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CATALYST EMPOWERS EMPYREAN WITH ‘BE’ CAMPAIGN

Catalyst Marketing Agency

Catalyst, a leading performance marketing agency, today announced the launch of a significant brand campaign for Empyrean, a top-tier technology and service-focused employee benefits administration provider. “We’re excited to have our ‘BE’ brand campaign in market, bringing awareness to Empyrean’s unique approach to building culture through benefits,” said James B. Stanton, Empyrean’s Vice President of Marketing. “BE” reinforces the vision, strategy, and purpose of Empyrean, channeling the company’s core value of helping organizations create a culture of well-being through meaningful benefits that truly matter. This results in better outcomes for participants, employers, brokers, and advisors across the country. “We selected Catalyst to be our partner for this campaign because of their ability to combine strategic thinking with breakthrough creative,” Stanton explained. “We asked them to build something which was both bold and clearly articulated who we are and how we help organizations.” “Together, we were able to co-create a very beautiful campaign which directly speaks to Empyrean’s mission by leaning on our expertise and taking creative risk,” said Catalyst’s Co-Founder and Chief Marketing and Growth Officer, Robin Emiliani. “It’s fun to see campaigns like this come to life and to build a better connection between a brand and its customers.” The ‘BE’ Campaign will run through the end of 2022. In addition, Catalyst provided Empyrean with other marketing services, including messaging, creative concepting, lead generation strategy, media, and an integrated campaign architecture. About Catalyst Catalyst is an award-winning creative marketing agency devoted to helping you reach your most audacious marketing goals. We exist to jolt your creativity—giving you the strategy and unexpected creative direction your business needs to capture your customers’ attention. Based in Denver, our team knows how to develop strong strategies and bring creative concepts to life. About Empyrean Since 2006, Empyrean has provided employers of varying size, industry, and benefit plan complexity with the innovative technology and best-in-class service necessary to accelerate their benefit strategies and bring their benefit programs to life. Empyrean is dedicated to delivering scalable and tailored experiences that empower participants to better understand, access, and engage with their benefit programs not just at enrollment time, but on a year-round basis. Contact Details Catalyst Marketing Agency Co-founder and CMGO Robin Emiliani +1 303-842-1189 robin@catalystmarketing.io Company Website https://catalystmarketing.io/

September 01, 2022 09:00 AM Mountain Daylight Time

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Simple tips and tricks to tackle inflation and manage budgets this Back-To-School shopping season

YourUpdateTV

A recent poll from Morning Consult found that only 36% of parents can afford back-to-school shopping this year without any issues. The National Retail Federation’s latest back-to-school shopping survey also shows a third of families plan to cut back on other spending areas — in order to cover the cost of must-haves for the new school year. Even with so many people concerned about costs, back-to-school spending is expected to hit an all time high this year — a whopping $864 per household for K-12, and $1200 for college students. Despite all of these challenges, there are some simple tips and tricks to save every penny you can for back-to-school shopping and beyond: Look for Student and Seasonal Discount: Flash your student ID and many popular stores will give you discounted rates. You can also take advantage of student discounts through sites such as Unidays and Student Beans. College students usually get the most discounts but many stores have savings for grades K-12 too. Spread Out Payments Over Time with Reliable Buy Now, Pay Later Options: With rising costs, many consumers are looking for greater payment flexibility when making back-to-school purchases. ​Pay Later with PayPal lets you spread payments out over time.​ For purchases between $30-$1,500, you can select Pay in 4 1 and break the cost into four interest-free payments with the first payment due at time of purchase. ​ For those larger back-to-school purchases, you can select the new Pay Monthly 2 option and break the total cost into monthly payments over a longer period of time. ​Pay Later with PayPal gives you more choice in how you pay for purchases so you can select the option that works best for your budget. Learn more at paypal.com/buynowpaylater.​ Use browser extensions for coupons and cash back: You might think you’ve found the best deal out there, but there’s a good chance there are even better prices still waiting to be discovered. The Easiest way to make sure you’re paying the lowest prices — is to Install the PayPal Honey 1 desktop “browser” extension. This online shopping tool automatically discovers coupons at your favorite stores— and applies the best ones it finds at checkout. It even helps you layer savings by finding rewards that you can redeem for cash back. You can find it at: www.joinhoney.com Shop Refurbished: There are plenty of apps and sites out there to help you track down any used or refurbished items on your list. Whether you’re shopping for textbooks, electronics or clothing, you’ll pay less than if you were to buy the item brand new. Plus, you can usually find discounted items in “like new” condition on many platforms for free..​ Contact Details Your Update TV +1 212-736-2727 yourupdatetv@gmail.com

