David Henderson’s Blog

Pictures of Jon….

Jonathan Henderson Lives

Technorati Tags: beating cancer, Boulder, Conor O’Neills, Henderson Brothers Band, Jon Henderson, Jonathan Henderson, RMCCF, Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers Foundation

Where everybody knows your name
Local musician Jon Henderson leaves a powerful legacy
by Gene Ira Katz

Jon Henderson loved Conor O’Neills. He drank there. He played music there. And he made a lot of friends. As Jon’s brother David says, “That was his Cheers.”

Jon moved to Boulder nine years ago, shortly after he was diagnosed with cancer. The doctors gave him six months to live at that time, but Jon had never been too good about following orders. He was an artist and an optimist, and he was determined to live by his own rules. For almost a decade, he proved the medical world wrong and earned a loyal group of supporters along the way.

During his last visit to Conor O’Neills, Jon finished his final beer, said goodbye to friends and walked out to the parking lot. Minutes later, he had a seizure and slipped into a coma. The paramedics and police rushed to the scene, but they could not revive him. Jon Henderson passed away on Thursday, April 24. He was just 49 years old.

It was a sad conclusion to an inspirational story, but perhaps an appropriate one. “All of his community came out of Conor’s,” says David. “If you would have said, ‘Jon, write the script for the ending,’ that would have been right about where he would have written it.”

Fittingly, there is a celebration of Jon’s life scheduled for Saturday, May 31, at Conor O’Neills, featuring a number of local bands and including a fund-raiser for the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center Foundation (RMCCF). Folks from all over the country are expected to come, even with other memorial events on Jon’s behalf set for Atlanta and San Diego.

Many people knew Jon as a local musician and businessman, but few are aware that he left behind a promising career in television and marketing in Atlanta when he relocated to Boulder so that his family could help him with his fight against cancer. His father, David Sr., was a media pioneer who started out working for Westinghouse Broadcasting, handling talent, producing shows, and eventually winding up as president of a station group. He also helped build Outlet Broadcasting into one of the top media companies in the country.

“Our father was a very skilled, well-respected executive in the field,” explains Jon’s brother. “Growing up as kids, we had a great time. We could go down to the TV station and hang out, and we were on some shows in the early ’60s. Later on he got into the production business, and we’d watch them do the Mike Douglas Show and the David Frost Show. That’s how Jon kind of got into TV.”

Jon first worked at a station while he was still in high school in Providence, R.I., producing TV shows and commercials, then he went on to get a degree in communications at San Diego State, graduating in 1981. After that, he went up to Los Angeles and worked for Norman Lear on Archie Bunker’s Place. “He wanted to be a writer and producer of TV shows,” recalls David. “He was trying to sell program ideas to the networks. Then after about five years, he kind of got burned out on that business, which is very cut-throat and competitive in L.A.” When his dad opened a new station in Atlanta, Jon relocated there to run sales promotion for WATL for a couple of years before starting his own unique media marketing company, Henderson-Shapiro. “That’s what he was doing full time up until 1999 when we discovered, very shockingly, that he had colon cancer.”

“He was an extremely intuitive businessman, and a very charismatic kind of guy,” says Jon’s business partner Debbi Shapiro. “He could walk into a room and completely command the attention of everyone there. He was invincible. Probably people in Boulder didn’t see this side of Jon, because he was already sick when he moved there.”

Henderson-Shapiro provided promotions, marketing and media consulting for a wide variety of clients, such as Six Flags, Marriott, the Falcons, the Braves and numerous hospitality firms. But Shapiro points to the 1996 Olympics as a major highlight, when they were tapped by Atlanta-based Coca-Cola to handle promotions for the Olympic City.

Starting in 1993 with just the two of them, the company currently employs a staff of 23.

“I think they should know that Jon was a make-it-happen type of guy,” says Shapiro. “He was also hilarious. He had a great sense of humor. I’ll definitely miss that. I’m carrying on this legacy that he left. This company we started 15 years ago, it’s still here, and we’re supporting 23 families.”

