BNI Showcase
@ The Glen Abbey Golf Club
2:00- 6:00

In its second year, the BNI Showcase is a venue where local Golden Horseshoe and West GTA business members come to exhibit and network. With close to 400 attendees last year 4 hours, the event was a big success for a debut show.

Come visit our members:

• Alma Group, Cory Haynes: Exhibit
• Backspin Marketing, Leslie Priest: Exhibit
• CIM Solutions, Sean Jennings: Exhibit
• First Vancouver Finance, Judi Johnstone: Exhibit and Speaker
  Speaker 2:45 – Who gives away money? – You Do
• Martin & Wright Insurance, Scott Heltcher: Exhibit
• McIntyre Group, Peter Berardi: Exhibit
• RBK Artworks, Renee Brisson-Khan: Exhibit and Speaker
  Speaker 3:45 – Your sales materials on a tablet
• Referral Institute, Paula Hope: Exhibit and Speaker
  Speaker3:45 & 4:45: Business Networking and Sex – It’s not what you think
• The Source, Barb Geisel: Exhibit
• Mortgage Centre, Fernanda Amaral Chisholm: Exhibit

Come celebrate International Networking week with us this Thursday and drop by our chapter booth to learn more about us and how we can grow business together.

Barb Geisel comes to our group with many years of sales experience.  She has a strong entrepreneurial background in interior design and loves to assist clients with furniture placement and functional floor plans.  Barb has a solid understanding of how a functional and beautiful work environment will project the proper  image to her clients and enhance the daily work productivity of the Source’s team.

We look forward to learning more about her business in our meetings each Tuesday.

Maurice brings over 35 years of successful business and leadership experience in a broad range of industries.

Maurice has held a number of top executive positions in Canada and the United States with industry leading companies such as Domtar, Fisher Products Group, Southam, Consumers Packaging Group and Inglis Whirlpool. For the past eleven years, Maurice has worked closely with a large number of CEOs and Executives as a Co-Founder and a Partner with Mastermind Solutions Inc. a management consulting company focusing on strategic planning, organizational design, finance, marketing and executive coaching.

He brings a large network to the table and a wealth of business expertise. We look forward to getting to know more about Maurice’s offerings and his business each week at our meetings.

Dave is the Vice President of Indusite Realty Corp., a real estate brokerage specializing in commercial real estate including:
-sale and leasing of industrial properties
-sale of investment property
-sale of commercial land
- lease renewal negotiations
-opinion of value for industrial properties

He brings a wealth of experience and connections in the West GTA and Golden Horseshoe, we look forward to networking with him at our weekly meetings.

With a focus on:

• Life Insurance
• Disability Insurance
• Health Insurance
• Critical Illness Insurance
• Long Term Care Insurance
• Travel Insurance
• Group Benefits Insurance.

Rosalind’s business focus is a welcomed addition to our weekly meetings.

HP is now blowing them out for $99 but is it worth it even at that price?

What will you do with it and how long will it be supported?

This is why it is important for business to work with a Mobility Consultant and not just walk into your local electronics store and purchase what the kid wants to sell you.

The answer I give to this question every time is, “It depends”. It really depends on many things. The best way to determine if tablets can help your business is to spend 30 minutes with a mobility specialist. They will be able to go over some of the key benefits and see if your business is setup to handle tablet computing. Here are some of the key business questions.

1. Do you currently have a way for employees to have secure remote access?
2. Do your employees need access to a CRM or sales system?
3. Do you have sales people that still carry around catalogues and price sheets?
4. Should you get a laptop or a tablet?
5. Do you want to keep all of your notes and files with you?
6. Do you have to take freehand notes in meetings and share them with a team?
7. Do you have to carry a portfolio of work with you?

Once it is determined that your company can benefit from tablet computing you then have to determine which tablet platform is best for your business. It is usually best if your entire company uses the same platform so data and apps are easier to share. Here are some facts to help you determine which platform is best for your business.

1. Apple iPad
   - 9.7” display, dual core, pseudo multitasking, Apple iTunes focused.
2. Blackberry PlayBook
   - 7” display, dual core, real multitasking, strong Blackberry integration.
3. Google Android
   - there is dozens of Android tablets. They range from very low end to high end corporate models. The new Android OS is a very robust platform with larger support than the Apple iPad.
4. HP webOS
   - this is a very new platform that may not get enough support behind it to last. Going with this platform is real gamble currently.
5. Windows 7 Tablet
   - the only reason to run this current version is if you need a very strong support for Microsoft applications and easy access to a corporate network. This platform is being replaced next year by Windows 8 Tablet and will be a much better tablet platform.

There are some additional tablets on the market but they are specialized products made for certain uses and industries.

If you are an Apple Mac user or you live your life through iTunes then an iPad is probably the best choice for you. Otherwise there are some very good tablets about to come out that have very strong enterprise features and security. The new Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet will be the first fully secured and managed tablet on the market and you can get a 3 year onsite warranty.

Let us know how your business is using tablets to save time and money.

Sean Jennings is a Mobility Specialist at C.I.M. Solutions Inc.

He can be reached at (905) 458-5090 x322 or sjennings@cim-solutions.com

Our financial, facility, communication, wealth and consulting services teams are looking for referral partnerships in the following business categories.

• Leasing Company
• Real Estate Lawyer
• Commercial Realtor
• Commercial Property Manager
• Commercial Interior Designer/Builder
• Office Supplies
• Cabling Services
• Logistics
• Benefits Consultant
• Sales Recruiting
• Executive Recruiting
• Virtual Assistant
• Independent Marketer
• Printer (Digital & Litho)
• Business Event Planner

For more information about joining, please contact our Membership Committee.

Yes it is.
For many companies the answer is outsourcing.

If you are the owner of a growing business, you know your market and likely have a sales manager or business development person who comes up with great ideas to go after those sales. The gap in growing sales with materials is often design.

Here’s some benefits of outsourcing design:

1. Saving time and money

Templates are created to evolve as your business grows. They allow for quicker turn around times while keeping your costs predicable without the need to hire a full time designer.

2. Building your brand

With each new edition, your audience will spend less time trying to figure out who is sending them information and more time paying attention to the product sale you want to tell them about. Quality and consistency builds trust and loyalty, a foundation to growing a business and sales.

3. Expand sales initiative 

You and your team have the ideas, a graphic designer creates the materials to support it and get it done. Your team works on developing outlines for things like product sheets and catalogs while the design work is done. Your staff now have the time to get the sales you’ve hired them to get.

Renee Brisson-Khan is the owner and Creative of RBK Artworks in Brampton, Ontario. Companies outsource to her for for branded sales material and exhibit designs.
For the full version of Renee’s  post “Outsourcing The Design Headache” visit her blog: Renee’s Head Space