Day: May 4, 2022

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Amplify. Accelerate. Action. Thousands gather to re-energise UN Sustainable Development Goals during Catalyst 2030 annual event

# Catalyst 2030 explores bold new strategies to confront world’s pressing problems from food security to health crises

# UN’s sustainable development goals in the spotlight as 2030 deadline looms

# Thousands of social entrepreneurs and innovators collaborate at global event

AMSTERDAM, May 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Members of the growing and influential movement of social entrepreneurs and innovators, Catalyst 2030, will gather with world leaders during Catalysing Change Week 2022 to find bold new strategies to make the world a more sustainable and fairer place for everyone.

High energy, frank and innovative discussions that spark collaboration with practical outcomes will mark the scores of physical and online sessions and activities that will take place across the globe from 9 to 13 May 2022 at this critical point in the evolution of the planet.

The week-long event is open to everyone who is interested in learning about the growing Catalyst 2030 movement, its work and successes in tackling the root of some of the world’s most difficult challenges, as it seeks to accelerate attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Jeroo Billimoria, Catalyst 2030 spokesperson and one of the movement’s co-founders said, “We are excited that Catalysing Change Week 2022 will bring together a diverse group of experts, social innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders from the private sector and government.  In a spirit of true collaboration. Some of the problems that will be tackled include poverty, climate, food security and education. Participants will tap into the collective wisdom around systems change while forging partnerships across countries, regions and sectors,” Billimoria said.

Catalysing Change Week 2022 will host scores of online sessions over five days and in several languages, covering all major time zones. The Week will build on the success of Catalysing Change Week 2021 which attracted an audience of close to 6,000 individuals. Participants represented more than 1,600 organisations across 131 countries.

During this year’s Catalysing Change Week 2022, the South-South Alliance for Equitable Green Development will address the inequity surrounding funding of climate-smart solutions. These sessions will outline opportunities climate management provides for development and employment as well as pathways for the G7 and G20 to make significant contributions.

Another key milestone during Change Week 2022 is the launch of  Africa Forward, which will announce a new cohort of African social entrepreneurs.  The objective of Africa Forward is to support the next group of social entrepreneurs who can identify innovative pathways and collaborative solutions.

This year’s theme, “Let’s Re-Energise the SDGs” reflects the movement’s priorities in this unique period of our global history. The COVID-19 pandemic holds the potential to delay the achievement of the SDGs by 50 years or more.

“Catalysing Change Week 2022 is a unique engagement opportunity for anyone who has an interest in achieving social change and to learn more about what social entrepreneurs and innovators are doing to confront and to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs before 2030,” Billimoria said.

Registration for Catalysing Change Week 2022 is free.
For more information, visit https://catalyst2030.net/about-the-campaign/

Notes to editors

Catalyst 2030 is a global movement of social entrepreneurs and social innovators from all sectors who share the common goal of creating innovative, people-centric approaches to attain the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Joining forces with communities, governments, businesses and others, Catalyst 2030 members are changing systems at all levels through collective action and bold, new strategies.

Launched at the World Economic Forum in January 2020, Catalyst 2030 comprises more than 1,500 people and organisations who are active in over 180 countries and who directly reach an estimated two billion people. We believe in collective action and that bold new strategies are needed to achieve the SDGs by 2030.

For more information about the work of Catalyst 2030, or to arrange an interview, please contact nwando@catalyst2030.net

Contact: Nwando Ajele
Email nwando@catalyst2030.net

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Report: Companies resolved employee IT issues 23% faster in 2021

Freshworks’ annual IT Service Management Benchmark Report reveals how automation, virtual agents, and chatbots helped companies delight employees in the remote and hybrid work era

SAN MATEO, Calif., May 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Freshworks Inc. (NASDAQ: FRSH), a software company empowering the people who power business, today announced the findings from its second annual Freshservice Service Management Benchmark Report which measured key performance indicators (KPIs) for the IT industry across 62 million tickets in 2021. The report revealed that global IT teams adapted to remote work in 2021, resolving employee tickets 23% faster than the year before as overall resolution time for IT tickets went down by seven hours.

