text:
‘Eyeballs are shifting’: Why a DTC shapewear company is spending big on Pinterest and TikTok
Shapermint, the direct-to-consumer shapewear brand founded in 2018, is expanding its social media presence, upping its ad spend on Pinterest and TikTok.
The brand, which is owned by e-commerce group Trafilea, is looking to scale beyond its 6 million current customers by using Pinterest and TikTok to find new audiences, according to Massimiliano Tirocchi, CMO and founder of Shapermint. Per Tirocchi, Shapermint’s spending on TikTok has more than tripled since late last year. And on Pinterest, those figures are between four to five times more than what they had been spending. He did not offer exact spend amounts.
“We really believe in testing new platforms,” Tirocchi said. “We know that if you’re the first mover, you’re really trying to understand how to make it work, you can get an initial advantage.”
Since late last year, Shapermint’s TikTok strategy has centered around its community of creators and influencers. But Tirocchi says the brand predominately finds scale through paid ads. Here, the shapewear brand aims to launch a new campaign every two to three days, he added. On Pinterest, Shapermint is less reliant on influencers and more so paid ad units.
The goal is to boost brand awareness via Pinterest and TikTok, then retarget users through Facebook and Instagram, pushing them through the marketing funnel to purchase. Because users vary platform to platform, it’s important to have a broad range of touchpoints across the social media landscape to get more audience share, Tirocchi said.
“This way, the consumer can see you three, four or five times in a week across different platforms,” Tirocchi said. “That will give them a better understanding of the story that you’re going to be telling through your ads.”
From January to September of last year, the DTC brand spent more than $400,000 on media, per Kantar. That number is down from the $1.3 million spent during that same time period the year prior. (Those numbers do not include social media as Kantar does not track those figures, and figures for network radio are through March 2021.)
At the beginning of 2020, Digiday reported that Shapermint was spending 80% of its marketing budget on Facebook and Instagram. By that fall, the DTC brand was planning to scale its television advertising. And now by expanding its social media presence, it’s a sign that the startup is looking to capture shoppers wherever they are, said Adam Puchalsky, global head of content at Wavemaker.
“We talk all the time about how eyeballs are shifting in a major way,” he said. “What TikTok has done really well and what Pinterest has done really well is they’ve made the ad experience almost endemic to the platform themselves, which is what brands must be thinking about.”
As more advertisers continue to diversify their digital advertising spend and gravitate toward platforms like Pinterest and TikTok to diversify, CPMs will certainly increase, Puchalsky added. But at the same time, the platforms are improving their ad offerings, making the cost worth it, per Puchalsky.
At Shapermint, Tirocchi said the same. And as long as the ads work across Pinterest and TikTok, Shapermint will continue to spend.
“The reality is that, apart from the fact that the CPM has been increasing, so is their platform and their algorithm,” he said. “That means that they’re being better in terms of how and who they’re showing their ads.”
How gaming organization OTK strikes a balance between creator-ownership and more traditional executive experience
Since its formation in October 2020, creator ownership has been a core part of One True King’s DNA. The group is constantly adding new talent to its list of creator–owners, fueling a rapid rise and accolades such as “Best Content Organization” at last year’s Streamer Awards.
Pringles goes all in on social to put college athletes front-and-center for ‘March Mustache’ campaign
Pringles is turning to social media — particularly Instagram — to leverage some of the college athletes playing in the March Madness basketball tournament, with the goal of reaching college basketball fans on second screens.
Short-form video needs better monetization, creator funds aren’t the way to do it
Creator funds have almost been like a stepping stone before a more permanent solution is either considered or put into place.
SponsoredHow advertisers are leveraging omnichannel attribution and measurement to power CTV
Sponsored by MNTN Connected TV advertising has joined and expanded the larger ecosystem of campaigns that advertisers deploy. As such, omnichannel marketing strategies now encompass television and mobile devices, tablets and other screens such as out-of-home. And as customers engage across these different touchpoints, brands are seeking and moving their measurement and analytics efforts to […]
L’Oreal uses social listening, in-house teams to tap into beauty trends ‘at the speed of culture’
The beauty behemoth is turning to in-house teams to accelerate content production that taps into trends within days, rather than the weeks or months of traditional marketing and advertising timelines.
With Canva and Adobe’s new updates, the generative AI race enters the brand design space
Canva and Adobe are just two of several major design and visual platforms that are rapidly introducing new generative AI capabilities in the service of brands.


text:
Maserati’s brand new supercar, the MC20, has made its debut in South Africa.
The MC20 arrived at the Maserati branch in Johannesburg after completing its hot weather testing in the Northern Cape.
To celebrate this glorious occasion, Maserati Johannesburg hosted a private viewing session open for guests and media at the Maserati house in Bryanston.
Domenico La Marte, General Manager, Maserati Middle East and Africa, said: “We are proud to show the MC20 for the first time in South Africa during very exclusive and private viewing sessions. With the MC20, we inaugurate a new era in the only way we know: with audacity, energy and always focusing on our goal to deliver one of the most exclusive experiences to our clients.”
Nagesh Naidoo, Dealer Principal of Maserati Johannesburg, said: “We are very proud for South Africa to have been chosen as one of the official testing locations for the MC20 super sports car. The car has been creating a lot of buzz in the market, and we are excited to show it to our clients and the media.”
The MC20 is the mark of a new era for Maserati, paving the way to Maserati’s future innovation, uniqueness and audacity.
The new supercar has a boastful elegant design; a blend of craftsmanship, engineering, elegance and performance.
The Maserati MC20 has a Nettuno engine delivering 463 kW with 730 Nm of torque. Reaching 100 km / h from 0 in 2,9 seconds.

domain: news


text:
The Republic of Ireland is officially back in recession, new figures have revealed.
According to a report on the overall economy, measured under gross domestic product and including the multinational sector, the country saw a fall in the value of business and services at the end of last year and early this year.
The homegrown end of the economy, gross national product, performed better.
There was 2.9% growth there in the first quarter of the year.
Revised Central Statistics Office figures state that the country is back in recession for the first time since 2009.
The widely accepted definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth.
Preliminary estimates show that gross domestic product contracted by 0.6% in the first three months of the year.
This was as a result of falling exports and weakening consumer spending.
The figures also show that personal expenditure dropped by 3% on a seasonally adjusted basis between the last quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013.
Net exports also declined by more than one billion euros over the three-month period.
Official job market figures reveal there was an increase of 20,500 people in work between early 2012 and early 2013.
Irish Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore said the news on employment was an improvement on the experience of four years ago.
"We are seeing some recovery but it is still fragile," he said.
Irish Exporters' Association chief executive John Whelan said the first three months of 2013 had been "disastrous" for manufacturing and agri-food exports, which fell by 9% during that time.
He said services exports had continued to grow and were up by 3%, but that economic conditions would remain difficult this year.
"The worry at this particular juncture - (with) all our information coming from our main markets across Europe and in the UK, is that we're not going to have a rapid bounce back in the second half of this year," he told Irish state broadcaster RTE.
"So our manufacturing and agri-food guys are going to have an extremely tough second half of the year."
The latest figures now rank the Republic of Ireland's economy in a similar bracket to Spain and Portugal as far as eurozone countries are concerned.
A spokesman for Ireland's Department of Finance acknowledged the figures were disappointing and blamed a weak global economy for low demand for Irish exports.
He noted that the pharmaceutical sector was being affected by what it called the "patent cliff" for medicines and that other factors, such as a new registration system for car sales, were playing a part.


text:
The American Beverage Association reports that beer drinkers are drinking more beer and drinking less wine than they used to, and that this trend is likely to continue.
The beverage industry is spending millions of dollars on research to understand why beer drinkers have become so drunk, and why the same patterns are occurring in wine drinkers.
The beer industry is betting that the data will help it identify trends in drinking behavior that may help it devise solutions to improve its sales and profits.
The association, in a report released last month, said the industry is trying to understand how beer drinkers and wine drinkers are using alcohol in different ways.
It’s not a new question, but this is the first time that researchers have looked at alcohol consumption trends for both types of drinkers in an aggregate.
The researchers say this is a “big shift” for beer drinkers.
They also found that beer and wine consumption has been increasing for many years, even though overall beer consumption is declining.
The report found that in 2010, beer consumption was about 15 percent of total alcohol consumption.
By 2020, it was nearly 19 percent of the overall alcohol consumption and has grown substantially since then.
In 2020, beer and white wine accounted for about 22 percent of overall alcohol use, while wine accounted “approximately 14 percent of consumption,” the report said.
That’s not surprising.
Wine drinkers tend to be more socially conservative and drink more frequently.
They are also more likely to drink more beer, which is often a lower-alcohol beer, because it is often made with a low amount of alcohol.
Beer drinkers tend not to drink beer as much as wine drinkers, the report found.
And the researchers found that the percentage of alcohol consumption by beer drinkers was more than twice that of wine drinkers (10 percent vs. 3 percent).
What’s interesting is that they didn’t include the number of times each type of drinker drank alcohol in a month.
Wine and beer drinkers tend, in general, to drink much less beer than wine drinkers because they drink more often and often drink more alcohol.
In fact, beer drinkers consumed a lot more beer than those who drank less.
So, the association is attributing more of this increase in beer consumption to alcohol use than wine and white beer drinkers do.
The research also found some patterns that could help the beverage industry predict how beer and alcohol drinkers are likely to behave.
The alcohol industry is studying how drinkers are choosing to drink, and is developing “tool kits” that it is trying “to develop in order to help consumers to identify these potential trends and identify strategies to prevent them,” the association reported.
For example, researchers are using a tool called the “Beer Bud Light,” which measures alcohol content in different types of beers.
The information is displayed on a screen that shows a person how much alcohol a typical person drinks each day.
The results are displayed on an interactive graph that shows how much drinking each person is likely doing.
A person’s total alcohol level is shown on the graph.
The data show how much beer the person has consumed in a given month and how much wine, white wine, or other alcoholic beverages they have consumed in the past month.
For instance, a person who has consumed less than five glasses of wine per month would be likely to binge on beer if their beer consumption had risen to a high level.
The same person who drinks five or more glasses of beer in a day might also be a frequent drinker of wine, but may not drink as much beer.
A user might also consume more than one alcoholic beverage at a time, such as two glasses of red wine or one glass of white wine.
If a person is not bingeing on one or more drinks in a single month, that person may be a “beer heavy” person.
Another important thing the association found was that people who are bingeing in one month on wine and beer may be more likely than other drinkers to become alcoholics.
The study found that, in 2010 and 2020, “alcohol consumption patterns for the most commonly consumed beverages (wine, beer, and spirits) differed across states, ethnicities, and states’ alcohol use patterns.”
For example: For beer, the patterns were more complex for whites and Asian Americans.
There were “different patterns of alcohol drinking across regions,” with “different drinking patterns among whites and whites and white and Hispanic and Latino alcohol consumers.”
Among beer drinkers, alcohol use was more evenly distributed among people of different racial and ethnic groups, but also across the states, as well as between different regions.
The survey also found alcohol use by people who were not currently or previously drinkers.
It found that “alcohol use among these non-beer drinkers was not significantly different from alcohol use among beer drinkers.”
And in contrast to people who previously drank alcohol, the study found the number and type of drinks each person consumed during a binge did not appear to change significantly.
“While the association between binge drinking and alcohol use has been observed among both alcohol drinkers and non-drinkers


