Man City announces losses of more than $150M

By ROB HARRIS

AP Sports Writer

Associated Press Sports

updated 1:31 p.m. ET Dec. 14, 2012

LONDON (AP) -Manchester City lost more than $150 million last season as the club maintained its heavy spending on players before winning its first English title in 44 years.

Another 90 million pounds ($145 million) was spent bolstering the squad in the last financial year as transfer spending since the club entered Abu Dhabi ownership in 2008 went beyond 580 million pounds ($935 million).

Owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan pumped another 169 million pounds ($272 million) of equity into the club, taking the total he has injected in four years to almost 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion).

But the Premier League champions are starting to stem the tide of their losses and spending as they try to comply with UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations, which were introduced to curtail spending sprees by the likes of Sheikh Mansour.

The losses of 97.9 million pounds ($158 million) in the 2011-12 financial year are around half those recorded the previous year.

And manager Roberto Mancini is having to spend less on the squad, with the transfer outlay dropping to 90 million pounds after exceeding 130 million pounds in each of the previous three years.

But City's wage bill rose 15 percent to 178 million pounds ($287 million) on a turnover of 231 million pounds ($372 million).

That revenue generated by the club exceeded 200 million pounds for the first time as cash coming in from sponsorship doubled to 97 million pounds ($157 million), thanks largely to a new deal with Etihad Airways.

Attracting sponsors will be crucial if City is to avoid being barred from the Champions League from the 2014-15 season for not breaking even on its football-related business.

City said in its annual report that the results position the club "well for compliance with UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations."

Despite its newfound success on the pitch, City is still living in the shadow of neighbor Manchester United, which it beat to the Premier League title on goal difference in May.

But United now holds a six-point lead over City at the top of the league and generated 320 million pounds ($516 million) in the last financial year.

"Manchester City has come a long way in a relatively short time," City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said. "In the last two seasons we have tasted victory in the FA Cup, experienced the UEFA Champions League, won the Barclays Premier League and with two goals in added time, redefined what is typical of City for a generation of supporters.

"The responsibility lies with all of us to continue the hard work that will ensure that this is only the beginning of a long and successful era for Manchester City."

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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United, City both win in Premier League

LONDON (AP) -Manchester United stayed in control of the English Premier League by beating Sunderland 3-1 on Saturday, keeping Manchester City at arm's length following the champions' impressive win at Newcastle by the same scoreline.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45355371/ns/sports-soccer/

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Using Cell Phones To Transform Philanthropy: How The Mobile ...

Mark McDowellBy Mark McDowell, MIT ?88

About 10 years ago, cell phones reached the mass market. And they weren?t just for making phone calls ? cell phones became fashion accessories and people wanted to personalize them in every possible way, from colorful cases to celebrity wallpapers to blaring ringtones. The insatiable appetite for digital personalization ? especially among young users ? spawned an industry of mobile media companies who sold ringtones and wallpaper images for a couple bucks each to a newly connected generation. A tremendous amount of wealth was created for many companies and investors in only a few years.

The spark of an idea: ringtone technology could be applied to charitable giving.

One of the early entrepreneurs in the field ? Jim Manis ? saw something that everyone else had overlooked: ?the same technology and billing systems that made it possible to sell cheap ringtones could be re-purposed to allow cell phone users to make charitable donations. The idea came to him in January 2005 when the Indonesian tsunami devastated southeast Asia.? Jim reached out to all of the wireless carriers in the U.S. and proposed a text messaging campaign to raise money for hurricane relief. ?Users could send a ?premium text message? that would result in a donation being made to a charity rather than a ringtone being sent to their phone.?The concept worked.? It was reinforced later that year in August when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, but it was still a one-off experiment. Less than a year later, Jim?s company was sold, leaving him with the time and financial resources to turn ?mobile giving? into a full-time job.

Mobile Giving Foundation established in 2007.

