TV’s Bad Boy Luing Andrews Plays PC Clive Roberts Opposite David Jason in BBC1’s Newest Comedy ‘The Royal Bodyguard’

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) July 21, 2011

TV’s Bad Boy Luing Andrews Plays PC Clive Roberts Opposite David Jason in BBC1’s Newest Comedy ‘The Royal Bodyguard’

The creators, Mark Bussell and Justin Sbrensi, couldn’t wait to offer Luing the role after working with him on the Christmas special ‘My Worst Week’. Luing is also playing Colin in the upcoming series ‘Him and Her’; Colin is an estate heavy who is always seen with his trusty rotweiller by his side. Showing his softer side Luing is the face of Motor Cycle News as the guardian angel biker. This is not the only time he has played a biker with a heart, in the UK’s number one hospital drama ‘Casualty’ Luing gave a heartfelt performance as ‘Henry Swindell’ and brought a smile to the nation with his wonderful interpretation of the character.

Luings extensive credits include the UK’s high rating police drama ‘The Bill’, ‘Silent Witness’ starring as Ash Williams alongside Amanda Burton, ‘Footballers Wives’ ‘Green Grass’, ‘My Family’ and ‘Worst Christmas of My Life’. Luing also enjoyed playing a gangster Lieutenant with Scott Maslen in the TV version of ‘Lock Stock’ and Raz in the UK’s number one soap ‘Eastenders’ alongside talented actor John Bardon. Another fan favorite was the motion picture ‘The Heavy’, along with ‘Bronson’ and ‘The Sculptress’.

Never a stranger to the screen both big and small, Luing Andrews has proved to be a fan favorite and fans wont be disappointed as ‘The Royal Bodyguard’ can be seen in the UK on Christmas day.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1568589/

Official Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Luing-Andrews/216793031697478

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Investors In People Bronze Accreditation For Box UK

(PRWEB) July 21, 2011

Box UK (http://www.boxuk.com) has recently been recognised as meeting the high standards of organisational excellence defined by the prestigious Investors in People (IIP) framework.

Going beyond the basic standard, Box UK join the likes of The Home Office with a Bronze certification, making them one of only 32 companies in Wales with this status. This was achieved through the completion of an additional 36 evidence requirements demonstrating the company’s commitment to optimising their business practices to deliver excellence for their clients.

The IIP accreditation is a national quality standard designed to help companies improve their business performance through their people, creating a high-performance environment that provides the ultimate value for clients. For a service-led organisation like Box UK this is invaluable and the benefits will be passed on to clients through enhanced quality products and services produced and improved customer satisfaction.

“This is a fantastic achievement for Box UK. I would like to congratulate the organisation and its people on their commitment to continuous improvement,” Chief Executive of Investors in People UK, Simon Jones, said. “Investors in People offers a flexible, practical and easy-to-use business improvement tool designed to help organisations and their people enhance performance and meet their goals. I hope that more organisations in the area will be encouraged to sharpen their competitive edge by choosing to work with us.”

Judy Haynes, Box UK’s Director of Operations, said: “We are thrilled to be recognised as Investors in People, and gaining Bronze status is a fantastic achievement for the whole team. We know that it’s the skill and professionalism of our people that makes us so successful and it’s great that this has been recognised in an official capacity. We are passionate about continuing our relationship with IIP, and to this end are already looking to apply for Silver status in time.”

About Box UK

Box UK deliver innovative, award-winning digital solutions for enterprise-level organisations across the world. With over 250 years of collective experience, our team of expert web consultants, user experience professionals and software developers believe passionately in the potential of the internet and are committed to using the very best, most dynamic technologies in their work.

Established in 1998, privately owned and profitable every year since inception, Box UK’s client list includes BBC, LAN Airlines, Investec Asset Management, The National Gallery, Chartered Institute for IT, EDF Energy and Severn Trent Plc.

