The Guide to Speaking at Search & Social Conferences - Search ...

mike-grehan-avinash-kaushik-ses-new-york

Once you?ve attended a few search and social conferences, you may realize that you could do as well as ? if not better than ? some of the speakers on stage. Are you ready to make a name for yourself, standing up in front of a crowd of peers, illuminating their lives with your amazing insights?

Speaking at a search or social conference like SES brings with it a few perks.

Most (not all) conferences will give you a free conference pass as a speaker, which makes it much easier to get your boss to agree to let you leave the office for a week to go to locations including London, New York City, Toronto, San Francisco, Chicago, and Las Vegas.

Conferences are also a great lead generation opportunity for speakers from agencies and tools vendors. As a speaker, you'll have plenty of chances to swap contact information with interested attendees.

Additionally, networking and discussions that happen in the speaker room are both extremely worthwhile and valuable.

If you want to increase the odds of getting accepted to speak at search and social conferences, it will take some preparation. ??

Planning Your Conferences

ses-speaker-deadlinesYou want to start thinking about what conference(s) you want to pitch to fairly early. Some conferences have a 3-4 month lead time for speaker pitches, which may mean that you?ll miss your opportunity if you aren't extremely proactive. There?s a fairly comprehensive list of 2013?search and social events available here.

Think about the topic(s) that you?re able to speak on knowledgeably, and that your company will allow you to talk about. Look for conferences that align with those topics by looking at the agenda for previous events.?While prior events may not necessarily have had a session on that exact topic, when you make your pitch many conferences will add in new or consolidate new with existing sessions in order to keep the content fresh and up to date.

The Speaking Pitch

Here?s where you?re going to be marketing both yourself and what you bring to the table.

Typically you?ll be asked to either name the session you want to speak on and then write a couple of paragraphs giving an overview of what you?re going to be talking about. This is where you want to outline what conference attendees will take away from your presentation.

Detail what kind of insights you?ll be providing in your presentation. If you can speak about a case study that highlights the points you?ll be making, that?s even better.

On the topic of case studies, ideally it should be one in which you were involved, rather than one that?s been done to death at other conferences. While ?United Breaks Guitars? was a great example of a viral video helping to break through a customer service nightmare, you can bet that most of the attendees are extremely familiar with it, and have been since 2009, so that?s not going to help your cause.

The other part of the speaker pitch is your bio. This tells the conference organizers (and, should you be accepted, the attendees) about your experience.

Don?t try to oversell yourself here, unless your official company title is Guru, Swami or Expert ? don?t shoehorn those or similar words in.

Be honest about your background. Talk about some of your highlights.

Don't work for a big company? Honestly, this isn't a big deal. Many conferences recognize that their attendees want to see people who are in similar situations, so they can relate more easily.

When I first started speaking I was working for a small agency with four other people. Sure, now I get some speaking gigs because of where I work, but you'll see a good mix of speaker companies.?

Pre-Conference Prep

Congratulations, you?ve been accepted to speak at the conference. So what now?

You should get an email from the conference giving you all the details about your session (e.g., timings, fellow speakers, moderator, equipment), about the conference (e.g., dress code, expected level of attendees, and other event logistics), and most likely some badges to display on your blog or website.

Also, your moderator will typically?schedule a call a couple of weeks before the event to introduce the panel to each other and make sure that there?s no duplication of content across the various presentations. If you can have a draft of your presentation ready before the call, that will really help the moderator and other presenters to align the overall content of the panel.?Be prepared to accept some changes to what you?re asked to speak on based on the content that other presenters have proposed.

Speaking order will also be arranged during the call with you moderator. Typically, speaking order is based on the content in the various presentations.

Preparing Your Presentation

enterprise-level-seo-preso-simon-heseltineOnce you have your deck ready you need to run through it a couple of times. Make sure that when you run through it you?re within a minute or so under the max time that you?re given to speak, as you don?t want to run the risk of the ignominy of being hooked by a moderator. It?s poor form to take time from either your fellow panelists or the Q&A portion of the session.

You also want to make sure that your presentation flows from one idea to the next, and that you?re both familiar and comfortable with what you?re going to say.

