sport
sport
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
SIDEBAR: Inside the world's largest diamond-sorting facility
Gaborone - Before entering the world's largest diamond sorting facility in Gaborone, you have to check your chewing gum at the door - lest you be tempted to stud it with a stone. You may also be asked to turn out your pockets, show the soles of your shoes and empty out your pen to prove you aren't concealing a gem.
But routine searches are a thing of the past at the Diamond Trading Company Botswana (DTCB), a joint venture between the government of Botswana, the world's largest diamond producer, and Debswana - itself a joint venture between the government and mining giant de Beers.
Instead of hands, there are 100 security cameras constantly scanning workers and visitors for sticky fingers.
And every gem - or nearly - is accounted for by weight. If the weight of the box of rocks a sorter returns at the end of his shift doesn't exactly match the box he or she was given at the start of the shift, the building is locked down and no-one allowed leave until the missing stone is found.
Don't even think about making a dash for it. The sorting area is separated from the exit by a bewildering array of centrally- controlled security doors, portals and turnstiles.
Not to mention the hawk-eyed security guards. At the end of a recent shift, the guard appointed to tail the German Press Agency
Welcome to Diamond Kitchen & Bath
Diamond Kitchen and Bath offers both in-home and showroom design services. We carry numerous cabinet lines to suit all of your needs. We offer a large selection and an incredible array of styles, from stock to full custom.We also provide full project management services in which we coordinate everything from concept to completion. We will provide all materials for the project, such as, cabinets, countertops and appliances. This allows for a smooth and organized experience.
We have been doing business in the Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey area since 1993. Comprised of highly skilled, experienced designers and home remodeling specialists, we are here to serve you. At Diamond Kitchen and Bath our customer is not only important, but the best resource for inspiration.Diamond Kitchen and Bath's showroom is unique and filled with samples for every taste imaginable. Our experienced design consultants will help you through the wide array of choices available and will give you professional advice on your project.All of our work is supervised by a project manager who remains in contact with the client at all times.
We have been doing business in the Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey area since 1993. Comprised of highly skilled, experienced designers and home remodeling specialists, we are here to serve you. At Diamond Kitchen and Bath our customer is not only important, but the best resource for inspiration.Diamond Kitchen and Bath's showroom is unique and filled with samples for every taste imaginable. Our experienced design consultants will help you through the wide array of choices available and will give you professional advice on your project.All of our work is supervised by a project manager who remains in contact with the client at all times.
A new Hollywood movie is raising tough questions about Africa's bloody diamond trade. Fortune's Vivienne Walt reports from the pits.
(Fortune Magazine) -- Sahr Amara is stooped low, knee-deep in a muddy river, in the fifth hour of his workday. As he has each day for the past week, the 18-year-old will earn a stipend of only 7 cents, enough to buy himself a bowl of porridge to see him through the day.
Yet he returns every morning to dig in the wilting heat on the edge of Koidu, a town in eastern Sierra Leone, hunting for the one thing he says could transform his life: a diamond. Since he is the oldest of six children - three others have died of diseases - much of his family's future rests on his prospects.
The prize: A seller displays two raw diamonds on the streets of Koidu in Sierra Leone.
The pits: Hundreds of miners search for diamonds at Congo Creek outside Koidu in eastern Sierra Leone, part of an army of one million Africans who earn pennies a day in the $60 billion industry.
The diamond dealer: Abdollai Koroma runs his trading business from a chair under a shade tree in a back alley of Koidu.
More video
CNN's Ali Velshi looks at the history of diamonds and it may have you thinking blood, not bling. (December 7)
Play video
"If I find a big diamond, I can afford to go to school, I can learn, and then I can help my family and even my village," he says. So far the plan has proved elusive; he has found no gems during his first week of work. "It's not easy," he says. "I think it depends on God."
Whether or not divine intervention leads Amara to a big find, his tale is anchored in a much more earthly economy: the $60-billion-a-year diamond industry, which has built its growth on dreams of love rather than of raw survival.
Koidu, whose diamonds have been mined since the 1930s, is thousands of miles away - and a galaxy removed - from the glittering displays in jewelry stores in New York, Tokyo and London. It is set in a country where the average man earns $220 a year and dies at 39. In the dwellings along Koidu's dirt tracks, residents eat dinner by candlelight not because it is romantic but because there is no electricity in town, just as there are no telephone lines and little indoor plumbing.
In short, it is hard to imagine a starker contrast between Amara's world and that of the people who might one day wear whatever diamond he finds, and they live in deep ignorance of each other. When asked what diamonds are used for, Amara draws a blank. "I only know they are valuable," he says.
Hollywood weighs in
But after 130 years of diamond mining in Africa, that ignorance is unraveling fast as the two worlds collide over the image of diamonds. The conflict, which has rocked the industry in recent years, may reach fever pitch this month with the release of the movie "Blood Diamond." Set in wartime Sierra Leone during the late 1990s, the film depicts a South African diamond smuggler, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, trying to recover a rare pink stone from a local fisherman whom rebels have forced to dig in the diamond pits.
The story line - a mixture of villainy and heroism - is classic Hollywood. But its roots are fact: In the 1990s rebels in Sierra Leone and Liberia financed their carnage from diamonds plucked out of the rivers and traded for arms. During a decade of war about 50,000 people were killed, and thousands had their hands hacked off by rebels.
Months before it opened, the movie had garnered media attention, aided by a marketing blitz by Warner Bros. (owned by Time Warner (Charts), parent of Fortune's publisher) and a $15 million counterattack by the World Diamond Council, an organization founded by more than 50 producers and dealers to end illegal diamond trading.
"We have been engaged in a massive educational campaign," says Eli Izakhoff, chairman and CEO of the council, which is heavily financed by De Beers, the company that sources about 40 percent of the world's diamonds, all of them from Africa. "This movie gives the industry a great story to tell." The council's message: More than 99 percent of diamonds are now from conflict-free sources, and millions of Africans have schooling and health care thanks to diamond revenues.
The movie is indeed a period piece: The civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia ended a few years ago. But the war over perceptions is just warming up. Many in the industry fear that as the end credits roll, moviegoers might glance down at their diamond rings and wonder under what circumstances the gems were dug. Unlike oil prospecting or coal mining - essentials for modern life - those questions could roil an industry whose lifeblood is ephemeral.
Controversy affects value
"Diamonds are essentially worth nothing," says Mordechai Rapaport, whose Rapaport Group price list is the industry standard. It's all about what they signify, he explains: In the case of a wedding ring, it's the guy, not the one-carat diamond. By that logic, he adds, "when a guy gives a woman a diamond and someone was killed for it, it is not worth anything."
Diamond producers and dealers did not need Hollywood to reach that conclusion. As war raged in the past decade, they realized that so-called blood diamonds carried a risk to their business that was far out of proportion to the tiny number of stones. Even during the bloodiest years no more than 15 percent of the world's diamonds were controlled by rebels in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The vast majority of diamonds, then and now, come from deep-level mines run by well-ordered international corporations, including Koidu Holdings, Sierra Leone's newest such operation, which opened in 2003 and exports $2.5 million in diamonds a month.
And although UN investigators recently found that rebels in the Ivory Coast had smuggled millions of dollars' worth of diamonds onto the world market through Ghana, blood diamonds account for only 0.2 percent of today's global supply.
But the industry's problem is far trickier than percentages. Consumers cannot be sure which diamonds are blood diamonds. And therein lies the potential for a boycott, especially since synthetic diamonds now look close to the real thing. "Diamonds are a luxury, so we depend completely on the consumer's faith," says Rory More O'Ferrall, director of external affairs for De Beers. "Anything that affects the integrity of that we need to address."
Tackling the problem took an unlikely alliance: Industry executives joined forces in 2003 with governments and the UN to end the trade of conflict diamonds. The resulting Kimberley Process Certification Scheme is a rare experiment by a major industry to monitor its own abuses. The 71 member countries agree to trade only among themselves. They inspect one another's facilities, then issue certificates declaring their diamonds conflict-free.
In theory, rigorous paperwork tries to trace all diamonds from mines to consumers. Transgressors are ousted: The Republic of Congo was banned in 2004, and Venezuela was threatened with suspension last month after reporting zero diamond exports for 2005.
But the system is hardly flawless, even in the U.S. In September the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that Customs and Treasury officials were only haphazardly enforcing the system, leaving companies to monitor themselves. Last year about 300,000 more carats were exported from than imported to the U.S. - which produces no commercial diamonds itself. Representatives from all 71 countries met last month in Botswana to try to tighten loopholes and squeeze out nonmembers. "There are fewer and fewer countries left that nonmembers can trade with," says Sue Saarnio, the U.S. State Department's representative to the November conference.
The underground diamond trade
A far grimmer assessment of the Kimberley Process can be found in the back alleys of Koidu. As the clammy heat eases off in the late afternoon, dozens of men converge on the neighborhood dubbed by the locals "Open Yei," Creole for "keep your eyes open," a reference to its thriving unlicensed diamond trading.
The action is the area's major entertainment, drawing a crowd of curious men and children. In a dirt clearing between the small wooden storefronts, Abdollai Koroma runs his business from a chair under a shade tree, clutching a yellow calculator and a jeweler's loupe in a weathered pouch. During just one hour eight men arrive with their wares wrapped in scraps of paper stuffed in their pockets. Koroma takes each stone and swirls it in his mouth before examining it briefly under the loupe. "This is 1.20 carats," he says after spitting out a glittering stone the size of a shirt button.
Koroma, who started trading diamonds at age 17, taps on his calculator, peels off a wad of banknotes, and makes his biggest purchase of the day: 200,000 leones, about $66. The previous day the neighborhood trade was equally brisk, as men gathered to sell diamonds to Komba Fillefaboa, a 47-year-old trader who began digging when he was 12. Fillefaboa says he buys dozens of stones on an average afternoon.
"We buy piece by piece and then gather them into a parcel to sell to dealers," he says. Once the parcel of diamonds is sold to a licensed dealer, illegally mined diamonds are easily mixed in.
Fillefaboa says he has no problem finding buyers, despite Sierra Leone's strict licensing laws, which ban illegal diamond dealing. Licenses are regarded as too costly and laws too cumbersome. "We are all illegal here," boasts the neighborhood's chief, Sahr Sam. "If the monitors come, we scatter."
Smuggling
In reality, government monitors rarely come to Open Yei. There are only 200 for the entire country, sharing ten motorcycles donated by the U.S. Agency for International Development. "At every level people say to us, 'If you harass us, we will just smuggle the diamonds,'" says Dan Joe Hadji, a senior monitoring officer in Koidu. "So we allow people to move around and hope and pray that they find religion" -by obeying the law.
Diamond producers and dealers frequently tout Sierra Leone as a Kimberley Process success story, since its official exports soared from near zero in 1999 to about $142 million last year, suggesting that smuggling has plummeted. Not necessarily so: The official statistics cannot be proved, says Jan Ketelaar, mine manager of Koidu Holdings and a former diamond advisor to Sierra Leone's President.
