Press Releases & News

Chicago, Illinois January 3, 2009 — A new free booklet helps business owners navigate the often complex activity of choosing internet marketing services.  The “Consumer Awareness Guide to Buying Internet Sales and Marketing Services” written by internet marketing expert Raynay Valles is available at
www.fasttrackinternetmarketing.com/freeguide/

“The average business owner who has a website is needlessly wasting thousands of dollars on internet marketing ripoffs.  As a result, these companies make millions of dollars and mislead business owners to believe, ‘The Internet doesn’t work.’”

These controversial words come from one of the nation’s leading internet marketing experts and business advocates, Raynay Valles and address a growing problem as more businesses try to increase sales using internet
marketing.

Focusing on step-by-step solutions to the concerns of business owners, this guide covers:

-Why 99% of the internet marketing services used by most companies are a waste of time and money
-How to avoid traffic-building scams and rip-offs
-How most business owners are asking the wrong question about their website
-5 costly misconceptions about getting business from the web
-The 3 most effective ways to find your customers online
-7 questions you need to ask before buying any internet sales and marketing services

About Raynay Valles:

Internet marketing specialist and author Raynay Valles is president of Jawdrop, Inc. a Chicago online marketing consulting firm.  Her articles have appeared in numerous online magazines, newsletters and blogs.  She speaks
to local business groups on the subject of succeeding with  internet marketing.  Available for interviews, Raynay welcomes questions
from writers and business owners alike.

Contact:

Raynay Valles, President
Jawdrop, Inc.
773-539-9309
http://www.FastTrackInternetMarketing.com

The Learning and Skills Network (LSN) - an independent not-for-profit organisation committed to making a difference to education and training - has concluded a deal to distribute Echelon Learning’s series of nine, online, interactive, video-rich teacher training programmes throughout the UK. The programmes, initially developed for Westminster Kingsway College (WKC), highlight best practice in teaching and are particularly intended for those teaching in colleges of further education.

Designed to help all users develop planning and pedagogical skills, the Teaching Best Practice programmes are suitable for both new lecturers needing to acquire and develop new skills and for existing teachers as part of their continuous professional development (CPD) activities.

“The programmes, which use video to highlight examples of best practice in teaching and learning, focus on teaching skills and classroom management skills,” explained Echelon’s Hugh Garai, “As such, they are applicable to teachers of all academic disciplines.”

WKC commissioned the programmes following some feedback following an Ofsted inspection of the college. Peter Armah, WKC’s head of human resources and development, explained: “We decided to develop some programmes which outlined best practice around key topics such as ‘effective differentiation’, ‘managing classroom behaviour’, ‘managing punctuality and attendance’, ‘integrating key skills into the curriculum’, and ‘making effective use of information and learning technology (ILT)’.

“Making these learning materials available online meant that our staff were able to tap into them as and when they wished. Later, we augmented these online learning materials with workbooks.

“A key strategy was to train the College Advanced Practitioners on how to use the programme, enabling them to become a resource to deliver both individual and team training.”

Based at centres in Camden and Westminster, WKC has some 14,000 students and a teaching staff of 600. The college offers a wide range of further, adult and higher education programmes, available for people of all ages from 14 years upwards.

“Using actual classes with WKC teachers and students enabled us to communicate programme content clearly in a context familiar to users and helped us to spill the beans on the magic ingredients that really make a teaching session that has the ‘wow’ factor,” Armah continued. “The overall aim was to develop programmes that could address both generic and subject specific issues, which are easy to use, accessible from anywhere, and flexible.”

The programmes are suitable for team discussion, reflective practice, independent and active learning. They can be used for curriculum team meetings, college planning and development days, subject sector days, centre days and cross-college days and for one-to-one support.

“Ever since we introduced these programmes, we have received highly positive feedback from those who have been using them,” Armah continued.

“We realised that other colleges face similar issues to WKC and so could benefit from these types of programmes. From there, it was a short step to deciding to make these learning materials available to the whole further education sector,” he added.

According to Garai, Echelon completed the last of the nine programmes - each of which contains some ten modules - towards the end of 2008. Although the programmes were originally designed for WKC, other colleges – including a large college in the east of Scotland – have also been using them with great success.

