Earlier this year Rob Simmelkjaer — who ran for 2nd Selectman in 2017 — left his corporate gig with NBC Sports and News to pursue a personal mission.
His goal: Develop a multimedia platform giving people the tools to create and discover great interviews and conversations. His company is called Persona.
Rob Simmelkjaer
Though national in scope, its rollout begins locally this month, with a custom interview service. Today, Rob and I are excited to announce a collaboration: the “06880 Persona of the Week.”
Each week, Rob or a Persona colleague will interview an interesting member of the community. Topics and interview subjects will be varied and unlimited, from local movers and shakers to those doing amazing things well beyond our borders.
Each interview will give “06880” readers a chance to meet a neighbor, and see the amazing things that happen when people sit down to chat.
With elections looming, we decided to start with a sprint.
Between now and Election Day we’ll post interviews with each of the Republican and Democratic candidates for the Boards of Education and Finance. These non-partisan interviews will give voters a chance to get to know the candidates, and encourage Westporters to vote.
We start with the Democratic candidate for re-election to the Board of Finance, Sheri Gordon. Tomorrow: Republican Board of Education candidate Vik Muktavaram.
More candidate videos will follow, in the coming days. After the election, this feature will become an actual “Persona of the Week.”
Dan – this is a great new venue for 06880 and I really look forward to how this develops and evolves. If you and Rob can pull off what no other media outlet seems to have achieved – a non-biased and objective communication platform – I think it will have a really positive impact on Westport’s democratic process and engagement. You have created a open and mostly respectful discussion forum with 06880 and this should expand that core mission. Thank you for pushing the 06880 community into a new frontier.
Oh, so this is an advertisement for an for-profit company. – Chris Woods
I enjoyed the first interview and look forward to seeing the others between now and Election Day. As a relatively new WP resident, getting to know our elected officials -especially those up for election- in such a convenient fashion is so much better than an article or flyer in the mail.
Thanks
Rob-congrats in getting the business started. It looks exciting and a great addition to social media. Wish you lots of success!!!!
Bart Shuldman
This is great. Im a big fan of him and his blog in service to our Westport community.
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This is a powerful way to share interactive discussions and get to know citizens in our community especially those seeking political and community leadership.