Seed Organic Cradle

Creating a beautiful, contemporary and safe nursery for your baby can be pricey and confusing, but luxury baby equipment hire specialists Rock-A-Bye Baby Hire can help with the right choice.

Furnish your dream nursery with the very best – without having to invest enormous amounts of money; the best part about Rock-A-Bye Baby Hire’s service is that everything is hired so you’re not outlaying money on products you won’t need after a few months.

Rock-A-Bye Baby Hire has recently added to its exclusive luxury nursery range with the Stokke Collection, and is the only Sydney store to stock the brand, Rock-A-Bye Baby Hire customer service manager Danni Guerreiro said.

“Showing all the modern hallmarks of Scandinavian design, Stokke products are designed and constructed specifically to encourage each child’s individual development and strengthen the bonds between parents and children,” Danni explained.

Thrilled the business is able to offer such an exclusive product to their discerning customers, Danni said the luxury range from Stokke fitted with Rock-A-Bye Baby Hire’s existing brands seamlessly.

“Our motto is safe, clean and affordable. Stokke, with their contemporary design, modern approach and functional products, were the obvious choice when we looked to add to our exclusive range,” Danni added.

Rock-A-Bye Baby Hire customers can select from Stokke Tripp Trapp Highchairs, Stokke Sleepi and Stokke Bounce N Sleep that are functional as well as stylish.

The Stokke Sleepi Cot is the stand out product in this range, with its narrow oval shape design creating a comfortable and safe nest-like resting space for your baby.

Whether its furnishings, strollers or baby car seat hire, the luxurious range of high end products on offer at the Sydney business are sure to match the style and design of your home.

Rock-A-Bye Baby hire helps customers create their dream nursery, assists with hiring from its luxury range of contemporary nursery equipment and even has products for sale. And for those families travelling but not wanting to give up the comforts of home, try the Sydney Airport Concierge Service.

For more information about Rock-A-Bye-Baby Hire and its baby hire range, visit www.rockabyebabyhire.com.au or call (02) 9589 4942.

Docsaway is a PDF-based solution that is ideal for businesses wishing to automate or outsource the mailing of their paper-based documents from a number of locations throughout the world. It’s printed letters – an old school form of communication – being sent in a faster, easier and in a more modern way.

It seems right that Mr Harris set up such a business and has an interest in the changing nature of the service as he has a family history in the postal industry. He comes from a long line of postal workers which started before in the 19th century.

“My ancestors have been providing postal services in Maidwell, a Northamptonshire village in the UK, since the advent of the Penny Post in 1840, starting with a Thomas and Mary Goode,” Mr Harris explained.

“The family link ended after 120 years when my aunt, Dorothy Dixon, closed the Maidwell post office in the 1960s, however our link with the postal service resumed with the creation of L-Mail in 2003,” he added.

Although Docsaway is focused on sending documents via the Internet, the focus is still on a traditional style of communications.

With increased speed of delivery and lower cost for international mail, Docsaway offers many benefits for sending printed mail.

Docsaway is a product of the Central Coast business QiQ which was established by Paul Hamlington and Mr Harris. The service enables businesses and individuals to send mail and documents via 30 worldwide locations through a simple web interface.

“We are keen to increase awareness of our services in the UK marketplace and we believe the resemblance to traditional ways of sending mail and the cost savings will be the solution businesses are looking for,” Mr Harris explained.

Docsaway, together with L-Mail, operate collectively from 30 locations throughout the world. Together, Docsaway and L-Mail form the boutique Internet consultancy QiQ Communications.

L-Mail is an HTML-based solution providing the necessary tools to help turn an email into a letter.

For more information about Docsaway visit www.docsaway.com

Just this week the US Postal Service announced it would close more than half its mail-processing centres in a $3bn cost-cutting drive, resulting in 28,000 job losses http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16037668

Docsaway is a PDF-based solution that is ideal for businesses wishing to automate or outsource the mailing of their paper-based documents from a number of locations throughout the world. It allows businesses to have the sincerity and genuine nature of a letter, without the fuss of actually going to the post office.

