Category: Press Releases

MONACO, Sept. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sustainability as a central element to create virtuous marinas and tourism that is more aware and respectful of the environment. It is the Leitmotiv of the Monaco Smart and Sustainable Marina Rendezvous, organized by Monaco Marina Management (M3), a company active in the development, management and promotion of marinas and yacht clubs, at the Yacht Club de Monaco. Numerous international guests brought their contribution to the event where 50 startups and scaleups and 20 mariners and architects gathered, all from 26 countries, alongside financiers and political representatives. Prince Albert II of Monaco also participated at the event and, after greeting the participants, he spoke with some of them including HH Prince Saud Bin Turki Al Saud, general manager Saudi Red Sea Authority, S.E. Ana Elena Pinto Lozano, Costa Rica Ambassador in Francia, Permanent Delegate of Costa Rica to UNESCO, Rear Admiral Reda Ahmen Ismail, head of maritime transport sector of Egypt, Elisabeth Anna Rebecca Chouraki, International Technical Expert PAMEx (Action Plan for a Model Mediterranean).

“Yachting is a circular economy – underlines Alessandra Priante, director of the UNWTO Regional Department for Europe – which includes many factors from the producer to the final destination. The marina is a bit like an airport: it all starts from there, from the arrival, and from how the marina is able to involve the entire territory in which it is located. The more there is a 360-degree vision, the more successful it is to find winning strategies because sustainability must materialize in a series of actions.” And the situation is developing rapidly: “We noticed – she adds – that before Covid, at the end of 2019, there was talk of the problem of too much tourism. So we have always raised the red flag with the United Nations agency specialized in this that sustainable strategies should become reality. After the recovery of Covid we saw that the destinations that were already sustainable and the marinas that already had sustainability approaches integrated with the territory were successful. However, situations where this effort had not been made now find themselves with the same problems as 2019.”

The main objective of the event is to present the latest innovations in terms of sustainability, allowing financiers, political representatives and innovators to come together and be put in contact with the entire ecosystem of marinas closely linked to the development of increasingly responsible tourism. “Our idea of sustainable nautical tourism and therefore in a broader way a protected marine ecosystem – states Linos Voskarides, Policy Officer – Maritime Policy – Blue Growth, European Commission – is to make the sustainable marinas a part of the city and not apart from the city. Sustainable nautical tourism and sustainable development of marinas are the key to having a protected marine ecosystem and a well-preserved coastline in the future.” Saudi Arabia is taking the first steps in this direction, hoping to become a leading country in this sector: “In our country we are starting to lay the first bricks. Fifteen, ten or even five years ago in our country we had no activities or forms of tourism linked to the marinas, so we are taking the first steps in this direction. Precisely because we are at the beginning, however, we will immediately include sustainability and environmental protection in our regulations,” adds HH Prince Saud Bin Turki Al Saud, general manager Saudi Red Sea Authority. And Egypt is also working in this direction: “This meeting allows us to become aware of the ideas of the sector and therefore to develop our marinas in order to make them smarter and more ecological in the future. Egypt has worked hard to welcome all those who visit the country by sea on cruise ships or yachts,” underlines Rear Admiral Reda Ahmed Ismail, head of maritime transport sector of Egypt.

Representing more than 26 different countries, 50 startups and scaleups generated by Blumorpho, expert in innovation for sustainability, as well as 20 marinas and architects coming from M3 network, are taking part at the two-day event. At the end, the International Smart & Sustainable Marina Awards will be presented for three categories, Startups & Scaleups, Marinas and Architects. The famous French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte chairs the jury that will decide between the numerous proposals. In addition to this year’s edition, an ideas competition is also being held to inspire architects and students to create waterfront projects that are not only attractive and functional but also sustainable.

For more information:
Press Office LaPresse – ufficio.stampa@lapresse.it

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/51222fe5-d9de-424a-8f59-a49e03296111

A video accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/671c6248-dbb9-4105-813b-ad1989f02603

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8928714

PHOENIX, Sept. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — WillScot Mobile Mini Holdings Corp. (“WillScot Mobile Mini” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: WSC), the North American leader in innovative temporary space solutions, today announced that Tim Boswell, President and Chief Financial Officer, Matt Jacobsen, Senior Vice President of Finance, and Nick Girardi, Sr Director of Treasury & Investor Relations, will participate in a presentation and host private investor meetings at the Deutsche Bank Leveraged Finance Conference in Scottsdale, AZ, on October 3, 2023. The presentation will take place at 3:35 pm PT.

