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Holiday Gifts that Bring Joy

YourUpdateTV

People are gifting differently this year. We see consumers turning to retail therapy to deal with 2020. Many of us are looking for ways to buy consciously and pay it forward this holiday season. Many trends this year show consumers turning to retail therapy this holiday season. A video accompanying this announcement is available at: https://youtu.be/9UcTLZhz7ec Sustainable Style Technology gifts are hotter than ever and some have thankfully become more sustainable. LifeProof now has a full line of sustainable phone cases, but with the same durability and protection we all love about them. This is the new LifeProof WAKE case which is made with over 85% of ocean-based plastic. It’s sleek in design, comes in 4 different colors and this is the best part -- when you purchase a case from LifeProof, you get to choose one of the company’s non-profit partners to receive a donation on your behalf. So it’s a gift you can feel good about giving. Educational Fun Educational gifting is a huge trend this year, with virtual learning challenging many parents to find ways to make learning at home fun and engaging. The GraviTrax Starter Set, for instance, is an interactive marble run and construction toy set that lets kids experiment with concepts such as gravity and magnetism, infusing play time with some fun learning. The whole family can create different tracks and work together or independently to figure out the fastest way to get your marble to the finish line, and you can add accessories (also available at Target) to take your tracks to even greater heights. GraviTrax is a really great hands-on toy that helps develop problem solving skills and creative thinking! Toys for Everyone on Your List Many retailers are finding ways to make holiday shopping easier and safer than ever before. Macy’s once again has a great selection of toys for everyone on your list and at all price points. You can find everything from classic board games, to Disney favorites like the Mandalorian and Frozen. Macy’s has also made it super easy to shop with their convenient payment and shipping options such buy online, pick up in store, and same-day delivery with DoorDash and you can always split your online purchase into 4 easy payments with Klarna. Crazy for Crafting With a lot more time at home, crafting gifts have become very popular. The Brother ScanNCut DX SDX85 is a great gift idea for the crafting enthusiast or someone looking for a new creative hobby. Use it for last-minute holiday cards, festive decorations, and more. This is the only series of electronic cutting machines with true auto-blade sensing technology and a built-in scanner. ScanNCut DX SDX85 has 251 built in designs, so you can get crafting right out of the box! Or you can easily transfer your own unique designs to the machine via USB or WiFi connectivity. About Ereka Vetrini: Ereka Vetrini is a TV Host, Lifestyle Expert, Brand Spokesperson, Producer, Blogger and proud mom of two who got her start on Donald Trump‘s “The Apprentice” season 1. Ereka is currently the host of Lifetime’s Access Health. Access Health brings you the latest cutting-edge developments and innovations in medicine, nutrition and fitness, so women everywhere can take charge of their health starting today! She is also a regular contributor to NBC’s 1st Look and NY Live. As an on-air correspondent for NBC she covers the hottest spots to dine, travel and shop! Ereka was previously the host of TLC Sunday Brunch where she brought you the very best brunch & cocktail recipes, styling tips and so much more! As a mother of two, Ereka enjoys spending every spare minute running after her 9 and 7-year-old. About YourUpdateTV: YourUpdateTV is a social media video portal for organizations to share their content. It includes separate channels for Health and Wellness, Lifestyle, Media and Entertainment, Money and Finance, Social Responsibility, Sports and Technology. Contact Details YourUpdateTV +1 212-736-2727 yourupdatetv@gmail.com

December 16, 2020 11:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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Observability platform LOGIQ raises US$1.8 million in seed funding from Leo Capital