Traditional post offices are often now viewed as outdated, slow and costly. Posting a letter involves not only a financial outlay, but also the cost of personal time. The efficiency and reliability of the postal service is no longer guaranteed and people are looking to other methods for communication.

“It is a shame to see such an institution as the post office clouded with doubt and uncertainty. Docsaway bridges the gap between the need for efficiency and the personal nature of receiving an actual letter,” Mr Harris said.

“I recognised the potential for an affordable mail service that combined traditional mail with the speed of the internet at a time when many of my friends were without an internet connection,” he explained.

The post office’s problems stems from pressure on revenue and costs. As any computer user knows, the internet has revolutionised the way people and businesses communicate. As a result we are sending far less conventional printed mail.

“We’ve been sending paper-based documents via our mail services every day since 2003. Our systems rarely miss a beat – we check our servers every five minutes to keep our reliability promise,” Mr Harris offered as the solution.

“We are keen to increase awareness of our services in the US market and we believe Docsaway with its cost savings is the change US businesses are looking for,” Mr Harris said.

The US postal service is currently running a campaign titled, “Save the U.S. Post Office: Write A Letter”. Quite simply, the more letters written, the more chance the post office has of surviving – and who doesn’t like receiving a letter (as long as it’s good news)?

Docsaway does not discourage people from writing and sending letters, but instead offers a solution to maintain this art in an efficient way via the internet.

“Write a letter, send it through Docsaway via our safe and secure service, and still embrace traditional postal and mailing services,” Mr Harris urged businesses to do.

Docsaway, together with L-Mail, operate collectively from 29 locations throughout the world. Together, Docsaway and L-Mail form the boutique internet consultancy QiQ Communications.

L-Mail is an HTML-based solution providing the necessary tools to help turn an email into a letter.

For more information about Docsaway visit www.docsaway.com

Indigo Sea South Pacific Kaftan from www.sequinsandsand.com.au

Get the latest issue of Lifestyle Pools + Outdoor Design magazine to see Sequins and Sand and a host of great ideas on how to move your outdoor space into top gear this summer!

A one-stop resource for the latest information, trends and technologies, the summer issue of Australia’s longest-standing premier pools magazine is bound to keep you entertained and informed.

The latest issue features the best in swimming pool designs from compact pools – little gems for small spaces – to outdoor designs that integrate closely with the home.

This issue also includes Olympic superfish Michael Klim talking about his love affair with water; what makes a swimming pool and its surrounds a masterpiece; what spa is best for you; and top tips from entertainment experts.

Lifestyle Pools + Outdoor Design is now online at lifestylepools.com.au. It’s the perfect companion guide, featuring a wide range of pool showcases, cutting-edge products, and ideas to make pool design and ownership a breeze.

Visiting lifestylepools.com.au is also the only way to enter our fabulous summer giveaway – an outdoor setting from DOMO, valued at more than $2000!

Lifestyle Pools + Outdoor Design magazine issue 112 is on sale now for $7.95. Head to your local newsagent, call 1300 306 107 or visit the heraldsunshop.com.au/shop for your copy.

Photo: ?rate - Creative Commons

When it comes to demystifying Cloud Computing, Sydney IT&T company Digital Armour knows how to clear the air.

Digital Armour CEO Maria Padisetti recently led an executive lunch and learn seminar to educate participants on cloud computing and a selection of business systems they could use to grow their business.

Mrs Padisetti spoke at the November event, providing invaluable information for businesses on how to achieve lower IT costs and minimise the risk of choosing the wrong systems.

“Through our in-depth IT&T analysis and expertise, Digital Armour has been able to isolate unnecessary expenditure and save clients up to $150,000 per annum,” Mrs Padisetti explained.

