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Shares in bikes-to-car parts retailer Halfords plunged 8.5 per cent yesterday after Tesco announced it had poached chief executive Matt Davies to head up its UK and Ireland business.
The former Pets at Home boss was hired in 2012 to lead a turnaround of the tired chain, which had issued nine profit warnings in the two years before his arrival.
Shares have since risen by more than 50 per cent as Davies revamped the retailer’s website, retrained staff, revamped stores and ramped up its cycling accessories ranges. Profits jumped 11 per cent in its first half to 26 September.
His move came as a surprise, but was welcomed by the City. Peel Hunt’s John Stevenson said: “We see Matt as an emotive retail leader, who understands how to merchandise a store, motivate staff and how to deliver what customers are looking for.
“Certainly, the strong retail board Matt has built around him will be able to carry on the recovery programme, but a loss nonetheless,” he said.
Davies is expected to leave Halfords in May and start his new job at Tesco on 1 June.


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WELCOME TO The ACCOUNT BASED MARKETING REPORT
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Momentum ITSMA | October 25, 2022
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BOSTON, MA – Oct 25, 2022 – Leap, the advisory arm of Revenue Marketing consultancy Demand Spring today released ‘Read More
Premise | November 24, 2021
Premise, the platform that democratizes how actionable data is sourced and used, acquired Native, a pioneer in market research, on November 12th, 2021. Like Premise, Native leverages the global gig economy to connect those who have questions that locals can provide answers to by capturing the data they need.
"The market for a signal that cuts through the noise is significant," said Drew Drake, VP, Strategic Investments at SAP, a Native investor. "Native has built a ...
Terminus | March 23, 2020
Terminus bring a host of updates on its offerings, positioning itself as the most complete B2B marketing solution available.
Terminus aims to make full-funnel marketing easier, smarter and more impactful through a single platform.
ZoomInfo | September 02, 2022
ZoomInfo (NASDAQ: ZI), a global leader in modern go-to-market software, data, and intelligence, announced that it now delivers insights into the technology solutions used by more than 30 million companies, allowing customers to more accurately target their sales and marketing campaigns.
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BUDAPEST, Hungary—Hankook Tire Co. Ltd. is going ahead with the third phase expansion of its plant in Racalmas, Hungary, committing $400 million over two years to boost capacity for car and light truck tires by 42 percent.
This latest announcement will boost the South Korea firm's investment in the plant to more than $1.1 billion since first announcing plans to build the plant in October 2005.
The expansion will boost annual capacity to 17 million tires, Hankook said, and create 950 additional jobs at the plant in central Hungary, south of Budapest. Work on the project will start next month, with initial production expected to begin by mid-2014 before reaching full capacity in 2015.
"As a key investor in Hungary and an important market player in the European automotive industry, we will continue to explore opportunities to meet the growing demand of our consumers, offering state-of-the-art tire technologies," said Seung Hwa Suh, Hankook vice chairman and CEO of Hankook Tire.
The plant opened in 2007 with an initial annual capacity of 6 million tires. Output reached 9 million in 2011 and last year grew to 12 million, Hankook said. Employment stands at about 2,200.
Passenger radials, especially high-performance, account for the majority of the plant's output, Hankook said. The plant produces tires to original equipment contracts for Volkswagen Group and Hyundai-Kia, with further OE contracts being negotiated, Hankook said.


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ZOAKS Weekly Summary from the Latest News #79
Week 1, July 2022
“Innovation is more likely to come from a person who sits down and does the same thing every single day until they become an expert than from a person who sits down once because they feel inspired.” -Stacy Caprio
● Back in April, the well-known billionaire Elon Musk announced that he would buy Twitter in a $44 billion deal. However, the deal was put on hold a month later after a number of controversies. Now Elon Musk seems to have officially backed out of the Twitter deal, as he has formally notified the company that he will no longer acquire it.
● With iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, Apple has added a number of improvements to the Mail app to bring it in line with competing email apps. The Mail app includes search updates, an undo send option, and tools for getting reminders about emails that you need to follow up on, plus more.
● As reported earlier this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook is attending the Sun Valley Conference this week in Idaho, often referred to as a “summer camp for billionaires.” Rivian founder and CEO R.J. Scaringe is also in attendance at Sun Valley this year, and he brought along two Rivian EVs with him: the R1T electric pickup truck and the R1S electric SUV.
● With the latest Shazam update, Apple’s music recognition feature can now sync across devices with the same Apple ID. Found in the iPhone’s Control Center, music recognition makes it easier than ever for users to keep track of their music discovery history.
● We’re less than three months away from the announcement of Apple’s iPhone 14 lineup. We expect the iPhone 14 to be introduced in September of 2022, and rumors suggest we could see a redesign, the biggest camera update in years, and more. Head below as we round up all of the iPhone 14 rumors so far.
● The new Apple Maps detail has rolled out to three more countries and territories, making 16 in total. Apple began the process of creating its own mapping data from the ground up back in 2018, and the latest expansion covers France, Monaco, and New Zealand. The new map data offers significantly more detail in both 2D and 3D representations, with the greatest difference seen in buildings of particular significance.
● A USB-C iPhone may have once seemed impossible, but the latest rumors suggest it’s actually coming sooner than you may think. Amid regulatory pushback and limitations of the Lightning connector, the first USB-C iPhone could be released as soon as 2023. Head below for the latest details on what we know so far.
● iOS 16 brings some new features to Apple Pay, such as a payment API for CarPlay apps, order tracking in the Wallet app, and even Apple Pay Later. However, it seems that Apple has been working on some other changes as iOS 16 beta 3 hints at support for virtual cards in Safari for online shopping.
● iOS 16 beta 3 and iPadOS 16 beta 3 are here, and they include some further updates and changes to new features first announced at WWDC last month. Head below as we round up everything new in iOS 16 beta 3 and iPadOS 16 beta 3.
● macOS 13 Ventura beta 3 is finally available to developers. After a couple of weeks since the second seed of this upcoming operating system for the Mac was released, Apple is making available a new build to developers to keep testing what’s next for the company’s computers. Here’s everything new with it.
● Apple just update the firmware on the new Siri Remote. Announced alongside the second-generation Apple TV 4K, the remote is available when purchasing an Apple TV HD or by itself. Here’s what we know about this update.
● AirPods Max 2 is far from being a reality, but rumors and patents can show the direction Apple could take in a new generation of its premium headphone. The company has just been granted a patent that shows what the AirPods Max case could look like in a new iteration.
● While at an after-hours event at Disneyland, actress Hannah Rose May received a Find My notification on her iPhone. With this notification, May found there was an AirTag tracking her at “The Happiest Place on Earth” for two hours. She took to Twitter to share her experience.
● A couple of months after lowering the estimated price for most of its products, Apple is dropping once again trade-in value for the iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. This time, iPhone models are also seeing their trade-in value going down, which means you’ll get less when trading in them for a new product by the company.
● Mark Zuckerberg’s company Meta last year launched “Novi,” a new digital wallet with support for cryptocurrencies. However, it seems that the project didn’t work out so well as Meta has now announced that it will discontinue and shut down Novi in the coming months.
● Apple is set to release AirPods Pro 2 in 2022. This new generation is rumored to bring a new design, innovative Lossless support, as well as fitness sensors for the first time. Head below as we round up the latest rumors about this product.
● WhatsApp for iOS is working on yet another long-requested feature from its users — the ability to hide the Online status from everyone. This function will come in a future update, and it’s already in development. Here’s a preview of this feature and what to expect from it.
● Spotify has been investing more and more in podcasts, and now the company wants to make it even easier for anyone to share their own podcast on the platform. Starting in New Zealand, Spotify is adding a new podcast creation tool to its mobile app.
● The Biden Administration has announced the recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom for this year. Included among the list of 17 recipients is the late Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs. The award will be posthumously presented to Jobs next week on July 7.


