The Business Growth Summit, being held January 31, 2012 at the FFA Enrichment center in Ankeny, will provide attendees with networking and collaboration opportunities with some of the most inspiring business professionals from Central Iowa and around the world, including:
* Tony Brigmon; Former Ambassador of FUN for Southwest Airlines;
* Geoff Wood, COO for Silicon Prairie News, the premier technology publication for the Midwest;
* Jordan Lampe; Director of Communications at Dwolla, the financial “David” taking on “Goliaths” such as VISA, Chase and PayPal;
* Major Sean Quinlan; Bronze Star recipient from the United States Marine Corps and decorated leader of troops in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan;
* Angela Maiers; President of Maiers Education Services, founder of the #YouMatter movement, and well-known for her speaking appearances at TEDxDesMoines and for her contributions to social media in education;
* An extensive social media panel, including Jure Klepic who was represented in Forbes’ Top 10 Influencers in Social Media, Jeff Barrett who led the 2008 Obama Presidential campaign social media blitz, and Olivier Blanchard, author of “Social Media ROI.”

Participants will spend the day engaging in a new conversation that allows them to “Dream, Set Goals, Make Plans and Take Action,” walking away with their own tangible plan for business success in 2012.

To register, go to http://www.AboveTheLineAmerica.com and click on the Business Growth Summit link.

About Above The Line America:
Above the Line America is a network of professionals who recognize, accept and embrace that they are individually responsible for their success. The Above the Line America network focuses on the “Above the line” actions Authenticity, Accountability, Responsibility and having an Abundance mindset. They are striving to change the conversation and create a better business environment for our partners, members and those they choose to do business with. For more information on Above The Line America or to request membership, go to: www.AboveTheLineAmerica.com .

Media Contact:
Andrew B. Clark,
of CreateWOWmarkeitng, LLC
for Above The Line America
+1-(515)-257-6584
Andrew@CreateWOWmarketing.com .

News Source: Above the Line America :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .

“Frankly, many contractors need a wake-up call,” said Mitchell of his motivation to write the paper. “I’d much rather they get it from a white paper than a compliance officer.”

According to Mitchell, industry recruiting firm BirdDog receives weekly contact from construction firms caught off guard by the workforce diversity requirements of their state and federal contracts. It was the commonality of confusion among contractors that inspired Mitchell to gather up insight from every corner of the industry and put it together in one place, easily accessible to contractors across the nation.

In addition to the team at BirdDog, Mitchell taps a federal road & bridge contractor with OFCCP audit experience, a state Department of Transportation compliance officer and the OFCCP audit experts at consulting firm HudsonMann to round out the paper. Together, they read between the lines of agency documents to help federal contractors understand where the agency is focused, as well as the risks of failing to provide a fully documented good-faith recruitment effort.

“A company’s compliance effort only counts if it is defensible,” writes Mitchell. “In other words, a contractor can be following the rules to a tee, but if he can’t prove it, the company is at risk.”

The paper explores methods for maintaining quality documentation of all hiring, recruiting and promoting behavior inside a federal contracting firm. Among the tools described is BirdDog’s Candidate Acquisition Management System (CAMS), which assists contractors not only in their efforts to achieve compliance with affirmative action and equal opportunity employment mandates, but helps them archive that effort, as well.

“Good record-keeping is the closest thing to bulletproofing yourself,” says Neil Dickinson, managing partner of HudsonMann. “It’s no longer those who discriminate that get into trouble. It’s those who look like they are discriminating simply because they don’t have proof to the contrary.”

The white paper, “Ten Thousand Shades of Gray – The Impact of Workforce Regulations on Federal Contractors” is available for free download at http://bit.ly/diversity-white-paper (links to PDF).

About BirdDog:
Founded in Des Moines in 1997 as Industry People Group, BirdDog hunts and retrieves specialized candidates then tracks and manages them through to the hire in the construction, infrastructure, facilities and engineering industries. The company powers niche job boards BirdDogJobs.com, MEPjobs.com, ASHRAEjobs.com, and AGCiajobs.com, connecting employers with job seekers online. In addition, BirdDog offers a robust Web-based tool providing employers with simplified cross-posting and paperless management tools, reducing the time and investment required to bring top talent on board. For more information, visit www.birddogjobs.com or follow on Twitter @birddog_jobs.