For more information, please contact Lisa Innes, Head of Marketing on:

e: press(at)boxuk(dot)com

t: +44 (0)20 7439 1900

f: +44 (0)20 7681 1889

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Leading Mobile Analyst and Executive Bob Egan Joins MGI Research

Mobile Authority Bob Egan Joins MGI Research

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) July 21, 2011

MGI Research announced today that Bob Egan – one of the world’s premier authorities on mobile computing technology, has joined the firm as a Managing Director. Egan joins an elite team of senior industry and Wall Street analysts with many of whom he has worked previously at Gartner. He will head up a new Mobile Computing Strategies service at MGI and will become a key contributor to major research projects at the firm. Egan brings to MGI an extraordinary, world-class expertise in helping Fortune 500 companies and technology vendors achieve success with mobile technology strategies in areas such as mobile payments, tablet adoption and mobile apps.

“Mobility is a massively disruptive shift in how consumers and businesses interact with each other, their banks, and how work is done today. MGI Research has an amazing depth of research expertise as well as a robust platform of analytic resources and proprietary tools, like the MGI Index, which I look forward to applying in my research and in advisory engagements. I’m incredibly excited about joining this seasoned team and working together to help users and vendors reach their full potential.” Egan is a pioneer of Wi-Fi, having been a founding member of the first release of the IEEE 802.11 WLAN standard, and is a globally recognized advisor to leading mobility vendors and users implementing market-leading mobile payment strategies. As a researcher, he won numerous awards at Gartner, and was the global head of research and chief analyst at the Corporate Executive Board’s Tower Group.

“Bob’s track record of separating the signal from the noise and being way ahead of conventional wisdom in identifying the most important trends and hidden opportunities speaks for itself. Mobility has now come to dominate the mainstream technology agenda, challenging users, vendors and investors to rethink traditional approaches. Having worked with Bob in the past, I’m delighted that our clients will have access to such a sharp researcher and an outstanding, thoughtful advisor,” said Igor Stenmark, MGI Research co-founder.

Egan will be based in Boston. Prior to joining MGI Research, Egan founded Sepharim Group – a leading mobile industry consultancy. Prior to that, Egan served in executive and research leadership roles at Tower Group/Corporate Executive Board, Mobile Competency, Corechange, Gartner, and Digital Equipment Corp. His commentaries have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Business Week, Fortune, and Forbes magazines, as well as via appearances on CNBC, BBC, PBS News Hour, and the ABC Nightly News.

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WinkBall Feel the Love at Premier Music Festival in London

(PRWEB) July 20, 2011

Last weekend saw London’s cultural epicentre of East London play host to one of the country’s top music festivals, the Lovebook Festival 2011. Located in London Victoria Park, Lovebox celebrated its eighth year and with this special anniversary, the 2011 line-up was a fantastic array of artists that spanned various musical genres and sounds. Lovebox has that great ability to connect fans and bring the nation’s capital closer together through the power of music. And bringing the fans closer to the Lovebox experience was of course WinkBall.com, the UK’s no. 1 video site. Bringing their exciting video coverage to the Lovebox Festival, WinkBall spoke to Londoners and festival goers who had come to feel the love in Victoria Park, East London.

Giving the fans an exciting and open platform for them to communicate and share their passion for Lovebox through, only via the emotional power of online video could WinkBall capture the essence of Lovebox from its fantastic fans.

Fans at Lovebox were treated to the likes of indie rockers The Wombats, British rapper sensation Example and the Doggfather himself Snoop Dogg! The excitement for these artists and more was unimaginable and WinkBall captured fans passion for these fantastic musical artists. Speaking to Lovebox-goers, WinkBall were able to discover what makes Lovebox one of the top musical events on the 2011 social calendar. WinkBall also got a chance to speak to some of Lovebox’s top acts such as The Wombats, Maverick Sabre, Ms Dynamite and Jess Mills and discover what it is that they think makes Lovebox such a fantastic music festival.

Fans sharing their love for Lovebox in mass amount, WinkBall have created an exciting and fascinating insight into Lovebox 2011 that gives a unique video snapshot of the festival from the fans perspective.

