We have settled on a "class project" for our fellow group at the Alliance. And we had a very interesting discussion around it. We presented it as assisting cities with marketing themselves. The idea is to create a toolkit of resources that enable cities to tout their achievements with their constituencies. This launched a discussion about the difference between marketing and citizen engagement. To our grownup colleagues marketing is a rather nefarious thing. The idea that marketing is the selling of something false to an unsuspecting public. Whereas, they felt, citizen engagement was bringing people into something real and good. It was interesting because to us, "youngins", they are one in the same. Marketing or pr or whatever you call it is a necessary thing. It is not just important for governments to do a ing well but to tell the world that they doing it. To take credit for what they're doing well. In this media market that is a vital part of doing the job. Doing it publicly. Nothing negative about that but it was interesting to see the difference in perspective and the generational opinions on media and marketing. Food for thought.