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Announcing the 2022-2023 Class of AAJA-SF Bay Area’s Rising With the Tides Fellowship

Comcast California

Comcast, NBC Bay Area and the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA-SF Bay Area) are proud to announce the fellows and editorial coach who have been selected for the 2022-2023 Rising With the Tides ( RWTT ) program. This year’s program will fund stories by three talented young Bay Area journalists — Kate Selig, Kori Suzuki and Junyao Yang — who will share portraits of the region’s Asian American population and the issues that the community faces. Selig is a Stanford undergraduate student and the news editor of The Stanford Daily. Her RWTT -supported story will focus on the effort to preserve Cantonese language programs at higher education institutions in the Bay Area. Suzuki is an audio and visual journalist and a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. For RWTT, Suzuki will trace the history of Japanese American recreational basketball leagues in the Bay Area and will follow one East Bay program through its current season. Yang is also a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, and her RWTT -supported story examines the unique challenges faced by Chinese immigrant women who are victims of domestic violence. Selig, Suzuki and Yang will receive guidance during their reporting from this year’s RWTT editorial coach, Karishma Mehrotra. She is a Fulbright fellow and her work has appeared on Radiolab, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, The Indian Express, Scroll.in and Bloomberg Businessweek. Mehrotra has reported across beats, usually focused on forward-looking issues: technology, urbanization and climate. RWTT launched in 2020 as an effort with Comcast to support journalists who were facing career and financial insecurity during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Past RWTT grant recipients have had their stories published in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, NBC Bay Area and Wired. They also participated in AAJA-SF Bay Area’s sold-out live storytelling fundraiser, Hella Asian, held at KQED’s headquarters. All fellows will participate in a story showcase at the project’s end in early spring 2023. The RWTT fellowship is a part of AAJA-SF Bay Area’s mission to support AAPI journalists and storytelling, diversity in newsrooms and to ensure fair and accurate coverage of communities of color. About Comcast Corporation Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company that connects people to moments that matter. We are principally focused on connectivity, aggregation, and streaming with 57 million customer relationships across the United States and Europe. We deliver broadband, wireless, and video through our Xfinity, Comcast Business, and Sky brands; create, distribute, and stream leading entertainment, sports, and news through Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, Universal Studio Group, Sky Studios, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, multiple cable networks, Peacock, NBCUniversal News Group, NBC Sports, Sky News, and Sky Sports; and provide memorable experiences at Universal Parks and Resorts in the United States and Asia. Visit www.comcastcorporation.com for more information. Contact Details Adriana Arvizo +1 925-200-1919 Adriana_Arvizo@comcast.com

December 07, 2022 12:07 PM Pacific Standard Time

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Houston’s Second Tim Hortons® Restaurant Set to Open on Richey Road