WinkBall have once again given fans a voice and has become the video voice of the UK music festival. With its innovative video coverage, WinkBall has tapped into the true spirit and meaning of Lovebox and told its story through the many fantastic and passionate fans of Lovebox 2011. Fans now have a chance to relive all their Lovebox experiences through the power of the web and share the WinkBall Lovebox story online with friends and family. To see WinkBall’s exciting festival coverage so far, go to the following link;

http://www.winkball.com/users/JGRDzKQbl1_J

And to see just a taster of WinkBall’s coverage of Lovebox, go to the following links;

http://www.winkball.com/walls/JBz1DlW72Uzm/lovebox-2011-friday-part-3

http:// http://www.winkball.com/walls/VEP8XR3Glt-1/lovebox-2011-saturday-part-1

http://www.winkball.com/walls/h__tDzeuUJiL/lovebox-2011-saturday-part-2

And be sure to keep an eye out for WinkBall reporters at top rock festival High Voltage this coming weekend!

Notes to Editors:

About WinkBall

WinkBall is the British video network that specialises in capturing the public’s passion at events – as they happen – and providing vox-pop and video services to clients worldwide.

Now the UK’s no. 1 video website, WinkBall’s interactive Video Walls, Blogs, Forums and Messaging technologies create the ultimate online presence by engaging with the people who truly matter. This provides a dynamic, mass media, social and participatory experience to connect with the public and targeted communities. Services include vox-pop creation, consumer interviewing, market research, event coverage, video reporter hire, and business and product videos.

Featured on the BBC, CNN, CNBC, Sky News and many more, WinkBall were also nominated finalists in the PR Week Awards 2010 and the CIPR Excellence Awards, 2010.

The technology was designed and built in London in 2005 as a quintessentially British collaboration between academic inventiveness (Goldsmiths, University of London) and commercial endeavour. Co-founded by Dr James Ohene-Djan and Duncan Barclay and launched 18 months ago, WinkBall.com has had nearly 35 million hits (about 1.25 million regular viewers per month) and has a growth rate of 25% per month.

Contact WinkBall:

Info(@)winkball(dot)com                020 8962 3030

Head of Press:

Jennifer(@)winkball(dot)com                020 8962 3033

Contact WinkBall’s PR, Max Clifford Associates:

Victoria Cameron

Victoria(@)maxclifford(dot)com            020 7408 2350

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Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

In the Real Life Setting, Boosted REYATAZ® (atazanavir/ritonavir) Proves as Effective in Women Living with HIV as Men

Rome (PRWEB) July 20, 2011

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced results from a long-term, retrospective, European cohort study, which included 1,294 antiretroviral (ARV)-experienced patients (336 female and 958 male) from Germany, France and Sweden, that were presented today at the Sixth International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention (IAS 2011).

In a gender-specific sub-analysis, boosted REYATAZ® (atazanavir sulphate) (ATV/ritonavir)-based regimens demonstrated no difference in time to virologic failure in women compared to men over a follow-up period of up to five years.2

Approximately 30 years into the AIDS epidemic, nearly 16 million women are living with HIV, and most of them are of childbearing age.3 HIV has become the leading cause of disease and death among women of reproductive age worldwide.4 In Europe, women account for 35% of new HIV diagnoses.1 However, data on efficacy, safety and tolerability on antiretrovirals (ARVs) in women are limited, as they are under-represented in clinical trials.5

“More clinical data, especially long-term data, evaluating ARV response in women with HIV are needed to improve their management; in this way, the results presented today give us as physicians relevant and valuable information,” said Prof. Dr Norbert H. Brockmeyer, Germany.

This retrospective, observational study collected data from three European databases (France – DatAids; Germany – KompNet; Sweden – InfCare). All participants were ARV-treatment experienced patients; 336 female (median age of 40 years) and 958 male (median age of 44 years).2 The present sub-analysis evaluated the effect of gender on long-term outcomes of ATV/r-based regimens.