Bridget Fisher, who manages Conor O’Neill’s remembers Jon showing up shortly after the pub first opened. “He was funny,” she says. “Very sarcastic.” Over time Jon established himself as a fixture at Conor’s, handling all the music booking, as well as promotional events like the St. Patrick’s Day festivities. He even helped with a marketing plan when the bar decided to expand to other locations. Jon also began holding annual Beating Cancer benefits, raising thousands of dollars over the past four years. “He was such an inspiration to me, and I think to anyone who has known him. A lot of people, when they’re diagnosed with cancer, they just sort of give up. But he fought it out, he kept going to treatment, and in the process, did all these events to raise money for the RMCCF. And he always supported local music — just truly unbelievable. He said, ‘I’m going to live to the fullest. I’m not going to let it get me down.’”

His oncologist for eight years, Dr. Allen Cohn, concurs. “Jon was a true inspiration on how to live with cancer. He lived his life to the fullest, and he didn’t let his treatments or his predicament really affect his life. He knew he had to go on with the cancer and deal with it.” Cohn also points out that Jon participated in numerous research trials to find new treatments for cancer. “He was very supportive of clinical research. He was a big advocate for that. I think the reason he did as well for as long as he did with his cancer was because of his participation in clinical trials.” The doctor also mentions Jon’s documentary project, The Big C, designed to help people who need to navigate their battle with cancer. “We’re going to work with his brother and his family to help get that out because it will help a lot of patients with their cancer experience. But also, it’ll be a true legacy for Jon, and I think he would have wanted it that way.” Cohn adds, “I miss him as a patient, but I certainly miss him as a friend, as well.”

David says The Big C project was close to his brother’s heart. “He got the bug to do a cancer project. He wanted to work on something that would leverage all his skills in producing, music, film, performing and songwriting. He wanted to leave a legacy to help other cancer victims who were suffering the same fate that he went through… all the personal and family issues that come up when you’re dealing with chemo, and how that’s going to change your lifestyle.” Jon spent a year on The Big C, pulling in a lot of Boulder recording people to work on it. After completing the production, he was in the process of trying to develop widespread marketing of the DVD, which is currently available on the Internet. “There were many projects that he was working at the time of his death,” says David, counting a film and a plan to build an analog recording studio, among others. “We’d like to try to continue as many of them as possible.”

One thing that surely will continue is the annual Beating Cancer fundraiser in July. Conor O’Neill’s is committed to it, as well as so many others who knew Jon. “The last nine years were really the best years of his life,” remarks David. “And he had cancer during those years. The relationships he had touched people’s lives and emotions. He inspired a lot of people.”

On the Bill:
A memorial event for Jon Henderson will be held on Saturday, May 31, all day long at Conor O’Neill’s, 1922 13th St., Boulder, 303-449-1922, featuring live music from local bands, including the Henderson Brothers.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Jon’s name to the RMCCF, www.rmccf.org.

Thank you so much Katz for this wonderful piece on my brother Jon. Jon’s memory and light live on…….

Technorati Tags: Conor O’Neills, Jon Henderson, Jonathan Henderson, Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers Foundation, puppy, RMCCF

Gin, Television, and Social Surplus

This is something that people in the media world don’t understand. Media in the 20th century was run as a single race–consumption. How much can we produce? How much can you consume? Can we produce more and you’ll consume more? And the answer to that question has generally been yes. But media is actually a triathlon, it ’s three different events. People like to consume, but they also like to produce, and they like to share.

Although experiencing this via a liner video is somewhat ironic, you must stop what you’re doing right now and watch this video.

From now on, that’s what I’m going to tell them: We’re looking for the mouse. We’re going to look at every place that a reader or a listener or a viewer or a user has been locked out, has been served up passive or a fixed or a canned experience, and ask ourselves, “If we carve out a little bit of the cognitive surplus and deploy it here, could we make a good thing happen?” And I’m betting the answer is yes.

Wow, I’ve been writing about consumer attention scarcity up here the past few years. Clay talks about this concept of cognitive surplus which at the end of the day is reallocated attention from pure consumption to a consume, produce, and share model.

Just like in the Matrix where there is no spoon, in the mass media matrix there is no mouse.

Technorati Tags: Attention, Clay Shirky
Clay Shirky
Clay Shirky, cognitive surplus, Media 2.0, mouse, TV

Dude, I’m plugged into all my lifestreams.

Help!