News Source: BirdDog :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .

The concept of multithreading is borrowed from computer processing where millions of calculations are conducted in parallel to speed results. The same theory can applied to conducting marketing activities in any agile business. By leveraging the expertise of numerous “threads,” a business can often make a quantum leap in marketing output.

“The MultiThread Marketer” provides business leaders a template for making the best marketing hire, provides recent graduates and mid-career professionals a road map to dramatically increase their value in the marketplace, and entertains the reader with real life anecdotes and case studies that drive the message home.

“The sheer speed and rapid execution demanded in our hyper-economy makes businesses very uncomfortable today,” says Mike Wagner, professional speaker and leadership consultant. “It takes a special skill set to harness the power of the tools and technology available today without getting overwhelmed. In our work, we see business leaders struggling because their internal teams aren’t equipped for today’s trench warfare marketing.”

Mitchell’s experience in growing his own virtual agency led to writing the MultiThread Marketing book. “I directly experienced the power and speed of putting local expert resources on my projects,” said Mitchell. “We accomplished more in 30 days than most companies achieve in a year and at a fraction of the cost.”

“The MultiThread Marketer: How To Hire (Or Better Yet) Become One” is available at Amazon.com in both print and Kindle formats at $14.95 and $9.95 respectively and on the publisher’s website www.FastPencil.com/marketplace .

About the Author:
Douglas E. Mitchell is a technology start-up veteran and Southern California native who moved to Des Moines in 2005 to reclaim his time, his family, and his destiny. Doug founded createWOWmedia, a virtual marketing agency, in 2008 which he sold in 2010 to focus on writing. Mitchell now holds the Vice President of Marketing position with BirdDogJobs, an Iowa based recruiting technology firm.

For more information about The MultiThread Marketer, please visit www.douglasEmitchell.com .

Book cover, book summary with 2 chapters, and bio photo can be downloaded at: http://bit.ly/MTM-bookcover, http://bit.ly/MTM-press-summary, http://bit.ly/doug-bio-headshot .

Media Contact:
Andrew Clark (for Doug Mitchell)
515-257-6584
andrew@createwowmarketing.com .

News Source: Douglas E. Mitchell :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .

It’s well known that Boesen the Florist has pioneered technology for flower retailers, being the first in the Midwest to have a comprehensive e-commerce site and membership portal to their ever evolving use of social media marketing via Twitter (http://twitter.com/boesenflorist), FaceBook (http://www.facebook.com/BoesenFlorist) and blogging platforms (http://flowersdesmoines.com/). The emerging technological retail sales opportunities of mobile devices piqued their interests quickly.

Continuing to innovate how floral business is done in central Iowa, Frank and Tom Boesen have worked for months in development and research, to access the power of mobile marketing and sales for Boesen the Florist. By adopting the Floral App to the Boesen the Florist merchandising and shopping experience, the Boesen brothers have opened another convenient access point for their current customers as well as opening the doors for generations of floral shoppers to come.

The Floral App, developed by a partnership of florists throughout the United States, is the first of its kind for the floral industry, allowing mobile purchase and sales for every floral opportunity imagined. Whether its a simple birthday wish with a bouquet of Lilies or an elegant wedding party looking for the perfect solutions for their big event, the Boesen the Florist Floral App will be a single access point to make those decisions and purchases easier.

With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, the Boesen brothers would like to invite you to download the mobile apps for your devices to receive a promotional $10 discount on your initial purchase through the app.

Boesen the Florist is also developing an Apple iPhone app that will be able to deliver the same great results and look forward to its launch within the next month.

For more information about Boesen the Florist and the Floral App:
http://flowersdesmoines.com/floral-app .

Boesen the Florist, 515-244-ROSE (7673); 3422 Beaver Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa 50310.

News Source: Boesen the Florist :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .

“Luther College is most appreciative of the continuing scholarship support that Newt and Callista Gingrich provide in the form of the Newt and Callista Gingrich Scholarship Fund,” said Luther College President, Richard Torgerson. “In our sesquicentennial year at Luther, we are focusing on scholarships that provide transformational experiences for students, so this centers directly on one of our most important initiatives. This year, seven Luther students are the beneficiaries of the Gingrich Scholarship.”