text:
The high street is a staple of any town and I’ll be the first to admit that I take it for granted. But just like any other millennial, I’m part of the problem… My enthusiasm for going online to order what I want, when I want it is impacting the health of the high street. There’s no doubt that this trend is having an adverse effect on our physical stores. Recent figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) suggest that footfall declined by 6% in March (year-on-year), meaning that visits have fallen at their steepest rate since the end of 2010.
As this way of shopping becomes the norm, we decided to reach out to some top retail influencers for their opinions about how technology can help turn things around for bricks-and-mortar stores, as part of a wider omnichannel strategy. We took to Twitter to gather insights:
Q: Do you think technology could help high street retailers keep up with their online-only competition?
A: In my personal view, yes. These closures are the consequence of old school retailers not really keeping up with the times and ceasing to innovate. Adopting new tech can help but has to be combined with a high-value in-store experience if they want to stay on the high street.
Following on from the news of Toys R Us shutting down, and Mothercare potentially leaving the high street, Eric’s point highlights the importance that technology plays in the future of retail. The brands that don’t recognise this are going to struggle to retain their place on the high street. Consumer expectations are changing and the “traditional” approach needs to evolve if it wants to remain effective.
Q: Could effective omnichannel marketing help drive customers back into bricks-and-mortar stores?
A: Well, do you have a bricks experience worth driving to? I mean, short answer is sure it could. But only if the store exp is worth it. Otherwise, waste of money.
A: My belief is that an effective strategy, with the right tools, implemented in a way that the consumer can easily shop, regardless of the channel, will ultimately drive revenues and footfall.
If a retailer is going to adopt an omnichannel approach to their marketing then they need to make their store worth visiting – whether that’s personalised experiences, applying digital innovations to the purchase journey or otherwise. The brand will need to put some thought into an experience that will exceed their customer’s expectations. This ties into the point made by Diebold Nixford’s Richard Barnett, about an effective strategy playing a crucial role in making it easier for the consumer to shop.
Q: What were your initial thoughts when you saw Amazon’s Seattle checkout-less convenience store in the news?
A: I thought it was great, and hoping that they bring it across the pond soon! Life is busy but it is getting more convenient because of technology across all areas and this will make shopping easier and help retailers bring people back to store.
Ironically, the future of our stores is now being shaped by online pioneer, Amazon. The launch of its checkout-less store in Seattle hit the headlines as it showcased a new way to shop. Whiteoaks International’s Holly Rees highlights the importance of convenience and why technology needs to be seamlessly implemented into the retail experience.
Based on these responses, it’s clear that retail is experiencing a turbulent time. The good thing is that brands do have options. There’s an opportunity to utilise technology in a way that it will improve the customer experience – combining shopping with interesting experiences – and increase footfall on the high street. Some retailers are implementing technology more cautiously and it will be interesting to keep up with those who are fully committing to this enhanced approach to retail.
Throughout the month of April, we’re reporting on all the retail news and trends, sharing our retail tech experience and insights about working with top providers on our social media pages. From case studies to blogs and reporting from the leading retail technology conference, RBTE, follow @WhiteoaksPR on Twitter for all the insights.


text:
In the 2023 National Liquor News Industry Leaders Forum, Ampersand Projects discussed how the origins of its competitive edge come from a strategy of consumer-focused innovation.
Ampersand Projects continued on its upward trajectory in 2022, recording impressive year on year growth and performance.
Two of the brand’s Co-founders and Directors, Alex Bottomley and Marcus Kellett, said the year’s numbers were incredibly strong, with 265,000 9L cases sold in FY22, at over 2400 stockists nationwide, across a portfolio of 22 SKUs and counting. Those are some huge results for an independent Australian company in its fifth year to continue to grow while competing against huge multinational players.
Bottomley described this competitive edge and said: “We have a track record of delivering unique and innovative products to the market that meet a consumer need or unlock a problem. We have always tried to innovate to deliver against consumer needs, regardless of cost.”
Kellett added: “Brand strength is a competitive edge, as we have created a brand that people want to associate with. The iconic symbol (&) is easily recognised on all our packaging and loyal followers are happy to tag us on their social media accounts sharing their experiences and proudly wearing our merchandise.”
Ampersand Projects has an incredibly engaged consumer following, which it attributes largely to doing things that other companies “cannot or are not willing to do.”
Alongside always free merch, the team manages all social media themselves, which gives the accounts a uniquely personal touch. It all goes back to that ultra consumer-focused nature of Ampersand Projects, boosted by a strong understanding of and connection to the Australian liquor industry.
“Staying close and in tune to the trade is key to our innovation strategy. There is no doubt that there is also an element of intuition involved. The three founders have all had significant experience in the industry and this helps when it comes to a sense of what will and what won’t work,” said Bottomley.
Ampersand Projects will be maintaining this strength in 2023 by doing what it does best.
“Innovation is and will always be one of our key strategic pillars. We need to innovate to continue to stay relevant and compete in a space that is dominated by global companies,” said Kellett.
The immediate focus in 2023 for this strategy will be focused on a groundbreaking NPD pipeline, as Ampersand Projects continues to work closely with offpremise partners to drive growth in-store. Supporting this will be an upweighted sales force to improve national distribution, with the brand moving from a third party service to its own in-house warehouse and logistics solution to streamline operations. 2023 will also be about maintaining the brand strength that consumers instantly recognise and connect with.
“We are lucky to have established a first mover advantage in a competitive space, having first entered the market in 2018,” Bottomley said.
“As more competitors hit the market it’s survival of the fittest to retain shelf space and presence. We reinvest in innovation and our customers to ensure that when it comes to a purchase decision, we are top of mind.”
Multicategory growth in 2022
Throughout last year, Ampersand Projects continued to expand its strengths with NPD innovations in a number of areas:
- High ABV RTD: Vodka Soda & Pine Lime 6% (which became the brand’s fastest growing NPD ever)
- Cocktails in a can: Tequila & Margarita, and Gin Fizz &
- Flavoured full spirits: Vodka & Passionfruit, Vodka & Pine Lime, and Purple Gin &
- Draught: Vodka Soda & Pine Lime (the brand’s first foray into on-premise keg format)


text:
A private sector-driven rice revolution has been launched by an international partnership deal signed in Port Harcourt last week.
The deal was signed between Luma Brazil and Nigeria’s Bobtrack; two firms that want to take it from where the $2.1Bn tractor grant from Brazil to Nigeria failed.
The focus of the latest move is said to be on the rice value chain in Nigeria that would help turn Nigeria from an importing to an exporting country, just like in cement.
The details of the deal were made known to BusinessDay in Port Harcourt by the CEO of Bobtrack, the Nigeria private sector partner, Ibifiri Bobmanuel.
Bobmanuel said the Brazilian team came to PH to sign partnership with Bobtrack.
He said the Brazilians share common interest in developing both markets beyond the Nigeria green project worth $2.1Bn. “That agreement has not been crystallized, meaning that the FG has not been able to do what it takes to activate the agreement. So, the participating partners such as Luma of Brazil and Bobtrack of Nigeria chose to go it alone in some possible ways.
According to Bobmanuel, the two companies said, beyond what the public sector partners (governments) ought to do but did not do, it has not happened. “But we see the potentials of building both markets. So, the CEO of Luma came to Nigeria and Bobrack played host to them where fruitful meetings took place.
“We have reached that part where we think we can start doing these things, running on those partnerships without waiting for the governments. When the public sector partners think they can do the needful, we can go back to status quo. That was the kind of meeting with the CEO of Luma, Afonso Nogueira Filha. He came here with his team to PH and they were very pleased with the reception and all we did and what we do here.”
The Rice Value Chain
Bobmanuel went on: “We find out that Nigeria heavily imports rice and we still do not have the technical knowhow to drive the rice revolution. Now, both companies are merging their forces and funds to look at the penetration of the rice value chain.
In the next couple of months, he added, the partnership will unravel for the better. “We now have private participation willing as companies to invest in that value chain. We will support businesses that want to go into that stage with more technology, more technical backups. These are the areas the agreement will afford us to do.”
He said Nigerian rice farmers and states that do have rice potentials would be touched. “We have a lot of potentials in rice farming in the Niger Delta. This is bigger than aquaculture and fishery which we have ignored.”
By this partnership, he stated, the group would explore this rice value chain. “The issue here is not that we do not have what to do as a people and government, but the will by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the economic handlers to see how they could work with private sector players to actualise the potentials is not there. That is the problem. Otherwise, if a company could come all the way from Brazil to come and partner with us here in Nigeria, how much more our CBN that is within us, be it state or FG, how much more such bodies. Why don’t they come and identify with us? See how much foreigners see and crave.”
Saying the company was not interested in complaining, the president of the Rivers Entrepreneurs and Investors Forum (REIF), said he was happy by the vintage position Bobtrack finds itself. “The hardest circumstances will still afford us things to achieve. The industry we are in is like the golden hen that lays the golden egg, but we are not appreciated. We record more international recognition, purchases, than local patronage.”
Outsiders patronise tractors made in Nigeria more than Nigerian governments
Bobmanuel said countries like Rwanda, Ghana, Benin Republic were procuring our products more than our home governments. “It is so bad that a company from faraway from Brazil will see the potentials we have and come to take time to explore it and sign partnership agreement. Our governments don’t seem to see these opportunities. Well, we are not complaining. We will follow it through.
“A good product does not have any hiding place because it will always have somewhere itself.”
The REIF president said: “We expect further drive and penetration in the market and most importantly a situation where we begin to turn around that local production quota of rice to something more significant.
“All the indices that are being shared by the various media channels and CBN and Ministry of Agric do not add up.
“We cannot say we are producing a certain amount of rice when we cannot see the requisite tech that produced it or to back it up. If we did produce that quantity, the cost of rice would have actually come down rather than go up. There must be something amiss.”
In our own thinking, he went on, “We leave that in the hands of the CBN because we think it has not been very fair in the grant and policy support in agric. If they had been getting it right, and if they did what they claimed to do such as giving grants to farmers, there is no way it would not have trickled to purchase of equipment.”
He said Bobtrack is the only indigenous assembling and manufacturing company of tractors. “If you are doing all this and we do not have any feel, no overtures, nothing, where then are you doing these things?
“We have other tractors produced in other parts of the world such as John Deere and Ferguson and other British products but no other one that is home grown competing in the international market than what we have. That is why we say we are the only indigenous tractor company.
“We are not saying we do not have other companies (Toyota, GM, Mitsubishi, etc) but there is no product of international stature from Nigeria than Bobtrack. You find our tractors being sold in Dubai. None has done what we have done in Nigeria today.”
Essence of the partnership
The Bobtrack CEO said the partnership points to the fact that the private sector in PH and in Nigeria was doing something right. It means that the prospects and future of agriculture are still very bright. “At a point, you begin to ask whether you are alone seeing the potentials, seeing what the Nigerian economy has in these comparative sectors? But because you see foreign experts seeing what you saw, you now feel that truly the future is brighter.”
Nigeria, Africa’s agric hub
As a result of such partnerships, Nigeria can become Africa’s agric hub. “The potentials in Africa is in Nigeria in Agric. We could actually turn Nigeria into the Agro Hub of Africa. Such partnership could cut into other markets as Luma has in South Africa and Central Africa. It opens us into these other markets and gives us impetus. These were the points that came out of the meetings.”
On the areas the two companies would exploit away from the big agreement governments were to sign, Bobmanuel said Nigeria has a big market in agric which is very much untapped. “The Brazilian government was to use their companies to partners with Nigerian companies to meet the demands of the Nigerian market, but the FG has not been to access the grants.
“Now, we are not talking about grants but about business-to-business (B2B) engagement: come together, form an alliance that can be strong enough to support Nigerian farmers directly through B2B understanding and agreements.”
He said the partnership requires lots of bolts and nuts but before end of 2023, they would begin to feel the impact of the agreements signed.


text:
Tuesday, February 28, 2023 –Officials fetched from the Anti-counterfeit Authority ACA have seized goods valued at sh 50 Million from China Square mall, Nairobi.
This happened when a Kenyan businessman claimed ownership of Finder trademark and which the China Square has been using to brand their goods.
The Kenyan-based firm claimed to own the popular Finder domain name as well as being the only distributor of Finder products, locally.
Making a confirmation on the raid ACA regional manager, affirmed that the exercise was on and once completed, he will issue a comprehensive statement.
“We conducted a search in the place and investigations are still ongoing. They are quite merchandised products of different brands. We will be able to give a statement after we conclude our investigations,” Ibrahim Bule, ACA regional manager, affirmed.
On the other side, China Square’s legal team led by Lawyer Josephine Oyombe told media that they are cooperating maximally with the authorities as well as the Kenyan company so that to settle the matters at hand peacefully.
“You’ve seen the officers from ACA have come to the premises to check on the goods. They have done the inspection and currently, investigations are ongoing,” Josephine Oyombe, China Square’s advocate assured.
On February 26, China Square management announced an indefinite closure over what they described as misunderstanding from the local market.
Work Online from home and Earn a Decent Income Email: firstname.lastname@example.org or WhatsApp us


text:
Intellect Design Arena Ltd, the Chennai-based FinTech company for banking and insurance clients, reported a slight decline in net profit to ₹91 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2023 against ₹95 crore in the same period last year.
The company’s board has recommended a final dividend of ₹2.50 per share on the face value of ₹5 each for FY23, says a release.
Net profit for the financial year ending March 31, 2023 declined 24 per cent to ₹267 crore (₹349 crore) on a 21 per cent increase in revenue to ₹2,245 crore. For the first time, the company crossed the ₹2,000-crore revenue mark in a financial year.
Intellect launched eMACH.ai, an open finance platform, the release said.
On the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company’s share price ended at ₹465.85, up by 1.53 per cent.


text:
Several major tech companies are joining together to help promote Android as a platform for games as the open-source mobile OS has languished behind iOS in this regard for quite some time.
Acer, Intel, Qualcomm and SingTel-Optus are all joining Futuremark's "Benchmark Development Program". The joining of these companies with Futuremark should lead to the development of 3DMark for Android in the near future. There are already a couple of tools for benchmarking phones, but Futuremark and its associates might be doing a little more.
Intel's entry into this development is quite rapid for a company behind only one phone; the Orange-exclusive San Diego. It could hint that they're keen to work on more devices, or they just want 3DMark on Android.
At present Microsoft, NVIDIA, Samsung and AMD are all part of the same Benchmark Development Program, yet only one of those companies produces Android handsets. Since this is a benchmark that has existed for years on PCs, this may have influenced their decision, for they're all major computer hardware vendors.
Futuremark developed both 3DMark and PCMark in the past, and these have become common tests, so they know their benchmarking well.
3DMark should be coming to Android later this year, where it will measure your performance with graphics rendering, physics tests, and the abilities of your CPU, and it'll be relying on OpenGL ES2.0. According to Valve, OpenGL has proved faster than DirectX in their recent testing of Left 4 Dead 2 on Linux. According to Valve, OpenGL is faster than DirectX (forum discussion here).
More benchmarking options aren't always needed, but with Futuremark's history we'd expect this to be a good one, if not the dominant test for Android devices.


text:
The USB-C connection first appeared on Apple’s products with the 2015 MacBook and quickly spread across the Mac line. On iOS devices, however, the entry only came true at the end of last year with the iPad Pro redesigned.
After announcing that Apple intends to launch a new iPod touch, the MacOtakara blog also commented that this year’s iPhones should leave Lightning in return for the USB-C standard.
It’s not the first time rumors have pointed to the end of the Lightning connection on the iPhone. Last year, DigiTimes had already said that the 2019 models of Apple’s smartphone would have the connector replaced by USB-C.
Sources linked to Apple vendors have assured the Japanese blog that the company has been testing certain prototypes of new iPhones that use USB-C instead of Lightning, which was introduced in 2012 with the iPhone 5 to replace the old “30-pin.”
Catching the end of Lightning seemed impossible until Apple showed it in practice with the third generation of the iPad Pro. Now the idea of having all products with the same connector, from cell phones to computers, makes more and more sense.
Unlike Lightning that is Apple’s and only works with certified accessories, USB-C is an open standard used by devices of various brands. This will allow, for example, that the same charger or adapter from a Mac, iPad Pro or even an Android phone to work with the iPhone.
On the other hand, anyone who already owns a current iPhone will once again have to change all their cables and accessories – or at least buy multiple adapters. This time, however, in favor of a universal connection.
Recently, signs have emerged that the iPhone 11 will also have Wi-Fi 6 connection, 5G network, improved Face ID and new rear camera with three lenses. The launch, however, should only happen in September.
iPhone also adopts the USB-C connector like the iPad Pro
There seems to be possibility to adopt whether the next iPhone also adopts the USB-C connector like the iPad Pro 11-inch and the iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation), but there is a possibility that it will be adopted It seems that it has not reached the stage, and it seems that it continues to adopt Lightning connector continuously, it seems that it is not clear.
I heard from several suppliers of Apple who are listing in CES2019 that Apple might be developing iPod touch (7th generation) that takes over iPod touch (6th generation).
The present iPod touch (6th generation) is cheapest terminal which we can buy from 199 USD.
Its sales started on July. 2015 and we can use it as Apple device which we enjoy Apple Music costs 9.99 USD per month.
There is a 149USD one of Apple TV (4th generation) in the installation type as the next choice.
However, there is a 329 USD one of iPad (6th generation) and 449USD of iPhone 7 in the portable terminal.
Therefore, we guess they continue to develop them as Apple music and cheapest portable devices which we can enjoy many kinds of game application.
In addition, similar to iPad Pro 11-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation), next iPhone might also employ USB-C connector. However, those who are working on it said that it has not reached reference step, and if microUSB connector is continued to be employed has not been decided yet.


text:
Bacardi-Martini Australia has released its latest campaign with OMD Sydney, promoting Bacardi as the perfect first drink of the evening with #MojitoMoment.
Over 60 influencers have shared images of their own #MojitoMoment on Instagram, which were pushed out instantly via targeted digital OOH locations.
The campaign was produced by OMD Create, OMD’s content and integration team, in partnership with influencer platform, TRIBE.
Jules Lund, TRIBE Founder, said, “Thanks to sophisticated smartphone cameras, it’s really the first time in history a brand’s own customers can generate creative-agency quality imagery at scale, speed and a fraction of the cost. OMD Create and Bacardi are well ahead of the trend. They’ve empowered their own brand fans to publicly and authentically celebrate their love of Bacardi. And who better to create content customers love than the customers themselves.”
Out of Home advertising was upweighted and contextually targeted to drive traffic into key partner venues located in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. For added relevancy, the influencer content featured in proximity to the location of where it was originally captured.
“This campaign was a great example of seamlessly integrating online and offline to drive action around key venues. For further engagement, we developed branded Snapchat filters that were geo-targeted to all partner venues. This enabled consumers enjoying a Mojito to instantly share their own #MojitoMoment with friends,” said Thomas Hutley, Head of OMD Create Sydney.
Jonathan Sully, Marketing Director Bacardi Martini Australia, added, “We are excited to bring this new level of engagement to customers. Bacardi Mojito moments demonstrates our approach to connecting with consumers through immediacy and innovation, via consumer centric creative.”
To date, the creative has driven over 50,000 Instagram engagements, and in January Bacardi saw a direct uplift in sales.
In this opinion piece, Jess Miles, Country Manager ANZ of Integral Ad Science, reflects on the questions surrounding consumer data. The ability to collect consumer data online has revolutionised digital advertising by enabling customised targeting strategies and data collection. This reliance on data has been the cornerstone of many audience targeted strategies enabling marketers to […]
After ten years of board leadership of the young entrepreneurial collective Vibewire, Founder & Co-CEO of Disruptors Co. Gavin Heaton is passing the torch to fellow strategy and creative leader Jye Smith, Founder and Director of branding and design studio DOUBLESTAR CO, who will now take over as Board President.
Lexer, the Customer Data Platform for brands and retailers, today announced it has raised AU$33.5 million in Series B funding, bringing its total funding to AU$43 million. The round was led by Blackbird Ventures and King River Capital, with Series A investor January Capital also participating. Blackbird’s Rick Baker will join the Lexer board. The […]


text:
Google Chairman, Eric Schmidt using an iPhone
Sometimes something happens that you don’t even realize, and when you understand what you did it’s too late. When it comes Smartphones and tablets, users are free to use any product they want, but the real problem is with celebrities and employees who work for Smartphone manufacturing company (especially those in higher post). For example, an Employee from Samsung knows how great Stock Android is, but he always appreciate Samsung’s Touch Wiz. When it’s Android and Apple, there is more criticism.
Alphabet/Google Chairman, Eric Schmidt has been found using iPhone in public, and capturing image with its camera. Eric Schmidt has served Google as CEO until 2011, and he has been serving as executive chairman since that time. People had not surprised much if he would have found with Samsung or other Android Phone instead of Nexus, but an iPhone made a news. He was spotted by Osen.
Even being a rival Google also depends on Apple in some cases. Google Paid Apple $1 Billion in 2014 to keep the Safari Default search engine as Google, revealed by court document recently, Apple Insider Reported.
This is not the first time it has happened. In 2013, Samsung’s Brand Ambassador, David Ferrer tweeted from his iPhone how great Samsung Galaxy S4 is, Daily Mail reported.
Well, Celebrity can’t be trusted in terms of advertising. They can promote anything for money, and it doesn’t matter whether they use it or not in real life. However, When someone as high as at Chairman post do that, it is kind of strange. Google deals in Android only as far as Smartphone business is concerned, and when its Chairman usage an iPhone, it may have great impact on business, and drive many users away. It will made a simple conception among users; “iPhone performs better than Android, this is why even Google Chairman use it.”


text:
The Coach & Horses in Soho and the Smithfield Tavern in the City have become the first fully vegetarian pubs in London.
Following a trial period, head chef Lahiri Gregorio Balloni has redeveloped the menu, which now offers a variety of vegetarian and vegan dishes. The aim is to encourage customers to look beyond the "hole on the plate where the meat should be" and appreciate vegetarian food.
Alastair Choat, landlord and co-owner of the pubs, commented: "We need to be more responsible, more sustainable and lose the ridiculous prejudices and negative attitudes towards vegetarian and vegan food.
"We are very proud to be the first London pubs to switch to a vegetarian and vegan menu. We feel that offering food that is better for our environment and customers is a vital first step towards becoming a more sustainable business."
Mark Linehan, managing director of the Sustainable Restaurant Association, added: "The Coach and Horses was one of our founding members and had the foresight to see the importance and value of sustainability. This move for both of Alastair's pubs to a vegan and vegetarian menu is both ground-breaking and innovative and we applaud his approach - one of many that restaurants can adopt to be more sustainable."
By Kerstin Kühn
E-mail your comments to Kerstin Kühn here.
Looking for a new job? Find your next job here with Catererandhotelkeeper.com jobs


text:
Wall Street up after the release of US inflation for September, measured by the consumer price index.
The Dow Jones advanced 0.12% to 34,420 points, the Nasdaq rose 0.48% to 14,534 points, the S&P 500 was + 0.24% to 4,362 points.
The consumer price index rose by 5.4% on an annual basis, slightly above the 5.3% increase estimated by the consensus. Excluding the more volatile components represented by energy prices and food prices, core inflation rose by 4%, as expected.
On a monthly basis, the rise in inflation was + 0.4%, above the + 0.3% forecast, and + 0.3%, also, of the previous month. The core component on a monthly basis increased by 0.2%, as expected, up from the increase of 0.1% in August.
Pay attention to some components of the consumer price index, primarily gasoline prices, which grew by 1.2% in September, bringing the increase on an annual basis to + 42.1%.
Fuel flew 3.9% on a monthly basis, and 42.6% on an annual basis.
The prices of food products also jumped, up by 1.2%. The prices of used cars, on the other hand, which were also responsible, in previous months, for much of the increase in inflationary pressures, fell by 0.7%, reducing the rise on an annual basis to + 24.4%. .
Shortly after the release of the data, rates on US Treasuries, with 10-year rates at 1.561%.
Supporting market sentiment are JP Morgan’s quarterly financial results despite the fear of inflation.
JP Morgan Chase, the first major US bank to report third-quarter earnings, beat expectations by churning out $ 9.6 billion in earnings with EPS of $ 3.03. Considering the release of the net reserve of $ 2.1 billion and 566 million in tax breaks, the eps rose to $ 3.74 per share against the $ 3 per share estimated by analysts (consensus Refinitiv). Revenue increased 1% to $ 29.65 billion in the quarter. The stock is up.
However, a basic caution remains, which is explained by doubts about what the Federal Reserve will do in its November meeting.
In this regard, in an interview with Cnbc, James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve in St. Louis, who has always been one of the most hawkish exponents of the US central bank, presented his own monetary policy recipe: start tapering in November; end of tapering in the first quarter of 2022; first hike in fed funds rates in the spring or summer of 2022.
Just yesterday, a warning to central banks came from the International Monetary Fund which, in its October World Economic Outlook, called on institutions like the Fed to prepare to launch monetary tightenings if inflation gets too high.
That said, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reiterated that she believes the flare-up of inflation has a transitory character, while at the same time putting her hands on:
“I think (inflation) is transient, but by that I don’t mean that these pressures will go away next month or two months from now.”
Among the special Apple stocks, down after Bloomberg indiscretions, that the Cupertino giant will be forced to cut its iPhone 13 production target, previously set for 2021 to 90 million units, due to delays in shipments of components by Texas Instruments and Broadcom. The cut could reduce the original production target by 10 million units.


text:
On October 24, 2018, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) revised the Commerce Control List (CCL) and EAR to update the Wassenaar Arrangement List of Dual-Use Goods and Technologies following changes decided upon during the December 2017 Plenary meeting. This final rule amends over fifty (50) ECCNs, License Exceptions APR, ENC, and STA, Definitions, the WA Sensitive and Very Sensitive Lists, and Regional Stability Controls.
President Trump and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced additional tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports as part of the US’s continued response to China’s ongoing theft of American technology. The new tariffs will take effect on September 24, 2018 and will be set at a level of 10% until year end. On January 1, 2019, the tariffs will rise to 25% with additional tariffs promised in the event the Chinese government takes retaliatory action against other US industries. China immediately countered with tariffs on $60 billion of US goods.
As a result of comments received from the March 19 rule on remedies to the actions taken by President Trump’s issuance of Proclamations 9704 and 9705 to protect national security from threats resulting from imports of aluminum and steel, the Department of Commerce instituted a new process, effective September 11, for submitting objections to exclusion requests. BIS expects the revisions to the rule to make significant improvements to the current process for submitting tariff exclusion requests.
No events available at this time.


text:
(WHTM) — You may have noticed you’re not getting as much bang for your buck at the grocery store.
Get daily news, weather, breaking news, and alerts straight to your inbox! Sign up for the abc27 newsletters here
Experts are calling the phenomenon shrinkflation.
According to the consumer price index, prices on these goods have gone up by over 5%. The easiest way for manufacturers to make up for the inflation? Put less food in the packages you buy.
“It’s really a sneaky pricing increase – to shrink the product almost unperceptively – sometimes the packages look almost identical and you’re paying the same amount of money but you’re getting less,” Edgar Dworsky, consumerworld.org, said.
Experts say a good way to get around this is to shop store brands. They are typically the last to adjust product sizes.


text:
PITSBURG – The women of Trinity Lutheran Church in Pitsburg are selling barbecue chicken dinner tickets.
The dinners are being sold for $7.50 and include half a chicken, chips, roll, applesauce and a drink.
The dinners, made by Romer’s, may be picked up at Trinity’s drive-thru located at 8520 Oakes Road, Pitsburg. The pickup date is from 5-7 p.m. Sept. 27.
Proceeds from the chicken dinners will go to FISH Food Pantry and Grace Resurrection Center of Greenville.
To purchase tickets, call 937-423-2333 or the church at 937-692-5670 by Sept. 15.