Worse, this year's exports are likely to drop about 10 percent, suggesting that bigger diamonds are being smuggled illegally, says a Western ambassador in Freetown who sits on a high-level diamond committee of diplomats and aid organizations but asked not to be identified. Director of Mines Alimany Wurie admits smuggling is widespread - perhaps as much as one-third of all Sierra Leone's diamonds.
Enforcement is nearly impossible. The frontier with Liberia, whose diamonds are banned from world trade, is just 30 miles from Koidu and riddled with old smuggling routes. Only three of the 36 border crossings into Guinea are guarded, says Hadji, and even those are left unmanned for a few days each month when border officials walk to town to collect their pay.
Yet the rampant smuggling, though illegal, does not kill. And with peace restored in West Africa, it is tempting to think of blood diamonds as little more than a dramatic movie plot. Those who have witnessed Africa's bloodletting up close say it's a mistake to relegate the issue to history, because history could repeat itself.
In any future conflict in the region, diamonds would be one of the surest ways with which to buy weapons. "Diamonds were very much the fuel for the war but not the root cause, and those root causes are still very much with us," says the Western ambassador. "Corruption, unemployment, poverty - I could well imagine another blood-diamond scenario here."
Fair trade
Faced with that stark possibility, diamond companies have begun trying to tackle the crippling poverty at the bottom of the industry, where, according to Global Witness, a British organization that has done extensive research on blood diamonds, about one million Africans earn pennies a day in the backbreaking and increasingly fruitless search for alluvial stones.
Flying low over Koidu in a twin-propeller plane shows how daunting that task is. Hundreds of men can be seen bent low in the rivers around Koidu. "They are working in absolutely horrific conditions in the hopes of striking it rich, but the majority never do," says Susie Sanders, a Global Witness researcher.
Little of the region's innate mineral wealth has filtered down to residents. "A billion dollars' worth of diamonds have come out of Sierra Leone in the last several years, and there is no electricity or water wells," says Rapaport, who toured the villages around Koidu last summer with his father, Martin, chairman of the Rapaport Group.
Shaken by the chasm between the diggers and the diamond buyers, the Rapaports are trying to start a Fair Trade association of producers along the lines of Starbucks (Charts), which buys coffee beans for a premium price from some growers, then sells them for more money to socially conscious coffee drinkers. Rapaport is predicting that the current controversy over diamonds will jolt consumers into asking retailers probing questions about the gems' origins.
If so, they are unlikely to find much information: Two years ago a survey of 40 major American retailers by Amnesty International and Global Witness found that almost none had policies in place against blood diamonds.
Rapaport believes consumers would happily pay a little extra to ensure they are buying African diamonds mined for decent wages under humane conditions. "Our idea," he says, "is that Tiffany (Charts) is going to wake up one morning and see that Cartier is selling fair-trade jewelry and say, 'Oh, my God, we need to do that.' They will change not from an ethical point of view but from greed."
In Koidu a U.S.-funded program trains diggers in how to grade and value the diamonds they find as a way of avoiding being fleeced by local traders. Last year De Beers and two activist organizations founded the Diamond Development Initiative, an international organization to train diggers in safety and economic issues, and ultimately to try to persuade many to grow crops instead. De Beers has begun a similar pilot training project in Tanzania, which it says it will replicate elsewhere in Africa if it is successful.
But for 18-year-old Sahr Amara all those projects seem abstract. His parents grow crops in a village about 20 miles from Koidu and cannot afford to buy his schoolbooks or pay his yearly tuition of 35,000 leones ($11.66). "I would like to find a diamond so I can go back to school," Amara says. "If I stay digging at this site for a long time and find nothing, maybe I will leave and try to find a job somewhere." That would leave Africa's 999,999 other diamond diggers still searching for a dream.
Yet he returns every morning to dig in the wilting heat on the edge of Koidu, a town in eastern Sierra Leone, hunting for the one thing he says could transform his life: a diamond. Since he is the oldest of six children - three others have died of diseases - much of his family's future rests on his prospects.
The prize: A seller displays two raw diamonds on the streets of Koidu in Sierra Leone.
The pits: Hundreds of miners search for diamonds at Congo Creek outside Koidu in eastern Sierra Leone, part of an army of one million Africans who earn pennies a day in the $60 billion industry.
The diamond dealer: Abdollai Koroma runs his trading business from a chair under a shade tree in a back alley of Koidu.
More video
CNN's Ali Velshi looks at the history of diamonds and it may have you thinking blood, not bling. (December 7)
Play video
"If I find a big diamond, I can afford to go to school, I can learn, and then I can help my family and even my village," he says. So far the plan has proved elusive; he has found no gems during his first week of work. "It's not easy," he says. "I think it depends on God."
Whether or not divine intervention leads Amara to a big find, his tale is anchored in a much more earthly economy: the $60-billion-a-year diamond industry, which has built its growth on dreams of love rather than of raw survival.
Koidu, whose diamonds have been mined since the 1930s, is thousands of miles away - and a galaxy removed - from the glittering displays in jewelry stores in New York, Tokyo and London. It is set in a country where the average man earns $220 a year and dies at 39. In the dwellings along Koidu's dirt tracks, residents eat dinner by candlelight not because it is romantic but because there is no electricity in town, just as there are no telephone lines and little indoor plumbing.
In short, it is hard to imagine a starker contrast between Amara's world and that of the people who might one day wear whatever diamond he finds, and they live in deep ignorance of each other. When asked what diamonds are used for, Amara draws a blank. "I only know they are valuable," he says.
Hollywood weighs in
But after 130 years of diamond mining in Africa, that ignorance is unraveling fast as the two worlds collide over the image of diamonds. The conflict, which has rocked the industry in recent years, may reach fever pitch this month with the release of the movie "Blood Diamond." Set in wartime Sierra Leone during the late 1990s, the film depicts a South African diamond smuggler, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, trying to recover a rare pink stone from a local fisherman whom rebels have forced to dig in the diamond pits.
The story line - a mixture of villainy and heroism - is classic Hollywood. But its roots are fact: In the 1990s rebels in Sierra Leone and Liberia financed their carnage from diamonds plucked out of the rivers and traded for arms. During a decade of war about 50,000 people were killed, and thousands had their hands hacked off by rebels.
Months before it opened, the movie had garnered media attention, aided by a marketing blitz by Warner Bros. (owned by Time Warner (Charts), parent of Fortune's publisher) and a $15 million counterattack by the World Diamond Council, an organization founded by more than 50 producers and dealers to end illegal diamond trading.
"We have been engaged in a massive educational campaign," says Eli Izakhoff, chairman and CEO of the council, which is heavily financed by De Beers, the company that sources about 40 percent of the world's diamonds, all of them from Africa. "This movie gives the industry a great story to tell." The council's message: More than 99 percent of diamonds are now from conflict-free sources, and millions of Africans have schooling and health care thanks to diamond revenues.
The movie is indeed a period piece: The civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia ended a few years ago. But the war over perceptions is just warming up. Many in the industry fear that as the end credits roll, moviegoers might glance down at their diamond rings and wonder under what circumstances the gems were dug. Unlike oil prospecting or coal mining - essentials for modern life - those questions could roil an industry whose lifeblood is ephemeral.
Controversy affects value
"Diamonds are essentially worth nothing," says Mordechai Rapaport, whose Rapaport Group price list is the industry standard. It's all about what they signify, he explains: In the case of a wedding ring, it's the guy, not the one-carat diamond. By that logic, he adds, "when a guy gives a woman a diamond and someone was killed for it, it is not worth anything."
Diamond producers and dealers did not need Hollywood to reach that conclusion. As war raged in the past decade, they realized that so-called blood diamonds carried a risk to their business that was far out of proportion to the tiny number of stones. Even during the bloodiest years no more than 15 percent of the world's diamonds were controlled by rebels in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The vast majority of diamonds, then and now, come from deep-level mines run by well-ordered international corporations, including Koidu Holdings, Sierra Leone's newest such operation, which opened in 2003 and exports $2.5 million in diamonds a month.
And although UN investigators recently found that rebels in the Ivory Coast had smuggled millions of dollars' worth of diamonds onto the world market through Ghana, blood diamonds account for only 0.2 percent of today's global supply.
But the industry's problem is far trickier than percentages. Consumers cannot be sure which diamonds are blood diamonds. And therein lies the potential for a boycott, especially since synthetic diamonds now look close to the real thing. "Diamonds are a luxury, so we depend completely on the consumer's faith," says Rory More O'Ferrall, director of external affairs for De Beers. "Anything that affects the integrity of that we need to address."
Tackling the problem took an unlikely alliance: Industry executives joined forces in 2003 with governments and the UN to end the trade of conflict diamonds. The resulting Kimberley Process Certification Scheme is a rare experiment by a major industry to monitor its own abuses. The 71 member countries agree to trade only among themselves. They inspect one another's facilities, then issue certificates declaring their diamonds conflict-free.
In theory, rigorous paperwork tries to trace all diamonds from mines to consumers. Transgressors are ousted: The Republic of Congo was banned in 2004, and Venezuela was threatened with suspension last month after reporting zero diamond exports for 2005.
But the system is hardly flawless, even in the U.S. In September the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that Customs and Treasury officials were only haphazardly enforcing the system, leaving companies to monitor themselves. Last year about 300,000 more carats were exported from than imported to the U.S. - which produces no commercial diamonds itself. Representatives from all 71 countries met last month in Botswana to try to tighten loopholes and squeeze out nonmembers. "There are fewer and fewer countries left that nonmembers can trade with," says Sue Saarnio, the U.S. State Department's representative to the November conference.
The underground diamond trade
A far grimmer assessment of the Kimberley Process can be found in the back alleys of Koidu. As the clammy heat eases off in the late afternoon, dozens of men converge on the neighborhood dubbed by the locals "Open Yei," Creole for "keep your eyes open," a reference to its thriving unlicensed diamond trading.
The action is the area's major entertainment, drawing a crowd of curious men and children. In a dirt clearing between the small wooden storefronts, Abdollai Koroma runs his business from a chair under a shade tree, clutching a yellow calculator and a jeweler's loupe in a weathered pouch. During just one hour eight men arrive with their wares wrapped in scraps of paper stuffed in their pockets. Koroma takes each stone and swirls it in his mouth before examining it briefly under the loupe. "This is 1.20 carats," he says after spitting out a glittering stone the size of a shirt button.
Koroma, who started trading diamonds at age 17, taps on his calculator, peels off a wad of banknotes, and makes his biggest purchase of the day: 200,000 leones, about $66. The previous day the neighborhood trade was equally brisk, as men gathered to sell diamonds to Komba Fillefaboa, a 47-year-old trader who began digging when he was 12. Fillefaboa says he buys dozens of stones on an average afternoon.
"We buy piece by piece and then gather them into a parcel to sell to dealers," he says. Once the parcel of diamonds is sold to a licensed dealer, illegally mined diamonds are easily mixed in.