August 31, 2022 02:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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Bernie Sanders Fined $15,000 by FEC for Hiring of Foreign Nationals

Coolidge Reagan Foundation

First Amendment watchdog Coolidge Reagan Foundation (CRF), on the heels of securing a record 6-figure fine against Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the DNC, announced it has secured a five-figure fine against Senator Bernie Sanders. In a filing not yet made public, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) acted on a 2019 Complaint CRF filed exposing illegal activity by the Bernie Sanders campaign. The CRF Complaint exposed how the Bernie Sanders campaign hired foreign nationals in violation of federal election laws designed to prevent international actors from meddling in U.S. elections. As part of a conciliation agreement with the FEC, the Bernie Sanders campaign must pay a fine of $15,000. Additionally, the Sanders campaign must agree not to contest the findings of the FEC and must cease and desist from further law-breaking. “I find it incredibly ironic and not at all surprising that the same people who were so outraged by the Russia hoax were at the same time violating laws to prevent foreign influence in our elections,” said Dan Backer Counsel to Coolidge Reagan Foundation. “The Bernie Sanders campaign got caught willfully and knowingly allowing foreign nationals to participate in the strategy, planning, and tactical implementation of campaign activity.” The original Complaint may be found here. The Conciliation Agreement will be posted by the FEC within the next 30 days. The Complaint alleged in part that, “…Due to the high profile of Cesar Vargas, Erika Andiola, and Maria Belén Sisa as leading activists in the undocumented community, there is reason to believe that respondents are ‘foreign nationals'…and in violation of…directly or indirectly participated in the decision-making process of persons with regard to the election-related activities…” The Bernie Sanders Conciliation Agreement follows another recent Coolidge Reagan victory at the FEC from a 2018 Complaint resulting in a $113,000 fine against Hillary for America and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) for lying about their funding of the Russia Hoax dossier. “Our track record is strong. We went after Hillary, and we won. We went after Comrade Bernie, and we won, again,” Backer continued. “While those on the radical left may not care about the truth, we do. Our determination is unwavering, and we expect the FEC will agree with us again as we call out additional violations in FEC Complaints we have filed.” ### Please visit https://www.coolidgereagan.org/. For more information or to schedule an interview with a CRF spokesperson, contact Dan Rene at 202-329-8357 or danrenejr@gmail.com. Contact Details Dan Rene +1 202-329-8357 danrenejr@gmail.com Company Website https://www.coolidgereagan.org/

August 31, 2022 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Introducing Aquamorphic Design: the creative and human-centric design behind the new OPPO ColorOS 13