Stockwood Strategy

LOGIQ, an observability platform for IT administrators and DevOps teams, announced that it has raised US$1.8 million in its first institutional seed funding round, led by Leo Capital. The funding will be used to expand its AI/ML capabilities and onboard more customers. LOGIQ solves the ubiquitous problem enterprises are faced with when handling the variety and volume of data in the organisation, while running their IT infrastructure and applications. Half of all organizations* process more than 100GB of log data in different formats every day, and the numbers continue to rise. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There is such a flood of data available from APIs, databases, data lakes, etc. The lack of a unified platform that can converge this data has long been a pain point for IT practitioners, DevOps users, and developers alike. LOGIQ's mission is to make all IT data accessible and analyzable. By unifying data types, such as logs, metrics, databases, and APIs, LOGIQ's Observability platform enables them to harness the power of machine data analytics for applications and infrastructure in a single platform with 1-Click simplicity. Users can aggregate log data, gather performance metrics, access API's and connect databases such as Elastic, Mongo, Postgres, Druid, and Mysql for real-time visibility into the health of their IT infrastructure and application environments. Commenting on the fundraise Ranjan Parthasarathy, CEO and Co-Founder, at LOGIQ, said, “We started with the goal of helping enterprises transition from managing their data in silos to a more unified manner in which they can harness their data. With LOGIQ, we want to empower developers and administrators in keeping their infrastructure and applications always running. The funding raised will enable us to widen our reach and also enhance our AI/ML capabilities.” Tito George, Co-Founder, LOGIQ, said, “Data is the new oil across enterprises. However, there is also a need for a solution that helps them manage this data efficiently without hampering their operational efficiency or infrastructure. This is what LOGIQ has set out to do with its products and offerings. This funding will help us take our solutions to more industry stakeholders.” Commenting on the investment, Rajul Garg, Managing Partner, at Leo Capital, said, “There is a huge amount of data being generated across all sectors today. Consequently, the need of the hour is a platform like LOGIQ that can help enterprises organize, manage, and categorize this data without affecting their processes and infrastructure. We are thrilled to back them and have tremendous faith in both the company and its leadership.” LOGIQ can be hosted as a self-service or managed SaaS, providing maximum flexibility to the user. LOGIQ’s support for industry standards ensures full compatibility with legacy infrastructures like bare-metal servers, VM's, switches, and more modern cloud-native environments like Kubernetes and public cloud infrastructure. Some of their USPs include unified view, predictable pricing, one-click set-up, and zero tax storage management tax. LOGIQ has a strong and motivated team with over 100 years of expertise in production engineering, building and running IT, DevOps, and DevSecOps in private and public cloud environments. LOGIQ plans to democratize the observability space and make it more accessible for organizations of all sizes. Ends * International Data Corporation (IDC) survey, The Pivotal Role of Log Analytics in Modern IT Infrastructures Notes to the editor About LOGIQ LOGIQ is the creator of the LOGIQ platform, a converged data analysis software that brings ingest, indexing, search, SQL, and streaming capabilities backed by any S3 compatible object-store. LOGIQ Log Insights is built on this converged architecture bringing scalability and simplicity to your IT operations analytics projects. The converged architecture enables rapid integration with AI platforms for gaining valuable business insights from your data. About Leo Capital Leo Capital, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage technology investments, has built a portfolio of over 20 companies since its launch in 2018. Tech is the common denominator for the venture capital fund that has invested in software-as-a-service companies, consumer internet, logistics, health tech, ed-tech, and fintech startups. Its portfolio includes automation testing tool Lambdatest, cloud PC Workspot, diabetes management app BeatO, logistics startup Vahak, gaming platform – Bombay Play, video shopping app Bulbul and ed-tech startup Edureka. Contact Details Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://logiq.ai/

December 16, 2020 08:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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Hashnode funding round attracts marquee tech investors as traction gathers pace

Stockwood Strategy

Global blogging community for developers Hashnode, today announced it has raised US$2.1m in funding led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge. A range of marquee investors* also participated including Naval Ravikant (early investor in Twitter, Uber and co-founder of AngelList), Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal (founders of BrowserStack) as well as Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur (founders at Razorpay). Founded just 6 months ago in June 2020 by Sandeep Panda and Syed Fazle Rahman, Hashnode helps developers and engineering teams start technical blogs and share them with the broader developer community. The platform is growing at a rate of 25% month-on-month in. More than 20,000 new developer blogs have been created on the platform in a few months and over 500,000 readers visit https://hashnode.com every month. Developer blogs are the heart of many developer communities that share, learn, and drive innovation around specific products, projects, hacks, and code branches. The rapid growth of the API economy, which is underpinning the tech sector's growth, has been fuelled by these developer communities. Currently, there are two types of blogging solutions. Publishing networks (like Medium) help a blogger with social media credibility and reach at the cost of content ownership and customization. There are self-hosting solutions, like WordPress, but distributing the content is difficult, which makes it hard to create large, active communities. The cost of running the software also keeps increasing. Hashnode helps writers focus on writing and gives them the freedom to blog without the risk of losing their content or losing control of traffic and SEO. Fazle Rahman, CEO at Hashnode commented: “We realised many writers just want a platform that helps them focus on writing and gives them the freedom to blog without losing control over their content or thinking about traffic and SEO. Hashnode allows developers and businesses to create a blog on a custom domain and stay connected with a central community for content distribution. This solves both the problem of content ownership and distribution.” Hashnode powered blogs are easy to use, set up, configure, highly optimised for SEO, and have built-in community interaction functionalities like reactions, comments, bookmarks, and more. “Hashnode allows developers and businesses that want to build developer communities to create a blog on a custom domain, and stay connected with a central dev community for content distribution. The platform also allows publishing articles directly from Github, a feature not available on other publishing tools,” added Fazle Sandeep and Fazle are avid developers, bloggers and authors who have both published several books on various web technologies. They graduated together from IIIT Bhubaneswar in Computer Science Engineering and have a shared passion for building products for the web and teaching developers online. * Angel investors in the round include: Naval Ravikant (AngelList, Uber, Twitter, Stack Overflow, Yammer), Ed Roman (Pluralsight and Hack Summit), Shashank Kumar (Razorpay), Harshil Mathur (Razorpay), Ritesh Arora (BrowserStack), Nakul Aggarwal (BrowserStack), Christopher Golda (BlackType, acquired by Twitter), Girish Mathrubootham (Freshworks), Salil Deshpande Uncorrelated Ventures) and Guillermo Rauch (Vercel). Ends About Hashnode Hashnode is a free content creation platform and community that allows people to publish articles on their own domain and helps them stay connected with a growing developer community. Contact Details Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://hashnode.com/

December 15, 2020 11:30 AM Eastern Standard Time

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Home for the ‘Huladays’ with Gretchen Connelie

YourUpdateTV

This holiday season will be different, with smaller gatherings, virtual celebrations, and many of us unable to travel to our favorite destinations. Recently, Lifestyle Expert Gretchen Connelie teamed with Tommy Bahama and YourUpdateTV to discuss some tips on making this holiday season feel special and unique. A video accompanying this announcement is available at: https://youtu.be/Mr0TV2Q9ghY Perfect Holiday Menu When it comes to the menu, food can be simpler. Buy the main course from the grocery store or to go from your favorite restaurant. Make the side dishes the star of the meal instead and focus on those great side dishes that everyone always loves to much. Create individually portioned sides to help prevent cross contamination. For the bar, serve a signature drink that you pre-make and portion out. Canned cocktails, spiked seltzers, along with beer, wine and sparkling water make it a safe and easy serve bar. And don’t forget desert and all the sweets you love during the holidays. Pies are classic at the holidays, and easy to portion and serve in these individual slice containers. And for those delicious holiday cookies and sweets can be served in small cupcake containers. Also, great to save for a late-night treat. Connecting with Loved Ones…Virtually Create and package a Home for the Huladays Box, which includes menu, playlist, twinkle lights, scented candle, and more. Face time and Zoom is also a great way to stay connected. Start while you’re cooking and preparing as that’s the time you would normally spend with your guests in the kitchen. Zoom thru the meal or a toast---experience it together. A portable phone stand with ring light makes that easy to do. Gifts for Everyone in the Family Gift giving is always challenging, but this year, it’s important to take a look at how everyone has been spending their time. Here are some great options, no matter how you spend your days. Whether you are a ‘New Professional’ dressed from the waist up and in casual comfort waist down, a Peak Performer (active lifestyle wear), Cozy at Home or a Relaxologist, there is something for everyone. For more information, visit TommyBahama.com About Gretchen Connelie: Gretchen Connelie is a dynamic lifestyle & trend expert specializing in-home entertaining, fashion, and travel. She has appeared on local and national TV shows with trends, tips, & tricks that keeps hosts & viewers active and engaged. Gretchen’s charisma and ability to share high concept ideas with an approachable sensibility inspires those around her to say “I can’t wait to try that”. About YourUpdateTV: YourUpdateTV is a social media video portal for organizations to share their content. It includes separate channels for Health and Wellness, Lifestyle, Media and Entertainment, Money and Finance, Social Responsibility, Sports and Technology. Contact Details YourUpdateTV +1 212-736-2727 yourupdatetv@gmail.com

December 14, 2020 04:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

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Velocity Global appoints ADP veteran Jim Birch to modernize International PEO payroll

Velocity Global

Velocity Global, the leading provider of global expansion solutions, today announced global payroll veteran, Jim Birch, as vice president of Global Payroll and Product Strategy. Birch joins Velocity Global to lead cutting-edge strategies to streamline Employer of Record payroll execution for midmarket and enterprise clients. Birch joins Velocity Global from ADP, a leader in global payroll solutions, where he led product management and the user experience for automated payroll processes across ADP’s Streamline-Celergo multicountry payroll services. For a decade prior, Birch grew operations at Celergo before ADP acquired it in 2018. “Jim applies his world class know-how to scale global payroll operations for our clients,” said José Montero, Velocity Global chief operating officer. “For an Employer of Record, global payroll requires intricate coordination with clients and their HR platforms. As remote teams drive the largest workforce shift in recent memory, Jim will connect our payroll operations with backend name-brand payroll platforms for our clients, and make our solutions more accessible to enterprises.” Clients rely on Velocity Global’s expertise and global infrastructure to hire internationally without the cost or complexity of setting up their own foreign legal entities. As a strategic partner offering International Professional Employer Organization (PEO) services, Velocity Global serves as an employer of record to manage in-country compliance, payroll, and benefits for its clients’ supported employees. “Payroll is equivalent to the last-mile delivery of a paycheck -- it must be frictionless for the employer and the supported employee,” said Birch. “Today, the International PEO model mainly serves growth companies as they expand globally with speed and limited investment. I am energized to scale our global payroll operations to connect with enterprise platforms as corporations seek that same flexibility.” For 15 years, Birch led and integrated global payroll processes; led IT network, software development, and product management; and managed client services and a global network of payroll providers. He held international assignments serving as managing director of Celergo’s London, Singapore & Hungary regional offices. Jim will report to Velocity Global’s Chief Operating Officer, José Montero. View a biography for Jim Birch and other leaders at Velocity Global. ABOUT VELOCITY GLOBAL Velocity Global helps companies grow globally. Founded in 2014, Velocity Global’s clients rely on its expertise and global infrastructure in 185 countries to hire compliantly around the world, increase revenue, scale efficiently, and access global talent. Named a “Leader” in Global Employer of Record services by prominent analyst firm NelsonHall, Velocity Global is a strategic partner to its clients with comprehensive services led by its core offering of International PEO as well as Immigration, Entity Setup and Support, Global Talent Acquisition, and Consulting. Velocity Global is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, with regional headquarters in Amsterdam and Singapore, and local employees in 14 countries. Contact Details John Hall +1 720-650-4348 johnhall@velocityglobal.com Company Website https://velocityglobal.com/

December 14, 2020 07:02 AM Mountain Standard Time

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Richpanel raises funding to eliminate customer service tickets for ecommerce

Stockwood Strategy

Richpanel, a revolutionary customer service platform for the ecommerce industry, has raised an undisclosed investment as part of Sequoia Capital India’s Surge with the aim to eliminate customer service tickets with an “Amazon-like” customer account section. Founded in January 2019 and headquartered in both India and the US, Richpanel was created with the purpose of helping ecommerce companies scale business without hiring more agents. The platform allows merchants to design an account page on their online storefront where they can automate order tracking, exchanges, returns, cancellations, and any other scenario which would otherwise result in a support ticket. While tech giants like Amazon and Uber have made massive investments to automate their purchase & post purchase flows like “where is my order” and “change trip destination”, these kinds of queries result in support tickets for every other business. They rely on a team of agents and a ticketing system to handle them, creating costs and inefficiencies. Richpanel’s platform helps these businesses launch a self-service portal on their stores, allowing customers to perform actions without ever having to contact a support agent. This means businesses can scale their operations without constantly expanding their support team. “The first time I disputed a cancellation fee on a ride-sharing platform, I mentally prepared myself for a 15-minute-long chat with a support rep, but I was pleasantly surprised when the entire process took less than 60 seconds. This automated customer service support technology can save ecommerce businesses millions of dollars, and we felt there was a real need to productize this for everyone else,” said Amit RG, CEO at Richpanel “At Richpanel, our goal is to help clients eliminate unnecessary support tickets. Businesses have tried chatbots, FAQs and help center solutions, but what they need is a solution that does not ‘deflect’ customers but ‘resolves’ their issues. Currently, our platform is able to resolve 40-50% of incoming queries and we will take this up to 80% over the coming months,” Amit RG added. Richpanel is the next generation in customer service support and seeks to disrupt the help desk software market as well as customer care outsourcing services, where businesses are expected to spend $110b by 20241. The platform provides a seamless experience for both visiting customers and businesses to handle cases where customers need to speak with a human. The ‘agent inbox’ helps brands manage all their support channels - email, live chat, social media & phone - from one place. The integration with ecommerce platforms help agents see complete purchase history, take order actions and respond to customers from one screen. Clients such as US-based apparel company Pawz.com are seeing positive results with Richpanel. “As one of Richpanel’s early adopters, we have been extremely happy with the platform and the team’s ability to deliver well on projects. Currently, our self-service flows powered by Richpanel are able to close nearly 60% of all incoming queries or tickets, without the need to interact with an agent,” said Julian Quintães, CEO at Pawz.com. Ends Notes to the editor 1 Radian Insights, Outsourced customer care services market worth $84.7 billion by 2020 Richpanel is a customer service solutions platform, purpose-built for the ecommerce industry. Founded in January 2019 with headquarters in both India and the US, Richpanel’s self-service platform allows merchants to design an Amazon-style account page on their store, where they can automate order tracking, returns, exchanges, cancellations, order changes and more. The platform also has an agent help desk to help customer support agents manage incoming queries across various touch points such as email, live chat, social media and phone. Today, over 1,000 merchants all over the world use Richpanel every day to support their customers. Contact Details Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://richpanel.com/

December 09, 2020 10:30 AM Eastern Standard Time

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CMMC Center of Excellence Announces Engagement Agreement with 6clicks

Interoperability Clearinghouse

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Center of Excellence (CMMC-COE), hosted by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a public-private partnership serving the public and private sectors for more than 15-years is proud to announce a partnership with global software provider 6clicks and the establishment of CMMC-COE APAC lead by 6clicks founder, Andrew Robinson. This unique partnership will extend efforts to advance the goals and objectives for improving the cyber and supply chain security and resilience of the US Department of Defense (DoD) global Defense Industrial Base (DIB) network of contractors, suppliers, and vendors. 6clicks provides an innovative software-as-a-service platform used by consultants, governments, and businesses around the world designed to streamline risk assessment and compliance activities across multiple standards, including CMMC. 6clicks has offices in Washington, D.C., the United Kingdom, and in Melbourne, Australia. Andrew Robinson, Founder & Head of Cyber Security, 6clicks sums up the partnership with: "Supply chains are global and to secure them we must be willing to cooperate across national and regional boundaries to synthesize and build upon existing cybersecurity standards. The CMMC-COE and CMMC-COE APAC are a key part of this important mission." “This is a momentous occasion for us”, said Mr. John Weiler, Chairman of the Board at CMMC Center of Excellence, “Our Asia Pacific center will further help advance the goals and objectives for improving the supply chain security and resilience of the US Department of Defense (DoD) beyond North America”. This collaborative partnership between 6clicks and CMMC-COE helps further their respective and complementary missions and objectives regarding the adoption, use, and expansion of cybersecurity best practices. The adoption of next-generation software like 6clicks to assess and accelerate cybersecurity maturity will better drive efficiency and improve the decision-making capabilities beyond outdated legacy systems. The objectives and mission of 6clicks and CMMC-COE are in direct alignment with the US Department of Defense Office of Inspector General on cybersecurity best practices, risk management, and compliance. The objective to secure and scale the DIB contractor community, the information and communications technology community. This partnership establishes a broader CMMC ecosystem to improve security and resilience. Some specific actions will include: The co-development of CMMC advisory services, cyber training, and education programs to accelerate CMMC certification, increase cyber adoption, and improve cyber protection and resilience. Co-sponsor symposiums, training programs and podcasts leveraging their combined cyber and IT expertise. Host regular working groups, with other partners, to enable collaboration and communications. Source qualified cyber professionals to serve as cyber and CMMC advocates. Establish an independent Industry Cyber Security Advisory Council with peer organizations to advise and educate leaders across government and industry on the continued evolution and effectiveness of CMMC. Engage with the Defense Industrial Base contractor community across the Asia-Pacific region to enhance education, training, preparation, and compliance with provisions of the CMMC requirements. The CMMC-COE ( http://cmmc-coe.org ) and the CMMC-COE APAC ( https://cmmc-apac.com/ ) will focus on bringing together the many disparate cyber and national security communities of interest to reduce complexity, improve awareness, and accelerate industry effort to become more cyber resilient against the growing threats from nation states and criminal enterprises. The CMMC-COE partner network, including 6clicks and the CMMC-COE APAC will be sharing a wide range of capabilities such as cyber standards frameworks, education, solution architectures, cyber mentoring, workforce, and other elements needed to scale to the demands of the entire DIB marketplace in the U.S. and abroad (400,000 contractors worldwide). The CMMC-COE establishes both a Market Place and Knowledge Clearinghouse that will include resources that support the overall effort, including white papers, tutorials, recorded webcasts, presentations, and more that will help reduce the cost and burden on small and medium size contractors already struggling from the impact of COVID and the complexity of small and large federal contracts. With this, we are excited to have 6clicks and the CMMC-COE APAC included in our trusted portfolio. For more information on the CMMC-COE, please visit http://cmmc-coe.org email: info@cmmc-coe.org For more information on 6clicks, please visit https://6clicks.io/ For more information on the CMMC-COE APAC, please visit https://cmmc-apac.com/ email: contact@cmmc-apac.com About Us ---------- CMMC-COE.ORG is a unique non-profit public-private partnership, with a vision to accelerate Cybersecurity Maturity Model (CMM) adoption, and reduce time & cost for security compliance for our partners by leveraging commercial best practices, CMMC standards, and innovative solutions for a measurable success. Our mission, focused on DOD mission objectives, cost containment and expeditious CMMC compliance, is to help the DIB improve cyber posture and resilience, and simplify its acquisition. The CMMC-COE is hosted by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a public/private partnership (P3) chartered in 2007 as an honest broker to reach outside the confines of the Federal IT advisories that lack dynamic reach into the Global IT Market, and dedicated to the adoption of commercial IT management standards of practice and innovations emanating from the Global IT market. Team IT-AAC has already demonstrated the value of its decade long investment, and provides a unique value to agencies seeking to achieve accelerate the transformation of legacy processes and systems. Our Just-in-Time SMEs apply an innovative suite of Technology Business Management and Agile Acquisition Processes needed to assure the business value of commercial IT. The Interoperability Clearinghouse (ICH), is the managing partner that make up the 24 NGO/SDO organizations that make up the IT-AAC. ICH provides the contract vehicles, clearances, and critical resources proven to guide sustainable, measurable and repeatable processes needed to drive better investment decisions as the speed of mission need, while aligning existing processes, methods and workforce with IT reform mandates contained in Clinger Cohen Act, FITARA, IT MGT Act, EO13838. Contact Details Bob Dix +1 703-975-6633 bob.dix@it-aac.org Company Website https://cmmc-coe.org