“We feel it’s important to educate our clients and work with them to reduce IT&T costs, and we’re able to do this anywhere from 20-45 per cent. We’re partnering with our clients to make them even more competitive in their marketplaces,” she added.

The first session dealt with the pros and cons of cloud computing and why people are choosing it for their businesses. Mrs Padisetti also covered security, back up and disaster recovery systems and reducing IT costs, all through cloud computing.

The second session was hosted by Ronnie Baskind, Managing Director and Founder of? Kilimanjaro Consulting. He spoke on choosing an Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP). Most importantly, he offered solutions on how to manage the cloud with an ERP system.

Previous seminar attendees have said:

“We don’t have a lot of personnel in offices – mainly in remote locations around Australia – and we certainly don’t have a big budget. Seminars like this are particularly helpful to organisations such as ours, and people like me.”

“The speakers did a great job of making what can be a bit of a dry subject informative yet fun through setting the tone of the day and creating a relaxing and interactive environment.”

Digital Armour regularly runs information seminars as a way to further help their client base stay ahead of the latest IT services and solutions.

Mrs Padisetti’s extensive experience in helping businesses with IT&T solutions, as well as her engineering background, has enabled her to develop excellent processes that have helped improve customer satisfaction and service delivery on an ongoing basis.

For more information about Digital Armour visit www.digitalarmour.com.au or call (02) 8197 9400.

Digital Armour helps improve company bottom lines with IT&T solutions.

Billy Law

He’s been off our TV screens for a few short months, but MasterChef’s Top-10 favourite Billy Law has been busy writing, testing and photographing recipes for a new cookbook!

Anyone whose mouth watered at the dishes Billy created on the Channel 10 series earlier this year like Twice Cooked Pork Belly with Apple Slaw or Puffed Rice Rocky Road will devour Have You Eaten? when it is published in September 2012.

Featuring some of Billy’s favourite recipes that marry his Malaysian-Chinese background with flavours and techniques he has adapted while living in Australia, Have You Eaten? will be crammed with food to savour and devour.

“There will be recipes for all tastes in my cookbook, but it wouldn’t be mine without a generously heaped serving of the desserts that fire my passion,” Billy explained.

Billy’s creative flair doesn’t stop at cooking. What makes his cookbook so unique is that he will not be passing his recipes on to a team to cook, test and photograph, but will be creating the entire contents himself.

“The book will be highly illustrated, with my photographs from front to back. I will be doing everything from recipe writing and testing, down to photography and food styling; it will all be my work. Call me a control freak, but it is a rare opportunity that I would love to get involved in from start to finish – and make sure everything is perfect,” he said.

Have You Eaten? will be the next companion volume for those who love cooking and want to get a little bit more creative in the kitchen. It features easy weeknight meals right through to fancy dishes to show off your talents at dinner parties, with Billy tjuzs it up with his own twists.

And if producing a cookbook isn’t enough, Billy has also been running cooking demonstrations including the Love Food Hate Waste program with Lane Cove Council and OzHarvest this Christmas season, plus feeding his love of desserts by working part time with pastry chef Vincent Gadan at Patisse in Waterloo, Sydney.

For more in information about Billy Law and his cooking, visit his blog at www.atablefortwo.com.au. To see Billy’s MasterChef recipes and footage from the show, head to http://www.masterchef.com.au/billy-law.htm.

ERGObaby carrier

Despite a campaign to raise awareness of fake baby carriers over the past two years, an illegal and dangerous trade in counterfeit products continues in Australia via online auction sites.

Counterfeit copies of the popular ERGObaby carrier have been offered for sale on online auction sites and authorised Australian and New Zealand distributor Babes in Arms is trying to stop these products reaching unsuspecting consumers and endangering babies.

Babes in Arms director and mother of four, Anita Lincolne-Lomax, sources the best baby slings and carriers from around the globe to build an expansive babywearing range that promotes a baby’s natural desire for closeness, but solves a parent’s need to be hands-free.