OPPO

“A good design is about initiate dialogues amongst modern civilisations, and responding to people’s needs. The ultimate goal of any piece of product design is to relieve people of their difficulties and to enhance our quality of life.” - Xi Zheng, Director of Software Design, OPPO SHENZHEN, CHINA - Media OutReach - 31 August 2022 - In the modern digital age, people have long become used to gaining easy access to vast amounts of information through various technological devices. As people’s reliance on smart devices increases, and with the costs of device usage and maintenance keeps on surging, technology has not only brought more about convenience to our live, it also inevitably gives rise to anxiety. The over-abundance of information is drowning out people’s capacity to reflect, at the same time forcing them to live in the fear of missing out. Aquamorphic Design of OPPO ColorOS 13 That’s not all. Social instability, the deterioration of our natural environment, and the global pandemic have all forced us to adapt and evolve to the ever-changing external environment, and to thrive in a future of uncertainty. As the spearhead to our future, designers are tasked with critically tackling the uncertainties to reassess our potential to thrive and to make contributions to the world around us. ColorOS is a highly-customized, efficient, intelligent, and richly designed Android based OS from OPPO, with over 500 million global monthly active users. In the latest version of its ColorOS, OPPO hopes to adapt to people’s needs through constantly exploring the interactions between technological devices and modern users, as well as understanding the spiritual relationship between the nature and human beings. The OPPO ColorOS provides users with the right solutions, the convenience, and the naturalness of integration between technology and humans, reaching an impeccable synthesis of innovative technology and modernistic aesthetics. In August 2022, ColorOS welcomed a new chapter in its history with ColorOS 13, introducing the brand-new, human-oriented Aquamorphic Design. Aquamorphic Design on the ColorOS 13 aims to deliver a highly popular aesthetics through its organic and minimalistic interpretation, with a functional goal to solve our everyday problems in this information-booming era. With ColorOS 13, we encourage users to live a vibrant and gratifying lifestyle, looking forward into uncertainties with optimism, courage and determinism. Echoing with the modern aesthetics: the Aquamorphic Design Nature breeds all life, and water is the essence of life on earth. Through the exploration and expression of the laws of nature, OPPO has weaved its vitality into technology with Aquamorphic Design on ColorOS 13. It took more than 100 engineers over half a year to perfect the Aquamorphic Design — a concept which aims to give ColorOS 13 unlimited possibilities by enabling it to adapt itself to any environment. This concept takes inspiration from the multifariousness, compactability, and openness to interactions in the unlimited physical possibilities of water molecules – from its ubiquitous vapourous form to its sharp, tough ice-like rigidity. Like water, ColorOS 13 represents OPPO’s root determination for innovation, adaptability to changes, and intrinsic simplicity. We aim to sense and adapt to different devices and user habits, and redefine the relationships between people and the digital world with ColorOS 13. All the while, users interacting with ColorOS 13 are required no additional effort to learn. ColorOS 13 inconspicuously and gently bearing the weight to assist users for an accommodating, personal, and intuitive experience. To counteract the feeling of fatigue brought by the pandemic, the first port of call in bringing this natural vitality to ColorOS 13 was to completely overhaul the visual elements in the OS. ColorOS 13’s color theme is inspired by the hue transition on the skyline between sunrise and sunset. From the sapphire of a sunrise to the orange of a sunset, this color gradient is applied to the system space and icons, bringing users a sense of vitality and inclusiveness. This evolving color is anchored around a central shade of blue, which not only reflects the OS’s aqueous theme, but also induces the feeling of serenity and reliability. In a similar way, the icons, windows, cards, and input boxes in ColorOS 13 all feature more rounded and organically gentle contours to mirror the flow of water and symbolize the endless vitality of life. Typography and Card-Styled Layout The OPPO Sans font in ColorOS 12 recentely won a Red Dot Design Award — has also received an update in ColorOS 13. The font features slightly wider text for a more stable appearance, while the text layout has been updated to create a more stereoscopic present that accentuates clarity, improves readability and visual comfort on a variety of screen display sizes. Creating a systematic and convenient user experience in the often disorderly and complex information system is also central to us. We came up with a new solution to avoid information overload — the Card-Styled Layout. It classifies and intergrates scattered information to simplified interface presentation, enlarging the most important information and re-arranging it in an easy-to-read layout. This new design enables users to quickly get hold of the desired information they need most with the least amount of effort, all without noticing the magic of the design working tirelessly away in the background, mirroring the inconspicuous and gentle appearance of water in nature – being important, yet appearing weightless. During the refinement process to the Control Center, controls have also been grouped and classified using the Card-Styled Layout to create a clearer information hierarchy, amplify commonly used information, and group similar information all in one accessible place. The soft Aquamorphic Effect from of Aquamorphic Design in ColorOS 13 allows every interaction to feel completely natural and fluid, while providing a soothing sensation that brings the user closer to nature. For example, the Fingerprint Unlock and Optimize functions are accompanied by an animated ripple effect. When the device is charging, water droplets converge to the middle of the screen. When switching between interfaces, a Gaussian blur effect creates the realistic visual sensation of looking at the bottom of a lake through the water, with the background image appearing faintly below. On top of these design touches, the Shadow Reflective Clock mimics the transistions of the sun’s rays from dawn till dusk, and the shadows casted by moonlight. The