About WillScot Mobile Mini

WillScot Mobile Mini trades on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol “WSC.” Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, the Company is a leading business services provider specializing in innovative and flexible temporary space solutions. The Company’s diverse product offering includes modular office complexes, mobile offices, classrooms, temporary restrooms, portable storage containers, climate-controlled storage units, and a thoughtfully curated selection of furnishings, appliances, and other services so its solutions are turnkey for customers. WillScot Mobile Mini services diverse end markets across all sectors of the economy from a network of approximately 240 branch locations and additional drop lots throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Additional Information and Where to Find It

Additional information can be found on the company’s website at www.willscotmobilemini.com.

Contact Information
Investor Inquiries:		Media Inquiries:
Nick Girardi		Jake Saylor
investors@willscotmobilemini.com		jake.saylor@willscot.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8928014

The annual “State of Workplace Technology” report finds IT is managing 71% more software than last year and using AI to combat growing software complexity

SAN MATEO, Calif., Sept. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Freshworks Inc. (NASDAQ: FRSH) today released the findings of its second annual “State of Workplace Technology” report, which found a 71% increase in the number of software applications on IT teams’ work computers over the last year¹. To manage this spiraling complexity, the report found that IT pros—especially senior leaders and younger generations—are embracing AI to automate workflows and boost efficiency with 86% of IT pros reporting that their organizations are already using AI.

AI is poised to save companies time and money
While IT departments are expected to grow this year², it doesn’t mean they need to spend more. Freshworks found that companies in the U.S. could save over $15,000 per IT employee each year using AI to eliminate time wasted on repetitive tasks. This means that an enterprise-sized company with at least 5,000 employees and an average of 200 IT professionals on staff could save at least $3 million annually using AI. The survey also revealed:

• IT professionals are managing more software than ever and see an opportunity to simplify. The number of software applications on IT teams’ work computers increased 71% over the last year. Despite this, IT professionals only use one-third of the applications available to them daily (just eight out of 24), compared to half in 2022.
• IT teams put efficiency first. They rank ease of use and efficiency as top attributes of business software, ahead of feature suite, reliability and cost-effectiveness.
• AI eliminates repetitive tasks. IT pros agree AI frees up time otherwise spent on repetitive tasks (49%) and allows them to do more complex, meaningful work (45%). Moreover, IT pros estimate they could save more than five hours per week by using AI to complete repetitive tasks.

“I’ve had a front-row seat to the mobile and cloud revolutions, and witnessed how both delivered powerful efficiencies that enabled IT teams to improve performance—without expanding costs,” said Dennis Woodside, Freshworks president. “We’re already seeing customers like Smartsheet and Sony Music Entertainment who plan to harness AI to substantially improve employee service, while saving on costs from legacy software accrued over time.”

Senior IT leaders are bought into AI
Directors and above report higher use and organizational support for AI. Notable findings include:

• AI use is generally encouraged at work. Seven in ten (70%) IT directors and above say that use of AI is actively encouraged by their company, compared to 44% of team leads/managers and 21% of individual contributors.
• IT leaders are leading the way to adopt AI. More than nine in ten (91%) IT directors and above currently use AI to support their workload, compared to 66% of team leads/managers and 33% of individual contributors.
• There’s a youth AI movement. Newer generations are playing a pivotal role in AI adoption. Eight in ten (81%) of Millennial and 75% of Gen Z IT pros currently use AI to support their workload, compared to 57% of Gen X and 27% of Boomers.

“Business leaders adopt software for good reasons—to improve operations—but over time may face an unintended consequence of accruing more applications than they need,” said Prasad Ramakrishnan, CIO at Freshworks. “Smart, simplified technology, paired with the power of AI, will do more to drive productivity and efficiency than legacy software has done in decades. IT leaders who embrace automation and technological agility to reduce complexity will be the ones whose teams come out ahead.”

