How have modern conveniences changed business and leisure travel in 2019? What are the most desirable destinations? How do travelers prefer booking flights and hotels?

Anyone who searches for travel deals now is met with an onslaught of recommendations about where to visit, where to stay, and exactly what to do.

As the mobile experience becomes more personalized, it’s easier than ever to book exactly what you want. Travel research, however, shows travel agents are doing more than just surviving. The overall US travel agency market is projected to reach $127 billion by 2021, which is up from $112.8 billion in 2017.

Despite having access to their next vacation right from their pockets, it seems customers are still eager to pay someone to take care of all their needs.

Stevie-winner Northstar Travel Group, based in Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, is one of the leading B2B marketing solutions companies serving all segments of the travel industry. Despite the tech boom in travel, Northstar continues to flourish as a connector of buyers and sellers in global travel and hospitality products.

It’s All about Building Relationships

Northstar firmly believes in the importance of helping professionals in the travel industry meet face to face at exciting events. 

“We’re dedicated to connecting the next generation of travel buyers and sellers. We want to get to know each other through unique, collaborative content sessions; outdoor activities, such as hiking, biking, and yoga; and social events full of local flavor.”

That’s Victoria Halpin, a marketing associate at Northstar. She asserts that having everyone come together helps professionals gain insight on how the current generation will influence the future of the travel industry. Halpin says this is also a great way to help everyone build relationships for life.

Competitors, such as Questex, WATT, and Adara, also make an effort to include career-building programs and social activities during retreats, but Northstar likes to differentiate itself by providing additional value through data and benchmarks.

“In addition to over eighty-four face-to-face events in more than eleven countries related to retail travel, hospitality and hotel investment, corporate travel, travel technology, and sports travel, we also provide research and business intelligence to serve the fastest-growing segment of the travel industry: online travel distribution.”

All these efforts result in engaging more than 1.4 million monthly website visitors and over 2.7 million content customers. No other content and marketing services provider serving the travel and meetings industry approaches this scale, reach, or market share.

Although the industry is strong, several challenges still lie ahead.

Digital innovation continues to create entirely new opportunities for the market. Companies are competing for your dollars and offering alternative “off-the-beaten-path” experiences. Airbnb has become a popular way to stay in foreign countries because of the authentic cultural experiences afforded by staying with locals.

This is forcing travel brands to ramp up cost-cutting strategies and to devise more efficient ways of doing business in order to improve revenue and to sustain market leadership.

Time will tell how this evolving workforce will attract tomorrow’s talent and dollars, but Northstar and similar companies look poised to continue to refine business practices and to support their customers.

Northstar Travel Group won three Stevie® Awards at the 2019 American Business Awards®: a Gold Stevie in the Brand & Experiences - Launch Event category, a Bronze Stevie in the Brand & Experiences - Interactive Outdoor Event category, and another Bronze Stevie in the Corporate & Community - B2B Event category.

Interested in winning a Stevie Award in 2020?

Women from around the world gathered for a two-day women's conference in New York City

The second-annual Women|Future Conference wrapped last week at the Marriott Marquis in New York City and brought women professionals from various industries together for two days of structured networking, panels, and case studies before the 16th Annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business ceremony. 

Click here to view photos and find out what you missed at the 2019 Women|Future Conference.

“I wasn’t born with the gift of foresight but I would tell you that all of you are Futurists too. Each and everyone one of you try to predict the future, for your personal life and for your company strategy.” 

The conference kicked off with Keynote Address by Sheryl Connelly, Futurist at Ford Motor Company: Confessions of a Corporate Futurist: Coming Trends That Will Revolutionize Your Business. 

Sheryl shared her background, choosing a degree in finance to be financially secure when she really wanted to study art, then going on to law school and never ended up practicing law. She started at an entry level job at Ford, even with a law degree, and was able to work her way up to the unique job of “Futurist.” She then shared what insights made her career goals come true and how she is able to help Ford predict what trends are coming next, and how we can too.

See what WomenFuture Conference attendees took away from the conference.

