Press Releases & News

Chicago, November 26, 2008 (word count: 471)

High-resolution images are available on request.

91% of customers state they are “satisfied to very satisfied” with Novacel solutions and 97% would recommend Novacel products. Such are the results of a customer-satisfaction survey conducted with about 1,000 building, automotive, electronics and home-appliance professionals in Europe, Asia and America, which was commissioned by Novacel, the world leader in surface protection.

The survey was sent as a questionnaire to all countries in late 2007, and provided a way to assess customer-satisfaction levels regarding the products and services they were using, to identify their expectations, and measure the quality of their relationship with their supplier, all this to establish an on-going improvement process.

Eight indicators were examined: sales approach, customer service, technical support, ordering, delivery, claim handling, products, and print. For seven of those, Novacal was elected “best supplier on the market.” The company’s position as a leader in protective films was reinforced, as 97% of respondents said they would recommend Novacel to a colleague, and 81% of respondents said they would buy from Novacel again.

Survey conclusions highlight Novacel’s qualities: good customer relations, sales teams that are available, and appropriate technical support for customers.

On the strength of those results, the company is boosting its customer awareness process: Confronted with an ever more complex demand and increasing requirements in terms of delivery time reduction, punctuality, responsiveness and information, NOVACEL has initiated a major Supply Chain Management project, together with a processing-time reduction and claim follow-up plan.

This customer-satisfaction program will reinforce NOVACEL’s position as the market leader in surface protection.

About Novacel:
Established in over 60 countries, NOVACEL develops, produces and markets self-adhesive films for temporary surface protection used in the electronics, home-appliance, automotive and building sectors. NOVACEL films may be applied upon surfaces as diverse as stainless steel, pre-coated metals, aluminium, plastics, shaped and laminated materials. Throughout the transformation process (bending, drawing, roll forming, cutting, routing, etc.), manipulation, transport and assembly, the film provides protection against scratches, stains, and other surface damage.

For more information, please contact:

NOVACEL
Ms. Agnès Othmani
Director of Communications
27, rue du docteur Emile Bataille
BP 4
76250 Déville-lès-Rouen - France
Tel : +33(0) 2 32 82 72 33
E-mail: aothmani@chargeurs-protective.com
Web: www.novacel.fr

or:

FRENCH TECHNOLOGY PRESS OFFICE
205 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 3740
Chicago, IL 60601
Fax: (312) 327-5261
E-mail: contact.ftpo@ubifrance.fr

The fact that people in Austria now feel truly Austrian is in part due to a German car - the Volkswagen Beetle. That is the first finding of an Austrian Science Fund FWF project that is examining the extent to which consumer goods have influenced the formation of the Austrian nation. The project reveals that, in the decades crucial to the nation’s creation, the Volkswagen became an object of identification and integration for the Austrians. The next stage will investigate the influence foodstuffs have had on this process.

It would be difficult to find much evidence that foundering car sales in the current financial crisis are shaking the Austrian national identity to the core. However, a project by the Department of Social and Economic History at the University of Vienna on “Products and the construction of the Austrian nation” is now demonstrating that the strong presence and wide distribution of a particular brand of car in the post-war decades lent significant support to the construction of a shared feeling of Austrian identity.

The car that achieved this was the German VW Beetle - a product that neither originated in Austria nor was “made Austrian” through the use of country-specific advertising, for example. Nevertheless, the Beetle was the first car that vast swathes of the Austrian population could afford and was therefore responsible for integrating a large proportion of the country’s inhabitants into the motorisation process. For the Austrians, this in turn generated a sense of collective identification with “their” Volkswagen, which also strengthened the general feeling of unity.

A SYMBOL ON FOUR WHEELS

“After the war, Austria wanted to adopt all the trappings of a modern, Western nation and chose the U.S., the consumer nation, as its inspiration. That meant that the motor vehicle, and the passenger car in particular, served as a collective symbol of social and technological progress. Making cars available to the masses became proof of the fact that the country was on its way to becoming a middle class nation with high purchasing power”, explains project leader Dr. Oliver Kühschelm.

In 1957, the Austrian market saw the launch of its very own “Volkswagen” - the Steyr Puch 500, Fiat model, an affordable car produced on home soil. This car, said to be particularly well suited to tackling the Alpine landscape, was intended to assume this symbolic identity for the entire nation. But the Austrian car par excellence, the true “people’s car”, remained the Beetle, as this project shows - in 1958, its best year and just shortly after its market launch, the Steyr Puch achieved a share of only around 12 percent of new registrations, while the Beetle retained a fifth of new registrations for a considerable period and, in its heyday, enjoyed up to 27 percent.