Tim Hortons

Tim Hortons ®, – the beloved coffee and bakery shop, founded in Canada and popular in the northern US – is expanding its presence in Texas with the opening of its second Houston-area restaurant. On December 16 th, Tim Hortons will celebrate the grand opening of its location at 5312 W Richey Rd Houston, TX 77066. The popular chain famous for its iced and hot coffee, donuts, and breakfast sandwiches, opened its first Texas restaurant in Katy in September of this year. Tims is excited to bring back the fan-favorite, grand opening giveaway – the first 50 guests to arrive win free coffee for a year!* Beginning at 5 a.m. on December 16 th the event will feature fun prizes, food samples, and an official ribbon-cutting ceremony. Guests can also enjoy Timbits or breakfast sandwiches and get refreshed with iced beverages like Cold Brew or TimsBoost energy infusions. “We’ve received such a warm welcome from the Houston community since our grand opening in Katy earlier this year,” said Ekrem Ozer, President of Tim Hortons, U.S. “We’re excited to continue to grow our presence in this community and get to know more Houstonians with the opening of our Richey Road restaurant.” World-renowned for its Original Blend coffee, that is always brewed fresh every 20-minutes, Tim Hortons also serves a variety of beverage options, including Cold Brew with cold foam, hot and iced lattes, its famous Iced Capp® beverages, TimsBoost energy infusions, Tim Hortons Refreshers and more. Guests can also enjoy quality food options like made-to-order breakfast sandwiches made with freshly cracked eggs, hand-dipped and glazed donuts, and a variety of donut holes affectionately known as “Timbits”. Tim Hortons new Richey Road coffee shop will be open every day from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. and serve guests through its double drive-thru and dine-in seating. Tim Hortons also provides an integrated digital experience with mobile order and pay, delivery, and the Tims Rewards loyalty program, which allows guests to earn points and redeem on Tims favorites. Supporting the communities it serves is a key part of the Tim Hortons brand. Every year on Tim Hortons Camp Day, 100 percent of purchases from every coffee sold are donated to Tim Hortons Foundation Camps, which supports youth from disadvantaged circumstances. And its annual week-long Smile Cookie campaign donates 100 percent of the purchase price from Smile Cookies to local charities in every Tim Hortons community. To date, more than $235 million has been raised through Camp Day and Smile Cookie across North America. Tim Hortons was established in 1964 by its namesake founder and legendary hockey player, Tim Horton, a member of the official list of the 100 Greatest NHL Players. Since then, Tim Hortons has grown to over 5,000 locations across the globe and is already one of the largest coffee chains in the U.S., with over 600 locations primarily concentrated in Ohio, Michigan and western New York. From Tim Horton’s humble beginnings in Canada, he worked hard to become a world-class athlete and sought to have a big impact in his community by opening coffee shops to create “a place where anyone can go at any time and feel at home.” * No purchase necessary to enter or win a prize. Must be a Texas resident 18+ to participate. For “First 50 –Free Coffee for a Year” prizes, promotion ends sooner of December 16 th, 2022, at 11:59pm CT, or when first 50 participants visit the Tim Hortons at 5312 W Richey Rd Houston, TX 77066. “Free Coffee for a Year” fulfilled as equivalent of one, small hot or cold brewed coffee per day for a year. Prize redemption valid at Richey Rd location only. About Tim Hortons® Tim Hortons® is one of North America's largest restaurant chains operating in the quick service segment. Founded as a single location in Canada in 1964, Tim Hortons appeals to a broad range of guest tastes, with a menu that includes premium coffee, hot and cold specialty drinks (including lattes, cappuccinos, espresso, teas and our famous Iced Capp® Beverages), baked goods, hot breakfast sandwiches, breakfast snacking items, and other food products. Tim Hortons has more than 4,800 system wide restaurants located in Canada, the United States and around the world. More information about the company is available at timhortons.com. For more information, visit timhortons.com/texas and follow Tim Hortons on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Contact Details Alison Brod Marketing + Communications Adrianna Lauricella +1 212-230-1800 tims@abmc-us.com Company Website https://www.timhortons.com/

December 07, 2022 11:07 AM Eastern Standard Time

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Minuteman Press Franchise in Bloomington, MN Celebrates 15 Years in Business