This conference empowers you to be your best self, to be in a space with like minded individuals, and to discover best practices being used around the world for different, relevant topics. I would happily recommend this to any person wanting to improve themselves and learn in the process. - Jessica Ney, Income Access

Women in business are creating an extraordinary impact on the world and the Future Women conference is an incredible opportunity to meet leading-edge game-changers and to discover what you could be achieving in your own role. - Lauren Clemett - Audacious Agency 

“Be strategic. Lead easier. Because you’re always leading.”

One of the first panels on Day One was The Significance and Simplification of Being Strategic, moderated by Erin Joy, CEO of Black Dress Circle. The panelists included Debra Kunz, Founder of the Center for Deliberate Growth, Julie Ockerby, CEO of Meli Studio Australia, Chessa Eskandanian-Yee, CEO & Co-Founder of LeaderEQ, and Andrea Arco-Mastromichalis, CEO and Founder of Arco + Associates. Each speaker offered their approach to thinking more strategically in the workplace. Tips about prioritizing, anticipating problems, and simplifying the steps to get from point A to B were brought to light, which encouraged some thought-provoking questions at the end of the session.

“61% of women look at the gender diversity of a leadership team when deciding where to work.”

After a lunch break that featured tables for structured networking sessions with other goal-oriented professional women discussing issues in today’s business environment, the day continued with The Art of Inclusion: How to Craft Your Company’s Diversity Mosaic. Tara Wilson, SVP and General Manager of Income Access, A Paysafe Group, moderated the panel. Joining her were speakers Ashley Brundage, Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion at PNC, Tonia Morris, HR Executive of The Generational Connector, Ashira Prossack, Founder and CEO of The Generational Factor, and Vanessa Subramaniam, Manager of Sales and Support for TourRadar. Their session revolved around the comparisons between different generations in the workplace, the advantages of age diversity, and how to embrace diversity and develop a generational inclusive workforce.

“A paradox of opportunity & unintended consequences.”

Day one of the conference wrapped with the panel, How AI Is Transforming Industries, led by Brigitta Rubin, Chief Innovation Officer of Dragonfish, Inc. Attendees learned how AI will affect our everyday lives, the world of business, and job prospects. Speakers Jagathi Gururajan, Director of the Financial Services Advisory for PwC, Shimona Chadha, Associate Vice President of Marketing for HCL, and Louvere Walker-Hannon, Application Engineer for Mathworks, Inc. provided their expertise and advice regarding how marketers can unlock the potential of AI and adapt to discover new opportunities.

“When it comes to creating a future that’s gender-equal…there are things our society needs to do. There are things our country needs to do.”

The second day of sessions began with a morning Keynote by Selena Rezvani, Author of Pushback. In her talk, The Future of Work Is Female, she discussed creating a future that is gender equal. Attendees learned about the clues that reveal a company’s culture and how they could be proactive in advocating for a “women-forward culture.” Rezvani provided examples of gender bias within companies like Nike and suggested how women can strengthen their participation in decisions that affect them.

Rezvani’s Keynote was followed shortly by several breakout sessions, which covered topics such as The Power of Influence, Customer Experience, Building Communities, and Cross-Cultural Communication. 

“I wanted to help impact people’s lives the way mine was impacted.”

The conference concluded with a closing panel of three case studies conducted by Sherry Smith, VP, Media, Mobile & Marketing, of Clarity PR. Each case study featured a finalist from the 2019 Stevie Awards for Women in Business. The awards honoring women in the workplace was to be held later that evening. Finalists and speakers included Gail Becker, Founder and CEO of CAULIPOWER, Alex Coren, Co-Founder & CINO of Wambi, and Rosemary Lokhorst, Executive Director and Producer of The Digging Deep Project. Each of them gave attendees a microscopic view of how these women leaders started their companies and grew to influence the larger community.

The Women|Future Conference was a jam-packed two days of networking with incredible insight from just a fraction of leading women in the professional sphere. We look forward to an even bigger and more exciting event next year during the third annual conference, which will be held November 12-13, 2020 in Las Vegas presented in conjunction with the Stevie Awards for Women in Business. For more information visit www.womenfutureconference.com 

With every passing year, it seems more and more people spend an increasing amount of time staring at screens. From cell phones to tablets to smart watches, there’s no shortage of screened devices to amuse, to delight, and to distract people.

