The A5 planner world has a new player for 2016 with the introduction of the completely customizable Simple Stories Carpe Diem planner.

Skirts, spanning casual to formal styles and materials like cotton, denim and silk, are a significant part of women's clothing export market. Notably, skirts saw an 8.47 per cent growth in 2022, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. The US and Germany are leading skirt import markets, with the US showing 18 per cent growth. Despite geopolitical and economic challenges in 2024, recovery is expected by 2025.

Chic Wings (BD) Lingerie Co Limited, a Singapore-China joint venture, will invest $18 million to set up a garment manufacturing plant in BEPZA Economic Zone, Chattogram. The company plans to produce 30 million garments annually and create 3,000 jobs. The agreement was signed on November 12, with BEPZA. BEPZA EZ hosts 36 companies with a total investment of $868.5 million.

Managing new entity and payer enrollment with payers can be a complex, time-consuming process for health care organizations. Whether launching a new practice, merging with another entity or expanding into new markets, the administrative burden of enrolling with insurance payers and Medicare/Medicaid is significant. From navigating payer-specific requirements to meeting tight deadlines, it’s easy for...

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Tax Manager Chrysa Cousley, CPA, has been named has been named the 2024 Outstanding Young Professional by the Missouri Society of Certified Public Accountants (MOCPA). The annual MOCPA Impact Award for Outstanding Young Professional honors one CPA under the age of 35 who serves as an emerging and dynamic leader in the profession. This recognition...

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To me, the gaming market is a lot like the EDC market: It's fascinating to see what developmental lengths people will go to, to push the UX of some object with highly specific functions. A case in point is this Elitech Protean Space Quick Control Swap Gaming System.

The idea behind it, is that gamers have multiple task-dependent UI's on their desks: A keyboard for typing, a joystick and throttle for playing flight simulators, a steering wheel and a shifter for driving games. For gaming accuracy these need to be mounted, and juggling the mounts is apparently a hassle. So what this design does is, provide a modular platform on which to securely attach different controllers.

The heart of the system is this keyboard base, with two wings.

The keyboard base slides rearwards, revealing aluminum channels.

The wing pieces can be slid towards each other along these channels, adjusted to your preferred width.

The "X" in the top of the wings is stainless steel. This allows you to attach magnetic controllers.

Furthermore, there are clamping attachments that allow you to attach a steering wheel and shifter.

Thus the gamer can quickly achieve the set-up that they want:

This isn't yet in production; the developer is planning a crowdfunding campaign.

Dorel Juvenile is the world's leading juvenile products company. When they wanted to develop a new infant car seat, they turned to Pennsylvania-based ID firm DesignThink.

DesignThink as the Innovation Incubator for the Ultra Lightweight Maxi Cosi Coral XP

A Cold January Day in 2017

The team at DesignThink was asked to visit Dorel Juvenile Group USA to review a "Special Project". The development team at Dorel JG wasted no time introducing us to their latest infant car seat (ICS) project. They were experimenting with the idea of developing a seat that would reduce the struggles parents faced when trying to transition their baby from the car and carry their baby in the removable seat portion of the ICS. The team at DesignThink has designed several car seats over the years and we instantly recognized the unique opportunity, as well as the challenge that this project offered, and were eager and excited to get started.

Our Role as the Innovation Incubator

We partnered with Dorel to act as the innovation incubator to lead the project team through the fuzzy front-end and define the product's overall features and characteristics of use. Upon successful concept definition, the project would be positioned under the Maxi Cosi brand and ultimately transferred to the Maxi Cosi team in Europe and a European design group to carry the innovation to production.

The Problem at Hand

By removing the seat from the base that is installed in the car, parents can take the baby with them while running errands or visiting people and places. However, a problem associated with this system is that some removable seats can weigh up to 16 lbs. and the baby can weigh up to 35 lbs. for a combined arm-crushing weight of 50+lbs.!!

We established two primary goals: 1) reduce the overall weight of the seat to lighten the load, while maintaining structural integrity as to achieve a top crash test rating, and 2) develop new methods that enable parents to more easily lift the seat when moving in and out of the vehicle and when transporting the child in the seat.

