ExecMagazine

Last year I came across a new brand in the industry that really takes post it notes and desk cubes to a new level.  When most people look at corporate gifts as trinkets and trash, these treasures are a keeper.

This form of design is ideal for anyone with an artistic flair.  The multi color cubes start in the $16 range while it’s smaller companion shown below is a little closer to $7.  This piece comes with approximately 1000 sheets and if you do as few as 250 pieces, we can use your corporate colors.  Our design team can also help in designing your new creation.

For more infoormation on these products contact www.ProfessionalGifting.com

On May 1st, 2009, Adam Reinstrom was awarded the Principals Award at Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Indianapolis by Jeannine Vesper.  This award is given to both the boy and the girl students that most reflect the spirit of the school and overall good attitude.

Along with a plaque of recognition, Adam received a check from IHM payable to himself and Brebeuf Jesuit High School where Adam will be attending.

People continue to be at the core of many businesses. Your team must collect information, make decisions, and work together — so its often important to have meetings to get the work done’. But without careful planning, meetings can quickly become a waste of time, energy, and your best resources — your staff! The following tips can help to focus meetings and get better results at work.

1.     Write down the outcome. Write down the action or decision that needs to happen. Don’t ever plan a meeting without a written goal.
2.     Ask if a meeting is the best way. Once you have a written goal, it becomes easier to decide if a meeting is needed. Would a phone call work? How about an email? Don’t plan a meeting unless it is the best way to accomplish the goal
3.     Only invite the right people. Too many meetings waste the time and attention of people who don’t directly affect the outcome. Team bonding is important, but holding large meetings simply to promote the team’ is a waste of company time. Respect your fellow workers by freeing them from pointless meetings.
4.     Work from an agenda. Meetings should have a beginning and an end. Work from a focused agenda to make sure that the discussion that is taking place helps accomplish the outcomes you have determined. Don’t plan a meeting with multiple topics, instead have short focused meeting agendas.
5.     Stop run-away meetings. Every 5 minutes ask, “Are we getting closer to the outcome?” — If not, refocus the meeting and get back on topic. Once the outcome has been completed, end the meeting quickly. Don’t wait until the end to make a decision — a meeting ends as soon as the decision or outcome is reached.
6.     Create a parking lot for new ideas. Meetings can often open discussion on subjects that are off topic’ and not part of accomplishing the written outcome. Don’t dismiss these potential topics, but collect them in a physical notebook, list, or other document. Review this list once or twice a month to see if other topics require action or further discussion.
7.     Master the 26 minute meeting. Outlook will default to 1 hour meetings. With travel time and small talk, many work days become a string of endless meetings. Start scheduling smaller meeting that get to the point. Schedule phone meetings to save both time and fuel spent traveling.
8.     Meet with yourself. You may be the best person to accomplish an outcome or make a decision. Schedule time to accomplish your goals with undivided attention.

Author: Josh Brammer
Josh Brammer is Operations Director at SpinWeb. His background includes media design, video production, strategic planning, and organizational productivity. In his spare time, Josh enjoys his family, good films, reading, throwing a frisbee, and quad espresso macchiatos. Contact Josh at josh@spinweb.net or 866.SPINWEB x2200.

One of our sponsors, Professional Gifting, Inc. has been designing gift programs for corporations throughout the USA since 1992. There are a number of specialties they focus on.  these include:

• Administrative Professional Gifts
• Professional Gift Ideas
• Gifts for Medical Professional
• Novelty Corporate Gifts
• Corporate Food Gifts
• Green Corporate Gifts
• Corporate Holiday Gifts
• Corporate awards
• Promotional Giveaways

We recently did quality tests on a number of Blue Generation Shirts.  Blue Generation Clothing sells blank apparel that is designed to have logo’s emroidered or silk screened on them.  Their clain to fame is simply that they carry so many colors in sizes that go as high as 6X.

We tested Item number BG-8213 and the ladies coordinate BG-6213 in Kiwi and Red.  After 25 washes, they held the color extemly well.  While 2 shirts lost buttons, the overall durability was excellent.  The red shirt did bleed a little on to a white tee shirt that we included in the wash cycle.

We found prices across the board.  When asked how much would it be to buy 24 shirts, one supplier was as high as $37.99, plus an additional $7.99 for an embroidered logo.  Another vendor was offering them online for $21.65 with up to 6,000 stitches of embroidery, plue $125 for an embroidery tape.  When we asked our sponsor, Indianapolis supplier of embroidery and logo apparel, Professional Gifting for a price, they directed us to their special offer for a free tape and said they would do the order for $21 per shirt.