“Safety is a paramount consideration for parents when they’re buying baby products. These baby carrier copies are very convincing, and even the most discerning buyer could be fooled,” Anita explained.

Parents are being deceived by the counterfeits, buying the products at a price only marginally lower than the genuine product.

The counterfeit carriers possess a few qualities that customers should look out for:

• The carriers are not covered by product warranty or insurance

• They will not have been tested for safety standards and are not likely to comply with US lead-free criteria

• Most importantly, they are made with inferior materials and parts – particularly the buckles, which can lead to breakages and drops.

“The people responsible for making the counterfeit ERGObaby carriers are preying on parents who want to nurture and care for their children and who are trying to save money by buying discounted or second hand goods through auction sites’, Anita said.

“Babes in Arms has given many parents across Australia the opportunity to hold their babies close within their loving embrace and be able to balance their needs and that of their babies with our wonderful range of babywearing products,” she added.

This is the season where baby carrier sales go up as people buy the products as Christmas gifts. Parents often research baby carriers and are very selective about which products they buy, but caring family members who aren’t as educated about such issues sometimes buy them as a gift. Raising awareness about legitimate and genuine products is important for the safety of babies.

“It’s distressing that people are, in good faith, buying what they think is a wonderful and safe product, but find they have been duped into buying these terrible copies,” Anita said.

Anita offers a message to all parents and families looking to purchase baby carriers: “We strongly suggest that people only purchase ERGObaby products through authorised ERGObaby stores and distributors, and not through any auction sites.”

In a pram-dominated culture, Babes in Arms has successfully raised awareness about the ancient wisdom and benefits of babywearing that promotes a peaceful start to life for new parents and their babies.

As an industry expert, Babes in Arms is both a national product gateway and an educational resource for parents, retailers and health professionals alike.

For local authorised ERGObaby stockists in Australia and NZ, go to www.babesinarms.com.au or call 1300 725 276.

Alycia Edgar

Systems can be the making of a small business, but without them everything falters. When it comes to driving their businesses, some owners can be the roadblocks.

As a small business owner and innovator Alycia Edgar knows this situation very well, but she also found the solution and created the Bizfficiency program to help others achieve complete business systemisation.

The five-week Bizfficiency – Discover the Business of Business teleseminar series reveals the secrets behind business efficiency, based on techniques tried and tested by Alycia herself.

“I run my business using a number of different systems that all work together to drive efficiency and productivity, making me a much better – and happier – business owner. I have reached systems nirvana and want to share my tips with others,” Alycia, who created the award-winning small business accounting system Bookzkeeper, explained.

Bizfficiency graduate Kelly Exeter from Swish Design said she now understood the need for firm systems in business after completing the program last year.

“Creating these systems allowed me to outsource all the jobs I hated the most and freed me up to spend more time doing what I love, and that is being creative. Being creative makes for happy days,” Kelly said.

“In fact, I have applied many of the principles I learned from Alycia to my everyday life and am now using that increased productivity to free up time to spend on myself and with my family, rather than to just ‘do more stuff’. This has given me a better quality of life, and if I am honest, has made me a nicer person!” she added.

Using her own experiences as a small business owner who struggled to keep all the balls in the air before systemising with great results, Alycia launched Bizfficiency with a free call yesterday (2 November).

The series starts on 8 November and covers a different aspect of system implementation every week:

• Weeks One and Two – Personal Productivity System

• Weeks Three and Four – Marketing Systems and Client Systems

• Week Five – Financial Systems, Strategy and Measurement Systems

“Small business owners who commit to systemising their operations now will start 2012 ready to thrive, because they understand the link between their business goals and financial numbers and are armed with productivity tools to drive that success,” Alycia added.

The Bizfficiency program includes five weekly teleseminars, checklists and templates for $397.

For more information about Bizfficiency visit www.bizfficiency.com.

