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FORTRESS BRAND, a Leading Global Marketplace Accelerator, and SCHOOL HOUSE, a Powerhouse Creative Agency, Announce Strategic Partnership

Fortress Brand and School House

Fortress Brand and School House are joining forces to create a global omni-channel accelerator that addresses all Consumer-Packaged Goods (CPG) brand and product lifecycle needs. This first-of-its-kind agency partnership allows both Fortress Brand, a leading global marketplace accelerator, together with School House, a leading creative agency known for dynamic storytelling, to provide its brand partners with a proven competitive edge that drives business value at scale, from creation and brand identity, to retail, marketing, and sales. Fortress Brand and School House will leverage their expanded infrastructure and combined capabilities to drive continued game-changing growth for their beauty, health, and wellness brand partners. Headquartered in New York, NY, Fortress Brand is a technology-enabled direct-to- consumer channel partner specializing in driving growth for its clients on Amazon® and other e-commerce marketplaces. The Company offers a fully outsourced, turnkey e-commerce solution for leading CPG brands, providing re-seller protection, product development, and advertising services while leveraging proprietary data analytics within the world’s largest marketplaces. Fortress Brand’s customized strategies enable its brand partners to navigate the rapidly evolving marketplace landscape. Today, the Company represents over 45 leading beauty, health, and wellness brands, including Glow Recipe, Youth to the People, and HUM Nutrition. “The accelerating number of beauty, health, and wellness brand launches, combined with rising global supply chain concerns and competition, underscores Fortress Brand’s primary focus on identifying forward-thinking solutions for its client needs,” noted Alex and Matt Beer, Fortress Brand’s Co-CEOs and Founders. “The collective Fortress Brand and School House vision is to redefine the concept of client relations and brand partnerships by thoroughly understanding our brand partners’ every need. Together, we can then drive growth through each stage of the brand lifecycle, equipping our brand partners with the right tools, teams, and support to meet those needs. The School House partnership represents an important milestone in our continued evolution into the leading global omni-channel accelerator for beauty, health, and wellness brands.” Based in New York, NY, School House was founded nearly seven years ago with a vision to provide cut-through creative services based on compelling storytelling for the world’s most in-demand beauty brands. Through engaging and thoughtful design in an array of specialties under the disciplines of strategy and creative development, creative production, architectural design, and industrial design, School House has collaborated with over 75 client partners ranging from independent brands such as Ami Cole and IDEO Skincare, to founder-led brands including Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare, J oanna Czech, Kosas, Pat McGrath Labs, and Tata Harper Skincare, to icons La Mer, Elemis and L'Occitane en Provence, to name a few. “At School House, our mission has always been to ensure a distinct point of difference in every beauty brand we touch – from voice and tone, visual identity, and creative strategy, to campaign content and environmental design. This is our mainstay. The creative outcome is always unique,” commented Christopher Skinner, Founder and Principal of School House. “We are thrilled to now expand this philosophy by offering our clients a trusted partner in Fortress Brand that can continue the brand’s lifecycle through a powerful presence on the world’s most rapidly growing marketplaces and channels.” The Company is excited to announce that its next phase of strategic partnership will be the School House Studios, an immersive physical creative content studio, which is set to open in New York City in Spring 2022. Fortress Brand and School House welcome inquiries from beauty, health, and wellness brands looking to accelerate their brand equity and growth across all channels. About Fortress Brand Established in 2012 and based in the heart of SoHo in NYC, Fortress Brand represents acclaimed beauty, health, and wellness brands on the Amazon® marketplace. With nearly a decade in business and 45 exclusive partnerships with names like Glow Recipe, Youth to the People and HUM Nutrition, our core strengths are channel control, protecting brand integrity, and driving growth on Amazon®. Recognized as one of Inc.’s 5,000 Fastest-Growing Companies and trusted by Amazon® as a verified partner, we are fully invested in our clients’ success from day one and stay on top of today’s rapidly changing market by investing deeply into technology, data and international capabilities. https://fortressbrand.com About School House School House is a creative agency, founded by former LVMH Executive Christopher Skinner, specializing in cut-through strategy, engaging creative and immersive environments for the world's most in-demand beauty brands. School House is built to mirror that of an in-house creative studio with dedicated talent across key creative disciplines needed in today's beauty market: brand and commercial strategy, branding and visual design, creative production, digital and social design, industrial design, visual merchandising, and architectural design. Select clients include Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare, Kevyn Aucoin Beauty, Perfect Diary, La Mer, Malin + Goetz, Tata Harper Skincare, L'Occitane en Provence, Joanna Czech, Elemis, Volition Beauty and MyGlamm. https://weareschoolhouse.com Contact Details School House: The Collective PR Debbie Burke-Smith +1 917-224-1415 debbie@thecollective-pr.com School House: The Collective PR Jennine Hannaway Lavyne +1 917-447-1192 jennine@hannawaypr.com Fortress Brand Gabby Barikian gabrielle.barikian@fortressbrand.com