Minuteman Press International Inc

Bill and Karen Grewe have owned their Minuteman Press franchise in Bloomington, Minnesota since July of 2007. As they celebrate 15 years in business, Bill shares keys to success, lessons learned, high-demand products and services, and many more insights and reflections. Minuteman Press in Bloomington is located at 8742 Lyndale Avenue South, Bloomington, MN 55420. Congrats on 15 years in business! What does this milestone mean to you and what are 3 keys to your success and longevity? Bill Grewe: It means we’ve thrived over other competitors in the area, and we lasted longer than the average small business. Most recently, we survived the Covid-19 crisis, and we start to see a return to normalcy. Further, our retirement plans include continuing to work in our shop for the foreseeable future. We still enjoy it! Key 1: Our customer focus requires us to authorize staff to solve ‘the problem.’ We back the good faith decisions made in our absence. We prioritize discussions about how to solve issues when we are available. We emphasize that the customer is not always right, but we all make mistakes. Even so, there is no need to place blame. We look for win-win solutions. Key 2: Prioritize the quote. It is not the least expensive print company that gets the job; it is the most responsive. Sure, we accommodate ‘commodity-focused’ customers. We also price aggressively on three tiers: retail, print brokers, and non-profits. We also have two of our five employees, who generate estimates for us. Key 3: Value your team members. Our payroll is excessive, and that is intentional. We pay for talent, and that inspires loyalty. When Covid forced us to reduce hours and pay, our staff supported us. We share the successes and struggles, and we look for opportunities together. What are some of the key ways you’ve grown your business? Bill Grewe: One of the hardest lessons we learned was ‘cold calling.’ We waited too long to start following the advice received at training. (What can we say, introverts find it difficult.) A business coach encouraged us to experiment with a variety of ideas. So, we ventured outside the ‘comfort zone.’ As the business expanded, we found a salesman to perform this task for us. Early on, we remembered an important lesson from Minuteman Press International (MPI), “When someone asks you if you can ‘print this’, the answer is always ‘Yes.’” Since our small print shop simply did not have the resources to produce every job, we figured out how to find “central facilities” to fill the gaps. (Hint: We asked our MPI friends, searched the internet for trade only printers, and checked the vendor catalog.) Before FLEX offered a feature to request reviews, we employed a vendor to perform the service on our behalf. Now, we use functionality built in to automatically make this request when invoices are sent. The benefit of our finding this functionality early is that we are working to maintain a 5.0 rating, not trying to earn it. Our Google rating is one of the most often mentioned ways that new customers find us. What are the high-demand products and services that have really been helpful for your clients? Bill Grewe: EDDM offers one landscaping customer the opportunity to replace the 20% customer loss experienced year-over-year. On a routine basis several times each year, we use a central facility to produce 30,000 postcards. Our customer chooses the carrier routes they want to prospect. Then, we batch the postcards and deliver them to various post offices in the area. Wide format is a place where our central facility strategy permits us to offer signs for graduates. Our graphic designer offered to produce artwork for a school-themed graduation sign, and word quickly spread. Several other schools participated, and parents even paid in advance our third year providing this service to our community. One private school decided to pay for all the signs ahead of time and resell them. We print so many envelopes, regular and window. We moved our envelope printing off our digital toner machines onto an inkjet envelope printer, and we assigned the task to our graphic designer. This freed up our other machines for other work. We still have discriminating customers, who demand precise color. So, when our team cannot match color digitally, we work with an area pressman, who works out of his garage. How would you best describe your community? Bill Grewe: Bloomington is the 5th largest city in Minnesota with more jobs per capita than either Minneapolis or St. Paul, the two largest cities. Businesses range in size from the smallest to large, multi-national corporations. From a business perspective, the opportunities are abundant. Why do you think printing remains so vital to businesses today? Bill Grewe: Print provides tangible marketing messages that you can set aside for a convenient read. Where people skim their emails followed by the quick delete, they store and share meaningful documents. What was your background before franchising and why did you choose Minuteman Press? Bill Grewe: Neither of us comes from a print background. Karen worked in a day care center, then provided home day care. I worked for the revenue department for 20 years before looking for something new. An advertisement caught my attention, and the rest is history. What has the support from Minuteman Press International been like for you? Bill Grewe: After learning volumes of new information during training, I spent the first year figuring out what it all meant. Remember when I said we waited too long to start following all the advice we received from Minuteman Press International? I was so wrapped up in trying to understand it all, I missed the ‘do this’ advice that helped our business start growing. The FLEX software is a significant advancement over previous versions, which underscores Minuteman Press International’s commitment to improvement. Its integration with the website and increased functionality allows us to accept orders and payments online. Much of our business remains either an email or phone conversation, but the day is coming when current customers can reorder previously delivered projects with the click of a portal button. We should not miss an opportunity to thank the most important local support provided by Minuteman Press International, our field representative Kate. When Bill, our salesman, retired in July this year, Kate was on the job helping train Pete with updated advice from the franchisor, using FLEX, etc. What are the biggest personal and professional rewards of owning your business? Bill Grewe: For us, our franchise provides a sense of security. While there are income fluctuations, the business provides a steady income. Furthermore, it is part of our retirement plan. (We enjoy working with our staff.) What advice would you give to other business owners or people looking to own a business? Bill Grewe: For people looking to own a business, your first responsibility is to build your market share. Your employees depend on their paycheck. This means you must separate yourself from the day-to-day operations and focus on how to increase income. Our franchise focuses on building a relationship with customers. This starts with listening long enough to hear the vision, ask questions to clarify the intent, and suggest options that deliver the right product on schedule. It involves managing expectations and avoiding unrealistic promises. Sometimes the best thing to tell your customer is, ‘We simply cannot meet that deadline.’ Otherwise, you risk delivering a product that advertises failure. It’s better to overdeliver. For more information on Minuteman Press in Bloomington, MN, visit their website: https://minuteman.com/us/locations/mn/bloomington/ Learn more about #1 rated Minuteman Press franchise opportunities and see Minuteman Press franchise reviews at https://minutemanpressfranchise.com. Contact Details Minuteman Press International Chris Biscuiti +1 631-249-1370 cbiscuiti@mpihq.com Company Website https://minutemanpressfranchise.com

December 07, 2022 10:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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'Tis the Season-ally Inspired Holiday Menus at Firebirds Wood Fired Grill