Fillefaboa says he has no problem finding buyers, despite Sierra Leone's strict licensing laws, which ban illegal diamond dealing. Licenses are regarded as too costly and laws too cumbersome. "We are all illegal here," boasts the neighborhood's chief, Sahr Sam. "If the monitors come, we scatter."
Smuggling
In reality, government monitors rarely come to Open Yei. There are only 200 for the entire country, sharing ten motorcycles donated by the U.S. Agency for International Development. "At every level people say to us, 'If you harass us, we will just smuggle the diamonds,'" says Dan Joe Hadji, a senior monitoring officer in Koidu. "So we allow people to move around and hope and pray that they find religion" -by obeying the law.
Diamond producers and dealers frequently tout Sierra Leone as a Kimberley Process success story, since its official exports soared from near zero in 1999 to about $142 million last year, suggesting that smuggling has plummeted. Not necessarily so: The official statistics cannot be proved, says Jan Ketelaar, mine manager of Koidu Holdings and a former diamond advisor to Sierra Leone's President.
Worse, this year's exports are likely to drop about 10 percent, suggesting that bigger diamonds are being smuggled illegally, says a Western ambassador in Freetown who sits on a high-level diamond committee of diplomats and aid organizations but asked not to be identified. Director of Mines Alimany Wurie admits smuggling is widespread - perhaps as much as one-third of all Sierra Leone's diamonds.
Enforcement is nearly impossible. The frontier with Liberia, whose diamonds are banned from world trade, is just 30 miles from Koidu and riddled with old smuggling routes. Only three of the 36 border crossings into Guinea are guarded, says Hadji, and even those are left unmanned for a few days each month when border officials walk to town to collect their pay.
Yet the rampant smuggling, though illegal, does not kill. And with peace restored in West Africa, it is tempting to think of blood diamonds as little more than a dramatic movie plot. Those who have witnessed Africa's bloodletting up close say it's a mistake to relegate the issue to history, because history could repeat itself.
In any future conflict in the region, diamonds would be one of the surest ways with which to buy weapons. "Diamonds were very much the fuel for the war but not the root cause, and those root causes are still very much with us," says the Western ambassador. "Corruption, unemployment, poverty - I could well imagine another blood-diamond scenario here."
Fair trade
Faced with that stark possibility, diamond companies have begun trying to tackle the crippling poverty at the bottom of the industry, where, according to Global Witness, a British organization that has done extensive research on blood diamonds, about one million Africans earn pennies a day in the backbreaking and increasingly fruitless search for alluvial stones.
Flying low over Koidu in a twin-propeller plane shows how daunting that task is. Hundreds of men can be seen bent low in the rivers around Koidu. "They are working in absolutely horrific conditions in the hopes of striking it rich, but the majority never do," says Susie Sanders, a Global Witness researcher.
Little of the region's innate mineral wealth has filtered down to residents. "A billion dollars' worth of diamonds have come out of Sierra Leone in the last several years, and there is no electricity or water wells," says Rapaport, who toured the villages around Koidu last summer with his father, Martin, chairman of the Rapaport Group.
Shaken by the chasm between the diggers and the diamond buyers, the Rapaports are trying to start a Fair Trade association of producers along the lines of Starbucks (Charts), which buys coffee beans for a premium price from some growers, then sells them for more money to socially conscious coffee drinkers. Rapaport is predicting that the current controversy over diamonds will jolt consumers into asking retailers probing questions about the gems' origins.
If so, they are unlikely to find much information: Two years ago a survey of 40 major American retailers by Amnesty International and Global Witness found that almost none had policies in place against blood diamonds.
Rapaport believes consumers would happily pay a little extra to ensure they are buying African diamonds mined for decent wages under humane conditions. "Our idea," he says, "is that Tiffany (Charts) is going to wake up one morning and see that Cartier is selling fair-trade jewelry and say, 'Oh, my God, we need to do that.' They will change not from an ethical point of view but from greed."
In Koidu a U.S.-funded program trains diggers in how to grade and value the diamonds they find as a way of avoiding being fleeced by local traders. Last year De Beers and two activist organizations founded the Diamond Development Initiative, an international organization to train diggers in safety and economic issues, and ultimately to try to persuade many to grow crops instead. De Beers has begun a similar pilot training project in Tanzania, which it says it will replicate elsewhere in Africa if it is successful.
But for 18-year-old Sahr Amara all those projects seem abstract. His parents grow crops in a village about 20 miles from Koidu and cannot afford to buy his schoolbooks or pay his yearly tuition of 35,000 leones ($11.66). "I would like to find a diamond so I can go back to school," Amara says. "If I stay digging at this site for a long time and find nothing, maybe I will leave and try to find a job somewhere." That would leave Africa's 999,999 other diamond diggers still searching for a dream.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Japan love hotel business still hot despite slump
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan Leisure Hotels Ltd says its love hotels have maintained an occupancy rate of more than 250 percent despite the recession, though the financial crisis is slowing its expansion plans by making it harder to raise capital.
Guernsey-based Japan Leisure Hotels (JPLH) (JPLH.L) expects the recession to increase chances to buy more love hotels or boutique hotels from distressed sellers, said Steve Mansfield, chief executive of New Perspective, the company that manages assets held by JPLH.
Mansfield said that despite a fall in Japanese property prices that he estimated at about 40 percent from a year earlier, the company was facing difficulty drawing funds from investors amid the global financial crisis.
"Our strategies remain unchanged. We're seeking to be a consolidator in the Japanese leisure hotel market, but the facts are that we have to do that at a different speed than we had intended to do," Mansfield told Reuters in an interview.
JPLH, which is listed on the London stock exchange's AIM market for smaller companies, went public in January last year, raising about 23 million pounds ($32.63 million) through the listing, sharply below its aim to raise about 100 million pounds.
The subprime mortgage crisis has impacted its ability to raise capital, Mansfield said.
JPLH currently has 242 rooms in six hotels in Japan, all outside the Tokyo area.
It was originally planning to increase the number of hotel rooms to 1,200 by the end of 2009 and 3,000-3,500 rooms by 2012 if it had managed to raise 100 million pounds through the IPO,
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Glassman Glass Engraving Machine
GM-BKH-II is a CNC working station with high technology, which is very professional to do engraving on flat glass. It is able to transfer the CAD drawing directly, and create the optimized tool route automatically and process perfectly; Adopting international advanced numerical control system, Swiss NUM, achieves dynamic management of each axis and precise speed control. CNC engraving machine is a special machine for glass engraving, the spindle and the body of the machine are designed to fit the engraving function! According to the high frequency usage of C-axis, Glassman made the relative treatment on the structure and material. Glassman has solved the function on precise tool feeding! With interaction of the PC and System, the processed coner and lines are of high precision and beauty. Flexibility of the control system can fulfill the requirement of different products, the whole processing would finished automatically. Perfect combination of Numerical control and PC system, realized the automatic management of the factory. It is suitable to mass production.GM-BKH-II is very professional to process the decorative glass, furniture glass, artical glass etc.GM-BKH-II is an open top machine, which is very convenient to load and unload the glass. The bridge is jointing structure steel. X-axis is installed on the bridge. X-axis, Y-axis and Z-axis are three linear axis which are driven by ball screw and slide way; C-axis is a rotating axis.Y and Y1 axis are synchronous axises, both are installed servo-motors, ball screw and slid way! Advantage of this structure: Structure is extremely rigid. With high accelerations, the maximum speed can reach 27m/min. Achieve the high processing speed and high quality. With low abrasion, the machine maintains high quality after using many years.Its working table is made of rust-proof metal, and the surface is covered with the imported rubber. Such special working table is designed by the experienced engineer, the shape of the working table would be fixed after long-time usage.As the main part of the machine, the electro-spindle of CNC Engraving Machine have the following specialty:The water line, air line and electricity line of the spindle motor are specially treated by Glassman experienced engineer. The reasonable layout made the spindle system used well. Max. constant torque output is 25nm, the output power is 3.8KW.The numerical Center integrates the professional numerical system and WINDOWS operation platform, and it made the human-computer interaction much easier.The main features of the system:- When the machine is working, the operator can edit program on the PC at the same time.- Simple and ease interface;- Equipped with CD-COM Drive and USB drive, the machine is able to store and transfer data conveniently.- Equipped with the keyboard and mouse.- PC is able to connect with Internet.- Connect MODERM to realize remote assistant.Glassman always pay attention to the software system. Software team is founded to concentrate to develop the human-computer interaction system.Super CAM drawing application software can run on WINDOWS XP and more updated operation platform. The software is easy to study and usage. The functions made it convenient to transmit the drawing and create the working program.Irregular shape can be made by CAD software, and it also can be transmitted by other drawings created by CAD system (such as DXF file of AUtoCAD).The electric system is installed according to CE standard, the power supply cabinet is separated with the machine. Connector of the electric parts are water-proof. The electric cabinet is fun cooling, servo motor is without carbon brush!Standard Voltage is 380V/50HZ, and it can be changed according to different requirement.
Friday, October 09, 2009
Article in Asia-Pacific II 2009
About author:
Tan Choon Seng is the Vice President for Applications and Software Sales for Avaya in Asia-Pacific. Prior to this, Mr Seng was the Regional Director for Avaya ASEAN where he was responsible for their Unified Communications and Contact Center applications sales. Mr Seng spent the last 20 years of his career in the IT and CRM/Call Center industry working with a broad spectrum of clients.
Article abstract:
Mobile corporate communications boost employee productivity outside the confines of the office. By connecting staff, customers and management, they help companies service their customers better. Corporate mobility solutions offer multi-modal access to the tools and applications businesses rely on to be productive - regardless of where their employees are located or what device they have at hand. Corporate mobility solutions include five essential components: calling and conferencing management; one-number accessibility; messaging management; contact and information management; and personal efficiency management.
