Estimated Time To Read This: 3 – 4 minutes       PD Place will streamline your professional development programs and save your organization valuable time and money, but that’s not all!  Did you know that you can use PD Place to generate a revenue stream for your organization?  In this blog, I outline a few different ways of how you can utilize PD Place to create a new source of income for your company and establish your organization as an industry leader in professional development.  With PD Place, your ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 3 – 5 minutes       Cinema influences us all; from programmers to account managers, to educators and so on, you’d have to be living at the centre of the earth to survive a day without reference to a classic film or quip from a favourite flick.  With the upcoming release of PD Place version 3.8.4 just around the corner, I thought I’d have a little fun with this blog and present you with the top 3 films that provide insight into what PD Place can do for your organization. 300 ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       Alberta Technology Leaders in Education (ATLE) has partnered with CoreSolutions Software Inc. to use PD Place professional development software as a registration tool for all ATLE sponsored events. In addition to the registration features of PD Place, ATLE members will also be eligible to receive a discount on the purchase price of PD Place. PD Place will offer superior session and event registration for ATLE sponsored events while facilitating a simpler payment method for ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       Every time I attend a conference or trade show I always learn something new. In most cases people will come away with lots of ideas and useful information that will help them improve themselves both professionally and as an individual. Sometimes what you see and hear at a conference reaffirms what you are currently doing or gives you that extra push to implement something new. At a recent education conference, the presenter was showing a new system that his IT ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       Registration restrictions can help you manage in-service attendance to ensure the right employees are able to register for events and in-services. First you need to find the in-service you would like to add registration restrictions to and click on the pencil icon under the admin column to enter the in-service admin portal Once you are in the admin portal you will need to click on the “Edit Registration Restrictions” link.   Now you can start to create ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       We’ve all been there at one time or another.  With confidence we go and make a change and voila, it looks beautiful.  After we celebrate our prowless, a few days later we go over what we did and notice that something just isn’t right.  Why are all my people at the wrong location?  Why are they assigned to the wrong school? At times like these, the existence of a good backup and recovery strategy is paramount.  In the case above, the creation of a ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       “Let us strive to improve ourselves, for we cannot remain stationary; one either progresses or retrogrades.” Mme. Du Deffand Wise words indeed from a lady who died over 230 years ago.  Some things never change. To get better or even to stay the best means continually improving oneself.  This is the same in life as it is in work. Speaking of work… We have a team of FileMaker developers – all ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 1 – 2 minutes       With each new version of PD-Place, many new and exciting features are added. These features range from minor adjustments to large scale changes. How does the PD-Place team determine what new features are added? When the PD-Place team receives a new feature request, the request is recorded in a list of changes. This list of changes is reviewed by the PD-Place team between releases. If the request is a feature that many clients will find useful, the feature is ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes        I must admit February is my least favourite month.  The shortest in actual days, but it seems the longest in actual time….By now we are pretty much sick of Winter.  But the end seems so far away.   We long for Spring Flowers, Warm Temperatures, Sunshine….We just want to put those boots away and hang up that winter coat.  I searched out some tips on how to help you get through the month: Mood Food….We tend to load up on Carbs…Maybe even polishing ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 1 – 2 minutes       Criticism. We’ve all faced it in one way or another. But what happens when social media is involved? With the recent logos unveiled by Gap (and we saw how well that went) and Starbucks, it’s been interesting to see how companies are managing the firestorms brought on by Twitter, Facebook, blogs and more. While fake Twitter accounts have popped up to add some levity to the discourse, it seems companies are starting to understand that communication is a ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       I’ve had a Twitter account (@barney_lawn) for some time now but in all honestly I’ve hardly used it. I guess I’ve been one of those people sitting on the fence wondering what I’m going to say, why would people want to listen to me, and more importantly, what the value is in participating in this form of social media. It wasn’t until I attended a couple of conferences recently that the answers became very clear and I finally realized how valuable a tool ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 1 – 2 minutes       With the holidays upon us, and likely a white Christmas due to London’s recent “snowmageddon,” it’s the time of year when many people give thanks. And companies too! Recently, local law firm Harrison Pensa released their 2010 holiday video. It’s a treat and definitely worth the watch, especially to hear Claude Pensa sing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” HP’s video got me thinking about how we give thanks here at ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       What if I told you there’s a way for you to get advice from mentors (or at least from those you people look up to), learn from their hard lessons, and take away new ideas that might