Another technological event is being held from this Thursday till Sunday at Thessaloniki city in Greece and Greek Fedora community couln’d be anywhere else.

We invite you at stand 14A at Infosystem’s building 6 to meet you, to celebrate Fedora’s 12 official release, to inform people about Fedora, and to have a lot fun!

Don’t miss our beautiful booth which is fully armed with CDs, DVDs, stickers, flyers, Fedora Live USB Creation station, laptops for showing and many more.

I want to thank Hellug for accepting us in their booth and the company EEL/LAK who payed for it.

Announcement in Greek – Ανακοίνωση στα Ελληνικά

Ένα ακόμη τεχνολογικό event διοργανώνεται από αυτή την Πέμπτη μέχρι και την Κυριακή στη Θεσσαλονίκη από το οποίο φυσικά δεν θα μπορούσε να λείπει η Ελληνική κοινότητα του Fedora.

Σας καλούμε λοιπόν όλους να έρθετε στο stand 14A (περίπτερο 6) της Infosystem 2010 να γνωριστούμε, να ανταλλάξουμε απόψεις, να γιορτάσουμε την κυκλοφορία του Fedora 12 (Constantine), να ενημερώσουμε τον κόσμο και να ενημερωθούμε αλλά πάνω από όλα να περάσουμε καλά!

Στο χώρο θα στηθεί πάγκος fedora τις ημέρες Σάββατο και Κυριακή με όλα τα καλούδια (!) CDs, DVDs, stickers, flyers, Fedora Live USB creation station, laptops και άλλα πολλά.

Θέλω να ευχαριστήσω τον σύλλογο HELLUG που δέχτηκε την συστέγαση και την εταιρεία ΕΕΛ/ΛΑΚ που πλήρωσε το stand.

Ωράριο λειτουργίας της έκθεσης:
Καθημερινά 12.00 – 21.00
Σαββατοκύριακο 11.00 – 21.00

This is  Carolina Custom Booth’s first  Booth of the Week. We will be featuring  one or more booths at the beginning of each week. These were specifically manufactured for a historical hotel in Maryland. To find out more about these booths and others go to www.carolinacustombooth.com for contact information.

If you are in Toronto this weekend – or if you’re not you should be! – be sure to make it a point to visit the SexArise! booth with our SexArise! Girls Milena and Eila at The Everything to do with Sex Show and get your picture taken with one of the girls!

We look forward to seeing you there!

If you are, a restaurant owner that is, you have a lot of decisions to make before the opening of your restaurant. Many having to do with whats on the menu, where the building will be located, and who will be the perfect employees. But when it comes to the design of your restaurant, or any other business for that matter, there are many nonverbal aspects to consider.

For instance, if you were to consider putting round tables in your building you are actually encouraging communication between the people who choose to sit at them. A longer table establishes more of a business setting by having two “heads” of the table and allowing for a larger group to sit at them. A booth generally encourages conversation and keeps customers sitting longer because of comfort. You should also consider the lighting of your building, if you have bright lights people will feel the urge to leave as soon as possible which may or may not be the result you want. But if you happen to be in the restaurant industry you most certainly want your guests to stay as long as possible to enjoy great food and a great environment. (The longer they linger the more they are going to want to taste off the menu!).

Another nonverbal to consider when opening a restaurant is the scent or smell you give off to customers. Your memory is triggered at a much higher percentage by smell than any other sense, so you want to give off a smell in which could be triggered by many other things. The key to your scent is to create an emotional connection. Maybe you own an Italian restaurant and the scent you give off is garlic and fresh-baked bread, then any other time the customer encounters this scent he or she will recognize it in connection with your restaurant. Another scent an owner might choose to put throughout their building is lavender, which tends to make people feel relaxed and at ease (always a good thing).

Lastly, the color scheme of your restaurant is very important. This includes everything from fabrics, decorative items, all the way down to employee uniforms. First and foremost the color white represents cleanliness which is a good quality for any business to have. Next, if you are opening an upscale restaurant perhaps you want a color that represents prestige. Purple would be the color to go with since it is highly associated with royalty, although this is a misconception. The color blue was actually the color for royalty which is where the term “royal blue” derived from. Gray and black are associated with many different qualities such as sternness, dependability, businesslike, and reliability.Yellows and reds create energy and green represents growth, wealth, and nature to name a few.

