Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010 - the halo

October 28th, 2009
opinion | I.B.

When an Olympics occurs its hosting city becomes the new “it” scene of the world. Like a celebrity, the chosen setting for the new international event becomes a melting pot of media, competitive interest and passion but with added economic flow on effects for the local community.

A post-Olympic game effect lasting between 5-10 years

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Web-trotters, the new tourists

October 28th, 2009
opinion | I.B.

International travel has never been cheaper and more accessible than it is today. In modern society, individuals trek backward and forward scaling every longitude and latitude to seek vastly different combinations of cultures, communities and lifestyles to their own, researching and organising their holidays based on the international reference and recommendation guide provided by the web.

understanding of our planet and fellow humans has been facilitated by the web, so more and more of us now leave the nest in search of adventure

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I Have a Blog. Who Cares?

August 5th, 2009
opinion | I.B.

Fifteen suggestions to help improve your engagement with readers.

The internet is a place full of niche markets where the volume of content and information is so immense and vast in its sources, opinions and accessibility that anybody from Joe Blow, his wife Jane Dow, their cattle and dog can contribute. To me I find that highly encouraging, that individuals everywhere are opening up, reaching out and trying to get heard. The sticking point is when everybody is at the same frequency and smack - your highly important message and communiqué is lost to your target market like an advertisement on TV. Your message fades as your readers close the browser and find something better. So how do you actually get people to stop and read what you want them to read?
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The Internet & Your Business

August 5th, 2009
opinion | I.B.

The Internet and Your Business, things to seriously consider…

You can’t stop what is here now and what is next. You are dealing with a new brand of consumer. They do not believe in tradition, establishment or principles. They thrive on expediency and they do not waste their time on websites that are difficult to navigate, look cheap, do not invite them to interact with your business or do not stay contemporary with the latest aesthetic communication tools and technologies.

The number of internet users grew 342.2% between 2000 and 2008 with 1.6 billion people accessing the World Wide Web. You can’t avoid the internet, it’s almost everywhere, even on the latest mobile phones and its only evolving. This is because the Internet is relatively cheap to access, efficient and provides users with immediate international access.

Today, business decisions are no longer reliant on traditional media like print publications, television or walk in. Now, over 83% of people research product evaluations and opinions  online before buying goods while 92.5% of adults said they regularly or occasionally research products online before buying them in a store (Opinion Research Corporation, an infoGROUP company, July 2008; BIGresearch, November 2008).
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