See the “State of Workplace Technology” report in full here. To learn more about Freshservice for AI-first IT Service Management, visit freshworks.com.

Methodology
Freshworks conducted this research using an online survey prepared by Method Research and distributed by RepData among n=2,000 adults ages 18+ that work full time as IT professionals, with n=500 U.S., n=500 U.K., n=100 the Netherlands, and n=150 in each of the following six countries: Germany, France, Singapore, Australia/NZ, India, and the United Arab Emirates. The sample was balanced by gender, age, and company size, with an internationally representative geographic spread of respondents. Data was collected from April 27 to May 17, 2023.

Time savings using AI in the U.S. was calculated by taking the median salary of computer and IT pros in the U.S. ($100,530 per U.S. BLS Data, May 2022) and calculating an hourly rate. Using the hourly rate, a per-worker annual cost was found by multiplying it by the annual amount of hours in the U.S. workers said they could save by using AI to complete repetitive tasks. Then, by multiplying by the amount of U.S. IT workers an enterprise-sized company has on average (Workforce survey), it gives a final value of $3.1M annual costs with a minimum of 200 IT employees.

About Freshworks
Freshworks Inc. (NASDAQ: FRSH) creates business software anyone can use. Purpose-built for IT, customer support, and sales and marketing teams, our AI-boosted products are designed to let everyone work more efficiently and deliver more value for immediate business impact. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Freshworks operates around the world to serve more than 65,000 customers, including American Express, Blue Nile, Bridgestone, Databricks, Fila, Klarna, and OfficeMax. For the freshest company news visit www.freshworks.com and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

© 2023 Freshworks Inc. All Rights Reserved. Freshworks and its associated logo is a trademark of Freshworks Inc. All other company, brand and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Nothing in this press release should be construed to the contrary, or as an approval, endorsement or sponsorship by any third party of Freshworks Inc. or any aspect of this press release.

Media Contact:
Erika Howard
pr@freshworks.com

____________________
¹An increase from 14 different applications in 2022 to 24 in 2023.
²Gartner Press Release, Gartner Survey Finds 81% of CIOs Expect to Grow Their IT Team in 2023, June 27, 2023.

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8927994

Outpacing Major Competitors, Boomerang Sets a New Benchmark in Grounded Generative AI for Business Applications: Mitigating Hallucinations and Copyright Concerns, Minimizing Bias, Enhancing Explainability, and Broadening Cross-Lingual Reach

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Large Language Model (LLM) builder Vectara, the trusted Generative AI (GenAI) platform unveiled Boomerang, a next-gen neural information retrieval model integrated into its end-to-end GenAI platform. In recently published benchmarks Boomerang outperforms Cohere and is comparable to OpenAI on certain performance metrics, expressly excelling at multilingual benchmarks. As a security-first AI leader, Boomerang significantly reduces the probability of bias, copyright infringement and “hallucinations,” fabricated information or inconsistencies in model outputs that have become an industry-wide problem and critical challenge for business adoption.

Vectara’s early “Grounded Generation” paved the way for mitigating hallucinations, a practice many others are adopting via the moniker Retrieval Augmented Generation. Boomerang takes this a step farther. Vectara’s ML team designed Boomerang from the ground-up to deliver the most accurate neural retrieval with low latency and increased cross lingual support to hundreds of languages and dialects.

The new Boomerang model:

• Exceeds Cohere and is comparable to OpenAI in multidomain benchmark testing, allowing users to operationalize powerful GenAI without having to finetune a foundational model with their own data.
• Is capable of simultaneously understanding content in hundreds of languages and dialects, capturing 99.9% of dialects spoken by the human population, overcoming company language barriers, and outperforming other larger models in cross-lingual retrieval.
• Better understands the user’s prompt intent, leading to more accurately retrieved facts from the customer’s data; this leads to higher quality generated responses which enables users to reach their end goal faster.
• Reduces request latency for query execution up to 20%, decreasing time spent by user’s time to retrieve generative insights.
• Provides better thresholding to more reliably differentiate between relevant and irrelevant results, which increases the reliability of generated responses.