To find our more about Alycia Edgar go to www.bookzkeeper.com.au and www.numbersarelife.com

Early bird tickets to the conference sold out in record time, and sales are continuing steadily more than five months out from the event.

Billed as an event for bloggers, by bloggers, the Digital Parents Conference gives Australia’s ‘mum bloggers’ (plus their dad counterparts) and those who tell their personal stories through posts, the chance to leave their online personas behind and network, learn and share.

A host of speakers and panelists have already committed to the conference, including ProBlogger Darren Rowse, Valerie Khoo from Sydney Writers’ Centre and Nicole Avery from Blog Coaching Boost. Excited about the opportunity to harness the buzz that is hundreds of bloggers in one place, Digital Parents founder Brenda Gaddi said the day had been planned with content for experienced and new bloggers.

“It’s a day for learning, no matter whether you’ve been blogging for a day or five years,” Brenda said.

“The aim of the conference is to encourage all bloggers to be the best they can and encourage relationships to blossom offline as well as online,” she said.

The Digital Parents conference at the Sebel Albert Park, Melbourne, includes keynote speakers, panels, workshops, networking and a trade expo.

Melissa Gassman from Kleenex Mums said the community site was sponsoring the conference after great success at this year’s conference in Sydney.

“Kleenex Mums is proud to be the platinum sponsor of the Digital Parents conference for the second year running. Our community is based on sharing the collective wisdom of Aussie mums and dads, and what better way to achieve this than thorough blogging!” Ms Gassman said.

“This year’s conference was an unprecedented success. Not only in terms of social media buzz, but in terms of learning, sharing and connecting. The upcoming 2012 conference will no doubt be even bigger and better,” she added.

Negotiations are currently underway with further sponsors for the conference.

Blogger tickets are available until sold out at $179 for the conference, dinner and dance. Tickets are also available for PR/Brand/Company Delegates for $209. Accommodation can be booked with the Sebel Albert Park separately.

For more information about the conference or to find out about sponsorship visit http://digitalparentsconference.com.au/

Global Cleantech 100

Australian social enterprise Barefoot Power is thrilled to announce its inclusion in the 2011 Global Cleantech 100, announced at 10am this morning (Australian EDT).

The Cleantech Group compiles an annual list of the most promising private cleantech companies globally, listing those it expects to make the biggest impact on clean technology in the next 5-10 years.

Barefoot Power Global Marketing and Business Development manager Joyce DeMucci was in Washington, USA, for the announcement as part of the 2011 Global Cleantech 100 Summit and Gala.

“Barefoot Power has been championing the social, financial and environmental benefits of solar power for people at the base of the global economic period since 2005 and has impacted over 1.5 million people in developing countries. Being listed on the 2011 Global Cleantech 100 validates and adds a considerable amount of weight to those effort,” Ms DeMucci said.

“The international stage is a big one, and our team around the world is honoured to be included amongst such an incredible list of peers.

“We thank the public for our nomination and the Global Cleantech panel for recognising the powerful impact of our vision,” she added.

Barefoot Power is a global, social for-profit enterprise that manufactures and distributes solar phone charging, lighting products and business development services to people at the base of the global economic pyramid.

Generation 2.5 products are designed and developed to meet the UN Clean Development Mechanism standards, and will save over 24,000 tonne of CO2 emissions over the next seven years. Carbon revenue will contribute to the affordability and improved quality and performance of all Barefoot Power products.

The Global Cleantech 100 program is run by the Cleantech Group, in collaboration with the UK’s Guardian News and Media. Companies are nominated by the public and rated by a panel of the world’s foremost Cleantech investors and corporations.

This year 4274 companies we’re nominated from more than 45 countries and Barefoot Power has been named as one of the top 100 companies.

Download the Global Cleantech 100 report

For more information about Barefoot Power visit www.barefootpower.com and for details about how companies are chosen and the Cleantech panel visit http://www.cleantech.com/global-cleantech-100/