Given that, it would stand to reason that marketing agencies should ramp up their online campaigns. Find people where they live, right? According to the research, though, not necessarily.

Photo by Richard Clyborne of Music Strive

With instant access to a nearly unlimited amount of information and a glut of available content, one major sacrifice in the consuming population has been attention span. It’s harder than ever not only to grab but to maintain the interest of consumers. This makes it incredibly challenging for marketing agencies to devise ways to stand out. Enter the rise of live brand storytelling.

What Is Live Brand Storytelling?

Live brand storytelling is a marketing technique wherein a company crafts a compelling story related to its brand or product and then delivers that story via a live experiential event.

Because consumers aren’t distanced from the brand through a screen or a printed page, they are able to connect with that brand and to truly immerse in the crafted brand lifestyle. Depending on the event, consumers can learn about the brand or the company ethos through the senses, seeing, hearing, or even tasting the kinds of real-world experiences the brand wants to associate themselves.

Live Brand Storytelling—By the Numbers

For any sceptics who believe live brand storytelling is a fad or a trend, the numbers paint a very different picture. Event Marketer released a 2018 report stating 85 percent of consumers were likely to make a purchase from a brand after attending one of their live events, and an impressive 91 percent asserted they felt more favorably about the brand after engagement in a company-sponsored live experience.

It’s not just consumers who appreciate the tactic either. C-suite executives are fully on board as well. According to a Bizzabo report, 87 percent of C-level executives believe these kinds of live experiential marketing events will become increasingly important to their brands.

Why Is Live Brand Storytelling Effective Today?

The idea of conveying a brand’s message or promoting a product through storytelling is nothing new in the marketing world, but the increasing popularity of live brand storytelling speaks to the changing demographics and buying mentality of today’s consuming population.

“In recent years, we’ve seen the strategic relevance of live events increase dramatically. Marketers are reaping the rewards of engaging with their audiences in face-to-face environments,” says Scott Cullather, CEO of INVNT, a global live brand storytelling agency based in New York, New York, United States. “Marketers have also realized that Millennials and Gen Zs, who favor experiences over material objects, are gaining greater spending power as they enter the workforce and move their way up corporate ladders.”

For marketing agencies to continue to enjoy success, however, it’s important they think of live brand marketing not as the final solution to connecting with an audience but simply as the next step in an always-progressing chain of marketing evolution.

“The marketing industry is constantly changing, and we’ve found that truly integrated marketing campaigns are now key,” says Cullather. “We look to create holistic campaigns that encompass both live events and branded content and ensure a brand remains top of mind long after an event ends.”

INVNT recently won a Silver Stevie Awards at the 2019 Stevie Awards for Women in Business for Female Entrepreneur of the Year in the Business Services category (11 to 2,500 Employees) on behalf of Kristina McCoobery, Co-Founder and COO.

They also won two Gold Stevies at the 2019 American Business Awards: One for Company of the Year in the Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations category and one for Founding Team of the Year - Business Services Industries. Other awards include a Silver Stevie for Marketing or Advertising Agency of the Year in the Advertising, Marketing, and Public Relations category.

Interested in winning a Stevie Award in 2020?

World's Top Honors for Women Entrepreneurs, Executives, Employees, and the Organizations They Run Were Presented in New York

Shining a spotlight on women executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations run by women, winners in the 2019 Stevie® Awards for Women in Business were announced on Friday, November 15.

With more than 500 businesswomen and their guests in attendance, the awards were announced at a gala dinner at the New York Marriott Marquis. Nations represented at the event included Australia, Canada, Finland, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Switzerland, Singapore, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the U.S.A., among others.

The presentations were broadcast live worldwide. Photos from the event are available here.