500NewsWire

Charlotte, NC ( 500NewsWire ) -- Firebirds Wood Fired Grill introduces new holiday lunch and dinner menus just in time to make any celebration a memorable one this holiday season. From hand-cut wood-fire grilled NY Strip, and certified Duroc pork chop with cognac cream sauce, to Bananas Foster Bread Pudding for dessert, Firebirds’ limited time scratch-made menus are available now through January 3. Firebirds Wood Fired Grill is known for its signature hand-cut steaks and fresh seafood hand-fileted in-house and seared over locally sourced hickory, oak, or pecan wood on Firebirds’ exposed wood-fired grill. Firebirds’ seasonal Lunch Menu includes suggested wine pairings, and features: NY Strip (10oz.) BLT butter / choice of side Suggested wine pairing: Decoy Cabernet Sauvignon Parmesan Crusted Mahi Coal-roasted tomato-basil sauce / “loaded “ember-grilled corn / fresh asparagus Suggested wine pairing: Decoy Chardonnay Lump Crab Cakes Bold remoulade / wonton slaw / seasoned steak fries Suggested wine pairing: Firebirds Private Label Chardonnay Guests can enhance their entrées by adding: Lump Crab Cake Lobster Mac & Cheese Dessert Bananas Foster Bread Pudding Vanilla bean ice cream / spiced pecans / crispy cinnamon-sugar tortilla Firebirds’ seasonal Dinner Menu includes suggested wine pairings, and features: NY Strip (14oz.) BLT butter / choice of side Suggested wine pairing: Decoy Cabernet Sauvignon Tomahawk Prime Pork Chop Wood-grilled, certified Duroc pork chop / cognac cream sauce / red wine-poached apples / green chile mac & cheese Suggested wine pairing: Acrobat Pinot Noir Parmesan Crusted Mahi Coal-roasted tomato-basil sauce / “loaded “ember-grilled corn / fresh asparagus Suggested wine pairing: Decoy Chardonnay Lump Crab Cakes Bold remoulade / wonton slaw / seasoned steak fries Suggested wine pairing: Firebirds Private Label Chardonnay Guests can enhance their entrees by adding: Lump Crab Cake Lobster Mac & Cheese Dessert Bananas Foster Bread Pudding Vanilla bean ice cream / spiced pecans / crispy cinnamon-sugar tortilla Many of the restaurant’s dishes are created using fresh seasonal ingredients. Gluten-sensitive menu items, such as Grilled Tenderloin Salad, Wood Grilled Salmon, and Parmesan Mashed Potatoes, are also available. Firebirds offers catering, online ordering for ToGo and delivery options. In addition, Firebirds is offering a holiday gift card promotion. For every $100 in gift cards purchased in-store or online, guests will receive $20 in “bonus cards.” This special offer is available now through December 31st and “bonus cards” are valid for redemption from January 1 through February 9, 2023. For more information visit firebirdsrestaurants.com/gift-cards/. Firebirds Wood Fired Grill’s FIREBAR® offers an impressive array of seasonal cocktails, craft beer, bourbon, after-dinner drinks, Firebirds’ private label wine, hand crafted mocktails and more. Popular specialties include Wine Down Mondays, and happy hour in the FIREBAR® and on the Patio every Monday through Friday from 4PM – 7PM. Happy Hour times vary. Visit FirebirdsRestaurants.com to make a reservation, order ToGo online, or register to become a member of Firebirds’ Inner Circle and be the first to hear about upcoming events, promotions, new menu items and exclusive offers. Members receive a gift for joining and a gift for their birthday. About Firebirds Wood Fired Grill Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, a polished casual American restaurant, is an energetic twist on the traditional grill featuring a boldly flavored menu in a stylish, fire-centric atmosphere. Signature menu items include hand-cut steaks and fresh seafood hand-fileted in-house and seared over locally sourced hickory, oak, or pecan wood on Firebirds’ exposed wood-fired grill. Complementing its inviting dining room, a patio with seasonal comforts and the award-winning FIREBAR® are additional gathering spaces inside the restaurant. Firebirds has been named one of ten ‘Breakout Brands’ by Nation’s Restaurant News, and the 2022 Diners’ Choice Winner awarded by OpenTable. Firebirds supports sustainability efforts and partners with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, having surpassed $3 million raised for childhood cancer research through the sale of fresh-squeezed lemonade. To become a member of Firebirds Inner Circle, order ToGo online or to make a reservation visit firebirdsrestaurants.com. Contact Details Firebirds Wood Fired Grill Lesley Gamwell +1 404-309-6915 lgamwell@rountreegroup.com Company Website https://firebirdsrestaurants.com/