More Fabric Samples

Overall, if you are or plan to be a restaurant owner the decisions you have to make are manageable! But pay special attention to detail, nonverbal design could be the key to your business’s success.

http://www.amazon.com/Tragedy-Abraham-Lincoln-Stefan-Strozier/dp/1935444050/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234040984&sr=1-1

British artist Christopher Taylor has rendered a stunning portrait of a play that was first produced in New York in 2006. With its cast of 21, The Tragedy of Abraham Lincoln is a great play for schools or educational settings of young or old. This historical play focuses on the last year of President Lincoln’s life and the dramatic events that surrounded it. Abraham Lincoln and other major historical figures of this period are thoroughly explored: Generals Grant and Lee; John Wilkes Booth and the entire Booth family; Frederick Douglass, Mary Todd Lincoln. Now stocked in major bookstores and in the New York Public Library!

¿Cuánto se gana cursando un MBA?

¿Qué tan conveniente resulta estudiar un MBA? Por supuesto que amplía los horizontes laborales y consolida la imagen que tiene un profesional, pero en cuanto a dinero: ¿Qué tan alto puede llegar a ser el ROI o rendimiento del capital que invierte una persona que realiza un máster?

La profesora Kathleen Fitzgerald, de la University of Chicago Booth School of Business, se preguntó lo mismo y respondió tal interrogante en un interesante estudio donde calculó este ratio.

De acuerdo a sus estimaciones, calificadas por ella como “realistas”, el beneficio de un estudiante luego de realizar un MBA puede ascender casi a un millón 500 mil dólares a lo largo de toda su carrera profesional, estimada en 30 años de duración.

Explica que, en un primer momento, las diferencias en salario son mínimas. Vale decir, la discrepancia numérica entre alguien que estudió un MBA y alguien que no es sólo de mil 500 dólares. Sin embargo, ésta se va incrementando en el tiempo.

Al quinto año, por ejemplo, la brecha de ingresos alcanza los ocho mil 300 dólares. En una década será de veinte mil 400 dólares y en 15 años alcanzará los treinta y siete mil 300 dólares. En el ejercicio final de su carrera, con 25 años, este importe sube a noventa y dos mil 500 dólares.

El estudio en sí

Considerando que el ROI se define restando del beneficio total (casi un millón y medio de dólares en 30 años) la inversión realizada y dividida por el precio del MBA, el ROI de un máster puede llegar a ser de 9%.

O lo que es lo mismo, el impacto de realizar estudios superiores en los ingresos de un ejecutivo puede llegar a 900% del dinero invertido, obteniendo trece dólares por cada uno desembolsado.

Base: ciento cinco mil dólares

El estudio elaborado por Kathleen Fitzgerald se realizó sobre un supuesto de un profesional de 35 años, con un salario inicial de ciento cinco mil dólares, que cuenta con incrementos anuales de 5%, tanto en el caso que curse o no el máster.

Pero para Fitzgerald, además de los beneficios económicos, los profesionales deben valorar otro tipo de aspectos, entre los que cita “la calidad de vida, la oportunidad de conocer más gente y nuevos países, así como la obtención de un mayor conocimiento y proyección empresarial que otorga el tener más posibilidades de avanzar en una carrera”.

Para tomar una decisión acertada, la académica  aconseja responder primero a los siguientes criterios: que  el proyecto produzca  bienestar y que el retorno se amortice en poco tiempo.

Artículo original: ¿Cuánto se gana cursando un MBA?

Fuente: www.altonivel.com.mx

http://guiadeposgrados.wordpress.com/

Notas relacionadas:

Claves para sobrevivir a un MBA

Los mejores MBA ‘one year’

MBA de tiempo completo en Colombia

An empty Association…

Many buyers may end up settling with booths they don’t 100% love, maybe because it is not offered by the company they are doing business with. As a buyer you may feel like there are limitations to how great your restaurant can look. So, If you can envision it then it is a great idea to custom build your booths to fit the scheme of your application’s environment. Booths can easily be customized if you choose the right provider. That provider should have plenty of options available. The photograph of the black booth is a single shop special booth with a 2″ foam padded back and spring seat. It has an upholstered outside back and black ABS material on all bases. This is a simple looking booth but if you wanted to customize it you would be able to choose from any

• fabric color
• fabric design.
• booth shape
• overall height

You name it and we customize it

Before – Basic                                   After – Customized

Arts Festival is a two-day expo featuring some of the best artists in the entire country. All stations are media partners with the Downtown Events Group, who puts on the Arts Festival. Each year we do something different and have done a group activity, such as Fish Printing or Sand Art, or we’ve done our own thing and broadcasted from a specific area at the Arts Festival. Involvement with a client in the Arts Festival is on a TBD basis b/c we have to go through an approval process with the DEG.

Got a crazy idea today, and put some new paint on the Karmann Ghia roof. Two-tone!