Further details of these programmes are available from the LSN (tel: 0845 602 5668

email: askus@lsneducation.org.uk; web: http://www.lsneducation.org.uk) or from Hugh Garai at Echelon Learning on 020 8568 1500 or email hugh@echelonlearning.co.uk

For further information please contact

Media contact: Bob Little Tel + 44 (0)1727 860405; Email: bob.little@boblittlepr.com

Sales contact: Hugh Garai Tel + 44 (0)20 8568 1500; Email:

hugh@echelonlearning.co.uk

About the Learning and Skills Network

The Learning and Skills Network (LSN) is an independent, not-for-profit organisation committed to making a difference to learning and skills. LSN aims to do this by delivering quality improvement and staff development programmes that support specific government initiatives, through research, training and consultancy; and by supplying services directly to schools, colleges and training organisations. It provides services for:

• policy-makers
• organisations that fund, manage and provide education
• individual providers and practitioners

These services fall into three broad categories:

· Programmes – to support learning providers (leaders, managers, teachers and trainers), to meet the challenges they face as the sector develops. Funded by QIA, the DCSF and the Learning and Skills Council among others, each programme is designed to support a particular priority.

· Research – focusing on sector priorities, including planning and funding, widening participation, technology and learning, and major programme evaluation. Its research supports policy-makers at a national or regional level by providing evidence about what works, and aids practitioners by highlighting and disseminating good practice.

· Training and consultancy.

The Learning and Skills Network, Fifth Floor, Holborn Centre, 120 Holborn, London, EC1N 2AD (tel 0845 602 5668; email askus@lsneducation.org.uk;

web http://www.lsneducation.org.uk)

About Echelon Learning Ltd

Echelon is an organisation development consultancy with a 20-year track record of delivering targeted communication, training and performance support solutions that really make a difference to corporate, government and not-for-profit organisations and professional bodies.

The company helps its clients create and sustain improved operational performance by developing high levels of employee engagement and competence that leverage their ability to achieve outstanding results, particularly in times of change.

Echelon publishes a wide range of self-development solutions that support lifelong career development: www.learningmatters.com

Clients include:

Channel Tunnel Rail Link

London Overground Rail (LOROL)

Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply

Department of Work and Pensions

Festival Housing Association

NHS

Royal Town Planning Institute

T-Mobile

Vodafone

Festival Housing Group (FHG), the West Midlands-based housing association, has won a UK Housing Award – in the ‘Developing Skills and Capacity’ category – for helping selected Year 10 and 11 pupils at Droitwich Spa High School to develop skills, and gain nationally recognised qualifications in, property maintenance. Known as the ‘Skills for Life project’, it began as a management training opportunity for FHG staff but has gone on to create an imaginative link with Droitwich Spa High School which provides employment and training opportunities in property maintenance for Year 10 and 11 pupils at the school.

These students learn a range of property maintenance skills as part of their curriculum and their two year course includes one day a week working with FHG. Moreover, FHG has agreed to take on at least one of the current pupils as a full apprentice when he leaves school.

Guided by coach Nicole Wehden from the organisation development consultancy Echelon, FHG - which prides itself on ‘building successful communities’ across Herefordshire and Worcestershire – initially got the pupils to spend one day a week with FHG’s maintenance company. This not only provided them with the practical skills and experience in such things as plumbing and electrics but also enabled them to have those skills recognised via City & Guilds qualifications.

Clare Huyton, FHG’s executive director, said: “We are delighted to have this project recognised on a national stage.

“To win this award is not only a tribute to my colleagues at FHG but also to the pupils and staff at Droitwich Spa High School who have worked so hard to help make this project work. We look forward to continuing this success for many years to come.”

Subsequently, through links which Droitwich Spa High School has with a Kenyan school, workers from FHG’s maintenance company visited this school and not only built a classroom there but also trained pupils and teachers in maintenance of their school buildings. And now that the project is into its second year, FHG is building on its success by adding a partnership with another secondary school on the theme of community safety and work with several local primary schools.

“The aim of the project was to give four local youngsters, who had very little in terms of future prospects and motivation, a real start in life,” explained Kay Dovey, HR Director for Festival Housing. “After working on the project for a year, the project team worked with the local Droitwich Spa High School as well as Festival Housing management and staff to create a new experiential programme of work which could ultimately result in a Modern Apprenticeship for the students involved.”

