 Hello everybody. Welcome back to 15 Minutes. Today I have with me Sergio Angelis who is the Executive Director of Longmont Public Media or LPM as you'll probably hear it called in this interview. And we're here today to talk about LPM's contributions to our community and what public amenities like LPM really do for Longmont. Sergio, how are you today? I'm doing well. Thank you for having me on 15 minutes. Marcia, I really appreciate it. You're welcome. Can you tell everybody a little bit about what Longmont Public Media is? Sure, absolutely. Here's the short pitch. So Longmont Public Media is a media maker space and a content incubator. So we run a facility in downtown Longmont full of studios, podcast rooms, video equipment, video editing rooms, live streaming, audio production studios for people to come in, learn about media, create media, and then we assist them in distributing that media on public access channels over the internet, on Roku, Fire TV, anywhere in the world. You can watch content being produced by local content creators. Wow. So I have heard technology incubators and startup incubators. I've never heard of a content incubator before. Can you tell me what that means? I do, yes. So it's more of a recent phenomenon due to platforms like TikTok, Spotify, platforms that allow content creators to distribute content. So what they've done is created a platform to help encourage individuals to create more content. So I like to think of Longmont Public Media as a content incubator. It's a place for people to learn about content, learn how to create that content, come up with ideas, brainstorm with other individuals, which is part of the community around town, and then just experiment. It's really part of the funnel, in my opinion, of creating content and then doing it and then distributing it. So can anybody come and do this? Do you have to pay for it? What's the story? No. So we're a 501c3 nonprofit. So we're open to the public in nine to five Monday through Friday. So anyone can come in. They can reserve a studio. They can reserve a computer. They can reserve a live streaming machine and equipment to use absolutely for free. We do have some paid memberships starting at 50 bucks all the way to $100. And that's so you can get additional perks. So you can get 247 access for equipment rentals. You can get discounts on classes. And again, really just a way to support your local media makerspace so it can be here past me and for my children and all the people's children as well. Yeah. So not unlike public television or public radio, except that you get to be much more hands-on. Correct. Yes. Yeah. So here you actually get to learn about how do you produce that type of media, the other photography, it could be video, live streaming, audio. We'll teach you. We have other members and community members who love doing this. And we really just create a community place for people to come together to help make stuff happen and help create that content locally. Yeah. I'll have to admit that I am a fan of Long Run Public Media and kind of help to, I hang out but I don't help much. That's not true at all. This is some content now, right? We're creating content now. But in terms of the technology, I sort of con other people into doing all the tech work. And I just talk. Well, that's part of the makerspace though, right? Is a plaza, so to speak, of individuals with different types of skills and you mash them together or mash them up together and say, hey, let's create something. It's in this case, right? I mean, if you don't have a certain skill, we can bring in people to help. And I think we have a really great community and a lot of content creators and filmmakers that want to help other individuals create that content. We do. I think that one of the best things about LPM is that there are so many different interesting people from different walks of life who come here. So it's not all guys from the AV club in high school or anything like that. And it's a lot of people are, we have one very professional photographer. We have an art videographer who's just recently started coming, I think, and is fascinating in terms of, you guys, when you're watching this, you can figure out who we are, who you are, you'll know. But yeah, it's really a way for people to meet each other and maybe meet people that they wouldn't meet anywhere else. And I think talking about what you had started off the show with, talking about public amenities, one of the public amenities I find very important cities are plazas, right? It's just an open place for people to just meet other people, sit, read, whatever you want to do, right? So I kind of view LPM as another type of community plaza, more just enclosed, maybe more focused towards a specific subject, but still an amenity that is available for individuals, people who already know how to do any type of media production or those that don't. And I think it's just incredibly important for a city to have. I think so too. Longmont is, I think, at least the way I see it, is in a process of transitioning. You know, 15 years ago, we were a farm town. And then in the 90s and aughts, we grew up into a suburb. And now we've sort of filled the available suburban space. And we're going to have to grow up again into a more dense urban environment if we're going to continue to develop our economy and continue to be a really pleasant place to live. Right. Excuse me. And I think Longmont Public Media is a big contributor to making this a pleasant place to live. Yeah. I mean, I would say I'm partially biased since I co-founded and I run LPM, but I would agree with that sentiment. I would also say I think there's a variety of other public amenities created by the local government, as well as other, I would say private amenities, but mostly just, I use that word simply because they're owned or started by someone else, but still available for the community to use. You have Tinker Mill, which is another type of maker space, more focus on more hands-on kilns and 3D printers and all that kind of stuff. I mean, you also have bars and restaurants and Union Reservoir, and then you have some more natural resource amenities, right? Like the Greenways. The Greenways. The trails. Yeah. So, yeah. And actually, that's one of the more recent, I think, public amenities on the same brand Greenway. And people can go tubing. And I'm a frequent user of that. And I think that's just excellent. I bet. And I think we should have more of those type of, you know, both public and private amenities to encourage more people to go out and about and just make LaMonte an even better place to live. Well, I hope so. I think that it's one of the things that's really necessary as the urban environment goes denser. And we start, more of us live in townhouses and apartments rather than, you know, a suburbian form factor where the streets are wide and