Latest news with #BenBaker
Techday NZ
30-04-2025
- Business
- Techday NZ
Vistar Media brings Adstruc OOH planning software to ANZ
Vistar Media has launched its out-of-home (OOH) planning software Adstruc in Australia and New Zealand, introducing a digital platform aimed at improving efficiency for media planners in the region. Adstruc automates traditionally time-consuming elements of OOH campaign planning, buying, and selling. The software, which has been used by agencies in the United States for nearly 15 years, is designed to streamline workflows such that media planners can save 30% or more of their time each week, according to Vistar Media's internal data. By encompassing both static and digital inventory in one platform, Vistar Media is now offering an integrated, end-to-end OOH planning solution to the ANZ market. The integration of Adstruc into Vistar's technology suite follows Vistar's acquisition of Adstruc from PJX Media in April 2024. With its expansion in Australia and New Zealand, the software is already linked with a wide network of supply partners, giving access to agencies such as IPG, Havas, Kaimera, and others to premium inventory from all major media owners in the region. Ben Baker, Managing Director, APAC at Vistar Media, commented, "The launch of Adstruc in Australia and New Zealand is a game-changer for the out-of-home industry. For too long, traditional OOH planning has been bogged down by manual processes, slowing down agencies and limiting campaign agility. Adstruc transforms that experience by streamlining planning, buying and vendor communication – which can ultimately save agencies valuable time and enable them to focus on strategy and creativity." Lucy Formosa Morgan, Managing Director at Magna, highlighted the platform's benefits for agency teams, stating, "Adstruc has modernised the way we engage with OOH. Its intuitive tools and audience-driven planning capabilities help our teams build stronger proposals, faster. The efficiency it brings allows us to deliver more responsive service to clients, and frees up time to focus on higher-value work and driving more insights and results for our clients. It's exactly the kind of innovation that helps agencies stay competitive." Adstruc offers several features to enhance OOH campaign planning. The software provides consolidated access to OOH inventory data, coupled with first and third-party audience insights, which supports alignment of campaigns with specific audience demographics, preferred locations, and client goals. This is intended to give clients greater confidence in expected return on investment. The platform enables users to automate media planning documents, presenting campaign strategies, justifications, and expected outcomes clearly for clients. It also facilitates direct vendor communication within the platform, a move expected to simplify request-for-proposal (RFP) processes and negotiations. This feature is aimed at benefiting both buyers and media owners, with quicker RFP responses and smoother transactions. Additionally, Adstruc provides a centralised repository for storing and accessing historical campaign data, insights, and best practices. This is intended to support knowledge sharing and continuity within agency teams. The platform's data-driven planning and client presentation tools are built to help agencies develop more persuasive campaigns and potentially drive increased client investment in OOH advertising. The addition of Adstruc means Vistar Media now supports both programmatic and traditional OOH planning in the ANZ market, aligning with agencies' needs for efficiency and comprehensive solutions in a rapidly evolving advertising landscape.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
GaGa ball, pickleball and hiking trails: NKY city's parks get $500K for improvements
Dayton residents can expect new ways to get out and get active this coming year as the city approved several large projects Monday that will focus on enhancing features of their community parks. Officials of the small Northern Kentucky city said in a news release they plan to invest $500,000 into two of its marquee parks: Gill Lynn Park and Sargeant Park. The investment will make way for four new pickleball courts, a new GaGa ball pit, resurfaced basketball courts, updated playground equipment, revitalized hiking trails and more. 'We are very fortunate to have seven great public parks in our city,' Baker said. 'Gil Lynn is one of our largest parks and our most active park, but it is starting to show its age, and these improvements will make it a more inviting public space for our children, our residents and our visitors.' This development coincides with the efforts of Southbank Partners, a nonprofit regional economic development organization serving the urban core of Northern Kentucky that aims to improve and add more recreational opportunities to the region. Gail Lynn Park, in particular, is one of the several parks that sits on the nonprofit's Riverfront Commons, an in-progress, 20-mile continuous multi-modal corridor that lines the south bank of the Ohio River. The first of many developments in Dayton kicked off with the addition of a highly anticipated GaGa ball pit, a fast-paced, dodgeball-style game played in an octagonal pit with walls in Gil Lynn Park. The school unveiled the $4,000 GaGa pit to students in a surprise ceremony Monday after several weeks of discussion between Mayor Ben Baker and City Administrator Jay Fossett regarding the future improvements they wanted to see at Gil Lynn Park. 'When we met with members of the student council, they provided us with a lot of good ideas about how to improve Gil Lynn Park, but construction of a GaGa pit was by far their top priority,' Baker said. Dayton's park board made many recommendations to City Council for improvements it would like to see in Gil Lynn Park, which is next to Lincoln Elementary, Dayton High School and the school district's athletic complex that is currently under construction but will be dedicated late this summer. City staff and council discussed these recommendations at its strategic planning session on Monday, according to Baker. A week prior on April 8, the Dayton City Council approved a contract to spend $111,300 to improve the pavilion, garage, bathrooms and concession stand at Gil Lynn Park and the pavilion at Sargeant Park, according to the release. Due to its proximity to the high school and elementary school, the school district and its students are often the heaviest users of the park. The schools also use the park for gym classes, recesses and special events. Other Gil Lynn Park improvements recommended by the park board and city staff are: Construction of four