It Ain’t an April Fools’ Joke
Bogus news is an April Fools’ tradition. And every year, many of us still fall for the joke.
Take me for instance. You would have thought “Gullible” was my middle name this morning driving to work, listening to the radio D.J. rattle off the top, local headlines.
“FGCU installs wet bars in all of their dorm rooms today.” What?! Awesome! But why would the university do that? That encourages drinking. Isn’t that illegal?
“A five-year-old boy swims to Cuba.” Really! Wow, I can’t even swim a quarter-mile. Why would he choose Cuba to swim to?
And moments later, I hear, “Ha… April Fools!” Ugh!!
So I thought it was ironic that on a day when rumors and bogus news run amuck, our company and new partner Microsoft announce HUGE news!! A project the companies have been working on for nearly a year, and today, the announcement comes to fruition.
In a nutshell, Microsoft launched an online community, Public Sector Idea Bank, developed with Neighborhood America. The Idea Bank features several solutions Microsoft announced today and serves as a central collaboration vehicle for Microsoft, its partners and public sector customers to interact, discover new solutions and share ideas for new tool development.
This is HUGE because it’s a living example of what a company… any company, or government entity, can do to capture those amazing ideas that can revolutionize a business… an industry… a nation. And of course, the Idea Bank utilizes our newest product REVEAL (which we also announced today) to make it happen. That’s no joke!!
In the job that I do for Neighborhood America, what selfishly comes to mind is: How does this help strength our story?
Like the Oasis song (okay, dating myself here, but great 90’s song!)… What’s the story morning glory?
Some story elements are obvious… it’s MICROSOFT for Pete’s sake, but I would love to know how you would tell this story. What elements would you highlight? How do you envision the story between a software giant and… now, now I’m stopping there… I’ll continue sharing my thoughts in my next post.
