Electric Fleet Vehicles
5PM News on WBNS-TV10 | Columbus, OH | 5-17-12

AEP adding a Coda to its fleet of electric vehicles
Columbus Dispatch | Columbus, OH | 5-18-12

AEP incorporates CODA EV into its smart grid initiative
Fierce Smart GRID | Columbus, OH | 5-17-12

AEP Ohio fleet gets new electric vehicles
Electric Light & Power | Columbus, OH | 5-17-12

WBNS-TV: Electric Fleet Vehicles

AEP adding a Coda to its fleet of electric vehicles

Columbus Dispatch | Columbus, OH | 5-18-12
By Dan Gearino

The electric-car company that recently withdrew a proposal to build a factory in central Ohio is announcing that American Electric Power is the first company in the world to buy one of the cars for its corporate fleet.

Coda Automotive’s debut sedan will be part of an AEP fleet that now includes 18 plug-in vehicles, the Columbus-based utility said yesterday.

AEP is using the all-electric vehicle to help understand how the use of such vehicles will affect the electricity system, said Karen Sloneker of AEP Ohio.

“This is an evolving technology that we would like to get some early experience with so we can more-effectively plan for the future,” she said.

AEP is adding one of the Coda vehicles to the fleet that has vehicles from several manufacturers. The decision to buy the vehicle was not directly related to Coda’s plan to locate in Ohio, although AEP might have been more familiar with Coda because of it, Sloneker said.

In March, Coda said it had withdrawn an application for a federal loan that would help build a battery plant in Columbus. The U.S. Department of Energy had been reviewing the proposal since the summer of 2010.

Central Ohio companies, including AEP, were part of the region’s attempt to attract the company.

Coda, based in Los Angeles, began selling its vehicle in California this year, following several delays. The battery and several major components are made in China. As production ramped up, Coda had hoped to have a battery plant in the United States.

“We’re thrilled to call AEP Ohio our first fleet customer and are excited to bring more Codas to fleets nationwide,” Bill Beasley, Coda’s vice president of sales, said in a statement.

Click here to view the story at dispatch.com

AEP incorporates CODA EV into its smart grid initiative

Fierce Smart GRID | Columbus, OH | 5-17-12

AEP Ohio, a unit of American Electric Power, is the first fleet worldwide to receive the new all-electric vehicle (EV) from CODA Automotive.

AEP has incorporated various smart grid devices, products and technologies, including EVs, to its gridSMART initiative to test their impact on the utility grid.

“We are specifically interested in the potential impact electric vehicles may have to the local distribution system and how advanced technology, customer programs and rates may help mitigate those impacts,” said Karen Sloneker, Project Director, AEP Ohio gridSMART Demonstration Project. “Incorporating the CODA to our existing fleet of electric vehicles allows us to do this on an even broader scale.”

Click here to view the story on fiercesmartgrid.com

AEP Ohio fleet gets new electric vehicles

Electric Light & Power | Columbus, OH | 5-17-12

AEP Ohio, a unit of American Electric Power, is the first fleet customer worldwide to receive new electric vehicles — the 2012 CODA — an all-electric vehicle manufactured by CODA Automotive, an all-electric car company based in Los Angeles.

Resulting from a partnership between AEP Ohio and CODA Automotive, AEP Ohio received a demonstration CODA in 2011 and tested its performance, suitability and technology for several months.

AEP and AEP Ohio are taking a holistic approach to the development of a smart distribution grid with the company’s gridSMART initiative, which is designed to provide customers greater energy control and improve electric distribution service and performance. AEP Ohio has incorporated various smart grid devices, products and technologies, including electric vehicles, to the project to test their impact on the utility grid.

The new 2012 CODA is the first all-electric four-door, five-passenger compact sedan with full-rear seating and trunk space that provides a range of up to 125 miles.

The CODA is currently available to consumers throughout California, with distribution in markets throughout the U.S. planned for the future.