pickleball courts ($145,000). Replacement of playground equipment ($200,000). Resurfacing basketball courts ($40,000). The city will also turn their focus to Sargeant Park, located in the southern part of the city with over two miles of hiking trails and Covert Run creek. With these new developments, the city is also working alongside the Northern Kentucky Stream and Wetland Restoration Program at Northern Kentucky University to undertake a major stream restoration project in Sargeant Park. This program will address erosion problems caused by the creek, remove dangerous trees and incorporate other improvements to the park and its ecosystem. The stream restoration project is currently being reviewed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which approves projects such as this. When completed, these improvements are expected to be in the range of $1 million. Funding for these projects is possible due to several grants and the implementation of the city's park tax, which has seen a substantial increase in revenue in recent years due to further developments in the city. Both the city of Dayton and Dayton Independent Schools will contribute to this funding to supply and construct the playground equipment at Gil Lynn Park. Much of the existing playground equipment at the park is around 20 years old and in poor condition. 'This new GaGa pit and the other improvements the city plans to make at Gil Lynn Park means the world to these kids, especially since they had the opportunity to speak up and have their voices heard by the city administration,' said Dayton Independent Schools Superintendent Rick Wolf. 'It's important for our schools and our city to continue to work together and see what we can do to make things better for our kids.' As for Sargeant Park, Dayton invested $200,000 to construct trails and make other improvements back in 2021, which was funded by multiple grants from the Kentucky Recreational Trails (KRT) program, L'Oreal, Duke Energy and the City Park Tax Fund, according to the release. Also, in 2024, the city obtained another $120,000 grant from the KRT program to enhance the existing trails and construct new ones in the park. The project was recently completed and the improved trails were reopened to the public a couple weeks ago. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Dayton, Kentucky, pours $500K into city parks for improvements
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alabama Senate committee hears support, opposition for religious instruction bill
Ben Baker, a superintendent in Dale County, speaking to the Senate Education Policy Committee against a bill that would require school boards to adopt a policy on religious instruction on April 9, 2025, in the Alabama State House in Montgomery, Alabama. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector) The Alabama Senate Education Policy committee heard from critics and supporters of religious instruction in public schools on Wednesday. SB 278, sponsored by Sen. Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville, mirrors HB 342, sponsored by Rep. Susan DuBose, R-Hoover, which was rejected by the House Education Committee on April 2. The legislation requires local school boards to adopt a policy regarding released time religious instruction (RTRI). Alabama law already allows school boards to adopt a policy, but this legislation would mandate it. 'I just want to stress again that this is completely optional for students and requires parental consent,' Shelnutt said. 'They keep saying it takes away local control. This bill does not take away control of the local board. They have the right to make a policy and they can decide if they want to not do anything.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Ben Baker, superintendent of Dale County Schools, criticized the legislation, saying it does take away local control from school boards. 'School systems do not need more mandates. Current law leaves the decision to local school boards who are best positioned to determine whether release time instruction aligns with the needs of their community,' he said. He said the lack of a definition for 'religious instruction' causes many issues and is a threat to his Christian values. 'When it says religious, am I now going to have to release students to go and sacrifice goats and worship goats or maybe some type of satanic thing? I can't live with that,' he said. 'Public schools are not run by out of touch bureaucrats. They're run by locally elected and appointed community members.' Jennifer Riggs, a mother from Huntsville, shared her experience with LifeWise Ministry, a nonprofit that does RTRI. 'As I read about Lifewise I quickly became intrigued and convinced that this program could be the answer to meeting that long felt desire for my children, and others like mine, to have the Bible taught during their school day,' Riggs said. Riggs said she became part of a steering committee for the ministry that, according to the sample curriculum, teaches the Christian belief that 'God created all things good' to a list of virtues that the nonprofit describes as 'LifeWise qualities.' She said her local school board denied her request to have RTRI. 'We then tried to present before our superintendent and we were told no he said there were too many mandates and requirements that we could not be accommodated,' she said. Marty Griffin, a staff member at the First Baptist Church in Gulf Shores, said the Gulf Shores Superintendents Matt Akin denied the church's request for a RTRI program. A message seeking comment from Akin was left Monday afternoon. 'We believe their decision was driven by fear. Fear of if we approve this, what if this unusual situation happens,' Griffin said. 'We believe that a bill like SB 278 would alleviate that pressure from them to make that decision.' Ryan Hollingsworth, the executive director of Alabama State Superintendents Association, said RTRI will take more time away from teachers. He said it should be the parent's responsibility to teach their children about religion on their own time. 'The State Board of Education put a lot of things in place that we have to teach during the school day. All we have in the school year is 1,080 hours,' he said. 'I think if you're a parent and that's a priority then you make sure in those hours that you have, those 7,680 hours that you have them, that you make that work.' The committee did not vote on the bill, but the chair of the committee, Sen. Donnie Chesteen, R-Geneva, said the committee will take up the legislation again soon. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
I'm a big Cybertruck fan. I returned it because my daughter was worried about getting bullied.
