Franck Vinchon launched ‘My Own Epitaph’ a Facebook app to help readers understand the thinking behind his book ‘Tranches de mort’. The book suggest that death is not just an accident but the result of everything we experience in life. Based on this concept, the app uses information from your Facebook profile and generates words written on your gravestone. Have a look at the video teaser and then visit my-own-epitaph.com to find out what will be written on your gravestone.

Provocative, cynical but unquestionably engaging.

Andrea

via Andrea Vascellari – CEO, itive

Have no money to invest in what your business or organization needs the most? This post is part of a productivity series aimed at helping you optimize your budget management.

It’s true that there are still some jobs that can’t be done remotely using the web or telecommunication systems; however, many jobs can and are being done in that way thanks to these useful technologies available to most companies.

Accounting, project management, marketing, PR, programming, design, web and mobile development, etc., are just some of the jobs that – depending on the nature of a project – can be done remotely.

There are numerous benefits for both organizations and employees when working remotely, one of them is cost (physical and financial) reductions, including: Reduced stress-levels, higher job satisfaction, less pollution, less need for expensive office space and business utilities, etc.

The most important things to have “in place” in order to get remote working solutions running at best within your organization are:

• Accurate planning: The work must be carefully organized in order to become objective and goal-oriented for everyone.
• Internal policies: Create a policy to inform and educate each remote person or group about what is expected from them and how they will be held accountable.

Are you working remotely? Did your organization implement remote working successfully?
Feel free to drop a comment and share your experiences & tips or click here for a quick “comment-ready-tweet” @vascellari.

Andrea

Image Credit: Gapingvoid

We are recklessly working with complete disregard for our mental, physical and social health.

This “always connected” digital age is only part of the problem that is almost turning us into slaves of the system we are living in. In my opinion, there is something fundamental that we shouldn’t forget at a much deeper and human level.

It has become increasingly difficult to find the right balance between what we have to do in order to live and actually living our life. It seems to me that we are going crazy and we are fine with it because it seems to be “the norm”. This is not normal, it’s not how it should be.

If we spend our existence in an “always-on” mode we don’t live. We need to switch-off certain leds in our control room, otherwise, sooner or later, something will blow up.

I think this is what’s happening in our society right now. Productivity and growth come first.

What’s the opposite of growth?
I bet that for many of you it took a little too long to come up with an answer to this question.

Decay, reduction and recession themselves are things we distance ourselves from even if they are natural consequences of periods of growth – natural or artificial and inflated…

There’s no trend or phenomenon in nature that can constantly only grow. In my opinion, the acceptance of stagnation and decline as a self regulatory mechanism is important not just on a macro scale, but also on a micro level and in a more personal sphere.

Your take?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below, via quick “comment-ready-tweet” @vascellari.

Andrea

Overview
Cisco’s Telepresence is one of the most advanced virtual meeting systems in the world.
In cooperation with the Finnish organizations of KOKO, SEK and SuupohjanSeutuverkko, which runs one of the fastest broadband networks in Europe, we tested Cisco Telepresence as a primary means to present information across distances without breaking budgets.

Objectives

• Create an engaging experience to test the use of Cisco Telepresence in a higher education environment.
• Provide feedback to Cisco on the target audience’s experience using online video communication tools.

The Idea
We organized a live, interactive video conference connecting university students with thoughtful leaders of today’s digital Communications industry.

For this initiative, we selected a group of students from Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada – a country that shares similarities with Finland regarding debilitating winter climates and large, physical distances – difficult factors that could both be addressed and supported with remote virtual learning programs as an ideal solution.

Sitting on the other end of the video conference were itive’s CEO and CCO – two individuals who have solid experience in the digital space.

During the online event, the students had access to itive’s executives for a live Q&A session about having a career in Communications and on how the industry is changing.

The students were then asked to complete a survey about their experiences using online video communication tools in order to provide valuable feedback to Cisco.

Outcomes

• Organized a specific training session for the student leader of the group on how to use the Cisco software.
• Conducted a pre-event survey to focus the video conference on the most relevant topics for the students.
• Managed a 1-hour live, online video conference session between the students and itive’s executives.
• Conducted a post-event survey filled out by students about their experience using online video communication tools.
• Followed up with students providing additional feedback and answers concerning topics that weren’t covered during the live event because of limited time.

