About Soapbox
Soapbox tells the new Cincinnati story — a narrative of creative people and businesses, new development, cool places to live, and the best places to work and play.
The web site and weekly e-zine are published Tuesdays. Get Soapbox free in your e-mailbox each week by signing up here.
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A brief history of the The Soapbox crew:
Publisher: Dacia Snider
Dacia is unabashedly proud to call Cincinnati home. The northeastern Ohio native’s passion for the city was apparent in her four years at
Downtown Cincinnati Inc., where she produced the annual Downtown Tour of Living and the State of Downtown Cincinnati reports. In January 2008, she jumped at the opportunity to take that passion region-wide with the launch of
Soapbox. A former host on the local radio show, City Talk, Dacia was named a 2007 YWCA Rising Star and to the 2006 Forty Under 40 class by the Cincinnati Business Courier. In her spare time, Dacia co-chairs the
Urban Renaissance Action Team for Agenda 360, southwest Ohio’s regional civic agenda with the mission to transform Cincinnati USA, by the year 2020, into a leading metropolitan region for talent, jobs and economic opportunity for all who call the region home. Dacia and her husband are raising their two children in one of their favorite Cincinnati neighborhoods, Westwood, and are continually seeking more avenues for exposing their children to all this great city has to offer.
Managing Editor: Jeff Syroney
When not serving as an editor for hip start-up online magazines, Jeff Syroney spends his days as a Market Research Specialist for Ipsos Understanding Unlimited, an international market research firm. In a previous life, Jeff spent the last 15 years working in the non-profit sector, most recently as the Executive Director of InkTank, an award winning writing and literacy center. Jeff is also the founding board president of Cincinnati Experimental Arts, the umbrella organization that produced the successful Cincinnati Fringe Festival. He sits on the boards of Know Theatre of Cincinnati, InkTank, and Enjoy The Arts as well as numerous other committees. In 2005 he was awarded the "Defender of Literacy" award by the Society of Professional Journalism as well as The Business Courier's Forty under 40 Award. In 2006, he was voted CityBeat's best Arts Director in Cincinnati and was accepted into the Cincinnati Chamber's prestigious inaugural C-Change Class for young professional leadership. A native of Cleveland, Jeff's roots have been firmly transplanted into the Cincinnati region after his December wedding to his very funny wife, Katie Rankin Syroney.
Managing Photographer: Scott Beseler
Scott, an award-winning photographer, resides on the rivers' edge just south of the Roebling Bridge in Covington, Ky, in what he describes is his New York style dream loft, minus New York. In 2001, he graduated from Indiana University of Bloomington with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Journalism. As a freelance photographer for most of his career, Mr. Beseler considers his photographic influence to be that of the photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson and writer Hunter S. Thompson. This style comparable to the Gonzo style of journalism, combines Scott’s own captured vision of exaggeration, subjectiveness and heightened perception of reality, while capturing the moment without interrupting it. Pure joy for Scott is any opportunity to photograph friends, music, art, and global culture. Scott is thankful for his humble and notable roots in Cincinnati. Contributors of his professional portfolio include City Beat, The Cincinnati Opera, Jean Robert de Cavel Restaurant Group, The Art Academy of Cincinnati, Bang Nightclub, Cincinnati Art Museum and The Academy Award Show of 2005. To see more work from the days and nights of Scott, go to TakeTheDay.com.
Development News: Kevin LeMaster
Kevin was born in Cincinnati, tried a few other cities, and was eventually drawn back home. At an early age, he was known to draw his own maps, which his teachers laminated. From these early beginnings blossomed a love of cities, urban form, architecture and exploration. When not studying and writing about the many exciting developments going on in the region, he can usually be found traveling the city with a camera in hand. He also enjoys following local sports, hearing live music, reading nonfiction books and watching any television show about rehabbing houses. Kevin has worked within the local real estate market and is currently an administrator for Urban Ohio and the publisher of the web site Building Cincinnati.
Innovation & Job News Editor: Jonathan DeHart
Before returning to Cincinnati last year, Jonathan could be found in the board rooms of Tokyo, where he spent three years teaching young Japanese professionals the ways of the West and answering pertinent questions like whether or not he could stomach traditional Japanese staples, such as fermented soy bean paste. After three years of cross-cultural immersion, Jonathan returned to Cincinnati with a renewed perspective on things this side of the pond. This is a good thing, considering the huge presence of international business and cross-cultural contact inundating Cincinnati. With this global perspective, Jonathan is determined to keep his ties to the wider world, while shedding light on the diversity and exciting developments happening in our own backyard. When not exploring innovative developments on the professional and cultural fronts, Jonathan is an avid reader, foreign language learner, music aficionado, dabbler on the drums and reluctant jogger.
Chief Advocate & Instigator:
Eric Avner
During the day, Eric oversees economic development grantmaking for the Haile/U.S. Bank Foundation. Prior to that, he was Associate Director of the Cincinnati Business Committee, that venerable group of CEOs representing Cincinnati's 30 largest employers. And prior to that, while guiding Newport's downtown revitalization, he led the effort to create the Purple People Bridge. Most importantly, Eric spent 16 months meeting, discussing, planning, and plotting to get Soapbox launched. Now, when he's not occupying a barstool at JeanRo Bistro downtown, Eric keeps busy in board leadership roles for the
Cincinnati Development Fund and
Enjoy-the-Arts, and is co-chairing the Next Decade Capital Campaign for the
Know Theatre. A boomerang Cincinnatian (he lived here in the late '70s, left, and returned to town in 1996), Eric also takes pride in his dual US/Canadian citizenship, eh. Eric and his wife now reside in bucolic Walnut Hills after several years in a downtown loft.
Soapbox is published by Detroit-based Issue Media Group.
Operations and Media Contact: Deepa Ramsinghani
Web Site and E-Newsletter Technology: Matt Lehman and Mark Walz, Fluent Consulting
Web Site Design: Son Tran, Pitch Black Media
Also check out Issue Media Group's other fine publications: