text:
|By Business Wire||
|November 19, 2012 12:01 AM EST||
Shazam®, the world’s leading media engagement company, today revealed the results of a recent case study conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates to measure the efficacy of Shazam-enabled TV advertising. The findings were a compelling endorsement of Shazam for TV advertising, where Shazam’s custom second-screen interactive experience engages viewers and improve brand recall:
- People who used Shazam to tag an ad are three times as likely to interact with the brand through desirable follow-up actions after seeing the commercial vs. people who did not use Shazam.
- People who used Shazam were more than twice as likely to talk about the brand or the ad with others.
- 55% of people who tagged the ad cited that one of the reasons they did so was to bookmark it to go back and reference information on the brand or product later in addition to their immediate post-viewing engagement. For people who were in the market for that product, that number jumps to 65%.
- People who used Shazam had a higher recall of the commercial and its message vs. people who did not use Shazam.
“Since the launch of Shazam for TV advertising in 2011, we have seen people use the app to dramatically shift how they consume advertising,” said Shazam’s EVP Advertising, Evan Krauss. “In every industry vertical, from auto to finance to retail, we have seen mobile engagement using the second screen extend people’s interactions with the brand or product from a 30-second ad to several minutes of engagement. This new study validates this, adds to our understanding about significant lift in brand and campaign effectiveness, and tells us what we always suspected – that people use Shazam to ‘bookmark’ the information so they can also go back and continue to engage with the information at a later time.”
“Shazam has clearly taken its great brand in the music discovery space and successfully extended it into television with the Shazam for TV service,” said Mike Vorhaus, President, Magid Advisors. “Shazam-enabled ads are both effective for brands as well as valued by consumers, making this an excellent new method of engagement. The extended time that people are willing to engage with the brands and their products demonstrate that consumers have embraced using the second screen and that Shazam’s work with agencies is setting the standard for the industry.”
Details of the major findings are:
Brand interaction – 68% of people who tagged the ad went on to further engage with the brand, compared to the 23% for those who did not tag the commercial. The interactions included checking out offers, visiting the company’s website or Facebook page, liking or following the company, getting a price quote, or locating a local retailer. In each of these activities, Shazam tagging resulted in between three to four times the amount of activity.
Word of Mouth / Social Activity – 55% of people who tagged the ad talked about the brand with others, compared to the 25% for those who did not tag the commercial. People who used Shazam were more than twice as likely to talk about the brand or the ad with others, and for those in market for the product, 65% of people who tagged the ad talked about the brand with others. These sought-after social activities included talking about the brand with someone: in person, on the phone, via a social networking site, in an email or another way.
Bookmarking for later use – 55% of the people who used Shazam to tag the ad cited that one of the reasons they did so was to save it for later. A popular use case that Shazam is known for is going back to your tag list to interact with content of interest at a later time. This behaviour translates well from music discovery to TV advertising, with 55% of the people who Shazam’d the ad using it as a bookmark so that they could interact with it in their own time. The vast majority of those bookmarking did so in addition to engaging with or talking about the brand. Of those who bookmarked, 79% took some immediate action with the brand, and bookmarked it for later; 65% talked about the brand, and bookmarked it for later.
Future Intent – Shazam tagging lifts future intent across the board, with increases ranging from 60% to 135%. One of the most important measures of success for any ad is whether it motivated or persuaded consumers to take future actions about the brand or product. With an average 17 percentage point advantage, people who used Shazam to tag the ad said they were more inclined to do a variety of activities, from visiting the brand’s website, to getting additional information, to checking out the product and visiting their local retailer.
Brand Affinity – 71% of people who tagged the commercial liked the brand, compared to the 61% for those who did not tag the commercial. For this particular ad campaign, Shazam measured five different key aspects of the product from tangible physical aspects to intangible value-related characteristics. Across the board, people who used Shazam rated every facet an average of six percentage points higher than the people who did not. Similarly, 59% of people who tagged the ad liked the brand’s commercial, compared to the 38% for those who did not tag the commercial. And people who tagged the commercial feel more positive about the commercial and its brand impact than those who did not tag the commercial – 43% feel better about the brand vs 26% for those who did not tag the commercial.
Recall – 100% of people who tagged the ad recalled the ad, compared to 65% recall for those who did not tag the ad. While 98% of those who tagged could recall the brand’s ad message, 95% of those who did not tag but remembered the ad could recall the brand message.
Lack of Confusion – Almost all Shazam users, regardless of whether or not they tagged the brand’s commercial, do not experience any confusion or distraction when seeing the Shazam on-screen graphic in the commercial. 96% were not confused, and 92% were not distracted.
The study, commissioned by Shazam, was conducted by Frank M. Magid Associates over the course of three weeks and recruited participants to watch a primetime TV show live – in natural viewing conditions in their own homes – during which the brand’s commercial aired. After viewing the TV show, Shazam users were asked to complete a follow up survey based on their recall of the brand’s TV commercial. Surveys were completed by 439 Shazam users who tagged the TV commercial and 431 people did not tag the commercial. All respondents were: 18 years or older, based in the US, smartphone users (iPhone or Android), and able to access live TV at home including broadcast networks ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX or CW.
Recently, Shazam announced that it has expanded its Shazam for TV second-screen service in the U.S. to support TV programming on any channel, anytime of day, making Shazam a “TV companion app.” The core service, presented by Samsung Galaxy S III through December 2012, gives viewers in the U.S. access to cast details and photos, music in the show, celebrity gossip, trivia, celebrity tweets, and links to additional information, plus the ability to instantly share and comment on the show or episode on Facebook and Twitter. Shazam will continue to work in partnership with show creators and broadcasters to create custom second-screen interactive experiences.
For people who don't yet have the Shazam application on their smartphone, it is available for free on every major platform and can be found on iTunes App Store, Google play, Amazon App Store, AT&T’s AppCenter, Verizon VCast app store, Nokia Store, Windows Phone Marketplace, BlackBerry App World, and GetJar.
Shazam is the world’s leading media engagement company with more than 250 million people in 200 countries and adding another 2 million new users each week. With the industry’s unlimited fastest tagging in the Free and premium Encore Apps on iOS and Android devices, Shazam is the best way for people to discover, explore, buy, and share more music, TV shows and branded content they love.
Shazam Media enquiries: [email protected]
The Shazam, Shazam Encore, LyricPlay, and Shazam for TV names and icons are trademarks of Shazam Entertainment Limited
The 3rd International Internet of @ThingsExpo, co-located with the 16th International Cloud Expo - to be held June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY - announces that its Call for Papers is now open. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the biggest idea since the creation of the Worldwide Web more than 20 years ago.
Jan. 30, 2015 12:00 PM EST Reads: 8,008
Connected devices and the Internet of Things are getting significant momentum in 2014. In his session at Internet of @ThingsExpo, Jim Hunter, Chief Scientist & Technology Evangelist at Greenwave Systems, examined three key elements that together will drive mass adoption of the IoT before the end of 2015. The first element is the recent advent of robust open source protocols (like AllJoyn and WebRTC) that facilitate M2M communication. The second is broad availability of flexible, cost-effective storage designed to handle the massive surge in back-end data in a world where timely analytics is e...
Jan. 30, 2015 12:00 PM EST Reads: 2,602
"There is a natural synchronization between the business models, the IoT is there to support ,” explained Brendan O'Brien, Co-founder and Chief Architect of Aria Systems, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at the 15th International Cloud Expo®, held Nov 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Jan. 30, 2015 11:45 AM EST Reads: 3,594
The Internet of Things will put IT to its ultimate test by creating infinite new opportunities to digitize products and services, generate and analyze new data to improve customer satisfaction, and discover new ways to gain a competitive advantage across nearly every industry. In order to help corporate business units to capitalize on the rapidly evolving IoT opportunities, IT must stand up to a new set of challenges. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Jeff Kaplan, Managing Director of THINKstrategies, will examine why IT must finally fulfill its role in support of its SBUs or face a new round of...
Jan. 30, 2015 11:45 AM EST Reads: 2,736
The BPM world is going through some evolution or changes where traditional business process management solutions really have nowhere to go in terms of development of the road map. In this demo at 15th Cloud Expo, Kyle Hansen, Director of Professional Services at AgilePoint, shows AgilePoint’s unique approach to dealing with this market circumstance by developing a rapid application composition or development framework.
Jan. 30, 2015 11:30 AM EST Reads: 2,270
The Internet of Things will greatly expand the opportunities for data collection and new business models driven off of that data. In her session at @ThingsExpo, Esmeralda Swartz, CMO of MetraTech, discussed how for this to be effective you not only need to have infrastructure and operational models capable of utilizing this new phenomenon, but increasingly service providers will need to convince a skeptical public to participate. Get ready to show them the money!
Jan. 30, 2015 11:30 AM EST Reads: 3,041
ARMONK, N.Y., Nov. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it is bringing a greater level of control, security and flexibility to cloud-based application development and delivery with a single-tenant version of Bluemix, IBM's platform-as-a-service. The new platform enables developers to build ap...
Jan. 30, 2015 11:15 AM EST Reads: 3,094
Building low-cost wearable devices can enhance the quality of our lives. In his session at Internet of @ThingsExpo, Sai Yamanoor, Embedded Software Engineer at Altschool, provided an example of putting together a small keychain within a $50 budget that educates the user about the air quality in their surroundings. He also provided examples such as building a wearable device that provides transit or recreational information. He then reviewed the resources available to build wearable devices at home including open source hardware, the raw materials required and the options available to power s...
Jan. 30, 2015 11:00 AM EST Reads: 2,404
The Internet of Things is not new. Historically, smart businesses have used its basic concept of leveraging data to drive better decision making and have capitalized on those insights to realize additional revenue opportunities. So, what has changed to make the Internet of Things one of the hottest topics in tech? In his session at @ThingsExpo, Chris Gray, Director, Embedded and Internet of Things, discussed the underlying factors that are driving the economics of intelligent systems. Discover how hardware commoditization, the ubiquitous nature of connectivity, and the emergence of Big Data a...
Jan. 30, 2015 10:45 AM EST Reads: 3,180
The Internet of Things promises to transform businesses (and lives), but navigating the business and technical path to success can be difficult to understand. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Sean Lorenz, Technical Product Manager for Xively at LogMeIn, demonstrated how to approach creating broadly successful connected customer solutions using real world business transformation studies including New England BioLabs and more.
Jan. 30, 2015 10:45 AM EST Reads: 2,653
We certainly live in interesting technological times. And no more interesting than the current competing IoT standards for connectivity. Various standards bodies, approaches, and ecosystems are vying for mindshare and positioning for a competitive edge. It is clear that when the dust settles, we will have new protocols, evolved protocols, that will change the way we interact with devices and infrastructure. We will also have evolved web protocols, like HTTP/2, that will be changing the very core of our infrastructures. At the same time, we have old approaches made new again like micro-services...
Jan. 30, 2015 10:30 AM EST Reads: 2,526
Enthusiasm for the Internet of Things has reached an all-time high. In 2013 alone, venture capitalists spent more than $1 billion dollars investing in the IoT space. With "smart" appliances and devices, IoT covers wearable smart devices, cloud services to hardware companies. Nest, a Google company, detects temperatures inside homes and automatically adjusts it by tracking its user's habit. These technologies are quickly developing and with it come challenges such as bridging infrastructure gaps, abiding by privacy concerns and making the concept a reality. These challenges can't be addressed w...
Jan. 30, 2015 10:00 AM EST Reads: 3,175
The Domain Name Service (DNS) is one of the most important components in networking infrastructure, enabling users and services to access applications by translating URLs (names) into IP addresses (numbers). Because every icon and URL and all embedded content on a website requires a DNS lookup loading complex sites necessitates hundreds of DNS queries. In addition, as more internet-enabled ‘Things' get connected, people will rely on DNS to name and find their fridges, toasters and toilets. According to a recent IDG Research Services Survey this rate of traffic will only grow. What's driving t...
Jan. 30, 2015 10:00 AM EST Reads: 3,202
The Internet of Things is a misnomer. That implies that everything is on the Internet, and that simply should not be - especially for things that are blurring the line between medical devices that stimulate like a pacemaker and quantified self-sensors like a pedometer or pulse tracker. The mesh of things that we manage must be segmented into zones of trust for sensing data, transmitting data, receiving command and control administrative changes, and peer-to-peer mesh messaging. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Ryan Bagnulo, Solution Architect / Software Engineer at SOA Software, focused on desi...
Jan. 30, 2015 10:00 AM EST Reads: 2,380
Today’s enterprise is being driven by disruptive competitive and human capital requirements to provide enterprise application access through not only desktops, but also mobile devices. To retrofit existing programs across all these devices using traditional programming methods is very costly and time consuming – often prohibitively so. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Jesse Shiah, CEO, President, and Co-Founder of AgilePoint Inc., discussed how you can create applications that run on all mobile devices as well as laptops and desktops using a visual drag-and-drop application – and eForms-buildi...
Jan. 30, 2015 10:00 AM EST Reads: 2,870
Jan. 30, 2015 09:30 AM EST Reads: 3,123
"For over 25 years we have been working with a lot of enterprise customers and we have seen how companies create applications. And now that we have moved to cloud computing, mobile, social and the Internet of Things, we see that the market needs a new way of creating applications," stated Jesse Shiah, CEO, President and Co-Founder of AgilePoint Inc., in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 15th Cloud Expo, held Nov 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Jan. 30, 2015 09:30 AM EST Reads: 2,347
The Industrial Internet revolution is now underway, enabled by connected machines and billions of devices that communicate and collaborate. The massive amounts of Big Data requiring real-time analysis is flooding legacy IT systems and giving way to cloud environments that can handle the unpredictable workloads. Yet many barriers remain until we can fully realize the opportunities and benefits from the convergence of machines and devices with Big Data and the cloud, including interoperability, data security and privacy.
Jan. 30, 2015 09:00 AM EST Reads: 2,846
Things are being built upon cloud foundations to transform organizations. This CEO Power Panel at 15th Cloud Expo, moderated by Roger Strukhoff, Cloud Expo and @ThingsExpo conference chair, addressed the big issues involving these technologies and, more important, the results they will achieve. Rodney Rogers, chairman and CEO of Virtustream; Brendan O'Brien, co-founder of Aria Systems, Bart Copeland, president and CEO of ActiveState Software; Jim Cowie, chief scientist at Dyn; Dave Wagstaff, VP and chief architect at BSQUARE Corporation; Seth Proctor, CTO of NuoDB, Inc.; and Andris Gailitis, C...
Jan. 30, 2015 09:00 AM EST Reads: 2,803
Since 2008 and for the first time in history, more than half of humans live in urban areas, urging cities to become “smart.” Today, cities can leverage the wide availability of smartphones combined with new technologies such as Beacons or NFC to connect their urban furniture and environment to create citizen-first services that improve transportation, way-finding and information delivery. In her session at @ThingsExpo, Laetitia Gazel-Anthoine, CEO of Connecthings, will focus on successful use cases.
Jan. 30, 2015 07:45 AM EST Reads: 2,074


text:
Shares of American Software (AMSWA 1.09%) were trading up by almost 24% as of 2 p.m. EDT Wednesday after the company reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that demonstrated its progress in transitioning toward a recurring-revenue model.
For the period, which ended April 30, total revenue declined by 2% to $28.6 million, but that contraction was a function of how revenue gets recognized under a subscription model. American Software's subscription fees jumped by 28% to $8.1 million, and its cloud services annual contract value (ACV) increased by 45% to $38.3 million. Recurring revenue streams for maintenance and cloud subscriptions comprised 60% of total sales, up from 57% a year ago. That all resulted in adjusted net earnings jumping by 185% year over year to $3.6 million, or $0.11 per share.
"In the midst of the economic uncertainty resulting from the pandemic, we exited the year on a strong note with both net new Cloud Services ACV and total bookings more than doubling our prior highs for a quarter," CEO Allan Dow said in a statement. "Our performance reflects increasing adoption of cloud-based supply chain transformation solutions and our backlog as measured by our Remaining Performance Obligations (RPO) increased 51% to $116 million in the fourth quarter when compared to last year, which demonstrates the longer-term commitment of our customers to our platform and services."
The technology company does not provide formal guidance, but CFO Vince Klinges said on the conference call with analysts that American Software is generally targeting revenue growth in the low double-digit percentages, which should allow the company to achieve adjusted EBITDA margins of around 12% to 15%.

domain: news


text:
Aston Villa had an up and down season last year. Now, armed with a new coach and new kit, the Villains will be looking to return to former glory. Nike has unveiled the new Aston Villa away kit which is available for pre-order.
The new shirt features a White/Grey checkered pattern that encompasses the whole shirt while Claret trims, such as the rounded neck, add to the jersey. Aston Villa also have a new sponsor in Genting, who replace FxPro on the front of the shirt.
Made from Nike Considered recycled material, both the shirt and shorts are produced using up to 13 discarded plastic water bottles, making it Nike’s greenest ever kit.