GERMANY - IN OR OUT?

That made the VW Beetle by far the most widely used car in Austria and its strong presence on the roads resulted in it becoming a symbol for Austria, as Dr. Kühschelm explains: “The Beetle became a collective symbol of the population’s shared driving experience and also the achievements made by the country as a whole, and was thus a key pillar in supporting the construction of the national identity. At the same time, it embodied the ambivalence of the process behind the formation of the Austrian nation. At first glance, this rests on distancing itself from Germany, but on closer inspection, it nevertheless incorporates a marked appreciation of things German.”

So far, the project has focused primarily on the significance of cars, the acquisition of which is generally preceded by an intensive period of deliberation. In the next stage, attention will turn to foodstuffs - relatively cheap products that are required on a daily basis. In the future, the FWF project will reveal how coffee from Julius Meinl, Almdudler and fast food from McDonald’s have helped to define the national consciousness of the Austrians.

Image and text will be available online from Monday, 24th November 2008, 09.00 a.m. CET onwards:

http://www.fwf.ac.at/en/public_relations/press/pv200811-2en.html

Scientific Contact:
Dr. Oliver Kühschelm
University of Vienna
Department of Social and Economic History
Maria-Theresien-Straße 3
1090 Wien, Austria
T +43 / 1 / 4277 - 413 33
E oliver.kuehschelm@univie.ac.at

Austrian Science Fund FWF:
Mag. Stefan Bernhardt
Haus der Forschung
Sensengasse 1
1090 Wien, Austria
T +43 / 1 / 505 67 40 - 8111
E stefan.bernhardt@fwf.ac.at

Copy Editing & Distribution:

PR&D - Public Relations for Research & Education
Campus Vienna Biocenter 2
1030 Wien, Austria
T +43 / 1 / 505 70 44
E contact@prd.at

Vienna, 24th November 2008

America’s middle class is not the only one hit by the economical crisis; wealthy people too are starting to feel it. Experts of the yacht industry are really worried after data show that a large number of rich people, whit an average income of 20 million or plus per year, are starting to sell their yachts. For example John Devaney, founder of united Capital financial advisers, put his 20 million yacht for sale along whit his 16 million second house in Aspen.
Simkowitz’s yacht management, is a company specialized on fractional ownership, which means that organize groups of people to buy one yacht an then manage schedules, costs, times of use for each person of the group. According to this company the number of rich people selling half of their yacht is rising up after the subprime’s crisis. Fractional buyers are rising on luxury things:
Wealthy people start making pools to buy their Ferrari and Lamborghini, to purchase airplanes or helicopters. In general a recent survey shows that Americans are cutting off purchases of luxury goods, and this is true especially for ultra affluent persons.
For example the owner of the Alibellla, a 50 meters luxury yacht, is ready to offer like ten million Euros of discount to a costumer ready to do the transaction in less of one month.
Alibella is one of the most exclusive yacht of recent building, with marble finish and an helicopter on the stern, and is one of the many mega yachts that have seen their price fall down after the explosion of the subprime’s crisis and the beginning of the economical recession.
Edmiston & Company, the London based yacht company who is try to sell the Alibella, has seen this as an opportunity to make good deals and started to sell used yacht to prices never seen on yacht market. Who has the money in this period can make affairs in every business sector, included yachts.
The Midlandia, a 50 meters luxury yacht whit bullet proof glasses, according to Edmiston & Company brokers, has seen his price reduced from 27 million Euros to 19.9 million.  We’re talking of 7.1 million in least of ten days. The Thunder B is another luxury yacht, whit a pool on board, before the crisis its cost was 18.9 million, now can be yours for just 13.7. Now the market is just for used yachts buyers, no more shipyards production. No more projects, no more crazy prices, only discounts and bargain prices.
So the yacht industry too is starting to experience the consequences of subprime’s crisis and wealthy people too have been hit from recession. If nothing is going to change in the short period we can expect a earthquake in shipyards and nautical sales firms. Many people will lose their jobs, and many ship and nautical company will be forced to close. So the main concern is not just that many people will be forced to sell their boats; the worry is that the system will collapse in short, if things don’t change soon, and this will create another large fracture in our fragile economic system.
That’s the real problem.

Austin, TX – atsec information security has achieved General Services Administration (GSA) FIPS 201 Evaluation Program (EP) Lab accreditation allowing them to perform testing determining conformance of products and services to FIPS 201 requirements on behalf of GSA. This service is aimed at customers that want to sell their respective FIPS 201 compliant IT products and services to Federal Agencies. atsec’s “qualification without restriction” is effective from 2008-11-18.