The results revealed no gender-based differences in time to virological failure, defined as two consecutive HIV RNA ≥ 50 c/mL or one HIV RNA ≥ 50 c/mL followed by discontinuation. After three years of follow-up, the probability of not having virological failure was 59% for women (95% CI 52-65%) and 63% for men (95% CI 59-67%). As seen in several other recent studies,6,7 female gender was associated with increased risk of treatment discontinuation but not with a significantly higher risk of virologic failure.2        

The cohort results also showed that REYATAZ/ritonavir is a well-tolerated therapeutic option for treatment-experienced patients of either gender.2 Overall, the safety profile was comparable among men and women and similar to that previously described in clinical trials. Among women, diarrhoea was reported in 2%, nausea in

The results reported in this gender-specific sub-analysis are consistent with those previously reported in clinical trials (i.e CASTLE study gender analysis) in which boosted REYATAZ showed durable viral suppression and favourable safety and tolerability profiles, irrespective of gender.

More about the Study Design

This real-life long-term study was a non-comparative, retrospective, observational study that collected data from three European databases (France – DatAids; Germany – KompNet; Sweden – InfCare). Clinical data from 1,294 ARV-experienced adult patients who started an ATV/RTV-based regimen between October 2004 and March 2007 were collected every six months (maximum follow-up of five years). For the main study, the primary endpoint was time to treatment discontinuation, and the secondary endpoints were reasons for discontinuation, time to virological failure, and long-term safety.

The present sub-analysis evaluated the effect of gender on long-term outcomes (efficacy, measured as time to virological failure, and safety) of ATV/RTV-based regimens in this cohort.

About REYATAZ®

Developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb, REYATAZ (atazanavir sulfate) is an antiviral drug used in combination with other medicines to treat individuals infected with the human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1).7 REYATAZ was the first once-daily protease inhibitor launched in Europe.8,9

About Bristol-Myers Squibb Company

Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases.

Contacts

Media:

Annie Simond, office: + 33 01 58 83 65 66

Joanna Ritter, office: + 33 01 58 83 65 09

Sources:

1.    World Health Organisation: “Annual rate of newly diagnosed HIV infections in Europe more than doubled,” December 2009. Available at http://www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-publish/information-for-the-media/sections/press-releases/2009/12/annual-rate-of-newly-diagnosed-hiv-infections-in-europe-more-than-doubled. Accessed February 2011.

2.    Sonnerborg A., et al. Long-term gender-based outcomes for Atazanavir/Ritonavir (ATV/r)-based regimens in HIV-1 positive treatment-experienced patients in a clinical setting. Poster MOPE223 accepted to IAS 2011.

3.    UNAIDS. Press statement: “International Women’s Day 2011,” March 2011. Available at http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2011/march/20110308psiwd/. Accessed June 2011.

4.    BBC News: “UN Warns HIV/AIDS Leading Cause of Death in Women.” Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8546655.stm. Accessed March 2010.

5.    Wilkin, T. HIV-positive women in clinical trials: Important, but underrepresented. The Body. 2003. Available at http://www.thebody.com/content/art15069.html. Accessed June 2011.

6.    GRACE :http://natap.org/2010/1stwomenConf/1stwomenConf_15.htm

7.    Squires KE et al. Comparative gender analysis of the efficacy and safety of atazanavir/ritonavir and lopinavir/ritonavir at 86 weeks in the CASTLE study.JAntimicrob Chemother 2011;66:363-370

8.    European Medicines Agency. REYATAZ: EPAR Summary for the public. Updated March 2009. Available at http://www.ema.europa.eu/humandocs/PDFs/EPAR/reyataz/H-494-en1.pdf. Accessed 26 May 2010.

9.    The Body, Switching Antiretroviral Therapy. Available at http://www.thebody.com/content/art38572.html. Accessed 25 May 2010.

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Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

New Thriller, WIRED, Called “Fricking Brilliant!” Novel Written by Comic-Con Special Guest, Douglas E. Richards, is Winning Raves and Taking Readers by Storm

New York, NY (PRWEB) July 19, 2011

Former genetic engineer and biotech executive, Douglas E. Richards, has gone back to his roots with WIRED, a new thriller combining pulse-pounding action, mind-blowing science, and intriguing concepts that readers will be contemplating long after they’ve read the last page.

“If you’re looking for a slam-bang, keep-you-up-all-night thriller, crack open WIRED and enjoy the ride,” says bestselling thriller author Boyd Morrison. “This adventure is crammed with intense action, mind-blowing concepts, and breathtaking twists.”