text:
Funeral co-op offers lower costs than traditional facilities
Published 10:00 pm, Tuesday, July 10, 2007
There is no hearse, no place for embalming and caskets are ordered off a large plasma TV screen via the Internet.
Across the hall from the cozy office with comfortable plush chairs and couches is a dentist's office, and overhead are a handful of apartments in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Welcome to a new kind of funeral business, courtesy of the 100,000-member People's Memorial Association, which promises below-market prices and substantial savings on funerals and cremations.
The association, which began in 1939 in Seattle when a minister concerned about funeral costs began seeking low-cost alternatives, opened the People's Memorial Funeral Cooperative recently after a major company canceled a contract for local funeral services.
- Dispensaries doing brisk business as customers celebrate 4/20 KTVU
- Is Amazon's Best Buy Partnership an Olive Branch? Cheddar TV
- Study Shows Earning More Money Causes This Major Problem at Work Buzz 60
- Snapchat Has Disappearing...Users Cheddar TV
- Poll: Less Than Half Of Americans Think Their Taxes Are Too High Buzz 60
- Chicago women helping other by investing in female entrepreneurs Fox32
- 3 Ways Walmart Is Changing the Grocery Game Fortune
- Greenfield green rush: First cannabis facility adds 278 jobs KSBW
- Crazy Tech Worth a Million Dollars Storyful
- This Early Spotify Investor Isn't Concerned Shares Have Pulled Back Cheddar TV
- Delta Airlines, Sears Say They Were Hit By Cyberattack Buzz 60
- Tragedy into Triumph: Local girl's illness inspires business KMBC
- Walmart Is Reportedly in Talks to Buy Humana Buzz 60
- DocuSign Is the Latest Tech Unicorn to File for an IPO Fortune
- Empowering women in business Fox9
- Ikea creating meatballs out of insects Fox29
- Remington Files for Bankruptcy Amid a 'Trump Slump' in Gun Sales Time
- Moms making a job comeback Fox 26 Houston
- People With This Occupation Are Happiest Even Without Job Security Buzz 60
- PayPal CEO: A Company's Most Valuable Resource is its Employees Fortune
The five-employee cooperative serves as a conduit, and contracts cremation and mortuary services. The savings, which range from a few hundred dollars to more than $1,000 when compared with traditional funeral homes, are passed on to members who pay a one-time $25 fee to join the association.
"The savings are pretty substantial, and the other thing we promise our members is they don't get any sales pressure," said John Eric Rolfstad, executive director of the People's Memorial Association, which owns the co-op. "We do this as a public service to enable consumers to make better choices."
The funeral co-op, in business for one month, already has served nearly 50 families, and the goal is to do at least $1 million in business annually, with $60,000 in net earnings. If the co-op is successful, Rolfstad said it might purchase its own crematorium to push costs even lower.
The co-op, which has at least 40,000 members in Seattle, is part of a small but growing sector that has emerged in the past few years to offer consumers an alternative to the high cost of dying, which can exceed $10,000 for a funeral and burial.
Bill Miner, of La Mesa, Calif., said he used the co-op when his father, Bill, died July 2. The elder Miner was living in an Alzheimer's care facility in Lynnwood, and the man's financial adviser signed him up with the association about two years ago.
When he died, the co-op took care of handling the body and all cremation details and sent the urn with his remains to California for a total cost of less than $800.
"The cost was surprisingly low for what they did," Miner said. "There were no pretenses, they really did care and provide a service, and they made it a wonderful experience despite what we were dealing with, which was the death of a loved one."
Others trying to save consumers money include Everest Funeral Package of Houston, which in spring 2005 launched a fee-based online service that lets consumers compare funeral service prices by ZIP code.
Mark Duffey, chief executive of Everest, said that with more than 2 million Americans dying every year, there is a demand for his service.
"Once people see the information, it makes a lot of sense to them. They can figure it out and they are empowered," Duffey said.
Locally, Issaquah-based Costco Wholesale Corp. began selling caskets online in October 2004 and then started selling urns five months later. A Costco executive said customers save up to 50 percent compared with the cost of caskets and urns at funeral parlors because the company follows its guideline of not marking up a product by more than 14 percent.
Costco said it sells "thousands" of caskets and urns annually, and most are sold in the West. The company also promotes the items at kiosks in a few warehouses.
"The reason we got into this business is we felt the funeral homes had a monopoly on the product and were not offering the consumer the best value," said Liz Elsner, vice president of Costco.com.
Mark Musgrove, past president of the National Funeral Directors Association, said his organization has no problem with consumers shopping around, but he added that it's unfair to accuse his industry of inflating prices.
Musgrove, a funeral director in Eugene, Ore., said businesses like his are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to transfer remains, and funeral homes need to make capital improvements. He said most funeral homes have less than a 7 percent profit margin.
"Funeral homes are not making unreasonable profits," Musgrove said. "We are doing what we can to help the community. ... You need to make sure when you select a funeral home you are getting someone experienced and licensed and able to help you design the kind of service you want."
Musgrove said his industry is an easy target for criticism because "no one wants to purchase a funeral."
In the Northwest, Musgrove said a funeral costs about half of the $6,500 national average because of a high percentage of cremations in Washington (64 percent) and Oregon (63 percent). Southern states such as Alabama and Mississippi have a cremation rate of less than 10 percent.
Rolfstad, meanwhile, is confident the People's Memorial Funeral Cooperative can offer lower prices because the association has collected funeral and cremation data from the competition, which is shared with members who are shopping around.
The most recent survey, done this year, of 170 funeral homes in Western and Central Washington found the average price for a cremation was $1,492, while a complete funeral, which includes embalming, viewing facilities and chapel services, had an average price of $3,946.
At the co-op, the cost of a cremation starts at $649 and a full mortuary service with a metal casket costs $2,599.
Rolfstad said to his knowledge there are only two other funeral co-ops in the country, and they primarily serve farm communities in Wisconsin and Oklahoma.
Josh Slocum, executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, said it's still too early to determine whether the Seattle-based co-op will catch on with others in the nearly 400,000-member alliance.
"It may not be right for everybody," Slocum said. "But I hope it will have an effect on the commercial industry. I hope it puts pressure on them to do things differently. ... The industry has to react to have more moderate prices. A good deed will be done no matter how it gets done."


text:
Axie Infinity Origins goes live on Apple App Store
Sky Mavis has announced that Axie Infinity Origins has finally gone live on the Apple App Store, although only for a limited selection of countries.
Focusing on Latin America and parts of southeast Asia, the launch territories include Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Venezuela, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
The move is the latest step in Sky Mavis’ longterm plan to build on the foundations of Axie Infinity Classic’s success in 2021 with a better gaming experience that doesn’t require players to own NFTs and which is available through traditional app stores.
However, holders of Axie NFTs will be able to use them in the app, although other blockchain features available within the app are limited to Moonshard crafting recipes. Crafting recipes using the SLP token have to be undertaken via the desktop version of the game.
Origins is already available on the Google Play Store, although again only for certain countries.
To-date, also including downloads of the APK and the Win/Mac version, Axie Infinity Origins has been downloaded more that 1.5 million times.
“Sky Mavis remains committed to our vision of a player-owner digital nation and is excited to work with app stores to open our ecosystem to a new generation of Lunacians,” commented CEO Trung Nguyen.
“The launch of both Axie Origins on the app store and our very own Mavis Marketplace is an important step towards creating more accessible and dynamic web3 gaming experiences. We have exciting updates on the horizon, including the much-anticipated release of our merch store, and are thrilled to continue to provide our community with more ways to engage with the Axie Infinity brand.”
In related news, Sky Mavis has also announced the launch of Mavis Market, a curated marketplace running on the Ronin blockchain on which selected projects including games can launch NFT collections.
All NFTs will be priced in the RON token, with Sky Mavis taking a 2% fee and Ronin treasury a 0.5% fee. Content creators can set their own royalty fee, which is guaranteed at the protocol level.


text:
Business Connect Mobile is launching in cities around the world, launching with Apple Stores in London, New York, London, Sydney and Paris.
The new business connects businesses to customers and is an effort to help businesses find and sell products and services that people want.
The company, founded by former Apple Retail Marketing manager Ian Smith, aims to help companies find new customers, grow their business, and build trust.
The app allows users to find products, services and other products they want to buy online, or through a dedicated app.
The app uses Apple’s built-in social network to connect businesses to their customers, as well as customers to their stores.
The social app allows businesses to find customers and grow their businesses in a way that is intuitive and easy to use.
For instance, a shop can be registered, and users can post reviews, and see who is currently looking for a particular item.
The store can then send an email to its customers with the information, and they can either purchase the item, or cancel.
The customer can then cancel.
A user can also make an order on the app, and a payment will be made through the app.
Business Connect lets users find and sign up for businesses.
They can use the app to find other businesses that they want the user to sign up with, as they may have similar needs or want to connect with one of the users.
There are no limits to how many users a business can have.
It is currently limited to 5 people, and the app allows up to 30 users to sign in.
The Business Connect app has been available on the App Store for iOS and Android.
Apple says it has over 100,000 registered users in the US, and has a following of over 50 million people worldwide.
Business Connect Mobile will be available in Australia and New Zealand starting next week, and it is expected to launch in Europe later in the year.
Apple is also working with an Australian-based startup called Smartshop to create a business card service that is similar to the one Business Connect offers.
It will allow businesses to create, manage and deliver their own cards for a small fee.


text:
Published on : Monday, October 21, 2019
American has been named as the Heat’s first international marketing partner as apart of the new NBA program beginning this season allowing teams to designate international sponsorship rights.
As an international partner American is one of the first NBA team partners to utilize the worldwide rights and connect with Heat fans around the world but previously sponsors were limited to a 75-mile marketing territory.
Teams are permitted global advertising and marketing rights worldwide; activation at retail locations globally and rights to post non-game team content on the sponsors’ own digital and social media sites as a part of the international program.
The opportunity to celebrate the passion of Heat fans, both in Miami and internationally is in sync with American’s place as Miami’s largest international carrier.
American will be the presenting partner of the Heat City Edition uniform campaign while the City Edition gave birth to the wildly popular Heat Vice uniform.
The three iterations of the Vice uniform have sold more than all other franchises combined since 2018.
Janelle Anderson, American vice president – global marketing said that as they celebrated the 30th anniversary of our Miami hub, the expanded partnership with the Heat is the perfect opportunity to recognise Miami and the major role it plays in connecting our customers to the rest of the world.
Tags: American Airlines