You don?t need to plan every word and gesture ? you can, and will, vary what you?re going to say ?but you need to make sure you stay on track as much as possible. Any little diversions can be directed back so as not to leave you floundering when attempting to get to the next topic.

While most conferences will limit you to a single slide on you or your company, make sure to include your Twitter handle on each slide. This will allow your audience to connect with you, and to ask any follow up questions.

Many conferences require that you submit your presentation electronically a week or so in advance. This doesn?t mean that you can?t make changes, should it need further refining, or should some new data or news become available that would be of value to the audience. Whether you change it or not, take a copy of your presentation on a thumb drive just in case it didn?t make it to the presentation laptop (which has been known to happen).

Speaking Prep

If you haven't done much public speaking before, you may feel some trepidation about getting on a stage in front of 30+ people. Nerves are natural, and can be overcome through experience and confidence.

The best way to gain confidence is with practice. Try speaking in front of smaller groups that can offer you help and suggest improvements. This can be done by presenting to your co-workers, to a local meet-up group, or by joining a local Toastmasters group.

Above all you need to remember that attendees have paid to listen to you speak, they?re there to hear what you have to say. You aren't doing an open mic at the local comedy club where you stand a good chance of being heckled if you don?t start out strong.

If you stumble you can collect yourself. A good moderator will step in and help you with a relevant anecdote or affirmation if needed, and allow you to compose yourself and continue.

Speaking

speaking-at-ses-london-2012

Make sure to show up at least 15 minutes before you?re scheduled to speak. Check that your presentation is on the machine and is the latest version (if not, whip out your thumb drive).?Make sure that any videos or audio you have work correctly, then head to the rest room as unlike the attendees you?re not able to leave the room should nature demand so.

Listen to your fellow presenters speak. They may say something that you can tie into your presentation, or during the audience question-and-answer period.

When it?s your turn to speak, your moderator should have your presentation queued up, you?ll be introduced.

Take a deep breath and go speak.

Try not to rush through your presentation. Make eye contact with the audience (not with one person throughout, but for perhaps 5 seconds at a time with individuals).

Enjoy yourself. Remember, you know your topic. You?re there to impart your knowledge.

If you make a mistake, don?t panic. Take another breath and get back to where you need to be. If something goes wrong, make light of it and carry on.

Q&A

audience-question-ses-new-york

Once the panel is done you?ve most likely got a question and answer component (not all conferences do this, but you?ll know beforehand). Typical questions will be about issues raised during the presentations, or about something of interest to an audience member.

Your moderator should give each of you an opportunity to make your points and further share your thoughts with the audience.

One important point here: if you don?t know an answer to a question, it?s perfectly acceptable to sat that. Don?t try and bluff, because if someone calls you out on it, you'll instantly lose the credibility you?ve just built up over the rest of the session.

After Speaking

As soon as the session?s over, check Twitter and respond to those who have tweeted at you. Thank those that offered praise or tweeted about the session, correct any erroneous data that may have been tweeted, and answer any of those follow up questions.

Many conferences provide aggregated feedback from the attendees, either giving you a grade or comments or both. Take whatever feedback you get as an opportunity for improvement, and build upon that for the next conference you speak at.

Image Credit: SESConferenceSeries/Flickr?


SES London

2012 was a key year in Digital Marketing. How will 2013 compare? Find out in London.

Feb 18-21, 2013: The brightest and most insightful marketing minds in the industry will be gathering at SES London. Register today.

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Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2234851/The-Guide-to-Speaking-at-Search-Social-Conferences

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Moore County Parks and Recreation Softball | SandhillsKids.com

Youth Softball

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Leagues start at age 5 and run through age 15.

?


?

9-15 Softball

9-10, 11-12, and 13-15 Softball
Registration Deadline: Friday, February 22nd, 2013
Games start first week of April

Age cut off date for ages 9-15 Softball is January 1st, 2012!

Cost:
$30 ? Ages 9-15

$10 late registration fee will be added after deadline
if space is available

All games will be played at Hillcrest Park!