In August 2004, the Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) 12 established requirements for identification and authentication of federal employees and contractors accessing federal facilities and information systems. FIPS 201: Personal Identity Verification of Federal Employees and Contractors was developed to satisfy the requirements of HSPD 12. atsec’s experience in IT security will help hardware and software companies to validate FIPS 201 product or service compliance, which is requirement for federal agencies who implement compliant solutions as per HSPD-12.

Fiona Pattinson, atsec’s Director of Business Development, commented: “As a leader in the business of standards-based IT security testing and evaluation, atsec is very pleased to have achieved this accreditation. We are looking forward to helping vendors achieve FIPS 201compliance for their products and services.”

atsec is already an accredited laboratory (Laboratory code 200658) under the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) for cryptographic module testing, and is accredited to conduct conformance testing of SCAP and Personal Identity Verification smart card applications and middleware under the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Personal Identity Verification Program (NPIVP). atsec also operates fully accredited laboratories for Common Criteria testing under the U.S., German, and Swedish national schemes.

# # #

About atsec information security
atsec information security is an independent, standards-based information technology security services company that combines a business-oriented approach to information security with in-depth technical knowledge and global experience. atsec was founded in Munich (Germany) in 2000 and has extensive international operations with offices in the U.S., Germany, Sweden and China.
atsec offers evaluation and testing services leading to formal certification for IT security including evaluation under Common Criteria schemes in the U.S., Germany, and Sweden; cryptographic module and algorithm testing under the Cryptographic Module Validation Program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the U.S. and Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) in Canada; and compliance validation to the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard.
atsec also offers secure code review, ISO/IEC 27001 ISMS consulting, and penetration testing and scanning services.
atsec works with leading global companies such as IBM, Apple, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Cray, BMW, SGI, Vodafone, Swisscom, RWE, and Wincor-Nixdorf.

Chicago, October 29, 2008 (word count: 471)

A high-resolution logo is available on request.

The logistics sector in France has become a powerful economic sector offering consistent market growth year after year. The logistics sector employs approximately 5 million people throughout Europe (1.5 million in France), and has become an economy operating on a continental scale with a global scope.

Various factors have contributed to the sector’s expansion in recent years: globalization, of course, as well as a growing container industry, a high-performance road and rail network, highly efficient port and airport platforms, the numerous options for maritime and land transportation, and IT and telecommunications networks that enable optimal management of transport and storage.

France has been a pioneer in the logistics revolution since the 1980s. The growth in the number of operators is likely to increase with the development of outsourcing. Alongside major French specialist groups such as Norbert Dentressangle, Stef-TFE, Géodis, FM Logistics, various international companies also operate in France: FedEx, DHL, Kuehne & Nagel, Arvato Services, Schenker, Ziegler, Kaoten Natie, Wincanton, Nippon Express, and NYK Logistics, to name a few. These groups have become serial investors, setting up logistics platforms all over France. Recent new investments attest to France’s continued attractiveness: for example, IKEA recently opened its European logistics center at Fos-sur-Mer, creating 500 jobs, and Amazon set up a second distribution center in the Loiret region, creating 200 jobs.

As Philippe Favre, the president of Invest in France Agency, points out, “France has remarkable advantages and can offer numerous development opportunities for companies in this sector: an extremely favorable geographical location that offers a natural gateway into Europe, with easy access to a market of 450 million consumers; a modern, high-performance and safe transport network that is fully interconnected with the main countries in Europe; a mature market that is open to competition and transparent for new arrivals, offering the expertise of players throughout the entire logistics chain; a real estate park managed by local municipal authorities that provides an attractive offer in terms of warehouse rental.” Favre also points out the competitive rental costs, such as €53/m² ($6.30/ft²) in Paris and €50 ($6/ft²) in Lyon, compared to €179/m² ($21/ft²) in London, €109 ($13/ft²) in Barcelona, €63 ($7.50/ft²) in Rotterdam and €70 ($8.40/ft²) in Munich.

Recent developments will further improve the attractiveness of France for investors: reform of autonomous ports and their manpower, based on the principle of the transfer of equipment to private operators, concerning both equipment and salaried worker employment contracts; opening up airport concessions to private operators; deregulation of railway freight transport in Europe and the creation of corridors with improved width; and opening up canal networks to the wide-berth European network (Seine Nord project).

Invest in France Agency (IFA) promotes and facilitates international investment in France. The IFA network operates worldwide. IFA works in partnership with regional development agencies to offer international investors business opportunities and customized services all over France. For more information, please visit www.investinfrance.org.