The aim was also to provide a group of FHG employees with a unique learning and development experience to develop their management, leadership and communication skills. Consequently, the project team:

• Developed a clear business/project vision that meets customer and student needs as well as organisational objectives.
• Created a detailed strategy to realise the vision.
• Developed and worked effectively with Gantt charts that include clearly defined objectives and actions, milestones, roles and responsibilities, timescales, risk management, ongoing review and correction.
• Significantly enhanced time management skills.
• Developed confidence and capability in public speaking.
• Became adept at problem solving.
• Developed the capability to create a winning team that achieved peak performance.
• Developed highly effective delegation skills.
• Learned to deliver excellence in customer service.
• Although beginning with little confidence and limited capability, evolved into a team that delivered significantly beyond customer and organisational expectations and developed and belief and confidence that it could do anything.

The project was the brainchild of Echelon’s Jenny Hill and Nicole Wehden. Jenny Hill explained: “FHG was an early adopter of our Community Project Challenge (CPC) management training initiative.

“The initiative supports FHG’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals and helps its managers achieve a ‘Cert.M’ qualification. Participants use action learning methods to manage a ‘real time’ project.

“Support is provided via a programme coach and a bespoke project website, which includes a variety of online project management and knowledge tools. A personal learning log provides evidence for qualifications and continuous professional development (CPD).”

Nicole Wehden commented that the team has achieved some impressive results. She said: “When we first started working with the project team they were a group of enthusiastic individuals with limited management experience and hungry to learn.

“With guidance, they developed a vision, strategy and clear, comprehensive plans to achieve their goals. They implemented plans with real commitment and inspiration and learnt a host of management skills along the way, applying them all with panache.

“What they achieved as a result far exceeded anyone’s expectations and I am extremely proud of them - and they achieved all that while continuing to carry out their day jobs successfully!“

Linda Gittings, Training Officer at FHG, explained that one of the key benefits of this project for FHG is that: “We are developing an understanding and methodology for coaching at work and embedding learning into the organisation in practical and sustainable ways.

“It is helping improve individual and team effectiveness and aligning our outputs more closely to customer needs which, in turn, is improving customer satisfaction. Longer-term, CPC provides support succession planning by identifying relevant programme participants,” she said.

FHG’s Kay Dovey added: “The project has attracted a great deal of media interest resulting in a substantial amount of free PR for FHG, both locally and nationally.

“This has served to enhance the reputation of the organisation within the local community and across the housing association community. In addition, it raised the profile of FHG as a preferred local employer.

“One of our strategic objectives is to develop key strategic alliances across the community - in particular with schools in order to attract school leavers to the organisation. As a result of the project, Droitwich Spa High School has become a strong local partner of ours to pioneer highly innovative career initiatives for young people.

“The relationship has become so strong that FHG management have been invited to speak at major school events. In addition, management and project team members have been introduced, by the school, to local ‘movers and shakers’.

“In short, FHG’s overall local profile has been greatly enhanced as a result of the project – and, now, numerous local schools are anxious to get involved.”

“One unforeseen benefit of the project has been the impact on the staff involved in developing the youngsters, outside of the project team,” said Linda Gittings. “Workmen are learning and developing coaching, teaching and mentoring skills that have resulted in the youngsters becoming so motivated and enthusiastic that they have asked to work during school holidays, when they weren’t scheduled to do so.

“Moreover, the project has proved to be a highly effective form of recruitment, since it introduces FHG to four potential new workers each year.

“And the growth in confidence and capabilities of the eight project team members has become obvious for all to see,” she continued. “As a result of the project and the experience they have gained from it, the organisation now has eight individuals who have developed in many aspects – in terms of skills, experience and character - and are now considered to have serious management potential.”

-ENDS-

For further information please contact

Media contact: Bob Little Tel + 44 (0)1727 860405; Email: bob.little@boblittlepr.com

Sales contact: Jenny Hill Tel + 44 (0)20 8568 1500; Email: jenny@echelonlearning.co.uk

About Festival Hosing Group (FHG)

Festival Housing Group (FHG) is the leading provider of affordable housing and related services in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. It is focused on delivering high-quality, value for money homes and services that meet customer expectations. It was established on 31st March 2002, following the merger of the two well established, Worcestershire-based organisations: Partnership Housing Group and Spa Housing Group.

FHG, which has offices in Droitwich, Ledbury and Malvern, owns and manages 8,000 properties and provides a wide range of other housing, property and care services. It provides efficient and cost-effective services to a range of member organisations. The following organisations are part of Festival Housing Group:

· Festival Housing

· Elgar Housing Association

· Spa Housing Association

· Property Care Partnership

About Echelon CPC

Echelon CPC is a management development initiative delivering sustainable, results in areas of individual learning, teambuilding project management and community social responsibility.

