Hope Katz Gibbs, president & founder, The Inkandescent Group, LLC
Journalist, publicist, author, and entrepreneur Hope Katz Gibbs started her career as a newspaper and magazine reporter after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986. Then, after studying for her master’s degree in educational leadership at The George Washington University, she launched her freelance writing business in 1993.
Gibbs has won several awards for feature and column writing for her articles, which have appeared in The Washington Post, USA Today, The Miami Herald, Costco Connection, and dozens of business, education, and general interest magazines, newspapers, newsletters, blogs, and websites.
Gibbs got into the PR business in 2001, when she founded Great Handmade Gifts, an online art and craft website that represented artists, artisans, and authors from around the world. In 2002, she began a decade-long stint working as the director of communications for the City of Fairfax Schools, and in 2006 added another client to her list, the international futurist think tank, Social Technologies.
In 2008, she incorporated as The Inkandescent Group, LLC, and since then has helped increase the visibility and credibility of more than 100 entrepreneurs, educators, authors, and small-business owners through the services she offers.
Gibbs’ mission: To promote, educate, and inspire entrepreneurs.
The Inkandescent Group’s services include:
- Inkandescent Public Relations: A PR, media relations, marketing, website development, graphic design, and publishing company, www.InkandescentPR.com.
- Be Inkandescent magazine: A monthly business publication for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs, gets more than 500,000 hits/month, www.BeInkandescent.com.
- InkandescentNetworking.com: A go-to website that lists great networking events from NYC to Miami, and profiles the professionals, artists, and authors in each city, www.InkandescentNetworking.com.
- Inkandescent Speakers Bureau: This agency is comprised of the most knowledgeable business experts, been-there-done-that entrepreneurs, corporate and government leaders, veteran educators, and visionary futurists. With wit and a sense of humor, they offer best practices and insights into the hottest trends in business, and organizational, professional, and personal development through corporate keynotes, workshops, seminars, webinars, lunch-and-learns, and networking events, www.InkandescentSpeakers.com.
- The Inkandescent Radio Show: “What’s your story?” is the question host Hope Gibbs asks of the high-level entrepreneurs, business leaders, government execs, and business specialists that she interviews on this weekly podcast show on the Entrepreneur Podcast Network, www.inkandescentradio.com.
- Truly Amazing Women, LLC: With nearly 200 women profiled since 2008, this organization honors, connects, and promotes the women who are making strides and changing lives. How are you amazing? www.trulyamazingwomen.com.
For more information, send Gibbs an email at hope@inkandescentpr.com
Blog by Hope Gibbs
http://theparentdiaries.blogspot.com
Hope Gibbs’ blog, The Parent Diaries features weekly articles about issues that impact parents and kids.
From how children responded and perceived the 2008 Presidential election to helicopter parenting and the obsession of teen text messaging, Hope tries to tackle current and interesting topics.
The blog will ultimately become a book, “How to help your child succeed — without going insane,” which will be published in 2009.
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By Hope Katz Gibbs, Managing Editor
Change)Waves newsletter
Client: Social Technologies
Topic: The Future of Virtual Worlds
Book review: Making Money in the Metaverse
In addition to working as the managing editor of this quarterly newsletter for the futurist research and consulting firm Social Technologies, also wrote several articles in each issue including this book review of “Making Money in the Metaverse,” by Daniel Terdiman.
What is the metaverse? Read more
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by Hope Katz Gibbs
Editor / City School Close-Up
Photos by Steve Barrett
Design by Michael Gibbs
Cover Story, May-June 2007
INSIGHTS INTO EDUCATION: K-12—THE FOUNDATION YEARS
What students need to know by the end of kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade
Since 2002, writer Hope Gibbs, designer Michael Gibbs, and photographer Steve Barrett have been creating the City Schools Close-Up newsletter, a publication that circulates to 14,000 residents and business owners in the City of Fairfax, Virginia.
The information in Close-Up helped pass a $86 million bond to rebuild Lanier Middle School and Fairfax High, and also has won six awards to date from the National School Public Relations Association.