Register now

(Click here for 9-15 Yr Old Softball Registration Form!)


5-6 T-Ball (Co-Ed) and

7-8 Coach Pitch Softball

Registration Deadline: Friday, May 3rd, 2013

Games start mid-June

**This year the 7-8 year old league will

be a Coach Pitch league and not Machine Pitch.**

Age Determined as of May 1st 2013 for 5-6 T-Ball

Age Determined as of January 1st 2013 for 7-8 Coach Pitch Softball

Games start mid-June

Cost:

$20 ? ages 5-8
$10 late registration fee will be added after deadline
if space is available


For more information call Moore County Parks and Recreation at

(910) 947-2504!

Source: http://www.sandhillskids.com/2013/01/moore-county-parks-and-recreation-softball/

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Wealth gap, debt top risks ahead of Davos

LONDON (Reuters) - Fragile economies and extreme weather have combined to crank up the global risk dial in the past year, creating an increasingly dangerous mix, according to the World Economic Forum.

Despite Europe's avoidance of a euro break-up in 2012 and the United States stepping back from its fiscal cliff, business leaders and academics fear politicians are failing to address fundamental problems.

That is the conclusion of the group's Global Risks 2013 report, which surveyed more than 1,000 experts and industry bosses and found they were slightly more pessimistic about the outlook for the decade ahead than a year ago.

"It reflects a loss of confidence in leadership from governments," said Lee Howell, the WEF managing director responsible for the report.

Severe wealth gaps and unsustainable government finances were seen as the biggest economic threats facing the world, as they were last January. There was also a marked increase in focus on the dangers posed by severe weather.

The 80-page analysis of 50 risks for the next 10 years comes ahead of the World Economic Forum's (WEF) annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort of Davos from January 23 to 27, where the rich and powerful will ponder the planet's future.

Bringing together business leaders, politicians and central bankers, Davos has come to symbolize the modern globalised world dominated by successful multinational corporations.

Chief executives arriving on their private jets may still ooze confidence but "Davos man" - and most delegates are male - has plenty to worry about these days.

"Most of the risks have gone in the wrong direction in the past year," Howell told reporters on Tuesday.

On the economic front, eurozone instability will continue to shape global prospects in the coming years and the "associated risk of systemic financial failure, although limited, cannot be completely discarded," the report said.

SUPERSTORM SANDY

Concerns about rising greenhouse gas emissions have grown notably in the past 12 months. The issue is ranked as the third biggest worry overall, while failure to adapt to climate change is viewed as the biggest single environmental hazard.

Superstorm Sandy, which wreaked havoc on the U.S. east coast in October, was a wake-up call for many. But it was not an isolated event in a year that also saw droughts, floods and the Arctic sea ice melting to a record low level.

Extreme weather was on display again this week as Australia grappled with fires and heatwave conditions, while temperatures in China plunged to a 28-year low.

"Two storms - environmental and economic - are on a collision course," said John Drzik, chief executive of Oliver Wyman, a unit of insurance broker Marsh & McLennan .

"If we don't allocate the resources needed to mitigate the rising risk from severe weather events, global prosperity for future generations could be threatened."

This year's Davos meeting takes as its theme "resilient dynamism", in recognition of the need for governments and businesses to develop strategies to ensure critical systems continue to function in the face of such threats.

Outside the interlinked areas of the environment and the economy, the WEF identified other dangers, including increasing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics and the danger of "digital wildfires" created by the rapid spread of misinformation online.

More outlandish risks, dubbed "X-Factors," include the rogue deployment of geo-engineering to counter climate change, for example by injecting particles into the stratosphere, or the discovery of alien life, which would challenge many assumptions underpinning religion.

(Editing by Jason Neely)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/davos-man-fears-more-storms-both-real-economic-125219534--sector.html

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Muti to miss Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts

(AP) ? The Chicago Symphony Orchestra says music director Riccardo Muti (MOOT' ee) will miss three concerts and a student engagement because of flu-like symptoms.

The symphony said Wednesday that Muti has withdrawn from concerts on Jan. 17, 18 and 19. He will be replaced by guest conductor Edo de Waart.