text:
Facebook decided to make a crucial change in non promoted ads but this leaves us confused will this be a positive thing for publishers or not, will it be a real tragedy for small publishers relying on fb. Lets dig into this topic more and have an answer to this question.
By moving a step further we will find that Slovakia, Serbia and Sri Lanka have already applied this system accordingly, are the publishers in those countries considered lucky or not will the future of social media ads move in a different direction, in those countries nearly all non-promoted posts shifted over to a secondary feed, leaving the main feed focused entirely on original content from friends, and adverts.
Now, there is a foreseeable question, what do you think happened to the users engagement did it really change or not. It had a precipitous drop with publications reporting an enormous fall ranging from 60% to 80%. If replicated more expansively, smaller publishers might face a skittish fate, as well as larger ones with an out sized reliance on social media referrals for visitors.
“Pages are seeing dramatic drops in organic reach,” Struhárik said. “The reach of several Facebook pages fell on Thursday and Friday by two-thirds compared to previous days.”
Let’s move further, for all of us it’s just a night from Wednesday till Thursday but its effect was really enormous. How enormous would you think the effect was 10 or 15 pages by maximum were affected, but the surprise is that 60 largest Facebook pages in Slovakia saw two-thirds to three-quarters of their Facebook reach disappear, according to stats from Facebook-owned analytics service CrowdTangle. Moving to larger sites, that have more than one way to communicate with their customers other than social media, they weren’t highly affected while in contrary with those who rely mainly on social media.
Loss of traffic and Facebook engagement are considered the biggest problem that small publishers are facing nowadays.“It’s hard to say now how big it will be. Problems have also hit ‘Buzzfeed-like’ sites, which were more dependent on social traffic.”Struhárik said
Did you make some assumptions, just calm down we have just to wait some more time, Struhárik added that the trial has only been there since Thursday, this is really a small period of time to draw conclusions. “But if reach is radically smaller, interactions decreased and your site doesn’t have diversity of traffic sources, it will hurt you.”
Facebook decided not to leave the situation just to some assumptions and in a statement, Facebook said: “With all of the possible stories in each person’s feed, we always work to connect people with the posts they find most meaningful. People have told us they want an easier way to see posts from friends and family, so we are testing two separate feeds, one as a dedicated space with posts from friends and family and another as a dedicated space for posts from Pages.”
What about having some good news strikingly, paid ads aren’t affected by this change they still appear on the news feed as normally, as the posts that appear from your friends or people you follow. However, some content as named “native” content still needs paid promotion such as facebook videos that some pages post.
Matti Littunen, a senior research analyst at Enders Analysis, said the move was “The classic Facebook playbook: first give lots of organic reach to one content type, then they have to pay for reach, then they can only get through to anyone by paying.”
Some publishers were smart and catched the trend and stopped relying on social media. While it will be really a painful wound for new media companies who decide just to lean on social media to grab some revenue and traffic. “The biggest hits will be to the likes of Buzzfeed, Huffington Post and Business Insider, who create commoditized content aiming for the biggest reach.” Littunen said
Do you remember when we talked about video content?, those publishers may also get burned, Littunen says. “The kind of video that is doing best has been quite commoditised low-value stuff that is often lifted from elsewhere and repackaged for Facebook”
“We don’t see that bonanza going on forever, and since the content isn’t what Facebook has been hoping for, it’s expendable. We’re expecting to see another repeat of this playbook, with organic reach being replaced by paid reach.”
Small publishers and those who rely on social media are you worried about the future of your brands just calm down and don’t worry Struhárik, doesn’t expect the test to be a huge success. “Newsfeed without news. Just friends and sponsored content. People will find out how boring their friends are,” he said.
In a second statement issued after this article was published, Facebook added: “We have no current plans to roll this out globally.”
Facebook decided to make just a small change but is this change useful, will it harm or benefit businesses, this topic really needs further investigation, research and statistics. Facebook now has two systems the first is Business Manager which helps you to manage your business on Facebook and the other is Facebook for your friends or personal/family connections.
Based on Leogami experience, Leogami thinks that “Facebook current edits are taking a different direction shrinking facebook website into two smaller ones, facebook for business and facebook for friends, which will help in targeting more according to your interest and the purpose of opening facebook you choose what to open and what to join”.
© All rights reserved by Leogami 2014-2019. Made with passion not perfection.


text:
Hyundai Motor UK has found that over a third of Brits don’t shop around before buying a new car, opting for the first car that they go to see.
Add in those people that only went to see one other car, and the figure rises to more than half.
The research of 2,000 UK drivers enforces the trend towards better informed customers making the most of online car research and buying tools.
But even though people are viewing fewer cars before making their choice, many will still bring someone with them to help look over their new potential purchase.
Men are more confident than women, though, with only 40% taking someone along, compared with more than 71% of women.
In both cases, it’ll most likely be their partner, with dads coming in at second most popular.
And who has the final say? 66% of men claim they made the final decision on buying a car, compared with 55% of women.
When it comes to top priorities, men and women generally want exactly the same things when it comes to their cars.
From drivers surveyed, over 71% said that price was the most important factor in their buying decision - with the average cost of their current vehicle at £11,313, compared with £1,596 that they typically paid for their first car.
Although regionally, it seems that those in the North East are most concerned about price while Londoners are the least concerned.
Reliability was a close second with type of fuel, comfort, make of the car and economy all featuring in the top 10 things that Brits feel are important.
When it came to size, men were slightly more concerned than women by whether a car would be large enough to carry their family and pets, while women were slightly more concerned about the size of the car in terms of ease of manoeuvrability. And it seems that the older you get, the badge the car is wearing becomes more important, too.
Amongst the biggest gripes Brits have about their cars are how slowly it accelerates, how much it costs to fill up and how many scratches and dents it has.
Even though four-in-10 drivers have bought a car and regretted doing so later, on the whole, the nation is largely content.
Over half said that absolutely nothing annoys them about their cars and the thing they love the most is how reliable it is.
Owners tend to keep their car for five years and eight months on average before getting a new one.
Despite this, there were certain features that motorists said that they would want on their next car; air conditioning came top trumps with 42% saying it was a must, followed by parking sensors, electric windows and Sat-nav in fourth place.
Tony Whitehorn, Hyundai Motor UK president and chief executive, said: “Clearly today’s car-buyers are better informed than ever, and they’re making very concrete decisions on which car they want before even going to see it.
Top 20 features customers want on their next car
- Air conditioning
- Parking sensors
- Electric windows
- Spacious boot
- Digital radio
- Demisting mirrors
- Automatic braking system
- Heated seats
- Parking cameras
- Sound system
- Cruise control
- Lumbar Support
- Panoramic Sunroof
- Leather seats
- Cup holder
- Heated Steering Wheel
- Remote Start
- Android Auto/Apple CarPlay


text:
|Nasdaq => The pair Nasdaq rises above 12800
Procter & Gamble => The stock trades at a 2-month high
Exxon Mobil => The stock trades at a monthly high
Nasdaq looks to inflation data
The Nasdaq rose for a second day despite disappointing economic data. US GDP was much weaker than expected.
The US economy shrank for a second straight quarter, putting the world’s largest economy into recession – two consecutive quarters of negative growth. However, stocks pushed higher, still boosted by the less hawkish than expected Federal Reserve.
Today attention turns to the release of PCE, the Fed’s preferred inflation measure. Hotter than expected inflation could pull stocks lower as aggressive Fed bets build again.
|US GDP Q2||Actual: -0.9 (1.6)||Previous: -1.6%|
Where next for Nasdaq?
Nasdaq has extended its rebound from the 2022 low from 11036, rising above its 50 sma, and has run into resistance at 12930, the 100 sna, and June high, which could prove a tough nut to crack.
The RSI supports further upside. A break above 12930 is needed to extend the bullish upside to 13550, the May high. On the flip side, failure to retake 12930 could see the index drop to support to 12210, the July 8 high, and 12000, the round number and 50 sma. Below here, 11500 comes into play.
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is due to report today, and expectations are for EPS of $1.23, up 8% yearly on revenue of $19.4 billion.
The earnings come as the share price has stayed roughly flat over the past 12 months. While sales are rising, profit margins and management outlook will be in focus as the firm faces mounting cost pressures.
P&G has a wide range of products which, like Unilever, will likely serve it well. Last quarter’s organic revenue growth jumped 10%, showing consumers continued to flock to its products despite inflation. However, earnings are bright with rising costs and supply chain issues expected to impact the bottom line.
Exxon Mobile Q2 earnings preview
Exxon Mobile is due to release Q2 earnings.
The Street forecasts that the oil and gas giant will report adjusted earnings of $16.1 billion in Q2, up from $4.7 billion in the same period a year earlier. This equates to an EPS of $3.84. The oil and gas sector expects bumper profits in the quarter as oil and gas prices are considerably higher than where they were at the start of the year.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions on Moscow mean that oil prices soared and are expected to remain supported. Expectations are that oil prices were at $105 on average across the quarter compared to $62 the year before.
Support can be found at 91.10 (50 sma) and 87.50 (100 sma).
Resistance for the index can be seen at 98.80 (June 14 high) and 100 (round number).