Organisations commission this approach to learning when they need to develop leadership and management skills and deliver accredited programmes; improve project and team working; build teams and networks across the organisation; secure improved performance on delivering sustainable outcomes; enhance corporate social responsibility amongst managers.

Echelon facilitators train project leaders or participants to deliver a sustainable outcome for a local community by managing a time bound project lasting around three months to build partnerships, manage individual and team performance and deliver a sustainable solution.

They aim to establish and meet personal development needs aligned with organisational priorities; transfer and sustain learning to improve performance; publish and share best practice via a bespoke web site which acts as a development, communications and tracking hub (ideal for accredited programmes).

The site can contain online diagnostics for 360 degree review, learning preferences and work/life balance. It can also offer a library of performance support tools and checklists as well as trainers tools for action learning, PDP logs and validation and evaluation tools.

About Echelon Learning Ltd

Echelon is an organisation development consultancy with a 20-year track record of delivering targeted communication, training and performance support solutions that really make a difference to corporate, government and not-for-profit organisations and professional bodies.

The company helps its clients create and sustain improved operational performance by developing high levels of employee engagement and competence that leverage their ability to achieve outstanding results, particularly in times of change.

Echelon publishes a wide range of self-development solutions that support lifelong career development: www.learningmatters.com

Clients include:

Channel Tunnel Rail Link

London Overground Rail (LOROL)

Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply

Department of Work and Pensions

Festival Housing Association

NHS

Royal Town Planning Institute

T-Mobile

Vodafone

At this year’s Online Educa conference and exhibition, held in Berlin from 3^rd to 5^th December, Giunti Labs, a leading learning and mobile content management solution provider for the Educational sector, will be showcasing new developments in its Hive digital repository technology which was acquired by Giunti Labs in March 2008 from the Australian Stock Exchange quoted Harvestroad™ company.

In particular, it will be demonstrating the new HarvestRoad Hive online and mobile learning authoring plug-ins (Hive Packager™ and Hive Mobile™) as well as the new SOA architecture favouring state-of-the-art integration with Sakai and Moodle, the leading open source virtual learning platforms, using Hive’s advanced DR technology for managing, sharing and federating multi-channel learning contents across content providers and educational networks.

Michael Korcuska, Executive Director of the Sakai Foundation, an open source software project driven by a worldwide consortium of educational institutions, commercial organisations and individuals dedicated to providing course management, research collaboration and e-portfolio tools will be joining Giunti Labs’ exhibition booth at Online Educa Berlin on Thursday 4^th December, from 4:30pm to 7:00pm.

“The emergence of open source solutions, such as Sakai and Moodle, heralds a period of greater choice and flexibility,” said Fabrizio Cardinali, Giunti Labs’ CEO.

“HarvestRoad Hive is a content bridge solution – helping organisations to move their content safely from one learning management system to another while federating their content offerings and provisions into open digital marketplaces sharing both user generated and professional publishers’ materials. This not only allows organisations to protect their investment in content but also opens the way for greater choice and flexibility for managing learning and knowledge objects among the end user community, similarly to what the iTunes model has done for music.”

Digital repositories, such as HarvestRoad Hive, provide a centralised, co-ordinated and user-focused resource to serve the teaching, learning and research needs for organisations in all sectors of the economy. They bring together an organisation’s digital resources in a single, cohesive and accessible web-based environment that also provides access to external digital resources to further support the learning process.

Having a digital repository aims to accelerate the development and digital accessibility of unique interdisciplinary materials by creating an infrastructure that allows learners to bring together concepts, data, discoveries, ideas, interpretations and methods in powerful new ways.

According to, Andrea Gentili, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer for Giunti Labs: “A key ‘pain point’ facing the modern organisation is that it has a great deal of content but its staff spends a significant amount of its time to find this content when they need it.

“A recent study by Forrester Research shows that workers tend to spend between 25 per cent and 40 per cent of their typical working day trying to find existing content,” he said. “They then spend 70 per cent of the time left recreating the information that can’t be found.

“Organisations can easily develop ‘vertical’ silos of information which, by their very nature, make this information difficult for others to find.”

“In order to make this information available and accessible to all those within the organisation who need it – and, more importantly, all those who can benefit the organisation by having it - you need to store it in a single place but deliver it to multiple places. That is what a digital repository, such as HarvestRoad Hive, does.

