MFRMLS is proud to announce our new venture — My Florida Commercial Real Estate — coming to you in January 2010. This Commercial Information Exchange offers a powerful research database, a comprehensive marketing engine, a social networking platform and a commercial property search engine. Whether you occasionally sell commercial real estate or broker it exclusively, My Florida Commercial Real Estate (MFCRE) offers a full suite of products and services for your commercial real estate business.

Over the next few weeks we will be releasing more information about this new and exciting product as we approach the launch in January 2010.

We’re looking for Commercial Real Estate Agents

Are you—or do you know of—a commercial real estate agent? We are in search of "Charter" commercial agents to help us launch this new initiative. Please forward this article to your commercial real estate colleagues. As we endeavor to expand our suite of comprehensive real estate products and services, your help is greatly appreciated.

We first announced the commercial venture in last month’s issue of My Florida Focus. We received a tremendous response from many of you who are interested in participating. We will be reaching out to you soon with more information about the new program. We are grateful for your enthusiasm and your participation.

If you’d like more information about the MFCRE, and perhaps become a "Charter" Member, please drop us an email at news@mfrmls.com and we’ll add you to our Commercial Users List. (Don’t worry, we won’t sell your name or information. This list just lets us know to whom to send our preliminary information.)

Thanks for helping us usher in what’s sure to be an exciting 2010!

You may have seen this article in last Saturday’s edition of The Straits Times. 

Nanyang Optical is soliciting for new ideas and concepts through NLB’s Creative Industries Xchange (CIX) programme and you are invited to submit ideas or business proposals based on any of these requirements:

1. Opticals – any new design or material which will add value and enable Nanyang Optical to stand out from the competition. Note: Nanyang already has an eco-friendly line called LinkSkin which uses recycled material (see: http://www.nanyang.com.sg ).

2. Green initiative – any new idea or concept that complements Nanyang Optical’s eco-friendly positioning as “Singapore’s first eco-friendly eyewear store”.

3. Marketing -  There are two tracks to this:
(a) Any new way to market its products & services, e.g. via comics, film, animation, etc.
(b) Also, should Nanyang Optical adopt a holistic eco-friendly versus maintaining an eco-friendly product line  and space in its retail outlets
If you are keen to work with Nanyang Optical , please send an email to Damien_Wang@nlb.gov.sg by Friday, 4 Dec 2009 with the following details:

1. IDEA: Please provide a brief summary of your idea or business proposal. Do indicate if it addresses one or more requirements (Opticals, Green initiative or Marketing).

2. CLUSTER: You may wish to form your own team or seek potential partners through the CIX programme to develop existing ideas or generate new ideas.  
  (a) If you already have a team, please tell us something about yourselves.
(b) If you would like to seek working partners, please let us know what are the types of people you would like to team up with (e.g. programmers, graphic designers) and we will try our best to match you with other applicants.

Participation in CIX is free-of-charge and would involve small to large group interactions to develop your initial ideas. The National Library Board would also be provide you with research support should the need arise.

This programme is expected to run until the end of January 2010, when the Clusters would pitch their ideas to Nanyang Optical for their assessment. Successful clusters would then get the opportunity to work with Nanyang Optical to develop their ideas for the market.

About Nanyang Optical:
Nanyang Optical is a well-established company with more than 30 years of experience in optical retail, wholesale and manufacturing. They are one of the Singapore’s largest optical retail chain with a portfolio more than 20 outlets spanning across Singapore, Indonesia and China. These include their wholly owned subsidiary — Alexis Eyewear Boutiques and franchises.

The latest initiative for Nanyang Optical is their aim to reduce adverse environmental impacts and advocate corporate social responsibility and awareness. As a result they have decided to embark on converting to “GREEN” eyewear shops by launching eco-friendly eyewear made of recycled materials and implementing a full circle recycling system. Their aim is to provide the eco-friendly eyewear to the world through collaboration with partners and distribution networks.

About CIX
The Creative Industries Xchange (CIX) is a platform for business owners and creative professionals to come together to conceive and collaborate on fresh, new business ideas. Through business-matching sessions, participants can explore creative solutions, innovative business opportunities and leverage on cross-industry experience.

Interim proposals

Two ad hoc  clusters were formed last month, and these were some of the interesting ideas they came up with in a couple of hours:

Cluster 1: ‘Airfix’ spectacles: Cluster 1 proposed an a DIY spectacle kit which takes a leaf from plastic scale models from UK manufacturer Airfix, and features the construction and finishing of the spectacle from a flat-packed kit manufactured through plastic injection moulding.  The slim packaging also makes it handy as an emergency pair of glasses while travelling, while the ease of production makes it feasible for Nanyang Optical to introduce new designs from time to time.  It is also possible to sell the basic kits + upgrades online.  Issues raised by Nanyang Optical:

• Will travellers prefer this to simply bringing an extra pair of spectacles?
• Do customers really want to construct their own spectacles?
• Who is the target audience for this product?