text:
(Originally published Sept. 26, 2005)
The biggest spa trend among hotel companies these days is to develop an in-house spa brand that can be offered at multiple sites and destinations. To accomplish this, chains either are forming partnerships with existing well-known spa companies, or are creating spa brands of their own.
"In the past, hotels built spas because they had to have one in order to attract guests," said spa industry consultant Glenn Colarossi. "There wasn't much expectation that the spa would be a profit center. But now that every hotel has a spa, hotels want to differentiate their spas and make them profitable."
Among the leaders in this practice is Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which is introducing the Bliss spa brand at selected W Hotels and the Remède spa brand at certain St. Regis hotels.
Meanwhile, Wyndham Hotels, which began opening Golden Door spas at several resorts a few years ago, recently announced the creation of a new spa brand called Sasura that it plans to implement at hotels throughout the company.
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts continues to bring Willow Stream, its in-house spa brand, to additional properties, and has formed a spa management training partnership between Willow Stream and Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration. And Noble House Hotels & Resorts not only is expanding its in-house brand, SpaTerre, to additional Noble House properties, but has recently signed spa management agreements with hotels outside the company.
While Colarossi sees some operational advantages in hotel-branded spas, he also sees some potential pitfalls.
"Spa brands make for consistency, but hotel guests often want a unique experience," he said. "The spa needs to be tailored to the location. It should not be a cookie-cutter operation."
According to Patrick Colee, chairman of Seattle-based Noble House, the creation of the SpaTerre brand, currently at nine of the 12 Noble House properties, has been well received by meeting planners and guests.
"We feel it offers guests a consistency of service, but beyond that it has enabled us to run better spas," he said. "We now have nine spa directors who get together and keep each other up to date about what's happening in the spa world. It means better training and more expertise."
Earlier this year, Noble House added SpaTerre facilities to three properties in Florida, including the Grove Isle Resort in Miami. While the spas offer similar products and treatments, they also maintain their own style and atmosphere.
The 6,000-square-foot Grove Isle facility features an Asian-inspired décor along with seven treatment rooms, a meditation area, a salon, a Watsu pool with waterfall, and outdoor massage areas with bay views.
Another new SpaTerre is at The Shores Resort, formerly the Hilton Daytona Beach, which opened in March after a $20 million renovation. The spa facility offers five treatment rooms, a salon and fitness center. The other new SpaTerre is at the Ocean Key Resort in Key West, a 2,550-square-foot facility with six treatment rooms, a salon and a fitness center.
Several Bliss spas are opening at W hotels this year and next, the result of Starwood's 2004 purchase of the Bliss Spa and Toiletries Co., a company that runs fashionable day spas in New York and London.
The first opened in January at the W New York, a 23,000-square-foot facility with 17 treatment rooms, a grooming studio, steam showers and overnight Spa Lofts.
Next to come was a 5,000-square-foot Bliss spa at the W San Francisco, which opened in July with eight treatment rooms, a beauty boutique and heated outdoor terraces.
In October, the third Bliss spa will open on the eighth floor of the W Chicago–Lakeside, offering 16 treatment rooms and lounges with expansive views of Lake Michigan. Additional Bliss spas are set for W hotels in Dallas and Los Angeles next year.
Starwood's purchase of Bliss, which included the Labratoire Remède brand of skincare products, was the inspiration for pairing its new Remède spa brand with selected St. Regis hotels. Guests at the spas are able to order champagne, truffles and other luxurious items off a gourmet menu.
The first Remède opened in December at the St. Regis Resort, Aspen, while the second was scheduled to open this month at the St. Regis Hotel, New York.
The new St. Regis Hotel, San Francisco will include a Remède Spa when the property opens in November. Another Remède Spa is scheduled to debut at the new St. Regis Fort Lauderdale and Residences next spring.
Finally, Wyndham's new Sasura brand is a scaled-down or "boutique" version of the Golden Door spa brand that the company acquired several years ago. More intimate in size, the Sasura spas will feature some signature Golden Door treatments as well as some that are unique to the brand.
The first Sasura opened in July at the Wyndham Buttes Resort, Tempe, Ariz., with more set for selected properties over the next 10 years.


text:
Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade is drafting a strategy to increase the country’s direct rice export rate and boost the sale of the Vietnam Rice national brand to high-end markets by 2030.
The trade ministry is making a draft strategy to develop Vietnam's rice export until 2030, which highlights many solutions for boosting demand through negotiations, entering new markets, and increasing exports with a tariff reduction road map.
By 2025, the proportion of low- and medium-grade white rice will have accounted for no more than 15 percent of the country’s rice exports, while high-grade and fragrant rice, japonica rice, and specialty rice will constitute 40 percent.
Rice with high added value such as nutritious rice, parboiled rice, organic rice, and processed products will make up five percent.
By 2030, the direct export of rice will have generated 60 percent of the country’s rice export turnover, while products under the Vietnam Rice trademark will account for 25 percent.
To realize these goals, Vietnam needs to implement policies related to agricultural land, attract investment, promote mechanization and high technology in production, develop more rice varieties, and effectively use the Vietnam Rice trademark, the trade ministry stated.
Certain requirements in production and processing should be established to make sure that the quality of rice meets standards of the country as well as of demanding markets such as the European Union.
The development strategy also focuses on restructuring the rice industry and agricultural production, as well as providing solutions for the production and control of pesticide residues toward the implementation of clean agricultural production.
In addition, the country will tighten the management of imported rice via non-tariff measures and technical barriers.
Vietnam has grown and exported rice for many years, Nguyen Thanh Phuoc, head of the Sub-Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang, stated, adding that it is a pity that no rice brand has become the national trademark.
The rice cultivation skills of local farmers have improved, and it is not difficult to produce high-quality rice varieties, Phuoc continued.
In order to have large output and stable quality, export businesses need to cooperate closely with farmers, the official proposed.
Farmers and businesses must play the central roles in boosting the exports of products under the Vietnam Rice brand, said Vo Cong Thuc, head of the food quality management department of Loc Troi Group, a manufacturer and supplier of agricultural products and services.
After noticing the positive signals from the European market, Loc Troi Group has boosted its investment into local farmers to ensure the interests of both sides.
If farmers do not comply with European rice export standards, businesses will suffer losses as they fail to provide high-quality products for their partners.
Farmers’ compliance with international standards of farmers is decisive in producing high-quality rice grains and increasing the value of Vietnam’s rice export in the global market, Thuc remarked.


text:
What should we expect when it comes to gardening trends in Ottawa for 2018? Each year a company called Garden Media Group researches global consumer trends to get a sense of the direction we’re headed. It has predicted the growing popularity of things like outdoor living, vegetable gardening and vertical gardening.
The company recently released its trends for 2018, which had an overall theme of “nature’s prescription for mental health” and how gardening has several benefits. This goes beyond the therapeutic effect of letting your mind wander while you pull weeds.
The report cites a forecast by the World Health Organization that predicts mental health issues, and specifically depression, will be the No. 1 global disease burden by 2030. Perhaps that’s a reflection of our 24/7 society, in which everyone is plugged in all the time, with no down time to clear our heads. What Garden Media is seeing is an effort to shift away from this a bit and give us time to stop and, literally, smell the roses.
So, here’s what some of this natural prescription that is manifesting in trends includes.
We’re increasingly being forced to garden in a changing climate, where we can no longer predict what conditions will be, which can be stressful.
“We are in the unfortunate situation of being the first generation of gardeners, ever, who cannot rely on historical weather records to tell us what our climate is, or what to expect in the future,” says David Wolfe of Cornell University’s Department of Horticulture.
As a way to combat this, gardeners are looking for resilient weather-hardy plants that can stand up to extreme conditions. At the same time, indoor gardening is gaining in popularity, whether it’s a simple herb garden in your window, a garden cultivator (a high-tech cabinet-like appliance), or your own greenhouse to control growing conditions and even grow year-round.
Along with indoor gardening, we’re also keen to expand on the inside/outside connection that’s become popular in recent years.
The National Association of Landscape Professionals, a U.S. group whose findings are applicable here, is seeing a growing interest in what it calls “interiorscapes” – or indoor landscapes.
Things like living walls made entirely of greenery and other plants create dramatic focal points in interior rooms and courtyards, while tropical container gardens, such as arrangements of edible citrus trees, bring a taste of the island life to our cooler climates.
Needs of the many
A big shift in horticulture is expected to be away from thinking about plants individually and instead thinking of them as an interrelated group or community, Garden Media says. We see this happening in nature all the time: When you walk through a forest, every square inch of soil is covered with a mosaic of interlocking plants.
Extending that idea to formal gardens changes the focus to management rather than maintenance as planting in combinations tends to solve the issues of gardens that don’t work visually or don’t function without a lot of maintenance and intervention. This is also sometimes referred to as companion planting, such as planting carrots with tomatoes because they complement each other when it comes to what they give and take from the soil, resulting in better harvests with less pest issues.
There’s also a rise in plant-based diets, fuelled in large part by millennials who are flexitarians, which means they are mostly vegetarian but will occasionally eat meet. And they increasingly want to grow their food themselves, with an emphasis on plants that provide protein, such as peas, broccoli, kale, and sunflower seeds. Clean, sustainably sourced food from our own backyard was recently identified as a trend at the Global Wellness Summit.
There’s a bit of a purple theme trending for next year.
The Perennial Plant Association, a trade group that many horticultural societies use as a guide, has chosen Allium ‘Millenium’, an ornamental onion with lilac-purple blooms, as its perennial of 2018.
And one of the biggest plant brands, Proven Winners, has chosen Black Pearl Heuchera, more commonly known as Coral Bells, as its perennial of the year. Like allium, this is a low grower. It has white and pink flowers and leaves that are purplish on the underside.
Proven Winners has also named its annual of 2018: the purple petunia Supertunia Bordeaux.
Low maintenance is a recurring theme, whether it’s in the garden, outdoor living spaces or our home exteriors. Low-maintenance gardens, drought-tolerant plants and less grass are becoming the norm in landscape design.
There’s an assumption that sustainable design will be a major part of the plan, partly due to cost, but also largely due to more frequent weather extremes like what Ottawa experienced in 2017.
In our outdoor spaces, we are looking for materials that will give us the natural look without the associated work – so things like wood-look decks that aren’t wood and weather-resistant furniture fabrics.
And it’s becoming the norm to either mix our vegetables in with our ornamental gardens, or even put our veggies front and centre. Forget banishing them to the back forty.