automatic shifts between lights and shadows of the clock adjust gradually depending on the time of day and night by the use of device, creating a vivid reminder to the beauty in the passage of life. ColorOS 13 includes an upgraded Quantum Animation Engine with improved animative details and the simulations of mechanical trajectory movements and stationary states of virtual objects. This makes the animations feel even more lifelike and connected to the natural world, reducing the sense of detechment between the the digitial world and the reality. Behavioral Predictions has also been added to process multi-gesture operations and provide intelligent, accurate, and rapid visual responses. For example, if a user slides up on the screen to exit an app and to abort a previous instruction to open the app, the system would respond immediately by suspending the previous opening instruction and to proceed directly to the real-time aborting response. Color OS 13 provides a cutting-edge technology to promote the operating fluency to a new level. Meeting the needs of today: new functions built on the latest technology The pandemic has completely changed the way we live our lives, introducing us with a novel remote-working mode that requires the simultaneous use of multiple devices has placed fresh demands on user experience. ColorOS 13 has been upgraded to address the users’ evolved demands by introducing a series of intelligent functions designed for the needs of today. As more smart devices are introduced into our lives, the demand for a reliable central OS that operate in tandem with the variety of hardware is vital for users to make the most out of their devices. When concurrently working on a computer, smartphone, or tablet, ColorOS 13’s upgraded Multi-Screen Connect improves multitasking by enabling users to switch between devices in a more seamless and natural manner, therby increasing work efficiency. Meanwhile, the Adaptive Layouts of the ColorOS 13 ensure that users can enjoy the same familiar and consistent experiences on devices with different screen sizes, such as mobile phones and tablets, without any additional learning. ColorOS 13 also inherits the Red Dot Award-winning Two-Finger Split Screen function from ColorOS 12, which offers more flexibility and efficiency for multitasking on larger screens. After addressing the core and universal needs of most users, ColorOS 13 is also designed to provide a more personalized and customized experience. Users can choose from a variety of design elements and theme colors in the system according to their own preferences, and add Home Screen Widgets that suit their usage habits, customizing their own operating system to display information that is personalized to their needs. The Always-On Display (AOD) in ColorOS 13 has also been purposely designed to prioritize the presentation of important information, while also acting as a buffer to protects users from unnecessary and superfluous message disruptions. This allows users to concentrate their attention only on direct and concise information, with minimal diversions on time-consuming and redundant information. Through the Smart AOD, users can review the statuses of food delivery without turning on the home screen of their phone. OPPO has also entered into a partnership with Spotify that brings convenient music control to the AOD. User can access to to information more convenient in a quicker manner, all whilst minimizing power consumption too. Moreover, ColorOS 13 provides a variety of options for users who want to customize their AOD. OPPO has been working closely with the Bitmoji team to bring it to the AOD, enabling users to create personalized virtual avatars that mimic their won facial features and expressions to create unique Bitmoji and use it as their AOD wallpaper. “Virtuous Innovation” for digital wellbeing: striking a balance between digital life and the reality Always-On Display – Insight, Spotify and Bitmoji, Homeland OPPO aims to promote and spread positivity through the experience of ColorOS 13. One such example is the introduce of Blossom Wallpaper, which has been designed to help people better balance their digital wellbeing. The wallpaper shows an animated plant with petals that decolorise gradually as mobile phone use increases. When the time spent on the device exceeds a user-set limit, the texture of the plant would change gradually, reminding users to take a break from the use of devices. ColorOS 13 also introduces the Insight AOD with a color display bar that tracks phone use over a 24-hour period. Each time the user unlocks the phone, a new mark is created on the bar to represent phone use. Non-invasive reminders like these are a great way to help users find a better balance in life. Futhermore, to call for a greater awareness of environmental protection, ColorOS 13 includes a special series of “Homeland” AOD wallpapers, including the images of penguins, polar bears and clown fish. The wallpapers symbolize the rise of global temperature that brought about drastic changes to these animals’ natural habitats, raising awareness for the climate change issues. Looking back on the evolution of ColorOS over the years, ColorOS 13’s Aquamorphic Design follows many of the signature traits that have been part of the previous version of the operating system in its early days. Starting with ColorOS 7, OPPO repositioned ColorOS to focus on delivering a smooth and delightful user experience through its emphasis on the simpler Infinite Design Concept. Building on from this, ColorOS 11 brought personal expression to a new level, focusing on greater user customization without sacrificing the fundamental smoothness of the user experience. In ColorOS 12, OPPO introduced its Inclusive Design Language for the first time, combining both simplicity and personalization to a more comfortable and unified user interface through the addition of innovations such as 3D icons, the Quantum Animation Engine, and Omoji. Due to these advances, ColorOS 12 received four Red Dot Design Awards in 2022. Creating the ideal operating system is is no mean feat. OPPO accumulation of experience through multiple iterations of innovative designs and features, OPPO able to bring Aquamorphic Design on ColorOS 13 to users. By bringing users with a more naturalistic and intuitive experience, OPPO hopes to to create a harmonious environment for users to interact with their devices through ColorOS 13, at the same time appreciating the vitality of life no matter what the future holds. Contact Details OPPO Media Contact press@oppo.com Company Website https://oppo.com/en/proposal/