The 71-year-old also will not attend a Monday rehearsal of the Festival Orchestra, which includes Chicago-area high school students and members of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra will replace him at the event.

This is the second time Muti has missed symphony performances. In February 2011, he was hospitalized in Chicago after fainting during a rehearsal and suffering jaw and facial fractures.

___

Online:

Chicago Symphony Orchestra: http://www.cso.org

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-01-09-Chicago%20Symphony-Muti/id-9dd64f735b224d3a92ce885cf51478f4

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Twilight finale leads Razzies worst-of 2012 nominations

The nominees for Worst Achievements in Film for 2012 were revealed on January 9th, 2013. Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 leads the "race" with 10 nominations. Also competing for worst picture of the year are Battleship, Oogieloves, That's My Boy and A Thousand Words.

For nine of this year's 10 Razzie categories, contenders were selected by Golden Raspberry Award Foundation members. Nominations for the 10th category, Worst Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel, were determined by votes from over 48,000 users at Rotten Tomatoes. "Winners" in all categories will be announced the night before the Oscars.

Worst Picture

Battleship
Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure
That's My Boy!
A Thousand Words
Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2

Worst Actress

Katherine Heigl for One For The Money
Milla Jovovich for Resident Evil #5: Retribution
Tyler Perry (In Drag) for Madea's Witless Protection
Kristen Stewart for Snow White and The Huntsman & Twilight S.B.D. #2
Barbra Streisand for Guilt Trip

Worst Actor

Nicolas Cage for Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengeance & Seeking Justice
Eddie Murphy for A Thousand Words
Robert Pattinson for Twilight S.B.D. #2
Tyler Perry (Not in Drag) for Alex Cross & Tyler Perry's Good Deeds
Adam Sandler for That's My Boy!

Worst Supporting Actress

Jessica Biel for Playing For Keeps & Total Recall
Brooklyn Decker for Battleship & What To Expect When You're Expecting
Ashley Green for Twilight S.B.D. #2
Jennifer Lopez for What to Expect When You're Expecting
Rihanna for Battleship

Worst Supporting Actor

David Hasselhoff (as "Himself") for Pirannha 3-DD
Taylor Lautner for Twilight S.B.D. #2
Liam Neeson for Battleship & Wrath of the Titans
Nick Swardson for That's My Boy
Vanilla Ice (as "Himself") for That's My Boy

Worst Screen Ensemble

The Entire Cast of Battleship
The Entire Cast of Oogieloves inThe Big Balloon Adventure
The Entire Cast of That's My Boy
The Entire Cast of Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn, Part 2
The Entire Cast of Madea's Witless Protection

Worst Director

Sean Anders for That's My Boy
Peter Berg for Battleship
Bill Condon for Twilight S.B.D. #2
Tyler Perry for Good Deeds & Madea's Witless Protection
John Putch for ATLAS SHRUGGED: PART II

Worst Screen Couple

Any Combination of Two Cast Members from "Jersey Shore" for The Three Stooges
Mackenzie Foy (as "Little Renesmee") & Taylor Lautner for Twilight: S.B.D. #2
Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart for Twilight: S.B.D. #2
Tyler Perry & His Drag Get-Up for Tyler Perry's Madea's Witless Protection
Adam Sandler and either Leighton Meester, Andy Samberg or Susan Sarandon for That's My Boy

Worst Screenplay

Atlas Shrugged: Part II
Battleship
That's My Boy!
A Thousand Words
Twilight S.B.D. #2

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1926623/news/1926623/

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NASA telescopes see weather patterns in brown dwarf

Jan. 8, 2013 ? Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes have probed the stormy atmosphere of a brown dwarf, creating the most detailed "weather map" yet for this class of cool, star-like orbs. The forecast shows wind-driven, planet-sized clouds enshrouding these strange worlds.

Brown dwarfs form out of condensing gas, as stars do, but lack the mass to fuse hydrogen atoms and produce energy. Instead, these objects, which some call failed stars, are more similar to gas planets with their complex, varied atmospheres. The new research is a stepping-stone toward a better understanding not only of brown dwarfs, but also of the atmospheres of planets beyond our solar system.

