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Sept. 18 SOUTHFIELD — Flagstar Bank presents the third annual ‘Speed Networking’ event, which will bring together more than sixty professionals in the business and legal arena for a chance to network, exchange business cards, and promote their services. It is 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18 at Regency Manor in Southfield. Each person will have three minutes to introduce themselves to another professional, and provide a short ‘pitch’ for their products or services before they rotate to the next professional. The event is co-sponsored by the Armenian- American Bar Association, the Chaldean American Bar Association, the Chaldean American Association for Health Professionals, the Hispanic Bar Association of Michigan, the Michigan Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and Steward Media. For more information, contact Derek Dickow at 248-702-5501 or email derekdickow@steward-media.com. To purchase tickets to the event, visit www.neptix.com/events/1449. Sept. 18 WATERFORD TWP.

Submitted by Dottie DeHart, DeHart & Company Public Relations, DeHartandcompany.com New York, NY  — Do either of these scenarios sound familiar? A colleague sends you a snarky email, so you type a cutting response right back. A Facebook “friend” insults your political beliefs in a post, so you write a scathing comment about their obvious cluelessness. Nobody likes to back down, give in, knuckle under, or swallow an insult. And showing weakness isn’t likely to get you anything but disrespect and marginalization…right? Wrong. Communication consultant Geoffrey Tumlin says being what some would call a “wimp” is often an effective response. And in the right circumstances, it can even be a way to get ahead “Weakness can be a very effective communication tool,” said Tumlin, author of the new book Stop Talking, Start Communicating: Counterintuitive Secrets to Success in Business and in Life “In many scenarios, allowing the other party to maintain what appears to be ‘the upper han

Sept. 10 WATERFORD TWP. — Davidson Family Dentistry is hosting an open house and ribbon cutting, 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 5574 Cooley Lake Road, Waterford Township. Reservations requested at 248-977-3006. Sept. 11 SOUTHFIELD — A seminar to assist franchise owners and operators in navigating union protests and strikes focused on quick serve restaurants and other franchises is being hosted by Maddin, Hauser, Wartell, Roth &  Heller P.C., a Southfield-based law firm and Permanent Solutions Labor Consultants, of Brownstown Township. James M. Reid, IV, a Maddin Hauser employment attorney, and Ricardo Torres, a former high-level union official and president and CEO of Permanent Solutions Labor Consultants, will lead the seminar, which is scheduled for 8 a.m., Wednesday, Sept. 11 at the Skyline Club, 2000 Town Center, #2800, Southfield. A complimentary continental breakfast will be available at 7:30 a.m. Register for the free conference by email to register@maddinhau

Grey Wolfe Publishing of Birmingham is hosting a celebration of local authors, with readings, signings and networking, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17 at Troy Community Center, Room #304, 3179 Livernois, Troy. Local author and attorney, Michael Kitchen, will read from his debut novel, "The Y in Life." This is the story about the revelations and consequences of questioning life. Darryl Lawrence was a man who never questioned anything. On the cusp of his marriage proposal to college friend, Lisa Nelson, an event happens that changes his life, causing him to question the purpose of life. His journey takes him to Agra and Dharamsala in India, and to Jakarta, Indonesia. Other featured authors include Ralph Moore, Kevin Lucas, Diana Kathryn Plopa, Christopher Chagnon, Lisa M. Wolfe and the Grey Wolfe Pack Writers. This is a casual, family-friendly, free event. RSVP is required by Sept. 12. Food and beverages will be served. RSVP to info@greywolfepublishing.com or call Dian

Submitted by Dottie DeHart, DeHart & Company Public Relations, dehartandcompany.com/ New York, NY (September 2013)—Brainstorming can be a productive way to solve problems; generate new products, services, or processes; and capitalize on golden opportunities. But far too often, say creative problem solving experts Mitchell Rigie and Keith Harmeyer, the process is hijacked by disruptive individuals who undermine collaborative efforts. “Have you ever found yourself in a brainstorming meeting that felt dominated and controlled by an attention-seeking personality?” asks Rigie, coauthor along with Harmeyer of SmartStorming: The Game-Changing Process for Generating Bigger, Better Ideas (Dog Ear Publishing, 2013, ISBN: 978-1457516634, $29.95, www.smartstorming.com   “If so, you are not alone. It seems every company or organization has its share of those idea killers.” “In fact, in our twenty years of brainstorming experience working with many of the top Fortune 500 companies, we

Achieving personal as well as career success with balance will be discussed during the "Women Tell All... Almost" event hosted by the Auburn Hills and Rochester Regional Chambers of Commerce. The Chambers, in collaboration with leaders from Crittenton Hospital Medical Center, FirstMerit Corporation and the 52nd District Court, will share insights into the professional and personal stories of the panelists that have lead to their advancement within their careers and the community. Women Tell All...Almost panelists include Judge Lisa Asadoorian, 52nd District Court Division 3 serving within Oakland County,  Michelle Hornberger, Chief Strategy Officer of Crittenton Hospital Medical Center in Rochester and Sandra Pierce, Vice Chairman of FirstMerit Corporation and President and CEO of FirstMerit Michigan. These business and community leaders will provide personal insight and encouragement for women of all ages and stages of their careers.  The Women Tell All...Al