Plug-in electric-vehicle technology promises benefits of fuel efficiency and economy, environmental responsibility and increased energy security. AEP Ohio has integrated 11 electric cars to its automotive fleet for this project, including the Chevy Volt, Ford Escape Plug-in Hybrid and all-electric CODA, as well as four public electric-vehicle charging stations at the Walmart Supercenter/Sam’s Club at 3900 Morse Road and Easton Town Center in Columbus.

Click here to view the story on elp.com

There’s something you should know about me — I love to travel. While I don’t get to do it as often as I’d like — money and time off occasionally hold me back — I’m constantly dreaming of new places I’d like to visit.

This year, however, is a money-saving year for me so there are no “great” vacation plans on the horizon (Being a responsible adult really stinks sometimes). So, in light of my non-existent vacation plans, I thought I’d share some of the travel destinations I’ve been daydreaming about taking one day.

• Spain — I got the European travel bug when I traveled to Italy a few years ago and decided that Spain was next on my list. I’ll just have to brush up on my Spanish before then!
• Pacific Northwest — A trip that includes Seattle, Vancouver and Victoria Island, British Columbia — it’s one that I’ve been thinking about taking for a while now, but just haven’t got around to planning — I think it may be time.
• Bali, Indonesia — This is a new vacation destination for me and probably the dreamiest. The beautiful crystal-clear waters and exotic landscape of Indonesia seem to be calling my name. Who knows if this trip will ever become a reality, but a girl can dream, can’t she?

I’m now off to play the lottery to see if I can make some of these vacation dreams a reality…

Do you have any vacations planned for the near future? What is your dream vacation?

What can gambling do for Columbus (or to Columbus, depending on who’s asking)?

That’s been the question on many minds since Ohio voters approved casinos in 2009.

Since then, the arguments have been many. It’s either going to be the spark that fires a much-needed development boom, or an anchor around civility’s neck, leading to broken dreams, lost nest eggs, social parasites and degradation.

Usually that talk revolves around the much publicized Hollywood Casino rising to existence on the city’s West Side. But that’s not the only game in town.

Long before the first busload of seniors pulls into the Hollywood Casino lot, many will have already been feeding coffee cans of silver into the slots at Scioto Downs Casino & Racetrack, which is scheduled to unveil its $150 million facelift in a month or so.

Murmurings already run rampant that the Hollywood Casino won’t generate enough gambling grannies to make good on the money promised to area schools and Nationwide Arena. Is this town really big enough for two casinos?

“We’re well aware of our competition,” said Troy Buswell, vice president and general manager of Scioto Downs, as he walked through the soon-to-reopen raceway, with its new 2,126 slot machines (or, as they call them, video lottery terminals, or VLTs) to Columbus’s South Side.

“I think we have a good product here and people will want to walk through our doors repeatedly,” he said.

Buswell pointed out the structured ceiling, colorful carpet, handcrafted lighting, marble flooring by the main bar and fully equipped bathrooms as he moved through the 90,000 square-foot building.

It’s all proof that MTR Gaming Group’s executives left no stone unturned in preparing to open Columbus’s first gaming area, complete with two restaurants and three bars, and soon compete against the equally deep-pocketed Penn National for Central Ohio’s wagered dollars.

“We have custom bases on all the VLTs to match the wood grain on them and the color on the walls matches the machines, too,” he said. “So guests know where aisles are, they can look to the custom ceiling (which is color-coded to the aisles below) and they’ll feel comfortable and know where they are. It’s all to enhance their experience.”

The machines, which are exactly like slots, but shouldn’t be referred to as such, Buswell said, range from a penny to $100 a play. And they all still have pull levers, even though they can be operated with a touch screen or key pad, too.

Buswell’s enthusiasm showed no sign that a judge still might delay the casino’s June opening. A group called Ohio Roundtable has filed suit to stop VLTs from being placed in racing venues. The case that is expected to be resolved by the end of this month has other Ohio race track owners looking to cross over into casinos at a standstill. MTR Gaming obviously feels the suit won’t halt its plans in Columbus, as the circular saws and nail guns are busily trying to meet next month’s scheduled opening. And regardless of the suit’s outcome, however, harness racing—the bread and butter of Scioto Downs for the past 50 years—will start today and will continue with live and simulcast racing through Sept. 8.