More than 1,500 nominations from organizations and individuals around the world were submitted to the awards this year for consideration in categories including Entrepreneur of the Year, Executive of the Year, Most Innovative Company of the Year, and Startup of the Year, among others. More than 160 business professionals working in eight specialized judging committees determined the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners.

Grand Stevie Award trophies were presented to six organizations that submitted the best body of entries to the competition, in their own names or in the names of one or more clients. Winners were determined by the number of Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Awards won in the competition. The Grand Stevie Award winners are:

• The Audacious Agency, Coombabah, QLD, Australia (#1)
• Melissa Sones Consulting, New York, NY, U.S.A. (#2)
• DP DHL, worldwide (#3)
• WDS Marketing & Public Relations, Overland Parks, KS, U.S.A. (#4)
• Harman International, Stamford, CT, U.S.A. (#5 TIE)
• Jeunesse Global, Lake Mary, FL, U.S.A. (#5 TIE)

The 2019 Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners reflect a diverse group of large and small organizations from around the globe. Notable Gold Stevie Award winners in this year’s competition include:

• Berna Tan, COO, Arvato CRM Turkey, Istanbul, Turkey — Female Executive of the Year in Europe, the Middle East & Africa
• Brenda Dennis, Vice President, Cisco Systems, Inc., San Jose, CA, U.S.A.— Female Executive of the Year – Business Products – More Than 2,500 Employees
• Oanh Phuong, Regional Head of Customer Support, Asia Pacific and Japan, HP Inc., Singapore — Female Executive of the Year in Asia, Australia, or New Zealand
• Carolyn Tisch Blodgett, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Brand Marketing Peloton, New York, NY, U.S.A. — Most Innovative Woman of the Year – Technology
• Siti Choiriana, Consumer Service Director, PT. Telkom Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia — Female Executive of the Year – Consumer Services – More Than 2,500 Employees
• Sarah Konowal, Co-Founder and CEO, Ripshot Enterprises, Toronto, ON, Canada — Female Entrepreneur of the Year in Canada
• Ann DeAngelo, Associate Director, Women’s Business Development Center (WBDC), Fairway, KS, U.S.A. — Women Helping Women – Government or Non-Profit
• Ritu Narayan, Founder and CEO, Zum, Redwood City, CA, U.S.A. — Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Consumer Services – 11 to 2,500 Employees
• Rachael Ferguson, CEO/Podiatrist, Synxsole, Brisbane, QLD, Australia — Female Entrepreneur of the Year in Asia, Australia or New Zealand
• National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), Washington, D.C., U.S.A. — Event of the Year
• Solv by Concentrix, Belfast, United Kingdom — Best New Product or Service of the Year – Business Services; Most Innovative Company of the Year – More Than 10 Employees
• Thomson Reuters, New York, NY, U.S.A. — Communications or PR Campaign of the Year – Multicultural

Organizations that won more than one Gold Stevie Award include CAULIPOWER, Dubai Health Authority, Harman International, INKAS® Armored Vehicle Manufacturing, Jeunesse Global, LabTwin, Oceans 2 Earth Volunteers, Pennsylvania’s Department of Banking and Securities, Solv by Concentrix, The Audacious Agency, and Turkish Airlines.

HCL Technologies, the multinational information technology service and consulting company, sponsored awards in six Red Ladder Women in Technology categories. Among other notable Stevie winners in those categories are

• Jo Abernathy, Chief Information Officer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina — Leader in Operational Excellence
• Rachel Barber, SVP & CTO, Gaming and Lottery, IGT — Transformational Sourcing Relations Leader
• Kirsten Davies, SVP and Chief Information Security Advisor, Estee Lauder Companies Inc. — Leader in Operational Excellence
• Kimberly Green-Kerr, Senior Vice President, Sprint Business, Sprint — Leader in Transforming Customer Engagement
• Laura Miller, Chief Information Officer, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) — Leadership in NexGen Technology
• Shalaka Prabhune, Head of Corporate IT, TiVo — Digital Transformer of the Year
• Carol Rohl, Executive Director, Global Research IT, Merck & Co. Inc. — Excellence in Transforming Business

For a complete list of Stevie Award winners and more information, visit http://www.StevieAwards.com/Women.