"With Hubble and Spitzer, we were able to look at different atmospheric layers of a brown dwarf, similar to the way doctors use medical imaging techniques to study the different tissues in your body," said Daniel Apai, the principal investigator of the research at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who presented the results at the American Astronomical Society meeting Tuesday in Long Beach, Calif.

A study describing the results, led by Esther Buenzli, also of the University of Arizona, is published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The researchers turned Hubble and Spitzer simultaneously toward a brown dwarf with the long name of 2MASSJ22282889-431026. They found that its light varied in time, brightening and dimming about every 90 minutes as the body rotated. But more surprising, the team also found the timing of this change in brightness depended on whether they looked using different wavelengths of infrared light.

These variations are the result of different layers or patches of material swirling around the brown dwarf in windy storms as large as Earth itself. Spitzer and Hubble see different atmospheric layers because certain infrared wavelengths are blocked by vapors of water and methane high up, while other infrared wavelengths emerge from much deeper layers.

"Unlike the water clouds of Earth or the ammonia clouds of Jupiter, clouds on brown dwarfs are composed of hot grains of sand, liquid drops of iron, and other exotic compounds," said Mark Marley, research scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and co-author of the paper. "So this large atmospheric disturbance found by Spitzer and Hubble gives a new meaning to the concept of extreme weather."

Buenzli says this is the first time researchers can probe variability at several different altitudes at the same time in the atmosphere of a brown dwarf. "Although brown dwarfs are cool relative to other stars, they are actually hot by earthly standards. This particular object is about 1,100 to 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit (600 to 700 degrees Celsius)," Buenzli said.

"What we see here is evidence for massive, organized cloud systems, perhaps akin to giant versions of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter," said Adam Showman, a theorist at the University of Arizona involved in the research. "These out-of-sync light variations provide a fingerprint of how the brown dwarf's weather systems stack up vertically. The data suggest regions on the brown dwarf where the weather is cloudy and rich in silicate vapor deep in the atmosphere coincide with balmier, drier conditions at higher altitudes -- and vice versa."

Researchers plan to look at the atmospheres of dozens of additional nearby brown dwarfs using Spitzer and Hubble.

"From studies such as this we will learn much about this important class of objects, whose mass falls between that of stars and Jupiter-sized planets," said Glenn Wahlgren, Spitzer program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This technique will see extensive use when we are able to image individual exoplanets."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. For more information about Spitzer, visit http://spitzer.caltech.edu and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md., conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington. For more information about Hubble, visit http://www.hubblesite.org and http://www.nasa.gov/hubble .

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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/~3/dzZ8H8A-Po0/130108182603.htm

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James Holmes hearing: At last, a chance for victims to testify

A weeklong hearing into the shooting attack in Aurora, Colo., began Monday, offering a potential window into the mindset of the suspect, James Holmes, and a chance for victims to unburden themselves of testimony.

By Daniel B. Wood,?Staff writer / January 7, 2013

This courtroom sketch shows James Holmes being escorted by a deputy as he arrives at preliminary hearing in district court in Centennial, Colo., on Monday, Jan. 7.

Bill Robles/AP

Enlarge

The preliminary hearing into the shooting attack in Aurora, Colo., last summer that left 12 people dead and 58 wounded opened Monday, offering a week-long window into details of the mass shooting at a midnight screening of ?The Dark Knight Rises.?

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Most intriguingly, testimony at the hearing could shed light on the mindset of the alleged shooter, James Holmes, the former neuroscience graduate student whose hair was colored the same orange as that of the Batman movie villain the Joker.

Until now, most key documents in the case have been kept locked up, with very few released to the public, most heavily edited. Three days after the shooting on July 20 in the Denver suburb, District Judge William Sylvester ordered attorneys and investigators to refrain from speaking about the case publicly.

The purpose of the preliminary hearing in Centennial, Colo., is for Judge Sylvester to decide whether or not there is probable cause for a trial down the road. The hearing will feature testimony by witnesses who will be questioned by both the prosecution and defense. There will be no jury.