In a world where employees increasingly rely on technology to get their work done at home, in the office, and everywhere in between, the Freshworks report confirmed that new technologies that enable chatbots and virtual agents are making a substantial impact helping employees and companies become more productive — and even delighting them along the way.

“Making sure IT works flawlessly is essential for modern businesses to succeed,” said Prasad Ramakrishnan, CIO of Freshworks. “Analyzing data from around the world, we found that IT teams mastered the challenges of remote work last year in large part by employing powerful yet easy-to-use technologies that help them do more, faster. Importantly, these technologies are also engaging employees at work, which is critical to help companies retain talent and grow.”

The report analyzed anonymous, aggregated data from 86 countries, more than 4,200 organizations, and over 62 million unique employee support tickets. New tech features including AI-powered responses played a significant role in speeding up resolutions as bots deflected nearly 60% of tickets. Companies with automations achieved resolution times 22% faster than those who did not, and companies offering a catalog of IT services through their ITSM software reduced resolution times 17% compared to those who did not. Companies are taking notice and rapidly adopting more advanced technologies. Nearly 25% of integrations included bots and workflow applications — a 40% increase compared to 2020.

While less than one percent of IT interactions were via chat, this channel provided significant benefits: employees who chatted with virtual agents saw customer satisfaction scores hit 100% in some cases, while delivering 48% faster responses (5.21 hours) and 62% faster resolution times (8.74 hours) compared to those who don’t use virtual agents.

Freshworks analyzed KPIs across 14 industries to understand how industries compare to each other:

  • Happy hoteliers: Companies in hotels, tourism, and leisure achieved the highest employee satisfaction rating (98.01%).
  • Real estate resolutions: Property development and building infrastructure companies have the lowest average resolution time at 18.49 hours, while leisure and hospitality has the highest (27.32).
  • Consumer products and services finish first in first response: Their average first response arrived in 8.23 hours, nearly 50% faster than the industry with the slowest first response time (healthcare).
  • Retail and e-commerce IT departments fix it fast: They achieved the highest first contact resolution rate at 73%.

The report also analyzed regional differences. Notably, the report found that North American IT departments achieved the highest customer satisfaction rating at 97.92%. However, it takes multiple interactions to resolve employee queries, leading to the longest average resolution time in the world at 24.27 hours. Conversely, companies in Latin America are the quickest to assign tickets and respond to customer issues within 8.24 hours and 7.60 hours, respectively.

Download the complete Freshservice Service Management Benchmark Report 2022 here, and learn more about how to combine the forces of ITSM and ITOM in an ebook here.

About Freshworks Inc.
Freshworks Inc. (NASDAQ: FRSH) makes business software people love to use. Purpose-built for IT, customer support, sales and marketing teams, our products empower the people who power business. Freshworks is fast to onboard, priced affordably, built to delight, yet powerful enough to deliver critical business outcomes. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Freshworks operates around the world to serve more than 56,000 customers including Bridgestone, Chargebee, DeliveryHero, ITV, Klarna, Multichoice, OfficeMax, TaylorMade and Vice Media. For the freshest company news visit www.freshworks.com and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

© 2022 Freshworks Inc. All rights reserved. Freshworks and their associated logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Freshworks Inc. All other company, brand, and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Media Contact:
Jayne Gonzalez
408-348-1087
PR@freshworks.com

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World Record to Be Set as BetOnline Places First Wager From Space

Global Gambling Company Allows Users to Bet on Coin Flip from Beyond Earth’s Atmosphere

BetOnline.ag

BetOnline.ag

MIAMI, May 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BetOnline.ag, a sports betting, poker and casino website that has been in operation for more than 25 years, is scheduled to set history in the gaming industry by becoming the first company to accept wagers surrounding a coin flip from space.

BetOnline worked with Sent Into Space, a high-altitude balloon operator led by Dr. Alex Baker and Dr. Chris Rose, to execute the launch of the first bet from beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Sent Into Space has more than 500 successful flights in its portfolio, collaborating with high-profile brands such as eBay, Pixar, Barbie and Burger King.

“When BetOnline approached Sent Into Space last year with the idea of placing the first bet in space, it was all hands on deck to make this novel concept come to fruition,” Dr. Rose said. “Not only did they manage to conceptualize this incredible feat, they also achieved a world record in the process.”

