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E-Waste Primer for California

October 25th, 2011

With the advent of the computer era, and the ongoing miniaturization of circuitry, the world is fairly awash in electronic “stuff,” and it’s cheaper to replace many devices than fix them. So we throw away tons of electronic waste (e-waste) including TVs, monitors, laptop and desktop computers, printers, cell phones, faxes, copiers, etc. Even today’s iMac is tomorrow’s e-waste. Government at all levels has taken steps to deal with the issue. As CRE is headquartered in California – among the states that lead in eco-friendly initiatives – we will focus this e-waste primer on the Golden State.

Overview

If electronic waste is disposed of in landfills or illegally dumped, it could introduce toxic matter into the ground water and otherwise pollute the environment. Also, with limited landfill area available, it is basic good sense to reduce, reuse and recycle what we can. With these matters in mind, Electronics Waste Recycling California passed its Electronic Waste Recycling Act in 2003 (expanded in 2005). It included an “Advance Recycling Fee” of $6-10 charged at the point of sale on video displays, as well as recycling and administrative requirements.

What should I do with e-waste?

E-waste is collected for free at L.A. County Household Hazardous/ Electronics Waste Collection Events that are scheduled every weekend throughout the year. Various cities, including the City of Los Angeles, also operate centers for the public. Most services are available at no charge to residents. There are currently six permanent HHW collection centers in the County.

If your electronics are still usable, you can list them on LACoMAX, the County’s materials exchange website, or donate them to charity. Some charities, notably Goodwill, even accept broken-but-repairable electronics like obsolete computers. (If you buy instead of rent laptops, you’ll be giving them yours every couple of years, too.) In addition, you can contact your own City’s recycling department to learn of other programs.

To find a recycler in L.A. County, use the DWP’s Smart Business Recycler Locator or check the databases maintained by CalRecycle (particularly useful for businesses). Here are the links:

• LACoMAX materials exchange website

• The DWP’s Smart Business Recycler Locator

• CalRecycle database listings

• Erecycle.org – another great resource

Remember the three Rs

• Reduce waste – buy only what you need, use only what you buy. CRE’s business model is green at its very core, as our entire inventory – from event production rentals to high-tech production gear – is available without making large capital outlays. We’re “sharing the wealth” tech-wise and reducing unnecessary consumption.

• Reuse what you have – by giving useful items to friends or charity.

• Recycle things – when they’re no longer useful to anyone.

CRE is your one-stop shop for high-end post-production gear, convention rentals, computers, office equipment, audio/visual support – everything you need, for everything you do. Call or e-mail an expert Account Executive, or use the Quick Rental Quote form, and get exactly what you need for what you do!

Engage Customers with Touch Technology

September 29th, 2011

Yankee Group analysts estimate that Apple Stores earn about $5,000 per square foot, surpassing even Tiffany’s $2,700 figure. Among the reasons for their success? The stores are totally “touchy feely.” Touchscreens abound while self-paced intros and other multimedia programming pull buyers ever deeper into the “Apple Universe.”

At your next trade show or conference, you too can engage customers with touch technology. Whether you equip your trade show booth with an LCD touchscreen monitor rental, or use one in combination with ipads or tablets, the hands-on approach is a winner with customers everywhere.

Why use touch technology?

Visitors to your trade show booth will be (a) people you invited or (b) passersby motivated to stop. They need some sort of business solution, and your product or service may be it. How do you engage them?

Set up your touch-enabled devices so that you can capture trade show prospects with a plasma display rental running an animated invitation or video. Or, showcase touch-to-learn presentations, sales collateral materials or technical papers installed on iPad rental, tablets or touch-enabled monitors.

It is easy enough to connect a Mac Pro to touchscreen monitors, but what if your product is PC software, what do you do? CRE has an all-in-one multitouch display PC that is perfect for you. And don’t forget, if you have a tangible product (or an intangible, like software, in a tangible box), people will want to “touch” that, too.

Tips to engage customers

Once you get people’s attention, you have to deliver a good show. Here are some tips:

• Trade show visitors complain about leaving booths feeling “unimportant.” You must be personally proactive and not simply rely on trade show convention rentals and equipment to do the whole job.