The Oakland County Business Center offers monthly workshops for business owners and entrepreneurs. The center also offers Walk In — Start-Up Thursdays Free Business Counseling every Thursday. The hours are 9:30 a.m. to noon and 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sessions will be limited to 15 minutes and are available on a first come, first-served basis. The weekly business counseling and the following events are held at the Oakland County Executive Office Building Conference Center, 2100 Pontiac Lake Road in Waterford Township. For registration, visit www.AdvantageOakland.com/expand or call 248-858-0783. CEED (C.E.E.D. is Center for Empowerment and Economic Development) Microloan Orientation is 9 to 11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11. This free workshop covers the requirements and process to apply and obtain a microloan. Women's Business Enterprise (WBE) Certification Orientation is 9 to 11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18. The cost is $25 per person. The workshop covers the benefits and process of be

In an article recently published on Mashable’s website, several successful ecommerce entrepreneurs were asked what data they rely on to develop and monitor strategies. The following is a list of the nine metrics these entrepreneurs deemed most valuable along with a brief summary of why. 1. User Acquisition Costs This metric can be used to determine the success rate of your PPC campaigns. How much does it cost you each time a user lands on a web page in relation to conversions? 2. Abandoned Carts Monitor this metric to ask customers who bailed on their shopping carts why they did not proceed through to checkout. Was it something with the checkout process itself? Were shipping costs too high? There are a number of reasons why shopping carts are abandoned. This is a good metric to watch in order to gain insight on possible improvements that could lead to a higher conversion rate. 3. Google Analytics Experiments This is a tool accessible from your Google Analytics account. It can be used f

The Environmental Quality Company (EQ) has partnered with The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Mercury Collection Project. This is an on-going effort to collect and properly recycle mercury. Small and large business operations have traditionally been overlooked during mercury collection events. The project’s objective is to address this issue and promote a long-term solution for easily collecting and recycling of mercury. The program is free to anyone located in Michigan – residents included.   U pon request, EQ will send a free collection bucket with a shipping box via common carrier.  Each bucket will contain return instructions. Most mercury items can be returned through this mail-back program. Some examples are: thermometers, thermostats, gauges with silver colored liquid inside, dental amalgam, hydrometers, etc. Th e program ends Sept. 30. Call 734-547-2517 or e-mail mercurybucket@eqonline.com to order free colle

First off, why would you even worry about Smartphone users? And weren't there plug-ins and stuff for all that? To answer the first question, there really is no reason to to worry about whether smartphone users browse your site or not. All you'll lose is about 73% of traffic from users between the ages of 18 and 44 who use their smartphones to browse. If your desired target audience does not fall into that age group, then, nope - you got nothing to worry about. If, on the other hand, you are like most other marketers or webmasters, you should be very, very worried.  As for the second question - plug-ins just don't cut it any more. Not if you want your site to appear the way you created it. Plug-ins render a mobile version of your site while you'd normally want it to appear the same across all devices and platforms because you optimized everything (presumably) on it for the most perfect browsing experience (and, therefore, possible sales).  Fortunately, the Web grows as a

It is important to validate your blog's HTML code to ensure that is complies with the principles of the World Wide Web association. An authenticated HTML code makes it very easy to maintain your site. As well, it plays a huge role in reflecting the degree of your professionalism in the blogging industry. Besides that, it augments the compatibility of your site with future versions of HTML.  Here is a review of some top tools for HTML validation How to validate your site HTML Firefox Add On Firefox HTML validator is a small icon located on the status bar which validates the code as the page loads. The add-on was developed by W3C but has evolved over time in tandem with changing needs. The extension is embedded within Firefox and makes the validation on your machine without involving a third-party server. This is a superb option for those using FireFox.  Google Chrome Extensions Google Chrome HTML validator resides as an icon just adjacent to the address field. When it is auto-run, i

If you are a business owner, or otherwise, an individual trying to promote a certain product or service, you’ll most likely already know about a service called SEO. At first, you may find this service a little complicated to grasp, it is after all a very complex system. The traffic gained from this system is however phenomenal. With so many variables involved in the making of SEO services, it can sometimes be a little hard to understand the ins and outs of this system. However, regardless of this, there are several simple things you can do to boost your SEO and in turn, rank higher in today’s search engines. SEO as an essential way to gain traffic SEO is one of the easiest ways to reach consumers today; this is mainly down to technology in the 21 st century. More and more consumers are choosing to use their smartphones and tablets to shop, and with so many expensive technologies on the market today, surfing the Internet is a widespread pastime! All in all however, it comes down to the

Your web-page might have the best web-design and it has all the contents in it that are required for better rankings on Google. It’s a good thing, but it is more important to do the right things that will help you in retaining the position for long. This will help you in getting maximum customers for your business. There are many other websites that are offering services like you do, and there are chances that they might get better rankings than you do. Thus it is necessary to hire the best local SEO company that will cater to all your business needs in an effective manner. There are quite different things that need to be done for increasing in the ranking of your webpage. Some of the steps are quite simple, while others are complicated and needs proper steps and procedure that needs to be followed for becoming successful online vendor. It is necessary to choose the right type of keyword that will improve or fasten the search process for your potential client. Keyword in Title A keywo

The team at Azox has been busy updating current customer sites to the latest version of eSource, which is our ecommerce software. The latest completed update was for Dr. Hauschka. The Dr. Hauschka web store sells natural skin care products and makeup. Dr. Hauschka’s new website runs on eSource 3.4. The company also chose to add one page and guest checkout. This feature helps provide a better user experience in several ways. With the checkout process, users want to complete their transactions quickly and easily. By offering one page/guest checkout, users are able to make purchases without creating an account. Further, all the information required for the purchase can be entered on one screen. The upgraded web store can be viewed here . Another one of our customers, Recreation Supply Company, has chosen to upgrade to eSource 3.4. This company sells swimming pool supplies on their ecommerce website. The upgraded version of their web store also includes one page/guest checkout in addition