Article:
In today’s economic climate, organisations are challenged to produce more with fewer resources. Productivity needs to be managed so customers receive a level and quality of service that not only meets, but exceeds expectations. Now, more than ever, it is crucial that not only field resources be productive and utilised at all times, but that customers have the ability to contact businesses when and how they want to. When putting in place technologies and policies to streamline processes and reduce costs, companies need to ensure they take the necessary steps to maintain the delicate balance between maximising efficiency and delivering top quality service.One possible solution to this challenge is mobility. Mobility solutions connect staff, customers and management in the most effective ways. Mobile technologies can also help businesses of all sizes realise competitive advantage by enabling employees to be productive outside the confines of the office, and increasing the efficiency of business communications, which in turn allows companies to deliver better levels of service to their customers. What is mobility?Mobility can mean different things to different people. For some, mobility is defined as phone or email access while on the road. For others, mobility is the breakdown of the physical constraints of the workplace so that business, in all its complexity, can happen anywhere, anytime. For the sake of this piece, I will focus on the application of mobility as an enhancer of business communications, whether in - or outside - the confines of the traditional office.The mobility challengeMobility can be defined as providing universal, multi-modal access to the tools and applications businesses rely on to be productive - regardless of where they are located or what device they have access to at the time. Enterprises today face the challenge of balancing efficient integration of office communications with a variety of devices without jeopardizing manageability, security, or control. Flexibility, speed and better customer contact translate into better service and more importantly better relationships with customers, a vital step in protecting the customer base. From a technical perspective, effective mobility is comprised of five essential building blocks: calling and conferencing management; one-number accessibility; messaging management; contact and information management and personal efficiency management. Each of these features delivers a critical benefit to the business and the customer. The first element - calling and conferencing management - is the ability to launch or initiate conferences from any phone in any location. Business today often requires a variety of participants calling from different locations, so having the ability to conduct conference calls from anywhere gives businesses the opportunity to close deals while in transit. In addition, effective conferencing can save money by replacing the need to travel. Calling and conference management is one layer, but having one-number accessibility is crucial. One-number accessibility allows the redirection of any incoming call to a mobile phone, laptop, or PDA, making it possible to reach on-the-move employees by using only their direct office number. By eliminating the need for multiple access numbers, communication is streamlined and time spent doing business rather than trying to locate someone. In fact, in the Asia Pacific Mobility and UC Survey 2008, conducted by IDC, the Asia Pacific managers considered being ‘always reachable’ as the most important benefit of mobile technologies. The great majority of respondents saw ‘always reachable’ as the most important benefit, while managers perceived satisfying customers as the most important benefit of mobile technologies in 2005. The survey also revealed that managers perceived mobile technologies as not just relevant for managers that deal with customers, but also for employees at large. They saw the value of being responsive towards both customers and co-workers.While accessibility is an important feature, effective management is the spark that really makes mobility useful. Management involves three components: messaging; content and information; and personal efficiency. In terms of accessibility, messaging management brings about universal access to any and all messages, so that voice, email or fax messages can be viewed from a PC, phone, or other wireless device and managed from any location. Message management provides a common platform, so information is quickly and efficiently delivered to its intended users, regardless of what form it is initially received in. Contact and information management also plays a key role by enabling users to connect to company directories and databases from any location, improving collaboration and problem solving in real-time, without the need to be in the office. Being easily reachable is useful, but enabling users to access entire corporate networks while on-the-go takes business productivity to another level. Finally, personal efficiency management plays a part by allowing users to manage appointments and tasks through rules-based controls that distinguish between urgent requests and routine interactions, thus maximising efficiency. This helps users make the most of their time by focusing on important activities first. In the same IDC survey in 2008, 81 per cent out of 626 respondents indicated ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ when asked if mobility improves productivity, compared to only 61 per cent in 2005. The biggest increase in positive attitude towards mobility as a means of improving productivity was registered in Hong Kong (80 per cent), Australia (80 per cent) and India (70 per cent).Management is an important component of making mobile working useful, so it is no surprise that customers who have deployed enterprise mobility cite this as the strongest benefit. Effective manageability ends the dependence on consumer-oriented wireless network features, so work can truly happen anywhere, anytime. In addition, it lets companies choose the path that is most appropriate for them to deploy enterprise mobility, minimizing technical disruption and preserving existing investments in wiring and phones. Facing the mobility challenge The many mobile technologies available today offer great value, but can fall short of expectations if not managed in a strategic manner. Enterprise-class mobility solutions need to be simple to use and administer, as well as have consistent user capabilities and experience across all modes of work and devices. In addition, devices must be integrated with other devices, networks and systems, as well as into enterprise processes and business operations. Business does not happen in isolation, so users must not only be accessible, but connected to each other as well. More importantly, solutions need to be consistently reliable - halfway attempts erode benefits and compromise the usefulness of mobility. Mobility is at its most effective if it is invisible and ease of management and holistic accessibility are the keys to making this happen. Mobility sets companies apart in the business world. Making staff truly mobile is an excellent way for an organisation to deliver efficient office communications by offering increased flexibility. Through the careful combination of accessibility and management features, mobility can break down walls and extend business into the world outside the traditional office.
Tan Choon Seng is the Vice President for Applications and Software Sales for Avaya in Asia-Pacific. Prior to this, Mr Seng was the Regional Director for Avaya ASEAN where he was responsible for their Unified Communications and Contact Center applications sales. Mr Seng spent the last 20 years of his career in the IT and CRM/Call Center industry working with a broad spectrum of clients.
Article abstract:
Mobile corporate communications boost employee productivity outside the confines of the office. By connecting staff, customers and management, they help companies service their customers better. Corporate mobility solutions offer multi-modal access to the tools and applications businesses rely on to be productive - regardless of where their employees are located or what device they have at hand. Corporate mobility solutions include five essential components: calling and conferencing management; one-number accessibility; messaging management; contact and information management; and personal efficiency management.
Article:
In today’s economic climate, organisations are challenged to produce more with fewer resources. Productivity needs to be managed so customers receive a level and quality of service that not only meets, but exceeds expectations. Now, more than ever, it is crucial that not only field resources be productive and utilised at all times, but that customers have the ability to contact businesses when and how they want to. When putting in place technologies and policies to streamline processes and reduce costs, companies need to ensure they take the necessary steps to maintain the delicate balance between maximising efficiency and delivering top quality service.One possible solution to this challenge is mobility. Mobility solutions connect staff, customers and management in the most effective ways. Mobile technologies can also help businesses of all sizes realise competitive advantage by enabling employees to be productive outside the confines of the office, and increasing the efficiency of business communications, which in turn allows companies to deliver better levels of service to their customers. What is mobility?Mobility can mean different things to different people. For some, mobility is defined as phone or email access while on the road. For others, mobility is the breakdown of the physical constraints of the workplace so that business, in all its complexity, can happen anywhere, anytime. For the sake of this piece, I will focus on the application of mobility as an enhancer of business communications, whether in - or outside - the confines of the traditional office.The mobility challengeMobility can be defined as providing universal, multi-modal access to the tools and applications businesses rely on to be productive - regardless of where they are located or what device they have access to at the time. Enterprises today face the challenge of balancing efficient integration of office communications with a variety of devices without jeopardizing manageability, security, or control. Flexibility, speed and better customer contact translate into better service and more importantly better relationships with customers, a vital step in protecting the customer base. From a technical perspective, effective mobility is comprised of five essential building blocks: calling and conferencing management; one-number accessibility; messaging management; contact and information management and personal efficiency management. Each of these features delivers a critical benefit to the business and the customer. The first element - calling and conferencing management - is the ability to launch or initiate conferences from any phone in any location. Business today often requires a variety of participants calling from different locations, so having the ability to conduct conference calls from anywhere gives businesses the opportunity to close deals while in transit. In addition, effective conferencing can save money by replacing the need to travel. Calling and conference management is one layer, but having one-number accessibility is crucial. One-number accessibility allows the redirection of any incoming call to a mobile phone, laptop, or PDA, making it possible to reach on-the-move employees by using only their direct office number. By eliminating the need for multiple access numbers, communication is streamlined and time spent doing business rather than trying to locate someone. In fact, in the Asia Pacific Mobility and UC Survey 2008, conducted by IDC, the Asia Pacific managers considered being ‘always reachable’ as the most important benefit of mobile technologies. The great majority of respondents saw ‘always reachable’ as the most important benefit, while managers perceived satisfying customers as the most important benefit of mobile technologies in 2005. The survey also revealed that managers perceived mobile technologies as not just relevant for managers that deal with customers, but also for employees at large. They saw the value of being responsive towards both customers and co-workers.While accessibility is an important feature, effective management is the spark that really makes mobility useful. Management involves three components: messaging; content and information; and personal efficiency. In terms of accessibility, messaging management brings about universal access to any and all messages, so that voice, email or fax messages can be viewed from a PC, phone, or other wireless device and managed from any location. Message management provides a common platform, so information is quickly and efficiently delivered to its intended users, regardless of what form it is initially received in. Contact and information management also plays a key role by enabling users to connect to company directories and databases from any location, improving collaboration and problem solving in real-time, without the need to be in the office. Being easily reachable is useful, but enabling users to access entire corporate networks while on-the-go takes business productivity to another level. Finally, personal efficiency management plays a part by allowing users to manage appointments and tasks through rules-based controls that distinguish between urgent requests and routine interactions, thus maximising efficiency. This helps users make the most of their time by focusing on important activities first. In the same IDC survey in 2008, 81 per cent out of 626 respondents indicated ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ when asked if mobility improves productivity, compared to only 61 per cent in 2005. The biggest increase in positive attitude towards mobility as a means of improving productivity was registered in Hong Kong (80 per cent), Australia (80 per cent) and India (70 per cent).Management is an important component of making mobile working useful, so it is no surprise that customers who have deployed enterprise mobility cite this as the strongest benefit. Effective manageability ends the dependence on consumer-oriented wireless network features, so work can truly happen anywhere, anytime. In addition, it lets companies choose the path that is most appropriate for them to deploy enterprise mobility, minimizing technical disruption and preserving existing investments in wiring and phones. Facing the mobility challenge The many mobile technologies available today offer great value, but can fall short of expectations if not managed in a strategic manner. Enterprise-class mobility solutions need to be simple to use and administer, as well as have consistent user capabilities and experience across all modes of work and devices. In addition, devices must be integrated with other devices, networks and systems, as well as into enterprise processes and business operations. Business does not happen in isolation, so users must not only be accessible, but connected to each other as well. More importantly, solutions need to be consistently reliable - halfway attempts erode benefits and compromise the usefulness of mobility. Mobility is at its most effective if it is invisible and ease of management and holistic accessibility are the keys to making this happen. Mobility sets companies apart in the business world. Making staff truly mobile is an excellent way for an organisation to deliver efficient office communications by offering increased flexibility. Through the careful combination of accessibility and management features, mobility can break down walls and extend business into the world outside the traditional office.