• Your presentations and interactive marketing tools are not just visual. Sound design is critical, so get your creative folks to find the right sound effects, dialog and background music for the effect you seek.

• Finally, don’t forget that you can rent interactive kiosks that are touchscreen-equipped, as well. These are handy for capturing contact information in places you can’t be.

You want to create a smooth, flowing process: Capture passersby, use your touch-enabled tools to let them “try before buying,” turn them loose at their own pace – then be on hand to answer any questions.

Want to learn how to use touch technology at your next trade show or event? Call or e-mail an Account Executive who can walk you through all the “touch” tools we carry. If you know what you need, use the Quick Rental Quote form right now!

The Growth of Webcasting | Simulcasting

September 27th, 2011

“Webcasting” delivers a media file over the Internet, or “streams” it, sending the same content to hundreds, thousands, even millions of simultaneous viewers. Like radio/TV broadcasts, the media can be live, recorded or both. As technology progresses and prices fall, the growth of webcasting continues in dramatic fashion. After being adopted at first for continuing education and other niche uses, it is now an important tool for corporate management teams.

As opposed to the government-delimited radio/TV spectrum, the Internet has enough bandwidth to accommodate plenty of webcasters. While today’s biggest ones are major media operations that “simulcast” their content, the most exciting thing about webcasting for businesspeople, especially marketing pros, is how easy, inexpensive and effective it can be.

A “Must-Have” Technology

Businesses have gleefully adopted the new technologies of the Internet Era as they have appeared. When the graphical layer of the Internet we call “the World Wide Web” launched in the early 1990s, having a website soon became a must. A series of other must-have technologies followed and, in fact, today’s iPad rentals are one of the most-wanted must-haves ever.

Right now, though, webcasting/simulcasting is the latest “big thing.” Webcasting is already being used quite extensively in firms large and small for presentations, annual meetings, e-learning (class simulcasts and “webinars”) and other communications activities. With potent CRE computer rentals for the media and webcasting duties – and everything from microphones to mixers to capture the “sights and sounds” of the event, courtesy of our audio visual rentals – we’ve got you covered.

Marketing Benefits

Simulcasting adds viewers around the world at very low cost. If you use CRE for your convention rentals, and plan to do a breakout session, we can help you simulcast it over the Internet. Major convention keynote speeches – and events like Sting’s upcoming appearance at Oracle OpenWorld 2011 – have been simulcast for several years now, but costs are now low enough for everyone.

The webcasting experience of Cisco, a major technology leader, is instructive. Adding webcasting to its annual event in 2009 was “a big risk,” or so the execs thought. The result? There were 10,000 at the live event, and another 5,000 remote attendees, over half of whom were first-timers. Better yet, between a quarter and a third of those remote attendees attended the annual event in later years. Cisco’s experience changed the way this already-successful company did business.

With live audiences, you can use CRE’s Audience Response System rentals to elicit real-time feedback. With a webcast, you have free reign to make it as interactive and collaborative as you want. The options are as numerous as the opportunities in this exciting era of “broadcast democratization,” and CRE can help you every step of the way. Call or e-mail an Account Executive, or use the Quick Rental Quote form, and get your show on the road – and simulcast it, too!

Impressing Conference Attendees, Part 2

September 22nd, 2011

Yesterday, we dealt dealt with pre-conference promotion and exhibit preparation (check out the post: Impressing Conference Attendees, Part 1) Today, CRE Rentals covers promotion at the conference itself, in addition to the vitally important follow-up after the show.

Promotion at the conference

• Sponsorships and participation – If you can arrange to lead a conference session under the aegis of the host organization or company, it positions you as an expert in your field. Although you would not promote your services in these settings, you will benefit from priceless word of mouth. If you use projector rentals for a presentation, it would be acceptable for you to have your logo or business name at the bottom of the images – but be discreet.

• Giveaways – Consider freebies for visitors to your booth. People do like logos, especially on useful little items like key rings, sticky notes, fridge magnets and such. Do not be cheap. It is better to have nothing at all than a penny mint or plastic wristband. Naturally, be frugal, too. Outfit your conference team with MacBook Pro rentals and your giveaways can be digital, and you can deliver them to other Mac users with OS X Lion’s new Airdrop feature – over WiFi or peer-to-peer.