December 08, 2020 10:20 PM Eastern Standard Time

Redefining WFH: Achieving Work-Life Balance in the Remote Work Era

YourUpdateTV

With many companies currently operating virtually and business travel still largely on hold, many consumers feel like they’ve been living a real-life “Groundhog Day,” working and living in the same space at home day in and day out. Recently, Janis Cannon, Senior Vice President, Upscale Brands at Choice Hotels International, shared some better options for consumers yearning for more control of their time and space and looking for a change of pace and scenery. A video accompanying this announcement is available at: https://youtu.be/YpxNXAp_9O0 Consumers have started to redefine the boundaries of work, life and leisure. For many, the acronym WFH or “work-from-home” has evolved into “work-from-hotel,” a trend that gives consumers that much-needed change of scenery and boost of productivity they crave for themselves and their families. Inspired by the traditional habit of extending a business trip to enjoy leisure time, consumers are flipping the script and working-from-hotel 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., then finding the change of pace they crave from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. To learn more about this “workcation” (work + vacation) trend, Cambria Hotels surveyed consumers who are currently working remotely and who typically travel for work at least 3-5 times per year. The brand discovered several interesting insights from the survey, including how consumers are navigating their work-life balance while working from home and how they are redefining the boundaries of work, leisure and more. Cambria Hotels’ poll research indicated consumers are struggling to find work-life balance. They are missing the natural separation between work and home and say that it feels like work is “always on,” and they find it hard to “turn it off” at the end of the day. Almost half (45.6%) of consumers feel that they are working more since they started to work from home. For many (62%), the constant access to technology makes them feel like they are “always on.” For others (46%) the constant distractions of working from home are an ongoing source of frustration. Well over half (62.6%) indicated they’re somewhat or very likely to consider a workcation. After the pandemic is over, even more consumers (77.5%) indicate they are somewhat or very likely to consider a workcation. For travelers, Cambria hotels offer ideal destinations to work-from-hotel for upcoming workcations. Each of the brand’s more than 50 hotels throughout the country features thoughtful and inspirational design in guest rooms and throughout the hotel, as well as locally inspired food and beverage options that reflect the surrounding community, including a curated selection of local craft beers. Cambria also provides amenities that today’s travelers are looking for, such as free and reliable Wi-Fi, as well as comfortable, flexible, and inspiring workspaces and break spaces in rooms and outdoor patios and rooftops. All Choice-brand hotels are participating in Commitment to Clean, an initiative that builds upon the strong foundation of each hotel’s long-standing dedication to cleanliness with enhanced training and best practices for deep cleaning, disinfecting and social distancing. Additionally, Cambria guests can limit their interactions with hotel staff by using the Cambria Contactless Concierge Service, a text messaging service for housekeeping requests, to-go food orders, meeting room requests and more. If you’re looking to plan a workcation, visit www.ChoiceHotels.com/CambriaWorkcation to learn more and take advantage of great deals, such as the Reunite for the Holidays and Save promotion running through the end of the year: stay 1 night, get 20% off; stay 2 nights, get 25% off; stay 3 nights, get 30% off. About Janis Cannon: Janis Cannon is Senior Vice President of Upscale Brands and a member of the senior executive team for Choice Hotels International, Inc. one of the world’s leading lodging franchisors. In this role, she is responsible for the overall performance and growth of the company’s upscale portfolio and leads the brand strategy and positioning of Cambria Hotels and the Ascend Hotel Collection. About YourUpdateTV: YourUpdateTV is a social media video portal for organizations to share their content. It includes separate channels for Health and Wellness, Lifestyle, Media and Entertainment, Money and Finance, Social Responsibility, Sports and Technology. Contact Details YourUpdateTV +1 212-736-2727 yourupdatetv@gmail.com