For more information, please contact:

INVEST IN FRANCE NORTH AMERICA
Amanda Hilson
810 Seventh Ave.
New York, NY 10019
Tel: (212) 757-9340
Fax: (212) 757-1568
E-mail: amanda.hilson@investinfrance.org
Web: www.investinfrance.org/northamerica

or:

FRENCH TECHNOLOGY PRESS OFFICE
205 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 3740
Chicago, IL 60601
Fax: (312) 327-5261
E-mail: contact.ftpo@ubifrance.fr

Leading learning and mobile content management solution provider, Giunti Labs, is playing a key role in this year’s ‘Learning 2008’ conference, being held in Orlando, Florida, from 26^th to 29^th October. The event – which has attracted over 1,600 delegates - is organised by the corporate learning think tank, The Masie Center, and chaired by Elliott Masie, an internationally recognised futurist, analyst, researcher and humorist on technology, business, learning and workplace productivity.

At Learning 2008, Giunti Labs – via Bryan Eldridge, Chief Solutions Architect of Giunti Labs North America and Michael Wallace, Area Manager, Giunti Labs North America – will be moderating two sessions at the conference: ‘A comprehensive mobile learning strategy for your organisation’ and ‘Better business objectives for enterprise learning’.

“We will be discussing how translating business objectives, such as increased revenues, process improvements, enhanced client relations and competitive advantage, into the learning organisation vernacular can provides a baseline of accepted approaches and a framework with which to measure learning outcomes,” said Eldridge.

Wallace added: “Nearly every organisation sees the potential in using mobile devices for their learners yet many questions and concerns are keeping some of them stuck at the starting gate. These questions include, ‘will my learners accept learning content on a mobile device?’, ‘What types of learning are best suited for mobile delivery?’, ‘Will I be able to track mobile learning on my LMS?’ and ‘Will I have to recreate existing content so that it can be displayed on a mobile device?’.

“This session will cover these questions and more as part of a discussion on identifying the key elements for creating a mobile learning strategy for organisations.”

Simultaneously, Giunti Labs’ CEO, Fabrizio Cardinali, is giving a keynote presentation at the NACOL Virtual School Symposium (VSS), being held in Phoenix, Arizona, on 27^th October. This event, being held on 27^th and 28^th October, brings together over 800 representatives from national, state, district, private and other virtual school programmes to attend the industry’s leading event in K-12 online learning.

Cardinali, who is also joint-chair of the European Learning Industry Group (ELIG), a group which encompasses all major European Union (EU) stakeholders in the learning industry innovation cycle, is addressing ‘Innovating e-learning for the knowledge society – global challenges, threats and opportunities’.

According to Cardinali, the EU faces many of the same challenges that are also facing the United States.

In his presentation, he will offer an overview of the future of learning and how the EU is approaching educational strategies in dealing with globalisation and a knowledge-based economy. Specifically, he will discuss new trends in digital learning resources, from online content to embedded assessment, as well as new delivery models through online learning distribution systems.

For further details of Cardinali’s keynote presentation visit:
http://www.virtualschoolsymposium.org/speakers.php

End

About Giunti Labs

Giunti Group is unique in the international publishing industry. Giunti history goes back to 1841; since then the group has become one of the largest publishers in Italy. Over the years Giunti has built a catalogue of huge dimensions (over 7.000 titles) and acquired new brands in Italy and worldwide.

Giunti Labs, which has its global headquarters in Italy and offices in London (UK), Frankfurt (Germany), Lund (Sweden),  Boston (US), as well as Sydney and Perth (Australia), provides a wide range of solutions, in response to any content, learning and knowledge management need, covering:

• Content production
• Technological solutions for content, learning & knowledge management
• Delivery solutions for mobile & wireless
• Consulting and professional services

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

Chicago, September 29, 2008 (word count: 551)

SOCAPS, the Society Of Craftsmen Applying Professional Standards, is a cooperative that provides industrial customers (machinery builders, wholesalers, or end-users) in several industries including printing, packaging, agri-food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals, with technical support (electricians, mechanics, engineers, etc…) for building, installing, and maintaining equipment and machines worldwide. SOCAPS is exhibiting at the Pack Expo tradeshow in Chicago, from November 9 to 13 at booth N-3431.

Since 1984, SOCAPS has provided technical expertise to some of the world’s leading industrial companies, supplying them with reliable and knowledgeable craftsmen. With two offices in France (Normany and in the Paris area), the company opened an office in Atlanta, Ga., to better serve the Americas.