Vibrant Mobile Business Marketplace on Display at International CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2009®
At this year’s International CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2009 ® more than 15,000 exhibitors are discussing the future of mobile business – from wireless health and wellness applications, to smart transportation and energy, to mobile marketing and entertainment applications. Discussions on the show floor, in educational sessions and on the keynote stage focused on the power of mobile data and
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the effect of the mobile internet on business. The show runs through Friday, October 9 at the San Diego Convention Center.On the keynote stage this morning, Qualcomm Co-founder Dr. Irwin Mark Jacobs and Chairman and CEO Dr. Paul Jacobs sat down with CTIA- The Wireless Association President and CEO Steve Largent to discuss past, present and future perspectives on the industry and what it will take to achieve wireless ubiquity. John Donovan, CTO at AT&T, discussed wireless broadband usage rates and the carrier’s continued efforts to meet increasing levels of demand.“Mobile data usage rates continue to rise at an amazing rate, and enterprise demand for applications that leverage mobile technology to make companies smarter, faster, and better is only growing,” said Robert Mesirow, CTIA vice president and show director. “At the same time, increasing use of mobile technology in a business context is translating into even more exciting new devices, applications and features for the consumer. This year’s show is all about mobile business and applications – and the ways we are interacting, living, and working.”This year’s show featured announcements from a variety of players in the mobile ecosystem. From new devices – like Samsung’s Android-powered smart phone, the Samsung Moment for Sprint, Kyocera’s Android offering and the FLO TV Personal Television – to a series of new mobile games offered to Verizon subscribers, the launch of the Shazam music recognition service for Windows Mobile phones and a GPS service launch from Virgin Mobile.Fund FestOn October 9, the keynote stage will feature CTIA Fund Fest. CTIA, in partnership with MobiTechFest, invited budding entrepreneurs and start-ups to submit executive summaries and investor pitches for innovative mobile products and services that spanned several entry categories. A review committee comprised of partners from top venture capitalist firms evaluated the applications and selected five finalists who will present their business plans on the keynote stage.Follow CTIA Show on Twitter ( twitter.com/CTIAShow : ), Facebook ( http://worldbusinesh.blogspot.com : ) and LinkedIn ( http://worldbusinesh.blogspot.com : )About International CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2009 ® International CTIA WIRELESS IT&E is CTIA’s fall show focused on mobile business. This event brings together a unique community of enterprise users, carriers, developers and manufacturers to generate dialogue, share ideas and debate the economics of wireless innovation. Visit http://worldbusinesh.blogspot.com : .CTIA-The Wireless Association ® is the international association for the wireless telecommunications industry, representing carriers, manufacturers and wireless Internet providers. CTIA is also recognized as the producer of two annual technology events.International CTIA WIRELESS 2010 takes place in Las Vegas, March 23-25; International CTIA WIRELESS IT&E 2010 takes place in San Francisco, October 6-8. For more association information, visit http://worldbusinesh.blogspot.com : . http://worldbusinesh.blogspot.com
Buy Auto Insurance: an expository background of Buy Auto Insurance Companies
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Thursday, October 08, 2009
Computer Repair Business Opportunity that Gets You More Great Clients
Many that look for a computer repair business opportunity spend most of their time and energy thinking about the technology side and give relatively little thought to how they'll get paying customers and clients.While computer repair certainly is an IT-intensive business, ultimately it's quality and quantity of your marketing campaigns and relationship-building that will be a much better predictor of your success in pursuing a computer repair business opportunity.When it comes to building these long-term relationships, getting involved in local business-related organizations can be one of the most cost-effective ways to consistently generate very highly-qualified prospective clients.By getting involved in organizations such as your local Chamber of Commerce or Rotary Club or even an IT Professionals User Group, you can meet people with common interests in a very personalized setting. These contacts can be great future partners or clients of your company. As you meet people through organizations, you will start to develop personal relationships that will be the very foundation of your business. When you join organizations and attend regularly, you can show people that you are dependable, trustworthy and worthy of their consideration.The following three tips can help you make the most out of any computer repair business opportunity when you network through organizations.
Think about Trust. People look for computer repair professionals in the same way they look for good dentists, internists, attorneys or accountants. Yes, some people will go to the phone book for these highly-professional services or look in coupon packs or billboards. But most will find their trusted business advisors through referrals and other very personalized methods. The reason for this is because when people are looking for services involved with their personal health, personal well being or their businesses, personal word-of-mouth referrals carry a lot of weight. When it comes to computer repair services, business owners want to make sure they find someone that can be trusted 100% with their most important technology and business assets.
Become Well Known in Your Community. One of the best ways for you to seize every possible computer repair business opportunity is to reach important decision makers earlier on in the sales cycle, before they're even looking for a business like yours. To train key movers and shakers to know that your company is the only one to call, you need to raise your personal and business profile in your local community within your target market. There are a couple of ways you can do that, but you have to have a mature enough outlook to understand delayed gratification. Networking through organizations is one of these strategies and can make or break the success of any kind of computer repair firm. And networking is all about relationships. Even though you are in the technology business, you are really in the people business. So focus on your interpersonal skills and building trust.
Get More Personal Recommendations. You need to think about personal recommendations as you network through organizations and tap into every possible computer repair business opportunity. In order to get personal recommendations, you have to know more people who are either in a position to hire you and/or recommend you to others who can hire you. Plain and simple. Join organizations and attend events on a regular basis. It's not rocket science and it's not something that will break your budget. $100-$250/mo can go a very long way. You don’t have to go to every single breakfast, networking luncheon or business after-hours function under the sun. But you do have to go to key functions and really meet and get to know a lot of people. If you really participate in organizations, over time you will get very good at identifying the kinds of people that are best at leading you to great client opportunities.
In this article we talked about 3 ways to network through organizations, to grow your computer repair business. Learn more proven tips on pursuing the right kind of computer repair business opportunity and attracting great, steady, high-paying clients now at http://worldbusinesh.blogspot.com
Think about Trust. People look for computer repair professionals in the same way they look for good dentists, internists, attorneys or accountants. Yes, some people will go to the phone book for these highly-professional services or look in coupon packs or billboards. But most will find their trusted business advisors through referrals and other very personalized methods. The reason for this is because when people are looking for services involved with their personal health, personal well being or their businesses, personal word-of-mouth referrals carry a lot of weight. When it comes to computer repair services, business owners want to make sure they find someone that can be trusted 100% with their most important technology and business assets.
Become Well Known in Your Community. One of the best ways for you to seize every possible computer repair business opportunity is to reach important decision makers earlier on in the sales cycle, before they're even looking for a business like yours. To train key movers and shakers to know that your company is the only one to call, you need to raise your personal and business profile in your local community within your target market. There are a couple of ways you can do that, but you have to have a mature enough outlook to understand delayed gratification. Networking through organizations is one of these strategies and can make or break the success of any kind of computer repair firm. And networking is all about relationships. Even though you are in the technology business, you are really in the people business. So focus on your interpersonal skills and building trust.
Get More Personal Recommendations. You need to think about personal recommendations as you network through organizations and tap into every possible computer repair business opportunity. In order to get personal recommendations, you have to know more people who are either in a position to hire you and/or recommend you to others who can hire you. Plain and simple. Join organizations and attend events on a regular basis. It's not rocket science and it's not something that will break your budget. $100-$250/mo can go a very long way. You don’t have to go to every single breakfast, networking luncheon or business after-hours function under the sun. But you do have to go to key functions and really meet and get to know a lot of people. If you really participate in organizations, over time you will get very good at identifying the kinds of people that are best at leading you to great client opportunities.
In this article we talked about 3 ways to network through organizations, to grow your computer repair business. Learn more proven tips on pursuing the right kind of computer repair business opportunity and attracting great, steady, high-paying clients now at http://worldbusinesh.blogspot.com
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Small Business PBX Phone - No Hardware to Purchase or Maintain
With a small business PBX phone system there is no hardware to purchase or maintain.
PBX phone system is a high-performance communication solution for small business enterprises as well as start-up companies. As the entire service is provided through hosted IP technology, when implementing small business PBX phone system, there is no hardware to purchase or maintain. Small business PBX system provides innovative and productive calling features to businesses of all sizes. It is easy to set up and is fully customizable as per various business needs. There is no upfront cost or ongoing maintenance fee involved when setting up small business PBX system. The hosted service providers take care of all upgrades and maintenance. As this PBX system is not linked to landlines or hardware, the communication features can be accessed from any location. Such a system facilitates uninterrupted communication with remote business offices and employees who are on the move.A wide variety of advanced call management features are available with small business phone systems and these include auto attendant, call routing, call forwarding, call transfer, dial by name, dial by extension, call conferencing, voice mail and fax messaging. The auto attendant feature in PBX phone answers and routes all business calls efficiently. It can route calls to residence phones or cell phones, to reach you in real-time.Through virtual PBX system, businesses can set up virtual departments, assign multiple extensions and program the auto attendant to play custom greetings and many more. You can add and remove multiple extensions as per changing business needs. The easy to use web interface can manage all aspects of PBX phone system. You can check all incoming and outgoing calls, faxes, voice mail messages via online interface.Small business PBX phone systems enable businesses to gain benefits such as productivity and realize cost savings, without making capital expenditures. No additional phone line is required to enjoy PBX features; you can use your existing business number.
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Ace shines its SPOTLIGHT on consumers - Ace Hardware's business strategy - Brief Article
Ace Hardware's 'Vision 21' business strategy is being refined to send a more compelling marketing message about its members' stores and what they sell to a broader customer base
Last April, Ace Hardware chairman Howie Jung told dealer-members attending the co-op's spring market in New Orleans that the company's ultimate goal under its Vision 21 strategy is for its 5,100-plus dealer-members to "dominate" the convenience segment of the retail home improvement market.
The five "cornerstones" of that strategy -- entrepreneurism, category management, sharp retail pricing, customer-service management and employee training -- are what Ace believes will drive more business into its members' stores and produce 5 percent same-store sales growth this year alone. Ace officials pledged that the co-op would commit to measuring with greater precision and utility, the effectiveness of the programs it has devised as part of Vision 21.
Since that pronouncement, the dynamics of the market have changed, to say the least. The wave of dealers who have defected from rival TruServ over the past several months has washed up, in many cases, onto Ace's shores. And the potential expansion threat from Home Depot's much-ballyhooed hardware store format, Villager's Hardware, has dissipated now that Depot appears to be focusing its attention on developing "urban" home centers that may include some Villager-like attributes.
But Ace's mandate remains the same, and it's still a tall order whose achievement could determine the success of the buying group, especially after a first half of 2001, during which Ace's wholesale sales fell nearly 4 percent, and its net income plummeted 32 percent.
As of mid-August, Ace had approved 1,781 of its members' stores as operating within the guidelines of Vision 21. From January through July, Ace's wholesale sales with those Vision 21 stores were up 7.4 percent compared to last year, vs. a 7.8 percent decline in wholesale sales to non-Vision 21 stores.
"These numbers continue to give credence to the strategy," said Ray Griffith, Ace's executive vp-retail, in an interview with NHCN during last month's National Hardware Show.
Earlier this year, the co-op put the breaks on sign-ups for Vision 21 because it feared that more members would want to participate than it could handle. Now, Griffith said that Ace is ready to start soliciting members to the program again, and it won't be shy about using this program as an enticement to lure strong TruServ dealers into its fold.
"It's never been a numbers thing for us, but if we had a 3,000-store kick-butt hardware operation that acted more like a chain, we'd really be something else," he said.
Creating a new retail image
Griffith and other Ace officials have stated that Vision 21 is about improving dealer productivity -- customer transactions in an Ace store average about $13 -- and reducing dealer costs. It's worth noting that customer counts at member stores had been declining at an average rate of 1 percent per month for several months prior to Ace's convention in New Orleans, and first-quarter same-store sales were up only 1.5 percent.