Meanwhile, construction will move forward on the first phase of the new facility until early June, when the grand entrance, gaming room, high-stakes area and bar, main bar and café will likely open.

The second phase of the project, which includes a high-end buffet, sports bar and more VLTs is expected to open in August.

MTR Gaming Group, based in Chester, W. Va., owns Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack and Resort and Presque Isle Downs & Casino.

It purchased Scioto Downs in 2003 and joined the Ohio movement to allow VLTs at race tracks in an attempt to create something referred to in the industry as racinos. No doubt, MTR had these renovations in mind from the time they signed the check, but Buswell, former slots operations director at Mountaineer, said it wasn’t until October that he and others formally planned out the space. In March, he joined Scioto Downs to work with Stacey Cahill, who will continue to serve as general manager of racing.

“This plan was made from scratch,” he said. “We took what we do effectively from other locations and used that, but this is all brand new with a lot of thought and detail behind it. We want to make this experience as positive and memorable as possible for our guests.”

His competition is saying the same thing.

“We think the kinds of amenities we’re going to be offering are going to be a very big draw,” said Penn National spokesman Bob Tenenbaum. “Among the restaurants is a high-end steak house, a very large buffet, a sports lounge, an entertainment venue which is going to feature local acts—the whole atmosphere is very high end.”

So are the two gaming giants looking over their shoulders at each other as they look to make their mark in Columbus?

Penn National owns 26 casinos in 19 states and by 2013, it will have infiltrated Ohio with two full-fledged casinos and two racinos.

The casino tycoon already runs Beulah Park in Grove City and Raceway Park in Toledo. To eliminate those as competition against its own Hollywood Casinos in Columbus and Toledo, it’s asking the state’s permission to move the horse racing facilities to Austintown and Dayton. If VLTs are approved, they’d become racinos just like Scioto Downs.

As part of the conditional pact that’s pending before the state, new gaming facilities within 50 miles of those locations in Austintown and Dayton are prohibited.

“The primary factor is that it simply does not make any business sense to operate a VLT facility and a full casino within just a couple of miles of each other,” Tenenbaum said. “We’d basically be cannibalizing our own business.

Unfortunately for Penn National, the proposed agreement doesn’t include Scioto Downs because it isn’t a new facility.

Despite the extreme measures to move the racetracks so as not to interfere with its own profits (it will cost Penn National $350 million to move and build Beulah and Raceway parks) Tenenbaum curiously admitted he doesn’t think Scioto Downs will cause major competition for the new West Side locale because it will reach a different audience than the Hollywood Casino.

Buswell agrees.

“We built this building to enhance the racing experience,” he said.

Take betting on a horse and letting the anxiety build as they round the track and compare that to sitting at a table, using strategy or relying on dumb luck to win a game of blackjack—anyone whose been to Mountaineer (which has all the elements of Hollywood Casino, Scioto Downs and more wrapped into one) knows the experiences are different.

Neither company could give exact demographics as to who might frequent each casino, but in general, races appeal to men, while Tenenbaum said research has shown the average casino dweller is a 53-year-old woman.

Apparently everyone wins. The annual tax revenue from these two facilities is well into the eight digits. The lottery commission will oversee all the slots and funnel that money into the state’s public school system. Possibilities for public infrastructure and new businesses to surround these casinos are endless.

To top it off, Scioto Downs will employ roughly 800, Hollywood Casino, about 2,000.

But beyond all that, Buswell thinks the glitzy and eccentric change of pace from the raceways of old will be an exiting addition to the area. “It has a raised entrance, high ceilings and all windows,” he said, coming to the piece de resistance of the tour: the entryway. “This had to be big, because we want guests to feel a sense of arrival when they walk into this building.”