“And, in learning terms, if you can’t even find the learning content you’re looking for, you can’t learn from it!” he pointed out.

“One way of overcoming this problem is to have a digital repository offering refined categorisation and search tools that help locate information quickly. Such a system would provide quantifiable savings in terms of time and resources – and that’s what HarvestRoad Hive does.”

“The system’s advanced copyright engine lets you record and track usage of copyright material and licences,” said John Rowling, Hive’s chief technical officer. “And it interfaces with other systems to provide a flexible hub for digital asset management, delivering content to a range of front-end delivery systems.”

It is in this way – as a ‘content bridge’ that Staffordshire University in the UK is using HarvestRoad Hive. Established in the early 1990s, Staffordshire University has some 16,000 students, based at two main campuses in Stoke-on-Trent and Stafford, as well as a co-funded University Centre in Lichfield.

The university provides courses at foundation, certificate, diploma, degree and postgraduate level in the arts, media and design; business and law; computing, engineering and technology; as well as health and sciences. It also runs a number of vocational courses, including a range of employer-backed foundation degrees, through its network of further education colleges throughout Staffordshire and Shropshire.

Recognising that geographical and time barriers can be a constraint to learning, the university continues to develop online courses for access at home and/or in the workplace.

Using HarvestRoad Hive, university staff can now share, re-use and repurpose their content. This avoids anyone having to ‘reinvent the wheel’, enabling the university’s investment in e-learning content – probably over a million pounds’ worth of effort - to be used more effectively.

“In addition, we can use HarvestRoad Hive to hold course-related information – for example, where a work-based mentor can go to a work-based support portal and get relevant resources,” said Professor Mark Stiles, Staffordshire University’s head of Learning Development and Innovation. “Thus, more than being used merely to develop course material, HarvestRoad Hive can support the entire learning experience.”

End

About Sakai

Sakai is an open source software project driven by a worldwide consortium of educational institutions, commercial organisations and individuals dedicated to providing course management, research collaboration and e-portfolio tools. The Sakai Project is supported by the Sakai Foundation, a non-profit organisation that is dedicated to coordinating activities around Sakai and the Sakai community to insure Sakai’s long-term viability.

For more information, please visit www.sakaiproject.org.

About Giunti Labs

Giunti Labs is a leading Online and Mobile Learning Content Management Solutions provider with global headquarters in Italy and offices in London (UK), Frankfurt (Germany), Lund (Sweden), Boston (US), as well as Sydney and Perth (Australia).

Giunti Labs provides a wide range of solutions, in response to any content, learning and knowledge management need, covering:

· 24/7 multi language learning content production
· LCMS and Digital Repository Platforms
· Delivery solutions for mobile & wireless
· Consulting and professional services

Giunti Labs is part of Giunti Group, a leading educational and cultural heritage publisher with roots back to 1841. Over the years Giunti has built a catalogue of huge dimensions (over 7.000 titles) and acquired new brands in Italy and worldwide.

In 2008, Giunti Labs acquired the HarvestRoad Hive digital repository system, which manages any form of content used in online learning, corporate training and knowledge management initiatives. HarvestRoad Hive can interface with practically any ERP, Learning or Course Management System and is already integrated with several commonly used course management systems, authoring and content assembly tools.

Further information from:

Minna Leikas, Giunti Labs, +39 3474435167, m.leikas@giuntilabs.com
Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405, bob.little@boblittlepr.com

Giunti Labs, a leading learning and mobile content management solution provider and bespoke content producer, is represented at no less than four of the presentations that form the Online Educa Berlin (OEB) conference - the largest global e-learning conference for the corporate, education and public service sectors – which takes place from 3^rd to 5^th December.

Within the OEB conference, Giunti Labs’ CEO, Fabrizio Cardinali, explores the theme of ‘building digital content repositories and marketplaces for the Knowledge Society’.

He explained: “Increasing globalisation is putting pressure on Educational Organisations to invest in better educational materials and in more effective ways to distribute and reuse educational materials, such as e-learning courseware, textbooks and ebooks.”

Cardinali believes that, in addition to the increased use of mobile and location-based content delivery and the need for personalised learning experiences, there is an emerging trend for informal access to learning via portals and software-as-a-service (SaaS) systems. This will generate new digital marketplaces for education, revolutionising the way we deal with learning resources online.