December 08, 2020 12:12 PM Eastern Standard Time

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The bedrock of any Artificial Intelligence platform is Domain Knowledge: CIPIO builds a Platform Advisory Board with stellar subject matter experts

CIPIO.ai

McLean, VA November 24, 2020 – CIPIO, the industry's first domain infused customer intelligence platform, announced that it had launched a Product Advisory Board with veterans from the Fitness, Customer Experience, and AI domain. Brent Zempel has created software platforms and applications for the fitness industry over the last 30 years. Brent served as the Chief Information Officer at Life Time Fitness for nearly 20 years, where he developed the firm's extensive proprietary club management software platform. "The fitness industry is going through a massive forced digital transformation, and I see it firsthand that operators are going from late adopters of technology to first and fast," said Zempel. Zempel has a startup of his own that quickly connects and streamlines the membership subsidy process between health clubs and insurance providers. "CIPIO's customer intelligence platform's capability to innovate domain-specific products is truly unique. I am incredibly excited to help them stay on top of the industry domain". Saurin Shah has 20 years of enterprise SaaS experience building products that helped fuel topline revenue growth at companies like Medallia, Salesforce, and Experian. Shah has led product strategy and roadmap execution for numerous verticals solutions and domain-specific products in the customer relationship and experience management space. "What worked in the past will not work in today's increasingly digital business environment. CIPIO's unique approach to infuse Domain knowledge into AI allows it to build highly predictive models that provide progressively deeper behavior intelligence. I'm thrilled to help CIPIO leverage its technology to reshape how companies connect with their customers." said Shah. " CIPIO is also partnering with several software solutions to provide its Customer Intelligence Platform to fitness businesses supporting their in-club and virtual offerings, including on-demand and digital fitness provider Intelivideo. "I have now seen Arnold A.I. from CIPIO in action at several gyms, and I am blown away on how precise Arnold is on its recommendations and predictions," said Adam Zeitsiff, CEO of Intelivideo. "Arnold A.I. will be an extremely valuable tool for many of our customers, and I am super excited to be partnering with CIPIO's team to continue to enhance the first intelligent assistant engine for the Fitness Industry.". CIPIO was founded on the principle that applying Artificial Intelligence without domain knowledge doesn't produce accurate and impactful outcomes. Customers don't have the time to customize and adapt generic AI tools to their business requirements. Domain-centric AI models make AI seamless, explainable, and easy to plug into an existing business process and get significant uplift. "For example, Arnold A.I., our Fitness Intelligent Assistant makes a tailored recommendation to a fitness customer on how to retain a gym member versus Mary A.I., our intelligent assistant for Faith, would help determine if a donor at a church is going to leave even if it's the same individual," said Manoj Kumar Goyal, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer. Mr. Goyal is a veteran himself in the space of Hyper personalization, AI, Customer Data Platform and Martech, having processed petabytes of data from his experience at Oracle, Marketo, OpenX, and HP. "I have seen so many AI projects fail due to the lack of domain knowledge. I am super excited to work with such deep domain talent, and we will continue to add domain experts to our advisory board to stay true to our mission." About CIPIO: CIPIO is pioneering industry’s first domain infused Customer Intelligence Platform that democratizes hyper-personalized predictions and recommendations to create and capture new value, increase retention, and boost revenue for B2C subscribers and members. CIPIO's early adopters include Crunch Fitness, World’s Gym, Xponential Fitness, Pure Barre GO, Club Pilates GO, AKT GO, YogaSix GO, Cyclebar GO, RowHouse GO, Stretch Lab GO, and Stride GO, to name a few have seen a significant return on investment in a very short time. Contact Details Jennifer Isaac +1 315-398-9541 Jennifer@CIPIO.ai Company Website https://cipio.ai/

December 08, 2020 12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

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