It’s the departure, however, that can sting. They don’t call slots one-armed bandits for nothing.

Click here to view the story on theotherpaper.com.

Scioto Downs VP and general manager of gaming, Troy Buswell, shares information about grandstand improvements and upgraded amenities at the racing facility, and also showcases newly installed video lottery terminals (VLTs) and features at the new gaming venue.

Can you believe it is already May? I can’t. I am not sure what happened to the first quarter of this year but it went by too fast.

What makes me particularly nervous is that I am president-elect for the East Central District (ECD) of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and I am quickly seeing my year as president approach. Yes, I have the “deer in the headlights” syndrome. What do I need to do to prepare for my year as ECD president? Seriously, this is causing me some sleepless nights and a yucky feeling in the pit of my stomach. I want my year to not only go smoothly, but I want to positively impact the organization.

You would think that I would have a handle on this. After all, I was in the same situation years ago when I was president-elect of the Central Ohio Chapter PRSA chapter. So, let me take a deep breath and think about this. What did I do then that worked? And what didn’t work? How can that help me now?

First, I interviewed past presidents. They all told me to pick three things that I wanted to accomplish as president. Picking three would allow me to focus and ensure that I could make a positive impact on the organization. Okay, whew. I now have two things to do to help me prepare:

• Contact past presidents for their insight
• Begin to think about the three things I want to focus on during my short year

I also talked to the board – the people I would be responsible for leading. What did they like about the board, what didn’t they like? This information allowed me to help move board members to positions more in line with their strengths and what they wanted to do or accomplish. It also allowed me to see the board and its inner workings from many different viewpoints. In some cases, something I thought was working, really didn’t work for the majority of board members. Okay, I now have one more thing to add to my list:

• Contact existing board members to learn what’s working for them and what isn’t (Hmmm. It seems that I’m putting my PR skills to work here by conducting research and using results to determine next steps).

Wow, in re-reading this blog, I think I have a great starting point for getting rid of the yucky feeling in the pit of my stomach and that will allow me to sleep at night. I have three things that need to happen. My next step is to assign deadlines to this list and get started. Or, as I like to tell myself, “Plan my work and work my plan.”

When these three items are completed, I will be in the position to make some decisions that will help me to have a successful year. Keep your fingers crossed!

PRism Awards honor the greatest examples of marketing-communications work throughout central Ohio, ranging from print collateral and campaign programs to digital promotional pieces and websites.

Winning Entries:

• Multifaceted Campaign-Special Events — “The Quality Institute of the Ohio Hospital Association Encourages Central Ohio Hospitals to Scrub Up!”
• Earned Placement Feature Story — “Free Trade Agreements Earn Ohio Soybean Association Media Coverage”
• Editorials/Op-ed Columns — “Ohio Oil and Gas Association Op-ed in Response to the ‘Deep Pockets’ series in The Columbus Dispatch”
• External Website — “Introducing FrazierHeiby Online”

For more than 28 years, FrazierHeiby has enhanced awareness of and improved relationships for its clients.

To learn more about the PRism Awards, visit centralohioprsa.org

The mission of CHS is to preserve, protect and promote the history of central Ohio.

FrazierHeiby will provide media-relations and social-media support for CHS tours and events throughout the city’s bicentennial year!

Learn more about CHS at columbushistory.org

Four Central Ohio PRSA PRisms

We recently had the pleasure of witnessing some of the greatest examples of marketing-communications work throughout central Ohio at the 2012 Central Ohio PRism Awards. We are honored to be among the featured examples of winning case studies. Of the four entries submitted, we received four Awards of Excellence:

•    Multifaceted Campaign-Special Events — “The Quality Institute of the Ohio Hospital Association Encourages Central Ohio Hospitals to Scrub Up!”