In general, the Blue Generation line can best be described as:

• Affordability, 10 out of 10
• Quality level, 8 out of 10
• Color Selection, 10 for 10
• Durability, 9 for 10

Their full line of products can be found at www.BlueGeneration.com.

When looking at holiday gifts, we always recommend using brand name product.  This gives your gift a higher perceived value when compared to standard, non branded goods.  

This item is has a balistic nylon cover with leatherette accents.  The interior offers a snap back ID carrier and an elastic holder for either a swiss army knife, a logo’d pen or a custom USB drive.  Also included is a 100 sheet Wenger Notebook Journal.  The item number for this product is 9355-06.  Setup charge for debossing is $62.50.  Contact Professional Gifting for special pricing of $18 each when ordering 48 pieces.  Be sure to use code # EXECSAB.

Skagen has long been known as one of the premier sources for very thin designer watches.  Since expanding their line in 2007, they are now offering a number of their items on close out.  This is the closest you will get to a Skagen wholesale price.  These discontinued items have all of the flash that Skagen is known for.  Realistically their close out prices are almost a third of their original retail price.  Many of the bags are from the Svendborg line.  If you have an interest in any of these close out items, please send your request to kr.promo@gmail.com.  Items are first come first serve and there are over 1200 available pieces as of this date.

Flash memory and USB drives are continuously making strides to carry more data.   The highlight piece that is taking advertising chanels by storm are the USB People.  These are Lego like creatures that can be customized to fit your target audience.  There are basically 3 different designs.  You can use the basic robot shape where the minimum order is 50 pieces.  The 1 GB drives are $15.50, plus a $50 setup charge.  The next step up are the professional designs.  These include a business man (not sure why a business woman was not included), a female nurse and a male doctor.  These require a 250 piece minimum and start at $19.75 each.  Last are the total custom designs.  You pick what kind of charactor you want and we will design it.  If you want to design your own, there is an online tool that can help you.

Another outstanding source we have found offers individualy personalized USB drives.  When ordering under 10 pieces, it is best to go straight to the source.  If you are doing more than 10 pieces and are looking for a better price, call our friends at www.ProfessionalGifting.com.  They also offer gift packaging as well.

Funnier even still are some of the weird gadgets that really don’t serve any purpose, other than entertainment.  Like the dog USB…  Clearly there are unique minds out there.

Here are a few additional creations ideas that have not been seen much yet. 

When looking for a new creative way to promote your business, let our friends at www.ProfessionalGifting.com bring life to your next promotion.

Lucious Newsome passed away on August 19th 2008.  Lucious life touched people throughout the country, but none more than Indianapolis.  While most people know his story about his move to Indianapolis, I would have to say that he has been the most influential catholic in Indianapolis.

In order to honor Lucious, please tell us your story and how he touched your life.

For those of you who don’t know what an osteopath is, in my own rough language, I would call it a cross between a Chropractor and a Massage Therapist.  Having participated in over 100 treatments from all 3 practices, by far I would have to say that a good Osteopath tops the others by a mile.  An Osteopath first takes the time to loosen up the tendons and muscles that tighten up around the affected area where Massage therapists just loosen muscles and Chiroprators just make abrupt adjustments.

I was particularly surprised at the experience I had today with Dr. Garren Gebhardt at Applied Osteopathy.  My journey started as I went on to the web under the search term “Indianapolis Osteopath”.  I did not use quotation marks in my search.  While I normally look at the un-paid, non sponsored ads first, I could not find anyone that really dominated this space, so I went to the paid advertisment and looked into his website.

Within an hour, Garren contacted me back personally and asked if I could come in today at 4:00.  Garren had mentioned that he was a transplant from Vermont and eager to find new clients.  I mentioned that 4 would not work and he offered me 2 additional times, and I quickly accepted an appointment 1 1/2 hours from his return call time. 

I arrived on time and Garren consulted and worked on me for about an hour and 15 minutes.  He clearly knew what he was doing and I walked out slightly sore, but knowing that my body was back in alignment.  Overall, Garrens approach to total body wellness was perfect for me.  His price was also right.  You can reach him at 317-750-6018.

In return for his great service I thought I would write this post for him.  I also wanted to see what kind of page rank I could generate.  Good luck Garren.