Bold what?

Another Bold Fusion has come and gone. The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber's symposium for young professionals left me with all sorts of random thoughts and observations. So here we go.

Jim Borgman's keynote address, built around political cartoons from his award-winning career at the Enquirer, was a homerun. I'm still star-struck by Jim, even though I've worked at the Enquirer for eight years and see him doing things us common folk do, such as fetching his LaRosa's delivery from the lobby. In his remarks, he joked that someone his age should be attending "Bald Fusion."

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Speaking of the name Bold Fusion, does anyone know what that's supposed to mean? Me neither. Sounds like the name of new razor from Gillette.

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I moderated a panel discussion on the media. I'm always shocked when people get on the press for being too negative. First of all, it isn't true. Positive stories are all over the place. The point that needs to be made here is that the Fourth Estate has a responsibility to tell the truth, and it's not always pretty. (I'm stepping off the soapbox now.)

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The panel discussions were driven by questions from attendees. The day's other moderator, Ink Tank's Jeff Syroney, cracked me up when he said to the audience, "and please - make sure your question is a smart question." I wish I would have said that.

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Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory was on Jeff's panel, the topic of which was "Image Makers and Shapers." In fielding a question about light rail, the mayor said his office is about to unveil "the Cadillac plan" for improving public transportation here. I was surprised that wasn't mentioned in the stories I saw the next day about Bold Fusion.

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Finally, if the attendees were in charge, smoking would be banned in public places, including bars and restaurants. This survey response surprised me a bit. Seems like a ton of young people are smoking when I go out. Maybe they were all out
of the room getting a nicotine fix when the question was being asked.