Ben Baker returned his Cybertruck due to concerns about his daughter getting bullied. Baker's Tesla Model Y was keyed after the election and he told BI he was called a Nazi after getting the Cybertruck. He said while he believes protesting is a right, damaging property crosses the line. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ben Baker, a Tesla owner living in Sacramento, California Business Insider has verified his identity and former Cybertruck ownership. This story has been edited for length and clarity. I have been a big tech guy as far as I can remember. In my youth, I liked space, I liked the idea of SpaceX, and I liked all this stuff that Elon Musk was doing — and he seemed like a Democrat at the time. So, I was like, "Ok, this guy is awesome. He's doing all this cool stuff." I was a Democrat my whole life but it wasn't too far back that I started to see the country getting more and more divided. It just felt like there was a huge push to run to as far left as people could go and that was a real shock to me being a Democrat. So I decided to switch to being an independent. Somebody keyed my Tesla Model Y not too long ago after the election and I was like, "OK, that's no big deal." I live in California, which is a Democratic state, and so I kind of figured that there would be some of that stuff. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal until I went and bought a Cybertruck. The first week I drove the Cybertruck, I took my family to Starbucks in it. While my family went in, I took some cool pictures of it and was thinking, "This is super awesome." As I was doing that, three people walked behind me and started looking at me and laughing. Then one of them called me a Nazi. I go, "What are you talking about? I'm just buying this awesome truck. I think it's awesome. I'm not a Nazi." They were like, "Whatever, Nazi." I thought was weird. Later on, one of my daughters told me that if I kept the Cybertruck, she was going to get bullied. She said, "Dad, under no circumstances keep this." My son, who leans right, said I should be able to drive the car I want and not have to worry about what people say. But then I started thinking about if one of them is driving the Tesla Cybertruck down the road and people get out of the car and start vandalizing it in front of her or when she's driving it. My daughter is young, she's just had her license maybe a year. That's terrifying to me. I'm a father and I have to do the right thing by my kids, which is to protect them. Maybe if I had all the money in the world to own the Cybertruck myself and then send them to school with another vehicle, then great, it would be on me if it got damaged. But I can't have that happen to them in that vehicle. And who knows how far these guys will take it. They could harm my kids physically — and I couldn't live with myself if that happened. To me, it just wasn't worth seeing my daughter live in fear of the vehicle getting vandalized at their school. I ended up taking it back and Tesla was really cool about it. I was able to unwind everything. I feel like protesting has always been the American way. I think people should have the right to protest — but they should have the right to protest without destruction. That's where the lines have been crossed. Nothing that's happening right now is logical at all. It's all emotionally driven and ideologically cultivated. My kids are afraid of taking this nice vehicle that's fast, awesome, and cool and saves on gas. It's probably great for the environment. It's a lot of money to invest in a vehicle and to buy one of these Cybertrucks, and I grew up from nothing. My mom was a single mother on government assistance so I had to work super hard to get where I'm at. What's worse is that I'm a huge fan of this technology. I really want a Cybertruck. I think they're freaking awesome. They're really fun to drive. They're roomy and spacious. I wasn't buying it for other people. I already own a Tesla which I absolutely love, but I was buying the Cybertruck for me because I wanted to drive the future. I thought this was the land of the free, but this doesn't sound like freedom at all to me. When you start going down a pathway of saying, "This is what we think you should believe, and if you don't believe this, then we're going to come at you and we're going to take away what you've earned." That sounds like something else — and it doesn't sound good. I don't think that hate and division are the way forward for this country or the world. As long as we keep doing that and trying to put people into boxes and categorize them and label them, that's just going to create more division and hate and it's super unfair. We have got to find a way forward together that brings back basic human decency but also common sense so that we cheer for American companies to grow and thrive and help our pensions, versus cheering for the fall of an American company. Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Newton County-based lawmaker chairs Missouri's Committee on Government Efficiency
MISSOURI (KSNF/KODE) — Government efficiency has been making headlines since Inauguration Day, when President Trump established 'DOGE' by executive order to modernize federal technology and software. A Newton County-based lawmaker is at the head of similar efforts in Missouri. Representative Ben Baker announced his appointment to chair the Committee on Government Efficiency on January 23. COGE has a number of bills on its slate, concerning how SNAP recipients can spend their benefits, unemployment compensation, pay for teachers and school administrators, vehicle inspection and registration, building permits, and funding for the departments of conservation and transportation. The 20-member committee's primary job is to look for ways to reduce state spending and red tape. 'Even a state like ours that has a balanced budget amendment, we can't spend more money than we take in, but there's a lot of waste in places where if we had better processes I think it would make for more efficient government, which translates to less money, and regulation, and time for our citizens,' said Rep. Ben Baker, (R-MO) District 160 / Government Efficiency Committee Chair. The Missouri State Senate has its own government efficiency committee. It launched a 'Government Efficiency Portal' in February, where the public is encouraged to report duplication, waste, and inefficiency for the committee to review. As for COGE, the committee's next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday at noon. You can visit the livestream here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