In WIRED, Kira Miller is a brilliant genetic engineer who discovers how to temporarily achieve savant-like capabilities in all areas of thought and creativity. But what if this transcendent level of intelligence brings with it a ruthless megalomania?

Former special-forces operative David Desh is reactivated for one last mission: to find Kira Miller, the enigmatic genius behind a bioterror plot that threatens millions. But when Desh learns that the bioterror plot is just the tip of the iceberg, he is thrust into a byzantine maze of deception and intrigue, and he becomes a key player in a deadly game he can’t begin to understand. A game that is certain to have a dramatic impact on the future course of human history. . .

Author Douglas E. Richards has written for National Geographic, The Journal of Virology, the BBC, and many others. In honor of his work, Richards was invited to San Diego Comic-Con International in 2010, along with such icons as Stan Lee and Ray Bradbury, as a “special guest,” where he signed books and presented on the art of writing can’t-put-down thrillers. “My mission with WIRED was to write an intelligent, mainstream thriller that would keep readers racing through the pages,” says Richards, “but also one containing thought-provoking concepts that readers would long remember. I couldn’t be happier with how the book turned out.”

For a limited time, WIRED is being offered by all major eBook retailers for the introductory price of only $ .99.

“WIRED is a brilliant concept,” adds Boyd Morrison. “I was blown away.”

For more information visit the author’s official website below, or check out the “Wall” on his Facebook page, Douglas E. Richards Author

Links to WIRED on Amazon, B&N.com, eBooks.com

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Gold Prices Climb to a Record High!

PostGoldForCash.com

(PRWEB) July 19, 2011

Today, BBC News reported that the price of gold has hit a new record price of $ 1610 an ounce. It climbed above $ 1,600 for the first time on Monday, capping a record-breaking rally of eleven days of gains.

Bournemouth-based gold buyer Postgoldforcash.com is urging people to take advantage of these high gold prices and sell their gold while they can still get a phenomenal price for it.

This latest rise in the gold price is the latest in a long line of rises which saw gold rocket 27% in price between January 2010 and April 2011.

Why have gold prices risen so much lately?

Gold always rises in price during periods of financial instability. The recent issues in Greece have made Europe’s recovery from recession seem even more faltering.

Financial or political instability means that people seek to preserve their wealth in the best way they can. Gold is seen as the best investment because it is so rare.

Demand for gold pushes the prices up.

Why should people sell their gold?

The BBC News report has made it even clearer that now has never been a better time to sell gold! With prices being so high, people will get a great price for gold.

However with the world slowly recovering from recession, what goes up must come down.

Kerry Patton, Head of Marketing at Postgoldforcash.com says:

“Now has never been a better time to sell your gold. Prices are the highest they have ever been! Because prices are set to come down soon, you should make the most of this and sell your gold. You can get top prices for your gold by selling to Postgoldforcash.com”.

Postgoldforcash.com pays amazing prices for gold and makes sure that customers get their payments based on the very latest gold price figures.

Who is Postgoldforcash.com?

Postgoldforcash.com is a Bournemouth-based gold buyer. They have over twenty years experience in the gold buying and selling industry and use this vast experience to make sure customers are happy at all times.

Postgoldforcash.com does not charge customers to sell their gold. On the contrary, they will pay for the postage, packaging and insurance on the gold they receive and operate a very quick service.

Simply head across to http://www.postgoldforcash.com and order the free gold selling pack now.

Selling gold for cash has never been more profitable!

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Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Daisy Rock Instrumental in Teaching Today Show’s Natalie Morales How to Rock

The Today Show’s Natalie Morales was shown how to play the guitar on Daisy Rock’s Pixie Acoustic Pink Sparkle

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) July 20, 2011

Daisy Rock Girl Guitars, the original girl-guitar company, was featured on The Today Show. Host, Natalie Morales, was shown how to play the Daisy Rock guitar in the NBC morning show’s current feature “Show and Tell TODAY” where each host take turns teaching each other their favorite hobbies. The segment was filmed at Guitar Bar in Hoboken, NJ.