•    Earned Placement Feature Story — “Free Trade Agreements Earn Ohio Soybean Association Media Coverage”

•    Editorials/Op-ed Columns — “Ohio Oil and Gas Association Op-ed in Response to the ‘Deep Pockets’ series in The Columbus Dispatch”

•    External Website — “Introducing FrazierHeiby Online”

FrazierHeiby staff members Michael Iles, Denise Clark, Kathleen Anthony, Andrea Bils and Michelle Leitzy at the 2012 PRism Awards

Scioto Downs Support

The debut of Ohio’s first-to-market and only boutique gaming venue requires a significant awareness and positioning campaign to introduce and define it within its marketplace and for its audiences. We’re using strategic communications activities — driven by data gathered from focus groups — including aggressive media and community-relations and social-media and thought-leader outreach, to share information with statewide “influentials” and central and statewide Ohioans. We’re also assisting with its highly anticipated mid-June ribbon cutting and July grand opening. Learn more about Scioto Downs here.

Columbus Historical Society

Columbus Historical Society (CHS) provides free public programs, off-site exhibits, publications, elementary and adult education and a signature bus-tour series to educate visitors about historic central Ohio. As FrazierHeiby’s pro bono client for 2012, we’ll provide CHS with media-relations assistance, as well as marketing and social-media counsel to increase awareness of and attendance at its annual Fall Gala and routine bus tours. Visit columbushistory.org to learn more about CHS.

For the majority of American workers, commuting to work is just part of the daily routine — like brushing your teeth, feeding your pets or watching silly YouTube videos during work hours — it’s just something we have to do.

Commuters employ a variety of tactics to help them survive the drive to work. Some drivers choose to talk or text — oblivious to the traffic around them, while others keep themselves awake with the banter of shock jocks or listening to the news of the day on talk radio.

That’s not really my style. After copious cups of high-octane coffee and safely maneuvering yet another toddler tantrum, I need to rock out!

My morning drive is all about getting amped for the workday ahead with music that matches my driving style – loud, fast and a bit aggressive (a skill learned navigating Southern California’s drive-or-get-out-of-my-way freeways).

My morning playlist usually includes some rock and punk with maybe a smidge of SKA or Steve Earle (about as country as I’ll ever get). These days The Black Keys, Heartless Bastards, TV on the Radio, Green Day and The Clash are all in heavy rotation. I might pop in some Bowie when I’m feeling nostalgic or Nirvana when the angst is running particularly high.

By the time I pull into the FrazierHeiby parking lot, I’m ready to meet the day head on, all thanks to my morning-drive rock concert!

How do you get pumped for the workday?

The case can be made that the most challenging hour of the workweek is 8 a.m. Monday morning. After two relaxing days of being away from your desk, no matter how much you enjoy what you do, getting up early and heading to the office can be a job in and of itself. So what’s the best way to make it through that dreaded first hour? Try some of these survival tips:

Wear something nice. When taking standardized tests in school, I remember being told not to wear my favorite pair of sweats but to instead dress as if I were preparing for an interview. Dressing well boosts your confidence and keeps you more focused, as opposed to being too comfortable, which could inadvertently lead to the Monday-morning desk nap.

Go to bed early Sunday. Easier said than done, I know, but getting a good night’s sleep can make all the difference when it comes to waking early. Adults need between six and eight hours of sleep a night to feel fully rested when they get up in the morning (Now if they’d just move Mad Men to a timeslot earlier than 10 p.m. so that I can follow my own advice!).

Turn on some music. Listen to something that makes you happy! Maybe listening to rock gets you energized, or playing classical piano music in the background helps you concentrate. If you work in close quarters you may want to consider a set of headphones for the sake of your neighbors – blaring Devo may make you feel better, but chances are, not everyone will have the same reaction first thing in the morning.

Eat peppermints. This is another remnant of my standardized-testing days. Peppermint helps with concentration, so eating hard candy or chewing gum flavored with peppermint can help you focus on the work at hand. It’s also a good excuse for keeping candy at your desk.

Get some caffeine. Whether you take it in coffee, tea, Mountain Dew, or intravenously, there is no easier way to make it through a Monday than with lots and lots and lots of caffeine.

What tactics do you use to get through the first hour back to work?