http://kileva.wordpress.com/2011/05/23/affect-of-weather-on-health-education-at-kileva-eastfield/

As a special incentive we’re reducing the ticket price (which includes a 2 course meal) by over £10 to just £39 per head!

Surely that’s a bargain to see a great play and enjoy a 2 course meal? Besides which you will be helping to put the roof on classroom #5 at the Kileva Eastfield Primary School in Mwakoma, Kenya.

Book online here or please email cliff@kilevafoundation.com if you’d like tickets and don’t forget that you can also buy raffle tickets to be entered into the draw to win one of the following prizes:

Thanks for your support. It means a lot to the kids at the school
Cliff and the Kileva Volunteers.

Children of Kileva Eastfield School n

It’s a great idea which we applaud as it will help people with allergies to quickly identify the contents of Sainsbury’s foods (only works in JS at moment). There are two main snags we found on early inspection….

1) It’s chargeable – first 7 days free (subscription of £10/yr or £6/6 months), which will reduce uptake and subscription models are challenging to fraught with churn – think gym memberships.

2) Judging by the itunes customer reviews there is some room for improvement in the accuracy of the ingredient identification.

BUT well done JS for going out there and helping a growing and important group of your customers, to safely navigate your aisles.

It’s always nice to see innovation!

But for retailers, both online and offline, that are still skeptical, 2011 may be a good year to take the plunge. That’s because according to a survey conducted by SapientNitro, consumer habits finally caught up in a big way with expectations and hype last year.

Of those consumers surveyed, over half (51.6%) used a smart phone to locate a store during the holiday shopping season last year, and just under half (47.6%) reported using a smart phone to research a product they were thinking of buying.

Meaningful numbers (above 30%) browsed for products, comparison shopped, looked for coupons/deals and checked product availability at a store.

Figures from the UK show a similar trend. A ForeSee survey found that 32% of shoppers accessed e-commerce sites from their mobiles, with product research the most common activity.

SapientNitro’s Chris Davey says the numbers reflect that mobile devices are having “a major impact not only on the way that consumers shop but also on the way that retailers need to market to consumers.”.

And as eMarketer sees it, that means “retailers who have invested money in building a mobile program but have not received a commensurate return will begin to see their efforts bear fruit in 2011. Retailers who have not invested are losing valuable time on the learning curve.”

They key to success with mobile for retailers, of course, is not simply throwing money at mobile however; it’s all about investing in the right areas. Consumers still have concerns about certain things, such as the security of mobile financial transactions. Which is probably why most retailers will want their investments to follow the crowd.

Consumer habits during the 2010 holiday season indicate that consumers are primarily using their smart phones as information tools. Far fewer (21%) actually used a smart phone to purchase products or services, and even fewer (13.6%) used a mobile coupon.

Mobile commerce may only be taken up by a minority activity of users so far, but as has been shown by retailers like eBay, Amazon and others, a transactional mobile site or app can still drive significant numbers of sales.

Making it easy for customers and potential customers to discover important information via mobile, locations, your coupons, your prices, etc, is probably going to be a necessary investment given the rapidly growing number of consumers who are now looking for it.

Courtesy of Econsultancy – http://bit.ly/gsCaUW

Why The Hell Would You Use A Business Coach? December 7, 2010

Why the hell would you use a coach? Someone asked that question once.
Actually that person was me. It was quite a while ago and when I said it I did so with a lot of sarcasm and ridicule in my voice. I thought it was the stupidest idea in the world. That someone needed a coach for business or personal life? Ha! Losers! And funny thing, looking back at the man I was then, I thought I had it figured out. And I’d tell you that too. The reality was different though and although I may have looked successful to some, if I really get honest, I wasn’t. I was just another ego-driven, meathead biz guy with a title, a nice car and lots of bills.

I had my head in the sand. Even when I’d see a top CEO talk about having a coach, somehow I’d justify that it didn’t apply to me, that I could do whatever I wanted, alone. Thing was, I wasn’t doing anything. It seems to work that way you know, the more successful men are open to more things and they keep rising up and up. The posers, like I was, secretly make excuses, are negative and stay stuck. I’ve found the number one benefit of working with a coach has been Perspective.

Working with an experienced person who is in your corner and can give you another and different perspective on yourself and your business or career is worth its weight in gold. It helps you get out of your head, out of the thinking ruts we all get into and it can spark new ideas and motivations.

Now, years later, of course a lot has changed not the least of which is I became a coach myself working with men who are entrepreneurs and executives. The change in attitude came for me when I got desperate enough and got my ego out of the way and asked for some help on some things.

Suddenly it felt as is I’d had 1,000 pounds lifted off my shoulders. Ideas started to flow, and I got energized. That led me to hiring a high level coach. And from that, with a lot of hard work, I found myself in a position where I was more successful than ever, doing my own thing, and jumping out of bed in the morning to get at it. And the byproduct that I didn’t expect…happiness. Go figure. Just when I thought I knew everything.
PS – to hear what the CEO of Google said on this topic, click here http://bit.ly/aSPSyK

Michael Van Osch – Founder & CEO www.thinktankmen.com

One of the best social media videos – great soundtrack too!