• Brochures and business cards – You can never bring enough of these. If you run out… never mind, it’s too horrible to contemplate. An updated business card with all your contact info is always the #1 thing on experts’ lists of “what not to forget to bring to the convention.” Don’t be shy about spreading them around, either.

• Touchy-feely togetherness – LCD touchscreen monitor rentals are great for engaging and impressing booth visitors, and you can customize any number of approaches to lead them to the right conclusion about your product or service. With a printer hooked up, booth visitors can print a variety of materials themselves. This guarantees they’ll leave with contact info for your firm.

Post-conference follow-up

This is the “forgotten step” in many conference marketing strategies. It is important to follow up with everyone whose contact information you captured – at your booth, or with strategically placed interactive kiosk rentals – and it is also important to revisit your original invitation list. Since many firms do zero follow-up, you will impress conference attendees with your attention to detail – and your attention to their company! You can use post-conference reports available (for a fee) from the association hosting the event to identify other contacts. “Sorry we missed you at GlobalWorldCon 2011,” you could say, then steer the recipients to your website.

CRE has a full range of convention rentals, and decades of experience helping firms impress conference attendees. One call or e-mail is all it takes to get a knowledgeable Account Executive on the job for you, and a couple of minutes is all it takes for you to get what you know you need with our Quick Rental Quote form. How can we help you?

Emerging Display Technologies

September 8th, 2011

If you haven’t said “goodbye” to the cathode ray tube (CRT), it may soon be too late. The tubes are goners, displaced first in the 1990s by the technology in our plasma rentals, then by LCD screens that continued the trend toward lighter, flatter and less power-hungry. We are already in the midst of a surge in screens like CRE’s LCD touchscreen monitor rentals, but there are new ideas on the horizon promising screens that are flatter, lighter and more energy-efficient still.

The next big thing

OLED Displays

Kodak developed the first OLED (organic light-emitting diode) displays in 1987. As opposed to older technologies, the screen’s individual display elements emit their own light, meaning no separate lighting source. Ditching the light source makes OLED displays lighter, thinner and more energy-efficient. Future desktop displays, TVs and even laptop rentals will start to feature these OLED displays once the price starts its downward trajectory.

Since these displays are still new, they’re still expensive. The first appeared on mobile phones, quickly becoming standard equipment in the high-end Samsung models as well as phones from Nokia, Google and others. Rumor has it that the upcoming iPhone 5 will have the technology.

From OLED to… ?

Phones, TV screens and monitors are only the beginning. It won’t be long before CRE’s iPad rentals and other tablets feature OLED screens. In fact, Samsung has already announced plans for an OLED-screened tablet. Industry analysts see OLEDs as the next “big thing” and sales should take off in the next year or two.

Of course, OLED is not the only game in town, not by a long shot. These other display technologies will be vying for dominance in a hustling, bustling market:

• Super LCD (SLCD) is another challenger for that screen dominance. It offers improved color fidelity and screen contrast than previous LCD panels, but uses more power than AMOLED.

• AMOLED (active matrix organic light omitting diode) is, as the name suggests, one of the related display technologies being built off the success of OLEDs.

• Super AMOLED (SAMOLED) is the result of Samsung combining a touch panel with the top glass layer of an AMOLED display. The first panel specs suggest a form factor similar to CRE’s tablet PC rentals. Less material between the screen colors and your eyes means better images at every resolution.

Speaking of resolutions, we can help you resolve all your workflow challenges and digital dilemmas. Need gobs of storage for that video project? Consider our Ethernet disk RAID rentals. Need an interactive kiosk rentals for a trade show lobby? Got you covered. One call or e-mail is all it takes to put an experienced Account Executive on the job to help you find the right solutions. If you already have it figured out, use the handy Quick Rental Quote form.

5 Great iPad Apps for Events

September 6th, 2011

Mobile, powerful, flexible and customizable, the original iPad was already a great device for event planning when we blogged about the subject in January of this year. Since then, we have seen the introduction of a potent upgrade, the iPad 2, with plenty of new (as well as newly improved) apps. Here are five great iPad apps for events.