August 31, 2022 05:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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DataWeave joins Amazon Advertising Partner Network to help brands drive retail growth

DataWeave

DataWeave, a provider of AI-powered Brand Analytics solutions, today announced its status as a vetted partner in the Amazon Advertising Partner Network with the goal of supporting brands to optimize their digital advertising campaigns with actionable data insights. The Amazon Advertising Partner Network, and new Partner Directory, provides brands access to a global community of agencies and tool providers that can help advertisers achieve their business goals using Amazon Ads products. This collaboration is timely, as leading brands and retailers rely on DataWeave for global commerce insights to stay competitive. Amazon Ads’ partners help advertisers reach consumers by using Amazon Ads products like Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display. Amazon advertisers can apply DataWeave’s insights to benchmark and help consumers to discover their brand’s products with greater ease, optimizing digital shelf performance. “We are honored to join the Amazon Advertising Partner Network with the collective goal of enabling brands to optimize audience engagement at every stage of the decision journey, and improve return on marketing spend,” said Karthik Bettadapura, CEO and co-founder, DataWeave. “Our insights can help brands increase the visibility of their digital shelf with ads that reach and resonate with Amazon shoppers.” With more than 500 billion data points aggregated, DataWeave’s scale and digital insights expertise helps brands of all sizes evaluate and elevate their performance to fuel online retail growth. DataWeave's Digital Shelf Analytics solutions empower brands to make informed advertising decisions that drive product discoverability by gaining insights and measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) in the areas of Share of Search, Content Audits, Sales Performance and Market Share, Availability, Pricing, Promotions and Reviews. Brands can immediately see how they rank for organic and sponsored ad placement on the search result listing versus their competition. More global brands are seeking insights to boost their online sales and customer loyalty. DataWeave’s acceptance into the Amazon Advertising Partner Network enables Amazon advertisers to monitor and promptly respond to competitive and consumer online retailtrends in near real-time to stay agile and efficient. Learn more about DataWeave’s digital shelf analytics for brands. DataWeave is a leading provider of advanced sales optimization solutions for e-commerce businesses, consumer brands and marketplaces. The AI-driven proprietary technology and language-agnostic platform aggregates consumable and actionable Competitive Intelligence across 500+ billion data points globally, in 25+ languages, with insights to drive performance for more than 400,000 brands across 1,500+ websites tracked across 20+ verticals and ensure online performance is always optimized. Learn more about the power of big data and global level analytics in understanding the rapidly changing retail industry at DataWeave.com. Contact Details Meir Kahtan +1 917-837-3724 mkahtan@rcn.com Company Website https://dataweave.com

August 30, 2022 11:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Amesite Announces Partnership with Central Michigan University to Deliver a Complete Upskilling Solution

Amesite Inc.

Contact Details Amesite, Inc. +1 734-876-8141 info@amesite.com Company Website http://www.amesite.io

August 29, 2022 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Scalenut powers organic content for businesses via AI platform as it raises $3.1M funding round

