From The Horse's Mouth

This week my wife and I are exhibiting at Macworld in San Francisco, California at Booth 312. If you are attending, please visit with us – you won’t be disappointed. You might wonder what product are we displaying at Macworld?

If you have followed Apollo, you will have noticed a few changes over the last three years. We have started a few additional companies and several departments at Apollo and Blue Pony have all contributed in launching these companies. We now have four companies that are somewhat interrelated, as they use a lot of shared resources. To many this might seem a little confusing. To me this is a wonderful creative formula that feeds off each other. We can mix and match ideas based on each company’s needs. We can test ideas in one area and apply them in another. Since Apollo is a 20 year old company there is a little more resistance for big changes but changes tested and proven with a startup is low risk.

An example of this is a classifieds site we started, jasperdaily.com. I was always disappointed by Craigslist in the graphic layout and user interface. We decided to test overseas programmers, (continue reading…)

I want to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas Holiday. I know for Keersten and me it is our opportunity to step away from the day-to-day routine and reflect on all our blessings over the last year. Also, a time to spend with family and friends.  Most important for us is the celebration of Christ’s birth over 2000 years ago.

Here is a link of the Christmas story for you to enjoy Luke 2:1-38
http://www.esvbible.org/Luke+2.1-38/

We are proud to announce the appointment of Jeffrey Mateer as Sales Director over the inside and outside sales team. Mateer’s depth of product knowledge and industry experience makes him an ideal choice for this position. As Sales Director, Jeff will work with his team in the day to day operations as well as continue to grow Apollo’s long-term customer relationships and cultivate new opportunities.

Mateer brings more than 30 years of industry experience to Apollo. Highlights of his career include general manager positions at Light and Sound Design, PRG, Light Source, Inc. and most recently as Product Manager at Apollo. Mr. Mateer holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University, Long Beach.

Congratulations on your new position!

Apollo is introducing a free classified ads site to the lighting industry.  Apollo is known for our customer service in the entertainment lighting industry, so to take that one step further we have created a site that will help you sell unwanted product in your warehouse. Users will be able to search and post used equipment from this classifieds site.  When naming this site we had several suggestions and we would like your help in choosing the name of the site. Please go to the right hand side of the blog to vote!

Apollo will be closed Thursday and Friday to celebrate Thanksgiving.  This allows employees an opportunity to put on some winter weight helping survive the cold Indiana winters. Get your orders in early and make them big

Congratulations to the Blue Pony team for a record sales month in October. They have done some incredible work on big projects and their ability to grow and deliver day in and day out has been impressive. The projects for the month included a job for Hawker Beechcraft on a military variety of the King Air line of planes. Great job everyone!! Visit them at www.bluepony.com

Joel Nichols

Today we celebrate Veterans Day.  On behalf of all of Apollo’s staff we take this day to thank all who have served and presently serve our country.  We honor those who have fallen while serving our country.  Here is a brief history of Veterans day from the website history.com

Joel Nichols

The Great War & Armistice Day

Though the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, November 11 remained in the public imagination as the date that marked the end of the Great War. In November 1918, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day. The day’s observation included parades and public gatherings, as well as a brief pause in business activities at 11 a.m. On November 11, 1921, an unidentified American soldier killed in the war was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.; the U.S. Congress had declared the day a legal federal holiday in honor of all those who participated in the war. On the same day, unidentified soldiers were laid to rest at Westminster Abbey in London and at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

On June 4, 1926, Congress passed a resolution that the “recurring anniversary of [November 11, 1918] should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations” and that the president should issue (continue reading…)

Packaging is an important part of marketing your product. When the Gobo Green marketing campaign was started we looked at our packaging and how it could be “greener” and be used as a tool for storage. Recently we started looking at some gel pieces laying around and began playing with packaging ideas. With the gel packaging you could re-use the gel sheet we sent the gobo in. Our test gel packaging squares were 6 1/4″.  What are your thoughts on this? Would you re-use the sheets of gel? Do you currently use the plastic sleeves as a storage tool? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

It is easy for companies and artists to get wrapped up in just taking care of today’s needs and forget about why they do what they do. It is easy to loose our passion when we feel like things are not going well. When I talk to dealers they worry about retaining the clients they have and keeping costs under control. Many bids for events are done on very low margins with rental stock gathering too much dust. Here is a great video that will make you rethink your perceptions about business and how to present and sell your products and yourself. Have a great weekend.