“It means that the learning content can be customised by the learner rather than the developer or producer,” said Cardinali. “Learners download and use the material or even use it ‘on the fly’ using new devices such as Apple’s iPod Touch or iPhone and Amazon’s Kindle.

“Today’s big challenge facing providers of academic as well as corporate learning materials is how to enrich existing packaging formats, for learning content publishing and distribution, such as SCORM or the new IMS Common Cartdridge formats, not via single, turnkey system but via an open architecture - especially adding web services protocols to content packages making the learning experience richer and more personalised,” he commented.

Giunti Labs’ Carin Martell joins Pascal Debordes of Cegos, the €194m, France-based e-learning content producer, to outline the results of Cegos’ 2007 cross-Europe learning survey. According to Debordes: “We found that the biggest budgets for corporate training occur in France but much of this money is spent on administration rather than on training.

“The UK spends about a third of French budgets on training but provides its workers with broader access to training materials – and appears to be better at evaluating the return on investment (ROI) from these. Forty seven per cent of surveyed companies in the UK are assessing ROI compared with only 26 per cent in France.

“Nonetheless, learners across Europe have the same expectations of e-learning materials – notably that they are user-friendly; have high quality content, design, graphics and interactivity, and contain ‘concrete’ examples and exercises,” he said.

In response to the survey’s findings, the Cegos Group has expanded its customised e-learning offer to include a range of off-the-shelf modules – in the process, joining forces with Giunti Labs. Cegos also relies on the Giunti Labs’ learn eXact learning content management system (LCMS) platform to customise modules according to specific customer demands – and, with this unique market offer, Cegos’ e-learning department is targeting sales of €25m in 2010.

Sophie Touzé, of France’s Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Lyon, along with Amiel Kaplan, of Giunti Labs, France, showcase content federation via Giunti Labs’ HarvestRoad Hive digital repository and WebTV.

“For many years, the Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Lyon has explored the use of new technologies in pedagogy,” said Touzé.

“We believe that new technologies offer a way to integrate the four concepts of good pedagogy: interactivity, autonomy, simulation and collaborative work,” she added. “Working with Moodle and HarvestRoad Hive has allowed us to make our learning resources available to, among others, three other national French institutes and the University of Montreal.

“Web TV, part of the Hive repository, is very attractive, offering to any teacher or student the possibility to search, find and watch a video created in their – or another - institute. The query, in this case, is only done from one access point - using OKI technology integrated in Hive,” she said.

Finally, Paul Landers of Ericsson, the world leader in telecommunications, outlines a case study of ‘mobile learning for Africa’. Ericsson is partnering with The Earth Institute, Millennium Promise and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in The Millennium Villages project, which is designed to bring mobile communication and the internet to some 400,000 people in ten African countries where the project is working.

The first mobile pilot in this project uses Giunti Labs’ technology to deliver just-in-time snippets of learning to train the aid and healthcare workers who help the mothers of newly born children in Rwanda.

Giunti Labs is a Silver sponsor of this year’s event. Please visit Giunti Labs at Foyer Potsdam, B61. For further details of OEB, visit http://www.online-educa.com/

In addition, Andrea Lorenzon, Giunti Labs’ chief solution architect, is speaking on ‘content production and content management for a new generation’ at the OEB Security & Defence Forum, on 3^rd December.

In his presentation, Lorenzon is discussing the challenges facing defence organisations which have to manage and deliver both learning content and technical publications in an integrated platform. In particular, Lorenzon examines the emerging technologies, tools, standards, processes and best practices required for building a tailored yet flexible learning platform for both content types.

About Giunti Labs

Giunti Labs is a leading Online and Mobile Learning Content Management Solutions provider with global headquarters in Italy and offices in London (UK), Frankfurt (Germany), Lund (Sweden), Boston (US), as well as Sydney and Perth (Australia).

Giunti Labs provides a wide range of solutions, in response to any content, learning and knowledge management need, covering:

· 24/7 multi language learning content production
· LCMS and Digital Repository Platforms
· Delivery solutions for mobile & wireless
· Consulting and professional services

Giunti Labs is part of Giunti Group, a leading educational and cultural heritage publisher with roots back to 1841. Over the years Giunti has built a catalogue of huge dimensions (over 7.000 titles) and acquired new brands in Italy and worldwide.

In 2008, Giunti Labs acquired the HarvestRoad Hive digital repository system, which manages any form of content used in online learning, corporate training and knowledge management initiatives. HarvestRoad Hive can interface with practically any ERP, Learning or Course Management System and is already integrated with several commonly used course management systems, authoring and content assembly tools.