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2020 has been the year of adapting and adjusting. Every business has been affected by COVID-19 in one way or another, and while dealership service departments are basically back to pre-pandemic levels of volume and revenue, it’s hardly business as usual.
Adjustments to the way we approach service have expedited the popularity of pickup and delivery initiatives, enhanced flexibility, and put a focus on used car service retention. Not surprisingly, it’s all anchored by augmented safety procedures.
All signs point to these changing service department value props and strategies being more than just temporary. They will certainly be a big part of service department success for the remainder of 2020, and likely stick around for years to come….
Pickup and Delivery Provides Unmatched Convenience
“Curbside” service is in vogue these days, and dealership service departments have jumped on board in a big way.
Vehicle pickup and delivery is perhaps the most notable and significant shift in the way service departments are doing business during the pandemic. And while it’s not a new concept, COVID-19 has certainly accelerated its adoption at dealerships across the country.
Pickup and delivery is essentially just as it sounds. Instead of customers bringing their vehicle to the service department, the service department comes to the customers. Appointment-based over the phone or through an app at most dealerships, customers simply schedule a day and time, and the dealership valet program does the rest.
Coming to the customer’s home or workplace to get the vehicle, taking it in for service, and returning when finished—these types of programs are now extremely popular.
A win-win in every sense, pickup and delivery has allowed fixed ops directors to keep their bays busy while mitigating potential health risks to their employees. From the customer perspective, they’re avoiding the risk altogether by sitting in their home or office instead of a crowded waiting room (dealership service departments have very strict sanitation policies for pickup and delivery vehicles).
Dealer valet service was already a valued customer amenity.
Pandemic or not, pickup and delivery is likely here to stay. In DriveSure’s Dealership Service and Retention Report released earlier this year, “vehicle pickup/delivery” was already ranked the fourth most valuable dealership service department amenity by customers.
The survey was conducted just prior to the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. and even then nearly 40% of respondents found value in pickup and delivery. Today, it’s likely to be an amenity front runner for the vast majority of dealership service department customers.
Increased Attention and Flexibility
It’s not just the streamlined curbside valet that’s keeping rush hour log jams out of dealer service departments these days.
Many locations are seeing more business—but at a much more manageable volume. With a large portion of the population working from home, the added work-life balance has allowed for more flexibility as it relates to customers bringing their vehicles in for service.
It’s not all early morning drop-offs and late day pick-ups anymore. And with the traditional “rushes” no longer as pronounced, everyone from department managers to service advisors to techs and cashiers now have less stress and more time.
Quality of work and customer service are more important than ever.
Things becoming more fluid and flexible could be great news for those needing to implement a more intentional approach to providing an exceptional customer experience. And there will never be a better and more important time to focus on customer initiatives.
Because when dealership service customers were surveyed by DriveSure earlier this year, they cited “quality of work” and “quality of customer service” as two of the top factors driving them to and away from dealers for service.
“Quality of work, quality of customer service…are the top factors driving customers into dealerships and top factors that could drive them away.”
This will only become more crucial for service departments as value propositions continue to evolve and customer peace of mind becomes the biggest commodity of all.
Customer Safety, Comfort, and Peace of Mind
Speaking of peace of mind, you’d be hard pressed to find a dealer service department that hasn’t put a spotlight on health and cleanliness.
While effective sanitization procedures should be nothing new for dealership service departments, increasing those efforts has now become a differentiator and a value add. More and more facilities are opting to become certified PrecisionCare retailers, providing extra-safe on-site conditions to customers with disinfectants EPA-approved and registered for use against COVID-19.
Taking every precaution outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with dealership facilities, vehicles, and employees, cleaning crews have increased protocols to align with all EPA recommendations. Vehicles are completely sanitized after any human contact, and of course social distancing between guests and team members is enforced.
In essence, similar to most other businesses, value propositions have inevitably shifted to promote the safety and well-being of every customer and employee.
Used Car Service Retention
The pandemic shut down factories for many months which resulted in fewer new vehicles on lots. Production still hasn’t caught up to fully replenish the supply, and as a result, many dealerships today are selling more used cars than new.
This is especially important for dealership service departments who have historically had a difficult time getting used car buyers to return for their first appointment. With the increase in used car sales—and because used cars typically mean more immediate parts and service revenue—the sales to service handoff for used car customers is now critical in retaining and building a long-term customer relationship.
Above and Beyond Dealerships Have a Clear Advantage
If there’s one takeaway, it’s this: service departments who are already positioned as “experts” will continue to have a competitive advantage, even as their value props change amidst COVID.
Those who offer additional programs that ensure high-quality service and extraordinary customer care will continue to be seen as the gold standard. In fact, dealerships who are going above and beyond, particularly with their pickup and delivery options are already seeing smoother workflows as well as increased:
- Customer satisfaction
- Retention rates
- Profits from higher-dollar repair orders
- Technician labor hours sold
To learn more about the things you can do to ensure you’re providing value to your customers, get your full copy of the 2020 Dealership Service Retention Report here.
The 2020 Dealership Service Retention Report
INSIGHTS FROM NEARLY 2,000 DEALERSHIP CUSTOMERS
Learn why customers choose to return to their dealership for service and why they don’t. Plus, we reveal your biggest opportunities for encouraging customer loyalty.


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Jaden and Willow Smith — the celebutot’s of film/TV star Will Smith and his actress wife Jada — are definitely pretty stylin’ — so it’s no surprise that they’re angling to score their own clothing line!
Jaden, the cute-as-a-button 12-year-old who stars in the new remake of The Karate Kid, and nine-year-old sister Willow, have been working with Rihanna’s stylist Mariel Haenn, who dishes that The Smith Clan hopes to land a clothing deal for the tweens.
“We make an effort to give Willow her own style, so as not to be a mini-version of Rihanna, but Willow really knows what she likes and what she doesn’t like, and she’s vocal about it,” Mariel says. “[Their mom Jada Pinkett-Smith] said upfront that she didn’t want us to dress them like standard kids, like with Sesame Street t-shirts. And the kids really like dressing as adults and hope that adults will want to dress like them.”
She adds: “But Jada will put her foot down if there’s something she doesn’t like, though if the kids really love it, she’ll usually let it pass.”
We love it how Mariel has given Willow her own brand of edgy Rihanna-type style – but she still looks like a cute, age-appropriate nine-year-old. Miley and Noah Cyrus, take notes!
“With Rihanna, pretty soon after she came on the scene, you started seeing designers from Forever 21 to Gucci coming out with styles mimicking her look. We hope the same thing happens here, but I think the ultimate goal is for Willow and Jaden to have their own line.”
- Willow Smith Teen Vogue Interview March 2011
- Willow Smith Shares Style Secrets With Teen Vogue Magazine
- Lady GaGa plans to launch her own clothing line
- Amy Winehouse confirms launch of her own clothing line
- Michael Jackson clothing line?! Seriously?!


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Game Time: FDA Releases Review Timeline Goals Set By MDUFA V
This exclusive infographic shows new review timelines the FDA announced for FY 2023 now that MDUFA V has been ratified.
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Digital Health Roundup: HIMSS, Cardio Conversations, ChatGPT And New FDA Guidances
In this month’s Digital Health Roundup, Medtech Insight’s Marion Webb discusses how two medtech CEOs are and aren’t using ChatGPT in their businesses while Reed Miller talks about his “Cardio Conversations” podcast interviews with Quentin Blackford, CEO of iRhythm, and Rob Krummen, CEO of Vektor Medical. Washington, DC-based reporter Hannah Daniel reviews highlights from the HIMSS conference and the latest updates on FDA guidances.


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GoMovies targeting anime pirates with a separate anime streaming site
GoMovies, formerly known as 123movies, is a popular and most-used streaming site with amazing features that has over millions of users.
This site allows you to watch and download movies and TV series online for free.
Now, GoMovies site, which is operating from the Gostream.is domain name, have launched a new sister site ‘Animehub’ that targets anime ‘pirates.’
Currently, Animehub.to is promoted on GoMovies and the site’s operators are looking to convert it into the leading streaming site for anime content.
Also Read- Best Websites To Watch Anime Online
Apparently, GoMovies received numerous requests from users to add anime content to their site that prompted them to open a different site for anime, sources associated with GoMovies informed TorrentFreak.
According to an insider, GoMovies owners are looking to attract more visitors through their separate anime site, reported TorrentFreak.
By opening a different site for anime content, not only will it be able to rank better in search engines but also allow operators to cater specifically to the anime audience, with anime specific categories and release schedules.
While this new initiative is certainly good news for anime pirates, but not for anime copyright holders. However, GoMovies is not new to legal pressure.
In March this year, the US Ambassador to Vietnam called on the local Government to criminally prosecute the people behind 123movies, the previous iteration of the site, to protect intellectual property on the Internet.
In addition, the MPAA reported the site to the US Government in its recent overview of notorious pirate sites.
Basically, the way GoMovies is going it appears that it has no intention of slowing down or changing its course. In fact, there is a possibility of yet another rebranding on the cards, reports TorrentFreak.


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THE latest crop of new Liverpool entrepreneurs were hailed last night by Liverpool John Moores University, one of the UK’s top 10 for business start-ups.
Six winners were revealed at Parr Street Studio’s new Studio 2 facility in JMU’s second annual Graduate Entrepreneurs Awards which recognise students’ achievements and the help of local firms in turning their ideas into reality.
The awards are part of JMU’s Student Enterprise programme launched in 2003 which has seen graduates create 75 companies, with a further 1,800 students attending workshops on setting up their own businesses.
Jon Barrett, JMU’s director of commercial and enterprise development, said: “We have a strong track record for establishing new businesses and this illustrates both the university’s commercial awareness and the strength of our links with local businesses.”
Outlining plans for new business development next year JMU entrepreneurship champion Emma Hunter added: “In 2008 JMU supported the creation of 30 new ventures and we are on target to create an additional 35 new companies next year.
“The support from those in business is essential, giving the start-up companies the necessary guidance...”
The Young Enterprise Volunteer of the Year was Julia Emelogu. Guilt-Edged Clothing boss Matthew Blanchard won the Start-up of the Year award with its ‘socially-conscious’ clothing brand.
Barry Piorkowski CORRECT won the Best Use of LJMU’s Business Start-up Support award for his ‘strike trainer,’ a martial arts training and fitness device.
The Innovation award was won by Kayleigh and Talia Baccino for their Trendy Vend machine selling cosmetics and beauty products.
Alumnus Entrepreneur of the Year was Paul Corcoran, co-founder of Liverpool’s Agent Marketing who supports entrepreneurial projects.
The Special Award for Outstanding Contribution to Supporting LJMU’s Entrepreneurship Activities went to Gerry Kelleher, the university’s former Pro-Vice Chancellor for Delivery.


