Are you planning your Christmas shopping yet? Is your loved one a proud owner of an iPad?

Then here is the perfect gift the iArm - fully adjustable, the iArm lets you take your favorite gadget with you. And with the optional "multi-mount", you can secure up to three items at once so you can attach your iPad, eReaders, remote controls.

How much does it cost? Just US$8.

Yes you guessed it - the iArm is not actually for sale - but you could buy the box here.

Here is a great event taking place in October in the UK and is relevant for you if you are managing a charity.

The programme will cover:

- Cost-effective ways to improve your website and email campaigns

- An introduction to using podcasts and audio stories

- Case studies from other charities about how they are successfully integrating digital work into their wider campaigns

Speakers include Beatbullying, Amnesty International UK, JustGiving, BullyingUK and Parkinson's UK.

To see the full agenda and how to book your place visit: www.charitycomms.org.uk/conferences/digital_communications

Here is a great networking event for startups in the tech community in Ireland.

If you have something new you’re working on and want to share it with peers there is even an opportunity to showcase it.

The networking event takes place on 8 October at 4 Dame Lane, Dublin - it's free to attend but you need to register here: http://events.techludd.com/techludd-2/#register

ChoiceVendor is acquired by LinkedIn

September 23, 2010

Today, LinkedIn announced that it has completed its acquisition of ChoiceVendor.

The ChoiceVendor and LinkedIn teams are equally passionate about helping professionals make the best decisions. As part of LinkedIn, we'll contribute our knowledge and ideas to the products and services that reach LinkedIn's network of more than 75 million professionals.

Effective immediately, we'll be ceasing operations at choicevendor.com. We're very grateful for your support, and we look forward to connecting with you on LinkedIn!

— Yanda and Rama

So you thought that online reviews were only relevant for B2C products and services?

Well LinkedIn.com doesn't agree as they have just purchased ChoiceVendor.com - see the announcement on their site above.

So watch out for peer to peer reviews being made available on LinkedIn.

Congratulations to the two founders of ChoiceVendor.com who must be delighted.

Here is an interesting resource of competitive information in the world of ecommerce - the Top500Guide.com®

With the service you can can create a wide variety of custom research reports from their e-retailing data base.

You can also purchase specific profiles for just US$10 - you will get access to data including past years’ sales, growth rate, monthly visits, monthly unique visitors, conversion rates, average ticket and total SKU's.

So whether checking out your competitors or learning from the best e-commerce sites in the world this looks like a great resource.

Find an online listing of the top 500 here: http://www.internetretailer.com/top500/list/

How social is your industry sector? That is one of the questions addressed by the NetProspex Fall report.

Their report covers the use of social media across industries, cities in the US and jobs.

Of the 2 million contacts analysed out of the NetProspex business contact database here is the ranking of the top 20 industries:

1 Search Engines - Online Portals
2 Advertising & Marketing
3 Banking
4 Traditional Media (TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines)
5 Toys & Games
6 HR and Recruiting
7 IT
8 Software
9 Consumer Electronics
10 Retail Apparel
11 Credit Cards & Transaction Processing
12 Flowers
13 Telecommunications
14 Travel & Tourism
15 Cleaning Products
16 Department Stores & Superstores
17 Gambling & Gaming
18 Home Appliances
19 Biotechnology
20 Music

Of course this reflects the people who are using the NetProspex system to manage their database - NetProspex is a sales and marketing database, helping BtoB decision makers find, reach, and connect with targeted sales prospects.

Are these result reflective of what you see going on in your local market?

If you are interested in expanding your business overseas then have you considered Latvia?

The event starts at 8.45am and will end by 10.30am with the speakers including:

- H.E Peteris Karlis Elferts, Ambassador of the Republic of Latvia in Ireland

- Kristine Metuzale, Deputy Head Representative Office of the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia - UK discussing 'Doing Business in Latvia'

- Michael Bourke Chairman, Supervisory Council, Parex Bank, Latvia who will cover 'Financial Services Industry in Latvia'

- Alan Gilbert, Chief Operations Officer KEDCO Plc - talking about 'Investing in Latvia'.

The Dublin Chamber of Commerce is hosting an event on the 29 September 2010. It is free to attend if you are a member of the DCC - to register contact Marion@dublinchamber.ie and check out their website for more details