The Mobile Giving Foundation was founded by Jim Manis in 2007 and established as a 501c(3) non-profit.? Jim and his early team met tirelessly with the U.S. wireless carriers to ensure that network connectivity, billing and customer care were in place and operational for charitable giving.? From the beginning, the MGF and the wireless carriers were determined to pass through 100% of donations directly to their intended charities, with neither the MGF nor the wireless carriers keeping any portion of the proceeds for administrative purposes. The MGF also had to establish standards to ensure that participating charities were properly vetted to meet both industry and carrier quality standards. And of course, the MGF had to establish its own operations, billing, and auditing functions.

Mobile Giving Foundation, Canada: a Phi provides start-up funding to reach a socially conscious younger audience.

It was during the MGF?s first year of operations that I became involved. Together with my business partner in Montreal (not a Phi Delt, but he would have made a fine one!), I had been running an early stage venture capital fund called Acta Wireless that was focused on the wireless industry. We were seeking ? and continue to seek ? entrepreneurs who discover ways to use the magic of wireless to disrupt the status quo and change everyday life. When we learned about the MGF, we were immediately struck by its potential to transform philanthropic giving in three key ways: by reaching a younger and socially conscious audience; by reaching them on their cell phones, which are ubiquitous and personal; and by enabling smaller donations ? $5 and $10 ? with the push of only a few buttons.

All of the ingredients for transformation were in place. We proudly made the first corporate donation to the MGF in 2007 to found the Mobile Giving Foundation of Canada which then drew the full support of all the Canadian wireless carriers.

International giving and mobile apps are the next area of growth.

It?s been five years now since the MGF made its debut. The organization?s ability to transform philanthropic giving has been proven over and over again, perhaps most dramatically during the Haiti earthquake, when the MGF processed more than $40 million in individual $5 and $10 donations in less than 1 month. Today more than 800 charities are registered with the MGF and donations are growing exponentially across the U.S. and Canada.

The MGF continues to grow and extend its reach. In 2012, the MGF formed a joint venture with the Council of Better Business Bureaus and Better Business Bureau?s Wise Giving Alliance in order to reach more charities and simultaneously ensure the quality and suitability of participating charities. The MGF is exploring opportunities to expand its international footprint and to enable giving through emerging channels such as mobile apps and social media.

How you can get involved.

The MGF depends on corporate sponsorships for funding, since it passes through 100% of all cell phone donations to charities. I would urge all Phis with appropriate corporate ties to consider supporting the MGF financially. I would also urge all Phis with ties to national and international scale non-profits to contact the MGF to explore the suitability of mobile giving. We live in a special time ? the mobile and digital revolution ? and should seek to put these technologies to work for the greatest good of all.

For more information, please visit: www.mobilegiving.org.

Mark McDowell, Mass Gamma (MIT) 1988. Mark is the co-founder of Acta Wireless, an early stage investment fund focused on the wireless industry.

Here are some tips from Mark on how to be an entrepreneur in the wireless industry.

Q:??????? How can a person prepare academically for a job in the wireless industry?

A:??????? The wireless industry at one time was the domain of electrical and radio frequency (RF) engineers. Those?skills?are still needed and rewarded in the industry, but wireless has?expanded to include mobile media and advertising, retail and commerce, gaming and design. One area of growth?during the next 5-10 years will?undoubtedly?be mobile health, or mHealth.

Any number of educational?backgrounds can lead to success in mobile, including engineering and computer science, medicine, business, communications and media, and graphic arts.

Q:??????? What do you see as the Top 5 skills/qualities a person needs to be an entrepreneur?

A:??????? There are?probably?1,000 or more books on this subject. Here are my top?five, in reverse order:

5.???????? INDEPENDENCE. If there?s a?common trait to all?entrepreneurs, it would have to be a deep vein of independence. Entrepreneurs need to do things their own way ? and they are easily frustrated when they encounter?inefficiency?or mediocrity in the status quo.

4. ??????? SELF-CONFIDENCE. Entrepreneurs will face steep resistance as they try to make prospective customers understand, accept and buy something new. Entrepreneurs will be lonely and discouraged at many points along their journey, and deep internal commitment and passion are required to pull through the low?spots.