The Stevie Awards staged the second edition of its Women|Future Conference in New York on November 14-15 in conjunction with the Stevie Awards for Women in Business. More than 150 women shared two days of programming highlighted by keynote speeches by Sheryl Connelly of the Ford Motor Company and Selena Rezvani of Be Leaderly.

Entries for the 2020 (17^th) edition of the awards will open in May. The 2020 awards ceremony will be at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada U.S.A. on Friday, November 13, with the Women|Future Conference sharing the same venue on November 12-13.

Entries for the 2020 edition of the Stevie Awards for Women in Business will open in May.

Nominations are open for honors to be presented in Las Vegas on February 28

Nominations for the 2020 (14^th annual) Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, considered the world’s top honors for customer service, business development, and sales professionals, will be accepted through January 9 at StevieAwards.com/Sales. Late fees will apply for nominations, but no entry fees or late fees will apply for nominations to a new category to recognize ethical sales practices, sponsored by Sales Partnerships.

The Sales Partnerships Award for Ethics in Sales will recognize outstanding examples of ethical sales practices since July 1, 2018. As in all other categories in the competition, nominees may submit a written essay or case study of up to 650 words describing their ethical sales practices and achievements or a video of up to five minutes in length, illustrating the same.

Sales Partnerships, Inc., which provides turnkey, outsourced selling solutions, is a sponsor of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service program for the fourth consecutive year. Founder and CEO Fred Kessler says, “The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service has grown to be the premier honor for sales professionals worldwide, and it’s proven to be an outstanding platform on which Sales Partnerships can interact with sales leaders in a wide variety of industries. When we were approached about sponsoring an award for ethics in sales, we immediately accepted. The Sales Partnerships’ Award for Ethics in Sales recognizes companies who, like us, understand that being the best performing sales force also means having an uncompromising focus on selling ethically.”

Interested in entering the 2020 Stevie Award for Sales & Customer Service?

Maggie Gallagher, president of the Stevie Awards, is looking forward to having the longtime Stevie Awards sponsor present this award. “We are thrilled that Sales Partnerships has decided to recognize those not only who succeed in sales at their organization, but who do so in a particularly ethical manner. The judges are eager to read through these Ethics in Sales nominations.”

Finalists in this and all other categories, based on the ratings of more than 150 professionals around the world in the judging process, will be announced on January 16. The Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award placements from among the finalists will be revealed at a gala event at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on Friday, February 28.

Complete details on the competition, including how to participate, are available at www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

Every new business or product is launched with the hope it will eventually become a big brand. However, getting the amount of reach and recall that goes into building a recognizable brand is no easy feat. Barring a few exceptions, most brands are built over several years of persistent marketing and strategic public relations (PR). However, many businesses are so busy building and perfecting their offerings that they forget to dedicate time to think about marketing and PR.

How PR Can Help Build a Strong Brand

Some businesses associate PR with crisis management, and they think it’s only to be called in when a company’s reputation is at stake. Crisis management, however, is just one of the many aspects of public relations. PR, when done well, can lay the foundation for a strong brand presence and can help grow the business.

PR firms and professionals today use an ever-evolving mix of tools and strategies. These include standard approaches such as press releases, conferences, and trade shows, as well as new-age tactics such as social media, influencer outreach, and disruptive technology. These firms also tend to have authentic relationships with the media, influencers, and other partners that might be valuable for businesses.

All these channels, though, are really just facilitators for PR. The true power of PR lies in its ability to build an impactful story around your brand.

“At its core, the art and essence of PR come down to one thing: storytelling,” writes Craig Cincotta, senior director of marketing communications at SAP, in an article on Entrepreneur. “Every brand, technology, product, and person has a story to tell. Whether you are a business of five people or a Fortune 50 company, you need to know how to tell your story the right way, at the right time, to the right people.”

All these channel capabilities and the ability to create authentic stories allow PR firms to help businesses launch, build, and maintain their brands. Also, public relations is often an immersive and time-consuming task that requires consistent efforts. Therefore, it makes sense for many companies to bring in people with PR experience to help with brand building instead of just winging it.