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Taiwan’s Mr Brown coffee shutters stores
Taiwanese cafe chain Mr Brown coffee has shuttered eight outlets in Taipei due to falling customer demand, among other factors.
The closures include a sizeable store in central Tamsui that will cease trading later this month. Employees at the affected outlets have been reassigned, with others leaving the firm.There have been no reported mass layoffs of staff.
A representative from Mr Brown coffee, which is a subsidiary of King Car Group, confirmed that falling sales as well as rental costs in some cases influenced the decision to close the stores. Another two outlets may also be closed in the near future. Rising competition in the sector may have played a part in the shift in consumer demand.
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- Why is Victoria Secret closing?
- Who founded Zara?
- Is Zara going to reopen?
- Why is Zara so cheap?
- Is H and M sustainable?
- Is H and M closing down?
- Is Zara owned by H&M?
- Why is Zara closing?
- Why is Starbucks closing 150 stores?
- Is there a Zara in Galway?
- What divided H&M?
- Does H and M have student discount?
- Is H&M still collecting clothes?
- How many H&M stores are in Ireland?
- Is Zara closing in Ireland?
- Does H&M still take old clothes 2020?
- What does H&M do with recycled clothes?
- Does Madonna own H&M?
- What does H & M mean?
- Is Banana Republic closing in Canada?
Why is Victoria Secret closing?
Parent company L Brands said Wednesday it will permanently close 250 Victoria’s Secret and PINK stores across the U.S.
and Canada as major retailers across the world suffer because of the coronavirus pandemic..
Who founded Zara?
Amancio OrtegaThe first Zara store opens After 12 years of making textiles, Amancio Ortega, founder of Inditex, opens the business’s first store in A Coruña.
Is Zara going to reopen?
Alongside all non-essential retailers, Zara has been allowed to reopen after Boris Johnson’s revealed plan to slowly return life back to normal. Zara has announced that they have opened “most” of their stores and urge customers to check online before showing up to their local branch.
Why is Zara so cheap?
The company that owns Zara, Inditex, also owns the factories that the clothing is produced in. To keep their prices down, they hire cheap labor and use lower quality materials so that they can produce clothing relatively inexpensively.
Is H and M sustainable?
Environmental Impact H&M also uses some eco-friendly materials like organic cotton and recycled polyester in some products. The brand was also among the first to stock a ‘Conscious’ sustainable fashion collection in its stores. … For these reasons, we give H&M a score of ‘It’s A Start’ for the environment.
Is H and M closing down?
Fashion giant H&M said it is closing 250 of its stores globally next year as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to accelerate a major switch to online shopping. … By the end of the last quarter, around 166 H&M stores around the world remained shut, the group said today.
Is Zara owned by H&M?
Hennes & Mauritz, the Swedish company behind H&M, Monki and Weekday, and Spain-based Inditex (owner of Zara and Massimo Dutti) are both seeing the benefits of decisions taken last year to trim their networks of physical stores and throw more resources into online sales.
Why is Zara closing?
Zara is the latest fashion brand to start closing retail stores across the globe due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has kept many shops closed since mid-March.
Why is Starbucks closing 150 stores?
“Every year we open many new stores, we close some and renovate/relocate a few others,” the company said in a statement. … Last year, the company had announced that they were closing over 150 stores across the United States, due to “underperformance” but Starbucks says that these instances are unrelated.
Is there a Zara in Galway?
An untouched-by-time quaintness made the shop a favourite among tourists and the shop, its owners and their dogs became a Galway institution. …
What divided H&M?
Divided: For the young, fun, and carefree. Divided is often considered a sort of “juniors” line, only because their sizes run even smaller than everyday pieces. Divided is full of bright colors, crazy patterns, and trendy pieces.
Does H and M have student discount?
Students score extra savings as an H&M Member! Join our loyalty program and get 10% off your first purchase on top of your 15% off UNiDAYS discount. You’ll also receive exciting perks and rewards just for shopping. The best part?
Is H&M still collecting clothes?
H&M works with a global recycling company called I:CO, which picks up donated clothes from H&M stores and takes them to sorting plants around the world. Garments collected in the US land in California. … But only 5 to 10 percent of collected clothing is recycled into fibers that ultimately make new clothes.
How many H&M stores are in Ireland?
14 storesH&M has 14 stores in the Republic of Ireland and four in the Northern Ireland. In 2018, the clothing retailer expects to close 170 shops and open a total of 390 new ones, the biggest number of store closures since at least 1998.
Is Zara closing in Ireland?
Coronavirus in Ireland – Fashion giant Zara announce shutdown of 1,200 stores after profits plummet due to Covid-19.
Does H&M still take old clothes 2020?
All textiles are welcome – any brand, any condition – even odd socks, worn-out T-shirts and old sheets. The textiles are then sent to the nearest recycling plant, where they’re sorted by hand. For every bag of textiles you drop off, you’ll receive a discount card for 15% off your next in-store purchase.
What does H&M do with recycled clothes?
The Looop machine dissemble old clothing, shreds it, turns it into yarn, which then is used to make new clothing. … In 2013, H&M launched a global garment collecting program in all of its stores and has set a goal of having all clothing sold in its stores be made from recycled or sustainably sourced materials by 2030.
Does Madonna own H&M?
American entertainer Madonna has produced four fashion brands, beginning with a clothing range for fashion store H&M in March 2007.
What does H & M mean?
Hennes & Mauritz ABHennes & Mauritz AB (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈhɛ̂nːɛs ɔ ˈmǎʊrɪts]; H&M [ˈhôːɛm]) is a Swedish multinational clothing-retail company known for its fast-fashion clothing for men, women, teenagers and children.
Is Banana Republic closing in Canada?
announced plans to close roughly 350 Gap and Banana Republic stores in North America by the end of 2023. … In 2019, there were 1,216 Gap and Banana Republic locations in the US and Canada; by the end of 2023, there will only be roughly 870 left.