December 07, 2022 08:59 AM Eastern Standard Time

This Project Might Give Web3 The Radical Refresh It Desperately Needs

Radix

Radix DLT is the world’s first full-stack for DeFi, with the team behind it set on building the foundations for Web3 to truly scale and obsolete traditional finance for good - a feat still to be conquered by those building in the space. While the project isn’t to be fully launched on the public network until next year, after 9 years of building, on December 8, the dedicated and focused minds behind Radix will be unveiling how they plan to radically change the face of finance at the free virtual event, RadFi 2022. Find out more here. Despite the impressive growth registered by DeFi throughout 2021 and beyond, Ethereum and other smart contract platforms have been beset with problems of security and scalability, which has made it difficult for platforms to develop production-quality DApps. The Ethereum network, which first launched smart contracts several years ago, uses its native programming language Solidity, which is fairly easy to learn for simple smart contracts but gets incredibly complex and difficult to make secure. Many who’ve tried it suggest it would take years of programming experience with Solidity before it can be used to create secure and stable code. As a result, it’s prone to hacks, exploits, and failures even when built by experienced developers. If DeFi is to go mainstream, it needs to be able to radically improve in order to support a global shift for the $400 trillion banking and financial system that currently hosts billions of users worldwide. Why Have Web 3.0 And DeFi Development Suffered? At the core of what it takes to enable a digital ecosystem to thrive is its developers - a demographic who, ironically, has had one of the toughest onboarding journeys into Web 3.0 so far. Despite the growth of developers in Web 3.0 continuing to somewhat increase, only a small percentage of the world’s software engineers currently work in Web 3.0. The number of developers working specifically on DeFi projects is even smaller, and there are nowhere near enough programmers to achieve the scale of DeFi envisioned by its proponents. Of the almost 30 million developers globally, those trying to break into Web 3.0 are just a fraction. Here are some stats from the Electric Capital Developer Report (2021) on Web3 developers: 18,000+ monthly active developers commit code in open-source crypto and Web3 projects. 34,000+ new developers committed code in 2021 alone, which is the highest so far. 2,500+ developers are working on DeFi projects. Less than 1,000 full-time developers are responsible for over $100 billion in total value locked in smart contracts. The team building Radix believes there are four major barriers DeFi developers face that are hindering the growth of DeFi. Its goal is to solve these problems through four crucial technologies that build the backbone of the Radix network: Achieve scalability without breaking DeFi composability, for which Radix developed Cerberus consensus protocol Avoid smart contract app hacks, exploits, and failures through its Radix engine Build interoperable DeFi dApps faster through the creation of a DeFi blueprint catalog of reusable code Incentivize the decentralized development community through its developer royalties program, which is directly managed by the platform After nine years of innovative development leading to an impressive roadmap, those behind the project are about to finally unveil exactly how Radix’s radically different infrastructure will finally take Web3 mainstream. Radix is building “the future of DeFi” on an asset-oriented approach, which is fundamentally different from Ethereum and almost anything else currently existing within the ecosystem. With Ethereum smart contracts, users don't actually hold or directly control their tokens, and instead rely completely on the smart contract and its ability to maintain a list of balances that defines the “ownership” of each token. Unlike most smart contract platforms where your tokens aren’t actually stored in your wallet, with asset-oriented DeFi built on the Radix Engine, users will actually hold their tokens within their own smart contract account on ledger and would not need the approval of other smart contracts to spend their own tokens. They can also define exactly how many tokens they intend to pass to or receive back from smart contracts - vastly improving security and enabling the concept of a “trustless” ecosystem to thrive. To make the advantages of an asset-oriented paradigm real and usable for developers, Radix has built its own custom programming language, Scrypto, which enables the Radix Engine’s unique features while maintaining a much-improved development experience with expressive logic. Scrypto’s asset-oriented features, and the lifecycle of a “component” (a Scrypto smart contract), would naturally allow developers to focus on their own business logic and lean on the Radix Engine for intuitive, safe handling of assets. Once the final deployment of Radix is complete, developers who build on the network will be able to build efficient, secure, and usable products much easier than ever before, and in a way that resembles the fast-adopted simplicity of traditional fintech. The team behind Radix doesn’t seem to do anything by halves. Ahead of the release of ‘Babylon’ next year – the DeFi ecosystem that will enable Scrypto “component” smart contracts to run on network – Scrypto was made available in a private environment earlier this year for developers to experiment with early builds & tests. Within mere months, excitement was buzzing among the developers who took up the opportunity, with many pointing out the considerably cleaner experience in comparison to other smart contract languages. Scrypto has been gaining more and more traction since, with more than 130 projects now having been built onto the platform before it’s even public. Here are some excerpts from those building on the project so far: “Using Scrypto is kind of like bowling with the bumper walls up so you can't hit the gutter (hacks, bugs, composability issues) and it's faster/easier to get a strike.” “Scrypto is a game-changer. Once folks from the other ecosystems figure it out, they will come to Radix to build. We'll see an explosion of DApps being built for the network.” One analogy is a visual comparison of a poor man's toolbox with a hammer, wrench, and ruler (solidity tools) vs a fully sponsored workshop with power tools, a lathe, a table saw (scrypto tools) Recurring events like that of FTX’s demise prove the crypto industry needs to migrate from trusting centralized institutions often held to little accountability, to public decentralized ledgers – where all holdings and transactions are transparent, and where users actually control their own funds. If the Radix technology roadmap is delivered, the project might just be the first to truly build what’s needed to enable a new, improved, financial ecosystem powered by Web3. On Dec 8, Radix is hosting a free virtual event — RadFi 2022 — with over 10,000 people pre-registered, where the minds behind the project will unveil how they plan to take DeFi mainstream. Find out more here. Read Radix’s whitepaper on DeFi here to educate yourself on the company’s ambitious and transformative project before heading to RadFi 2022. To read the most recent Benzinga articles on Radix click here and here. If you would like to know about Radix’s journey and its products, visit the company website. DeFi needs to be better - and it’s about to get radically better with Radix. Get your free ticket to join RadFi2022 on December 8 and learn what the future holds for decentralized finance. Find out how. This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice. Contact Details Amy Wilkinson amy.wilkinson@rdx.works