3. ??????? PRAGMATISM. The flip side of self-confidence???every entrepreneur must be grounded in reality. The strong self-confidence that marks many entrepreneurs can also lead them into wishful thinking and an inability to see facts. Young businesses often need to ?pivot? and it?s a wise entrepreneur who recognizes that?moment?and acts on it.

2. ??????? DECISIVENESS.?Entrepreneurs?make a hundred decisions before breakfast every day. They don?t torture themselves about whether they?re right or wrong???they make decisions, make them decisively, and move on. The best entrepreneurs make their decisions right, whether?they?originally were or not.

1. ??????? ABILITY TO SELL. Entrepreneurs must?constantly?sell.??Of course, they sell their products or services, but they also sell themselves and their ideas???to investors and?employees, and to skeptical spouses. The best entrepreneurs are obsessive about staying in close contact with their customers, despite how large their organizations may become.

Source: http://phideltblog.com/2012/12/13/using-cell-phones-to-transform-philanthropy-how-the-mobile-giving-foundation-and-a-phi-was-first-to-bring-cell-phone-technology-to-charitable-giving/

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Gettting out of bed 'against all natural instincts'

He didn?t grab a coffee and a muesli bar

According to the Institute for Studies, leaving warmth and safety to enter a dark, sub-zero environment is a grotesque violation of nature.

Professor Henry Brubaker said: ?Millions of years of evolution has taught us to seek comfort and shelter ? basically bed.

?Our ancestors would not have left their caves to venture into freezing pitch darkness, they weren?t that stupid.

?They stayed under their bearskins, getting up about midday to go and grab some berries and twigs before quickly running back to the fire.

?Everything about this whole ?going to work? thing is utterly against our natural drives. It?s why everyone in this country is insane.?

Office worker Tom Booker said: ?I struggle to get out of bed because on some subconscious level I am worried about bears and wolves.

?We?re conditioned to blame ourselves as being lazy, but actually these things are horrible for a reason.

?I may be a glorified monkey but I must be true to my inner voice. So I?ve just called in sick with pretend Norovirus.?

?

?

Source: http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/gettting-out-of-bed-against-all-natural-instincts-2012121353201

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Syria state media: Blast near Damascus kills 16

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syria's state news agency says a bomb blast near the capital, Damascus, has killed 16 people. It says at least half of those killed are women and children.

The SANA news agency says a car packed with explosives blew up on Thursday near a school in a residential part of the southwestern suburb of Qatana.

The report quotes medics from a nearby hospital as saying 16 people were killed, including seven children and "a number" of women. It says nearly two dozen people were wounded.

Anti-regime activists say more than 40,000 people have been killed since the start of the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime in March 2011.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-state-media-blast-near-damascus-kills-16-093833789.html

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Levy on gold could be budget windfall, U.S. lawmakers say

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Revising a 19th-century U.S. law that governs the mining of gold and other precious metals could add billions of dollars to federal coffers at a time of tight budgets, according to some Democratic lawmakers and a government study released on Wednesday.

Taxpayers receive no royalties on metals pulled from federal land, and officials drew a blank when they tried to find out how much gold, silver, copper and other valuable metal is sold.

"Federal agencies generally do not collect data from hardrock mine operators," said the report from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, which looked at the market in 2010 and 2011.

But applying a metals levy of 12.5 percent - the benchmark government share for other resources - could deliver hundreds of millions of dollars a year to taxpayers, according to independent studies and U.S. Representative Raul Grijalva, who sought the report and other data from the mining industry.

"As we face these fiscal challenges, these are the pennies that we should pinch," said Grijalva, the leading Democrat on the panel that oversees public lands.

Grijalva, of Arizona, and Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico, who jointly called for the GAO report, say taxpayers should also benefit from a gold price surge that has boosted the bottom line for miners.

Applying Grijalva's royalty formula on the 1.1 million ounces of yellow metal pulled last year from Goldstrike mine in Nevada, the largest in North America, could have yielded $150 million to taxpayers, according to a Reuters tally of industry data.

Barrick Gold Corp , the mine operator, said only a fraction of Goldstrike is on federal land, and the company's taxes have already quadrupled in the five years of climbing gold prices.