Scalenut

Businesses know that content is king when charming customers but as channels and types of content have exponentially grown, it will be important to know which content is winning customers. AI-powered SEO and content marketing platform Scalenut is prevailing through its AI-generated organic content for SMBs and mid-market businesses with 100,000 users signed up in just a few months since going live this year. As it scales the platform and expands into new geographies, Scalenut is today announcing a $3.1M seed plus funding round led by Saama Capital & Amit Singhal (Former Senior VP of Google and Head of Google Search). The company had previously raised $400,000 in seed funding led by Titan Capital, First Principles VC, AngelList, Abhishek Goyal, and other leading angel investors. In early 2022, they launched their SaaS platform for public use, and in the past six months, they have seen 10X revenue growth. Scalenut, focusing primarily on the US and the UK markets, helps businesses and brands plan, research and create content in 1/5th the time it normally takes. In addition, it reduces costs by 90% and significantly scales up content production. Scalenut’s Co-founder Mayank Jain said, “The pandemic spurred rapid digitization across businesses, with a greater emphasis being placed on digital marketing. However, after spending a huge amount of money on paid advertising for growth, they realized that it is not sustainable in the long run and therefore, there has been an increased focus on organic marketing to grow sustainably.” He added “In order to increase organic growth, SEO and content marketing teams juggle multiple tools for sound SEO research, content creation, optimization, and performance measurement. Not only is it inefficient, but it also leads to siloed team efforts based on broken insights and incomplete strategy. This is why most businesses struggle to scale content marketing successfully.” Scalenut’s AI platform brings everything needed by them to one place so they can strategize and scale easily and at a pace that helps them achieve business goals. “With Scalenut, we aim to empower the SEO and content teams to put the paddle on their organic marketing efforts from a single platform and help businesses grow sustainably,” said Mayank Jain. As per a Databox study, almost 20% of marketers get more than 60% of their traffic from search engines i.e. organic traffic, and 71% of the marketers said that creating new content is their most important tactic for growing their organic traffic. Commenting on the successful closing of the funding round, Mayank Jain commented, “This funding is to continue building the platform, hiring talent, and expanding to new geographies. We have set our sights on solving a massive problem that marketers across the world face today. The opportunity in the market and our progress so far excites us to work harder and make a dent in this domain”. “Businesses associated with us have witnessed 3x growth in their organic traffic in just 3-4 months. Not only have we seen 10x growth in revenue in the last six months, but we are also trending at a seven-digit revenue run rate right now. We are in a hyper-growth stage and are on track to meet our major revenue milestones.” Talking about investing in Scalenut, Ash Lilani, managing partner at Saama Capital said, “With content consumption increasing worldwide, content is a key driver for business growth. One common problem that businesses face to power up their organic marketing is scaling content meaningfully. There is no easy way to scale content and Scalenut is solving precisely that with its robust AI platform. This is a big value add. Since launching its SaaS platform in Jan 2022, Scalenut has seen good traction with over 100,000 registered users. We were quite impressed seeing the product team has built and the market response they have got.” Amit Singhal, Former Senior VP of Google and Head of Google Search, said “There is no one better than Scalenut to help businesses scale organic traffic. With deep domain expertise and passion to help businesses grow sustainably, I am super excited to be part of the team. Their recent growth has validated our belief and I am super excited for what’s in the store.” About Scalenut Scalenut was founded by Mayank Jain, Gaurav Goyal, and Saurabh Wadhawan. In early 2022, they launched their AI-powered SEO and content marketing platform for public use. The SaaS platform helps SMBs and mid-market businesses to scale content and grow sustainably through organic marketing. Other than thousands of SMBs across the world, Scalenut also counts leading enterprises like Snapdeal, PharmEasy, Foyr, Hubilo, and Mosaic Wellness as its clients. Learn more about Scalenut here: www.scalenut.com Contact Details Scalenut Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://www.scalenut.com/

August 26, 2022 10:24 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Minuteman Press Franchise in Swindon, England Reopens Doors After Flooding and Fire