Our Approach (Decades of Experience and User Understanding Put to Test)

DesignThink is one of the leading firms in car seat development having brought several seats to the market and has a long history of creating break-through innovation, but this project pushed our team in new ways. The structure for the project utilized DesignThink's simplified "DEEP" process;

Define that for which we will solve

Express possible solutions as quick thumbnail stories

Explain the "what – why – wow" related to user needs

Prototype to demonstrate the merits of the idea

How the Project Unfolded

A series of innovation workshops were hosted at our studio to enable the team to think and problem solve with product at hand. The objective was to think in the "ideal" (do not worry about cost and construction initially) and to "fail fast" (explore, evaluate, and evolve). The following provided the high-level framework for how the team identified and pursued their ideas.

Established Design Targets

Led by our usability team, along with team members from Dorel, we hosted a several day innovation workshop at our studio. We began with a collaborative defining of the design targets based on use, expectations, pain points, and opportunities, which we affinitized and moved directly into physical prototyping to address and evaluate how well the concepts improved the user experience during day-to-day interactions.

DEEP: Innovation Workshops to prototype your idea. You are encouraged to be chaotic and messy! Fail fast! Dorel made sure plenty of product was on hand to fuel the innovation.

Inutitive Carry

Enhanced Confidence

Improved Transitions

Development of Design Targets

Role-Play is the Best Way

To truly understand and empathize with users, we role-played, exploring typical use-case scenarios to inform our ideation. Placing ourselves in the same situations helps us quickly evaluate and improve our concepts.

Handle-Carry:

Evolution for improved ease when attaching the seat to the base and removing the child from the vehicle

Cradle-Carry:

Exploration to improve how parents can bond with the baby in a more natural holding position

Cross-Body Strap:

Exploration to provide alternate ways to carry the baby while reducing the effects of weight and fatigue on the parent

Iterative User Evaluation Cycle

Our early thoughts and ideas were evaluated by the team and with parents in our research lab. These ideas were then refined to strengthen the evolving direction. The learnings obtained through this method enabled the team to focus on the most meaningful directions and build their value. Listening, understanding, and empathizing allowed our team to develop new ideas in this category that were previously unexplored.

DesignThink presents the refined design direction.

A series of prototypes and user evaluations enabled us to reach a stage of concept definition for an ultra lightweight car seat that provides parents with improved ways to carry, hold, and secure their baby.

Our Results

User-Centered Insights lead to Market Defining Solutions

Having developed many juvenile products such as car seats, strollers, and highchairs, DesignThink understands the day-to-day challenges parents face, both physically and emotionally. We embarked on this project with Dorel to define a new car seat with features that take into account those challenges and offer relevant and meaningful solutions. Exploring innovation that is rooted in user insights enabled our team to quickly define those solutions and overcome technical hurdles to deliver new experiences to address real problems faced by parents when using an ICS.

Defining the Direction

As mentioned, DesignThink was hired as the innovation incubator in the fuzzy front-end to develop and define a new architecture for this seat. Our work was documented and handed off to the Maxi-Cosi team in Europe. The output of our innovation incubation became the driving framework used by the teams in Europe to create a truly meaningful and relevant solution for parents in this category.

The DesignThink team is very proud to have been selected by Dorel to play such an important "behind the scenes" role in setting the direction for, and contributing to the success of, the Maxi Cosi Coral XP.

It takes a Village to Design a Car Seat

Snapshot of the iterative concept development that led to the final product

You can see more of DesignThink's work here.

I have no idea who the target market for these is. Chinese tool manufacturer Arrowmax sells these Black Golden Honeycomb tools: Drivers, Allen wrenches and reamers.

They're sold individually or in sets.

On the company's website, there are literally no product descriptions for any of the tools—no explanation of the handle design, nor even what any of the tools are made out of. The only thing I was able to learn about the tools, was in the company's thin bio: Apparently these were featured, somewhere in the background, in the Marvel movie "Ant Man & the Wasp." Of course they were.

The message from Autodesk and the many companies that presented and exhibited at Autodesk University (AU) last month in San Diego was clear: for the product design and manufacturing (D&M), architecture, engineering, construction and operations (AECO), and media and entertainment (M&E) industries, AI is a driving force behind productivity.