November 03, 2021 10:45 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Making content king again: Instoried secures $8M to expand AI-powered platform that guarantees enhanced content performance and ROI

Instoried

Instoried, the only AI-powered pre-publication sentiment analysis tool that enhances content performance in real-time has raised $8M in funding from Pritt Investment Partners and 9Unicorns with participation from Mumbai Angels, Venture Catalysts Angel Fund and SOSV. Instoried turns traditional content performance tracking software on its head, delivering real-time sentiment analysis at the point of content creation to ensure performance ahead of publication. The startup’s AI engine dynamically determines the emotional engagement quotient of any type of written content and then makes smart recommendations to help content writers guarantee that their readers will be emotionally engaged. This enhanced emotional engagement enables businesses, enterprises and freelancers to dramatically improve content ROI through lead generation, brand engagement and product adoption. Instoried has seen customers increase lead generation 3-fold and double content ROI within 6 months of using the tool. Making use of complex Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms developed in-house, Instoried has tagged millions of lines of text with emotion and tone across all types of genres including business, health, politics and social media. The startup’s team of in-house linguists then annotate the text for context and semantics, providing the essential human understanding of tone from which their proprietary AI can learn. In simple terms, the tool can analyse content of any type or length to determine whether it is ‘any good’ insofar as it will achieve the goals of the content writer. Where content needs improvement to achieve these goals, Instoried provides real-time instructions for enhancing the copy to achieve optimal results. The Instoried SaaS platform delivers both content evaluation and content generation using OpenAI’s GPT-3. Some of the features include short-form content generation, emotional quotient analysis, grammar and plagiarism checking, headline analysis, tonality review and panel testing. Instoried has built web apps and APIs to help integrate the tool onto any licence-based platform. Instoried was founded in 2019 by Sharmin Ali. Sutanshu Raj joined as CTO and was later co-opted as a co-founder. Sharmin is both a published author and seasoned content creator having founded other companies in the media industry during her career. This insider insight inspired her mission to help businesses who have adopted content as a key driver in their marketing plan to stop “flying blind” when it comes to predicting content success. As a creative process, content writing is largely based on intuition which does not allow for a data-driven approach to audience engagement and content performance. Even existing software that can measure post-publication engagement, cannot tell businesses why their content is underperforming. So Sharmin joined forces with Sutanshu and built a team with rich tech, product, marketing and linguistic expertise to develop a tool that gauges and predicts content performance while creating it. Sharmin Ali, Founder & CEO, Instoried, commented: “With all brands doubling down on ecommerce and the world going virtual, there has never been a more important time for businesses to make their written content count and work hard. Over the past 12 months we have increased revenue 50x. We are now looking at scaling operations in the US. This fundraise will help us go to market, build a strong team in the US and add more product offerings to our existing portfolio. We are thrilled to have Pritt Investment Partners on board this content tech journey.” On investing in Instoried Scott Tripp, Director at Pritt Investment Partners said: “Pritt Investment Partners has been focused intently on investing in companies that have a strong product, management team, market in which to grow, and a solid plan for growth and favorable returns in the future. We believe we have found this in Instoried and Sharmin Ali. Instoried has successfully developed a SaaS based deep-tech platform that helps enterprises and individuals create emotionally engaging content, thereby improving return on investment (ROI) for marketing efforts and campaigns. As the digital marketing industry continues to grow we believe Instoried is well positioned with their product to take advantage of this opportunity and quickly penetrate the market. We are excited and proud to be a lead investor in the company and look forward to seeing the continued rapid growth of the company. This is only the beginning. Well done Sharmin and team!” “Instoried with its deep-tech tools have ensured that it analyses content so that companies can reach out to their target audience effectively and on time. We are optimistic about Instoried’s growth in the global content tech market that is likely to touch $400 billion in the next two years. Sharmin and her team are well equipped to emerge as leaders in this segment and we are excited to be a part of their growth story” added Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder & Director, 9Unicorns who have also invested in Instoried. Sharmin Ali added: “Instoried will enable brands, enterprises and freelancers to create more meaningful content in less time that resonates with their target audience. Our aim is to create a robust and all-inclusive content tool that can be the complete solution for content writers of all kinds. We want to make empathetic communication the next revolution in content marketing”. Instoried has previously raised $2M from investors including SOSV, Artesian Investments, Mumbai Angels, 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, Rockstud Capital. Instoried has received constant support from Censie Capital investment banking partners in their fundraising journey. About Instoried Instoried helps enterprises and individuals create emotionally engaging content which is also commercially rewarding. The platform helps content writers, in the SME category, e-commerce, FMCG, and other verticals to optimize emotions and generate emotive copy for marketing content. Instoried uses a data-driven approach using their proprietary AI driven technology to make real time analysis and suggestions to enhance content to increase engagement and interest for the reader. Instoried uses the principles of neuromarketing to offer smart recommendations to increase or decrease a particular emotion in the content. Instoried has won several awards including Best Product and Innovation (The Economic Times), Best AI Startup (IIT Kanpur) and Best Woman Driven Startup (JSS). Contact Details Instoried Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com