On the other hand, members that participate in the co-op's Discovery program -- which develops merchandise assortments based on what's sold best for the buying group's strongest members -- have seen average sales increases from 10 percent to 16 percent in the first year and from 6 percent to 14 percent in the second.
Discovery, which is into its third year and second revision, is an integral cog in the Vision 21 machine, and one on which several other programs hinge. The following stories on Ace Hardware take a closer look at some of the co-op's newer initiatives and how they are being executed at the service of its Vision 21 strategy.
Ace is trying to create a new retail image for its dealer-members -- through its advertising, its store design and its customer services -- that appeals to a much broader cross section of consumers than has typically shopped its stores. The co-op's latest tag line -- "This is My Ace" -- cuts both ways, and it suggests that the co-op and its membership need to operate more as a unit to achieve the kind of market domination of which Jung spoke.
For example, Ace president Dave Hodnik told members last spring that the co-op has to do a better job measuring its performance against Home Depot and Lowe's. So why, Griffith asked rhetorically, shouldn't members let Ace competitively shop 75 percent to 80 percent of the products they sell? Apparently, more dealers are responding "why not?" According to Griffith there has been an overwhelmingly positive response to the company's "Ace Retails" pricing and margin improvement plan which, if fully implemented, is projected to increase the co-op's annual profit by $325 million.
More profit would translate into higher patronage dividends for members, which Ace hopes will lead to more new store openings. Last year, Ace helped 141 members negotiate $28 million in financing for new stores. Around 1,300 members operate more than one store, with four owners for every five stores. Ace wants to increase that ratio to four owners for every six stores.
Last April, Ace Hardware chairman Howie Jung told dealer-members attending the co-op's spring market in New Orleans that the company's ultimate goal under its Vision 21 strategy is for its 5,100-plus dealer-members to "dominate" the convenience segment of the retail home improvement market.
The five "cornerstones" of that strategy -- entrepreneurism, category management, sharp retail pricing, customer-service management and employee training -- are what Ace believes will drive more business into its members' stores and produce 5 percent same-store sales growth this year alone. Ace officials pledged that the co-op would commit to measuring with greater precision and utility, the effectiveness of the programs it has devised as part of Vision 21.
Since that pronouncement, the dynamics of the market have changed, to say the least. The wave of dealers who have defected from rival TruServ over the past several months has washed up, in many cases, onto Ace's shores. And the potential expansion threat from Home Depot's much-ballyhooed hardware store format, Villager's Hardware, has dissipated now that Depot appears to be focusing its attention on developing "urban" home centers that may include some Villager-like attributes.
But Ace's mandate remains the same, and it's still a tall order whose achievement could determine the success of the buying group, especially after a first half of 2001, during which Ace's wholesale sales fell nearly 4 percent, and its net income plummeted 32 percent.
As of mid-August, Ace had approved 1,781 of its members' stores as operating within the guidelines of Vision 21. From January through July, Ace's wholesale sales with those Vision 21 stores were up 7.4 percent compared to last year, vs. a 7.8 percent decline in wholesale sales to non-Vision 21 stores.
"These numbers continue to give credence to the strategy," said Ray Griffith, Ace's executive vp-retail, in an interview with NHCN during last month's National Hardware Show.
Earlier this year, the co-op put the breaks on sign-ups for Vision 21 because it feared that more members would want to participate than it could handle. Now, Griffith said that Ace is ready to start soliciting members to the program again, and it won't be shy about using this program as an enticement to lure strong TruServ dealers into its fold.
"It's never been a numbers thing for us, but if we had a 3,000-store kick-butt hardware operation that acted more like a chain, we'd really be something else," he said.
Creating a new retail image
Griffith and other Ace officials have stated that Vision 21 is about improving dealer productivity -- customer transactions in an Ace store average about $13 -- and reducing dealer costs. It's worth noting that customer counts at member stores had been declining at an average rate of 1 percent per month for several months prior to Ace's convention in New Orleans, and first-quarter same-store sales were up only 1.5 percent.
On the other hand, members that participate in the co-op's Discovery program -- which develops merchandise assortments based on what's sold best for the buying group's strongest members -- have seen average sales increases from 10 percent to 16 percent in the first year and from 6 percent to 14 percent in the second.
Discovery, which is into its third year and second revision, is an integral cog in the Vision 21 machine, and one on which several other programs hinge. The following stories on Ace Hardware take a closer look at some of the co-op's newer initiatives and how they are being executed at the service of its Vision 21 strategy.
Ace is trying to create a new retail image for its dealer-members -- through its advertising, its store design and its customer services -- that appeals to a much broader cross section of consumers than has typically shopped its stores. The co-op's latest tag line -- "This is My Ace" -- cuts both ways, and it suggests that the co-op and its membership need to operate more as a unit to achieve the kind of market domination of which Jung spoke.
For example, Ace president Dave Hodnik told members last spring that the co-op has to do a better job measuring its performance against Home Depot and Lowe's. So why, Griffith asked rhetorically, shouldn't members let Ace competitively shop 75 percent to 80 percent of the products they sell? Apparently, more dealers are responding "why not?" According to Griffith there has been an overwhelmingly positive response to the company's "Ace Retails" pricing and margin improvement plan which, if fully implemented, is projected to increase the co-op's annual profit by $325 million.
More profit would translate into higher patronage dividends for members, which Ace hopes will lead to more new store openings. Last year, Ace helped 141 members negotiate $28 million in financing for new stores. Around 1,300 members operate more than one store, with four owners for every five stores. Ace wants to increase that ratio to four owners for every six stores.
Monday, October 05, 2009
New tips laws will put some firms out of business, says hotel HR boss
Laws set to ban employers using tips to pay wages will put some organisations out of business, a services industry HR manager has claimed.
Simon Irvin, HR manager at Bovey Castle, a hotel and sporting estate in Dartmoor, said that organisations under financial pressure could be “flushed out” of business when the practice is banned on 1 October.
“There will be some people who are flushed out if they are having financial trouble and have been using tips to pay wages,” he said.
But Irvin refused to defend such businesses and said staff wages should be separate from tips. In October last year, Bovey Castle introduced a service charge system for guests to pay tips directly to the hotel. This money is then redistributed among staff. Service charges of between 12.5 per cent and 22.5 per cent are added to customers’ bills. Personal tips are discouraged and Irvin said most guests are happy to pay.
He explained: “Some hotels have used tips to support payroll or minimum wage, but we have made sure this has never been done. Fifty per cent of the charge is paid to staff each month and the other 50 per cent is held in a fund for our staff council to spend. Through our marketing material, we make it clear to guests that not a penny of the charge goes to the hotel.”
Ten per cent of the cash held back is saved for a Christmas bonus, while a further £30,000 is held in Premium Bonds. The staff council also spends money on barbecues, a disco and a Christmas party.
Staff reactions to the policy have been positive with 96 per cent of the 135 permanent and 25 casual staff found to be content in a recent staff survey.
But Irvin admitted the employer had only been able to initiate the change because of its relative financial security. “Some other firms may use tips to pay wages because of financial pressures but we have not got that.
“Our staff are looked after, trained and rewarded. So we have fewer recruitment costs and disciplinary issues. In 2008 our recruitment costs, through agencies, were £52,000. But this year we haven’t spent a penny on recruitment.”
Travco Group International Holding Acquires The Hotel Company Steigenberger Hotels Ag
for TRAVCO GROUPTRAVCO GROUP, Taking its Strong Regional Presence to an International Level Cairo, August 20, 2009 - Travco Group InternationalTravco Group International Holding S.A.E (travco Group), the Egypt based leading travel group, has completed the strategic acquisition of STEIGENBERGER HOTELS AG. This step further reinforces travco Group's strategy of targeted growth and international expansion. In addition to hotels, Nile cruise ships and destination management companies, TRAVCO's business activities cover the full tourism value chain with a unique integrated business model.
"This is a very important strategic step towards our long-lasting and continuous course for growth, which positions us as a global player in the tourism and hospitality industries and allows us to offer an even greater and more appealing value proposition to our customers," says Hamed El Chiaty, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer and together with his family owner of TRAVCO. "In addition to the clear strategic benefits, we will aim at jointly increasing our added-value offerings through accessing new growth opportunities and realizing operative synergies. At a particularly challenging time for the entire tourism industry, this decisive move strengthens our leadership claim within the leisure business. Together we will shape the hotel industry in Europe and the Middle East for the years to come"
STEIGENBERGER is the stepping-stone of TRAVCO's worldwide presence, as well as its entry into the city hotel business, particularly in the German, Austrian and Swiss markets, and will further strengthen the Company's positioning in the quality segment. The mostly complementary businesses of both companies will allow for cross-selling opportunities across the pands and further economies of scale.
The Egypt Based company TRAVCO GROUPTRAVCO GROUP is one of the largest integrated tourism groups in the Arab region with over 60 integrated companies in the field of tourism and hospitality and assets in excess of €1.25 billion including; A portfolio of 43 hotels and 9 underway with capacity exceeding 10,500 rooms which are operated by Travco's hospitality pands JAZ, IBEROTEL and SOL Y MAR in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates; The largest fleet on the Nile Cruises comprising 22 ships and over 1300 cabins managed by the group's own TRAVCOTELS, JAZ and IBEROTEL; Additionally a low cost airline to be launched later this year. The group represents a powerful force in Egypt's travel, tourism and hospitality industries making it the only fully integrated business in its sector.
Their incoming agency Travco Travel - a joint venture with TUI AG - caters to over 1.3 million guests per year with over 1000 buses and 200 luxury limousines. The destination management company organizes a wide array of travel packages in Egypt and its network of international offices in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Syria, China, Japan, UK and Germany and soon Jordan. Their main source markets are Russia, Germany, Italy, France and the UK.
TRAVCO PROPERTIES is their development arm and the division in charge of construction and marketing for their real estate projects on total land banks exceeding 10 million square meters.
TRAVCO GROUPTRAVCO GROUP is the painchild of its Chairman and CEO Hamed El Chiaty, who founded the company in 1979. Today it's still fully owned and run by Mr. El Chiaty, his wife Dora and children Karim and Tania. In 2008 it posted consolidated revenues of € 600 million and employs 18,000 people.
The acquisition, makes Travco GroupTravco Group one of the largest international owners and operators of diversified group of hotels in Europe and the Middle East with over 142 hotels, resorts and cruises and 25,000 guest rooms in unique geographical locations and an upward spiraling expansion planned introducing 14 new projects in the year to come.
"This is a very important strategic step towards our long-lasting and continuous course for growth, which positions us as a global player in the tourism and hospitality industries and allows us to offer an even greater and more appealing value proposition to our customers," says Hamed El Chiaty, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer and together with his family owner of TRAVCO. "In addition to the clear strategic benefits, we will aim at jointly increasing our added-value offerings through accessing new growth opportunities and realizing operative synergies. At a particularly challenging time for the entire tourism industry, this decisive move strengthens our leadership claim within the leisure business. Together we will shape the hotel industry in Europe and the Middle East for the years to come"
STEIGENBERGER is the stepping-stone of TRAVCO's worldwide presence, as well as its entry into the city hotel business, particularly in the German, Austrian and Swiss markets, and will further strengthen the Company's positioning in the quality segment. The mostly complementary businesses of both companies will allow for cross-selling opportunities across the pands and further economies of scale.