December 07, 2022 08:15 AM Eastern Standard Time

What Are Functional Beverages And Why Are They All The Rage?

Real McCoy Tea Company (DBA KombuchaTown)

Interested in investing in Kombucha Town’s campaign? Click here to get started. Functional beverages encompass a range of familiar drinks you can find in your local supermarket that includes dairy-based beverages, probiotic drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks, meal replacers, caffeinated beverages and vegetable or fruit juices. Functional beverages are different from drinks like soda because they include desirable nutrients and bioactive compounds like antioxidants and vitamins. Functional beverages are designed to address different body concerns and improve overall health. Take kombucha as an example. Kombucha is a fermented tea beverage that, when done right, can have great health benefits. The tea is made by adding a symbiotic colony of good bacteria and yeast to sweetened tea. The culture feeds on the sugars during fermentation, which produces alcohol and amino acids. This process helps with gut health and digestion, among other health benefits. Functional beverages have been known to improve overall physical health and even decrease the risk of disease progression. Kombucha has been known to help with some of the neurological effects of Alzheimer's disease. COCID-19 accelerated an already-growing interest in the wellness industry, including functional beverages. According to Precedence Research, in 2021 the global functional beverage market was valued at $129.21 billion. The industry is projected to be worth $279.4 billion by 2030 with a compound annual growth rate of 8.94% from 2022 to 2030. Digestive health products like kombucha are among the fastest-growing categories in the functional beverage industry. However, despite the interest in the functional beverage space, many of the products on the market may not be as healthy as they seem. Nutritionists warn consumers to be wary of brands offering healthy drinks and to always read the labels. The beverage industry is fraught with sugary drinks and artificial ingredients. Kombucha Town is a functional beverage company determined to back its health claims. It debuted its first kombucha product in 2011 and since then has expanded its product line to include kombucha, balanced energy drinks, seltzer and a sports drink line. Each product is designed to maximize health benefits and provide customers with functional beverages that actually work. What sets Kombucha Town apart is its isolated, highest-quality kombucha culture. The team chooses the healthiest cultures from each batch and between 170,000,000 and 240,000,000 live active cultures to thrive in each serving the company offers. Kombucha Town is also dedicated to helping the environment. Standing out from its competitors, Kombucha Town was the first kombucha brewery to package products in a 16-ounce aluminum can. This packaging is recyclable, lightweight and space efficient which helps cut down on distribution waste. The cans are also made in the U.S. The facility is 100% offset by renewable energy through Puget Sound Energy. Kombucha Town also has a partnership with One Tree Planted. When Kombucha Town has held investment raises, One Tree Planted has planted trees corresponding with different raise amounts. Could Kombucha Town Be Well-Positioned To Become A Leader In The Functional Beverage Industry? Kombucha Town reports flourishing and becoming a pioneering company in the kombucha space with its canned kombucha. Kombucha Town is sold in over 1,200 stores nationally, including Whole Foods, Natural Grocers, Safeway/Albertsons and Sprouts. In 2019, the company brought in $1.2 million in revenue. In 2021, the company had over $555,000 in sales. In 2022 Kombucha Town has sold over $850,000 they are on track to surpass their pre covid numbers in 2023 and do it profitably. Kombucha Town is holding a crowdfunding raise on Republic to help with its growth. Founder Chris McCoy is hopeful that Kombucha Town will continue to grow into even more of a leader in the functional beverage space. Having forecasted a return to pre-COVID sales in 2022, the company expects to keep growing from there. Click here to read more about Kombucha Town’s raise and how to invest! Founder & CEO Chris McCoy brewed his first kombucha in 2007 while studying Environmental Science and Economics in college. He founded Kombucha Town in 2011 to support his mother with early onset Alzheimer’s. Now he is on a mission to disrupt the toxic food system and repair environmental damage done by large manufacturers. Kombucha Town’s mission is to enable healthy and active lifestyles. We believe in being good for and good for the planet by being fair trade and organic certified. Kombucha Town is based out of Bellingham Washington where we do all our manufacturing with the natural ingredients to bring you healthy and delicious beverages. Kombucha Town is focused on doing business a better way by better good for consumers and good for the planet. We embody environmentalism in our partnership and certification such as 1% for the planet and 1 tree planted. This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice. Contact Details Chris McCoy Chris@KombuchaTown.com