Flexible planner

OmniGraffle, by The Omni Group, is among the most expensive iPad apps (at $49.99), but is worth every cent. With simple gestures you can draw shapes, make notes and develop your ideas, while templates (called “stencils”) help you track convention rentals, create floor plans, visualize processes and manage people. You can output PDFs or transfer your files to OmniGraffle for Mac with this professional-grade app.

Banquet boss

You can get a lot of power for less, too, like $2.99 for myBanquet by Upiksoft. It gives you everything you need to manage food services for small meetings or annual shareholder conferences. You can import contacts, design floor plans, assign seating, manage guest lists/RSVPs and more. You can also save banquet plans for reuse and share them with other myBanquet users. There are similar programs for tablet PC rentals or laptops, but the iPad’s small form factor and ease of use make it the platform of choice.

Travel troubles?

GroundLink lets you book car service in seconds for today, tomorrow or next month. As opposed to some “limo” apps that work only in select cities, GroundLink works around the world. With the app running on one of our iPad rentals, you can see what vehicles are available, track the arrival of your car with a specified ETA, view your route and check the charges prior to booking.

The simple things

Avantar’s free White & Yellow Pages app has comprehensive listings and powerful search functions. Search for people and businesses – by industry, name, address or phone number – and work with the results to add/edit contacts, save favorites, link to sites and get GPS driving directions. Whether you need to find a photographer or some plasma rentals, this phone book is all you need.

Ever improving Evernote

The free Evernote app is the original iOS “cloud service.” Its evolving set of capabilities can help you plan an event of any size, style or purpose. Simply create a “notebook” for your event and save your notes, ideas, photos, Web sites, contacts, contracts and voice memos. You can install the appropriate Evernote program on everything from iPhones to iMac rentals, too, to keep everything (and everyone) in sync.

When you and your digital workflow are out of sync, a simple call or e-mail to our experienced Account Executives can get you back on track. With post-production gear (like AJA Io HD rentals) and everything you need for a successful trade show exhibit (like LCD touchscreen monitor rentals), we’ve got you covered – completely. (Know what you need? Use our handy Quick Rental Quote form.)

10 New Technologies You’ll See in 2012 (Part 2)

August 25th, 2011

In Part 1 of “10 New Technologies You’ll See in 2012″, we gave you the first 5 new technologies to expect in the future. Today, lets get the last five blockbuster developments which includes even more hardware, software, smart appliances and multipurpose devices.

6. Android 4. Technoids are looking forward to the Samsung Nexus, and not because of the phone – it will be the first smart phone to run Ice Cream Sandwich or Android 4. (Android 3 was called Honeycomb. Go figure.) Although Apple holds the lead in smart phones and tablets with its iOS-powered devices, Android is a solid alternative in both product categories, and new ones like embedded systems.

7. Branded tablets. Following the successful Kindle 3, Amazon is revising its approach to branding and product development. There has been talk of a touchscreen version, and the rumor mill now suggest that Amazon will release two different Android tablets in 2012. Aggressive pricing is a given, as is the entry into the tablet market of innumerable other companies.

8. Hybrid hard drives. Solid State Drives (SSDs) are fast, but expensive. Rotating-platter hard drives are inexpensive and offer huge storage capacities, but can’t keep up with CPU and system bus speeds. Until SSD prices come down with time, hybrid drives will combine fast-booting SSDs with big conventional drives to speed things up a bit. For swift, large- scale storage today you can rely on Ethernet disk RAID rentals, but tomorrow’s technology will encompass a variety of drive types and configurations.

9. Multi-touch commands. The futuristic trackpads on the new MacBook Pro rentals and Apple’s Magic Trackpad, introduced multi-touch commands to modern computing. Other manufacturers’ laptops, tablets and digitizing pads are moving the same direction, as the touch interface is natural for humans. As the screen costs continuing dropping, you will find touch commands on everything from vending machines to refrigerators.