In the very first session Monday, a police officer, Jason Oviatt, described finding Mr. Holmes outside the theater in the moments after the shooting, saying the suspect was ?very relaxed,? without ?normal emotional responses to anything,? The New York Times reported.

But beyond making details of the attack public for the first time in the hearing, the procedure will serve several other functions, perhaps none more poignant than creating a potential emotional outlet for victims and their families who will have the chance to testify.

Doug Godfrey, professor of law from Chicago Kent, says he will be watching for how many eyewitnesses are put on the stand, as opposed to police. He says the amount of time given to the hearing ? five days, which is very rare ? is indicative of motivations that go beyond fact and legal findings.

?There has been a huge movement in criminal law toward giving victims a voice in what happens ? which provides both some solace and closure,? he says.?

The hearing could also allow prosecutors and defense lawyers to assess the other?s strengths and weaknesses, potentially providing the backdrop for Holmes to negotiate and accept a plea agreement before trial that could see him avoid the death penalty.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/kcH5xpe162E/James-Holmes-hearing-At-last-a-chance-for-victims-to-testify

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Samsung on track to become top home appliances maker

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co said it is on course to achieve its goal of becoming the world's top home appliances maker by 2015, with sales growing an estimated 50 percent by then.

Samsung Electronics, which makes more chips, flat-screens, handsets and TVs than any of its competitors - including the world's best-selling smartphone - is aiming to boost its home appliance segment and narrow the gap with companies including Whirlpool Corp and Electrolux AB.

"I'm confident of Samsung becoming the world's top appliances maker by 2015 with $18 billion sales, as we set up a very well structured framework for key products and moving step by step to the goal, first starting with fridges," Yoon Boo-keun, president of the division, told Reuters in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Monday.

Analysts estimate Samsung Electronics earned around 13 trillion won ($12 billion) last year from home appliances, part of the firm's consumer electronics arm.

Samsung Electronics would ditch unprofitable product lines and boost research into consumer tastes across different markets, Yoon said.

"It's a business that can ensure steady cash flow with little earnings fluctuation, once you have a proper system in place," Yoon said. "It's not dull at all and has great potential to become Samsung's next earnings driver."

MR TV AIMS FOR GROWTH

Yoon, who was head of Samsung's TV business until 2011, was put in charge of the thin-margin home appliance division a year ago with a mission to match the TV outfit's success.

Known as Mr. TV, he had a pivotal role in ending Japan's more than three decades of leadership in the global TV industry in 2006.

"We see lots of opportunities in the appliances segment but we didn't strongly grow the business - simply, it didn't get proper treatment," Yoon said after unveiling a new four-door Internet-connected fridge at the electronics show.

His remarks come only hours after Samsung Electronics said it likely earned a record quarterly operating profit of $8.3 billion, aided by roaring sales of smartphones.

Samsung's CE division is estimated to have earned around 13 trillion won ($12.22 billion) of revenue in the fourth quarter, or roughly a quarter of its total revenue.

TV sales generally account for around 70 percent of CE performance, and the rest comes from selling appliances such as fridges, ovens and laundry, according to analysts. Samsung does not provide breakdowns.

It's been a low-margin business compared with smartphones, which generate around 25 percent of margin, and the division's operating profit contribution is estimated at around 4 percent.

Yoon also said Samsung, the world's top maker of TVs, was aiming to sell 55 million flat-screen TVs this year, up from 51 million last year, even as the industry is set to remain stagnant due to the weak global economy.

Betting large TVs with over 65-inch screen sizes will lead the growth, Samsung Electronics unveiled three models of ultra high-definition (HD) TVs that boast four times better picture quality than full HD models.

ACQUISITIONS IN MEDICAL SECTOR

Yoon also heads Samsung's corporate design centre and oversees the medical equipment business, which was added to the consumer electronics division this year.

Samsung Electronics acquired a controlling stake in Korean ultrasound equipment firm Medison in 2010 and its affiliate later for around $300 million in total, its biggest ever acquisition in the healthcare industry.