How to Choose a PR Agency for Your Business

If you have employees with great communication and people skills and who are knowledgeable about how PR works, you may choose to do PR in-house. However, if you don’t have the resources or time to spare and want to work with external PR firms or consultants, it pays to do your research and carefully consider who you want to work with After all, you’ll be handing over your brand and image for them to mold.

Here are some pointers as you begin your search:

Look for passion. The firm should be excited about what your business does and should be invested in your growth. Look at their past successes and clients. If they’ve helped other businesses like yours scale and improve reach, that’s a point in their favor. Some firms are specialized and cater to specific business categories. Look for those with experience in your field. Proven expertise and knowledge of the latest innovations or trends in PR are important as well. When you zero in on an agency, ask around. Consider testimonials that speak toward results as well as negative reviews.

ChicExecs, a full-service branding agency based in San Marcos, California, United States, checks all these boxes for their clients. Their team of over 50 people helps companies with PR, marketing, and retail strategy.

“We're not an agency that started just to do PR and marketing. We started because we have such a passion for our brands,” says Amber Masciorini, a senior PR account executive at ChicExecs.

Prior to starting ChicExecs, the founders built ChicBuds, a product line that made it to Target, Nordstrom, Bed Bath & Beyond, Neiman Marcus, and several other retailers. They were also featured on The Today Show, in People and InStyle, and other media outlets.

“As entrepreneurs themselves, the founders know how difficult it can be to start a product line and build it into a successful brand,” says Masciorini. “By garnering exposure in the biggest media publications and placements in major retailers, they had a bird’s-eye view of what it takes to appeal to buyers and the media. They then duplicated their recipe for success and created ChicExecs.”

ChicExecs recently won a Bronze Stevie Award in the Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories for Public Relations Agency of the Year at The 17th Annual American Business Awards®.

Interested in winning a Stevie Award in 2020?

One of the Internet’s initial promises was that it would finally democratize the world of commerce. Two decades later, however, there’s serious talk about whether web sellers like Amazon are monopolies. 

The web has certainly lowered barriers in one critical sense: a business no longer needs huge amounts of capital to open a storefront and to start reaching customers. Part of the reason the likes of Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba are dominating market share, though, is their sheer logistical superiority. There’s simply no way most small or even medium-size businesses can ship as quickly and cost effectively—or to as many countries—as their larger rivals.

A company with headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, United States, is hoping to bridge that divide. Launched in 2015, Stevie-winner Easyship offers a platform that helps small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) more efficiently meet their logistical needs.

“We believe any business, regardless of size, should be able to sell worldwide,” says Jacqueline Ostrov, head of growth at Easyship.

By integrating with the Easyship platform, e-commerce sites can offer a wider range of international shipping options to customers around the world, and because the rates couriers charge through Easyship are already negotiated, the firm says clients save an average of 40 percent off their shipping costs.

“We've saved our brands over one hundred thousand dollars each in shipping and fulfillment alone—all while expanding their networks and sharing really cool products around the world,” adds Ostrov.

The company also helps sellers manage international duties and taxes, which is a notoriously complex challenge for smaller ventures. Its platform calculates those charges automatically, meaning sellers don’t have to worry about their products encountering problems at customs or finding themselves having to pay unexpected costs.

“Merchants need to understand that the post-purchase experience is as meaningful as customer acquisition,” says Ostrov, whose company earned the 2019 Gold Stevie® in the transportation category of the Web Achievement Awards for the American Business Awards® . “With that in mind, Easyship not only cares but wants to make your customer experience both exceptional and easy.”

The “Aha” Moment

For a growing number of e-commerce sites, overseas sales are becoming a critical part of their growth strategies. According to a survey last year by the intelligence firm Digital Commerce 360, as many as 80 percent of respondents stated that cross-border e-commerce was “a critical source of our e-commerce growth in the future.”

Among this group is Satisfye, a small US-based company that makes accessories for the Nintendo Switch gaming system. Initially, the business only sold to two countries and used just two couriers to manage shipments.