October 27, 2021 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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ElementalTV Debuts Newest CTV Tech Innovation, ELM iQ

ElementalTV

ElementalTV, an emerging media technology company and a division of Adoppler, today debuts its newest connected TV (CTV) tech solution, ELM iQ. The breakthrough CTV technology solution addresses the “last mile” creative problem, which is a major bottleneck for the CTV industry creative development and delivery. It accomplishes this by providing brands, publishers, and agencies to leverage real-time data to create new, compelling, customized creative ad content on the fly, and at scale. Current creative updating processes are manual and time consuming, with constant re-edits proving costly. ELM iQ leverages ElementalTV’s proprietary AI creative composer technology to address this massive slowdown in ad deployment. By pairing ELM iQ’s machine learning with real-time information from a partner’s database, CMS, or API, advertisers can now create and deliver dynamic CTV advertising content with near real-time speed and accuracy. ELM iQ creates new opportunities for brands to generate dynamic ad creative, by rapidly connecting data to develop immersive CTV ad creatives that are highly personalized and localized. The result is faster, near real-time ad executions and creates significant cost savings for brands, publishers, and agencies. “ELM iQ is an advanced technological solution that, we believe, has the power to propel CTV ad innovation to the next level,” says Sergey Lobko-Lobanovsky, Chief Technology Officer of ElementalTV. “Historically, video ad creatives for TV were not updated or refreshed very often, and when they were, it was usually seasonally or monthly. Advertisers today are looking for flexibility and speed to keep up with rapidly shifting consumer sentiments and buying behaviors. With ELM iQ and its smart machine learning technology, we now have the capability to do this in near real time, thus solving for advertisers the challenge of remaining agile and relevant in today’s competitive markets.” With ELM iQ, content creators can now focus squarely on conceptualizing and developing creative, relevant and hyper localized ad content that will resonate with its intended audiences, ensuring a better and more effective overall ad experience. “We see ELM iQ as a win for all stakeholders,” says Shafi Mustafa, VP Product Marketing for ElementalTV. “Viewers will see more dynamic and relevant ads with much fewer duplicate advertiser messages; publishers will benefit from increased bid density as more advertisers are now able to participate in CTV advertising; and advertisers will have the ability to create, update, and personalize creative messages in a highly scalable, low cost manner. This solution is a game changer.” ELM iQ is ElementalTV’s latest next-generation innovation, following the recent expansion of the company’s ELM product suite earlier this month. With the release of ELM, the company announced it surpassed one billion CTV advanced ad impressions in its first year of business. ELM iQ, a product of the company’s focus on rapid innovation, has been in beta with a select number of advertisers and is now available at scale. To learn more about ElementalTV and its solutions, visit www.elementaltv.com. About ElementalTV Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Pasadena, CA, ElementalTV is pioneering the next generation of CTV ad innovation. ElementalTV pushes the boundaries of how technology can immerse an audience’s advertisement experience. Its proprietary vertically integrated platform, ELM, combines a wide range of capabilities including advanced ad decisioning, demand-side platform (DSP), creative optimization, transcoding, and stitching to allow for seamless, next generation ad experience. To learn more, visit elementaltv.com. Contact Details Angelina Kaliszak angelina@kitehillpr.com Company Website https://www.elementaltv.com/

October 26, 2021 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

National Guard Veteran Darin Overstreet Transitions to Owning Minuteman Press Franchise in Aurora, Colorado

Minuteman Press International Inc

Darin Overstreet, co-owner of the Minuteman Press franchise located at 14190 E. Jewell Ave., Suite 1, has retired from the Colorado National Guard where he served as Chief Public Affairs Officer for the Joint Task Force - Centennial. Today, Darin, who also served in the U.S. Air Force, runs Minuteman Press in Aurora along with his wife Anne. Together, Darin and Anne provide local businesses and non-profits with design, printing, marketing, and mailing services. During his time of service, Darin was an integral part of several missions both at home and abroad. He shares, “We (the National Guard) did both federal and state missions that could take us anywhere from The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to El Salvador to right here in Colorado. In 2013, one mission that particularly hit home was the Colorado floods. The flood ripped through a dozen counties, and I was part of the Colorado National Guard’s Joint Staff. We coordinated everything from sandbagging and evacuations to helping people in flooded areas. After the floods, our team was brought in to help rebuild the highway that leads to Estes Park, Colorado. We were able to get the roads paved and, during the rebuild, I coordinated with the media including interviews, public relations, photography, video, and writing articles.” Darin continues, “I am most proud of the fact that I was part of team that truly made a difference and helped people when they needed us most. Over 15 years, our Public Affairs team received 75 National Military awards. I really enjoyed community relations, which is something I am still doing today in a different capacity with Minuteman Press, our Veteran-owned family business in Aurora.” Applying Military Skills to Business Ownership With Minuteman Press in Aurora, Darin has found the perfect opportunity to apply the skills he acquired during his years of military service. He says, “There are so many lessons and experiences I have taken with me – community relations, messaging, public relations, photography, and building relationships with so many different types of people. As the Director of Community Outreach, I was already connecting people who may not otherwise meet and I learned the value of simply helping others by providing service.” Darin adds, “90 percent of our clients are other local business owners like me. If I see that they can benefit from one another, I make meaningful connections and I see working with my clients as a two-way street. I love working with them on all of their marketing promotions and social media, and just building relationships. I want to serve and strengthen my community just as I did when I was in the National Guard.” One other benefit that Darin sees in the transition to business ownership is his ability to endorse and promote businesses, which was not the mission of the National Guard. He says, “Now, I can promote other businesses and help them, and I love being an active part of the Aurora community in this way. For example, during the pandemic I’ve been working to promote local artists. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photo/Video, and so I’ve been art-adjacent all my life. With Minuteman Press, I am able to help these incredible artists print on demand and promote their stories.” Buying the Business During the Pandemic and Operating as an Essential Business Darin and Anne bought their business in June 2020 and have remained open and operating throughout the pandemic as an essential business. They have seen high demand for a wide variety of products as businesses continue to ramp up their marketing efforts. Darin says, “We’ve seen high demand for direct mail and Every Door Direct Mail. We help businesses reach out to targeted geographic and demographic areas so they can tell their customers about operations changes, new guidelines, and of course, special offers.” He continues, “Throughout the pandemic, popular items have included large format printing (banners, posters, and signage), updated restaurant menus, stickers, and dye sublimation (face masks and apparel). We’ve also helped clients come up with special offers for subscription boxes featuring relevant printed and promotional items that their customers will appreciate and remember.” When asked why he chose Minuteman Press, Darin answers, “I looked at other franchises but I’ve always been interested in printing. I have a passion for art, photo and video, and with this business I feel like I can help others bring their visions and branding to life. When I visited Minuteman Press at the Denver Franchise Expo, they were very professional and straightforward. They told me about how the franchise model worked including their training, ongoing support, and capped royalties. I also found the startup costs reasonable and felt they had the knowledge and resources to really help us operate this business.” Darin also credits the local support team in Colorado for being there every step of the way. “Regional Vice President Jack Panzer and Area Manager Todd Golberg are there for us whenever we need them and it is a tremendous benefit to us to have their continued guidance and reassurance.” Minuteman Press in Aurora is located at 14190 East Jewell Avenue, Unit 1, Aurora, CO 80012. Contact Darin and Anne Overstreet at 303-751-5007 or visit their website: https://minuteman.com/us/locations/co/aurora21 Learn more about #1 rated Minuteman Press franchise opportunities and read Minuteman Press franchise reviews at https://minutemanpressfranchise.com. Franchise Business Review has also named Minuteman Press International a Top Franchise for Veterans. Contact Details Minuteman Press International Chris Biscuiti +1 631-249-1370 cbiscuiti@mpihq.com Company Website https://minutemanpressfranchise.com

October 25, 2021 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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What to Know About Planning a Wedding