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Governments around the world have been embarking on the digital transformation of their services, both internally and with the forward-facing services offered to their citizens. A new report selects three success factors for these projects.
In most countries, digital technologies are having a major impact on government and are disrupting public services. The drivers for digital transformation vary, from lowering costs to better co-ordination of services. At the forefront is often, and arguably should be, the improvement of services offered to citizens.
Progress around the world is uneven and some countries are more successful than others at different stages of the digital transformation journey. A review by Enterprise Insights places Denmark at the top of the leader-board for the most effective digitization of government services. Denmark is followed by Australia, South Korea, the U.K. and Sweden. Notably the U.S. and Canada do not feature in the top ten.
General requirements for driving digital transformation success include adopting a clear strategy aimed at fundamental transformation; having strong leadership, who understand the technology and its cultural impact; and ensuring that the workforce has the necessary skills and are on-board with the projects.
A new report from Government Technology Leaders has assessed three factors for public sector digital transformation success. These are: understanding the impact of licensing; adopt more cloud; and putting innovation first.
While software licensing may not jump out as an immediate digital transformation success factor, the report notes how moving to the cloud (necessary for almost all digital transformation projects) “has a significant impact on licensing as it isn’t simply a case of lift and shift.” Getting licensing wrong can mean services are not accessible across all platforms, especially mobile devices where there may be restrictions in place within certain geographical areas.
Many government services have been slow to adopt the cloud, despite the significant advantages as a fundamental building block of digital transformation. Reasons for this include concerns over application migration, security issues and compliance. Cloud services offer almost unlimited and dynamic IT resources and they can facilitate rapid business change.
Innovation needs to come first
Digital transformation projects in the public sector take place under extremely tight budgetary constraints, and they need to to be well-thought out. It is important to focus on the fact that technology is a means to accomplish business goals, not an end in itself. This means that the process and the service expectation need to be designed, developed and well-thought out in advance and then the appropriate technology selected. Simply selecting a technology and expecting it to deliver is a recipe for disaster.
Robot delivery: Bots will be bringing parcels to your home
Ford, FedEx and Amazon are each at an advanced stage with autonomous robot delivery vehicles, designed to bring packages to the doors of businesses and homes. Several successful pilots have been completed.
Each robot looks different but the objective is similar — getting a package to a customer using an autonomous machine. The aim of these new robot delivery tools is to boost efficiency and eliminate the need to pay people to carry out the final part of the delivery process.
Ford / Agility Robotics
Ford, more commonly associated with cars and trucks, is partnering with legged locomotion specialist Agility Robotics to assess how self-driving car deliveries can be improved. The project objective is to ensure self-driving vehicles can accomplish something that’s been very difficult to accomplish: carrying out the last step of the delivery, from the car to the recipient’s front door.
The two companies hope the answer is a two-legged robot called “Digit”.
Digit has been designed to approximate the look and walk of a human. The robot is constructed from lightweight material and it is capable of lifting packages that weigh up to 40 pounds. In tests, Digit has been shown to be capable of going up and down stairs and to negotiate uneven terrain, thanks to the use of LiDAR and stereo cameras.
The courier delivery services company FedEx is developing an autonomous delivery robot designed to assist retailers make same-day and last-mile deliveries to their customers. The device is called the FedEx SameDay Bot, and the aim is to deliver packages by bot directly to customers’ homes or businesses the same day. The device has been developed in collaboration with DEKA Development & Research Corp., run by Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway.
The FedEx device is the most adventurous of the three, in that it will cross roads and is destined to cover longer distances. The interaction with roads is supported by machine-learning algorithms to help the robot to detect and avoid obstacles, plot a safe path, and to follow road and safety rules.
Amazon’s autonomous delivery robots are about to begin rolling out on California sidewalks. Amazon Scout will begin with delivering packages to the company’s Prime customers residing in Southern California. The new Amazon device will work during daylight hours, providing small and medium-sized packages to customers. The Amazon Scout is a six-wheeled electric-powered vehicle around the size of a small cooler. In terms of movement, the Scout rolls along sidewalks at what’s described as a walking pace.
Amazon began testing out the Scout in January 2019, running a pilot program using six machines to deliver packages in Snohomish County, Washington. Vice president of Amazon Scout Sean Scott said: “We developed Amazon Scout at our research and development lab in Seattle, ensuring the devices can safely and efficiently navigate around pets, pedestrians and anything else in their path.”
Following the success of the pilot — where the Scout autonomously navigated the various obstacles commonly found in residential neighborhoods like trashcans, skateboards, lawn chairs, the occasional snow blower and more — the device is ready for a wider launch.
The wider launch will feature a small number of Amazon Scout devices, delivering Monday through Friday, during daylight hours in the Irvine area of California, according to Smart2Zero. Customers will order items as they would normally, but in some cases their Amazon packages will be delivered by an Amazon Scout. To make sure things go smoothly, each Scout will initially be accompanied by a human “Amazon Scout Ambassador.”
Amazon adds fear detection and age ranges to its facial-recognition tech as the Border Patrol looks to award a $950 million contract
- Amazon Web Services has added several new features to its facial-recognition technology, Rekognition.
- This includes expanded age-recognition capabilities and the new ability to recognize fear.
- Rekognition is a controversial technology and has been the subject of much criticism and protests — from both inside and outside Amazon.
- These new features drew some flack from commenters on Twitter.
- Meanwhile, the US Customers and Border Patrol is looking for quotes on a sweeping new border protection system that includes more facial-recognition tech.
Amazon Web Services has expanded the capabilities of its controversial facial-recognition technology called Rekognition.
It now better detects more age ranges and it can also detect fear, the company announced in a blog post on Monday.
The company explained (emphasis ours):
“Today, we are launching accuracy and functionality improvements to our face analysis features. Face analysis generates metadata about detected faces in the form of gender, age range, emotions, attributes such as ‘Smile’, face pose, face image quality and face landmarks. With this release, we have further improved the accuracy of gender identification. In addition, we have improved accuracy for emotion detection (for all 7 emotions: ‘Happy’, ‘Sad’, ‘Angry’, ‘Surprised’, ‘Disgusted’, ‘Calm’ and ‘Confused’) and added a new emotion: ‘Fear’.Lastly, we have improved age range estimation accuracy; you also get narrower age ranges across most age groups.”
Earlier this month AWS also announced that Rekognition can now detect violent content such as blood, wounds, weapons, self-injury, corpses, as well as sexually explicit content.
But it was the news of more age ranges and fear detection that was met with comments on Twitter.
Just last month several protesters interrupted Amazon AWS CTO Werner Vogels during a keynote speech at an AWS conference in New York.
They were protesting AWS’s work with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the family separation policy at the Southern Border. Amazon hasn’t acknowledged whether ICE uses its Rekognition technology, but the company did meet with ICE officials to pitch its facial-recognition tech, among other AWS services, as revealed by emails between Amazon and various government officials obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundations.
Amazon’s Rekognition has come under fire from a wide range of groups who want the company to stop selling it to law enforcement agencies. In April, AI experts penned an open letter to Amazon about it. Civil rights group have protested it. 100 Amazon employees sent a letter to management last year asking the company to stop selling Rekognition to law enforcement. Another 500 signed a letter this year asking Amazon to stop working with ICE altogether.
“AWS comes under fire for Rekognition sales to the federal government, who in turn is building concentration camps for children, and AWS’s response is to improve ‘age range estimation’ and ‘fear detection’ in the service? Are you f– KIDDING ME?!” tweeted Corey Quinn from the Duckbill Group, a consultant that helps companies manage their AWS bill. Quinn also hosts theScreaming in the Cloud podcast.
Another developer tweeted, “In 25 years we’re going to be talking about how AWS handled this situation in the same way we talk about how IBM enabled the holocaust. Every engineer and ML researcher who worked on this should be ashamed of themselves.”
The CBP is looking to buy more facial-recognition tech
Meanwhile, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a sister agency to ICE, has put out a new request for quotes on a sweeping new border-security system that includes expanded use of facial-recognition technology.
“Integration of facial recognition technologies is intended throughout all passenger applications,” the RFQ documents say.
The CBP already uses facial recognition at various airports, such as in Mexico City, where it matches passenger’s faces with photos taken from their passports or other government documents, it says.
And the CBP uses other biometric information, such as taking fingerprints of people at the border if it suspects that they are entering the country illegally, it says.
“CBP’s future vision for biometric exit is to build the technology nationwide using cloud computing,” the agency wrote in a 2017 article about the use of facial recognition and finger-print tech.
This new contract for new border security technologies is expected to begin in early 2020 and could be worth $950 million over its lifespan, according to the RFQ documents.
This article was originally published on Business Insider. Copyright 2019.
IBM launches ‘Trust Your Supplier’ blockchain initiative
IBM and Chainyard have announced a new blockchain network called Trust Your Supplier, which is a blockchain-based platform that simplifies supply chain management and improves supplier qualification, validation, onboarding and life cycle information management.
IBM sees the new blockchain-based network as critical to the continued growth and advancement of the global supply chain industry. The technology provides a digital passport for supplier identity on the blockchain. This will enable suppliers to share information with any permissioned buyer on the network to make qualifying, validating and managing new suppliers easier and less time-consuming.
The Trust Your Supplier platform is being pioneered by several leading companies, such as Anheuser-Busch InBev, GlaxoSmithKline, Lenovo, Nokia, Schneider Electric and Vodafone. Each of these founding participants is in the process of onboarding their suppliers. These are leading companies across industries like technology, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and food and beverage.
By eliminating manual, time-consuming processes, the Trust Your Supplier technology aims to help reduce the risk of fraud and errors by establishing a connected environment among global suppliers. With more than 18,500 global suppliers, IBM itself will begin using and onboarding 4,000 of its North American suppliers to the Trust Your Supplier network. This is expected to be completed during quarter 3 of 2019.
Convening a network of leading companies with shared challenges and goals, Trust Your Supplier has been designed to assist companies working across multiple industries to design and implement more efficient processes to solve a common problem in relation to the supply chain.
Representing one of the first companies to take up the service, Sanjay Mehta, Vice President Procurement, Nokia, states: “Working with IBM and Chainyard on this blockchain initiative represents a great opportunity for Nokia to further enhance our suppliers’ experience and optimize the onboarding process (process of integrating a new supplier into an organization’s network). Using the latest technology to address a classical challenge will be of benefit for everyone, and further increase the speed of using innovative solutions.”
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The Deputy Managing Director, Ecobank Nigeria, Tony Okpanachi, has said the introduction of various innovative electronic payment platforms by the bank was in line with its deliberate policy to provide seamless and innovative services to customers and banking public.
According to him, e-payment system will further engender the financial inclusion strategy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and continue to stimulate commercial activities in the nation’s economy.
Speaking in the same light, Head, Consumer Distribution, Ecobank Nigeria, TundeKuponiyi, said the various mobile payment applications being introduced by banks in the country will soon dominate the e-payment system, stating that, the payment system only requires sensitisation among the banking public.
According to him, “Nigerians will embrace the culture of using the phones for payment. As with every new product, sensitisation is the key to speedy uptake and with every financial institution focusing on it, uptake will grow consistently in the coming years. Mobile banking is the future and we believe this will be embraced faster than any of the traditional electronic products i.e. ATM and Cards that we have today.”
He projected a steady growth in the migration to alternative channels as they become more stable and reliable with new technology, adding that, stakeholders are committed to addressing the emerging challenges in the various channels to ensure general acceptability.
“The issues particularly PoS have been well documented such as no uniformity in transaction charge, high transaction cost against a slim margin, connectivity etc. this is being reviewed by stakeholders to find a lasting solution that will engender inclusion,” he was quoted to have added in a statement.
Recently, Ecobank introduced EcobankMasterpass QR, which makes electronic payments safe, simple and smart. It improves customer experience with a clean front-end design and a built-in sophisticated and secure supporting technology.
Users of Ecobank’s mobile banking platform can safely pay for online and in-store purchases by scanning a Quick Response (QR) code displayed at checkout on their smartphones, or by entering a merchant identifier into their feature phones.


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Tuesday 18 September 2018: Travelport (NYSE:TVPT), the leading travel commerce platform, today announced it has appointed Mark Meehan as Managing Director of its newly formed Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APACMEA) region.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 12 September 2018: Travelport (NYSE: TVPT), the leading travel commerce platform, today announced the signing of a new multi-year content agreement with Etihad Airways. The agreement includes continued use of the company’s leading merchandising tools, Travelport Rich Content and Branding and Travelport Sponsored Flights, as well as its business intelligence solutions for airlines, Travelport Business Intelligence.
Consortium including Travelport selected by ETC to deliver major destination marketing campaign targeting tourists from China
Travelport (NYSE: TVPT), the leading travel commerce platform, is proud to be part of a consortium that has been selected by the European Travel Commission (ETC) to deliver a major new transnational destination marketing campaign designed to attract tens of thousands of tourists from China to Europe in 2018 and 2019.
Travelport and IBM launch industry-first AI travel platform to intelligently manage corporate travel spend
Travelport (NYSE: TVPT), the leading travel commerce platform, and its strategic technology partner, IBM (NYSE: IBM), today introduced IBM Travel Manager, an industry-first AI platform designed to help businesses manage corporate travel spend.
Delivered via the IBM Cloud, the platform uses IBM Watson capabilities to intelligently track, manage, predict and analyze travel costs in one place to fundamentally change how companies manage and optimize their travel programs.
LANGLEY, U.K., August 2, 2018 — Travelport Worldwide Limited (NYSE: TVPT) today announced its financial results for the second quarter and half year ended June 30, 2018.
Key Points (for the second quarter unless stated otherwise)
Travelport (NYSE: TVPT), the leading travel commerce platform, today announced the signing of a new agreement with


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GREECE: Coca-Cola HBC YTD profits, sales fall as volumes dip
- YTD net profits down 11% to EUR212.8m (US$287m)
- Net sales down 2.5% to EUR5.44bn
- Operating profits down 7% to EUR366.1m
- YTD volumes drop 2%
CCHBC is struggling in established markets
Coca-Cola HBC (CCHBC) has posted a drop in year-to-date profits and sales after volumes declines in Europe failed to offset emerging market gains.
Net profits fell by 11% to EUR212.8m (US$287m) in the nine months to 27 September, CCHBC said today (7 November). Net sales dipped by 2.5% to EUR5.44bn in the same period, while operating profits dropped by 7% to EUR366.1m.
Third-quarter results were similar, with profits down 1% to EUR147.3m and net sales down by 5% to EUR1.92m. Q3 operating profits, however, were up by 2% to EUR205.6m.
Overall volumes in the year-to-date dropped by 2% as CCHBC's “established markets”, which are mainly in Western Europe, fell by 5%. The company's “developing markets”, including Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic, saw YTD volumes drop by 3%, however “emerging markets”, such as Nigeria, Russia and Romania, posted a 1% volumes increase in the nine months.
CCHBC's CEO, Dimitris Lois, said: “The volume decline in our established and developing markets reflects the ongoing difficult macroeconomic environment in Europe. Our emerging markets were characterised by varying levels of performance and more difficult comparables, concealing the underlying growth in some of our countries. Trademark Coca-Cola products grew by 3% and remained a key driver of volume in the third quarter.”
Lois added that trading conditions will remain difficult for the rest of the year but that the company will continue to focus on “operating expense control”. The company admitted that its sales growth initiatives “were not sufficient to prevent a gross margin decline”.
CCHBC, which was previously known at Coca-Cola Hellenic, is undergoing a restructuring program that is expected to deliver EUR65m in cost benefits this year. It also switched its stock listing from Athens to London earlier this year.
Today, the company confirmed that on 20 September it was included as a constituent of the FTSE 100 and FTSE All-Share indices.
CCHBC's share price fell by 2.3% in morning trading today but has since rallied to a slight increase.
To read the company's full statement, click here.
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DON'T SHARE NUISANCE.
India raises import duty on gold, silver to 10 per cent
India, the world's biggest buyer of gold, has been trying to curb imports of gold, which is the second biggest imported item.
New Delhi: India hiked import duty on refined gold bars for a third time in eight months to 10 per cent from the earlier 8 per cent, the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
The government also raised the import duty on silver to 10 per cent from the earlier 6 per cent, and the factory gate duty on gold bars to 9 per cent from 7 per cent.
At the current level of imports, the government expects a revenue of Rs 4,830 crore from the duty hikes for the rest of the financial year ending March 31, 2014.
India, the world's biggest buyer of gold, has been trying to curb imports of the yellow metal, which is the second biggest imported item after crude oil. On July 22, the RBI required a fifth of all gold imports to be used for export, usually in the form of jewellery.
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She heard about the Litas
while traveling abroad, and broached the idea to Fernandez, who runs her own digital advertising company, among other corporate pursuits, and Carol Karthe, a swimming coach, polo player and avid adventure rider.
Your efforts are crucial to the success of LITA
and will help us continue to grow in the future.
One of the guys I'm going with went to a travel agents and the girl said that they had hardly any litas
8 million litas
- the first time that the statistic has increased since the market crashed in October 2008.
With a view to preventing abusive practices and dispelling erroneous perceptions of the evolution of prices, prices will have to be displayed in euro and litas
until 30 June 2015.
Alcoholic beverage import turnover has been affected by the crisis as well, putting it at 416 million litas
last year, down from 475 million litas
19 billion litas
through the first eight months of this year.
2 million litas
over 9 months for the needy, but has already spent 2.
There are different loan programs for different types of companies, and already hundreds of millions of litas
have been disbursed to banks.
A total of 87 million litas
(25 million euros) will be saved in 2010, if the ceiling is decreased from 7,440 to 3,720 litas
The government has made a categorical statement that they would not devalue the litas
in the foreseeable future, noting the currency board agreement's importance for financial stability.


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2 MN Restaurants Issued Cease and Desist Orders from the MDH
We are in about week 6 of the second shut down of bars and restaurants in Minnesota. I really don't know of anyone who is happy about this shut down, and the Minnesota Department of Health says that it is a necessary action to slow the continual spread of the coronavirus. Whether or not everyone agrees with this isn't the question. The issue is that Governor Walz has issued the mandate, and of course this puts people out of work.
There is a Facebook group called the ReOpen Minnesota Coalition. They are pushing businesses to reopen and to just go against the mandate in order to put people back to work and hopefully save their business. Right now the group has almost 30 thousand followers. Even though there are so many people who agree with opening businesses in Minnesota back up, it doesn't negate the fact that there is a mandate to remain closed until the MDH deems it safe to reopen for business.
There are two restaurants in Minnesota that were inspected within the last couple of weeks and were found to be serving beverages and/or inside food service.
The Long Pine Store in Pine River wasn't the only place that was cited. The MDH also held an inspection of Jamieson's on Main and was also found to be in violation of the mandate.
We all hope that this shut down ends sooner than later. Right now it is set to be in place until the 11th of January. Let's hope that it isn't extended for a third time. According to Bring Me the News, the MDH has made this statement:
"Our preference is always to work with businesses to bring them into compliance, and we consider regulatory actions as a last resort. The vast majority of businesses are doing their best to help slow down the spread of COVID-19, and we owe it to them to have a consistent and fair enforcement approach.”
Until that time, please support local business and order some take out. We ALL want these businesses to still be around when this is over...and eventually it will be.


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People need to manage and protect their digital assets, including their online reputation, says Anthony Fittizzi, Managing Director at U.S. Trust. For example, Fittizzi says consumers should use one credit card for online purchases and another for day-to-day shopping. He also warns against putting social security numbers online. Finally, people should vigilantly monitor their account statements to protect themselves from online thieves.
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So Samsung unveiled a new foldable concept phone yesterday – one, that instead of folding horizontally like the Galaxy Fold, folds vertically. When folded, the device becomes a square.
The reveal took place during the Samsung Developer Conference 2019 in the US – and according to NST, Sally Hyesoon Jeong says that the concept would allow for a more compact device. NST also notes several mentions by Sally about how portable these foldables would be.
So to dig a little deeper into what looks to be a standard in the near future for smartphones – the trend that dominates the mobile industry today would be ever-expanding screen sizes. Anything smaller than a 5.5-inch panel would feel miniscule in the hands (heh…).
So with this new foldable concept, it’s supposed to minimize your – say 6.4-inch smartphone – into essentially half of that size making it fit in your pocket that much easier. Folding it would of course increase the grittiness of phone however – but it shouldn’t be too much a hindrance, unless you wear skin-tight clothing.
After fixing the issues that plagued the Samsung Galaxy Fold, the Korean company now looks confident with their foldable offerings; and we reckon we will be seeing a vertically folding smartphones soon enough.


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Camboticket is the second startup out of Cambodia to raise a substantial venture capital round this year.
The ticket booking app received a US$100,000 investment from Obor Capital, founder Shivam Tripathi tells Tech in Asia. This will be topped up with an additional US$100,000 if growth targets are achieved.
A few weeks ago, media site Khmerload raised US$200,000, making it the first local startup to join US VC firm 500 Startups’ portfolio.
Cambodia’s relatively small population means venture capital is scarce. It doesn’t present a huge market potential on its own. This has made entrepreneurs self-reliant, and sometimes forces them to wear multiple hats.
Not strapped for cash
Founded in 2014, Camboticket sells tickets for buses, private taxis, and ferries for inter-city travellers within Cambodia and cross-border trips to and from neighboring countries, like Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. It claims to sell an average of 6,000 seats a month.
“In a country where buses and taxis are the predominant mode of transportation due to the lack of a train network and limited flight options, we are solving a real problem,” Tripathi says
Ticket sales aren’t its only source of revenue. Camboticket offers booking software for transportation companies to manage their operations and distribute seat inventory.
“Before our launch, only two Cambodian travel operators were selling tickets online. Now close to 40 partner operators, representing 60 percent of the market, sell tickets on online channels and accept e-tickets,” says Tripathi. “We were never cash-strapped.”
Beyond traditional sectors
Venture capital is hard to come by in Cambodia, especially in the tech industry, which is still in its infancy. Knowing this, Tripathi and his co-founder Rahul Anand set out building the company using their own resources.
This has led to what most would consider an unusual constellation: Obor Capital, the VC firm that backs Camboticket, also employs Tripathi as a portfolio manager.
He joined Obor at the fund’s inception in 2016. Before that, he worked for another investment firm. Both firms invested in traditional sectors, like agriculture and utilities.
Camboticket started as a side project – albeit his employers were aware of, Tripathi says.
The startup is Obor’s first tech investment. It doubles as a test bed for the VC to explore opportunities beyond traditional investment sectors.
After the decision to back the app from its fund, Tripathi can allot more time to Camboticket, though he keeps some responsibilities working with Obor’s other companies. How much time he spends where is well regulated through agreements, Tripathi maintains.
Growing the customer base
Next, Camboticket wants to fix one problem: its customer base is largely international travelers and expats.
Tourism to the country has been growing steadily, reaching more than 5 million international arrivals last year, data from the Ministry of Tourism shows.
Cambodia itself has a population of roughly 15.5 million. Only half of those are online, and many are still hesitant to use apps for more than chatting and browsing, Tripathi explains.
Adoption among tourists and expats has been quicker because they are more familiar with online payments systems.
For Camboticket, achieving higher acceptance among locals is top priority now. It has started to put in place payment mechanisms that let customers pay by cash through offline agents.
“We started this service in Phnom Penh and have now expanded the payment by cash option to all major cities in Cambodia.”
Camboticket also plans to branch out into more verticals, like hotels and tours, and has the ambition to establish itself in neighboring countries.
It’s competing in its home market with Bookmebus, which started a little later than Camboticket.
This post Travel app Camboticket raises seed round as Cambodia’s VC funding gains speed appeared first on Tech in Asia.
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During recent visits to the Beijing and Moscow Book Fairs I found myself in extended conversations about the exciting new opportunity that our PubMatch effort represents for the global exchange of rights. Last week, PW Daily reported the important new partnership with Reed Expo's London Book Fair and BookExpo America, but don't confuse that news with an Anglo effort only.
We are announcing PW Select, a quarterly supplement announcing self-published titles and reviewing those we believe are most deserving of a critical assessment. The first supplement will appear in our year-end issue in December. Each quarterly will include a complete announcement issue of all self-published books submitted during that period.
It has been a whirlwind first week, full of amazing messages from friends, colleagues, and lost connections. After PW broke the news last Monday that it had been acquired—and that I was returning to the magazine—the torrent of response was incredible, particularly after many among our 35,000 Twitter followers and the sundry media reporters, bloggers, and readers were heard from.
Looking for more stories? Browse Archive


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Collision Conf 2019: Grappling with Marketing’s Messy, Promising Future
The customer engagement landscape is in a state of flux—but, then again, when isn’t it? In the years since the launch of the iPhone, emerging technologies and shifting consumer preferences and behavior have left marketing, growth, and engagement teams in a prolonged sprint, trying to keep up with the changes happening all around them. As Hilton CMO Kellyn Smith Kenny said at this year’s Collision Conf, “If you stand still for even one year, the next year you’ll feel like you’re ten years behind.”
Staying ahead of that curve has always been a central focus of Collision. This year’s edition of the conference, which took place May 20–24 in Toronto, featured VCs and researchers, athletes and musicians, founders and titans of industry, all of them in conversation about where technology is taking us and the costs and opportunities that await humanity in the days to come. And while a mind boggling number of topics were covered during the event—from AI to healthtech to Hyperloop technology and the future of global payments—when it came to customer engagement, the same three themes kept bubbling up again and again:
1. Data is central to customer/brand relationships—but too many brands aren’t taking data privacy seriously enough
Data has been at the heart of marketing for years. From the era of spreadsheet marketing to today’s increasingly fluid, data-driven customer engagement strategies, data—particularly first-party customer data—has made it possible for brands to better understand their customers and to better meet their needs.
But new advances in technology and the rise of built-for-purpose customer engagement ecosystems constructed on a foundation of data streaming has made it possible for companies to more effectively engage and build relationships with consumers than ever before. “Data has always been leveraged,” Jaya Kohlatkar, chief data officer at Hulu, told attendees, “but having it under one roof, being able to connect data from different parts of your business...it’s the next place people need to be on their data journey.”
Since 2016, however, we’ve seen the darker side of this story emerge. As Rebecca Kaden, general partner at Union Square Ventures, noted, “The sheer number of data breaches and hacks points to…a failure to secure [systems] effectively.” And as the frequency of those data breaches grows, scandals like Cambridge Analytica dominate the headlines, and regulators in countries around the world increasingly mull (and even implement) strong new data privacy laws, there’s a sense that the world is changing, that the mobile era’s customer data gold rush may finally be at an end.
But while changing customer attitudes around data privacy and strict legislation like the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) are increasing the financial and legal risks associated with thoughtless handling of private consumer data, many companies aren’t keeping up with the shift. The past year has brought GDPR investigations of companies like Facebook, Google, Quantcast, among others, a trend that seems likely to grow as CCPA comes into effect in January 2020.
One possible way forward? Better data about data. At Collision, 11.2 Capital Founder and Managing Partner Shelley Zhuang argued that, “Over time, data privacy is going to be a metric, bias another metric,” making it easier for brands and their customers to understand and assess what’s being done with customer data and to make changes when issues are identified.
2. When it comes to marketing, the old teams structures are being upended—but brands shouldn’t take a one-size-fits-all approach
As customer engagement ecosystems and the technologies that power them have become more powerful and more flexible over the last decade, there’s a growing awareness—especially among traditional enterprise brands—that marketing strategies built around channel silos and single-focus teams need to be reconsidered. As Hilton’s Kenny said, “Marketing itself is being disrupted…you need to make sure you’re poised to take advantage of all the technology and all the efficiency out there.”
Modern customer engagement’s focus on responsiveness, speed, and scalability has led many marketing, growth, and engagement departments to take a page from product and engineering teams by exploring Agile methodologies in connection with their team structures and processes. According to Kenny, this focus on Agile during her tenures at Capitol One, Uber, and Hilton, all of which embraced aspects of Agile, was instrumental in driving more effective collaboration and better customer engagement outcomes across the board.
However, Kenny cautioned that implementing Agile effectively requires companies to shy away from a one-size-fits-all approach and explore how best to adopt the aspects of Agile that will serve your specific organization. At Capital One, that meant breaking up single-focus teams and creating a system of cross-functional pods that were empowered to collaborate more effectively; at Uber, it meant taking a holistic view of marketing in the company and using those insights to effectively built and scale the department; and at Hilton, it meant embracing the talent already on the marketing team while breaking down regional silos that were limiting the reach of that global brand.
Cisco's Karen Walker at Collision Conf. Photo by Sam Barnes/Collision via Sportsfile
While technology is increasingly key to strong marketing outcomes, technology alone can’t produce great customer experiences—as Zetta Venture Partners Managing Director Jocelyn Goldfein told attendees, “the quality of the team is the greatest predictor of success” for companies. But while making significant adjustments to how teams are put together and operating can be painful, it also has the potential to transform a company’s customer engagement efforts in a positive way. “It’s an incredibly exciting time in marketing, and we’re just getting going,” Karen Walker, CMO at Cisco Systems, said. “With the right technology and the right balance, we can be a change driver for our customers.”
3. The platform economy is bigger than ever—but smart brands are doing what they can not to lean too much on any one of them
Today’s brands are operating in a platform economy dominated by a small number of enormously influential tech giants—in particular, Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon, known collectively as GAFA. Whether you’re buying ads, launching an app, driving web visitors to your site, engaging customers on social media, or even just trying to store and process the user data you’ve collected, the odds are that your company will find itself depending on a GAFA-owned product or service in one form or another.
In some ways, these platforms can be a blessing for brands. If your brand does a great job with SEO and makes its way to the top of a high-traffic search page on Google, traffic will naturally follow—and having only one search engine to worry about makes it easier to focus your efforts. But that influence can cut both ways. Brands—especially in the news and media space—have found themselves repeatedly burned by Facebook, for instance, most notoriously in connection with its support for a supposed “pivot to video” that never panned out.
But while some of the bloom has come off these major platforms, thought leaders at Collision cautioned that the future for brands isn’t a platformless one—instead, smart brands are embracing balance. “It’s really about knowing your audience and knowing how they’re spending time on various platforms,” Viacom Digital Studios President Kelly Day said. “One size fits all; we’ve moved well beyond those days.”
Meg Goldthwaite (center) speaking at Collision Conf. Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Collision via Sportsfile
Every platform presents a risk and an opportunity, but the biggest risk comes from being overly dependent on a single platform overseen by a single company. As National Public Radio CMO Meg Goldthwaite said, “We’re platform-agnostic; we want to be friction-free and wherever you get your news, we want to be there for you.” But while NPR has a presence across a variety of platforms and technologies—from social networks like Facebook to connected devices like Google Homes and Amazon Echos—Goldthwaite cautioned attendees not to leverage a platform or a new technology just because it’s there: “You’ve got to be true to your brand...if an app isn’t right for you, don’t go out and make an app, just so you can have an app.”
Marketing is changing. And while no one knows just what the future holds, it seems clear that the customer engagement programs of tomorrow will increasingly depend on thoughtful, compliant data processing, strategic leveraging of major technology platforms, and a more responsive, more collaborative approach to building and running marketing, growth, and engagement teams.
To explore what it can look like for customers when brands get this right (as well as all the painful experiences that come with getting it wrong), check out our exclusive Broken vs. Brilliant video series.


