Last week was the end of summer picnic at Hamilton County Business Center. (Yes, how cool is that - we have company picnics now!) Parked in the lot behind the grill was the prototype vehicle for Digitize-n-Organize. Of course Jennifer and I were drawn like moths to a flame, and were treated to a personal tour by co-founder Ted Rudolph.

From an oversized shell, the Scan-n-Van has been converted into a studio on wheels. It is outfitted with thousands of dollars worth of state-of-the-art computer and scanning equipment, complete with boxes for sorting photos, clippings and memorabilia. Jacks of many trades, Ted, an electrical engineer, wired the van to support the hardware and Stephen, a graphic and web designer, created the eye-catching exterior look. The concept of Digitize 'n Organize is to bring the scanning to you. Rather than send your photos away to India or turning them over to the local camera shop, you can have Ted and Stephen come to your door, park their van in your driveway and scan your items without ever taking them off your property. In addition to photos and documents they can digitize your old slides, negatives, scrapbooks, even videos. (Videos are taken off-site due to the extended time required to convert these.) You hand them a box of photos; they return a disk with organized digital files, complete with meta-tags.

We knew right away that there would be many areas in which we can partner. And much to our delight, Ted and Stephen are far from your stereotypical techno-geeks. Bright, personable and passionate they are truly on a mission to preserve people's photos, movies, slides and important papers in digital form. And the most synchronous aspect of all of this - they are in Suite 412, literally across the hall from us. Do you believe it yet? It's clearly time for people to get digitized! 

Stay tuned for announcements of collaborations and joint ventures as Beyond the Trees and Digitize-n-Organize prepare to save and preserve the memories of Cincinnatians, one house at a time.