text:
By Eric Smalley
November 20, 2012
Many people are product designers, even if they don’t know it. In fact, millions of people have become innovators but are generally not recognized as such. They are the tinkerers who modify products to suit their needs, and they represent a paradigm shift in product design and development. SDM’s Eric von Hippel is measuring this trend and developing strategies for businesses to adapt to the changing landscape.
Von Hippel, the T. Wilson (1953) Professor in Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Professor of Engineering Systems in the MIT Engineering Systems Division, studies the sources of innovation and develops new processes to improve product development.
He recently conducted a study of consumer product innovation in the US, the United Kingdom, and Japan, and found that innovation is as much the province of product users as it is product producers. "Data shows there’s a huge amount of activity and it’s invisible," said von Hippel. "People assume that the producers are the innovators so they don’t measure user innovation at all."
Von Hippel and colleagues determined that consumers in each of the three countries spend billions of dollars on product innovation. They estimated that US consumers spend one third of the amount that businesses spend on consumer product research and development in the US. The researchers described the work in the paper "The Age of the Consumer-Innovator," published in the fall 2011 issue of MIT Sloan Management Review.
The innovation paradigm shift from producer-centered to user-centered is catching many businesses flat-footed, von Hippel said. "Some new companies are built around that concept," he said. But "many traditional companies still don’t get it at all, so we’re in a transition. To convince people that the world is different now is not an easy task."
The key is to help businesses tap into the wellspring of consumer innovation. "Many of the things that companies develop internally are already developed by user communities," he said. "If companies could simply get these lead users to work with them, they could do a much more successful job of innovation," he said.
To support user innovation, businesses need to organize product development systems to accept prototypes developed by users, said von Hippel. Businesses also need to create developers’ toolkits and user forums, give credit to user innovators, and avoid the stifling effects of unfocused intellectual property protection strategies.
Von Hippel is writing a book that describes changes in innovation, including user innovation and crowdsourcing.
Von Hippel joined the MIT faculty in 1973. "My father was a professor here too, and I actually have been hanging around the place since I was 12 years old," he said.
One aspect of MIT that stands out is the faculty’s high level of practical experience, which is particularly useful for teaching in the SDM program where most of the students are midcareer professionals, said von Hippel. Another aspect is the high degree of collaboration. "Professors are very accessible and there’s no real sense of hierarchy," he said. "People are delighted to work with each other across levels."
Eric von Hippel


text:
Although the agreement between BMW and FC Bayern Munich has now been officially confirmed by Bayern President Uli Hoeneß, the first joint appearance of the two partners could drag on for a long time. As Audi CEO Bram Schot said on the sidelines of the Ingolstadt general meeting, the VW subsidiary wants to ” sit out “the current sponsorship agreement until the regular end in 2025.”
There is clearly a sign that Audi is far from satisfied with the current developments in the long-standing partnership. No wonder: The advertising effect for Audi is damaged by the announcement of the replacement by the rival BMW.
Although no one wants to officially confirm it, the announcement to the public by Supervisory Board member Edmund Stoiber and the subsequent confirmation by Uli Hoeneß may well have been meant as a message to Audi: We have a new automotive partner and do not want to hide that anymore.
But allowing BMW to enter early in the partnership doesn’t seem to be in the books for Audi. It is also not excluded that the VW subsidiary wants to keep the ongoing sponsorship agreement as a means of pressure against the BMW Group, at least as long as the Munich bosses are blocking the departing board member Markus Duesmann to join Audi.
Whether Audi really holds on to the Bayern sponsorship until 2025, remains to be seen.


text:
Difference between sustainable, responsible, regenerative tourism and transformative travel – according to sustainability leaders expert panel.
Darrell Wade of Intrepid on how the travel company champions carbon management and sustainable tourism development around the world.
Les Carlisle of andBeyond in this interview shares his learnings from 30 years of wildlife conservation and sustainable tourism development in Africa.
Eduardo Santander, Executive Director of ETC, the European Travel Commission, on Destination Europe, sustainable tourism and travel after the pandemic.
Peter De Wilde of VISITFLANDERS on destination sustainability strategies, purposeful marketing and the way ahead for sustainable tourism in Europe.


text:
• Fairhurst has spent the past five years at APN Outdoor
The super-sized digital billboard captures three lanes of inbound traffic heading towards the CBD.
O’Connor said it will be business as usual for the two companies during the integration planning phase.
APN Outdoor is the Official Outdoor Media Partner of the Invictus Games Sydney 2018.
At the meeting 95.50% of APN Outdoor shareholders voted in favour of the takeover.
• Research report Go Out With Us released
"We have acted quickly to effect a significant turnaround of APN Outdoor"
The ACCC has been reviewing both acquisitions in the out-of-home advertising sector.
APN Outdoor has extended its existing contract with Sydney Airport in a new landmark deal.
• oOh!media released its half year results this week with revenue jumping 11%
• They follow the launch in early July this year of Dn’A, a data and analytics innovation
APNO offers advertisers access to three of New Zealand’s busiest airports.
Context Media shops NZ adaption of ABC hit series You Can’t Ask That
Business reposition: Tonic Health Media rebrands to Tonic Media Network
Celebrating Queensland media excellence: All the Clarion Award winners
Publisher ACM announces launch of Northern Rivers Review in northern NSW
Mediaweek Roundup: Sunrise, Hamish McLennan, Ben Fordham, Tim Bailey + more
ARIA Chart: Former #1 hits won’t go away, Machine Gun Kelly highest debut


text:
Nintendo Wii countdown has begunMe
In America and Japan at least. I haven’t yet heard when it is going to be arriving in Europe, but its going to be a 11th of November launch in America for $249 including the games to show off the new controller – tennis, bowling, boxing, golf to name but a few. Hope it gets here soon.
Read engadgets overview of the press conference here : http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/14/live-at-nintendos-nyc-wii-press-conference/
Its only going to be in white in the US, with only one controller bundled, but the online service is looking good with such things as photo sharing and avatars built in.comments powered by Disqus