SOCAPS offers three categories of assistance to industrial companies who need experienced craftsmen to (1) pilot engineering projects, (2) support their production, and (3) lead site operations (machinery installation or maintenance).

The cooperative, which consists of 220 mobile, professional and multilingual members, offers it subcontracting services worldwide (in Europe, North, Central and Latin America, Asia, Russia, and North Africa).

SOCAPS’ members are carefully selected, on the basis of their technical skills, the breadth of their experience, their mobility, their respect for SOCAPS’ values: reactivity, availability, and openness, and meeting deadlines. They are autonomous, responsible, mobile, multilingual, and have developed their knowledge through their experiences in research units, workshop, and building sites.

The SOCAPS concept enables industrial companies to apply expert knowledge and experience to improve their output, optimize their productivity, be reactive, and meet with their production, installation, and maintenance deadlines.

There are two SOCAPS agencies in France (in Normandy, and in the Paris area) and one in the United States (in Atlanta, Georgia).

Meet with SOCAPS and learn about its concept at Pack Expo in Chicago, from November 9 to 13 at booth N-3431.

IMPORTANT DATES:

- 1984: Creation of a craftsmen network
- 1999: Creation of SOCAPS in Normandy (France)
- 2006: SOCAPS’ Agency in the suburb of Paris
- 2007: SOCAPS’ Agency in Atlanta (Georgia)

KEY DATA:

- Turnover 2008: EUR 15 million (22 million USD)
- Export Turnover: 30%
- SOCAPS members: 220
- Average yearly growth: 15%

For more information, please contact:

SOCAPS US INC.
Carole Rouah
Sales Manager
3525 Piedmont Road
7 Piedmont Center, Suite 300
Atlanta, GA 30305
Tel: (404) 364-1877
Fax: (404) 364-1876
E-mail: carole.rouah@socaps-us.com
Web: www.socaps-us.com

or:

FRENCH TECHNOLOGY PRESS OFFICE
205 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 3740
Chicago, IL 60601
Fax: (312) 327-5261
E-mail: contact.ftpo@ubifrance.fr

Is social gaming really the most powerful gaming revolution since the release of Pong?

Online games are joining forces with social networks to make a play for mass audiences. After fundamentally changing the internet and the ways people communicate and interact, the entire games industry is getting ready to be socialized. This phenomenon will be explored in detail during the PICNIC Special ‘Games go Social’ on September 26 in Amsterdam. Is social gaming really the most powerful gaming revolution since the release of Pong?

Casual Games are already setting new records with one-third of people ages 6 to 44 having played them, according to market researcher The NPD Group. With Facebook and MySpace battling over the position of the most popular social network (and Facebook proclaiming itself as the winner du jour), game developers have discovered a new friend, flirting with the millions of users that MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Hyves and the likes have to offer. This is the theme of Games go Social on September 26 in Amsterdam, a full day event probing the synergies between games and communities, organized in collaboration with PICNIC, the undeniably most original, pioneering and unusual get-together for creatives.

The trend of ‘Games go Social’ is predicted to revolutionize the gaming and entertainment industry, fusing games, communities and networks by playing against your friends, family and people you know (or don’t). “Online social networks have become the aggregators of our digital life. With friends, we don’t just consume - we create, communicate and comment on stories, pictures, videoclips, music, applications – anything that has meaning to ourselves and others. And games are rapidly becoming the main catalyst for social interaction. A game played via a social network – or a game that embeds social features in its design – is something that can add value to a relationship long after you’ve run out of things to chat about. Games are an immensely powerful social lubricant and we’re very excited to see the games, media and social network industries joining forces to take this to the next level.” says Jeroen Elfferich, CEO of Ex Machina who together with PICNIC is organising the Games go Social event. And this is where it gets interesting. Because games fused with social communities turn the traditional console business on its head. Through viral distribution, these games can quickly reach out to anyone out there, creating overnight critical mass, as new consumers are being pulled into the game.

To explore this phenomenon, from its roots in multiplayer games and social networks to the latest cutting edge online games communities, Games go Social have invited a selected number of creatives, visionaries and industry leaders to share their visions, ideas, case-studies and strategies. With international luminaries from leading companies such as EA, Playfish, GoSupermodel.com, Spil Games, Social Gaming Network (SGN), Atlas Venture and Hyves, Games go Social presents a jam-packed program of inspirational presentations and dynamic panel sessions.

***

For more information on Games go Social, hosted on September 26 in Westergasfabriek Amsterdam, go to http://www.picnicnetwork.org/page/22325/en or contact Susanne Waldau-te Brake on +31 6 48 07 07 16 or by email susanne@exmachina.nl