text:
Mad Dogs go out in the midday sun, according to the 1931 poem by Noel Coward, and the modern day Mad Dogs British Pub is about to expand under the suns of many states.
The San Antonio, Texas-based restaurant not only made it through the past two years intact but it’s done it well, with sales in 2010 standing at 10 percent higher than ’09 (which was flat) and it’s had four of its best months ever this year. Now it’s time to expand, says CEO Terry Corless.
“We were actually ready to go [with expansion] before the recession but the recession did us a favor and pointed us in the right direction. It made us think about the safest way to [expand] rather than risk it all in uncertain times.”
Over the next 10 years the company plans to open 50 franchised locations, but that growth will be carefully planned to preserve the brand’s integrity and feel.
And it’s a brand that stretches back to 1984 when two Scottish natives founded it in Hong Kong, catering mostly to tourists and convention visitors, and where it expanded to a number of locations.
In 1996, under Corless’ guidance, Mad Dogs opened in San Antonio, drawing a similar clientele as in Hong Kong. In 2008 the company divested the Hong Kong business to concentrate on expansion in the U.S.—which is what we’re about to see now.
The first of Mad Dogs’ new locations will open in Beeville, Texas, on July 29, but will not carry the Mad Dogs name. Instead it will be called The Dog and Bees.
“The Dog and Bee is a skeletal brand,” Corless explains. “We didn’t want to risk our name in a small market that we were unsure of. Ideally we’ll grow into Houston, Austin, Dallas Fort-Worth. Then we’ll mostly grow in concentric circles. It’s about brand awareness. We’ve always been very keen on convention cities and resort cities.”
But The Dog and Bee, he says, “is a wonderful opportunity to put into practice what we’ve refined.”
Other restaurants will operate under the Mad Dogs name and next up, later this year, will be an operation in Atlanta, in a former Irish pub.
But Corless wants to take it slowly. He only expects to open two franchised locations this year, and probably not many more than three next year.
“So to start with we’re forecasting to open gradually then as our opening procedure gets more sophisticated, our snowball gets larger. So in the next five years there’s no reason why we wouldn’t have 15 or 20 restaurants.”
The interior of the restaurant, the food and the operational style are what make the brand, Corless says.
“I think the brand is about the love of the icon that is the British pub. If it looks and feels like it and you’re getting your cottage pie and you’ve got a pint of Smithwicks and you’ve got a girl in a kilt and a telephone box nearby, you’re getting it. Of course it would be better if you had someone with a British experience serving you, but surprisingly, there’s not that expectation.”
The pub is also full of genuine British memorabilia, which constitutes five percent of the restaurant’s business.
But the Britishness, while apparently everywhere, isn’t (literally) forced down patrons’ throats. Between 20 and 30 percent of the menu is classic British food—fish and chips are the biggest seller. But Corless says, “we understand that salads, burger and fries are always going to be a big part of the American palate.” Another 20 percent of the menu will be tailored to each local market.
But Mad Dogs does teach its staff some fundamentals about Britain—information such as how Great Britain was formed, how the countries came into allegiance, and Britain’s geographic location.
But for now, Mad Dogs is working on building a franchise base that it can grow slowly.
The chain is hoping to recruit franchisees who have at least five years’ experience in the restaurant industry — “someone who understands the financial side of the business but has an eye for detail and how to take care of a customer and understands how to take care of a business,” Corless points out.
Although, he says, the chain has had great response from entrepreneurs who aren’t necessarily food and beverage people.
“These people don’t necessarily have experience in the food and beverage industry but are entrepreneurs who have drive. And I really believe that the personality, the drive, the ambition is far more important than where they come from.”
And of course, the goal is to have multi-unit operators. “It’s the only way you can become a big boy out there,” Corless says. “It would be too slow a growth process if everyone only had one location.”
By Amanda Baltazar


text:
Madrid (Spain) – January 22, 2017 (travelindex.com) – Nearly 600 participants attended yesterday the Official Launch of the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development 2017. The event took place in the International Tourism Fair of Spain, FITUR, and will be followed by 12 months of global actions aimed at advancing sustainable tourism contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Co-presented by Max Forster, CNN, and Raquel Martínez, RTVE, the event underlined the immense socio-economic opportunities brought by the sector to all societies as well as its power to advocate for mutual understanding, peace and sustainable development worldwide.
“Every day, more than three million tourists cross international borders. Every year, almost 1.2 billion people travel abroad. Tourism has become a pillar of economies, a passport to prosperity, and a transformative force for improving millions of lives. The world can and must harness the power of tourism as we strive to carry out the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development“ said United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, in his message on the occasion of the International Year.
“2017 is a unique opportunity for us to promote the contribution of tourism to achieving the future we want – and also to determine, together, the exact role we will have tourism play in the sustainable development agenda, to and beyond 2030. A unique opportunity to ensure that tourism is a pillar in achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”, said UNWTO Secretary General, Taleb Rifai, opening of the event.
“With the launch of the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development we once again emphasize that our nations all face common global challenges, which can only be resolved through advancing relations and furthering partnerships. By introducing this initiative, we have highlighted that Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the focal point for future development, and will guide us to create long-term assets, and prevent relevant liabilities.”, said the Prime Minister of Georgia, Giorgi Kvirikashvili.
“The International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development 2017 is an incentive to a foster social and political dialogue which can promote initiatives, investments and government actions leading to development and the fight against poverty” said the Vice-President of Honduras, Ricardo Alvarez Arias.
“The 2030 Agenda considers sustainable tourism as a vector of development, job creation and the promotion of local culture and products. Tourism is part of the Sustainable Development Goals and contributes decisively to almost all 17 Goals through its impacts on fighting poverty, promoting decent jobs, improving gender equality and the livelihoods of young people or the fight against climate change” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain, Alfonso María Dastis.
Addressing the Ceremony were also Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, Francesco Bandarin, Assistant Director-General for Culture at UNESCO and Elzbieta Bienkowska, European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.
On the occasion, UNWTO announced the nomination of the Ambassadors of the International Year: HE Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia; HM King Simeon II; Huayong Ge, President, UnionPay; Dr Talal Abu Ghazaleh, Chairman, Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization and Dr Michael Frenzel, President, Federal Association of the German Tourism Industry
The event also marked the launch of the International Year campaign ‘Travel.Enjoy.Respect’, aimed at promoting sustainable tourism among travelers in partnership with CNN and RTVE.
Sponsors of the International Year:
Official Sponsors: ANA, Balearic Islands; Global Tourism Economy Research Centre; Minube; Amadeus; Chimelong; Ras Al Khaimah; Ministry of Tourism of Colombia; Ministry of Tourism of Morocco, IFEMA/FITUR
Diamond: Ministry of Tourism of Mexico, Georgian National Tourism Board, Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan, The Travel Corporation, Capital Airlines, Eventísimo, Mastercard
Gold: German National Tourism Board (DZT), Turismo de Portugal, Valencian Tourist Agency, Catalunya Tourist Board, Global Geoparks Network, University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur – Institute of Tourism and Leisure, Intercontinental Hotels Group
Silver: JTB Corp, South Pole Group
Media Partners: CNN, RTVE, Travel Weekly


text:
Former Twitter CEO Evan Williams’ new venture Medium, in his own words, endeavours to ‘re-imagine publishing.’ The new platform appears to encourage blogging without the burden of becoming a blogger and bring the sensibilities of print to the web.
Williams certainly has the pedigree to embark on a quest to redefine publishing when you consider his contributions so far to the self-publishing phenomena that spawned social media.
Williams, along with Meg Hourihan, in 1999 founded Pyra Labs which brought Blogger to the world. Google acquired Pyra (and Blogger) in 2003.
Williams left Google in 2004 to join Odeo and then the Obvious Corporation in 2006, out of which Twitter emerged.
Medium is Williams’ newest venture to come out of The Obvious Corporation, which has the following mission statement: “The Obvious Corporation is more of a philosophy than a company or product. We focus our long-term view on ideas and technology that can be generally described as ‘world positive.’ When opportunities resonate with our worldview, we do what makes sense to help them succeed.”
Bringing traditional publishing sensibilities to self-publishing
According to Williams’ blog post on Medium, despite the self-publishing phenomena that rages via WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Twitter and even Facebook, something is still missing. The missing component is print sensibilities, such as good layout and design that have yet to resonate widely on the web – a gap no doubt former Apple CEO Steve Jobs endeavoured to plug with the iPad and an opportunity being seized upon by Flipboard and Google’s Currents.
“1999 was the year we launched Blogger,” Williams said in his blog.
“Ideas that seemed radical at the time – that anyone, anywhere could and should publish their thoughts to the global internet audience (for free) – are now taken for granted.
“Still, some things haven’t evolved as much as we would have expected. Lots of services have successfully lowered the bar for sharing information, but there’s been less progress toward raising the quality of what’s produced. While it’s great that you can be a one-person media company, it’d be even better if there were more ways you could work with others.
“And in many ways, the web is still mimicking print concepts, while not even catching up to it in terms of layout, design, and clarity of experience.
“When you consider we’ve been publishing on paper for over 500 years and on the internet for only a couple decades, it’s no surprise we haven’t figured it all out. It’s still early days.”
What is Medium?
Well, the structure organises posts in to “collections” (defined by a theme and a template) and the idea is to give people context and structure to post stories, photos and ideas. The highest-rated posts show up at the top and users are encouraged to post only at a rate they are comfortable with.
Will it disrupt publishing as we know it? It may not disrupt the publishing industry – which has its own opportunities and challenges, thanks to the internet and the mobile web – but it would be interesting to see how it levels off against established blogging platforms like Blogger and WordPress, not to mention Tumblr and of course sleek software like Flipboard.
At present, Medium is only available to users with a Twitter account to read and post feedback.
Article posting is currently limited to a small invited list of Medium associates, but Williams promises this will be expanded soon and he encourages potential users to get registering.


text:
Hearsay Social Wins the Wealth Management Industry Award for Best Social Media Platform
September 25, 2015
We’re honored to announce that Hearsay Social was named the best social media platform by WealthManagement.com and REP. magazine, as part of the first annual WealthManagement.com Industry Awards program (#WMAwards). The winners were announced last night at a black-tie dinner event at the Mandarin Oriental in New York City.
The awards program acknowledges excellence among vendors and suppliers serving the financial advisor community and recognizes forerunners of innovation and leadership in support of advisor success. Finalists and winners across 37 categories demonstrate industry expertise, superior products, top-notch service and innovative technology.
“The new platform from Hearsay Social lets advisors identify cross-channel client activity across multiple online and digital channels, including social media and websites,” said the awards committee. “Through machine-learning algorithms and predictive technology, the platform recommends the right content (from its built-in Predictive Content Library), and encourages the advisor to share it with the right person at the right time.”