text:
By: Brian Baker
Brian is a scientist specializing in organic practices, standards, and regulations. He has analyzed the impacts of organic food and farming on the environment and human well-being for several decades.
Demand for organic food in the US continues to grow, but the domestic supply has been unable to keep pace. Sales of organic food have grown a little over 20% per year for over a decade and passed the $55 billion mark in 2019, according to the Organic Trade Association.
But growth in the acres devoted to organic farming in the U.S. has lagged far behind sales. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so do markets.
When the National Organic Program (NOP) rule was implemented in 2002, the USDA reported 1.93 million acres in certified organic production. The best estimates today report organic acreage in the US somewhere between 3 and 5 million acres, while sales have risen more than four-fold.
The problem has been particularly acute with organic feed grains, mainly corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, and barley. According to a 2019 USDA report, organic corn is only about 0.3% of total corn and organic soybeans are 0.2% of total soybeans. Organic wheat and barley also make up much less than 1% of the total acreage of those crops as well. The shortage should pose an opportunity for farmers to transition, but for many reasons it has not. As a result of this shortage, there was a ten-fold increase in the imports of organic grains into the US between 2006 and 2016.
In 2017, the organic world was rocked by a scandal exposed by the Washington Post. Grain imported from Turkey in containers was labeled as organic, but originated from non-organic fields in the Black Sea region. It arrived in ships loaded to the plimsoll.
Not all fraud in the organic market is from imports. In 2019, Randy Constant of Ossian, Iowa pled guilty to sales of an eye-popping $142 million worth of falsely labeled organic feed grains sold by his company, Jericho Solutions. The elaborate interstate racket took place over a five-year period with several accomplices in an elaborate con game. By some estimates, at the peak of Constant’s fraudulent grain scheme, it accounted for 7% of the organic feedstuffs market.
Fraud undermines consumer confidence and hurts legitimate organic producers through unfair competition. In response to the fraud, the USDA has proposed some of the most sweeping amendments to the National Organic Program rule since it was first promulgated in 2000. The deadline for comments is October 5, 2020. Titled “Strengthening Organic Enforcement”, the proposed rule contains 13 provisions. Many seek to close loopholes exploited to perpetrate and conceal fraud.
In brief and often in the weeds, the proposed provisions seek to:
- Reduce the number of entities in the supply chain that operate without USDA oversight, including importers, brokers, and traders that currently claim they are exempt from the NOP regulation.
- Require that all organic products entering the US are accompanied by NOP import certificates, or their equivalent, to create a stronger audit trail.
- Clarify and strengthen the USDA’s enforcement authority and provide greater on-going oversight of Accredited Certifying Agents (ACAs).
- Clarify the labeling required on non-retail containers used to ship or store organic product.
- Specify a minimum number of unannounced inspections that ACAs conduct of the operations subject to their oversight.
- Require ACAs to issue standardized certificates to certified operations, and enter consistent data in the Organic Integrity Database.
- Clarify that certified operations only need to submit changes to their organic system plan during their inspection and that ACAs must conduct annual inspections.
- Establish specific qualification and training requirements for ACA personnel, including inspectors and certification reviewers.
- Clarify the conditions to establish, evaluate, and terminate equivalence determination with trading partners.
- Clarify and strengthen enforcement procedures, particularly limiting the scope of what adverse decisions can be appealed.
- Establish certification requirements for grower groups.
- Clarify the requirements of minimum organic content in multi-ingredient organic products with non-organic ingredients.
- Require improved recordkeeping, fraud prevention, and auditing procedures.
Credit needs to be given to the USDA for recognizing that the organic community faces a serious problem. Approaches to strengthen enforcement on the supply side and administrative requirements will help deter fraud, if adopted and applied. For example, many handlers currently claim to be exempt. Even when they don’t qualify for exemption, grifters like Constant show they can evade detection for years.
Retailers—either knowingly or unknowingly—are also driving fraud by setting unrealistic price points from vendors and co-packers. Retailers and brand owners are claiming exemption from certification as they use increasingly complex and opaque supply chains to fill store shelves with organic products.
The USDA proposal is not perfect. The organic community is encouraged to study it carefully and provide constructive comments. No doubt some of the proposed regulations will have unintended consequences. Some of the measures may even be counterproductive.
I’m concerned that some of the administrative requirements will punish the innocent with more red tape, while doing nothing to deter guilty criminals. Clearly, better qualified certification personnel are needed to meet new requirements imposed on ACAs and their inspectors. Otherwise, the amendments may actually impair the ability to detect and prosecute fraud.
However, none of the provisions address the root cause of fraud and what is driving it: Greater demand for organic food than U.S. organic farms can currently supply.
By now, it is obvious that current U.S. and European demand for organic feed grains cannot be met by legitimate organic product. If the organic livestock sector is to continue to grow, more land needs to be transitioned to organic. Full stop.
If it is cheaper and risk-free to substitute conventional grain with impunity, then that will continue to happen. The organic community needs to wake up to the fact that we are dealing with domestic and international organized crime on a massive scale, especially with “organic” feed grains coming from eastern Europe.
The OTA Grains Council identified U.S. barriers to the adoption of organic practices. One barrier that they did not mention, but should have, is the widespread fraud that drives down prices and increases market risk.
Because it takes three years to transition cropland to organic production, only the highly motivated—or desperate—take the plunge. As a result, the expansion of the U.S. organic feed grain supply is slow and constrained.
We need creative solutions to a complex set of problems. Here are a few ideas:
Link Expansion of Organic Animal Production to Proportional Expansion of Feed and Forage Production Capacity
Much of the demand for organic feed has come from large-scale confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) that are certified organic. In between the first and second proposed NOP rule, the USDA raised the question as to whether factory farms should even be eligible for certification. The response from the organic community — and consumers — was overwhelmingly “No!”
Poultry integrators can start an organic chicken operation quickly and without transitioning any land — and they have. The contentious and still challenged withdrawal of the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practice standard has permitted these CAFOs to remain certified.
Organic Valley has pioneered transition payments for future organic feed and forage sources, but that has not been adopted by other handlers of livestock products. In the absence of policy changes to reduce the cost or increase the incentives when transitioning cropland to organic systems, organic feed prices will need to rise significantly to create a sufficient incentive for transition.
Pay Transitioning and Organic Farmers for Ecosystem Services
One attractive option is for a public-private partnership to establish land area payments for the transition and maintenance of land in organic production. Many scientists have concluded that a global campaign to sequester carbon via enhancement of soil organic matter, coupled with a phase out of most fossil fuels, is the only realistic path to save life as we know it on planet earth.
Organic farmers thrive only when they build and sustain high levels of soil organic matter. Tying farm income support programs—including crop insurance—to maintaining and improving soil organic matter and soil quality will help ensure current farm income does not come at the expense of future productivity and accelerated climate change.
Level the Playing Field between Conventional and Organic
A policy intervention like this would not cost any more money and would have tons of leverage given the historically high level of federal subsidies now flowing to production agriculture. The subsidies that continue to make conventional grain a “no lose” proposition put organic commodities at a competitive disadvantage.
Conventional farmers are faced with incentives to apply more fertilizers and pesticides than needed to qualify for such programs, rather than having those inputs priced to reflect their costs to human health and the environment. By internalizing conventional farming’s external costs, and paying producers who maintain soil health, farming and food will more fully reflect its true cost.
Eliminate the Replacement Dairy Stock Loophole
Another loophole that needs to be closed is the origin of organic livestock. Some dairy producers are selling heifers to be fed conventional feed, and then buying them back a year before they start milking them. Despite a directive from Congress, the USDA still has not acted on the National Organic Standards Board’s (NOSB’s) recommendation. This is nothing short of blatant organic feed fraud disguised as bending the rules. It is one more practice that puts integrated crop-livestock dairy producers who have well-managed pastures at a competitive disadvantage to CAFOs that rely heavily on purchased grain.
Hold Accountable the Beneficiaries of Fraud
By allowing organic factory farms to be certified without requiring them to support the transition of sufficient land to meet their animal feeding requirements, the USDA created an incentive for growth of both home-grown fraud and bogus imports. This bad mojo has festered for 20 years, allowing the volume of fraudulent organic feed grains to mushroom.
Interdiction of the shipments from the Black Sea region and the closure of Jericho Solutions did nothing to reduce the demand for organic feed. The animals on factory farms eat every day. These livestock producers have standing orders and are going to get the grain they need one way or another. The longer the USDA lets factory farms be certified without building the supply of organic feed, the worse the imbalance will get.
Small- and mid-sized organic operations will undoubtedly be hurt by the fallout. The feed mills and livestock producers buying bogus feedstuffs are either victims of fraud or accessories to it—most are likely a bit of both. Falling for a scam once is forgivable; continuing to profit from the scam after it has been brought to light is not. Until those who benefit from cheap, fraudulent organic grain are held accountable, the problem will continue to exist.
Detect Fraud and Deal With It in Real Time
Once grain is found to be mislabeled or fraudulent, it should be diverted immediately to the conventional market. If such grain makes it onto an organic livestock operation, there should be consequences sufficient to trigger heightened discipline in assuring sources of organic feed grains are legitimate.
At the end of the day, the most important measure to reduce organic fraud will be to expand the supply of legitimate, U.S. grown organic product. Rooting out fraud is only one, necessary step.
Based on my years working with and on behalf of organic farmers, here are seven concrete steps that will accelerate the transition of cropland to organic production:
- Recognize that regulations and the market are not enough to expand supply of organic food. Increases in demand must be tied to investments to increase supply. Evaluate and update the National Organic Action Plan to see what is needed to expand organic acreage, build organic capacity, and overcome barriers to the adoption of organic practices. Implement the plan at all levels in both the public and private sectors.
- Target the root cause of fraud by closing loopholes and exemptions for retailers, brokers, handlers, integrators, feedlots, and others who profit from artificially cheap organic food and feed. In egregious and clear-cut cases, hold bad apples financially accountable.
- Level the playing field between organic and conventional farms by internalizing the external costs of conventional farming.
- Make it clear that organic farming is a soil-based system based on ecological principles and practices.
- Establish green payments for transitioning and organic farms for the provision of carbon sequestration, beneficial habitat, and other ecosystem services.
- Restore the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practice standard and eliminate landless factory farms with zero transition times.
- Eliminate the replacement organic dairy stock loophole NOW!
It is time to make the transition to organic farming a win-win for consumers, the environment, and farmers.
The opinions expressed are Dr. Baker’s alone and do not reflect the opinions of his clients, or Benbrook Consulting Services and Hygeia Analytics.


text:
Learn the ins, outs, dos and don’ts of creator marketing at Social Media Week Europe this 10–11 October in London. Register for your in-person or virtual pass.
Hard seltzers may have made their initial summer splash in 2019, but momentum is still strong three summers on. Molson Coors-owned Vizzy Hard Seltzer first came on the scene last summer—differentiating itself with an infusion of vitamin C—and now it’s looking to stand out even further by offering fans an opportunity to truly embody the hard seltzer lifestyle by … smelling like one.
Starting Friday, fans have the opportunity to tout their favorite bubbly beverage poolside with new branded swimsuits.


text:
In April, 130 Orange County businesses were sold, a 26.2% increase from a year earlier although sales were down more than 15% from March, according to BizBen.com, a website that specializes in sales of California businesses.
March had seen the strongest sales of businesses, 153, in a year.
Business sales have been erratic over the past year, up six months and down six months and never a trend one way or the other. Sales have not been strong since the recession began in 2007 because it was accompanied by collapse of the real estate market. Many buyers tapped equity in their homes to finance business purchases.
Also, businesses themselves struggled with revenues and profits, lowering their value.
The April pattern of business sales that Orange County experienced was similar in surrounding counties and statewide. Year-over-year sales were higher in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties and California as a whole. But March to April sales declined.
San Diego had the largest year-over-year hike of almost 60%. The Inland Empire counties also had strong rebound of sales - 49% in Riverside County and 50% in San Bernardino - where the real estate crash hit hardest.
Other business stories...
- 10 best states for business
- 10 worst states for business
- CEOs: California is worst state for business
- Top 10 dying industries in America
- 35 coolest Angels products for 2012
- 10 of the most trusted brands in America
- 18 favorite franchises to own
- 11 must-see movies for entrepreneurs
- 12 best franchises to buy in 2012
- 12 surprising things made in Orange County
- 11 worst businesses to start in 2012
- 11 hottest businesses to start in 2012
- Man struck, killed after multi-vehicle crash on 241 toll road near 91 freeway
- Round 2: Second storm douses Orange County
- Woman gets year in jail for scamming investors, church members out of millions
- Cops searching for men who sideswiped police vehicle in Anaheim, crashed in Yorba Linda
- As Nordstrom exits Mainplace Mall, several new tenants are on tap for Santa Ana mall