For more, visit www.fairfaxva.gov/school/CloseUp.asp
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Newsletter by Hope Katz Gibbs with Peter Noonan
Design by Michael Gibbs
Fairfax County Public Schools
Summer 2008: AHEAD OF THE CURVE
Read this issue of INSIDE
This newsletter is a quarterly publication for Peter Noonan, assistant superintendent of instructional services at Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS). Its mission is to share thoughts and ideas about curriculum and assessment that are fundamental to the work that principals and teachers are doing to improve student achievement.
This first issue, entitled “Staying Ahead of the Curve,” was published in the summer of 2008. It focused on how three FCPS principals adopted strategies from the cutting-edge book on assessment (by the same name) edited by education expert Douglas Reeves.
“The 268-page hardback, published last year by Solution Tree, features essays by a dozen authors who I consider to be the greatest minds in assessment,” says Noonan, who selected three chapters to have his principals focus on.
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WEBSITE — DC Health Summit / Golden & Cohen
Click image for larger view Illustration and design by Michael Gibbs
Website coding / database by Max Kukoy
Writing / Concept by Hope Katz Gibbs
About the DC Health Summit
On October 29, 2008, more than 100 guests were part of an exciting discussion about the role that health promotion and worksite wellness programs play within the workplace — and the potential that such programs have on the direct and indirect costs associated with health and productivity.
“For the first time, leaders from the health insurance industry, hospital administrators, physicians, politicians and corporate leaders gathered to discuss the future of health care in the U.S.,” says Stephanie Cohen, owner of the health benefits company Golden & Cohen, who is hosting the 2008 DC Health Summit.
“My goal was to open a discussion about how increasing workplace wellness can impact health care costs,” she explains. “Although this is only one aspect of the debate on the future of health care, it is a start to what I hope will be a continuing dialog between policymakers, doctors, insurance companies, doctors and the business community. I hope every business leader and health care professional we invite has the opportunity to attend this important event.”
The keynote speaker was workplace wellness expert Dr. Steven Aldana, who talked about how corporate wellness programs can positively impact a company’s bottom line.
Following him was Barack Obama spokeswoman Melinda Beeuwkes Buntin Ph.D., who shared key points of the Obama / Biden health care plan with the audience.
The attention turned to an all-star health care panel including Virginia Senator George Barker, Kaiser Permanente’s Director of Population Care Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, Neurosurgeon Dr. James Melisi, the National Rehabilitation Hospital’s VP Dr. Paul Rao, Maryland’s former Insurance Commissioner Al Redmer, and UnitedHealthcare COO Dr. Sanford Cohen.
The event was moderated by futurist Andy Hines, director of customer projects at the futurist research and consulting firm Social Technologies.
Website — Freelance writer Hope Katz Gibbs
Click image for larger view Illustration and design by Michael Gibbs
Website coding / database by Max Kukoy
Writing / Concept by Hope Katz Gibbs
About freelance writer Hope Katz Gibbs
“I wanted to be a writer since I was 8 years old,” says journalist Hope Katz Gibbs, a freelance writer who made her dream come true. “As a kid I always loved to write poems and short stories. Then one day my dad read something I had written for him and said, ‘boy honey, you really have a talent for this.’ That support was all it took to set me on my path.”
After graduating from the Annenberg School of communications at the University of Pennsylvania in 1986, Hope worked on the staff of a handful of publications (including working as an assistant editor / writer at The Miami Herald and an associate editor / writer at New Miami magazine).
In 1991, she went back to grad school for a degree in educational leadership at The George Washington University, and upon finishing launched her freelance career. Her articles appeared in The Washington Post, USA Today, The Washington Times, Crystal City magazine, Global Business magazine, and dozens of other business, education, alumni, and general interest publications.
March 15, 2007, Washington, DC — “There has perhaps never been a time in human history when strategic foresight is more needed,” says futurist Andy Hines in the introduction to his new book, Thinking about the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight (Social Technologies, February 2007).
Precious little guidance is available for executives, analysts, and educators seeking the best way to plan and prepare for the future. That is why Hines and co-editor Peter Bishop put together the 231-page paperback, which distills the expertise of 36 world-renowned futurists into an easily scannable guidebook.
What is strategic foresight?
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