Autodesk University Mainstage

Data, data, data

AI-driven productivity is customized to the specific needs of each industry, with various generative and multimodal AI models providing solutions for tasks like workflow optimization, manufacturing quality assurance, regulatory compliance, and design visualization. However, the value of AI across these sectors—and beyond—is determined by the quantity and quality of data used.

Quantity matters because more data enables AI systems to learn and improve. Quality, however, is more complex. It requires obtaining relevant data, ensuring data accuracy, and verifying that data usage complies with ethical standards.

Dell demonstrated how their workstations can run generative AI 3D content with NVIDIA Edify trained on Shutterstock ethically sourced content.

Customers are key

The importance of AI and data was evident throughout AU, with presentations and product demonstrations highlighting customer-centric solutions. Hardware providers showcased high-performance workstations equipped with powerful processors, optimized to support AI workloads. Meanwhile, data and asset management providers emphasized AI’s capabilities in extracting valuable information, managing metadata, and monitoring workflows in real time.

Lenovo displayed next generation workstations designed with a customer-centric focus. Partnering with Intel®, NVIDIA and Aston Martin, they offer high-end graphics, memory and processing power.

Autodesk’s Design & Manufacturing team showcased how they are addressing their customers' needs by delivering AI-powered efficiencies through Fusion, a cloud-based, unified platform for design and manufacturing. They also introduced Project Bernini, a research initiative focused on a new approach to generative AI. Unlike many generative models that prioritize the appearance of 3D objects, Bernini emphasizes generating structural 3D data from the inside out, which aligns closely with real-world production needs.

Experimental research project Bernini model generates shape and texture separately and does not confuse or meld those variables.

AI provides a wide range of possibilities based on industry-specific needs. For entertainment and gaming, AI can generate lifelike product and character models, while in manufacturing and design, it lays the foundation for real-world production. With tools like Fusion and research projects like Bernini, Autodesk aims to empower creators and makers to leverage AI for both efficiency and innovation.

ITMA ASIA + CITME 2025, set for October in Singapore, has nearly sold out its 60,000 sqm exhibition space with strong interest from 731 global tech providers. The event, supported by CEMATEX and CTMA, will showcase innovations tailored for Asia’s growing textile hubs. Key sectors include finishing, spinning, and knitting, highlighting sustainable tech and automation trends.

APTEXPO 2024 has opened at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, gathering over 300 international delegates and exhibitors to discuss industry resilience and sustainability. The event spans three days, featuring keynote speakers, panels, and over 200 exhibitors. Focused sessions address global market trends, digitalisation, and cooperation to build a stronger Asia-Pacific textile network.

As the world begins to recover from 2020 and the economic detriment, what is next on the horizon? Download our recorded webinar discussing the current economic state and the positive uptick in the market. You’ll learn about: Economic impact on business post-pandemic Best practices for moving your business forward How to plan for the remaining fiscal year...

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Anders was named to St. Louis Small Business Monthly’s list of Best Accounting Firms for 2021. The Best Accounting Firms were nominated by St. Louis area businesses and voted to have the top accountants in St. Louis as part of Small Business Monthly’s Best in Business awards. The 2021 Best Accounting Firms will be recognized...

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Anders was recognized on Missouri Lawyers Media’s 2021 Reader Rankings list for Forensic Accounting Providers. As one of the top three firms honored on the list, Anders was nominated and selected by the readers of Missouri Lawyers Media in an annual ranking of top businesses and firms in the legal profession. The Anders Forensic and...

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For many business owners, obtaining a business valuation could be a new endeavor. Once you have made the determination that your business needs to be valued, it’s time to become more familiar with the business valuation process. As the first blog post in a series about the basics of business valuations, below we discuss the...

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Anders received a Marketing Achievement Award for best new website at the 2021 Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM) Summit. Anders won in the Website category which included website projects with budgets under and over $34,999. The nomination highlighted the firm’s newly redesigned website that launched in May of 2020. Anders worked with St. Louis web design...

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We all know that the past year has driven innovation throughout the economy. As business conditions shifted in early 2020, innovators across the globe were forced to use any means to keep their organization open. The digital transformation we have seen in our society over the past year is not going away anytime soon, so it’s important for leaders and visionaries...