The world’s first-ever bet from open space was a two-pronged approach that required months of research and preparation.

The first of the two launches sent a spinning coin bearing the BetOnline logo 20 miles above the atmosphere, stopping only once the craft returned to Earth several hours after launch.

The second launch rocketed a spacecraft with an iPad and a robotic arm. The iPad provided a live feed of the BetOnline.ag website in space by using a two-way network bridge. The final innovation was a highly-dexterous mechanical arm accompanied by a stylus, which placed a bet on the outer space coin toss in real-time.

The coin toss bet, heads or tails, was called at random using a random number generator with unpredictable inputs from environmental sensor readings, ensuring the outcome was impossible to predict in advance.

“This collaboration was our most ambitious project to date,” Sent Into Space co-founder, Dr. Baker, said. “The creativity from BetOnline was other worldly, and the development of highly complex technologies from our team allows BetOnline to continue to be a trailblazing leader in the betting space and beyond.”

The outcome of the flip has already been privately recorded, but BetOnline customers have been placing wagers on the 50-50 proposition during the last month. Betting on the coin toss will be available until the “landing” is revealed, which the company has said will coincide with National Space Day on Friday, May 6.

“We set the prop bet standard and we wanted to etch our brand in history with a record-breaking attempt,” Adam Burns, BetOnline Props Director, said. “In honor of Space Day, we want customers to celebrate space along with the timeless tradition of picking ‘heads or tails.’”

The “first bet in space” initiative is currently being submitted to Guinness World Records.

BetOnline.ag is renowned for innovative approaches of putting its brand on the map, previously placing a wager from the top of Mount Everest.

Earlier this year, BetOnline became the first operator to add the popular cryptocurrency ApeCoin to its crypto cashier.

About BetOnline.ag

Established more than 25 years ago, BetOnline (www.betonline.ag) has become a worldwide leader in providing safe, legal and secure online gaming. The company’s guiding principle is to establish long-lasting, positive relationships with its customers and within the gaming community. BetOnline features the most innovative technology and online gaming solutions for its sportsbook, poker, casino and horse racing clients.

Contact

Joshua Barton
Odds PR
josh@oddspr.com

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BetOnline aims to set Guinness World Record with first bet from outer space.

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Artemest, the Luxury Online Marketplace for Italian Craftsmanship, Raises €15 Million Investment From IRIS Ventures and Olma Luxury Holdings

On a mission to preserve beauty and uniqueness, connecting local creators to global customers

Featured Image for Artemest

Featured Image for Artemest

MILAN, May 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Italy is estimated to hold more than 1.3 million small arts and crafts companies, employing 3 million people. In an increasingly globalized world where design is a commodity, craftsmanship is gaining importance for highly demanding customers and sector experts. Artemest is disrupting this industry by supporting craft businesses and creators and connecting them to global customers looking for unique, handmade pieces.

Ippolita Rostagno launched Artemest after a visit to Florence, where she realised many of the local artisans were going out of business as their customer base increasingly shopped online. Joined by Marco Credendino, they set out to create a global network connecting local businesses with affluent individuals across the globe.

Artemest today has become the realisation of this vision: six years after launching, they connect 1,300+ Italian artisans and creators – offering 60,000+ products – with thousands of customers and design professionals across the globe. Artemest’s catalogue looks more like an art museum than an interior design shop; offering a curated selection of home décor, art and furniture.

Ippolita Rostagno said, “Craftsmanship has been central to the development of the civilized world and has coalesced generations around the idea that art matters. Our ambition is to further this tradition by bringing beauty into people’s everyday lives”.

Artemest has now secured €15 million in funding, led by specialist fund IRIS Ventures and Olma Luxury Holdings. The marketplace will use this funding to accelerate growth, with a focus on the US; further develop its technology, brand & community and optimize its catalog and talent recruitment. Legal counsels Edoardo Canetta Rossi Palermo and Barbara Ballandi led the Chiomenti legal team advising Artemest on the deal.