text:
UPDATE: [27/08 17:43]: Wata Games has responded to the allegations mentioned in the article below with the following statement:
“Wata Games is the trusted leader in collectible video game grading and we’re honored to play a key role in this booming industry that we are incredibly passionate about. We’re humbled by the support of our thousands of customers who trust us to provide accurate and transparent grading. The claims in this video are completely baseless and defamatory and it is unfortunate that Mr. Jobst did not contact us to give us the opportunity to correct him.”
2021 has been a wild year for retro gaming. Not only has the record for the world’s most expensive game been smashed multiple times within the space of a few months, but the rare retro collectables have never been pricier. However, according to a recent report, the recent surge in retro gaming prices might be linked to grading and auction fraud [via VGC].
In a 52 minute video explaining the situation, journalist Karl Jobst alleges that the grading company Wata Games has been conspiring with Heritage Auctions. Conspiring in what way, you might ask? Well, both companies are apparently complicit in artificially inflating the value of collectable games. You’d best strap in, as this is a classic gaming conspiracy for the ages!
In one of the video’s examples of fraud, Jobst explains how the chairman of Heritage Auctions allegedly set an initial record price for Super Mario Bros. This same world record was then used as part of a press release:
“So what you have here is the chairman of the auction house buying a game for a record price, and then creating a press release about his own purchase, in which himself and the president of the grading company are stating that the value of games is going up.
“He then advertises that his own game will be going up for auction in the future through his own auction house.”
How could Wata and Heritage benefit from retro game inflation?
Well, both companies could theoretically earn more during the grading and auctioning process. This is thanks to Wata’s percentage-based business model, which earns it a ten per cent cut of a game’s graded market value. Heritage Auctions, however, gets an even larger slice of the pie, charging twenty per cent commission, alongside a further five per cent. That’s a lot of pie!
Heritage Auctions Responds
In a preemptive response provided to VGC, Heritage Auction denied Jobst’s accusations. The company also extended an open invitation to the journalist in an attempt to share their business operations:
“Heritage strongly refutes any allegation that it or its officers are involved in shill bidding, “market manipulation” or any similarly illegal or unethical practices. Heritage prides itself on our transparency and being a place built by and for collectors. With this in mind, we welcome the opportunity to discuss the video-game marketplace further, and would invite Mr. Jobst to our world headquarters in Dallas to tour our operations and speak further with leadership.”
Wata Games has yet to respond to Jobst’s report. However, the video does also point the finger at other retro game companies, like GoCollect. Again, the journalist accuses the company of artificially inflating game prices before taking them to auction. GoCollect’s founder, Jeff Meyer, also apparently acquired and “shut down” the retro site NintendoAge in a bid to “control the flow of information”. Pretty bold claim!
Whether or not Jobst’s accusations of fraud will be investigated remains to be seen. Yet, if the retro gaming scene’s current trend continues, video game prices could continue to rise “until the market busts”.
What do you make of Jobst’s claims? Join the conversation on our social media channels!
Don’t forget you can find great games and more on the GameByte Shop! We’ve stocked up our store with the latest games, merch and accessories. In fact, we might even have a new-gen console or two! Sign up to our newsletter to be notified of our console drops, deals and more. Please note the GameByte Shop is available for UK customers only.
Featured Image Credit: Heritage Auctions/Unsplash/sharonmccutcheon


text:
The 31st annual Maryland Tourism and Travel Summit will be held on November 2-4 at the Marriott Inn and Conference Center at University of Maryland University College. The annual event is the largest in the state tailored to tourism industry professionals. The three-day event provides high level business networking opportunities as well as timely and relevant education on topics related to tourism. It is also an oportunity for recognizing significant tourism industry achievements throughout Maryland that benefit the state’s economy, residents and visitors.
The 2010 conference in Annapolis welcomed over 500 professionals from among Maryland’s tourism industry. This year, organizers anticipate that near 700 attendees will gather in Prince George’s County for the Summit. Numerous public policy decisions that impact the tourism industry such as increasing the state alcohol tax, toll increases and options to address the state’s budget deficit will be addressed at MTTS.
Nationally recognized speakers at the Summit will address timely industry topics such as destination marketing, online marketing, public relations and effective effective communications tactics to help Maryalnd’s travel and tourism professionals deal with an ever-changing demographic landscape. Specific attention wil be given to undertstanding and meeting the needs of the younger travelers, the 85 million Millenials in the U.S. who have repalced Baby Boomers as the largest segment of the U.S Population .
For those travel and tourism buineses who are finalizing their 2012 budgets, the opportunity to gain insights from professionals in marketing, PR, outreach and fundraising, as well as the opportunity to establish strategic partnerships, provides Summit attendees unparelled opportunities to prepare for a new new fiscal year armed with resources for business growth.
Mary Presley, Executive Administrator of the Maryland Motorcoach Association, attests to the value of MTTS for business development: “I attended the 2010 MTTS in Annapolis and was able to recruit three new members during the wonderful networking possibilities available during the conference. I would encourage anyone seriously interested in learning about business, and doing business, in the state of Maryland to attend. I certainly will be there!”
David Reel, CEO and President of the Maryland Tourism Council, a co-host of the conference, comments, “This event is all about education, opportunity and resources that will help the collective tourism industry succeed. At MTC, we believe in empowering our members with information and at MTTS that goal is met as tourism professionals and decision-makers from across Maryland come together to make a positive difference for their business, travelers, residents and the state’s economy.”
Registration to attend this year’s Maryland Tourism and Travel Summit is now open and sponsorship opportunities are also still available. Those who have already committed include:
Maryland Tourism Education Foundation
Maryland Tourism Council
Maryland Office of Tourism Development
Maryland Tourism Development Board
Marriott Inn and Conference Center — University of Maryland University College
Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center
Meredith Travel Marketing
Howard County Tourism & Promotion
Main Street Maryland/Maryland Dept. of Housing and Community Development
Holiday Inn Inner Harbor
Jack Rabbit/Book Direct
Toby’s Dinner Theatre
Hagerstown/Washington County CVB
History Channel Magazine
Maryland Motorcoach Association
Meredith Travel Marketing


text:
American Camera OEM / Online Retailer InterviewedBy Carlton Purvis, Published Apr 10, 2014, 12:00am EDT
A little-known company produced a marketing video comparing its cameras to Chinese giants Dahua and Hikvision, becoming a topic of conversation. Here is the video:
So who is Empire Security, and where did they come from? We interview one of the owners to find out.
Who is Empire Security?
After getting his degree in computer information systems, Kyle Korona and his wife started a computer repair business in New York. The market was tough to break into with so many people doing similar work in the area.
Slowly the business grew they began receiving requests for home surveillance installation. It happened so often that they eventually added it to their offerings. Korona took advantage of the opportunity, enrolled in a few classes on surveillance and got licensed in New York.
Kornoa says the computer repair industry is cutthroat so a business has to find something to make it competitive.
“We’d work with customers to show them how to use their systems. We’d show them how to work things on the networking side and we teamed with a local electrician so we could do the systems in their entirety,” he said.
People were mostly using Q-See and Nightowl systems.
Over time installation sales surpassed what they were making from repairing computers. Kornona said he fell in love working with surveillance cameras; Empire Security was birthed. They moved the company from New York to Wilmington, North Carolina where they would be closer to a container port (He says working with the ports in New Jersey was a nightmare) and business costs are cheaper.
Finding a Manufacturer
After taking the business down south, it reduced the number of installations and increased wholesale business.
“We were doing well, but we just really didn’t have the quality equipment that we wanted and that customers wanted,” he said.
They headed to a sourcing fair in Hong Kong and met with several manufacturers until they found one that they felt could produce what they wanted.
“We were looking for very specific specifications and very specific features based on what our customers wanted the most,” he said. The cameras were built around Sony’s Effio-E sensor. Because it was cheaper to buy in bulk, Empire would order more supply than it needed and sell the excess inventory online on eBay and Amazon.
“We went from selling one or two cameras to selling 200 at a time on eBay. People seemed to really like the specifications we chose at the factory. So that’s what mainly started our business. Amazon and eBay,” he said.
What Made the Business Take Off
Koronoa says he thinks his company was the first to start selling 700TVL cameras in the United States. This was in 2010 and that’s what he thinks made business take off.
“When we started a lot of people were still installing low-end analog cameras -- typically 400-500 TVL and IP cameras were first coming out and were still very expensive,” he said. “We heard Sony was coming out with a 700TVL camera and we were really looking for a different camera than what was out. We went [to Hong Kong] with a vision to bring something different back. As far as we know, we were the first company to offer 700 TVL cameras in the U.S. and that’s what really launched our wholesale side. Then about a year later other companies started selling them.”
Korona says these cameras are still some of the best selling that they offer although now the company carries a line of analog and IP cameras and video recorders that they sell through dealers, installers and distributors.
Many of Empire's customers come through word of mouth, although they use Google AdWords and email marketing.
Korona says for 2013 the company broke $1 million in revenue and is projected to do $2 million for the current year. In addition to installations and other work, the company sells 500-1000 cameras per month.
As for prices, he says to look at the online catalog (e.g., 720p IP integrated IR minidome $85, 2MP IP integrated IR, varifocal bullet for $145).
"The MSRP is exactly that, our suggested price to the client or end user. Our installers get a generous discount to sell our equipment and make margin on the spread," he said.
Empire Security would eventually enter into partnership with the company manufacturing its cameras and have funded a research and development department to be able to come out with its own line of cameras.
“We recently invested in the company we’ve been partnered with for four years now. We have a small ownership stake in the company so we’re hoping to do more R&D and assembly to people's specifications. We want to give our dealers and installers something unique to sell,” he said. Now his time is split between the U.S. and China to help the development process.
Tech support and distribution for the cameras are U.S. based, but the company headquarters and warehouse are in Wilmington. Wilmington was also chosen because because it is within two days of most of its distributors which are in several cities including Chicago, Philadelphia and New York City.
The Hardest Part About Being a Newcomer
“For as large as it is, the security industry is very small ... One of the hardest parts of breaking into the security camera industry is getting the respect from those companies who have been there a long time,” he said. “Starting any kind of business is difficult. At the beginning, no one knows who you are and you’re working hard every single day. There’s a lot of effort and miscues. For the security industry, the hardest part is getting that recognition for you work from your colleagues and getting into that circle with everyone else.”
Response to Critics Who Say He Claims His Cameras Are Better than Dahua or Hikvision
Korona says he's not.
"I wouldn't say whose cameras are better, it is all subjective. We have great respect for Dahua and Hikvision as they have been growing by leaps and bounds over the last five years to become two of the biggest security companies on the planet. We even sold Dahua and Hikvision up until this year with great success. However, we do some things differently. We allow our customers to customize cameras for their needs ... A lot of our bigger accounts like this flexibility because it saves them time and money when they are doing the job. They aren't paying for more camera features that they don't need and they are also getting features that may be left out from other, bigger vendors." Full statement here.
Back to Top