Cluster 2 proposed customisable spectacles using a modular system. The customer selects the desired parts which will be assembled at Nanyang Optical outlets.  This is supported by a facial recognition and measurement online application generates previews for various models for the customer. Benefit of this proposal would be the reduction of inventory coupled with the offering of personalisation services for customers (i.e. mass customisation). This will appeal to medium to high end customers who prefer made-to-measure products and who prefer to be serviced in-store rather than online. Issues raised by Nanyang Optical:

• Profit margin for selling parts of a spectacle will be low, so most shops do not sell parts.
• Customisable spectacles already exist in the industry.
• Fitting of spectacles require trained optometrists. Spectacle shops pay the highest salaries for retail staff as optometrists are qualified professionals, versus those who sell clothes or shoes.
• It may be more feasible and cost-effective to operate a mobile fitting studio with expensive precision equipment to make house-calls for high-end customers rather than doing it online.

Are you — or do you know of — a commercial real estate agent? If so, then we’ve got some great news to share. My Florida Regional MLS will launch a commercial information exchange (CIE) in January 2010 to expand our range of products and services. If you or your office is interested in participating as a CIE user — or just want more information — drop us an email at news@mfrmls.com.

In Western mythology, the Dragon is an evil flame-spitting creature that invokes fear in the hearts of men and lays waste to entire armies and cities. According to legends, only the courageous few ever survived an encounter with a Dragon.

On 1st October 2009, about 120 adventurers had a close encounter with a female Dragon in Singapore, and all of them not only emerged unscathed, but also a lot wiser, for in Eastern mythology, the Dragon is a symbol of wisdom and power. This ‘Dragon’ they faced was none other than Ms Rachel Elnaugh, one of Britain’s most prominent female entrepreneurs, a former judge of the BBC business reality show Dragon’s Den (where budding entrepreneurs faced the Western kind of Dragons) and an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the British Library Business & IP Centre.

Ms Elnaugh was the guest-of-honour for the closed-door launch of the CIX programme for 2009 where she shared her insights into the business world with the 50 invited guests (from SMEs, creative individuals and business people). Organised by the National Library Board (NLB), this intimate session in the evening of 1st October provided the participants with the opportunity to dialogue and learn from such a prominent business personality.

As part of the CIX programme, three of the past CIX winners were given the opportunity to have a public consultation session with Ms Elnaugh, sharing with her their experiences. Through a Q&A session, Ms Elnaugh was able to point out the flaws in their strategies, forced them to re-focus on businesses and gave them advice on what they should be doing next. This was an invaluable opportunity that showcased how the NLB – through its programmes – can help local businesses and adds value to the local industries in a very tangible manner.

Ms Elnaugh also spoke at a public seminar earlier that day about her experiences as an Entrepreneur and also to share her insights and views about the common entrepreneurial challenges facing businesses and companies. Ms Elnaugh also spoke about clarity of intent, the law of attraction and the ‘art of allowing’.

This talk attracted more than 70 participants from various industries, corporate bodies, academic institutions and universities.

Some of the books cited by Ms Elnaugh included the following titles which are available for loan at the Public Libraries (please check the NLB online catalogue for details):

Think and Grow Rich
Author: Napoleon Hill
Publisher: Kuala Lumpur: Napoleon Hill Associates Creative Vision, 2005.
Call number: 650.1 HIL -[BIZ]

Purple Cow
Author: Seth Godin
Publisher: New York : Portfolio, 2003.
Call number: 658.8 GOD -[BIZ]

The Secret
Author: Rhonda Byrne
Publisher: New York : Hillsboro, Ore. : Atria Books ; Beyond Words Pub. ; c2006.
Call number: 158.1 BYR

Business Nightmares
Author: Rachel Elnaugh
Publisher: Richmond : Crimson, 2008
Call number: 658.4210922 ELN -[BIZ]

Date/Time: Thursday Oct 1, 3:00pm – 5:00pm
Venue: Level 16 – The Pod in National Library Building
Admission is FREE but registration is required. Please register via Go Library using this link.

Rachel will speak about entrepreneurship, and share her experiences on the challenges and obstacles that she faced.

Rachel Elnaugh is one of Britain’s highest profile female entrepreneurs. At the age of 24 she created the market leading experiences brand Red Letter Days which generated over £100million in turnover in the 16 years that she ran it, and earned her an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2002, as well as being short listed for the 2001 Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year award and the Growing Business Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2002.

In early 2005, Rachel shot to fame as one of the original Dragons in BBCTV’s BAFTA nominated cult business show Dragons’ Den.