The post 10 Ways to Automate Business Processes Using a Tool You Already Have: Microsoft Power Platform appeared first on Anders CPA.

Perhaps you’ve noticed how cottagecore has recently become one of the most popular interior design styles. Cottagecore is a design aesthetic that idealizes rural life. It includes homes decorated in earthy colors, nostalgic patterns, and wood tones, it’s a style that’s a nod to the English countryside. Cottagecore is also a lifestyle focused on simple…

The latest vital signs featuring the affects of exposure to electronic cigarette advertisements on middle and high school students in the United States during 2014.

The latest vital signs report detailing the affects of exposure to electronic cigarette advertisements on middle and high school students in the United States during 2014.

Report on the latest smoke-free laws that are affecting public places.

The latest data regarding how advertising expenditures have been spent on sporting events in the United States during 1992-2013.

Data regarding the disparities with tobacco-related cancer incidences and death from 2004 until 2013.

Information regarding Medicaid expansion for cessation coverage and the number of adult smokers enrolled.

Google's new Learn About tool offers an interactive approach to learning about topics, including heady questions like whether money buys happiness.

Cathie Wood's Ark Venture Fund aims to disrupt venture capital by granting retail investors access to high-growth startups, tripling assets to $70 million despite lagging S&P 500.

What if you could work on your computer, but your computer was on your face? I'm not convinced this is Apple Vision Pro's killer app.

NFSA brings restored classic Proof back to the big screen at MIFF

Peter FitzSimons to discuss race relations in Australia at the NFSA

Vietnam War classic The Odd Angry Shot digitally restored for Canberra premiere

With the increase of decentralized workplaces and remote and hybrid work models, SaaS has overtaken on-premises apps and become critical to any company's success

Creating a culture of knowledge sharing requires a shift in culture. This may sound like a daunting task, but it's doable if you approach it with incremental changes across the key areas of your business.

This innovative offering sets a new standard for secure digital storing, document preservation, and evidence archiving and management

The investment in Reality Defender demonstrates Accenture's strong commitment to helping clients confidently navigate the genAI driven threat landscape, mitigate financial fraud, and maintain the integrity of their digital communications

Features allow enterprises to gain insight from corporate data with graphical categorizations and support for Sharepoint and NAS Environments

Transcript Genius transforms the traditional, labor-intensive process of transcript analysis by reading and analyzing transcripts

AI-powered document SDKs, low-code solutions, and a workflow automation platform deliver the building blocks to accelerate digital transformation in modern businesses

As a platform designed for back-office operations, the Zone Data Platform surfaces meaningful insights specific to the user's industry for better, more informed decision-making

Workwear brand migrates more than 600 workloads from multiple legacy backup vendors to Rubrik Security Cloud

Qantm AI will incorporate SQream's offerings to streamline data analytics for complex insights across industries

University to use the Altair HyperWorks and Altair RapidMiner platforms in groundbreaking electric propulsion digital twin project

CCC is developing a beta version of a new Ringgold Service to help disambiguate and validate the identity of researchers

The Stravito enterprise insights platform has enabled Delta to democratize its insights and maximize its research potential, improving the flying experience for customers and employees alike

KnowledgeLake's solutions are designed to improve data accuracy, reduce operational costs, and enable faster decision-making, particularly within industries that handle large volumes of content, such as financial services, government, and healthcare.

There is undeniable potential in generative AI and large language models, but these tools alone come with significant gaps and challenges. AI often needs additional technologies to create guardrails around data security and response accuracy.

This latest release leverages technologies from OpenAI, Meta, and Google

Experts from Shelf, Coveo, and Progress Semaphore joined KMWorld's webinar, Unlocking the Power of RAG, to speak to the nuance of extracting value from RAG at scale while mitigating its complications

The FedRAMP designation sets Keeper apart from its competitors as the best-in-class zero-trust and zero-knowledge cybersecurity solution for government agencies

This integration centers on the strategic marketing opportunities associated with email signatures, enabling marketers to deliver personalized, data-driven communication that improves contact relationships and engagement

Versium's Dedupe allows users to compare data points across various fields