Greetings, fellow Smartsheeters! We’re in the middle of a heat wave in the Pacific Northwest, so it’s finally starting to feel like summer – and just in time for Independence Day. Due to a short work week here at our offices, News You Can Use has been bumped up to Wednesday to accommodate for the barbecuing, fireworks, and general festivities later this week.
As always, I’d love to see any articles you find particularly inspiring or compelling! Share here as a comment or tweet me at @KeriImrisek.
The Thank You Effect - 50 Small Ways to Improve Customer Service
On HaikuDeck by Greg Meyer (@grmeyer)
Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad
How does your company approach customer service? Click through these 50 tips and consider how each one relates to your business. Small can be powerful.
On Inc. by Kevin Daum (@awesomeroar)
In the summer months, motivation becomes difficult and we can become stagnant. Here’s an answer to the dreaded summer slump: a concise, useful collection of action items to help you stay productive from now to New Year's.
http://www.inc.com/kevin-daum/7-ways-to-make-the-rest-of-2013-amazing.html
This App Predicts the Weather--Down to the Minute
On Inc. by Eric Markowitz (@EricMarkowitz)
This blows my mind. Who would have thought an algorithm could accurately predict weather--by the minute? With their Dark Sky app, three innovators make waves in the weather forecasting community and prove you don’t have to be a scientist to be a weatherman. Here’s their answer to other online weather services: Forecast.io
Want to Catch More Foul Balls?
On GeekWire by Taylor Soper (@Taylor_Soper)
IdealSeat goes beyond telling you where the best seats are for catching foul balls at baseball games. This innovative iPhone app can also tell you where the sun is and what concession stands are near your seats. While currently available only for Safeco Field in Seattle and Citi Field in, home of The New York Mets, take comfort in knowing this app is still in early development and may be coming to a stadium near you very soon!
Air Pollution: The Next Big Thing?
On UrbanTimes.co by David Copeland (@Envirocene)
It looks like our passion for monitoring and sharing personal data might lead to a breakthrough in environmental awareness. CubeSensors offers a device that determines the air quality of your immediate environment and reports data, including biological and chemical contaminants, to the CubeSensor App. Not gonna lie, I would be a little nervous to see what sort of toxins are in the air I breathe every single day.
http://urbantimes.co/2013/07/air-pollution-the-next-big-thing
7 Shifts In The Age Of Opportunity: Mechanical To Organic
On UrbanTimes.co by Frank Spencer (@frankspencer)
This is the first of a series of articles centered around what Frank Spencer refers to as The Age of Opportunity. No doubt there are seismic shifts in the way companies around the world do business, and with those adjustments must come a new way of thinking about our environment. If this first installment is an indication of the quality of the series, I’ll definitely be following it intently as more of his articles are published.
http://urbantimes.co/magazine/2013/07/7-shifts-in-the-age-of-opportunity-mechanical-to-organic/
Reflections from Startup Weekend Baghdad: The entrepreneurial spirit is alive in Iraq
On GeekWire by Othmane Rahmouni (@OthmaneR)
Rahmouni, a Microsoft employee who traveled to Baghdad for the city’s first Startup Weekend, sums up his journey by recounting personal stories of the collaboration, challenges, and achievements the event participants experienced. Last weekend Smartsheet hosted Startup Weekend Bellevue in our own offices and we got to experience first hand just how inspiring it can be when a group of people work together toward a common goal.
http://www.geekwire.com/2013/startup-weekend-baghdad-othmane-rahmouni
That does it for today, enjoy the rest of your week and stay productive!
-Keri