Since making the transition to Easyship, Satisfye has expanded into more than eighty countries and now uses thirteen delivery services. In the process, it’s saved roughly $60,000 in fulfillment costs, according to Easyship.

The founders of Easyship, Tommaso Tamburnotti and Augustin Ceyrac, started their careers at the European e-commerce giant Lazada. As they worked to expand the site’s presence in places like North Africa and Southeast Asia, Ostrov says they quickly saw barriers that smaller firms had to face when looking to expand their businesses. She calls this an “aha” moment for the pair.

Over the next couple of years, Tamburnotti and Ceyrac set up a main office in Hong Kong and worked on developing a new platform and building international courier relationships. In that time, the customer base and physical presence of Easyship grew enormously. The company now has offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America, including its new headquarters that opened last year in Brooklyn, New York, United States.

The company also recently closed a $4 million round of funding in 2018. Cofounder Tamburnotti told TechCrunch that the financing would help Easyship develop its technology and build on its network of shipping and logistics partners.

“The future of e-commerce is the enablement of hyper-local, as well as global and domestic shipping experiences,” Tamburnotti said in a statement. “Our goal is to give merchants back the control of a complicated supply chain with the best product possible so they can enhance sales and purchaser experiences.”

Easyship recently won a Gold Stevie Award for Best Transportation Website in The 17th annual American Business Awards®.

Interested in winning a Stevie Award in 2020?

Top Sales Awards and Customer Service Awards Deadline November 13

The Stevie Awards, organizer of the world’s premier business awards programs, is accepting entries for the 2020 (14th annual) Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Entry kits and complete details on the competition are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

All customer service, contact center, business development and sales departments, teams and professionals worldwide are eligible to be nominated, in addition to new products and services and solution providers used by those professionals. The 2020 awards will recognize achievements since July 1, 2018.

The entry deadline is November 13, but late entries will be accepted through January 10, 2019 with payment of a late fee. Finalists will be announced in mid-January, and the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements revealed during a gala awards banquet on February 28 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Interested in entering the 2020 Stevie Award for Sales & Customer Service?

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service feature more than 150 sales awards, customer service awards, business development awards, new product awards and solution provider awards categories. Entrants may submit any number of nominations to any number of categories.

New categories for the 2020 competition include Sales Enablement Program of the Year, Sales Incentive Program of the Year, White Paper or Research Report of the Year, Customer Service Training Professional of the Year, Customer Service Training Team of the Year – External or Internal, Best Customer Engagement Initiative, and Customer Service Training or Coaching Program of the Year.

2020 will see the return of the People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Customer Service, a popular feature of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service in which the general public may vote for their favorite providers of customer service, from among all finalist nominations in the Customer Service Department of the Year categories.

Winners of the 2019 edition of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service included 1-800-Flowers.com, Bank of America, Birevim, BNY Mellon's Albridge, ClassicCars.com, Comcast, Dell Technologies, GoDaddy, HomeServe USA, SolarWinds, Southwest Airlines, Vivint Solar, VIZIO, Inc., and Wolters Kluwer's ELM Solutions.

The 2020 competition will be judged by more than 150 professionals around the world.

Is your organization interested in digital transformation? Using digital technologies to change traditional ways of doing business has been under way for years, but recently this wave of digital innovation has come to the fresh food supply chain and post-harvest technology.

The fresh food industry is currently in a state of dynamic fluctuation. Due to new competitive pressures, food safety issues, and changing customer demographics and buying preferences, Millennials are changing the way they purchase and consume food.

Online shopping is also changing grocery retailing, and the Amazon purchase of Whole Foods brought massive new competitive models into play. Naturally, this kind of increased competition among grocery retailers and food suppliers causes changes in business processes.

Zest Labs, a post-harvest agtech company with proven solutions for shelf life and freshness management, is one company responding to these industry changes. For instance, the company utilizes advanced software to reduce food waste in the supply chain by 50 percent or more. As its solution reduces waste and improves margins, the company believes it is well positioned to have a significant, positive impact.