She is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the British Library Business & IP Centre, an Ambassador for the Prince’s Trust; in 2008 she won the IAB ‘Champion for Entrepreneurship in the UK’ award and in 2009 was runner-up for SFEDI’s ‘Champion/Supporter of Other Enterprises’ award.

Viernes 28 de agosto del 2009.- La Secretaría de Seguridad Pública del Distrito Federal (SSP-DF) y Doritos entregaron los reconocimientos a los ganadores del concurso “Las Cosas Chidas Rólalas”, que se realizó el pasado 15 de agosto en la Explanada del Metro Insurgentes, donde 50 de los mejores graffiteros de México plasmaron su arte en 30 mamparas.

El jurado del concurso estuvo integrado por especialistas en el arte urbano tales como la Dra. Nora Frías Melgoza, Subsecretaria de Participación Ciudadana y Prevención del Delito  de la SSP-DF, el Arq. Javier Hidalgo, Director General de Instituto de la Juventud del Distrito Federal (IJDF), el Lic. Martín González Mercado, Director del FARO de Tláhuac, Lic. Alfredo Matus Hernández, Director de la Galería José María Velasco y el Dr. Carlos Ramírez Sandoval, Director del Museo Casa León Trotsky, así como por el Lic. Jeremy Bjork, Director de Mercadotecnia de Sabritas, Lic. Daniel Villafañe, Gerente de Doritos y Nelia de Silva, Asistente de Doritos.

Los premios tienen la finalidad de brindarles a los jóvenes herramientas de trabajo que les permitan mejorar la calidad de sus obras. El  primer lugar obtuvo una video cámara de alta definición, el 2do y 3er. lugar obtuvieron cámaras fotográficas digitales. Asimismo, el IJDF otorgará becas bianuales de “Desarrollo Cultural” a los artistas de las 5 mamparas ganadoras, lo cual les permitirá trabajar en el perfeccionamiento de sus propias técnicas. Los ganadores del concurso de Graffiti las Cosas Chidas Rólalas son:

1er. Lugar: Omar Alberto Arias Briones (Alter) y Mónica Yoselin González González (Snie).

2do. Lugar: Nilton Mendoza Huerta (Surco), Iván Martínez Cabrera (Ivan) y  Fernando Pascual Cruz (Bizarre)

3er. Lugar:                                                Eduardo Dávila Arias (Chicle Bomba)

Mención Honorífica: Antonio Triana Cardoza (Cix) y Aldo Chávez Cadena(Mone)

Mención Honorífica:               Eriberto Cruz Velázquez (Higer) y Arian

Durante el evento se develó el graffiti especial realizado por tres destacados graffiteros: Mibe, Humo y Peque, el cual será subastado a finales de septiembre, y los fondos que se obtengan serán destinados, a través de Fundación Sabritas, a seguir apoyando el arte urbano en la Ciudad de México. El evento de premiación se llevó acabo en el Hard Rock Live y contó con la presentación especial de los grupos de Rock: Los Concorde y Liquits, y del rapero McLuka. Con Doritos ¡Las Cosas Chidas Rólalas!

Carissimi affezionati del Mu,

vi aspettiamo questo week end con un doppio appuntamento:

Venerdì 17 aprile concerto con The Hacienda (pop band, Firenze) + The life aquatic with Andrew & Paul + Longlegs dj

Sabato 18 aprile serata di musica elettonica con

Eterea: post bong band – live concert in apertura

dj Shawnodese: Mind Funk + Doof Records, dall’Olanda per la prima volta in Italia

Ospiti e decoratori della serata i Fluorobotanics, direttamente dalla Repubblica Ceca al Mu. Potete visualizzare alcune delle loro opere sul loro MySpace.

e ancora dj Cix (Parma), Coma Sector (Ferrara), Lab Frequency, Sismic.

L’intero ricavato verrà utilizzato per aiutare gli abitanti dell’Abruzzo colpiti dal terremoto. Ingresso 10 euro

Le locandine degli eventi le trovate nei post di seguito

O! never say that I was false of heart,
Though absence seem’d my flame to qualify,
As easy might I from my self depart
As from my soul which in thy breast doth lie:
That is my home of love: if I have ranged,
Like him that travels, I return again;
Just to the time, not with the time exchanged,
So that myself bring water for my stain.
Never believe though in my nature reigned,
All frailties that besiege all kinds of blood,
That it could so preposterously be stained,
To leave for nothing all thy sum of good;
For nothing this wide universe I call,
Save thou, my rose, in it thou art my all.

- Sonnet CIX

One conference that is usually very active is jokes.

Here’s a quick and funny one :

Two aerials meet on a roof – fall in love – get married.

The ceremony was rubbish, but the Reception was brilliant.

Boom Boom, as basil brush used to say. More jokes when I can’t think of anything else to post.