GenAI has many meanings – including generating text, images, and video. Vectara’s Boomerang is part of a trusted text generative AI ecosystem which offloads the retrieval augmented generation pipeline complexity from builder workloads via easy-to-use APIs. This API simplification empowers developers to quickly, and securely build AI applications, including question answering and conversational AI (ChatBots) from user provided data sets. Vectara’s zero-shot model never trains on user data and matches the user intent based on deep understanding of the prompts they are issuing as correlated with the input data sets. The relevant answers are generated via natural language summaries with citations to the data source facts, which provides explainability for the produced responses; a necessary requirement for using generative AI in regulated industries.

“At Vectara, we aim to solve the biggest problems facing Generative AI adoption today,” said Amin Ahmad, Cofounder and CTO of Vectara. “Our neural retrieval model achieves state of the art relevance across hundreds of languages and dialects, significantly reducing one of the biggest barriers to responsible AI adoption in the enterprise: hallucinations.”

It’s now incumbent upon nearly every enterprise to leverage and integrate GenAI into their operations and offerings—60% of organizations with reported AI adoption are already using GenAI. But until now, there was little guarantee that the information provided by LLMs would be accurate or even consistent. Now, Vectara’s Boomerang enhances the platform’s ability to bring the paradigm-shifting GenAI capabilities to nearly every organization and developer in a cost-effective, easy-to-use, and secure manner, while substantially mitigating the risks and downsides.

Integrating GenAI is business-critical for nearly every enterprise organization. Vectara has built its own model to deliver GenAI solutions to enterprise orgs that are cost-effective, secure, and reliable.

“Companies struggle to generate trustworthy content with their generative AI initiatives. In fact, 58% of respondents to a recent survey by Eckerson Group said inaccurate outputs are the greatest risk of language models, more than triple any other risk,” said Kevin Petrie, VP of Research at Eckerson Group. ”Vectara’s approach of grounded generation, also known as retrieval augmented generation, reduces this risk by querying companies’ domain specific data as it responds to user prompts. This offers a cost-effective alternative to fine-tuning language models on companies’ data.”

To showcase its momentum, Vectara will be at the AI After Dark Networking Mixer and AI Startup Showcase as part of the AI Conference. Visit Ofer Mendelevitch, Head of Vectara’s Developer Relations, on Tuesday 9/26 at 5 p.m. PT at the San Francisco event to learn more about its new model and solutions available to enterprises.

About Vectara

Vectara is an end-to-end platform that empowers product builders to embed powerful Generative AI features into their applications with extraordinary results. Built on a solid hybrid-search core, Vectara delivers the shortest path to an answer or action through a safe, secure, and trusted entry point. Vectara is built for product managers and developers with an easily leveraged API that gives full access to the platform’s powerful features. Vectara’s “Grounded Generation” allows businesses to quickly, safely, and affordably integrate best-in-class conversational AI and question-answering into their application with zero-shot precision. Vectara never trains their models on customer data, allowing businesses to embed generative AI capabilities without the risk of data or privacy violations. To learn more about Vectara, visit www.vectara.com. To learn how we’re empowering the ecosystem to co-build the art of possibility in GenAI, visit www.vectara.com/partnerships.

Media Contact
Carly Bourne
carly@bulleitgroup.com
423-443-0449

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8928079

The project falls within a broader plan for sustainable urban regeneration of the Bovisa-Goccia-Villapizzone area

MILAN, Italy, Sept. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Gasometer construction site on the future new Bovisa-Goccia campus of Politecnico di Milano officially started on September 22. The symbolic gesture marking the start of the construction was the planting of a tree, dedicated to Federico Bucci, Deputy Rector of the Mantua campus, who recently passed away.

“With the start of the Gasometer renovation works, a new phase begins for Bovisa. From an industrial district to a university area, Bovisa is now aspiring to a third title, that of Innovation District,” stated Donatella Sciuto, Rector of Politecnico di Milano. “This project, thanks to the involvement of institutions, represents a step forward for Milan and Lombardy towards Europe.”

The event was also attended by Renzo Piano, a Senator for life and an alumnus of Politecnico di Milano, Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of the Municipality of Milan, Attilio Fontana, President of the Lombardy Region, and Anna Maria Bernini, Minister of University and Research.