Have no time to invest in what your business or organization needs the most? This post is part of a productivity series aimed at helping you optimize your time management.

Ask yourself this question: What is time to you?

When I ask this question to my clients, I always get a different and interesting answer. For some, time is just minutes, hours and days, while for others it’s something you sell or an “investment” for the future. In some cases, this question brings certain people to the realization that time is not actually something infinite and eternal, even if it’s often taken for granted.

How you perceive time and how much you understand its value will have a dramatic impact on how you will use it during your lifetime.

What is time to you? Share them in the comments below or click here for a quick “comment-ready-tweet” @vascellari.

Andrea

Have no money to invest in what your business or organization needs the most? This post is part of a productivity series aimed at helping you optimize your budget management.

If you want to save on a budget, you should have a very detailed budget first.

This may seem obvious, but surprisingly many companies don’t have a complete budget written down. Oftentimes, they just have certain budgets, but many of their expenses are typically left floating free without being thoughtfully tied to an actual plan. These sums of money are what I define as “No Strings Attached Budgets”.

How to avoid “No Strings Attached Budgets”

1. Planning

Once you’ve managed to balance your earnings with your spending and savings goals, write down a budget so you’ll know for every month, quarter and/or year how much you can spend on any given category/department/etc. This will significantly help you, especially with expenses that tend to fluctuate, or those that are particularly difficult to restrict.

2. Don’t guess.
Do not try to guess how much you’ll need to spend in a certain area when making your budgets – let’s say in social media expenses, for example. If you haven’t implemented a good plan for certain activities, it might be because you aren’t sure about where to begin. If you have no idea how to budget for a specific activity, then ask someone who is qualified to help you, such as an external professional consultant or agency.

What are the main challenges you face when creating a budget? Share them in the comments below or click here for a quick “comment-ready-tweet” @vascellari.

Andrea

Image Credit: Johnny Vulkan

Industry: Healthcare/Pharmaceutical

Overview:
Edelman is the world’s largest independent PR company with over 3,700 people in 53 offices. Itive co-operated with their digital arm, Edelman Digital, in order to complete an SEO analysis in the European market for a global pharmaceuticals company.

Objective:
Identify SEO keywords for a series of the pharmaceuticals company’s websites. The project was conducted on a European scale. The pharmaceuticals company aimed at adapting the content for each country using the identified keywords.

Outcomes:
Based on a search patterns analysis, we identified and validated a keywords list to optimize the content for the Finnish market.

A special thanks to Switch Conference curator and host, Ricardo Sousa, and his team for hosting a wonderful event and inviting Andrea to speak.

Check out the slide presentation from Andrea’s talk below. Or if you’re into infographics, you can click here. Enjoy! *Video of all the presentations from Switch Conference 2011 will be available soon via the Switch Conference organizers. We’ll be sure to share Andrea’s video right here on our blog as soon as it’s available. Thanks!

“Switch is a two-day event that gathers people with different background experiences to discuss technology, science, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation in a network-friendly environment.”

QR Codes are one of the latest emerging technologies in digital marketing and communications. Users may discover QR Codes in their environment or on their favorite products and then scan them with their phones to be taken to additional information online. The creative and strategic uses of QR Codes are being seen world wide as more and more organizations, as well as individuals, are implementing them into their marketing and advertising campaigns. From jewelry and t-shirts, to cupcakes and temporary tattoos, who knows where you will find the next QR Code…and where it will take you.

Did you like this video? You can check out Parts 1, 2 and 3 by clicking on the following links: What Are QR Codes? (Part 1), How To Use QR Codes (Part 2), and How To Create QR Codes (Part 3). Enjoy!

How can QR Codes help you? If you have any questions or are interested in learning more about how you and/or your organization can benefit from using QR Codes, please feel free to contact us.

QR Code generator sites such as Kaywa and Delivr make it easy to create your own QR Codes. You can also use URL shorteners Bit.ly and Goo.gl to make and track the statistics of your individual codes.

Did you like this video? You can check out Parts 1 and 2 by clicking on the following links: What Are QR Codes? (Part 1) and How To Use QR Codes (Part 2). You can also watch the full QR Code video trailer here. Enjoy!

How can QR Codes help you? If you have any questions or are interested in learning more about how you and/or your organization can benefit from using QR Codes, please feel free to contact us.