The investment will also support the development of Artemest’s services for interior designers, brands and hospitality partners, offering them best-in-class, end-to-end support thanks to its personal advisors as well as its content and tech-enabled tools.

Montse Suarez, Founder and Managing Partner of IRIS Ventures, finishes: “Finding visionaries building purpose-led brands that transform the way we live is what we do at IRIS Ventures, and Artemest is a perfect illustration of it. Artemest is the Italian guardian of craftsmanship excellence and creativity, giving the community of artisans and small businesses the ability to preserve their heritage by making it accessible to a global audience”.

Artemest

Co-founded by jewellery entrepreneur Ippolita Rostagno and Marco Credendino (former Yoox-Net-a-Porter), Artemest is the largest marketplace of Italian high-end, artisanal design, with a vision to become the leading global platform for contemporary design and luxury craftsmanship.

IRIS Ventures

IRIS Ventures is the advisor to IRIS Fund I FCRE, a growth equity fund targeting European and US purpose-led consumer-centric brands and tech-enabled solutions that solve for healthier, happier and more convenient lives. IRIS Ventures has presence in Barcelona, London and New York.

Contact

press@artemest.com

High-res images available here.

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Censorship of Hollywood Blockbuster Films Intensifies in China

China is stepping up censorship of U.S. films as producers make movies with an eye toward pleasing Beijing yet without isolating the global audience, industry insiders say.

The roughly 25-year-old practice of cutting scenes that don’t conform to Communist Party ideals from Hollywood movies has expanded.

“Now it’s kind of escalated in the sense that they’re much more direct in banning films outright rather than just tampering or asking for scenes to be removed,” said Stanley Rosen, a University of Southern California political science professor who follows China’s film industry.

Industry observers say censors are also asking that versions of movies for audiences outside China follow Beijing’s script.

Hollywood movies, Chinese censors

It is unlikely that censors will allow the 2022 Marvel Studios movie “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” to be shown in China. The state-affiliated Global Times tabloid published a scathing op-ed on the film Sunday, saying that it contains nods to Falun Gong, a spiritual movement Beijing has banned and labeled as a cult. According to the op-ed, a news rack for The Epoch Times, a publication the writer calls “the mouthpiece of the Falun Gong,” appears in the frame as Doctor Strange battles a tentacled monster.

Liu Pengyu, spokesperson of the Chinese embassy in Washington, said, “As a country under the rule of law, China regulates the film industry in accordance with the Film Administration regulations.” Liu, however, did not describe the process in detail.

Marvel Studios did not reply to VOA’s questions about “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”

The China Film Administration, an oversight body for the $7.4 billion market, banned Marvel Studios’ 2021 superhero films “Eternals” and “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” which were released last year.

The 2021 superhero film “Spider-Man: No Way Home” missed Chinese approval because authorities wanted Sony Pictures to remove images of the Statue of Liberty from the film, several news outlets reported.

The 2015 sci-fi movie “Pixels” made it into China after removing a scene of aliens blasting a hole into the Great Wall, news reports said at the time.

“As the dragon gets bigger, its leverage gets bigger, and no one’s pushed back yet,” said Chris Fenton, Hollywood executive and lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations think tank.

An increase in Sino-U.S. tensions since the administration of former U.S. president Donald Trump may have exacerbated China’s treatment of American movies, said James Tager, research director at the free-speech advocacy group PEN America in New York.

Film studios stuck in the middle

Film studios have been operating under the pressure of satisfying censors in China — a massive market in normal times, when cinemas are not closed because of COVID-19 — while appearing before American audiences and legislators as supporters of artistic freedom, Tager said.

Hollywood doesn’t want a “pinball”— a situation in which both U.S. and Chinese officials take aim at the film industry, he said.

Hollywood companies are pre-censoring films to avoid losing access to China’s lucrative box office market, PEN America said in a 2020 report.

Refusal of a Chinese order to cut a scene would risk the studio’s future business in China, such as the next Disney or Marvel film or other assets, Tager said. Walt Disney Co., for example, has a 47% stake in Shanghai Disneyland, according to the PEN America report.

“You may get a reputation as someone who doesn’t play ball, which could have even further knock-on effects, possibly for other films or possibly for other business relationships that large studios have in China,” he said.