Fulfilling her dream of playing guitar, Natalie Morales had a private session with her show co-host—and guitarist/vocalist—Savannah Guthrie to learn how to play the guitar. The guitar chosen for the task: Daisy Rock’s Pixie Acoustic guitar, Pink Sparkle finish. From holding and indentifying the guitar parts, to fret positioning and taking her first strum, Natalie received patient instruction from the self-taught Savannah.

To view the entire “Show and Tell TODAY” segment, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJIFeI70Hn8&feature=channel_video_title

“It looks great – if I could just learn how to play it,” commented Morales on playing the sparkly finished guitar. The show segment led to their first live free concert in the streets of Hoboken NJ, featuring a folk-tinged duet performance of “You Are My Sunshine.” The segment closed with Natalie satisfied with her experience and declaring a newfound appreciation for guitar playing.

Daisy Rock Girl Guitars is doing whatever it takes to help girls play guitar and enjoy music. With a complete line of quality girl guitars and basses, from their trademark “Slim & Narrow” neck profile to lightweight bodies, Daisy Rock Girl Guitars are designed to look and sound great, and to fit the female form. For more information, visit daisyrock.com.

ABOUT DAISY ROCK GIRL GUITARS

Daisy Rock Girl Guitars is the original girl guitar company dedicated to successfully supplying and marketing professional quality guitars for females of all ages. All Daisy Rock guitars are designed specifically for the female form and feature lightweight bodies, “Slim & Narrow” neck profiles to better fit smaller hands, and are available in inspiring finishes. Daisy Rock Girl Guitars’ ongoing mission is to do whatever it takes to help girls play guitar and enjoy music.

Daisy Rock Girl Guitars is led by its Founder and President, Tish Ciravolo. Ciravolo is a highly acclaimed expert on female empowerment and females in music. Tish’s expertise has been immortalized by her induction into the Museum of Making Music, the world’s premier museum showcasing the history of the music products industry, and she is widely regarded as a visionary in the industry. Ciravolo’s deep insight into the subject of girl guitars and female empowerment has made her a sought after and frequent contributor on national and international television, newspapers, magazines, websites, and radio programs including People, Time, Newsweek, CNN, ABC, NBC, FOX, VH1, the Premier Radio Network, BBC Radio, and the Associated Press. Daisy Rock Girl Guitars is in over 25 countries worldwide, and is co-owned and distributed by Alfred Music Publishing.

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Kanban for Technology Development and Business Management Training Class Returns to Seattle August 18-19

David J. Anderson and Associates is a management consulting firm focused on improving performance of technology companies. Anderson has more than 20 years management experience leading teams on agile

Seattle, WA (PRWEB) July 20, 2011

David J. Anderson & Associates today announced an intensive 2-day Kanban training class designed to provide users with an introduction to Lean, Pull Systems and the Kanban Method and how each can be used to vastly improve the software development process to improve predictability, frequency of delivery, risk management and quality. The workshop will be held at Courtyard Marriott Seattle Downtown/Lake Union in Seattle August 18-19.

Kanban is a term used to describe a type of pull system and originally found in lean manufacturing. A new form of Kanban was introduced by David J. Anderson in 2004 while working at Microsoft, and later Corbis, in Seattle. This time Kanban is designed for knowledge work environments such as software development where inefficiencies are even harder to pinpoint due to the absence of physical inventory and the constant variation in the work produced. In Kanban for knowledge work, development processes are streamlined by better coordination driven primarily by improved visibility and greater focus on highest value work.

The workshop is based on David J. Anderson’s popular book “Kanban – Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business”. Attendees of the class will receive a copy of the new book.

“I’m excited to bring Kanban back to its birthplace in Seattle for this class,” said David J. Anderson. “Through our classes around the world, thousands have learned how Kanban can change organizations by jumpstarting new ideas to unleash productivity, innovation, collaboration and creativity. If you are a software development executive, project manager, development manager, project lead or developer and you would like to learn how Lean, and Kanban can provide a useful perspective to consider the entire value chain beyond the pure software development, this Kanban class is for you.”