10. Wireless everything. We had a blog with that title last November, which is ages ago in “tech time.” Suffice it to say that we really mean everything this time. You’ve seen the WiFi all-in-one office devices, right? HP was a trailblazer, but WiFi printing and scanning is old hat now, especially compared to the astonishing new “EyeFi” SecureDigital cards. They’re so astonishing, in fact, that they made our “Gadget Fun for August” blog last week. Pay attention, in particular, to advances in wireless power and charging stations.

CRE pays close attention to tech trends, as well as what its customers need. With great service to complement the expertise of our Account Executives, your call or e-mail will get you the right answers, right now. If you know what you need, of course, our Quick Rental Quote form will get you in, out and on your way.

10 New Technologies You’ll See in 2012 (Part 1)

August 23rd, 2011

We’re deep enough into 2011 to make some “tech predictions” for 2012, despite the big non-tech prediction calling it humanity’s last year of existence. We prefer to think positively, and we’re positive you will find the “10 New Technologies You’ll See in 2012″ Parts 1 and 2 – as useful as they are interesting.

1. Windows 8. Windows 7 came out ahead of the usual Microsoft (MS) schedule due to the low adoption rates of Vista. Windows 7, more stable than its predecessor, has been well received on CRE computer rentals. (Meanwhile, so many people stuck with XP that MS finally had to declare an end to XP support in April 2014 to prod its installed base of users along the upgrade path.) Watch for Windows 8 in 2012, with cloud integration and a complete overhaul of the file system.

2. New components and form factors. The cylindrical tube in the accompanying image looks very much like a futuristic scroll. Cylindrical tube component Unlike great laptop rentals, this device isn’t ready for work yet, but computer scientist and designer Hao Hua’s “next generation laptop design” does feature emerging tech like a flexible OLED screen, flexible pull-out keyboard, straps with USB outlets and a wrist-mounted webcam. You will see these features debuting independently in new products that will compete for attention (and buyers) starting next year.

3. Smart TVs. The Vizio XVT3D6SP has a very easily satirized model name – it looks like comic book swearing – but it won CNET’s Best of CES award in the TV category and is a major hit. Passive 3D functionality, LED backlighting and Google in the DNA makes it part of a true dynamic duo when paired with an Android phone or tablet. The era of net- and computer-connected TVs is fully upon us, and this is the trailblazer.

4. iPhone 5. Rumors of a radical new design are based on the assumption that the Apple iPhone 5 needs a new lease on life. Instead, say other observers, Apple will follow its usual evolutionary path. The iPhone isn’t new, and doesn’t need much in the way of new excitement to stay wildly popular. It is much more likely that internal improvements – an A5 processor, FaceTime cameras like those found in MacBook Pro rentals, improved battery life – will get the nod, as the body and screen are already gorgeous.

5. LightPeak aka Thunderbolt. Sony is incorporating leading-edge technology throughout all its product lines. For its VAIO PCs and laptops, some of which are in our computer rentals inventory, Sony has now added the same next-gen connection technology (LightPeak, aka Thunderbolt) that the new iMac rentals have, and other computer makers are poised to follow.

Unfortunately, we can’t help you with these new technologies just yet but we can offer you some other digital strategies to improve your company’s workflow. Talk it over with an expert Account Executive in a phone call or e-mail, or use the Quick Rental Quote if you know what you need. We’re always ready to help!

Don’t forget to check out Part 2 – “10 New Technologies You’ll See in 2012.”

Best iPad Apps for Marketers (Part 2 of 2)

August 18th, 2011

Today, we are wrapping up our list of best iPad apps for Marketers (check out Part 1 ). These mobile marketing tools include iPad apps for event organizers to news aggregators and more. Let’s jump right in.

iPad apps

iPad apps for planning and event management

Great marketing campaigns succeed because the responsibilities are defined, the tasks organized and the schedule followed. Personal planners, like Todo, help make all that happen, and document how, as you proceed step by step to your goals. The app syncs with iCal or Outlook calendars, including ones shared on iMac rentals, enabling you to schedule reminders, set alerts, keep a conference team in sync and manage your contacts. ($4.99)