winding and all the houses have big old yards. And the thing is, we're out of land. And so public and private amenities are one of the things that makes it good and pleasant for us to all live close together. Right. Yeah. I actually live on the east side of LaMonte and right by where I live in a condo and right by where I live, uh, there's two empty fields, one that says future school, future park. And from what I know, it's just been empty for years. And whenever I walk by there, I always just think of, Hey, maybe we could build something else here because there's nothing else by where I live. I can walk to Walmart over on 119 in Kemprat, or I can walk to Pace and 17th. But that's really it. There's nothing really else nearby. And yeah, I'm thinking more of, you know, maybe restaurants or bars, but maybe it's a community garden. Maybe, maybe it's a smaller maker space. Maybe it's a branch of a library. Right. Just something else to help encourage, you know, our local neighborhood to just get out, meet new people. You know, again, that plaza feel to help make LaMonte better. Yeah, that's what's really interesting. That future park was actually slated to be finished in 2015. And what happened if you're new to LaMonte, you may not be aware that in 2013, we had a massive flood. And a lot of our outdoor amenities were taken out by the flood because, you know, we have the left hand creek and the St. Rain River flowing through the city. And all of that, especially on the south side, the high waters came and washed out a lot of that stuff. And so resources for the city that would have been finishing the parks on the periphery got diverted into rebuilding things that were destroyed by the flood. You know, a mobile home park was completely taken out and washed away by that flood. And the city really had to scramble to rehouse all the people whose homes were destroyed. So here we are in almost a decade later. And the future park is still in the future. Maybe it should be a future plaza. Instead. Although the kids that ride dirt bikes... Oh, I don't see them anymore. And maybe they all grew up. You know, the first year I was on the city council, they did that. You know, they built all those dirt hills and stuff themselves. And they were all, you know, 14, 15, maybe. So yeah, maybe they all grew up and went to college and got jobs or something. And they don't do that anymore. That's kind of sad. But yeah. So the place that Longmont public media is located is downtown Longmont in a Longmont creative district, which means that there is a little tax support, a tiny bit of tax support for supporting things that are involved with the arts. And that tends to make downtown areas more interesting. Right. So what are some of the things you can think of that LPM can participate in because they happen downtown? I mean, really all sorts of, you know, downtown events. I mean, we host a couple concerts every month, one of them which is Sampo Sessions. So we turn the studio into an intimate concert venue that's run by Tim Goldsrud, who's simply incredible and just bringing more people outside to experience, you know, arts. Of course, you know, LPM is used for recording those events and helping distribute that content to other people in case it can't make you downtown. Hey, you know, there's another way to catch up on what happened. So yeah, I think LPM is very integral in all of that. Yeah, there's this idea that I'm still part of everything, even if I couldn't get downtown, which is really nice. You know, you can see LPM on Facebook and all of that. There's another aspect which is sort of the civic engagement of the thing. Can you explain what Longmont's relationship is with the city and publicizing the operations of the city of Longmont? Sure. Yeah, so part of what Longmont Public Media does as well is obviously broadcasting, recording all city council meetings, boards and commission meetings, which ties back into Longmont Public Media being a source of information and distributing that information. So we really try to make it all that content as accessible as possible. So when we do record a city council meeting, it goes on Facebook, it goes on YouTube, it goes on video on demand. And more recently, we started putting them up as podcasts. And surprisingly, we have a lot of people that just listen to it in audio form, right? They don't want to just have to be there in front of a TV or maybe in person. They want to be able to listen to it, digest it in their own time. And that's what people are used to doing now. So I really do like to, I believe that we're pretty integral in distributing some of the information from the city as much as we can help out with that. You know, I have lived a lot of places and Longmont is honestly the first place that I've seen this much civic engagement. A lot of people, including me, I have to say guilty, guilty, guilty. You know, I didn't know how the offerings of the city of St. Louis worked. And I'm not sure I ever voted in municipal elections. You know, shame on me. But it really is wonderful how much people know about what's going on. Well, I think part of that is lowering the barrier to entry, right, and making it accessible to everyone. That's right. And that's part of also what we do. Yeah, even during the pandemic, you, I should say, really did a lot toward enabling people to not only still watch the council meetings, but to still be able to address the council. That was a shared responsibility. But, wow, that's quite a range of activities. We should mention classes and then I think we're going to run out of time. Yeah, so again, since we're in makerspace, part of our mission is to educate individuals on media creation. So we do have a variety of different classes ranging from video production, photography, how to print prints in our printers. We're working on classes on audio production. And really any type of equipment that we have there, we teach individuals on how to do that. We also teach on live streaming. So really, trying to just encompass the whole breadth of what you can do from a media perspective. Because again, we want to power individuals to create and then distribute that content. Sure. And, you know, I think what I would like to say is everybody come on down. Yeah. Because and make sure that at the time you have more than 15 minutes because you can spend a lot of time. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. If any of you watching or interested in media production or learning about media, maybe it's a TikTok video or learning about how to live stream or maybe it's a video for your business or photography or audio, just come on down. We love to help you out and see you there. Okay. Well, thanks, Sergio. This has been really interesting and thank you for your contribution to amenitizing Longmont. Well, thank you. I'm honored to be doing that. So thank you. You're welcome.