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As per the filing with the U.K Intellectual Property Office, Samsung has filed for a digital currency trademark in U.K.
Samsung has continuously declined the rumors of embedding crypto cold wallet in their next smartphone. Still, the electronics giant has filed three EU trademark applications for crypto and blockchain-based software.
The classes & terms section mentioned that the computer software is used for crypto wallet, crypto transfer and transactions over DLT. Additionally, the software supports payments through third party software.
The South Korean electronics giant is not the only to have developed blockchain-based products. And is in middle of acquiring three EU trademarks for crypto and blockchain based software.
TCU reported on December 11, Taiwan based electronic giant, HTC announced the launch of its first-ever Blockchain smartphone called the ‘Exodus’ in May this year. However, the company has revealed that the blockchain powered smartphone will be available for pre-order starting today.
When compared to both SIRIN’s OS and Android, the SIRIN OS provides both cold crypto wallet and offers encrypted communication facility.
In October, Samsung Foundry launched a new production process of its 7-nm (nanometer) Low Power Plus (7LPP) process node. Likewise, the process helped in lowering its energy consumption by 50%. The chip has garnered positive results for crypto miners. The energy costs prove to be a captious factor in the sector’s profitability.
Samsung is the world’s most used smartphone having 20 percent of the entire market share. The firm holds the power to guide the public about crypto, with an integrated crypto wallet on their smartphone series.
Let’s hope that agencies soon approve all the major electronic giant’s trademark applications.


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$8,000 fine for illegal car dealing (Fadhill Hoosen Dulloo)
A Queens Park man has been fined $8,000 and ordered to pay $581 in costs by the Perth Magistrates Court for illegal car dealing.
Fadhill Hoosen Dulloo had bought 38 vehicles and privately sold 32 of those without a licence between December 2010 and April 2012, in breach of the Motor Vehicle Dealers Act.
Acting Commissioner for Consumer Protection Gary Newcombe said the licensing system is in place to protect car buyers from backyard operators.
“To obtain a car dealers licence, operators must prove themselves to be fit and proper people to run this type of business so there are checks in the system that protect car buyers,” Mr Newcombe said.
“Consumers who buy vehicles from unlicensed dealers put their safety and rights in jeopardy, as backyard operators don’t provide warranties that must be offered by licensed dealers by law and may not be selling roadworthy vehicles.”
Consumers should report illegal car dealing to Consumer Protection on 1300 30 40 54 or email: email@example.com.
END OF RELEASE
(Consumer Protection is a division of the Department of Commerce)
You can now follow us on Twitter: @ConsumerWA or like our Facebook page – www.facebook.com/ConsumerProtectionWesternAustralia
Alan Hynd 9282 0961 or 0429 078 791 firstname.lastname@example.org
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Sprint Announces the Samsung Reclaim And Other Green Initiatives
Today Sprint announced the Reclaim from Sprint, a phone that was made with 80% recycled materials. The phone's charger consumes 12 times less power than the Energy Star standard requires. The outer casing is made from 40% bio-plastics and the packaging materials are made form 70% recycled materials. The Reclaim is a slider with full QWERTY keyboard, 2 megapixel camera with video capture, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, support for up to 32GB microSD cards. It runs the OneClick user interface and has easy access to a number of eco-friendly guides and web sites. The Reclaim costs $50 and will be available in all Sprint channels starting on August 16. Along with the Reclaim, Sprint plans to reduce paper consumption by 30%, help raise consumer awareness of eco-friendly usage, and reduce the energy consumption of its stores and operations.
Sprint to Launch LG G4 On June 5
Sprint today announced launch details regarding the LG G4 smartphone, which will be available in stores and online beginning June 5. Sprint is offering a wide range of purchasing options for the phone.
Sprint Lists Samsung Galaxy J7 Perx for $264
Sprint recently added the Samsung Galaxy J7 Perx to its lineup of inexpensive Android handset. The Perx appears to be a minor refresh of last year's J7.
Sprint Kicks Off Sales of the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime On July 10
Sprint today announced that it will begin selling the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime on July 10. The phone has a 5-inch qHD display, 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 8-megapixel main camera, 5-megapixel front camera, and a 2,600mAh battery.
Sprint to Sell MediaTek-Equipped Variant of LG X Power
Sprint and Boost Mobile today revealed plans to sell the LG X power smartphone. The X power, announced by LG earlier this year, features a 4,100mAh battery that delivers up to two days of battery life.
Sprint Marketing the Alcatel Retro to Seniors
Sprint today announced the availability of the Alcatel OneTouch Retro, a simple flip phone with accessibility features on board. The device, which is also sold as the Speakeasy and Fling, is being marketed to senior users as well as those who are hard of hearing or visually impaired.
And the phone looks very ugly green...


text: Steam is already a monster, but it continues to grow at a steady rate: at this year’s INDIGO, the largest independent games showcase in the Netherlands, Valve employee Alden Kroll revealed that Steam now has 33 million daily and 67 million monthly active users. The record for concurrent users (users online simultaneously) remains at 14 million. In another amusing stat, Valve received 300K refund requests the first day of the Summer Sale. Furthermore, Alden claimed that there have been 26 million new purchasers since January 2016, meaning that the total number of purchasers has been increasing by about 1.5 million users per month. Overall, this shows why Steam is considered the most popular digital platform. This also shows how stupidly some publishers basically sabotage their own sales by not releasing their games on Steam (as they are obviously trying to promote their own digital services. We are looking at you Microsoft and EA).


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Ford is recalling over 277,000 automobiles and pickup trucks in the United States due to a potential issue with the rear view camera lens becoming cloudy and reducing driver sight.
The recall includes the Lincoln Continental, as well as specific F-250, 350, and 450 trucks, all from the 2017 to 2020 model years. There is a 360-degree camera system in the recalled cars.
According to Ford, the cameras’ anti-reflective lenses can deteriorate and result in blurry images. The company says the issue has resulted in more than 8,800 warranty reports in the United States.
Owners will not be charged by dealers to replace the camera. Ford will begin notifying owners in writing on September 12.


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Retailer shopping for possible location in Birmingham
As retail sales heat up across the nation, a gourmet grocery and kitchenware chain is looking to expand into Birmingham, according to news reports.
Southern Season Inc., a growing company based in North Carolina, has Birmingham on a list of possible future locations, along with Atlanta, Nashville, northern Virginia, and Palm Beach and Naples, Fla., The News & Observer reported Saturday.
The news, which AL.com referenced in an article earlier today, comes as the retail industry tempers expectations for 2013. The National Retail Federation expects traditional retail sales to increase 3.4 percent – a smaller increase than predicted for 2012 – and online sales to grow between 9 and 12 percent.
Ryan Poe covers real estate, retail and manufacturing for the Birmingham Business Journal. Click here to follow him on Twitter. Click here to join him on Google+.
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B.C. Bud Union Crops Up in Vancouver as Eggs Canna Staff Seek Fairness
VANCOUVER – Workers at an East Hastings cannabis shop are venturing into green territory after a union vote last week. Together, staff decided to join the BC Budtenders Union – a division of the UFCW 1518 – making them the first private-sector retail workers in the cannabis industry to unionize on the mainland.
UFCW 1518 currently represents growers at the Potanicals greenhouse in Peachland, but Eggs Canna marks the progressive union’s first organizing drive at a mainland dispensary.
UFCW 1518 Secretary-Treasurer Patrick Johnson sees this latest grassroots achievement as proof that workers can be the loudest voice in the room and guide a whole industry, even one as coveted as cannabis.
“To put it into perspective, recreational cannabis was only legalized in 2018,” he says. “Profiteers obviously jumped to stake their claim and capitalize on this new market. But they weren’t the only ones to move quick. From the moment the first shops started opening in Victoria, frontline staff looked for ways to improve their working conditions and to have a say in how the industry was run.”
Fast forward four years and 70% of the for-profit cannabis shops in the capital city have unionized. Today, we’re excited to get behind the Budtenders at Eggs Canna and start to organize around Vancouver. Workers have been at the forefront of this industry from its inception, shapeshifting cannabis to benefit their communities, and their influence is only growing. These folks are unstoppable.”
Like so many British Columbians hired to sell cannabis products in the ever-expanding boutique bud industry, staff at Eggs Canna are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about cannabis. They care about the product, the customer experience, and the community they serve. The Eggs Canna website proudly states “We don’t hire budtenders, we train Cannaseurs.”
The workers want their pay, benefits, respect, and overall working conditions to reflect this high-level training. Ultimately, they want fairness. With UFCW 1518, Eggs Canna employees and their fellow BC Bud members are poised to raise industry standards.
Unionized Budtender Movement Expanding Across BC
Johnson also sees Eggs Canna staff’s success as an opening for more workers to join the movement, especially in large-scale private growing operations.
“At every point along the cannabis supply chain, workers deserve a voice,” he says. “Everyone that works with cannabis plays an integral role in its production process. From its growth to its distribution, sale, delivery, and eventually consumption, pot must serve everyday people. Workers can ensure it does by unionizing.”
UFCW 1518 represents 26,000+ workers in retail, grocery, food production, home care and more. The union continues to grow and represents some of the youngest and most diverse workers in B.C. If you are interested in joining the BC Budtenders Union, check out our website.


text: But unlike Microsoft, which tried to hammer the government the way it hammered the competition, Google went in not with both guns blazing but with no weapons at all. The whole time that Google was in the government's crosshairs, it simply talked and reasoned. It showed that the company has simply built a better mousetrap. That unlike Microsoft, which jammed Windows and its own browser down the throats of the world, Google had no such market power. Everyone was free to go to Microsoft's Bing or Yahoo! ( YHOO) for search, or a host of other companies for search. Plus, Google steered people to Google sites instead of competing travel and entertainment sites because its offerings were arguably superior. The FTC agreed. It was convivial, helped by the fact that Apple ( AAPL) boosted Google's case by trying to switch to its own maps app, and then having to switch back because of Google's superior performance. Second, advertising, which had gotten weaker, could be getting stronger now, particularly given Google' gigantic European business. It's entirely possible that a headwind could turn out to be a tailwind this quarter. Lastly, Google hasn't even tried to monetize or even lever its tremendous smartphone operating system. That's something that could be 2013's prospect, while at the same time it managed to shed the albatross that was the hardware portion of the Motorola Mobility acquisition. Now we don't know how well Google is doing with mobile, but we do know that the apps it is offering on mobile, the ones blessed by the FTC, could lead to better revenue streams. We also know that Facebook ( FB) is blazing a path toward better mobile revenue, a path that Google could follow. Normally, I would put Google in the penalty box for at least a quarter after that terrible miss. Now, instead, I think that the Washington-related decline may be just what you need to get back into the stock. I don't like it as much as I like Facebook, which I think is transitioning into a terrific mobile play. But these changes at Google within the time frame of the last quarterly report are too terrific to ignore, and the stock has become a buy-on-weakness, not sell-on-strength, situation. Action Alerts PLUS, which Cramer co-manages as a charitable trust, is long AAPL.


