UPS and Fed Ex drivers by name. Across the way are our friends and clients at Abrasive Specialties – where grit happens. Across the street is Tom in the specialty ad products business who, when asked how business is, typically yells from across the road, “Still bobbin’ and weavin’, that’s all you can do.” I could continue, but I have work to do.
There is much talk of the value of “engagement” in communications, particularly online, where marketers are finding they can influence their prime audiences – interactively, communally, in real time – in ways other media can’t. My son’s participation in the Cincinnati Regional Science Olympiad, a science project competition among Greater Cincinnati high schools, showed me a form of engagement – interactively, communally, in real time – which I hadn’t seen before. It was interesting to me because most, if not all, enthusiastic gatherings of high school students are centered on athletic competition. But this was science… the proverbial slide-rule and pocket-protector crowd.
On a warm, sunny Saturday in early March, 2009, from 7:00AM until 5:00PM, dozens or maybe hundred of teenagers gathered in teams at Raymond Walter College to present, demonstrate and explain the demanding science projects which they had completed (engaged in) together over months of work, learning and discovery. Corporate sponsorships, though key to the event, were discrete. No media topspin. No marketing agenda. The event was not online or networked around the world in 27 languages (yet). Yet engagement there was. At the awards ceremony culminating the day’s accomplishments, when the winners and runners-up for each category were announced, there was raucous cheering, hooting, hollering – respectful, brand-neutral engagement. Real team spirit – but no TV cameras in front of which to act ridiculous. Award winning participants raced to the stage to accept gold, bronze or silver medals and have their picture taken. You could see the happiness on the faces of these kids. They are one’s who may never make a touchdown, or score a goal, or toss in a 3. These kids, our future, offer us more than a glimpse of understanding in matters of science. They exemplify the spirit and the potential that will keep our nation and the world moving forward despite the many challenges we all face – collaborative engagement in meaningful pursuits and achievements that will benefit the world in truly valuable ways.