The Egypt Based company TRAVCO GROUPTRAVCO GROUP is one of the largest integrated tourism groups in the Arab region with over 60 integrated companies in the field of tourism and hospitality and assets in excess of €1.25 billion including; A portfolio of 43 hotels and 9 underway with capacity exceeding 10,500 rooms which are operated by Travco's hospitality pands JAZ, IBEROTEL and SOL Y MAR in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates; The largest fleet on the Nile Cruises comprising 22 ships and over 1300 cabins managed by the group's own TRAVCOTELS, JAZ and IBEROTEL; Additionally a low cost airline to be launched later this year. The group represents a powerful force in Egypt's travel, tourism and hospitality industries making it the only fully integrated business in its sector.
Their incoming agency Travco Travel - a joint venture with TUI AG - caters to over 1.3 million guests per year with over 1000 buses and 200 luxury limousines. The destination management company organizes a wide array of travel packages in Egypt and its network of international offices in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Syria, China, Japan, UK and Germany and soon Jordan. Their main source markets are Russia, Germany, Italy, France and the UK.
TRAVCO PROPERTIES is their development arm and the division in charge of construction and marketing for their real estate projects on total land banks exceeding 10 million square meters.
TRAVCO GROUPTRAVCO GROUP is the painchild of its Chairman and CEO Hamed El Chiaty, who founded the company in 1979. Today it's still fully owned and run by Mr. El Chiaty, his wife Dora and children Karim and Tania. In 2008 it posted consolidated revenues of € 600 million and employs 18,000 people.
The acquisition, makes Travco GroupTravco Group one of the largest international owners and operators of diversified group of hotels in Europe and the Middle East with over 142 hotels, resorts and cruises and 25,000 guest rooms in unique geographical locations and an upward spiraling expansion planned introducing 14 new projects in the year to come.
Thursday, October 01, 2009
The New Music Business Model: Imogen Heap
It’s been a while since someone in the music business impressed me. Finally, somebody has impressed me so much that it inspired me to launch my long-overdue company website and marketing blog. This is the story of how one woman and 700,000 (and climbing) followers on Twitter are creating the new music business model.
During the past ten years we’ve seen dramatic shifts in the music business. Since the launch of Napster and other peer to peer sharing sites there’s a growing sense among consumers that music – at least the songs – should be free. We’ve seen record label executives struggle with the changing environment, we’ve seen some independent artists thrive, and we’ve seen some major-label artists go independent and take advantage of this turn. Is it that we must give the songs away for free? Or is there some other asset of perceived greater value that we can offer fans, and still successfully sell music?
Enter: Imogen Heap. Some people may recognize Imogen as the beautiful vocalist of Frou Frou. Others may be familiar with her song “Hide & Seek” or the song she wrote for The Chronicles of Narnia, “Can’t Take it In.” But even if you’ve never heard of her, it’s time to pay attention — Imogen Heap is changing the way business is done. Or perhaps she’s just bringing music back to its roots — the relationship between musician and fan — and exploiting all the technical advantages available. In a time when some music industry veterans seem to be afraid of the way technology is changing their business, Imogen Heap is using these technological advances to her advantage.
Chapter 1: Along Came Twitter: This is not to say Heap began her online relationship with her fans on Twitter. Prior to the emergence of Twitter, Heap maintained a healthy MySpace profile with more than 14 million profile views and 350,000 fans. She often posted blogs and bulletins and called for fan participation and feedback.
However, Twitter allowed Heap to efficiently update her fans about the making of her new record, Ellipse (release: August 25, 2009). When I first began following Heap on Twitter she had just over 20,000 followers. It was the early days of Twitter and while most people were posting their daily whereabouts or the progress they made doing their chores, Heap was chronicling the making of her album, a process that took 2 years. During this time she also purchased the home she grew up in and built a recording studio. Heap documented all of this on her Twitter profile, making fans part of the process along the way.
Heap not only shared clips of music in progress, images of her recording studio, and the day’s triumphs, she also shared her frustrations, her insecurities, and often sought advice from fans. In response to the many @replies Heap often received, she thanked her fans repeatedly. She also made it a habit to circle back with fans to let them know what decisions she ended up making upon hearing their input and would often show them the results with pictures, audio, or video.
Chapter 2: vLogging: To complement her dialog with fans on Twitter – and to tell a story with more than 140 characters – Heap maintained a regular video blog on YouTube. In total, she posted 40 episodes, during the past 2 years, each running between 3 and 12 minutes long. Although, they’re publicly available, Heap’s vLogs make viewers feel like they’ve been invited into her home (indeed, most vLogs are shot in Heap’s home) for an intimate conversation. The vLogs capture Heap’s personality, her fun and celebratory nature, and allow fans to really get to know Heap even though they may never have met her in person.
The vLogs are not solely focused on the making of Ellipse — they include Heap’s adventures in learning how to drive (and passing her driving test); remodeling her childhood home and turning her former playroom into her studio; and her New Year’s celebration. Each time she posted a vLog, Heap notified fans via Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.
In March 2009, Heap posted a vLog calling for fans to help create her new press bio. The challenge – all submissions had to be made via Twitter, in the standard sub-140 characters. The final product is quite impressive and can be downloaded here. Heap makes sure to give credit to the 81 Tweeters who helped co-write (or co-tweet) her new bio.
The result of Heap’s diligent vLogs and authentic fan engagement is a YouTube channel with more than 519,000 views and individual videos with as many as 122,000 views. Most important, each video is accompanied by hundreds of comments from fans expressing their excitement about Heap and the upcoming release of Ellipse, as well as their gratitude.
As fans became more and more engaged in the making of Heap’s album and the virtually, real friendship they shared with her, Heap allowed them to participate even further in the making of Ellipse.
Chapter 3: Flickr: In May 2009, Heap asked fans to submit samples of their work in order to be considered to collaborate with Heap on the album artwork and packaging. 3 fans were chosen to help create the artwork and all fans were asked to submit photographs that could potentially be included in the album packaging. Heap created a Flickr group and asked fans to tag and submit all entries there.
Specifically, Heap was looking for images that capture the feeling or meaning of specific lyrics from the songs on her new album. She posted the lyrics for reference, along with detailed instructions on the Flickr page. After sorting through more than 1,000 entries, Heap chose 11 fan-submitted photographs to be included in the final album artwork. Winners receive a cash prize, plus credit on the album.
Chapter 4: Building it Together: What Heap accomplished, all the while making a record, is truly brilliant. She now has more than 735,000 followers on Twitter, each of whom feels invested in the making of Ellipse and is eagerly awaiting its release. They’ve been there every step of the way, offered their opinions and insights when asked for advice about songs, helped create Heap’s bio and album art, and were the friends who were always willing to lend an ear… and a hand.
Chapter 5: Taking it Back (With A Little Help From My Friends): The story doesn’t end with the completion of the album. A new load of work begins when the record is done – promo tours, interviews and radio shows. As part of the promotion machine, labels often send out advance copies of albums to music critics. In early July one such promo album made its way to eBay. How did Heap find out about this? Twitter, of course.
A fan sent Heap a Tweet and notified her about the eBay auction for her as of yet unreleased album. Heap was outraged, as she puts it, not because she doesn’t want the music to get out there (she wants her fans to have the music), but because some opportunistic person who had nothing to do with the album stood to make a lot of money from its pre-release sale on eBay. In fact, the man who posted the auction could have made $10,000,000, if only…
After Heap verified that her unreleased album was indeed posted for auction on eBay, she presented her Twitter followers with a little challenge — to make Ellipse “the most bidded-on item ever on eBay.” In typical form, fans responded en masse, bidding Ellipse up to $10,000,000. Later Heap said, “it was going to be the most expensive album ever bought.” Soon enough, eBay got wind of this and pulled the auction down.
During a time when many music fans are clamoring for free music, Heap’s fans actually helped ensure her music wasn’t prematurely leaked. As usual, Heap thanked her followers with a Tweet: “Well that was fun! Will get it removed and make sure none of you get bumped off eBay for helping me out there. Love to you! Heap sleep now.”
Chapter 6: Heap TweetUps: Although Heap enlisted her fans to help stop an unauthorized, early release of Ellipse, she continues to do what she can to make sure her fans remain part of the process and hear the music first. During a recent trip to the US, Heap launched “TweetUps” in New York and Los Angeles.
As she said during the Los Angeles TweetUp in early July, for Heap, the final part of the process is when the fans get to hear her music for the first time. Usually, the artist isn’t present in the homes, cars, and offices of fans when they’re listening to the album. Heap wanted to change this and to experience Ellipse through the ears of her Twitter followers. Heap created the TweetUps so that she could preview her album for the fans who helped make it and who provided support and enthusiasm along the way.
Fans line up for Heap TweetUp, Los Angeles
The Heap TweetUps took place in small venues in New York and Los Angeles. The time and location of each TweetUp was announced one day prior to each event, on Twitter. At The Hotel Cafe, in Los Angeles, Heap greeted fans who waited in a line that rounded 2 corners and stretched beyond a city block. Once inside, fans were treated to an open bar (it was a 21+ event) and then invited to hear Ellipse for the first time.
Heap introduces each song
Heap introduced and discussed the inspiration for each song’s genesis before pushing “play” on iTunes. Then, she stepped out of the light as fans listened for the first time. While music fans can often read or listen to an interview about the making of an album or the inspiration behind their favorite song, it’s rare that they get to sit with their favorite artist, listen to her introduce the music, and be in the room with her while the songs are playing. . . all before the album is publicly released. Beyond just playing the songs for the first time, Heap shared what, for her, and her fans was another pivotal experience, bringing the making-of Ellipse full-circle.
Imogen Heap signing autographs for fans after the TweetUp
After previewing a handful of songs from the album, Heap offered to meet and sign photos for everybody who attended the TweetUp. When the venue announced they needed to clear the room so they could prepare for that evening’s shows (the TweetUp took place in the afternoon), the long line of fans awaiting autographs didn’t seem concerned. Through the process of making an album with Heap, they learned she wouldn’t let them down. True to form and putting her fans first, Heap moved the meet & greet to the alley outside the venue. After a busy week of radio interviews and countless meetings, Heap took her time, speaking with and thanking every fan who was there.
Chapter 7: Cafe Heap: Now that the album is finished, the making-of vLog series has obviously come to an end. However, there’s still more to do between now, the album’s official release (August 25, 2009) and Heap’s upcoming tour (TBD beginning November) which means there’s still more for Heap to share with her fans. What else could she possibly do?