Further information from:

Minna Leikas, Giunti Labs, +39 3474435167, m.leikas@giuntilabs.com
Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405, bob.little@boblittlepr.com

For the first time in the 21-year history of the eLearning Network (eLN), the UK’s foremost professional association of users and developers of all forms of e-learning, there has been competition for places on the committee, with 19 candidates standing for the 12 available places. According to the eLN’s chairman Clive Shepherd, who announced the results of the election, at the eLN meeting held in London at the end of November, the voting was close, with a single vote making the difference between being elected or not.

The eLN elected four new committee members for 2009. They are Carole Bower, SVP Learning, Edvantage Group; Fae Longman, IT Training Manager with CMS Cameron McKenna; Rob Hubbard, eLearning Architect at Learning Age Solutions, and Wendy Stubbs, Learning Innovations Consultant with British Airways.

Having announced the election results, Shepherd paid tribute to three long-serving members of the eLN committee who were stepping down in 2009: Geoff Berridge, of Parataxis; Howard Hills, of Howard Hills Associates, and Jan Seabrook, of Conation Technologies.

“While ours is a forward-looking organisation dealing with leading edge technology, we mustn’t forget our history and heritage,” commented Shepherd.

“Geoff Berridge joined the eLN committee in 2004 and served as the group’s treasurer for some three years,” Shepherd said. “Among his many professional accomplishments, he managed the financial marketing function for IBM in the late 1970s and early 1980s; helped to set up IBM Financial Services, and went on to manage the IBM Business School in the mid-1990s.

“Howard Hills is a busy consultant with operational experience in the Royal Navy and, later, as head of training at Lloyds TSB. Despite heavy demands on his time, he has – since November 2006 – devoted much of his time to the eLN where, among other things, he took the lead in refining and improving the criteria for judging the E-Learning Awards when these were in their infancy,” Shepherd continued.

“Jan Seabrook – renowned not just as an instructional designer but as a source of guidance to those entering the profession – has notched up almost a quarter of a century’s design experience. Since she joined the eLN committee in 2002, she has made a substantial contribution as co-ordinator of all the association’s ‘live’ events.”

The eight members of the eLN committee in 2008 who will continue to serve in 2009 are: Clive Shepherd (Fastrak Consulting); Mike Alcock (Atlantic Link); Viv Cole (Academy Internet); Neil Lasher (Trainer1); Claire Line (Lovells); Joe Quilter (PSP learnix); Barry Sampson (Web Based Thinking), and Seb Schmoller (Association for Learning Technology).

This year – 2008 – has not only seen unprecedented competition for places on the eLN’s steering committee but has also seen a remarkable rise in eLN membership levels from around 150 to over 1,000. The eLN enrolled its 1,000^th member - Monique Head, an American from Atlanta, Georgia, who is now living in Antibes in the South of France – in November.

Notes for Editors:

About the eLearning Network

The eLearning Network (eLN), which adopted this title in 2000, is the UK’s foremost professional association of users and developers of all forms of e-learning. It is a non-profit making body that exists to promote information and best practice among all those who are involved in the e-learning world, as well as act as a networking medium for its members.

For more information about the eLN and eLN events, call +44 (0)1273 561714 or visit www.elearningnetwork.org

Further information from:
Clive Shepherd, The eLearning Network, +44 (0)1273 561714
Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0) 1727 860405

The organisation development consultancy, Echelon, has announced a revised package of products and services to help its clients not only to take advantage of today’s difficult market conditions but also to develop stronger, healthier businesses with ‘engaged’ employees.

The move comes as part of a refined and refocused business vision and strategy introduced by Echelon’s recently appointed managing director, Alistair Morrison. Morrison explained: “These new products and services from Echelon are attracting a great deal of interest from our clients because, when times get tough, you need to get the most out of your workforce.

“Moreover, you have to make this sustainable – so that it will keep your business’ bottom line improving consistently.

“That means driving employee performance by building employee engagement,” he continued. “Motivation is temporary but engagement means that employees ‘buy in’ to the values and goals of the business and so will constantly and consistently ‘go the extra mile’ to make that business successful.”

Echelon’s new package of products and services is focused on internal communications and people development solutions that create sustainable performance improvements for clients. In particular, the new package covers such areas as:

• Performance management
• Employee engagement
• Lean production in ‘white collar’ industries
• Human capital management
• Workforce effectiveness

“We are delivering these through a combination of consultancy, internal communications, training, self-paced learning materials and various performance support tools and techniques,” Morrison explained.