Yoon expected sales from its medical devices would reach $500 million this year, up from $300 million last year, and will grow with the acquisition of companies that make MRI scanners and computed tomography machines.

Samsung Electronics has said it plans to spend 1.2 trillion won in the medical equipment business by 2020 to make it a $10 billion operation by then.

In the long run, Samsung Electronics aims to become a global healthcare leader, taking on GE, Philips, Hitachi, Toshiba and Siemens. ($1 = 1064.0000 Korean won)

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Stephen Coates and Ryan Woo)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/samsung-track-become-top-home-appliances-maker-043604344--finance.html

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Skip the subway, take a ski lift to work instead

7 hrs.

The future of mass transit will come with sweeping views, private cars, and schedule-free travel if a proposed gondola-based system takes off from sketchpads at a design firm, which stands a shot at occurring in fast-growing Texas.

Gondolas are enclosed cabins that dangle from moving wires. They are commonly used to transport skiers and snowboarders up mountains and tourists around amusement parks. Michael McDaniel and his colleagues at ?Frog, an international design firm, believe the ski lifts can improve transit in big cities.

?Just given that the technology was developed for traversing extremes in elevation, it actually makes itself very handy for navigating through the urban fabric,? McDaniel told NBC News.

Construction costs for gondolas range between $3 million and $12 million per mile compared to $35 million per mile for surface rail, $132 million per mile for elevated rail and $400 million per mile for subways, according to Frog?s calculations.

In addition, the cabins are always moving through the station. If passengers want a private car for themselves and their friends, they can wait a few seconds for an empty one. Gondolas also eliminate the need for riders to plan their day around a bus or train schedule.

?They are getting the same freedom that they would have with their own automobile but without the burden or complexity of having an automobile,? McDaniel said. A hub-and-spoke design would permit a main line to circle an urban core and shoot out individual lines to more distant neighborhoods.

He and colleague Jared Ficklin came up with the concept while looking at a century-old photograph of their office building in downtown Austin, Texas. Rail tracks crisscross the intersection in front of the building. Today, the city plans to re-lay tracks for an expanded light rail system.

The designers saw irony in the fact that the future of their city?s transportation was a recreation of what existed during their grandparents? childhood. There had to be a better way, they thought.?

Ficklin drew inspiration from his ski-bumming days in Colorado, where resorts such as Telluride now use chair lifts to move people around town in addition to up the slopes. Why not extend the concept to bigger cities?

To find out if the idea was feasible, the designers used it as a training exercise for junior designers at their firm. ?About halfway through the research, we started looking at what we were discovering and were like, ?Wow this actually seems kind of feasible,'?? McDaniel said.

He presented the concept, called the Wire, at a design conference in San Francisco in November 2012. An article about the presentation caught the eye of Alan McGraw, the mayor of Round Rock, Texas, an Austin suburb. He is on a transportation planning committee for the greater Austin area.

McGraw went to Frog?s offices and met with the designers. He was impressed with the presentation and drawings, which show, for example, transit stations located in the top floors of skyscrapers and parking garages.

What?s more, since most of the infrastructure is overhead, real estate costs and right-of-way issues are minimized. ?You are going over all of your problems, literally,? McGraw told NBC News.

McGraw, who is a skier himself, said he had often wondered why overhead ski-lift-like transportation systems were absent from cities.

?When I bring it up, people just laugh and then they just kind of move on,? McGraw said. Dig a little deeper, though, and ?it goes from giggles to 'Okay, why not?'?? he added.

Some potential marks against the concept include unknown operation and maintenance costs, which could eat up the savings gained from the lower construction costs.?

In addition, the fastest gondolas move no more than 15 miles per hour. That?s fine for dense urban cores in places such as New York City, but less than ideal for covering the wide open spaces of Texas.

?It is not the answer to all of the problems,? McGraw said, but a gondola system is a potential piece to the transportation puzzle and worth considering, which he and his committee have begun to do.?

?From communication to the automobile, we are innovating,? he said. ?We are trying to make things work better and more efficiently. Well, why aren?t we doing that with mass transportation as well??

John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/futureoftech/skip-subway-take-ski-lift-work-instead-1B7872322

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