YourUpdateTV

While the last year and the half has been difficult for those planning a wedding – with nearly half of 2020 engaged couples delaying their celebrations – the wedding industry has adapted and is embracing new trends to help people celebrate despite these mitigating circumstances. Recently, Wedding Expert with Shutterfly, Claire Roche, participated in a nationwide satellite media tour to discuss tips on planning a wedding, new trends, and what to expect moving forward. A video accompanying this announcement is available at: https://youtu.be/kZNOU5Yyoew Over the past year and a half, wedding celebrations have been impacted as the country grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, as things return to normal, there is an emergence of thoughtful and unique personal touches added to the overall wedding design that truly celebrates a couple’s love story. The wedding industry has undergone big changes in the past year and a half and I’ve seen couples take a more simplified approach to their weddings. That doesn’t necessarily mean less expensive, but brides and grooms are really focusing on intimate ceremonies and celebrations that are unique to them. Finding those elements that are unique to a couple is something that has become even more important over the last year. Couples are diving deep into crafting their celebrations to look like them, feel like them, smell like them, and be full of their favorite things and people. With so many couples delaying their celebrations over the last 18 months, 2022 is already shaping up to be one of the busiest wedding years ever. One thing that all couples must do is to create a wedding day timeline. A detailed look at all of the things – setting a budget, finding a venue, booking vendors, finding a dress, etc – that couples will do before the big day. Shutterfly offers a breadth of customizable solutions to fit your personality and wedding style, no matter how you’re celebrating your nuptials. From cards to photobooks, from keepsakes to décor, Shutterfly offers everything you need to add your unique style to your wedding. Shutterfly offers a variety of styles to fit your wedding budget. For more information, visit Shutterfly.com/wedding About Claire Roche: As a Southern California wedding planner and owner of Grit and Grace Events, Claire is obsessed with the often forgotten and overlooked details of a wedding. She believes in the unique and customized elements that bring a wedding to life in a beautiful, yet attainable way. Claire has amassed nearly 1 million followers on TikTok and was recently named of one of the top people to follow if you’re planning a wedding. She’s an authentic voice in the wedding space and can speak to industry trends, products, and everything in between. 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

October 20, 2021 03:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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DFA Awards 2021 Winners Announcement

Hong Kong Design Centre

HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach - 19 October 2021 - The DFA Awards is a flagship programme of the Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC). It is comprised of five major awards to acknowledge leaders for their outstanding contributions to the design industry and celebrate projects at the forefront of design excellence with Asian perspectives. Three trailblazers in the world of design have been awarded in 2021: Patrick Whitney, Professor in Residence of Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health - DFA Lifetime Achievement Award (DFA LAA), Min-Liang Tan, CEO & Co-founder of Razer Inc. - DFA Design Leadership Award (DFA DLA), and Freeman Lau, Founder of KL&K Creative Strategics - DFA World's Outstanding Chinese Designer (DFA WOCD). In addition, 180 awards were conferred under the DFA Design for Asia Awards (DFA DFAA). Organised by the Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC) with Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government as the lead sponsor, the DFA Awards was launched in 2003 to underpin the role of designers within society, celebrate design excellence with positive influence and impacts in Asia. Upon reflection of this year's awards, Professor Eric Yim, Chairman of HKDC states: "Design is a vital part of Hong Kong, a city that brings people, culture and ideas together. This is especially critical at a time when the world has witnessed so much uncertainty brought on by the pandemic. This year, I am delighted to honour three exceptional leaders: Patrick Whitney, Min-Liang Tan, and Freeman Lau, all have shown through their work, dedication and leadership how design can be used to inspire communities, unite people from all walks of life through one singularity, and contribute to the betterment of society in Asia and beyond." DFA Lifetime Achievement Award 2021 (DFA LAA) Patrick Whitney - Professor in Residence, Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health Patrick Whitney is the Professor in Residence of D-lab in the Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health, a leading laboratory that explores and demonstrates how design methods and frameworks can improve human well-being. He is widely regarded as a thought leader for pioneering the notions of human-centred design and strategic design. He is a highly esteemed speaker at multiple international design events, on topics such as innovation, sustainability and human well-being. Global Entrepreneur Magazine named him as one of 25 people worldwide contributing the most in bringing new ideas to businesses in China. DFA Lifetime Achievement Award 2021 honours Whitney's vast contribution to the design industry through design strategy development, education programmes, and his advisory work to governing design bodies, actively strengthening the relationship between design theory and practice. DFA Design Leadership Award 2021 (DFA DLA) Min-Liang Tan - CEO & Co-founder, Razer Inc. As the pioneer of e-sports hardware, former lawyer Min-Liang Tan is seen as a trailblazer for the younger generation, of someone following their dream and at the same time adding valuable contributions to society. As CEO, Co-founder and Creative Director of the world's leading lifestyle brand for gamers – Razer Inc., Tan has demonstrated how forward-thinking and innovative design can disrupt the gaming industry. DFA Design Leadership Award 2021 honours his leadership throughout the years in pushing the boundaries of the gaming industry and driving industry innovation through design. Under Tan's strategic and creative direction, Razer has gone from a two-man startup to a multinational market leader and Unicorn in the technology world. DFA World's Outstanding Chinese Designer 2021 (DFA WOCD) Freeman Lau - Founder, KL&L Creative Strategics Freeman Lau is a Hong Kong designer, renowned for his art and design innovations. He is the brains behind some of Hong Kong's most iconic designs such as the Watson Water bottle, which earned him multiple awards. The design aesthetics and its functionality has lauded a critical breakthrough in the history of bottled water. In addition, Lau has been tirelessly promoting the development of design in Hong Kong, Greater China and Asia. Lau's creative prowess spans across the entire design spectrum, from graphic design, packaging design, to fine arts. His contributions are widely recognised in society His creative contributions have a significant, cultural impact in Asia, which is best demonstrated by his 'Chairplay' series. The series includes a range of furniture and sculptures, which has been shown worldwide at different exhibitions. The notion of Chairplay is a metaphor for the exploration of different human centric issues and is one of Lau's signature works. DFA World's Outstanding Chinese Designer 2021 honours his devotion and contribution to promoting the design, creative industry and culture of Hong Kong and Asia. DFA Design for Asia Awards 2021 (DFA DFAA) Since its launch in 2003, the DFA Design for Asia Awards has served to celebrate design excellence and acknowledge outstanding designs with Asian perspectives. It has been a stage upon which design talents and corporations can showcase their design projects internationally. It consists of the Grand Award and Category Award. Category Award entries are recruited by open submission to one of 24 categories under four key design disciplines, namely Apparel & Accessory Design, Communication Design, Environmental Design, and Product & Industrial Design; Gold, Silver, Bronze and Merit awards are presented to the outstanding projects. Gold award winners from the Category Award and other nominated design projects will be considered for the Grand Award. Dr Joseph Wong, Executive Director of Hong Kong Design Centre mentions that: "Amidst the pandemic, creativity and innovation proves to be the remedy for improving our quality of life. We are pleased to award projects that meaningfully address critical issues such as humanitarian needs, environmental, cultural and sustainable development, revitalisation through technological advancements, and marriage of functionality and aesthetics." The Awards' international judging panel comprises experienced design professionals and experts. Entries were judged and 180 winners through rounds of judging and deliberation were conferred. These awards include 12 Grand Awards, six Grand Award with Special Mention and 162 Gold, Silver, Bronze and Merit under the Category Award. This year, companies from Mainland China and Japan are at the top of leaderboard with 52 awards, followed by Hong Kong awardees claiming 41 awards. For more information and the DFA Awards 2021 full list of awardees, please visit www.dfaawards.com. About DFA Awards ( www.dfaawards.com ) In 2003, the Hong Kong Design Centre launched the DFA Awards to underpin the role of designers in society, to celebrate design leadership and exemplary designs and projects with impact in Asia, as well as to recognise the rising force of emerging Hong Kong designers since 2005. The DFA Award, through its five major award programmes, has grown in its international influence in Asia. The five award programmes include DFA Lifetime Achievement Award, DFA Design Leadership Award, DFA World's Outstanding Chinese Designer, DFA Design for Asia Awards and DFA Hong Kong Young Design Talent Award. #DFA About Hong Kong Design Centre ( www.hkdesigncentre.org ) Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC) is a non-governmental organisation, and was founded in 2001 as a strategic partner of the HKSAR Government in establishing Hong Kong as an international centre of design excellence in Asia. Our public mission is to promote wider and strategic use of design and design thinking to create business value and improve societal well-being. HKDC's flagship programmes include Business of Design Week (BODW; since 2002) – Asia's leading annual event on design, innovation and brands; DFA Awards (since 2003) – a well-recognised annual awards that celebrate outstanding designs with Asian perspectives; and Knowledge of Design Week (KODW; since 2006) – an annual thematic programme that gathers the global design community to explore how design can solve complex challenges of our society. We also manage a Design Incubation Programme and Fashion Incubation Programme (since 2012 and 2016) – 2-year programmes to nurture future design and fashion entrepreneurs; and launched FASHION ASIA HONG KONG (since 2016) – an initiative combining conversations, interactions and cultural exchanges to position the city as an Asian hub for fashion trade and business development. #HongKongDesignCentre #HKDC About Create Hong Kong ( www.createhk.gov.hk ) Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) is a dedicated agency set up by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in June 2009. It is under the Communications and Creative Industries Branch of the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau and dedicated to spearheading the development of creative industries in Hong Kong. Its strategic focuses are nurturing talent and facilitating start-ups, exploring markets, and promoting Hong Kong as Asia's creative capital and fostering a creative atmosphere in the community. CreateHK sponsors the Hong Kong Design Centre to organise the DFA Awards for years and other projects to promote Hong Kong design. Disclaimer: The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region provides funding support to the project only, and does not otherwise take part in the project. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials/events (or by members of the project team) are those of the project organizers only and do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Communications and Creative Industries Branch of the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, Create Hong Kong, the CreateSmart Initiative Secretariat or the CreateSmart Initiative Vetting Committee. Contact Details Keith Yip keith.yip@hkdesigncentre.org

October 19, 2021 11:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Facebook and Disney execs raise $4.5m for 100ms to build live video infrastructure for the world

100ms

Live video infrastructure platform 100ms has announced a $4.5M seed round of funding led by Accel with participation from Strive.vc. 100ms provides infrastructure that allows any company to add Zoom-style video conferencing inside their app within hours. It was founded by the team that built live video infrastructure powering billions of video minutes a day at Facebook and Disney. In the pandemic, people’s lives moved to Zoom for studying, consulting doctors, meetings, even hanging out. However, users’ experience remained broken as consumers had to juggle between different apps and Zoom. As a result developers rushed to try and add live video inside their apps to provide a seamless user experience. However, adding live video to apps with current developer platforms is a long, cumbersome and expensive process. Current developer platforms that enable live video take months to integrate. And video still doesn’t work at Zoom-quality. Kshitij Gupta, Aniket Behera and Sarvesh Dwivedi solved these problems while building some of the world’s largest live video infrastructure deployments at Facebook and Disney. They launched 100ms in October 2020 with a view to democratise access to live video infrastructure for everyone. Having operated in beta for a long period, they launched powerful but fully customizable software development kits (SDKs) that allow developers to add Zoom-quality video to their apps in hours, instead of months. 100ms has quickly signed up clients like Paytm Insider, BookMyShow Townscript, Circle among others and were voted #1 product of the day on producthunt. “Being a video engineer all my life, I understand the complexity of adding live video at scale. For a long time, this infrastructure has only been available to very few developers. We started 100ms to build live video infrastructure for the world. Our SDKs are supported on all platforms including ios/android/web and are equipped to build high quality video along with all the edge cases in just a few lines of code. Our infrastructure is designed to handle the scale and offers super low latency across the world," commented Kshitij, co- founder and CEO, 100ms. The market for live audio/video infrastructure services is forecast to grow from $4.2B in 2019 to $17.7B in 2024. The rapid growth is being driven by enterprises across industries who are unbundling Zoom - edtech, telehealth, retail, gaming, fitness, social networks, virtual events. Audio rooms - which is all the rage after clubhouse, didn’t exist as a category before the pandemic. Aniket, co-founder and COO added: “Zoom is getting unbundled. Huge markets are being unlocked which are now leveraging white labelled video/audio - edtech, telehealth, gaming retail, fitness, audio rooms among others. 100ms aims to be the infrastructure layer for all these industries.” The funds raised will be used to build the world’s best video engineering team and product enhancement creating 100s of templates of live use cases, simplifying video access for companies across the world. On leading the investment round Abhinav Chaturvedi, Partner at Accel, said, “We believe all apps in the future will have video and audio embedded in them. 100ms is the best team to create the best in class developer product to enable this.” "An open extendable platform, built by experts in audio/video streaming, and supported by a budding engaged community instantly convinced us that the 100ms team is building a global-leading dev infra company,”said, Nikhil Kapur, Partner at STRIVE.vc who also participated in the investment round. About 100ms 100ms provides infrastructure that allows any company to add Zoom-style video conferencing inside their app in hours. The founding team built live video infrastructure powering billions of minutes a day at Facebook and Disney. About Accel Accel is a global venture capital firm that is the first partner to exceptional teams everywhere, from inception through all phases of private company growth. Accel has been operating in India since 2008, and its investments include companies like BookMyShow, Browserstack, Flipkart, Freshworks, FalconX, Chargebee, Clevertap, Cure Fit, Musigma, Moneyview, Myntra, Moglix, Ninjacart, Swiggy, Stanza Living, Urban Company, Zetwerk, and Zenoti, among many others. We help ambitious entrepreneurs build iconic global businesses. For more, visit www.accel.com or https://twitter.com/Accel_India. About Strive.vc STRIVE is a B2B/SaaS-focused fund with over 80 investments across India, Southeast Asia, and Japan, and managing over $200M in AUM. The firm has invested in several dev infra and SaaS companies in India including Hasura, Testsigma, and Classplus. Contact Details 100ms Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com

October 05, 2021 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Minuteman Press Bethesda Partners with In America Flags to Remember COVID-19 Victims