Bento is something like Todo, as it also helps you organize customers and contacts. It has a “big brand” pedigree, though, as it is from the makers of Filmaker Pro, a full-fledged relational database. Like Filemaker, Bento can track projects, organize meetings and plan events. With 25 templates to customize for whatever you could possibly have to organize – a Keynote presentation, your customer contacts, an event schematic or date/time lists of things to do – Bento will take you all the way. ($4.99)

Apps for news, info and connections

Flipboard is an “aggregator,” not a creator of original content. According to your preferences and how much personal data you are willing to give up, the app scours the Internet to present just what you want in a slick, magazine-style layout. Mix business magazines with The Onion, subscribe to whatever feeds you want and monitor your Twitter, Google Reader, Facebook and Flickr accounts. You can keep multiple “boards” with different kinds of contacts and information, making Flipboard an excellent communications solution for business and personal use. (Free)

It’s not the first app to turn into a cult, but Instapaper Pro users in the millions (yes, millions) swear it changed their lives. This potent product lets you save Web pages for later offline reading – just click to save the “good stuff,” which you can then access from smart phones, laptop rentals and other devices. It is unsurpassed as a browser tool for researchers, writers, corporate creatives and tech professionals – and the marketing pros that sometimes wear all those hats. ($4.99)

All apps are available at the App Store, iTunes, the developer’s site and other locations.

CRE doesn’t just have the best, most powerful high-tech tools – from Xserve rentals for networking to the post-production pro’s best friend, our render farm rentals – but expert Account Executives to provide specific solutions to your unique challenges. A quick call or e-mail, or a visit to our Quick Rental Quote page, will get you what you need to get you to your goal. It’s what we do.

Best iPad Apps for Marketers (Part 1 of 2)

August 16th, 2011

One reason for the Apple iPad’s astonishing success is its versatility. CRE’s experience with iPad rentals shows they can be all things to all people – a sketchpad for designers, a portable presentation platform for exhibitors, even a mobile video editor. It’s because of the high-quality apps developed for iOS, the software platform iPads share with the iPhone.

iPad Apps

The App Store launched in July 2008 with 500 apps. Apple approved the 500,000th app in late May of this year. From among them, pundits and end-users have made various lists of iPad marketing apps, many overlapping in their suggestions. Of the many apps for tracking trends, leveraging social media, publishing content, planning marketing campaigns and analyzing results, here are the Best iPad Apps for Marketers (Part 1 today, Part 2 on Thursday, August 18th).

Socializing = networking

You will need some or all of your networking apps – Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. – but it is easy to overload and get bogged down. Here comes HootSuite to the rescue, managing your multiple profiles. HootSuite integrates them all so you can post breaking news, locate people, manage schedules, track stats and monitor lists, #hashtags and keywords. (Free)

Content is king

If you have a WordPress blog, the WordPress app for iPad is a no-brainer. A “lite” version focused on easy blogging, it’s best to do page design and other major work on a computer. Still, the widescreen layout gives you plenty of room to write, edit, moderate comments, add/remove images and stay on top of your content wherever you are. WordPress also released a plug-in that makes Web sites “iPad friendly”. (Both free)

Photos and graphics

Pictures do speak louder (and faster) than words. They bring life and energy to blogs, marketing brochures and e-mail ads. Photoshop Express, now at version 2.0, is the perfect photo-editing tool for on-the-go marketing pros, a simple but sophisticated app for creating, cropping, rotating, revising and repurposing photos and images. (Free, optional tool pack $3.99)

Analyze sites and monitor ROI

AnalyticsPro is a powerful, flexible app that uses your Google Analytics account for on-the-fly decision-making. You can get detailed reports on Search Keywords, Top Content, Top 10 Countries, Referral Sources, Traffic Sources, etc., and analyze the Return On Investment (ROI) of your marketing campaigns. You can export those reports as PDF and other formats, and view them on everything from smart phones to tablet PC rentals. ($5.99)

All apps are available at the App Store, iTunes, the developer’s site and other locations.

Deadlines ahead? Conference coming? An Account Executive will help you get just what you need, to get where you need to go. Make a call, send an e-mail or fill out the Quick Rental Quote form, and we’ll get you what you need to succeed – indeed!

Watch for Part 2 of Best iPad Apps for Marketers coming up on Thursday, August 18th.

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