Many people previously involved in Agile systems such as Scrum or Extreme Programming are now looking into Kanban as a way to improve predictability and manage work in a continuous flow while still observing some of the Agile practices such as cross functional teams and daily communication.

Lean concepts such as kanban systems having been gaining greater adoption in technology departments across a broad range of industries in various organizations. Companies that have adopted the Kanban Method include Deloitte, MSN and BBC.

Among the topics that will be covered in the 2-day workshop:

Day 1 Kanban Mechanics 

Demand Analysis
Workflow Mapping
Visualization
Work Item Types
WIP Limits
Classes of Service
Service Level Agreements (SLA)
Kanban Simulation Game

Day 2 Why Kanban 

Recipe for Success
Case Studies
Improvement Opportunities
Understanding Variation
Bottleneck Management
Economic Cost Model for Lean (Waste)
Metrics

Leading the workshop will be Daniel Vacanti. He is a 15 year software industry veteran who specializes in the leading, mentoring, and coaching of teams in lean and agile practices. Daniel has worked with David Anderson for over 10 years and was a Development Manager on some of the earliest and largest Kanban implementations.

Space is limited and the event is expected to sell out so interested attendees are encouraged to register early for this event. A discount is offered for those who register before August 4, 2011.

About David J. Anderson

David J. Anderson and Associates is a management consulting firm focused on improving performance of technology companies. Anderson has more than 20 years management experience leading teams on agile software development projects. David was a founder of the agile movement through his involvement in the creation of Feature Driven Development. He was also a founder of the APLN, a non-profit dedicated to improving management and leadership in technology companies. Recently David has been focusing his attention on business agility and enterprise scale agile software transitions through a synergy of the CMMI model for organizational maturity with Agile and Lean methods.

David has been a manager and leader of great software teams delivering cutting edge software products since 1991. He has a successful track record of building progressively bigger teams capable of hyper productive performance and superior quality. He has authored two books, “Agile Management for Software Engineering – Applying the Theory of Constraints for Business Results” published in 2003, and “Kanban – Successful Evolutionary Change for your Technology Business” in 2010.

David is a founder of the Lean Software & Systems Consortium, a not for profit organization that seeks to bring a new level of professional conduct and capability to the software and systems engineering professions. David also helped create the Limited WIP Society a loosely affiliated organization to encourage the development of a community of people using Kanban (and other pull systems) in software engineering and project management. He is a co-author of the Technical Note from the Software Engineering Institute, “Agile and CMMI: Why not embrace both!”

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Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Lead Astray

United Kingdom (PRWEB) October 26, 2007

People across the UK are experiencing a sharp rise in lead theft from flat roofs and this includes home owners, shop proprietors and even local schools. Reports from the BBC website (http://www.bbc.co.uk) show that this problem is becomming a nationwide issue. But help is at hand says flat roofing specialist, Sarnafil Roof Assured.

The value of scrap lead has risen sharply and this has seen an increase in theft, particularly from flat roofs, porches and bay windows. Several Police Forces have already launched local operations to crackdown on this latest spate and have advised homeowners in particular to be wary even when replacing lead on roofs.

In response to this, homeowners have taken the opportunity to replace their flat lead roofs with a similar appearing Sarnafil flat roof solution. Miss Marsh, from Halesowen experienced lead theft and decided to invest in this alternative low maintenance roof solution: “Having experienced the theft several weeks ago we took the decision to invest in an alternative product to ensure that the theft would not happen again. Even the Police suggested that if the lead was replaced it could still be liable for further theft, so we took this course of action and are delighted with the result.”

Mark Harris from Sarnafil Roof Assured comments, “Our installers have received a number of enquiries from homeowners and shopkeepers who’ve experienced lead theft from their roofs. Blooms Menswear of Wolverhampton is another example and fell victim when two roofs were completely stripped of lead in the centre of town. A Sarnafil solution was installed to ensure the same theft did not repeat itself.” He adds: “Our installers are advising people to keep an eye out on their roofs to ensure that any theft from the roof doesn’t result in any further damage or in leaks within the property.”

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