Minuteman Press International Inc

In America: Remember is a public art exhibition being held at the National Mall that displays 660,000 white flags to honor the people in America who have been lost due to COVID-19. Minuteman Press in Bethesda, Maryland, is a partner for the exhibition, providing printed message cards from people all over the country who are paying tribute to loved ones through the In America website. “We are glad to be able to do our part to help this art exhibition,” says Leslie Klein, owner, Minuteman Press, Bethesda. “Every day, we receive all of the messages that were submitted through the In America website and we print them 8 up on 11 x 17 sheets to create 4.25 x 5.5 cards. Every night, I drop off the finished cards to one of the volunteers, and then they are transcribed onto the flags by another group of volunteers.” Leslie adds, “This is a total team effort and we are proud to be partners in such an important and moving exhibition. Our hearts go out to those who have been lost and their families.” The In America: Remember exhibition was designed by artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg. The exhibition is open for public participation now through October 3 rd, 2021. Hours are Weekdays from 10 AM – Sunset and Weekends from 9 AM – Sunset. For more information, visit https://www.inamericaflags.org. Minuteman Press in Bethesda is located at 8210 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda, MD 20814. For more information, call 301-656-1188 or visit their website: https://minuteman.com/us/locations/md/bethesda Learn more about Minuteman Press products and services at https://minuteman.com Contact Details Minuteman Press International Chris Biscuiti +1 631-249-1370 cbiscuiti@mpihq.com Company Website https://minutemanpressfranchise.com

September 28, 2021 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Steve Brunk Continues Track Record of Success in Florida, Grows Minuteman Press Franchise in Port St. Lucie

Minuteman Press International Inc

Minuteman Press in Port St. Lucie is the third Minuteman Press franchise that Steve has owned in Florida. He previously owned the Boca Raton location and still owns the Vero Beach location, which were both built into Million-Dollar centers. Minuteman Press in Port St. Lucie, located at 130 SE Entrada Ave., has remained open and operating during the pandemic. Owner Steve Brunk and his family have worked hard to support local businesses with essential printing, marketing, and mailing services, and have been rewarded for their efforts. In fact, Minuteman Press in Port St. Lucie has doubled their sales through the pandemic from 2019 to 2020, and they are on track to have another record-breaking year in 2021. For Steve Brunk, growing sales for his Minuteman Press printing franchises is nothing new. Steve first joined Minuteman Press in 1995 when he bought the location in Boca Raton. He explains, “After I bought Minuteman Press in Boca Raton, we worked hard and built it up before selling the business. I simply said ‘yes’ to my customers instead of ‘no’ and followed the Minuteman Press system.” Prior to franchising, Steve worked in retail. He says, “I was working for a Hallmark card franchisee in their mall stores where you just wait for holidays to drive business. I knew nothing about printing, but it was something in which I could go outside the store and generate more business. I also loved the concept of reprint orders because it kept the customers coming back.” After selling the Boca Raton location, Steve moved to Vero Beach and took over another Minuteman Press location there. He says, “I bought the Vero Beach location in 2007 and we worked hard to build it into a million-dollar center. We now have a 10,000 sq. ft. building in Vero Beach and a fantastic team of employees who are incredible.” In 2017, Steve expanded further by buying the Minuteman Press location in Port St. Lucie, where he is working to continue his track record of success through community outreach, marketing, and providing vital products and services to local businesses. “I’d like to congratulate Steve Brunk and the team of Minuteman Press in Port St. Lucie for their growth and success. It is a fantastic accomplishment for Steve and his family to build yet another successful center in Port St. Lucie, and I look forward to being there to support their continued growth,” adds Larry Trimble, Minuteman Press Regional Vice President, Florida. Asked about his accomplishments in Boca Raton, Vero Beach, and now Port St. Lucie, Steve simply states, “I love the short reorder cycle of print, especially compared to retail,” he says. “In retail, you sit in the store and wait for customers to come to you, and there are no assurances they will come back. With all three Minuteman Press centers I’ve owned, the business model enables me to go out there and build my business while the reorders keep coming in. You can’t beat that.” Minuteman Press in Port St. Lucie is located at 130 SE Entrada Ave.; Port St. Lucie, FL 34952. For more information, call 772-212-7350 or visit their website: https://minuteman.com/us/locations/fl/port-st-lucie. Learn more about #1 rated Minuteman Press franchise opportunities and read Minuteman Press franchise reviews at https://minutemanpressfranchise.com Contact Details Minuteman Press International Chris Biscuiti +1 631-249-1370 cbiscuiti@mpihq.com Company Website https://minutemanpressfranchise.com

September 13, 2021 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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