Minuteman Press International Inc

Minuteman Press in Swindon, England has reopened its physical location at 19-21 Newport Street (Ground Floor – Newport House). After suffering water damage from flooding in July of 2021 and electrical fire damage in October of 2021, owner James Beckwith and his team continued to operate and serve clients as repairs were being made. James shares, “The community has been fantastic, we officially remained open the whole time taking orders from the website and emails, as well as keeping our phone lines open. We have had nothing but positive comments and folks telling us they are so happy we are back open. Some customers have commented that though they had to go elsewhere for a time, the quality of the print and the quality of the service just didn’t compare to what they received when working with us.” During this critical time and leading to the reopening of their facility, James was grateful to be part of the Minuteman Press franchise family, who stepped in and provided crucial support in many areas. James says, “Mark Jones (UK South Regional VP) and Richard Myers (local field rep) and Duncan Diesel (at MPIHQ) have been invaluable to us. I routinely spoke with Duncan on equipment decisions when ours was being replaced as well as marketing ideas and technical help with Minuteman Press FLEX software and the new website. Richard has been out to see us during the time we had no premises to work up a plan once we were back open and he has been out since opening to assist with production processes and marketing ideas. Mark Jones was always at the end of the phone if we needed advice on anything. He was very key in us making the decision to stay in our current premises when we were investigating moving locations.” Being part of the Minuteman Press system also enabled James to receive vital support from choice vendors like Xerox. James states, “I want to particularly give a shout out to Xerox. They were amazing throughout the entire process. The Xerox kit was always the most expensive shop item and there were lots of negotiations on price to replace the two Versants that were damaged. They ultimately gave us the opportunity to acquire the Xerox Iridesse and offline booklet maker to match the requirements from the two previous Versants while keeping the insurance company happy on cost. Xerox also gave me near free reign of their Uxbridge HQ where I was allowed to run one particular job on their presses every month for six or seven months.” Today, with the repairs finished, new equipment in place and new signage installed, James is excited about the upgrades that have been made to the business. He says, “Our offices and production area have been refurbished, and we can now provide more services than before.” James continues, “We now have totally new kit, and because it is so versatile, we can offer more options than before, with an even faster turnaround. The new Xerox Iridesse is a full production press allowing us more and faster capabilities as well as improved image quality over our previous presses.” He adds, “Even our booklet-making capacity has improved. Whereas before, making a large number of booklets could take several hours, we can now produce up to 3,000 booklets in an hour.” James further explains the benefits of the new equipment installed at Minuteman Press in Swindon: “The Iridesse is absolutely amazing. The image quality is second to none. The job that I would run at Xerox HQ was a monthly magazine run for a local village. 1050 copies, ranging from 20 – 32 pages each month. On our Versants, the job would take 6 – 8 hours. Now the entire job takes us about 2 hours!” We were able to update our Duplo 615 to the 618 and that piece of kit is a dream. Touch screen, easy to configure and very dependable. We replaced our SureColour T5200 with the same model, however now we have the large format scanner which was one area we were sorely lacking. Customers would routinely come in with paper plans looking to get copies or scans and we would have to turn them away, now we can handle the full job for them. We replaced our HP Latex 330 with the Latex 335 that has the Print & Cut feature. We couldn’t be happier with the decision. We are still getting our feet wet with the Print & Cut, but so far we are producing work on all the new kit.” Minuteman Press in Swindon also plans to re-add dye sublimation and add a self-service area for walk-in customers who need a simple print job. James says, “This is really ideal if someone wants a return label printed, for example. We always offered this kind of service for customers, but soon they will be able to do it on a DIY basis.” James concludes, “We are happy to be back in our new and improved facility, and we are excited to continue to welcome back our clients. We are so thankful for them and all of the help we’ve received from our community and MPIHQ, and now we are ready to serve our clients better than ever before.” For more information about Minuteman Press in Swindon, visit https://minuteman.com/uk/locations/england/swindon/ To learn more about #1 rated Minuteman Press franchise opportunities and to see Minuteman Press franchise reviews, visit https://minutemanpressfranchise.co.uk or https://minutemanpressfranchise.com Contact Details Chris Biscuiti +1 631-249-1370 cbiscuiti@mpihq.com Company Website https://minutemanpressfranchise.com

August 26, 2022 05:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Direct Help for Mass Shootings Families and the Communities that Experience Them

YourUpdateTV

Mass shootings seem like a weekly event but what hasn’t changed is the need to support victims and their families after the attention fades while helping provide help to the communities experiencing the unthinkable. Those who comprise VictimsFirst know this personally as they all have been directly impacted by mass shootings. After her cousin was killed in the Aurora theater shooting in 2012, VictimsFirst CEO Anita Busch learned firsthand of the challenges faced by survivors and families and has put that knowledge to work directly helping in the aftermath of 37 shootings so far. Another family member survived the Las Vegas concert during that attack. Busch then led families of the deceased from previous mass shootings from Columbine, VA Tech, NIU, Aurora, Oak Creek Sikh Temple and Newtown to help create a new model for charitable giving – one that ensures public intent so that 100% of donations collected for victims of mass casualty crime actually go directly to those victims. They helped launch the National Compassion Fund. Now some of those same families comprise VictimsFirst. It was for these worthy reasons that D S Simon Media decided to partner with VictimsFirst to conduct a pro bono media tour to raise awareness for the work that they do. “Victims First is an incredible organization. They’re passionate about their important mission, helping people during a time in which their lives have been changed forever” said D S Simon Media, CEO, Doug Simon. “And my hope is that everyone who learns about them, decides to support them.” VictimsFirst responds immediately to mass casualty crimes by helping the community organize in the best interests of the victims/survivors themselves and providing resources, including immediate financial resources to the victim base. They work pro bono and 100% collected into their Victims’ Fund goes directly to victims/survivors. The resulting media tour resulted in 28 interviews across the country, an expected audience reach of over 60 million, and immediate donations in markets where the media tour interviews took place. For more information, visit VictimsFirst.org Contact Details YourUpdateTV +1 212-736-2727 yourupdatetv@gmail.com

August 25, 2022 05:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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