Taxpayers are entitled to a royalty from metal sales nevertheless, lawmakers said.

Under Grijalva's proposed formula, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc's reserves of copper and molybdenum, which is used to toughen steel, would return about $700 million to taxpayers over the life of the mines, according to a Reuters tabulation of company data.

NO-ROYALTY RULE

The 1872 mining law that drove prospectors into western states such as California still governs much of the industry.

But this no-royalty law is a costly anachronism when mining giants can stake a claim on federal land for a few dollars an acre, Udall said. The coal, oil and gas industries, by comparison, have no such exemption.

"We are giving our gold and silver for free and don't even know how much we are giving," said Udall, whose father, Stewart, was secretary of the Interior during the 1960s and called mining law reform his great unfinished work.

Lawmakers who have occasionally tried to reform the mining rules have never cleared all the hurdles to pass new laws, as the industry has strong political allies.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, counts on mining support in his home state of Nevada, and lawmakers say it will be difficult to persuade him to take a bite out of the industry.

But on Wednesday, the two top senators on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee said they were open to considering reform.

"There's been agreement for a long time that the 1872 Mining Law should be updated to include a royalty" and reduce paperwork, said Senator Lisa Murkowski, the panel's top Republican.

Ron Wyden, the incoming Democratic chairman of the committee, also believes the matter is due for review.

"This is one of a growing number of issues that Senator Wyden plans to look at in the next Congress," said spokesman Keith Chu.

Whether or not mining reform can become law, some lawmakers are ready to target the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks the mining industry claims each year, which they see as an easier political gambit.

"There are a lot of write-offs, and this is an issue we can bring to the coming debate about tax reform," Grijalva said.

Those allowances also benefit the oil and gas industry, the GAO report says, with the federal take on energy exploration running billions of dollars below target.

The offshore oil fields that were supposed to deliver a 12.5 percent royalty to taxpayers brought about 8 percent in 2010 and 2011, according to the report.

One explanation for the shortfall, the report says, is industry allowances for the cost of transporting fuel and incentives meant to encourage some exploration.

"We need to always be looking back and seeing if there is a good reason to continue with exemptions," said Udall. "That's something we're not very good at in government - ending the exemptions when they're no longer needed."

State and local governments often catch a windfall from mining revenue, and Udall said Republican lawmakers from the West might be persuaded to increase the federal take.

"Everyone agrees we need a balanced package to find new revenue," he said, "and this seems like the right time for reform."

(Reporting by Patrick Rucker; Editing by Prudence Crowther and Lisa Von Ahn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/levy-gold-could-budget-windfall-u-lawmakers-224913705--finance.html

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Photosynthesis: Mysterious enzyme structure solved

Dec. 12, 2012 ? Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion (MPI CEC) have solved a long-standing puzzle in photosynthesis research. With the aid of quantum chemistry they were able to provide unexpected insight into the properties of the oxygen evolving complex (OEC). The OEC is the catalyst in plants that splits water using sunlight in order to build carbohydrates, thus powering all life on earth. Its precise structure, which was showing enigmatic spectroscopic behaviour, could now finally be solved with the aid of quantum chemistry.

In one of its most studied oxidation states the OEC revealed two types of spectroscopic signals. These signals could be converted to one another by various treatments, but not in any structurally comprehensible way. Moreover the signals are so complex that a detailed molecular structure could not be deduced.

With the aid of theoretical spectroscopic techniques, Dr. Dimitrios Pantazis, scientist at the MPI CEC, and his colleagues were able to show that the two signals are caused by two energetically similar and interconvertible structures of the complex. The core of the enzyme consists of a partial cubic structure made of manganese, calcium and oxygen (Mn4CaO5 s). "Calculations show, that the two structures differ only by one bond, that swaps between the central oxygen and the two terminal manganese atoms," states Pantazis. This small change has a huge impact on the electronic structure and thus the spectroscopic properties of the molecule. Both structures are almost equal in energy and the bond swapping can happen over a low energetic barrier. Crucially, the scientists at the MPI additionally proved using theoretical simulations that each of the two structures has a distinct spectroscopic signature and that these two signatures have a one-to-one correspondence with the experimentally observed spectroscopic signals.