text:
Ohio regulators have awarded the state’s first medical marijuana processor certificate. And that means there is now one company in the state, Grow Ohio, that can produce the cannabis products that are standard issue in many other medical-use states. Grow Ohio still has to run a few tests on its THC extractor equipment. But once it does, medical cannabis patients will soon be able to buy edibles, and they’ll have several types to choose from.
Grow Ohio Becomes First Licensed Medical Cannabis Processor in Ohio
Unlike the rapid, accelerated start of medical cannabis programs in places like Oklahoma, Ohio is still looking to gain its footing. Ohio legalized medical cannabis in mid-2016, but dispensaries didn’t open until mid-January 2019. And in between, patients had to wait through multiple setbacks. Businesses faced delays and threatened lawsuits over the licensing process. That bumped the growing timeline and delayed the first crop of medical cannabis. Meanwhile, the state kept missing deadlines to announce dispensary locations and certify doctors.
Since January, patients have had to deal with aggressive law enforcement, confiscations, interference from healthcare provider networks, and limited dispensary access. Soon, at least, they’ll be able to buy more than just flower at the dispensary. Grow Ohio is the first medical marijuana producer to receive a processor permit. But state regulators will soon award permits to another 39 processors.
Licensed processors will be able to convert their own harvested bud into a number of different forms, from oils, capsules and tinctures to lotions and edibles. Grow Ohio says it plans to produce gummies, edibles oils and tinctures first. After that, the company will move on to producing capsules and topical creams, likely in late-April.
Edibles and Oils Will Improve Patients’ Access to Medical Cannabis in Ohio
Like many medical-use states, Ohio prohibits patients from smoking their medical marijuana. But that rule has been a burden for Ohio patients, since flower has been the only form of cannabis available. As a result, patients have had to purchase expensive herb vaporizers to lawfully consume legal medical cannabis. Smoking cannabis can impact respiratory health, but it remains the most cost-effective means of consumption for many patients. Furthermore, inhalation is not the preferred method of consuming THC for several of the state’s 21 qualifying conditions.
States that banned smokable medical cannabis products made edible and topical alternatives available. Ohio, by contrast, is only now allowing companies to produce those alternatives. And that’s crucial for patients. “Different forms are going to be better for different conditions,” said Grow Ohio Executive VP Justin Hunt. “For arthritis, a patient would probably prefer a topical over plant material.”
Grow Ohio boasts a 60,000 square foot indoor grow and processing facility, making it a “Level 1” cultivator under Ohio’s Medical Marijuana Program. The facility, located in Zanesville, Ohio just east of Columbus, employs nearly 80 people. “We hired the right people, we have the right formulas and we are just excited to make a broader market available [for patients] that have registered in Ohio,” Hunt said. The company plans to hire more workers once its processing operations expand.
Smokable Cannabis Now Officially Available in Florida
Vice Media Has Linked With Philip Morris to Promote Tobacco Vaping in the UK
Alabama Lawmakers Pushing to Legalize Medical Marijuana
Survey Finds Majority of Montana Residents Want Legal Marijuana
Missouri Police Raid Hospital Room of Stage 4 Cancer Patient Using Cannabis
Oklahoma House Passes Medical Cannabis Protection Bill
Ohio Highway Patrol Confiscates 55 Gallons of CBD Oil During Traffic Stop
Colorado Researchers Seeking Volunteers to Get High and Drive
Culture3 days ago
What It Was Like Doing Mushrooms With Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir
News4 days ago
Over 800 CVS Stores Will Start Carrying CBD Products
News5 days ago
Pennsylvania Town Decriminalizes Marijuana, Sees Future in Legal Pot
Sponsored4 days ago
Three Reasons Why Live Resin Represents the Future of Cannabis Products
Health5 days ago
Study Finds Correlation of Daily High Potency Cannabis Use and Mental Illness
News6 days ago
Family of Man Killed by Bulldozer After Growing Pot Sues Police
News5 days ago
National Poll Finds 61 Percent of Americans in Favor of Legalizing Marijuana
News6 days ago
Ban on Smokable Medical Marijuana Officially Repealed in Florida


text:
Lehigh Technologies opens MRP plant in Spain
Production has commenced at Lehigh Technologies’ micronised rubber powder (MRP) plant in Spain. The Murillo el Fruto MRP facility in Navarra was built in partnership with recycling and sustainability specialist Hera Holding and is the first plant for Lehigh Technologies outside the USA.
The Murillo plant incorporates Lehigh’s proprietary cryogenic turbo mill technology and has the capacity to produce 10,000 tonnes of MRP a year. The plant will produce Lehigh’s PolyDyne and MicroDyne ranges, which are already used by customers, including tyre makers, in more than 18 countries around the world. The production line is co-located with Indugarbi NFU, a leading tyre recycler in Spain operated by Hera Holding; this close proximity to a tyre recycling facility will ensure efficient supply of granulate feedstock for the MRP manufacturing process.
Construction of the Navarra plant was managed by Lehigh and executed by UK-based Jex Engineering, with support from the Dennis Group and Air Products. The plant was commissioned at the end of June 2018 and employs the same layout and equipment as Lehigh’s Tucker, Georgia plant in the USA, ensuring consistent quality and products specification across all locations.
“I’m very proud of the international team that made this project successful,” said Jason Stravinski, Lehigh’s vice-president of operations. “Engineers from Lehigh US, Lehigh Spain and Hera Holding all worked together with the Jex project team to complete the project on time and on budget. We expect this plant will be a crucial component to meeting the rising demand for green chemicals in Europe and beyond.”
The plant in Navarra will supply the growing demand for Lehigh’s MRP product range from the tyre, bitumen, coatings, construction and polyurethane industries in Europe and the Middle East.
“Demand for Lehigh’s products is increasing rapidly and this new plant comes at the perfect time to support the growth,” said Lluís Molina, general manager Lehigh Spain. “The Murillo plant is the next step in Lehigh’s mission to commercialise MRP for customers in a wide range of performance driven markets.”
Lehigh Technologies became a subsidiary of Michelin in late 2017. Lehigh will contribute towards achieving Michelin’s recently announced goal that its new tyres will contain 80 per cent sustainable materials by 2048.


text:
Apple rose to the top of the ranks of the Fortune 50 on the success of the iPod, iPhone, iPad and MacBook, but to continue being a market leader, it needs new products.
Of the two products that Apple is believed to be working on -- a smart watch and a television -- a flat-screen TV has the potential to add billions in revenue to Apple's bottom line, according to a report from U.K.-based Generator Research.
The report predicts that Apple should be able to garner about 22% of the TV set market over the next 10 years.
Apple's market capitalization is around $473 billion. In order to maintain a market valuation approaching its market cap, Apple needs new products.
"Unless you make completely crazy assumptions about how fast sales of the iPhone and iPad will rise... then the only way you can get to a valuation that is close to the company's market capitalization is to assume that Apple will launch new products -- products that do not exist," Andrew Sheehy, a chief analyst with Generator Research, wrote in the report.
Sheehy said achieving a 22.2% television set market share by 2023 is less than what the company has already managed with the iPhone.
That 22% market share would translate into 72 million television units worth about $81 billion in revenue, Sheehy added. By comparison, Generator Research predicts a smart watch from Apple would achieve about $40 billion in revenue by 2020, and would level off after that.
Apple's worldwide revenue projection (Source: Generator Research).
In 2015, Apple's television unit sales would be around $2 million, representing a 0.7% share of total worldwide flat panel TV set shipments. However, shipments would then grow to reach 15 million in 2017 (4.9% market share) and 72 million units in 2023 (22.2% market share), according to Generator Research.
A market in turmoil
The global TV set market is expected to see its second consecutive annual decline in 2013 due to a slowdown in replacement and secondary purchases, according to Veronica Gonzalez-Thayer, an analyst with IHS Electronics & Media.
For Apple to attain a significant share of the TV market, the company would have to create demand through a unique product so that consumers would be willing to replace their existing sets or buy an additional one.
"Still, we would expect for this television to sell for a premium price, which could become an obstacle for Apple since the TV market is extremely price sensitive and has been suffering from declining margins for a few years," Gonzalez-Thayer wrote in in an email reply to Computerworld.
The television market is shifting from one dominated by Japanese companies, such as Sony, to South Korean companies, such as Samsung, Generator's report states.
"And in spite of assurances to the market that better times are ahead, Sony's TV set business continues to operate at a loss -- as has been the case for the last 8 years," Sheehy wrote in the report.
As Samsung's share of the worldwide TV set market grows, the company achieves two benefits: Increased profitability for its own business, allowing it to further invest in new products to maintain its competitiveness.
"The market is now locked into a state where it is almost a 'winner takes all' scenario: the further the pendulum swings in favor of Samsung, the harder it will be for rivals to pull it back," Sheehy wrote.
To be successful, Apple's TV set could not be a stand-alone product. To have mass appeal, Apple would need to offer expanded, exclusive content, tight integration with PCs, Macs, the iPhone and iPad and a new version of iTunes optimized for TV. The TV hardware itself would also need to be innovative in some way, perhaps with its resolution, Sheehy said.
A comparative marketshare between the iPhone and an Apple television set (Source: Generator Research).
Gonzalez-Thayer agreed that Apple will not be able to hang its hat on hardware alone since most of that will become standardized. Instead, Apple must develop new services.
"Most importantly, the integration with pay-TV services or an alternative and equally valuable video service," Gonzalez-Thayer stated. "Nevertheless, we expect for this potential Apple TV set to contain the most advanced features, great display and most likely some use of advanced controls (voice, gesture and/or motion commands)."
Apple's current television product is a set-top box called Apple TV, but as Sheehy notes, "it's not a transformative product" and its sales have been average at best.
To garner market share in the already mature flat-screen arena, Apple would need to do what it did with the iPod and iPhone, according the report. It took existing products -- an mp3 player and a mobile phone -- and carved out its own niche market.
To Sheehy, two obstacles remain to Apple's achieving a significant television marketshare: Tim Cook may not be the innovator that Steve Jobs was, and Apple needs content that separates it from the pack.
"I would not just expect to see an improved version of iTunes (optimized for use on a TV set) but a range of new content as well. This would require Apple to close a range of new content licensing deals with studios and TV networks -- to an extent that would catapult the company ahead of key rivals, such as Netflix and Hulu," Sheehy wrote.
Lucas Mearian covers storage, disaster recovery and business continuity, financial services infrastructure and health care IT for Computerworld. Follow Lucas on Twitter at @lucasmearian or subscribe to Lucas's RSS feed. His e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.org.
Read more about ios in Computerworld's iOS Topic Center.


text:
Submitted by Elena on Mon, 28/12/2015 - 09:05
On the threshold of New Year and Christmas holidays Mogilev opened handicraft exhibition fair on December 23. One can both admire handicraft works and buy souvenirs for relatives and friends.
The fair is on at the exhibition hall (Pervomaiskaya street 5-49) till January 3.
If you have found a mistake in the text, please, select it and press Ctrl+Enter.