Last week Heap announced Heap Cafe – a live video chat that will take place (likely in her living room) weekly. During the making of Ellipse Heap held a few live chats on uStream, but now she’s formalizing that into a weekly meeting. During her most recent video chat on uStream, Heap played piano and asked fans to chime in and tell her what to play. “Play it faster,” “play it in the key of A,” “play anything!” the fans furiously typed in their suggestions. It was a fun experiment and another opportunity for fans to literally shape Heap’s music in real-time. All the activity, coupled with uStream’s integrated Twitter application, made #heapstream a trending topic on Twitter.
Heap Cafe will debut this week on a new platform, Vokle. They’re set to take place every Sunday, but there’s been mention that the first chat will take place Thursday, July 23rd. The best way to make sure you don’t miss Heap Cafe? Follow @imogenheap on Twitter.
Chapter 8: The Beginning: With over a month until its official release, Ellipse is currently #39 on the iTunes Top Albums chart. Heap seems to be gaining 1,000+ followers per day on Twitter. Fan enthusiasm continues to climb, with people Tweeting: “I would pay any price for Ellipse,” “finally had to cave & get twitter so i could get @imogenheap ’s beautiful video,” “Thank you so much for allowing us to download Canvas. It’s such a lovely video. I would have paid many times over to get this.”
People are Tweeting about paying for music?! Imogen Heap has started something…
During the past ten years we’ve seen dramatic shifts in the music business. Since the launch of Napster and other peer to peer sharing sites there’s a growing sense among consumers that music – at least the songs – should be free. We’ve seen record label executives struggle with the changing environment, we’ve seen some independent artists thrive, and we’ve seen some major-label artists go independent and take advantage of this turn. Is it that we must give the songs away for free? Or is there some other asset of perceived greater value that we can offer fans, and still successfully sell music?
Enter: Imogen Heap. Some people may recognize Imogen as the beautiful vocalist of Frou Frou. Others may be familiar with her song “Hide & Seek” or the song she wrote for The Chronicles of Narnia, “Can’t Take it In.” But even if you’ve never heard of her, it’s time to pay attention — Imogen Heap is changing the way business is done. Or perhaps she’s just bringing music back to its roots — the relationship between musician and fan — and exploiting all the technical advantages available. In a time when some music industry veterans seem to be afraid of the way technology is changing their business, Imogen Heap is using these technological advances to her advantage.
Chapter 1: Along Came Twitter: This is not to say Heap began her online relationship with her fans on Twitter. Prior to the emergence of Twitter, Heap maintained a healthy MySpace profile with more than 14 million profile views and 350,000 fans. She often posted blogs and bulletins and called for fan participation and feedback.
However, Twitter allowed Heap to efficiently update her fans about the making of her new record, Ellipse (release: August 25, 2009). When I first began following Heap on Twitter she had just over 20,000 followers. It was the early days of Twitter and while most people were posting their daily whereabouts or the progress they made doing their chores, Heap was chronicling the making of her album, a process that took 2 years. During this time she also purchased the home she grew up in and built a recording studio. Heap documented all of this on her Twitter profile, making fans part of the process along the way.
Heap not only shared clips of music in progress, images of her recording studio, and the day’s triumphs, she also shared her frustrations, her insecurities, and often sought advice from fans. In response to the many @replies Heap often received, she thanked her fans repeatedly. She also made it a habit to circle back with fans to let them know what decisions she ended up making upon hearing their input and would often show them the results with pictures, audio, or video.
Chapter 2: vLogging: To complement her dialog with fans on Twitter – and to tell a story with more than 140 characters – Heap maintained a regular video blog on YouTube. In total, she posted 40 episodes, during the past 2 years, each running between 3 and 12 minutes long. Although, they’re publicly available, Heap’s vLogs make viewers feel like they’ve been invited into her home (indeed, most vLogs are shot in Heap’s home) for an intimate conversation. The vLogs capture Heap’s personality, her fun and celebratory nature, and allow fans to really get to know Heap even though they may never have met her in person.
The vLogs are not solely focused on the making of Ellipse — they include Heap’s adventures in learning how to drive (and passing her driving test); remodeling her childhood home and turning her former playroom into her studio; and her New Year’s celebration. Each time she posted a vLog, Heap notified fans via Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.
In March 2009, Heap posted a vLog calling for fans to help create her new press bio. The challenge – all submissions had to be made via Twitter, in the standard sub-140 characters. The final product is quite impressive and can be downloaded here. Heap makes sure to give credit to the 81 Tweeters who helped co-write (or co-tweet) her new bio.
The result of Heap’s diligent vLogs and authentic fan engagement is a YouTube channel with more than 519,000 views and individual videos with as many as 122,000 views. Most important, each video is accompanied by hundreds of comments from fans expressing their excitement about Heap and the upcoming release of Ellipse, as well as their gratitude.
As fans became more and more engaged in the making of Heap’s album and the virtually, real friendship they shared with her, Heap allowed them to participate even further in the making of Ellipse.
Chapter 3: Flickr: In May 2009, Heap asked fans to submit samples of their work in order to be considered to collaborate with Heap on the album artwork and packaging. 3 fans were chosen to help create the artwork and all fans were asked to submit photographs that could potentially be included in the album packaging. Heap created a Flickr group and asked fans to tag and submit all entries there.
Specifically, Heap was looking for images that capture the feeling or meaning of specific lyrics from the songs on her new album. She posted the lyrics for reference, along with detailed instructions on the Flickr page. After sorting through more than 1,000 entries, Heap chose 11 fan-submitted photographs to be included in the final album artwork. Winners receive a cash prize, plus credit on the album.
Chapter 4: Building it Together: What Heap accomplished, all the while making a record, is truly brilliant. She now has more than 735,000 followers on Twitter, each of whom feels invested in the making of Ellipse and is eagerly awaiting its release. They’ve been there every step of the way, offered their opinions and insights when asked for advice about songs, helped create Heap’s bio and album art, and were the friends who were always willing to lend an ear… and a hand.
Chapter 5: Taking it Back (With A Little Help From My Friends): The story doesn’t end with the completion of the album. A new load of work begins when the record is done – promo tours, interviews and radio shows. As part of the promotion machine, labels often send out advance copies of albums to music critics. In early July one such promo album made its way to eBay. How did Heap find out about this? Twitter, of course.
A fan sent Heap a Tweet and notified her about the eBay auction for her as of yet unreleased album. Heap was outraged, as she puts it, not because she doesn’t want the music to get out there (she wants her fans to have the music), but because some opportunistic person who had nothing to do with the album stood to make a lot of money from its pre-release sale on eBay. In fact, the man who posted the auction could have made $10,000,000, if only…
After Heap verified that her unreleased album was indeed posted for auction on eBay, she presented her Twitter followers with a little challenge — to make Ellipse “the most bidded-on item ever on eBay.” In typical form, fans responded en masse, bidding Ellipse up to $10,000,000. Later Heap said, “it was going to be the most expensive album ever bought.” Soon enough, eBay got wind of this and pulled the auction down.
During a time when many music fans are clamoring for free music, Heap’s fans actually helped ensure her music wasn’t prematurely leaked. As usual, Heap thanked her followers with a Tweet: “Well that was fun! Will get it removed and make sure none of you get bumped off eBay for helping me out there. Love to you! Heap sleep now.”
Chapter 6: Heap TweetUps: Although Heap enlisted her fans to help stop an unauthorized, early release of Ellipse, she continues to do what she can to make sure her fans remain part of the process and hear the music first. During a recent trip to the US, Heap launched “TweetUps” in New York and Los Angeles.
As she said during the Los Angeles TweetUp in early July, for Heap, the final part of the process is when the fans get to hear her music for the first time. Usually, the artist isn’t present in the homes, cars, and offices of fans when they’re listening to the album. Heap wanted to change this and to experience Ellipse through the ears of her Twitter followers. Heap created the TweetUps so that she could preview her album for the fans who helped make it and who provided support and enthusiasm along the way.
Fans line up for Heap TweetUp, Los Angeles
The Heap TweetUps took place in small venues in New York and Los Angeles. The time and location of each TweetUp was announced one day prior to each event, on Twitter. At The Hotel Cafe, in Los Angeles, Heap greeted fans who waited in a line that rounded 2 corners and stretched beyond a city block. Once inside, fans were treated to an open bar (it was a 21+ event) and then invited to hear Ellipse for the first time.
Heap introduces each song
Heap introduced and discussed the inspiration for each song’s genesis before pushing “play” on iTunes. Then, she stepped out of the light as fans listened for the first time. While music fans can often read or listen to an interview about the making of an album or the inspiration behind their favorite song, it’s rare that they get to sit with their favorite artist, listen to her introduce the music, and be in the room with her while the songs are playing. . . all before the album is publicly released. Beyond just playing the songs for the first time, Heap shared what, for her, and her fans was another pivotal experience, bringing the making-of Ellipse full-circle.
Imogen Heap signing autographs for fans after the TweetUp
After previewing a handful of songs from the album, Heap offered to meet and sign photos for everybody who attended the TweetUp. When the venue announced they needed to clear the room so they could prepare for that evening’s shows (the TweetUp took place in the afternoon), the long line of fans awaiting autographs didn’t seem concerned. Through the process of making an album with Heap, they learned she wouldn’t let them down. True to form and putting her fans first, Heap moved the meet & greet to the alley outside the venue. After a busy week of radio interviews and countless meetings, Heap took her time, speaking with and thanking every fan who was there.
Chapter 7: Cafe Heap: Now that the album is finished, the making-of vLog series has obviously come to an end. However, there’s still more to do between now, the album’s official release (August 25, 2009) and Heap’s upcoming tour (TBD beginning November) which means there’s still more for Heap to share with her fans. What else could she possibly do?
Last week Heap announced Heap Cafe – a live video chat that will take place (likely in her living room) weekly. During the making of Ellipse Heap held a few live chats on uStream, but now she’s formalizing that into a weekly meeting. During her most recent video chat on uStream, Heap played piano and asked fans to chime in and tell her what to play. “Play it faster,” “play it in the key of A,” “play anything!” the fans furiously typed in their suggestions. It was a fun experiment and another opportunity for fans to literally shape Heap’s music in real-time. All the activity, coupled with uStream’s integrated Twitter application, made #heapstream a trending topic on Twitter.
Heap Cafe will debut this week on a new platform, Vokle. They’re set to take place every Sunday, but there’s been mention that the first chat will take place Thursday, July 23rd. The best way to make sure you don’t miss Heap Cafe? Follow @imogenheap on Twitter.
Chapter 8: The Beginning: With over a month until its official release, Ellipse is currently #39 on the iTunes Top Albums chart. Heap seems to be gaining 1,000+ followers per day on Twitter. Fan enthusiasm continues to climb, with people Tweeting: “I would pay any price for Ellipse,” “finally had to cave & get twitter so i could get @imogenheap ’s beautiful video,” “Thank you so much for allowing us to download Canvas. It’s such a lovely video. I would have paid many times over to get this.”
People are Tweeting about paying for music?! Imogen Heap has started something…
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