No Wasted Opportunities

Food is something eminently relatable. Who doesn’t know what it’s like to buy produce, such as a clamshell of strawberries, take it home, and be disappointed when it spoils the next day?

This happens when an item runs out of shelf life; it spoils prematurely. Zest Labs prevents this by providing insights about the actual freshness of products.

“Food waste no longer needs to be a cost of doing business,” says Kevin Payne, vice-president of marketing at Zest Labs. “We can reduce food waste by more than half with advanced technologies and new approaches to solving food waste. This helps us feed more people and improve environmental sustainability.”

As Zest Labs illustrates, new software and hardware solutions can truly improve business practices and the products offered to customers. Depending on whom you ask, digital transformation can provide some of the following benefits:

• Improved supply chain visibility and traceability
• Reduced food waste and costs and increased profitability
• Enhanced food safety capabilities

At retail outlets, large percentages of fresh fruit is wasted. Most other industries would not tolerate this level of waste, yet this food waste problem persists, filling landfills, creating dissatisfied customers, and negatively impacting profit margins across the fresh food supply chain. With effective execution of digital transformation, however, these problems can be solved.

Another way to test if digital transformation data could benefit your cause is if that data would make it easier to record progress. Most companies have established patterns and cycles that, when everything goes right, work perfectly, but what happens when setbacks arise? Digital insights can reveal pain points so you can anticipate problems and situations can improve over time. Using the strategy put in place by Zest Labs, evaluate your goals to see if a similar approach would be applicable and beneficial to your business model.

Zest Labs recently won a Bronze Stevie Award in the Company/Organization Categories for Innovation of the Year - Business Product Industries in The 17th annual American Business Awards®.

Interested in winning a Stevie Award in 2020?

The Stevie Awards has issued a call for entries for the 2020 (7th annual) Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the only business awards program to recognize innovation in business throughout the entire Asia-Pacific region. 

The early-bird entry deadline is November 27. The final entry deadline is February 6, 2020, but late entries will be accepted through March 4 with the payment of a late fee. Complete entry details are available at http://Asia.StevieAwards.com.

The Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards are open to all organizations in 29 nations of the Asia-Pacific region: Large and small, for-profit and non-profit, public and private.

The awards focus on recognizing innovation in all its forms, wherever it is achieved in the workplace. Entries will be accepted in eight languages – Chinese, English, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Thai and Vietnamese - in the following awards category groups:

• Web Site, App, Annual Report & Other Publications, & Live Event Awards Categories
• Management Awards Categories
• Company / Organization Awards Categories
• Corporate Communications & Public Relations Awards Categories
• Customer Service Awards Categories
• Human Resources Awards Categories
• Marketing Awards Categories
• New Product & Product Management Awards Categories
• Technology Awards Categories

New awards categories introduced for 2020 include Video Awards Categories such as Award for Innovation in Branded Entertainment Videos, Award for Innovation in Cause-related Videos, Award for Innovation in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Videos, Award for Innovation in Lifestyle Videos and more.

Asia-Pacific Stevie Award winners will be announced on April 8. Winners will be celebrated and presented their awards during a gala banquet on May 29 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Scores of professionals from throughout the region will participate in the judging process to determine the Stevie winners.

Some of the Asia-Pacific region’s most innovative organizations have won Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards in the past five years including ABS-CBN Corporation, Cisco Systems, Delta Air Lines, Dentsu, DHL Express International (Thailand) Ltd., Freelancer.com, Globe Telecom, Hong Kong Tourism Board, KEB HANA Bank, KEPCO, KT, Maras Group, MSLGROUP China, Ooredoo, PT Petrokimia Gresik, Seoul Metropolitan Government, Singapore Power, Sony, Strategic Public Relations Group Limited, Telkom Indonesia, VNPT Vinaphone Corporation, Viettel, Xiaomi, and more.

The Stevie Award trophies, made by the company that makes the Emmy and other major international awards, are among the world's most coveted prizes. The name Stevie is taken from the name Stephen, which is derived from the Greek for "crowned."

Interested in receiving a 2020 Asia-Pacific Stevie Award?