Self-censorship is getting worse, Fenton said. Some studios even worry that China will punish them for leaving objectionable scenes in film versions for audiences outside China.

“To me, the bigger issue is when China tells us we can’t have stuff in movies for other markets,” Fenton said. “That’s where we’re suddenly allowing them to spread their narrative rather than the narrative of the filmmakers or the studio or of Hollywood — or the U.S. or the Western side of things. Who gives them that right to tell us we can’t have that in a movie that someone in Argentina sees?”

China wants its view of the world to resonate worldwide, said James Gomez, regional director of the Asia Centre, a Bangkok-based think tank.

“It’s competing powers, it’s competing narratives,” he said. “It’s a different world view, and China wants to be able to shape the world view.”

Objections to Chinese-tailored films

The Philippines pushed back against studios’ attempt to woo China in the case of the 2022 American action movie “Uncharted.” The Southeast Asian country’s cinemas yanked the movie at the request of the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs. The department objected to a scene that showed Beijing’s nine-dash line claim to the South China Sea, which Manila vigorously disputes. The nine dashes demarcate China’s claim to about 90% of the sea.

Manila moved earlier to block the showing of “Abominable,” a 2019 animated collaboration between a U.S. and a Chinese production company, because the same nine-dash line was shown in the cartoon.

Some studios may eventually forego the China market to be seen elsewhere as “celebrating artistic freedom elsewhere on the globe,” Tager said.

Hollywood is slowly factoring in the “arbitrary” demands from China, Rosen said. One thing it has learned, he said, is to avoid making Chinese-themed films such as “Shang-Chi” because those can be better done in China.

Source: Voice of America

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South Africa Urges Africa’s First COVID-19 Vaccine Plant to Keep Its Doors Open

South African health officials are urging COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Aspen to keep its plant in the Eastern Cape province open. This follows a Reuters article quoting Aspen’s senior director saying they may have to shut down as there have been no orders for their rebranded COVID vaccine.

A South African-owned subsidiary of pharmaceutical giant Aspen struck a deal with American company Johnson & Johnson in March to package, price, sell and distribute its vaccine in Africa.

This vaccine was rebranded as Aspenovax.

The move was hailed by many as there had been much concern about Africa’s reliance on imported vaccines which were often costly and at times in short supply.

But there have been no orders for Aspenovax. South Africa’s National Health Department Spokesperson Foster Mohale said the lack of orders is due to low vaccination rates not only at home, but globally.

“Vaccine hesitancy is one of the factors which contribute to these low vaccination rates or demand for more vaccines which also affect the production. Because obviously we understand that they are in a business, they can’t keep on producing vaccines when they know that the demand for vaccines is very low. So, we understand the situation where they are, and we sympathize with them,” he said.

Mohale said for now, South Africa has enough vaccines. He adds that in March, 100,000 vaccines expired. And more are due to expire in June and July.

However, he said that Aspen’s vaccine plant is important because no one knows what the future holds.

“We will try to engage them not to rush their decision precisely because we anticipate especially our scientists, our epidemiologists, we anticipate that the fifth wave might hit the country, South Africa, during the winter season which is a few weeks away from now. As you can see the number of daily COVID-19 patients has been rising for the past seven days,” he said.

Professor Petro Terblanche, who is the managing director of South African company, Afrigen, which in a continent-first made an mRNA COVID vaccine using Moderna’s data — said the situation at Aspen is a tragedy for the industry.

“This is just indicating again how important it is that this continent looks at policy reform. This is about how are we going to make sure that we give preferential procurement to local companies. How are we going to make sure that we create a marketplace and eco-system that will absorb local capacity? Otherwise, we will not have capacity locally in a sustainable manner and we’re going to get the next pandemic and we will be unprepared, and we will not have health security,” said Terblanche.

She believes money should also be put into educating people on the importance of vaccines.

“We need to ensure that we also put effort into advocacy for vaccination. Because we now have 17% of the continent that is vaccinated. We need to get them to at least 40% to ensure that we fully arrest this pandemic,” she said.

Mohale was unable to say when the Health Department would be meeting with Aspen’s executives.

Source: Voice of America