help improve your business or career? What if I told you, on top of all that, it wouldn’t be time consuming or cost you much. Cheap professional development — it is possible. This kind of professional development doesn’t come from seminars or conferences (though those ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       This week, Scott Stratten (Twitter alias @unmarketing) made a stop in London, Ontario as part of his UnBook tour. I’ve blogged about Scott before, which was mostly on my excitement about his then upcoming appearance in the forest city. So what did I learn from Scott — aside from the fact that he’s quite funny, self-effacing and downright honest? (Proof: watch his TEDxOakville video or one of his many UnMarketing presentations) Here’s just ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 4 minutes       I know it’s hard to believe, but before we know it the Holiday Season will be here. Between now and then, our daily routines and schedules continue, but we now have the added stress of getting ready for that “one” day. I try and follow some tips I’ve received from friends and family, or have learned myself over the years. I am sure you have some you could add to the following list. Holiday Shopping: Start early. (Remember this for next ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 3 – 4 minutes       This week I’ve decided to post about the FileMaker community in general and all the helpful resources that are out there.  It’s a sure sign of a good product – one the users believe in – when people are willing to take time out of their schedules and share their knowledge with anyone who needs it. The FileMaker community is definitely one of the most helpful out there. Let’s look at what FileMaker Inc. offers to its users: The ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       Having been in business for 21 years, the school of hard knocks has taught me more than a few things. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that anybody can beat you on price but not everyone can beat you on value. Changing your price to be cheaper than your competitor is easy to do, but it’s a practice usually followed by large organizations that sell huge volumes of goods. For many types of companies, competing on price alone can be a dangerous ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       Don’t hate me, it’s true: The holiday season is around the corner. Even Starbucks had their snowy decorations up, and winter flavours and cups out, starting November 1! In the spirit of giving, as this season so often brings, why not participate in one (or more!) of the many initiatives coming up around our area? Living in London, Ontario, I’ve seen the great strides and efforts many local companies take to support the communities in which they ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 4 minutes       Tradeshow and conference season is ramping up and the CoreSolutions team is heading out on the road over the next couple of months, attending events throughout Ontario, in Alberta and in Atlanta, Georgia. Below is a short list of the conferences we’re exhibiting at or participating in. Maybe you’ve heard of some, maybe you’re even registered to attend. Come on by and say ‘hello.’ We’d love to connect with you. ATLE (November ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 1 – 2 minutes       We’ve all been there — just one of those mornings where everything goes wrong. You lock yourself out of your home (raise your hand if you did this today!), run out of gas on the way to the office, spill your coffee down the front of your shirt. I could go on and on. So how do you shake the funk that develops when all these little mishaps pile up on your shoulders? First things first: You have to let it go. Holding on to the frustration of a tough ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 4 minutes       It’s important for companies to understand generational differences in today’s working environment. After all, the person sitting next to you could be old enough to be your mother or young enough to be your daughter. I think this understanding not only helps the overall company, but the employees within individual work units or departments. So you’ve probably heard of Gen X, Baby Boomers or Millennials. What do they all mean, and which generation do ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       You read that right — the art of doing nothing. It does exist! In today’s fast paced society, where it’s easy to be overwhelmed by choice (25 types of ketchup, hundreds of TV channels, etc.) how can we slow down, and in the case of this blog, work smarter? One of my co-worker’s James likes to make to-do lists to keep on top of his many projects. Assigning priorities and the act of crossing off tasks can really work for some. Others I know like to keep their ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       Some of you may have heard of Scott Stratten before – he’s well-known in the marketing and social media world. If not, you can find his bio here. I promise, he’s worth getting to know. As one of today’s most influential social marketers, with more than 60,000 followers on Twitter and over 60 million views of his clients’ viral videos, Scott has a lot to say, and I for one am happy to listen. In fact, I had the chance to when I ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 1 – 2 minutes       I’m just back from taking a two-week vacation with my sons to Normandy, France where we visited a lot of the D-Day sites and museums. It was a fantastic experience for all and left us with memories that’ll last a very long time. We started planning our trip back in February and kept adjusting it over the following months, to a point where we filled each day with exciting sites and time to travel around. Unfortunately, as with a lot of plans, circumstances ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       My typical morning routine: Alarm goes off — the alarm function on my BlackBerry that is Brush teeth, with BlackBerry in other hand; check emails, Twitter, Facebook and BBC’s mobile site Get coffee and breakfast going, and turn on my laptop to read over local news, blogs, et al. and respond to emails Does this sound like you? If so, you’re obviously not alone. (I also forgot to mention that while my BlackBerry is the first thing in my hand ... Read More