text:
Photos of a woman accused of stealing more than $2,000 from Coinstar machines at several grocery stores in Thousand Oaks were released by police on Friday.
The woman targeted four different grocery stores, including Ralphs and Vons, throughout the afternoon of Sept. 4, Detective Timothy Lohman told KTLA. “She went right from one store to the next,” Lohman said.
Detectives are now asking for the public’s help in identifying the woman suspected of felony fraud.
The photos were taken from surveillance video, which police reviewed and compared with the timing of the incidents of theft, according to Lohman. From there, they were able to identify the woman in the photos as the suspect.
No other details were released by police as the investigation continues.


text:
Vivo S6 5G Launch Smartphone On March 31
After saying the launch date of the V19, Vivo has proven that it is launching the S6 5G smartphone on March 31. The Chinese smartphone maker has shared this statistics through its account on Weibo. The agency has additionally introduced that it will be a 5G smartphone.
Vivo To Launch S6 5G Smartphone On March 31
The smartphone will characteristic the Qualcomm Snapdragon or the MediaTek processor. Besides, the smartphone is anticipated to come with a smooth physique and 5G dual-band connectivity. It consists of each NSA and SA. It will run Android 10 working software.
Currently, there is no data about the specification. But, it is probable to be the successor of the Vivo S5, which was once launched in China in 2019. The Vivo S5 elements a 6.44-inch show alongside with 2400 x 1080 resolutions. It is powered with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 octa-core processor, and it is paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB/ 256GB of in-house storage. The Vivo S5 is powered with the 4,010 mAh battery.
To recall, Vivo launched the Z6 smartphone with the 765G 5G processor and 44W ultra-fast charging support. In addition, the smartphone comes with a 5G dual-band connectivity and 6GB/8GB of RAM and 128GB of inside storage. It runs Android 10 working software.
The smartphone comes in three coloration options, 5000 mAh battery, and PC-grade liquid cooling feature. It facets a 6.57-inch Full HD+ show with a 1080 x 2400 resolution. On the imaging front, the Vivo Z6 helps 48MP main camera, 8MP ultra-wide sensor, 2MP lens for macro, and 2MP sensor for depth mapping. On the front, you will get a 16MP digital camera for selfies. The smartphone is priced at Yuan 2,198 (close to Rs 22,500), whereas the 8GB + 128GB variant is on hand at Yuan 2,598 ( shut to Rs 27,000). There is no data when this system will be reachable in India. two


text:
LG decides to stay away from Windows Phone to focus more on Android
According to reports made by the Korea Herald, LG Electronics have clearly shown their disregard to the adaptation of Windows Phone in their upcoming cellular devices. Instead LG are focusing on Android for their future smartphone releases noting that “The total unit of Windows Phone sold in the global market is not a meaningful figure.”
LG has not been doing too well lately, thanks in large part to their rival Samsung dominating the market. Nokia has also been struggling, but they have already become the leading Windows Phone vendor. The company claimed that the partnership between it and Microsoft remains good but the plan to focus on Windows Phone, initially announced in 2009, has not worked out for them financially.
LG ended up losing money for seven straight quarters and only recently turned a profit. As a result they lost a lot of market share, especially with HTC and Samsung having a winning portfolio of Android devices. One can claim that LGs offerings for Windows Phone have been extremely flat with only the LG Quantum, limited to AT&T and a few regional carriers, showing any real innovation.
Despite being only one of two hard-keyboard Windows Phone devices it never sold well anywhere. Even the LG Jil Sander phone was a bomb having constant price fluctuations, in fact the phone was considered as “cheap and unexciting” by most of its users. Clearly Nokia, HTC and Samsung are the future of Windows Phone and for the time being, LG should continue focusing on its Android Devices rather then switching onto something which has time and again proved to be a failure (no disrespect to its R&D team in anyway)


text:
- Subscribe NowLimited Time Offer
S.F. supervisor Scott Wiener cooks up big menu of regulation for food trucks
San Francisco is getting closer to putting the brakes on food trucks near restaurants.
If passed, legislation would “clear up” some of the rules in San Francisco’s Public Works, Planning and Transportation codes to amend how close food trucks and carts can be to brick-and-mortar restaurants, allow more flexibility in their proximity to schools and all together more heavily regulate the city’s growing number of mobile food vendors.
“We realized there were very few restrictions on the concentration of food trucks and where they could go, as well as arbitrary restrictions that have led to over-concentration in downtown,” Wiener said.
As a result, the biggest change would amend the law to create a 75-foot buffer around existing brick-and-mortar restaurants that would be completely off-limits to trucks.
If passed the law would limit the number of food trucks that can operate in downtown San Francisco. Wiener said that trucks with existing permits would be grandfathered in.
Weiner said the new rules would open opportunities for trucks to go into more underserved parts of the city.
Some of the permitting rules were changed to require any mobile food vendor that would like to change a location they serve, add a new location or change their hours to serve after 8 p.m. will require a brand new permit.
The new rules also would limit mobile food vendors to serving one location no more than three day a week and prohibit vendors from taking up more than two parking spaces.
Renée Frojo covers hospitality, restaurants, retail and nonprofits for the San Francisco Business Times.
- Most popular
- S.F. restaurants with high-risk health violations in Q3 2014
- Gilead regains ground after selloff caused by pricey hepatitis C drug
- Wells Fargo haunted by misdeeds of Wachovia's predecessors
- City's hungriest real estate investor plans grocery store for West Oa
- Tech giants find patent common ground in $900 million deal
- Slideshow: What the 2024 San Francisco Olympics could look like
- Why no one is building condos in Oakland (and why there's hope)
- Live long, prosper with ibuprofen, says early Buck Institute research
- Where was Apple? Google and Microsoft both showed 'The Interview'
- S.F. housing pipeline fills up with 50,000 units
Sign up to receive San Francisco Business Times's Morning Edition and Afternoon Edition newsletters and breaking news alerts.
US – Director of Sales (Coated Label Products) Green Bay Packaging Inc. | Green Bay, WI
Sr. Security Engineer Design Within Reach Inc. | San Francisco, CA
Store Management Bed Bath and Beyond Inc. | San Francisco, CA
E-Business Sys Consultant 5 Wells Fargo | San Francisco, CA
Principle Expert in Data Security Alibaba Group | San Francisco, CA


text:
Cornerstone Atlanta Reveals Global Face
Cornerstone Atlanta, known locally as Shoemaker & Associates, part of the retained executive search organisation Cornerstone International Group, has launched its new global recruiting website.
Following the development of a new central website for Cornerstone International last year, members are launching their own sites with similar branding in their home markets.
“The executive recruiting business today is truly global, and you need an integrated presence around the world to be competitive,” explained Larry Shoemaker, Cornerstone Atlanta owner and President of the global group.
He added: “Cornerstone offices are all entrepreneurially owned and have different regional marketing, but we share the same processes and best practices. A common look or branding communicates that.”
Atlanta is the 10th Cornerstone member to adopt the templated sites, which incorporate the styling and coloring of the parent international website. Other member offices adopting the new online look are in Toronto, Kansas City, London, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Vancouver, Tel Aviv, Helsinki and Oslo.
search-consult is published by Dillistone Systems, supplier of FileFinder Executive Search software. Dillistone Systems is part of Dillistone Group Plc, as are Voyager Recruitment Software and FCP Internet, supplier of the Evolve Recruitment Software SaaS system.


text:
Microsoft is to unveil the next iteration of its
Xbox video game console on May 21.
The company sent out invitations Thursday to technology journalists in the US inviting them to company headquarters on that day for a "special unveiling" by the Xbox team.
According to Microsoft, the system will "mark the beginning of a new generation of games, TV and entertainment." It also said it would show off a few new titles at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in June.
Microsoft released the current console, the Xbox 360, seven years ago, and it has since overtaken both the Sony Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii to become the world's best-selling video game machine.
However the industry is facing significant challenges from the spread of casual gaming on smartphones and tablet computers, while the rise of smart TV devices will also challenge the aspirations of video console companies for their machines to act as the digital household hub.
Most Popular Stories
- Obama Administration Releases Proposal to Regulate For-Profit Colleges
- Koch Brothers Step up Anti-Obamacare Campaign
- Elizabeth Vargas' Husband Marc Cohn Addresses Rumors
- Keurig Adds Peet's coffee, Alters Starbucks deal
- U.S. to Relinquish Gov't Control Over Internet
- Quiznos Files for Chapter 11
- SoCalGas Reaches Record Spend on Diversity Suppliers
- FDIC Sues Big Banks Over Rate Manipulation
- U.S. Consumer Sentiment Falls in Early March
- Vybz Kartel Convicted of Murder