Source: flickr (User: Globalist360)

It’s an industry much-maligned, the airlines – flyer satisfaction has suffered over the years, due to flight delays, lost luggage, unsatisfactory in-flight service – and most recently, extra charges for in-flight meals and checking in baggage.  The virtual event industry, in fact, has been a beneficiary of decreased air travel, as more and more attendees (and meeting planners) opt for virtual events.

That being said, the virtual events industry could stand to benefit in adopting programs pioneered by the airline industry.  Let’s consider a few.

Source: American Airlines

Frequent Flyer Programs

According to Wikipedia, “As of January 2005, a total of 14 trillion frequent-flyer miles had been accumulated by people worldwide, which corresponds to a total value of 700 billion US dollars”.  What are frequent flyer programs all about?  Creating active and loyal customers.  You’re naturally incented to build up your miles on a single airline, in order to qualify for a free flight, free upgrade to first class – or, credits that can be used to purchase goods and services.

Virtual events, on the other hand, are all too often “one and done”.  Yes, you may attend a great virtual event, but a week or a month later, you’ve moved on to the “next thing”.  You may return for the same virtual event later in the year (or, next year).  But you probably don’t re-engage with that event until it comes around again.

And, guess what?  When you do come back to next year’s event, you’re asked to enter a blank registration page (from scratch) all over again!  Virtual event platforms – and, virtual event show hosts, need to consider affinity programs for virtual events.  Such programs make a lot of sense for:

1. Ongoing virtual events that repeat once (or more) per year
2. Ongoing virtual communities that are open 365 days/year

If a virtual event is truly “one and done”, an affinity program makes no sense.  However, for the ongoing events and communities, affinity programs generate:

1. Activity and engagement
2. Loyalty – an attendee enrolled in a virtual event affinity program is more likely to attend the next event [compared to another attendee who did not enroll]

So how might you award “miles” in a virtual event?  Map event activities to “points” and allow attendees to view their real-time point score – activities that might generate points:

1. Visit a booth
2. Attend a session
3. Chat with a booth rep
4. Submit an in-show blog posting
5. Submit an online event survey
6. Rate a booth

Importantly, when you register members to your affinity program, re-use the same profile data for the subsequent events.  This not only provides a convenience to your members (e.g. seamless access into all subsequent virtual events without having to re-register), it generates loyalty and continued attendance (since it’s so convenient to attend each event).

UPDATE: additionally, encourage members of the affinity program to invite their colleagues and friends to join.  Reward them with additional points (or privileges) for each referral that turns into a new member.

For the ongoing community, the points structure serves to reward the more active community members – incenting them to keep logging in and participating.  The key here will be an incentive program that provides real value to those members who have achieved high point scores.  More on that in the next section.

Source: flickr (User: golden_toque)

Tiering of Services

First class, business class, coach.  Which one you travel in depends on how much you’re willing to pay and how loyal a customer you are (i.e. how many frequent flyer miles you’ve banked).  Either way, you know that the airlines create clear differentiation between these tiers of service.  First class travelers can board the plane first, sit in much wider and more comfortable seats and be treated to premium food and beverage (that’s included in their ticket).

In virtual events today, premium services tend to be exclusive content that’s available on a “pay per view” (individual content item) basis – or, by way of a premium attendee package, which costs more than the standard package (which may be free).  Virtual event platforms – and, virtual event show hosts, ought to consider additional tiers of service within an event.  The key will be to create features for which attendees will pay extra – or, for which they’ll perform additional actions to achieve premium status.

As such, virtual event show hosts will need to create the airlines’ first class service tier – e.g. something attendees will actually yearn for.  These premium services would allow the show host to generate additional revenue.  In addition, the premium tier could be bundled into affinity programs, incenting more activity and engagement (from attendees) in order to reach premium status.

So let’s say I’m a frequent contributor to a technical forum – or, I frequently visit the Lounge and help other attendees troubleshoot technical issues.  I’m basically generating a lot of “value” for other community members, on behalf of the show host.  As such, if I’m in the virtual event affinity program, I should be awarded points (for my actions) that build me up to premium status.

At the premium level, I might receive:

1. Free access to exclusive content (which otherwise would have an associated charge)
2. Access to an exclusive lounge area with audio/video chat access to experts, executives, thought leaders
3. The ability to host my own chat room with a video stream of myself (increases my visibility within the community)
4. A special avatar for premium members only

Reward your loyal and most engaged attendees and you end up encouraging others to join the fray.

