When we enter into a "difficult" conversation with family, friends, and colleagues, most of us understand what we should do. Listen carefully, show respect, speak diplomatically, etc. Just about all of us, though, fall considerably short of these standards, even when we enter into a conversation with the best of intentions. We may have a vague sense of how things went off the rails, but we're...

Have you been considering dipping your toes in the water of 360 videos? I recently attended a presentation on this topic by Jenna Lebel, Head of Digital Marketing at Liberty Mutual Insurance. Here are three great tips that I learned from her experience: It often takes the viewer 5-10 seconds to get oriented to using the 360 degree view, so make sure that you wait until 15-20 seconds in for your...

Several years ago we produced a series of videos for Communities for Restorative Justice (C4RJ).  The idea behind restorative justice is that addressing certain crimes outside of the courtroom can have beneficial outcomes for all those who are affected by the crime - the victim, the perpetrator, their respective families, and the community at large. Frequently, a case is referred to C4RJ by a police...

“Grief is not an illness from which we recover. It is a life-changing event that happens to all of us.” Last week I attended a poignant memorial tribute ceremony in honor of Dr. Phyllis Silverman, hosted by her colleagues at the Brandeis Women's Studies Research Center. A prominent researcher in the field of bereavement, Phyllis was also the co-founder of The Children's Room. Her research was vast,...

We're now entering the fourth year of creating our "Smiles" videos. Above is Smiles 2016. We have a lot of fondness for the folks we work with, often because they are a great deal of fun. So it's not hard to go back through a year's footage and find plenty of nice moments to splice together and create a happy, joyful montage. Previous versions were 2015, 2014, and 2010. We hope this will make...

Through a video project with UMass Boston, I have come to learn a lot more about early childhood education and educators...much more than what I knew when I was researching places to take care of my son when he was 15 months old. What I have come to learn and understand is very disturbing to me, and I am guessing that it could also be shocking to many of you. Did you know that 37% of Massachusetts...

The first Smiles Video was in 2011. Then last year. And now 2015. It hasn't been that many years, and it hasn't been consistent, but it feels like the start of a tradition. Anyway, each time we've had a lot of fun reviewing the folks we've worked with in the previous 12 months. We hope you can share in a little of their happiness.

As a University of Michigan alum (GO BLUE!), I absolutely love this video that was sent to me a few years back. The University did such a great job of capturing shots of memorable places on campus and stringing the holiday theme throughout.  It's a perfect marriage of warm feelings for the holiday season and warm feelings about the U-M experience - all wrapped into one short yet powerful video....

I'm guilty of eavesdropping. The other night on my way back home from an event on design-driven education, I overheard a conversation on the T where a woman was saying to the young man next to her something along the lines of: “You’re not going to be making lots of money, but you are going to be doing something that you feel really good about with other people who feel the same way.” In...

October is both Domestic Violence and Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In recognition of both of those causes we offer a Throwback Thursday. First, we share one of Rachel's blog posts from last year on unexpected moments of disclosure and connection, in which she learned from two women - one a good friend, the other a business acquaintance - about their respective histories with domestic violence...