“The campus is not only an expansion of Politecnico di Milano but also one of the largest urban and infrastructural redevelopment and environmental restoration projects ever undertaken in Italy,” commented Bernini. “It’s a new way of envisioning the city; it’s the future becoming present.”

“The Region stands alongside a new approach to university education, one that guides students into the world of work, where they are needed,” said Attilio Fontana, President of the Lombardy Region. Meanwhile, for the Mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, “this is the first step towards the realisation of one of the most significant urban projects inspired by environmental sustainability that will help shape the Milan of tomorrow.” The goal is to complete the work by 2026.

The plan includes the construction of twenty new four-story buildings, each 16 meters tall, with a total area of approximately 105,000 square meters. Tree-lined pedestrian pathways connecting the campus to the Civic Schools will be included. A wide cycle and pedestrian path will link the Bovisa and Villapizzone railway stations with improved interconnectivity.

The plan will preserve a 24-hectare forest beyond the historical thermal power plant boundary and integrate large trees among the buildings, creating a green connection. The ground floor of the buildings will be entirely transparent, offering an immersive experience in the surrounding nature. The goal is to achieve energy independence and zero CO2 emissions through the construction of classroom buildings, start-ups, a 1000-seat auditorium, and two university residences with approximately 500 beds.

For more information:
Press Office LaPresse – ufficio.stampa@lapresse.it

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/abe185cf-b782-49f3-abc0-01e39d3d523e

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8928614

Futoshi Saito Joins as President & General Manager, Japan

BOSTON, Sept. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Anaqua, the leading global innovation and intellectual property (IP) management technology provider, today announced changes to its executive leadership team in Japan as the company continues its strong growth trajectory in the country. Futoshi Saito will join Anaqua Japan, effective October 10, 2023, as President & General Manager, responsible for driving Anaqua’s ongoing business development and delivering enhanced client solutions in Japan.

Saito-san has previously held leadership positions at LexisNexis as Managing Director, Japan and South Korea, and Thomson Reuters (now part of Clarivate) as head of the IP & Science business in Japan. Saito-san holds a bachelor’s degree in international studies from Dokkyo University and studied at the Graduate School of History at the State University of New York at Albany.

Anaqua also announced the opening of its new Japan headquarters in the TOKYO TORCH Tokiwabashi Tower, providing an expanded work space to support the company’s accelerated growth, which has seen further strengthening of the team and a 50% increase in new sales YTD . The move continues Anaqua Japan’s mission to invest in people, infrastructure and solutions in order to provide clients with the most comprehensive and effective IP management software and solutions in Japan. Other recent Anaqua investments in Japan include opening a second client datacenter on Microsoft Azure, hiring additional team members for the growing annuities and renewals business, and developing Japan-specific enhancements to the AQX IP management platform, both for the pharmaceutical market and trademark professionals.

“I am excited to join Anaqua, a company I have admired for many years over the course of my career in IP and legal technology,” said Saito. “I am honored to lead Anaqua Japan through its next stage of growth and to help our clients better protect and maximize value from their IP portfolios.”

Anaqua CEO Bob Romeo said: “We are delighted to have appointed Saito-san to lead Anaqua’s business in Japan. His extensive IP and technology experience will enable him to engage quickly with our business and the wider market, forming important relationships with our existing and future clients, and providing strong leadership for our team and our further business development. I am very proud of our operations in Japan and I am excited for what is yet to come.”

About Anaqua

Anaqua, Inc. is a premier provider of integrated intellectual property (IP) management technology solutions and services for corporations and law firms. Its IP management software solutions, AQX and PATTSY WAVE, both offer best practice workflows with big data analytics and tech-enabled services to create an intelligent environment designed to inform IP strategy, enable IP decision-making, and streamline IP operations, tailored to each segment’s need. Today, nearly half of the top 100 U.S. patent filers and global brands, as well as a growing number of law firms worldwide use Anaqua’s solutions. Over one million IP executives, attorneys, paralegals, administrators, and innovators use the platform for their IP management needs. The company’s global operations are headquartered in Boston, with offices across the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific. For additional information, please visit anaqua.com, or on LinkedIn.

Company Contact: Kyoko Tsurumi Associate Director, Marketing and Communications Anaqua ktsurumi@Anaqua.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8927986