Source: SkyMall

Convert a captive audience

The industry (and, retailers like SkyMall) realized that they had a captive audience for the duration of a 2-hour (or 20-hour) flight.  Sure, there’s reading material, TV, movies (and increasingly, WiFi access), but there’s also a product catalog that’s neatly tucked into your seatback.  And when it’s near time to land and you need to “turn off all electronic devices”, it’s all too easy to grab the SkyMall and peruse through a product catalog.  Before you know it (for some of you), you’ve just charged $50 onto your credit card.

In virtual events, the active audience is a captive audience – attendees are busily viewing sessions, visiting booths, chatting with other attendees and chatting with exhibitors.  Show hosts and exhibitors need to provide this captive audience a valuable and convenient way to “convert” attendees.

Organize your content well – and provide tailored content to individual “personas” (e.g. “Storage Administrator’s Guide to Data Deduplication in the Financial Industry”).  Provide tools (e.g. an RFP requester) that allow attendees to conveniently reach out to multiple exhibitors at once.  Engaged attendees who are not converted from a “visitor” to an “opportunity” are merely lost opportunities.

In conclusion, I think the virtual events industry stands to benefit from adopting tactics used in the airline industry.  Now if only I could convert my virtual event attendances into frequent flyer miles!

BioBiz is an annual student-focused biomedical conference that aims to engage industry professionals and aspiring graduates in dynamic discussions about the highly value-added Biomedical Sciences industry.

Conference supported by Singapore Economic Development Board.

Panel of speakers discussing about pharmaceutical manufacturing

Networking with representative from Lonza

Interacting with representative from GlaxoSmithKline

BioBiz organizers

Organizers celebrating the success of the event

To get the tour guide hat you will need to become a tour guide. Free penguins and member penguins can both do this. To become a tour guide go to the ski hill and then click on the tour booth to take a quiz. You need to be at least 45 days old if you want to take the quiz.

If you pass the quiz you will be awarded a tour guide hat. If you wave while wearing your hat it will make the “Tours Here” sign appear.

You can also click on the tour booth again after you already have your hat to read a book on how to give tours.

Thousands of first-year MBAs are looking for summer internships all around the globe!  What are your MBA recruiting plans?  Do they include summer interns?  If so, MBA Focus has the 1st-year MBA candidates that will make a difference for your company! Start searching these class of 2011 MBA resume books today! Or pre-order these soon-to-be released books and contact the candidates the moment they become available to employers:

MBA Intern Resume Books Releasing Soon:
Univ of Pennsylvania – The Wharton School - 11-10-09
Univ of Chicago – Booth School of Business – 11-11-09
Northwestern Univ – Kellogg School of Mgmt – 11-13-09
Stanford – Graduate School of Business – 11-13-09
National Univ of Singapore Business School – 11-13-09
Cardiff Business School – 11-15-09
USC – Marshall School of Business – 11-16-09
Indiana Univ – Kelley School of Business – 11-16-09
MIT – MIT Sloan School of Management – 11-16-09
Columbia – Columbia Business School – 11-18-09
UCLA – Anderson School of Management - 11-19-09
Univ of Western Ontario – Ivey School of Business – 11-24-09
CUHK – MBA Programmes – 12-01-09
Erasmus Univ – Rotterdam School of Management – 12-15-09

MBA Intern Resume Books Available Now:
Babson College – F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business
Baruch College – Zicklin School of Business
Boston College – Carroll School of Management
Cornell Univ – The Johnson School
Carnegie Mellon – Tepper School of Business
Dartmouth – Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
Duke Univ – The Fuqua School of Business
Emory Univ – Goizueta Business School
Georgetown Univ – McDonough School of Business
Harvard – Harvard Business School
IESE – IESE Business School
LBS – London Business School
Louisiana State Univ – E.J. Ourso College of Business
New York Univ – Stern School of Business
Syracuse Univ – Whitman School of Management
The Ohio State Univ – Fisher College of Business
Tulane Univ – Freeman School of Business
UC Berkeley – Haas School of Business
UCSD – Rady School of Management
Univ of Connecticut School of Business
Univ of Houston – Bauer College of Business
Univ of Iowa – Tippie College of Business
Univ of North Carolina – Kenan–Flagler Business School
Univ of Pittsburgh – Katz Graduate School of Business
Univ of South Carolina – Moore School of Business
Univ of Virginia – Darden School of Business
Univ of Washington – Foster Business School
Univ of Wisconsin-Madison – School of Business
UT at Austin – McCombs School of Business
Vanderbilt Univ – Owen Graduate School of Management
Washington Univ in St. Louis – Olin Business School

Get started by clicking on the elite MBA programs above or by copying this link into your browser: https://www.mbafocus.com/orders/

The biggest concert event in Iowa happens every year at Lazerfest!  With over 15,000 people in attendance in 2009 the booth sponsors get their business in front of their target demo for an entire day.