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Time: 07:30:00 - 10:00:00
Place: MCLE, Inc. 10 Winter Place
Progress Software Corp. (Nasdaq: PRGS) on Wednesday announced a new strategic plan in which it will cut its workforce by 10 to 15 percent, and divest 10 product lines it described as "non-core."
The product lines generated, altogether, $172 million in 2011 revenue, the company reports.
Cost reductions, including the global workforce reduction, are expected to save the company about $55 million gross, net $40 million after "additional investments," by the end of this fiscal year, according to a Wednesday news release.
Based in Bedford, Mass., Progress makes a breed of business intelligence software it has called "real-time business management software." That phrase was absent from the company's news release on its new strategic direction. Instead, Progress will from now on orient itself as a business "application development and deployment platform" provider.
The strategic plan is the fruit of a five-month evaluation led by new CEO Jay Bhatt, who joined the company in December 2011. In March, Progress let go its CFO, Charles F. Wagner Jr., as the company announced it would be revealing its plan, this month.
Product lines the company plans to divest are: Actional, Artix, DataXtend, FuseSource, ObjectStore, Orbacus, Orbix, Savvion, Shadow and Sonic. "Each of these product lines are strong and viable, however, they no longer fit into the company’s core portfolio," the company wrote in its news release.
The board of directors of Progress also authorized a $350 million share repurchase program, to be implemented through fiscal year 2013.
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Steam has seen exponential growth in the past couple of years, but how will this platform improve in 2019?
Steam is a digital goods distribution platform, but it is also an online gathering place. That’s why many things regarding communication and communities got changed. Why? Well, people tend to be toxic when arguing with other players, especially if an argument gets heated enough. That’s why Valve implemented more moderation tools and even put together a full-time moderation team to stop game forums from producing toxic behavior.
That’s one of the ways that Valve’s digital distributon platform has improved over the year, and it will continue to improve, as we can already tweak what content we see (some people don’ want to look at explicit content such as nude character models and so on).
One of the biggest changes that are coming to this platform is tied to the way we discover games on the Steam Store. A new recommendation engine that will be powered by machine-learning will help you locate games that are similar to the ones you play. So, if you like RPGs, the engine will show you games like Skyrim, Divinity 2, Vampyr, and others of that genre.
Various new broadcasting and curating features are being worked on so that players can watch their favorite games right on the Steam Store page, or check out videos connected to that game. A lot of work is also being put into the Steam Library and Steam TV.
This platform is obviously going to go through a lot of changes in 2019, and we are excited to see how they will affect us as the customers.


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Security is an Internet issue that has never really gone away.
If recent events are any indicator, security has become a hot-button issue, with many websites seeing some form of security related breach in the past year. The vast majority of these breaches target user’s personal information, which could lead to identity theft.
In the first quarter of 2012, nearly 12 million pieces of online identification and personal information were stolen by thieves. This represents a nearly threefold increase over the same time period in 2010. A staggering number for just three months, and it’s predicted that the number will only increase in the years to come.
With this large amount of information being stolen, the question many are asking is why is this increasing? There are a number of reasons, the biggest being that netizens are signing up for more online accounts. Take a moment to try and count the number of accounts you have online; on average people have 26. Now, think how many passwords you use for these online accounts. An overwhelming majority use five or fewer. If thieves get a hold of one password, chances are nearly 80% that they will be able to gain access to other accounts.
If you are one of the many users who use the same email for a number of different accounts, your chances of having vital private information stolen from an account breach are nearly 100%. If you’ve connected or stored copies of identification or credit cards using an account that gets hacked, there’s no stopping someone from stealing your identity.
A recent study conducted by Experian, a credit-checking company, found that 14% of identity theft victims experience refusal of loans and credit-cards, 9% have debt racked up in their name, 7% are refused phone contracts and 7% are chased by debt collectors. While potentially scary stuff, most theft can luckily be prevented. You should ensure that you use a different password for every online account, that no important information (e.g., credit card, Social Insurance, Passport, etc.) is stored online and you use a password that is hard to guess.
If you have concerns about your online security, please contact us. We may have a solution for you.


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Shares of VA Linux fell more than 9 percent Friday after the company missed Wall Street's target, but analysts remain upbeat on the stock as sales jumped more than 500 percent.
Late Thursday, VA Linux Systems lnux posted a loss of $7.5 million, or 23 cents a share in the second quarter. The analysts surveyed by First Call were expecting a loss of 21 cents. A year ago, the recently public company lost $1.8 million, or 26 cents. The stock fell 11 3/4 to 113 on Friday.
However, second-quarter sales soared to $20.2 million from $3.2 million in last year's quarter amid a growing customer base and strong demand for its server products.
The revenue data "handily" beat the $15.9 million estimate from Deutsche Ban Alex. Brown, and the 23-cent loss-per-share operating figure fell in line with the investment bank's estimate for the quarter.
"We continue to believe that VA Linux is a leading provider of Linux-based products and services and the only public company that offers complete Linux solutions," analyst Philip Rueppel said in a research note.
He raised his third-quarter revenue estimate to $23 million from $18 million and reiterated a "buy" rating on VA Linux's stock.
Meanwhile, Walter Winnitzki of Hambrecht & Quist upgraded his fiscal year 2000 sales forecast to $84.7 million from $69.8 million based on the company's "current sales momentum."
According to a research note, Winnitzki also widened his loss-per-share estimate for 2000 to $1.64 from $1.57 to offset VA Linux's "reinvestment to capture the upside in sales and to adjust the shares outstanding downward."
Dain Rauscher ups price target on Citrix
Citrix shares rose 4 percent after Dain Rauscher Wessels raised its price target on the stock to $135 from $90 because of a decision by Europe's biggest palm computer maker to use the company's ICA software in its mobile devices.
On Thursday, Citrix CTXS, -1.02% said that Psion, the biggest palm computer maker in Europe, would use its Independent Commuting Architecture (ICA) client on its Symbian-platform mobile devices.
"We believe this agreement is significant as it increases Citrix's European presence and positions the company for futures agreements with other Symbian partners," Sarah Mattson, an analyst at Dain Rauscher wrote in a research note. The stock added 3 9/16 to 100 1/16 on Friday.
Mattson has a "strong buy-aggressive" rating on Citrix's stock.
Also on Thursday, National Semiconductor nsm said it licensed the application-server software provider's ICA client software for the Linux operating system.
Together, "Citrix and National are diving the thin client, application server computing market by continuing to develop increasingly innovative solutions," Barry Davis, vice president of Corporate Alliances for Citrix. Support Citrix's ICA technology will be incorporated into National Semiconductor's Geode family of products to offer a broader application reach, he added.
Intuit sinks on smaller-than-expected revenue
Shares of financial software and services company Intuit slid 19 percent Friday after the company posted pro forma second-quarter earnings that fell in line with consensus estimates, but reported smaller-than-expected revenue.
Intuit's stock lost 13 3/4 to 58 9/16 on Friday.
Intuit's INTU, -3.60% pro forma net income for the quarter, ended Jan. 31, was $91.4 million,or 44 cents a diluted share, compared with $89 million, or 45 cents, in the year-ago quarter. The results were in line with expectations of 44 cents, according to First Call.
Revenue rose 14 percent to $425 million from $374 million in the year-ago period.
The revenue growth was less than expected, due to price cuts on its TurboTax software and deferred revenue on some of the company's tax software bundles. See full story.


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Beach Break Live 2012 tickets go on sale from midday today, with a limited number of discounted tickets available.
500 early bird tickets for Beach Break Live will be on sale priced at £94.
Beach Break Live celebrates its sixth successive year in 2012, and will welcome more than 20,000 music lovers to Pembrey Country Park, South Wales from 14-18 June.
The Beach Break Live line-up for 2012 will be announced on February 21st.
Last year Magnetic Man, The White Lies and Tinie Tempah headlined the event, with Example, Professor Green, Katy B and Newton Faulkner also making appearances.
You can buy tickets through Virtual Festivals‘ partnership with Beach Break Live for just £94, plus booking fee, for a limited time.
Click here for Beach Break Live tickets.
Beach Break Live is also offering any university city the chance to win the explosive Beach Break Live Line-up Launch Party, this year headlined by BBC Radio 1 DJ Mistajam. Festival goers around the country can vote for their university city on the Beach Break Live Facebook page here before the 10th February. The winning university city will be announced on 11th February, they will be playing host to a huge party for their students on 22nd February.