The deep understanding of the OEC is fundamental in order to further elucidate nature?s mysteries on the oxidation of water, a reaction that plays an essential role for energy research, such as in artificial photosynthesis.

After these striking findings, research by Pantazis and his group is currently focused on identifying whether the oxygen atom swapping bonds with the manganese is one of the oxygen atoms released from the enzyme as molecular oxygen. The new findings will shed light on the kinetics and exchange of water molecules that take part in the reaction, paving the way for a detailed atomic-level understanding of the mechanism of water oxidation.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Max-Planck-Institut f?r Chemische Energiekonversion.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Dimitrios A. Pantazis, William Ames, Nicholas Cox, Wolfgang Lubitz, Frank Neese. Two Interconvertible Structures that Explain the Spectroscopic Properties of the Oxygen-Evolving Complex of Photosystem?II in the S2State. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2012; 51 (39): 9935 DOI: 10.1002/anie.201204705

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/GyVo-_1-bOc/121212092819.htm

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Pope Tweets: 'Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter...'

VATICAN CITY - The pope has tweeted.

In perhaps the most drawn out Twitter launch ever, Pope Benedict XVI pushed the button on a tablet brought to him at the end of his general audience Wednesday. It read: "Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart."

Later in the day he was to respond to a few messages sent to him from around the world.

As the countdown to his first tweet from his Twitter handle (at)Pontifex neared, the pope had garnered nearly 1 million followers in the eight languages of his account.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-tweets-dear-friends-am-pleased-touch-twitter-105817231.html

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Climate modelers predict warmer, wetter Northeast U.S. winters by 2070

Dec. 12, 2012 ? A new high-resolution climate study by University of Massachusetts Amherst climate scientists, the first to apply regional climate models to examine likely near-term changes in temperature and precipitation across the Northeast United States, suggests temperatures are going to be significantly warmer in all seasons in the next 30 years, especially in winter. Also, they project that winters will be wetter, with more rain likely than snow.

Writing in the current issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research, Michael Rawlins and Raymond Bradley of the Climate System Research Center at UMass Amherst, with Henry Diaz of NOAA's Climate Diagnostics Center, Boulder, Colo., provide the highest resolution climate projections to date for the Northeast from Pennsylvania to Maine for the period 2041 to 2070. The study used data from multiple climate model simulations run at greatly improved resolution.

Rawlins says, "One of the most important aspects of our study is that we can now examine in more detail what's likely to occur across the region with a grid size of approximately 31 x 31 miles (50 x 50 km). Previous studies used much more coarse-scale general circulation model data. This represents a significant step forward."

Bradley adds, "Regional climate models have been around for a while, but they have not been applied specifically to the Northeast region. At this point what we can provide are 'broad brush' estimates of how things will change over the next 30 to 50 years. People should not over-interpret these results. Further research is needed to scale these down to individual locations. But for natural resource conservation managers, water resource managers and others responsible for planning ahead, we expect our region-specific results will be helpful."

Overall, the researchers say the region is projected to warm by some 2 to 3 degrees C by mid century, with local changes approaching 3.5 degrees C in winter. Precipitation will go up as well, particularly in winter, but again not uniformly across the Northeast. The UMass Amherst climate scientists say confidence in the precipitation change projections for spring, summer and autumn is lower, given smaller changes relative to natural weather variability.

"The only clear signal of change for precipitation is noted in winter, which appears to be heading toward wetter conditions, consistent with current trends," Rawlins says. Winter precipitation is projected to rise significantly above natural weather variability, around 12 to 15 percent greater from southwest Pennsylvania to northern Maine, with the exception of coastal areas, where projected increases are lower.

"But we shouldn't expect more total seasonal snowfall," he adds. "Combined with the model-projected temperature trends, much of the increase will occur as rain. We're losing the snow season. It is contracting, with more rain in early and late winter."

For this study funded by NOAA, Rawlins and Bradley used available outputs from an ensemble of regional climate models (RCM) from the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program to look at potential changes in seasonal air temperature and precipitation between the present, (1971 to 2000), and a future period, (2041 to 2070) across the Northeast. They performed a rigorous evaluation of each model's ability to represent current climate by comparing its outputs to actual weather station data.