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Alert Thingy, snitter, socialthing, twhirl, twitterlocal

Technorati Tags: targeting, Twitter, Twitterfiic

This is the new New Media… Social Media = Authentic Social Engagement = Authentic Influence.

Marketers and brands wanna market here? Well Advertising campaigns need to shift to Socializing campaigns. Advertising Agencies need to evolve to Socializing Agencies. Marketing mix needs to shift from content sponsored broadcast channels to implicit/ explicit social streams. Time with media has already shifted for 70 million Gen Yers. Billions of marking dollars will follow this behavioral shift over the next 10 years. We’ve seen this shift happen before!

Here’s where we’re heading…..

Sweet!

Technorati Tags: Authentic Influence, Community, Conversation, Social Media

I noticed Mike Arrington, one of my casual Facebook friends (I don’t know Mike that well), in my newsfeed today pitching Blockbuster subscriptions and the movie Cloverfield. Go figure.. I guess Mike needs some more revenue streams.

Clicks over to here - sign me up - is there a TechCrunch discount?

Looks like my privacy is well secured here, but what about about Mike’s? Does he even know he’s in this ad in my newsfeed and whoever else’s newsfeed? And…. what’s Mike’s cut $$$ if it’s his influence that influences me to signup for Blockbuster?

Wow great idea. Take one of the blogosphere’s most influentials, out of my friendslist, and use his reputation, influence, and celebrity status to get me to signup for Blockbuster.

Except Mike is the tech startup blogger extraordinaire. If he suggested to me to go check out this startup, I’d be there in a minute. I am there in a minute anyway because I read Techcrunch every day. But, what does any of that have to do with Blockbuster and movie rentals? Startups and movies?

So let me get this straight. Blockbuster pays Facebook for the ad placement, uses Mike’s photo and FB attentionstream to entice me to click on the ad, Mike doesn’t directly know his reputation and FB attentionstream are being used or how many times, and FB takes 100% revenue for this transaction be it click or action.

Do I have that right? Seems like FB should cut the influencer in on this transaction since they’re leveraging influencer data, influence and reputation. Then it would make more sense. SocialSense - there now you have the name. It would also create a definitive ad influence metric.

One more thing, shouldn’t the ad category match the influencer’s influence category?
Later……

Please follow me on twitter, my conversation has moved over there….

Technorati Tags: attentionstreams, Blockbuster, Cloverfield, Facebook, influence, Mike Arrington, SocialSense, SocialAds

Walt’s obstacles to Internet as replacement for TV

1> Doesn’t easily connect to the TV
2> Consumer resistance to ads
3> US is a 3rd World Broadband Nation

#1> My friend Scott Converse has an interesting solution for this one.

#2> Is not exclusive to TV. Pick a site any site and find me a relevant non-intrusive ad. The Internet has not solved this yet either. Ok maybe a google search ad - that is certainly as relevant as it gets.

#3> Is a huge problem with International competitive consequences. Are our MSOs and Carriers in a position to solve our International digital divide challenge?

Technorati Tags: TV, Walt Mossberg

What are these guys a thinking? A conversationless group?

Facebook (contact info indicates) creates a group to gain support for banning all app invites with absolutely no conversation features - no wall - no discussions. So what do these 1M members think about this issue? We’ll never know. I’m sure FB platform developers are thrilled with this!

Technorati Tags: Facebook Developers, Facebook Group, Facebook Platform

Facebook Users Revolt Against CBS Sports, It’s March Madness!:

………..Whatever the case, users are going mad about this application and the developers aren’t too happy. The argument is that if Facebook will provide premium spots for advertising certain applications, they should provide all applications with the same opportunity. Additionally, if media companies can pay for custom ad placement and application promotions this is in direct competition to application developers that already provide such services for clients. Where does Facebook draw the line when it comes to custom app promotions?

3/19/08 - I suspect this is only the beginning….?

More on this from TC…..
Is Facebook Playing Favorites With App Developers?

3/20/08 - Even more on this by Nick O’Neill….

CBS Sports Granted 100 Invites Per Day

A few days ago I posted about users revolting against CBS Sports and their March Madness application. Well today the controversy hit the fan. A post to the Facebook developers forum brought up a interesting thing that took place today. Suddenly, the CBS Sports bracket was granted 100 invites per day. This is at least 5 times the volume typically granted to the average application.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, March Madness