Working with a wide range of client in all sectors of the economy, Echelon is delivering its ‘employee engagement’ materials via such things as text-based and online continuing professional development (CPD) learning; employee magazines; performance support tools, role play and other classroom-based training delivery; internal communications messages, and marketing materials to allow its clients to communicate effectively and efficiently to their customers.

For further information please contact

Media contact: Bob Little Tel + 44 (0)1727 860405; Email: bob.little@boblittlepr.com
Sales contact: David Hill Tel + 44 (0)20 8568 1500; Email: david@echelonlearning.co.uk

Notes to Editors:

About Echelon Learning Ltd

Echelon is an organisation development consultancy with a 20-year track record of delivering targeted communication, training and performance support solutions that really make a difference to corporate, government and not-for-profit organisations and professional bodies.

The company helps its clients create and sustain improved operational performance by developing high levels of employee engagement and competence that leverage their ability to achieve outstanding results, particularly in times of change.

Echelon publishes a wide range of self-development solutions that support lifelong career development: www.learningmatters.com

Clients include:

Channel Tunnel Rail Link
London Overground Rail (LOROL)
Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply
Department of Work and Pensions
Festival Housing Association
NHS
Royal Town Planning Institute
T-Mobile
Vodafone

Giunti Labs, a leading learning and mobile content management solution provider, recently welcomed some 100 delegates from around the world to its Hive DR and learn eXact LCMS Joint User Group conference, held in Sestri Levante, Italy.

Following an introduction to the event, given by Fabrizio Cardinali, Giunti Labs’ CEO, Michael King, Vice President of IBM Global Education Industry, observed: “Open platform education is the engine of innovation in the 21^st century – especially since, between 2010 and 2020, the USA, Europe, Japan, China and India are predicted to face a shortfall of some 32m well-educated, technically specialised professionals. Consequently, education should enable open access for all; encourage open data and business processes; promote open communities of learning and open technologies to deliver the learning.”

King outlined three trends:

• Demand for ‘learning outcomes’ and pressures on costs are leading to an industry which is increasingly integrated student-centric.
• Consumer information technology (IT) will drive learner expectations of technology-delivered learning.
• Open technologies and standards will continue to drive enterprise IT innovation.

Other speakers included Mike Morris, Cisco’s Manager of Sales Business Development; Patricia Santos, eLearning Manager of Cegos, and Judy Brown, Mobile Learning Researcher at the Institute for Simulation and Training, the University of Central Florida and the founder of the Academic ADL SCORM Co-Lab.

Cardinali commented that Giunti Labs is meeting the learning challenges of these early years of the 21^st century by building SOA architectures, partnerships and solutions for personalised learning. He explained: “From 1996 to 2000, we had ‘e-learning 1.0’ with traditional pedagogy, contents and models.

“Then, from 2000 to 2004, users became dissatisfied with this first generation e-learning and we saw the growth of self-generated e-learning content with little emphasis on pedagogy or instructional design but presented via ‘e-learning 2.0’ technology.

“Now, we are witnessing the blending of formal and informal learning content, being delivered on mobile and open platforms. This is ‘e-learning 3.0’ and is helping to develop personal learning communities,” he said.

Consequently, learning systems need content that works in terms of both formal and informal learning, Cardinali continued. He added: “Innovation is the key if educators are to meet society’s expectations.”

At the conference - sponsored by Giunti Labs’ partners Promethean, Cegos, Plateau, Cisco and IBM - users of the world’s leading digital content repository and marketplace solution, HarvestRoad Hive™, and of the leading online and mobile learning content management system, learn eXact™, shared their knowledge and experience of the use of rich media, mobile and virtual learning content production, management and rendering toolkits to provide open and interoperable digital repository services.

About Giunti Labs

Giunti Labs is a leading Online and Mobile Learning Content Management Solutions provider with global headquarters in Italy and offices in London (UK), Frankfurt (Germany), Lund (Sweden), Boston (US), as well as Sydney and Perth (Australia).

Giunti Labs provides a wide range of solutions, in response to any content, learning and knowledge management need, covering:

· 24/7 multi language learning content production
· LCMS and Digital Repository Platforms
· Delivery solutions for mobile & wireless
· Consulting and professional services

Giunti Labs is part of Giunti Group, a leading educational and cultural h