The projections assume that greenhouse gas emissions will continue to rise, increasing atmospheric CO2 from about 400 parts per million (ppm) today to between 500 and 600 ppm in 2070. Bradley and Rawlins acknowledge that this outlook represents the "most aggressive, most troubling higher emissions trajectory scenario" for CO2 levels, but they point out that so far there is little evidence that society will act to appreciably change the current rate of increase.

Each of the five RCMs were forced with data from two general circulation models (GCM), yielding nine GCM-RCM simulations. This provided a rich suite of data for climate change analysis, the scientists say. GCM forcings are applied at the boundaries of the North American region, with RCMs then taking over, resulting in much higher-resolution depictions of precipitation and air temperature than would have been possible using the GCMs alone.

Results show statistically significant increases in air temperature region-wide for every grid in each season, but the changes are not uniform. For example, the models collectively project air temperature changes in winter of more than 3 degrees C (5.5 degrees F) across northern Maine, all of New Hampshire, Vermont and the Adirondacks, representing about 50 percent of the Northeast region. In some local areas, the increase could be near 4 degrees C (7.2 degrees F).

By contrast, winter air temperatures increases in southwest Pennsylvania are projected to be lower, only about 2.4 degrees C. In summer, the pattern is reversed and the southwest quadrant of the northeast is projected to be warmer and the changes higher.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. M. A. Rawlins, R. S. Bradley, H. F. Diaz. Assessment of regional climate model simulation estimates over the northeast United States. Journal of Geophysical Research, 2012; 117 (D23) DOI: 10.1029/2012JD018137

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/U4t_8p0mZ40/121212111331.htm

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How technology can help with business presentations | Technology ...

Making an impression can make the difference between success and failure. The ability to present either a prospective business partner or investor with a document or product that is professionally designed and of the very highest quality will either seal the deal or do a lot of the hard work for you. So many times people go into business meetings in an attempt to seal investment or new business and leave empty handed with the quality of their presentation often to blame.

Presentation projector in a meetingWith new business proving to be vital for companies in order to continue trading and expanding, the time has come when only the best will do. After all, more and more people are looking to seal the same contracts as you are and if you can find a method of standing out from the crowd, aside from your professionalism, the quality of your pitch and a list of high-flying client case studies then you?ve got a foot in the door.

When it comes to making these presentations, the traditional methods of printing off a few pages using your office printer with branded pages and a slightly more fancy cover page are a thing of the past ? well, they are if you want to succeed. Nowadays it pays to invest in the very best technologies available, with firms such as Upper Case Design & Printing Cork offering to do all of your promotional work for you, so all you have to worry about is saying the right thing in the boardroom.

These services can be a huge weight off the mind of those going into the meeting, especially with so much on the line financially in difficult time for businesses of all sizes and all industries. If you can get someone to create high quality designs and marketing campaigns for you, like the graphics on your company website ? which is often the first port of call for a lot of business partners and clients who may be considering working with your firm ? or creating a DVD documenting some of your finest campaigns, even showing how you go about your business; then you?ve done a lot of the hard work in an exciting way that is likely to really engage with your VIP-audience, as that is how they should be viewed.

People looking to invest their time or money into your business want to be presented with professional-standard information and resources from professional people. You cannot take your business to the next level without going the extra mile yourselves and that involves investment in the latest technologies.

Times are changing and we are now in a world of tablet computers and DVDs as opposed to ring binders and cassettes and businesses need to adapt. A pitch cannot be won without making an impression and the best way to do this is to show that you?ve put the time, effort and money into acquiring the money or business of the people you?re meeting.

MattRawlings has written 5 article(s) for Technology Bloggers. Matt Rawlings is a UK-based writer with a real passion for all things gadget related. Whether it's a new laptop, the latest all-singing all-dancing smartphone or just an exciting upgrade, Matt's all over it!

Source: http://www.technologybloggers.org/media/how-technology-can-help-with-pitching-and-business-presentations/

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