December 07, 2022 08:15 AM Eastern Standard Time

Holiday Cheer gift ideas with Chassie Post

News Media Group, Inc.

Contact Details Karl Wayne +1 334-440-6397 karl@newsmg.com Company Website https://newsmg.com/

December 07, 2022 06:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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CleverTap Unveils RenderMax

CleverTap

CleverTap, the World's #1 Retention Cloud today unveiled RenderMax – a proprietary technology that can increase mobile push notification render rates up to 90% on low-end Android devices. Push notifications have the power to increase customer retention rates anywhere from 3 - 10 times. Most marketers just focus on their push notification delivery rates, but a “delivered" notification that doesn't render on the user’s device is a wasted effort. For those who equate delivery and rendering as equal, render rate is the percentage of the number of push notifications the end user received (and were rendered) on the user’s device compared to the total number of push notifications that were sent. All Chinese OEM devices use a custom variant of the stock Android OS. To optimize battery consumption, these OS variants are configured to bypass the Google/Firebase push delivery service, resulting in low delivery rates and even lower render rates. RenderMax gives CleverTap customers a significant competitive advantage as they can now engage users they could not before and elevate the ROI from their push campaigns. This is especially true for devices that are in battery saver mode or cannot be reached due to inactivity. “RenderMax is a testament to our continued commitment towards product development and innovation. Low render rates stifle the true potential of mobile push notifications. We are confident that with RenderMax, brands will be able to harness the full power of push notifications. What’s interesting is that we are offering RenderMax to all customers at no additional cost to any brand that wants to try it out.” said Anand Jain, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, CleverTap. Betterhalf, India's first and only marriage super app was provided an early access to RenderMax and their push notification render rates more than doubled! Shankar Krishnamurthy, Group Product Manager, Betterhalf said, “At Betterhalf, mobile push notifications are critical for our business. With CleverTap’s innovative RenderMax solution our push notification render rates have skyrocketed to 85%.” RenderMax powers up the render rates of customers’ push notifications, amplifies the push notification reach, and maximizes user engagement. Enhancing the reach of push notifications can help CleverTap customers lower costs, increase engagement and conversion rates, and reduce churn. “The CleverTap platform has a great breadth of capabilities, and this innovative mobile push solution will certainly help them stay much ahead of the competition,” Shankar added. CleverTap RenderMax works with Android OEMs such as Oppo, Xiaomi, Vivo, One Plus, POCO, Realme, and Samsung. About CleverTap CleverTap is the World's #1 Retention Cloud that helps app-first brands personalize and optimize all consumer touch points to improve user engagement, retention, and lifetime value. It's the only solution built to address the needs of retention and growth teams, with audience analytics, deep-segmentation, multi-channel engagement, product recommendations, and automation in one unified product. The platform is powered by TesseractDB™ - the world’s first purpose-built database for customer engagement, offering both speed and economies of scale. CleverTap is trusted by 1500 customers, including Gojek, ShopX, Electronic Arts, TED, English Premier League, TD Bank, Carousell, AirAsia, Papa John’s, and Tesco. Backed by leading investors such as Sequoia India, Tiger Global, Accel, and CDPQ the company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with presence in San Francisco, New York, São Paulo, Bogota, London, Amsterdam, Sofia, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, and Jakarta. For more information, visit clevertap.com or follow on LinkedIn and Twitter. Forward-Looking Statements Some of the statements in this press release may represent CleverTap's belief in connection with future events and may be forward-looking statements, or statements of future expectations based on currently available information. CleverTap cautions that such statements are naturally subject to risks and uncertainties that could result in the actual outcome being absolutely different from the results anticipated by the statements mentioned in the press release. Factors such as the development of general economic conditions affecting our business, future market conditions, our ability to maintain cost advantages, uncertainty with respect to earnings, corporate actions, client concentration, reduced demand, liability or damages in our service contracts, unusual catastrophic loss events, war, political instability, changes in government policies or laws, legal restrictions impacting our business, impact of pandemic, epidemic, any natural calamity and other factors that are naturally beyond our control, changes in the capital markets and other circumstances may cause the actual events or results to be materially different, from those anticipated by such statements. CleverTap does not make any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness or updated or revised status of such statements. Therefore, in no case whatsoever will CleverTap and its affiliate companies be liable to anyone for any decision made or action taken in conjunction with the information and/or statements in this press release or any related damages. Contact Details Sony Shetty sony@clevertap.com Company Website https://clevertap.com/