text:
Bogus coupons for a free beverage exclusively for African-American customers are circulating on social media.
The ads claim to offer free drinks for “people of color” or those of “African American heritage.”
The counterfeit coupons appeared a day after Starbucks announced it would close more than 8,000 locations on May 29 for a day of “racial-bias education geared toward preventing discrimination in our stores” after an incident that ended with two black men being arrested at a Philadelphia location last week.
“We’re sorry,” the faux voucher reads. “We know we can do better. Starbucks values all people of color, and we are working on employee sensitivity training. The best dialogue starts over a cup of coffee and we’d like to buy you one.”
Starbucks denies the authenticity of the ads.
“This is completely false and in no way associated with Starbucks,” a rep for the coffee chain told Business Insider.
The instructions on one of the fake coupons prompt baristas to punch in code “1488,” a combination of two numbers with ties to white supremacy. The scam voucher also includes a QR code that redirects to a website that displays the n-word when scanned.
Gab, a popular alt-right site, was among the Twitter accounts promoting the “coupon,” but the controversial website 4chan appears to be the source. The site, infamous for pushing pro-Trump fake news articles during the 2016 election, published the flier on its Politically Incorrect message board.
It’s not the first time 4chan has gone after Starbucks. It also made fake coupons for “Starbucks DREAMer Day” last year, which promised discounts for undocumented immigrants.
The arrests at a Philly Starbucks last Thursday occurred after employees called the police on two men because they asked to use the restroom without making a purchase and refused to leave. Video of the arrest went viral, prompting the company’s CEO to issue an apology.
“It was completely inappropriate to engage the police,” Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson told ABC News.
“I’ll say the circumstances surrounding the incident and the outcome at our store on Thursday were reprehensible," he told "GMA." "They were wrong, and for that, I personally apologize to the gentlemen that visited our store.”


text:
New to the German Top 10: L'Osteria. The company operates with its own delivery fleet.
Germany's top 100 foodservice companies turned over 7.2 percent more in 2021 than in 2020, with net sales of 11.1 billion euros. Measured against 2019, this still corresponds to a minus of 20 percent. This is the result of the annual ranking of Germany's largest caterers, which is based on the exclusive survey of the trade magazine foodservice (dfv Mediengruppe).
"2020 and 2021 were extremely challenging times
for the industry. Pandemic restrictions were the dominant feature of the two financial years. Best sales for delivery professionals
, modest business for event caterers," explains Gretel Weiß, editor of foodservice
. Weiß presented the ranking together with Katrin Wißmann, senior editor foodservice Europe & Middle East
, during the 40th International Foodservice Forum at the Hamburg Congress Center.
McDonald's and Burger King dominate
At the top of the list
of the largest foodservice companies and systems in Germany in 2021 are McDonald's, Burger King, Tank & Rast, followed by Domino's and Yum!
Two pandemic years leave clear traces. Measured by pre-crisis business, globally distributed quick service brands with established ranges and drive-trough business recover fastest
. New in the top 10: Valora and L'Osteria.
McDonald's and Burger King together
generated a market volume of over 4.4 billion euros at almost 2,200 locations.
The Big Mac makers achieved a 10.2 per cent increase in turnover, the Whopper players 13.4 per cent. Both are estimated by foodservice.
In absolute figures, McDonald's (estimated at 320 million euros)
accounts for the largest chunk of the turnover growth of the top 100, followed by Burger King (estimated at 115 million euros)
and Domino's (65 million euros)
. Among the relative winners, the ranking newcomer Yoko Sushi leads with plus 79.1 percent in direct comparison to the previous year.
Changed demands, high hopes
The mobility profile
of people has changed drastically with Corona
. Short-time work, home office and homeschooling meant heavy losses in frequency
for many gastro locations. This is impressively illustrated by the figures from the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden. According to these, Germany's gastronomy sector achieved a nominal minus of 36.4 percent and a real minus of 40.3 percent in 2021 compared to 2019. Short-time working allowance, economic aid and the reduction of VAT for restaurants from 19 to 7 per cent
had the effect of securing the existence of the gastronomy sector
The expectations of those surveyed for the ranking
for the current year are high, comments Weiß
. They want to reach pre-crisis turnover levels again as soon as possible
with updated concepts.
"The future of gastronomy is hybrid"
However, restaurateurs are faced with changed conditions. "Millions of people today have more knowledge and skills about food than before the pandemic. The restaurant world has to adapt to this. Our guests have become more competent and more demanding," Katrin Wißmann, Managing Editor foodservice Europe & Middle East, sums up.
Private demand recovers faster than business demand
, adds foodservice editor Gretel Weiß. "This was true in both pandemic years, and will also be so in 2022 and 2023," predicts Weiß. After all the experiences of renunciation, the industry can hope for more and higher-quality restaurant consumption. Especially full-service gastronomy will profit from this.
But flexibility is needed
. "The future of gastronomy is hybrid: hospitality in the restaurant. Convenience through delivery service. So we are situationally guests or customers - with quite different service demands," says Weiß.


text:
League of Legends Launches Hextech Crafting in NA
After yesterday’s launch of the Clubs system, League of Legends has now launched Hextech crafting and loot in North America.
Hextech crafting lets players earn up to four chests a month (one chest per season per champion), along with keys from matchmaking. These chests can unlock shards, essence, skins, and more, as part of a Champion Mastery rewards system.
You can find out more about the system here.
Articles You May Enjoy
- MMO Predictions 2017 - The Indie MMORPG Rise
- This last year I've had the famous MMO craving for a while.
- PUBG Mobile Lite Releases 0.14.1 Update
- PUBG MOBILE LITE released a massive content update today, with version 0.14.1.
- Spirit Tales Announces 1v5 Monster Boss PvP
- KoramGame has announced a new PvP mode for Spirit Tales, coming June 6.


text:
Pack your bags! Virgin Australia launches massive sale of 500,000 discounted airfare seats for just $55
- Half a million discounted fares up for grabs through February 6
- Byron Bay, Fiji, Samoa and Bali among destinations
- Airline reported record growth in business travelers
One of Australia’s largest airlines has slashed fares to some of the world’s most beautiful destinations at home and abroad, as Aussies return to holidaying in record numbers.
Half a million seats on domestic and international routes were discounted by the airline on Monday as part of Virgin Australia’s epic Bring on 2023 sale.
Prices start from $55 one way each way between Sydney and Byron Bay (Ballina) in the far north of NSW.
Bargain hunters looking for a cheap getaway abroad are also in luck with several round-trip flights under $500.
The launch of sales on Monday comes as Virgin Australia reported record growth in business travelers as bookings rose more than 110 per cent from pre-Covid levels.
Jetsetters can enjoy Tokyo’s famous cherry blossom trees for just $699 round trip
Sydneysiders can also escape to the Sunshine Coast for just $75, the Gold Coast for $89, Melbourne for $95 or as far north as Cairns for just $125.
Other hot deal routes include Adelaide-Launceston ($85), Brisbane-Whitsundays ($85), while Adelaide-Melbourne and Melbourne-Hobart both start from $89 one way.
Travelers looking to dust off their passports can score a Fiji escape from Sydney for just $459 return, while a flight over Tasman to Queenstown starts from $559.
Jetsetters across Australia will also benefit from discounted Bali fares from just $489 from the Gold Coast.
Other discounted international fares include Melbourne-Vanuatu ($539), Brisbane-Samoa ($549), or Cairns-Tokyo ($699).
Cheap Virgin Australia flights start from $55 one way between Sydney and tourist mecca Byron Bay (pictured)
‘January is a month synonymous with planning for the year ahead – looking at opportunities for vacations, business travel, connecting with family and friends or exploring a new part of the country – we have so many great rates on offer no matter what the reason for travel, and we encourage Australians to get in before they sell out,” said Dave Emerson, Virgin Australia Group Chief Commercial Officer.
Sale ends February 6 at midnight unless sold out earlier.
Travel is possible on selected dates from March 1 through December 7.
All sales fares include Velocity Frequent Flyer points and status credits, while Velocity members can earn Double Status Credits through the Virgin Australia network until February 10th.
Virgin Australia’s Bring on 2023 sale includes $539 return flights between Melbourne and Vanuatu (pictured)
The airline is also offering incentives to new business travelers who switch loyalty and join Virgin Australia’s business flyer program before March 31.
Those who meet eligible flight expenses within the first 90 days of participation will receive an additional 150,000 Velocity points for their business, the equivalent of up to 30 business class upgrades or up to 19 Economy Reward Seats for a one-way trip.
“We are proud to announce an industry-leading offering for business travelers, supporting the many great Australian companies across the country in their strong return to travel this year,” added Mr Emerson.
“Since the launch of the Virgin Australia Business Flyer loyalty program last year, we have had an overwhelming response from companies joining the program and we look forward to expanding the program even further this year.”
The sale comes as the first flight of Australia’s newest airline Bonza to launch on Tuesday.
Click the sale for more details.
Round-trip fares to Bali (pictured) are just $489 departing from the Gold Coast
Virgin’s epic Bring It On sale in 2023
Some highlights of the Economy Lite fare one-way both ways include:
Sydney <> Byron Bay (Ballina) from $55
Sydney <> Sunshine Coast from $75
Adelaide <> Launceston from $85
Brisbane <> Whitsundays (Proserpine) from $85
Sydney <> Gold Coast from $89
Adelaide <> Melbourne from $89
Melbourne <> Hobart from $89
Brisbane <> Sydney from $95
Sydney <> Melbourne from $95
Melbourne <> Gold Coast from $99
Brisbane <> Melbourne from $109
Brisbane <> Hamilton Island from $119
Sydney <> Cairns from $125
Melbourne <> Cairns from $139
Darwin <> Sydney from $149
Round-trip International Economy Lite fare highlights in both directions include:
Sydney <> Fiji from $459
Gold Coast <> Bali from $489
Melbourne <> Vanuatu from $539
Brisbane <> Samoa from $549
Melbourne <> Bali from $585
Adelaide <> Bali from $589
Sydney <> Bali from $615
Cairns <> Tokyo from $699