“Newt and I are honored to assist talented music students and support the outstanding music program at Luther College,” said Callista Gingrich.

Callista Gingrich is the President of the Gingrich Foundation and President of Gingrich Productions in Washington, DC. She graduated from Luther College with a BA in music in 1988. Speaker Newt Gingrich is the General Chairman of American Solutions for Winning the Future and Founder of the Center for Health Transformation in Washington, DC.

Luther College is an undergraduate liberal arts institution of 2,500 students in Decorah, Iowa, offering more than 60 majors leading to a Bachelor of Arts degree. An independent, residential college, Luther is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and is dedicated to emphasizing the importance of faith, leadership, and community service.

The Gingrich Foundation is a domestic non-profit corporation founded by Callista and Newt Gingrich to support charitable purposes.

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Moses was relinquished to the Animal Rescue League in Des Moines in the spring of 2008 and placed with Habeger that summer. He started his training when he was six months old.

“Moses isn’t afraid of much and loves to bark for his toy, which is how he told me he found the missing man,” said Habeger.

Habeger and Moses certified in January, eight days after Moses turned two. “He’s a great search dog and loves his job,” Habeger added.

The man had been missing from his care facility for approximately six hours dressed in only socks, jeans and a light shirt. “With temperatures around 40 degrees during the night, exposure and hypothermia were real threats to this man’s health and well being,” said Officer Jason Tuttle who helped organize the search that night. “Without these types of highly trained dogs, we may have not had such a happy ending.” Officer Tuttle is with the Ames Police Department.

Moses and Habeger train and deploy with STAR 1 Search and Rescue, Iowa Task Force 1 and are in training with Nebraska Task Force 1. Moses was found through a program between the Animal Rescue League of Iowa and the Paws of Life Foundation.

About Paws of Life:
The Paws of Life Foundation is a registered 501(c)3 non profit organization devoted to the training and education of search and rescue K9 handlers. Paws of Life also work with humane societies and animal shelters to home appropriate dogs in working dog homes. You can find more information at www.pawsoflife.org .

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A recent journal research article supported by researchers at Colorado State University and Ohio State University also found a positive relationship between increased marbling levels and ultimate pH, a major industry standard for measuring pork quality. Years of selection for lean hogs in the USA have removed much of the intramuscular fat from the loin muscle, the fat that provides juiciness and flavor. Loss of natural pork flavor and juiciness has been replaced with salt solutions and flavor enhancers injected into the meat by processors.

Doyle Wilson, President of Biotronics, Inc. (www.biotronics-inc.com) states that, “This new instrument, called BioQscan, has now been tested on more than 20,000 pork carcasses and has proven its ability to operate effectively at chain processing speeds exceeding 1,200 carcasses per hour.” Wilson says that within milliseconds of the BioQscan(R) probe being placed on the skin of a pork carcass, the marbling level is known, allowing each carcass to be differentiated relative to its quality.

Biotronics, Inc. has spent the last 5 years developing and perfecting this technology and is now gearing up for commercial production. An added benefit to the technology is its ability to accurately measure backfat depth and loin depth through noninvasive means, two important traits in the determination of pork carcass percent lean. Pork producers could receive added payment benefits for carcasses meeting minimum marbling specifications while maintaining high percent lean values.

Foreign buyers of pork loins from the USA will be carefully watching this new pork loin grading technology. While many foreign buyers like the majority of the pork they procure from the USA, quality assessments are at best rudimentary, with loins being visually sorted by loin color and perhaps some attempt at marbling level by looking at the outside of skinned boneless loins.

The new BioQscan(R) technology allows the packer to place an instrument graded marbling level on each loin, guaranteeing that it meets minimum levels of marbling. The adequate level of marbling almost always guarantees that each and every pork chop will be juicy and have plenty of good old fashioned flavor.

It is expected that the U.S. high end restaurant chefs will also take a keen interest in this new technology. Pork flavor will increase significantly when marbling is put back in the pork loin.

More information: http://www.biotronics-inc.com .

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STORY REFERENCES: Biotronics, Inc. Announces a Noninvasive Instrument That Can Determine Pork Loin Marbling Level in Milliseconds, Doyle Wilson, BioQscan, farming, cattle, livestock, pork quality, high quality pork, instrument grading system, pork loin grading technology