December 07, 2022 05:07 AM Eastern Standard Time

Travelers Institute and Cambridge Mobile Telematics Release Educational Guide to Help Curb Distracted Driving

YourUpdateTV

The Travelers Institute, the public policy division of The Travelers Companies, Inc. (NYSE: TRV ), recently released “ Every Second Matters®: Reducing Distracted Driving, One Voice at a Time,” an educational guide published in partnership with Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), the world’s largest telematics company. “The guide highlights new statistics that show how risky driving behaviors, such as speeding and texting behind the wheel, accelerated during the pandemic,” said Joan Woodward, President of the Travelers Institute and Executive Vice President of Public Policy at Travelers. “Throughout the report, we provide an eye-opening account of the dangers of distraction and arm drivers with important resources for staying safe on the road.” The Every Second Matters guide outlines steps motorists can take to improve their driving habits, including: · Adopt a professional driver’s mindset: Hands on wheel, eyes on road, mind on driving. · Don’t be a distraction: According to the 2022 Travelers Risk Index, nearly 80% of drivers make or take calls while driving, so avoid becoming the distraction – don’t call or text employees, family members and friends while they are on the road. · Activate “Do Not Disturb”: Use this setting while driving to silence notifications and avoid distractions. · Speak up: Let risky drivers know of their dangerous behavior and encourage others to do the same when they are passengers in a car. · Get feedback: Consider enrolling in a telematics program that provides feedback as well as incentives for driving safely. The report also highlights the benefits of telematics programs. Data from CMT shows that drivers who open their telematics app more than three times a week are 65% safer and 57% less distracted than those who don’t. “Telematics programs are changing behaviors and reducing distractions on the road,” said Ryan McMahon, Senior Vice President of Strategy at CMT. “By joining a telematics program, drivers are learning about their habits and improving roadway safety for all. Consumers are seeing these benefits, and telematics programs are more popular than ever as a result.” Other key findings from CMT include: · More than 35% of car trips involve some type of phone distraction. · More than 35% of distracted driving happens over 50 mph. · The most distracted drivers are 2.2 times more likely to crash than the least distracted drivers. Through the Every Second Matters distracted driving education initiative, the Travelers Institute publishes materials and hosts events that encourage drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians to play an active role in changing roadway behaviors. To learn more about the Travelers Institute and read the Every Second Matters educational guide, visit travelersinstitute.org. About Cambridge Mobile Telematics Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT) is the world’s largest telematics service provider. Its mission is to make the world’s roads and drivers safer. The company’s AI-driven platform, DriveWell®, gathers sensor data from millions of IoT devices — including smartphones, proprietary Tags, connected vehicles, dashcams, and third-party devices — and fuses them with contextual data to create a unified view of vehicle and driver behavior. Companies from personal and commercial auto insurance, automotive, rideshare, smart cities, wireless, financial services, and family safety industries use insights from CMT’s platform to power their risk assessment, safety, claims, and driver improvement programs. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with offices in Budapest, Chennai, Seattle and Tokyo, CMT serves millions of people through 80 programs in 18 countries, including 21 of the top 25 US auto insurers. For more information, visit cmtelematics.com. About the Travelers Institute The Travelers Institute, the public policy division of The Travelers Companies, Inc., engages in discussion and analysis of public policy topics of importance to the insurance marketplace and to the financial services industry more broadly. The Travelers Institute draws upon the industry expertise of Travelers’ senior management as well as the technical expertise of many of Travelers’ underwriters, risk managers and other experts to provide information, analysis and solutions to public policymakers and regulators. Travelers is a leading provider of property casualty insurance for auto, home and business. For more information, visit Travelers.com. Contact Details YourUpdateTV +1 212-736-2727 yourupdatetv@gmail.com

December 06, 2022 04:33 PM Eastern Standard Time

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