Tag Archives: pandemic

Connection to the Real World: Revelation is Revealed

Sydney, NSW, Australia, 2021-Oct-08 — /EPR INTERNET NEWS/ — Amid the rise of uncertainty about the present and future of humanity triggered by the pandemic, COVID misinformation, including the lack of trust in the medical field and misunderstanding in the religious world, increases various concerns in daily life.

In the United States, rumors are circulating that the COVID vaccine is the “mark of the beast.” This apocalyptic biblical term is from Revelation 13 and is usually interpreted as being attached to Satan and subsequently diverging from God. Additionally, people regardless of religious background frequently encounter the question – does the COVID-19 signify “the end of the earth?”

Shincheonji Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony, announced that it will hold a round of weekly seminars titled, “Testimony on Prophecy and Fulfillment of Revelation, God’s New Covenant” from October 18th to December 27th.

The seminars, broadcasting live on YouTube, will provide explanation of prophecies recorded from every chapter of Revelation based on the 5W1H (who, what, when, where, why, how) method. The lecturers include Chairman Lee Man-hee, who has said that he is a witness who saw and heard all the events of the book physically fulfilled in the real world (Revelation 22:16).

Previously, the SCJ Word Seminar held in August attracted 1,700 pastors and 28,000 people globally. “The number of participants at this time reflects their interest and effort to understand the words of Revelation consistently with the words of the rest of the books of the Bible,” said Mr. Kim Shin-chang, General Director of the International Mission Department of Shincheonji Church.

The Shincheonji Church also added that the book of Revelation is written in parables and has not been explained through the real world, but instead only through human thoughts and non-biblical speculative theories which has misguided believers and instigated social disorder. The church also emphasizes that understanding the true meaning of the book of Revelation is to see how the prophecies expressed in parables have been physically fulfilled in the world today according to the Bible.

Media contact:

Shincheonji Church AU
+61 401 909 117
Australia@shincheonjichurch.org
https://www.youtube.com/c/ShincheonjiChurchofJesus

PayPerHead Agents Expect 2021 Triple Crown Revenue Bounce Back

San Jose, Costa Rica, 2021-Apr-28 — /EPR INTERNET NEWS/ — Because of the pandemic, the handle on the 2020 Kentucky Derby dropped significantly from the previous year. Handle on America’s signature horse race fell 49.8% from 2019. Churchill Downs didn’t run the race until September 5, four months after Derby’s traditional race day on the first Saturday in May.

PayPerHead agents are hopeful the 2021 Triple Crown results in a racebook revenue bounce back. The 2019 Kentucky Derby set a record handle of $165.5 million. 2019’s handle was 10% higher than 2018’s $149.9 million, which had been the previous record.

This year’s race lost star power after winter book favorite Life Is Good became injured. But Essential Quality is undefeated, owned by Godolphin, and trained by Brad Cox, who has ranked in the top ten in wins and earnings in the past four years.

The 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner won’t be the only undefeated horse in the race. Rock Your World, who won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, has victories over grass and dirt. Known Agenda, the Florida Derby winner, and Hot Rod Charlie, who won the Louisiana Derby, will also enter.

Although three races comprise the Triple Crown, for agents, the Kentucky Derby is the most important. Per Nate Johnson, PayPerHead’s product development manager, the Derby attracts more betting action than any other thoroughbred event.

“The Kentucky Derby may be the most popular horse race in the world. In 2019, Japan saw $4.1 million wagered on the Derby. It’s also the one race that should produce action for almost all of our agents,” Johnson said.

PayPerHead agents see most revenue from the sportsbook, live in-game betting platform, and products like the digital casino and live dealer. Johnson said few agents rely on horse racing revenue but that all see horse racing action on the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.

When asked about betting action on the Belmont, Johnson said it was hit or miss. “Everyone wants to see if the Derby winner can take the Preakness. If there’s a Triple Crown at stake, the same horse won both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, the Belmont could attract more action for our agents than the Derby.”

Johnson added, “Our agents count on the Kentucky Derby for racebook revenue followed by the Preakness. If different horses win the Derby and Preakness, the Belmont becomes just another horse race.”

Via EPR Network
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Conference organiser company Confinn behind the largest web conference in Lithuania’s history

VILNIUS, 1-Apr-2021 — /EPR INTERNET NEWS/ — Three days, 6000 minutes of content, 300 speakers, and over 10,000 attendees. With its unprecedented scale, the Lithuanian Business Forum will certainly feature in every best practice handbook for virtual events. The largest web conference in the country’s history took place in early March and transformed a now-tired traditional online format into an unusual digital space, recreating the true feeling of a live event. Nine months of preparation, many complex technical challenges, and carefully curated content – the organisers are right to describe setting up this event as a true feat.

A 3-day interactive programme

On March 3rd-5th, the record-breaking Lithuanian Business Forum brought together experts from various fields – economists, politicians, business and management consultants – and created a unique space to share ideas and promote solutions amongst professionals. The event focused on digitalisation and the circular economy.

According to Dainius Baltrušaitis, organiser of the Lithuanian Business Forum and head of Confinn, a conference organiser company, many people have grown tired of the virtual format’s omnipresence events being online-only because of the pandemic. This is why this unprecedented conference for the Nordic-Baltic region elicited a radically different reaction from the public: it attracted a lot of early interest, and its engagement remained high during the entire event.

Organisers are convinced that this success was due to the innovative format of the event. The Forum lasted 3 days and included interactive presentations, discussions and webinars.

“Last year, the event was spread out across nine halls, so it was difficult for our attendees to visit everything physically. In order to make the experience more enjoyable this year we split the programme over several days, so people could have a chance to listen to whichever speaker they wanted to see. We are delighted to hear that our attendees reported feeling as if they’d visited a new and unique space after the event. The constant interactive migration from one hall to another generated excitement and made them feel like they were attending a “real” event”, said business psychologist Dainius Baltrušaitis.

 

Artūras Laucius, another leader at ‘Confinn’, explains that the dynamic platform not only drew in people but also allowed them to consume valuable content for the next six months. “We chose this format because it gives the content a lot more depth. While people at the event are not required to listen to all the speakers, they may want to view them at a completely different time that is more convenient to them. So a one-day event of this scale, once recorded, can turn into a month-long event, and a three-day event can become a three-month event”, he added.

The biggest organisational challenges

According to Artūras Laucius, an event of this scale requires very careful preparation. One of the main challenges was time and people management. In order to organise such a huge conference without any interruptions, preparations need to start no less than nine months in advance.

“It is important to have all technical solutions tested, as they cause many of the problems that organisers have to deal with. We were planning to have many attendees, and we were concerned that some of our programs would interpret so many connexions as being a cyber-attack, which would paralyse our servers. When performing “stress tests”, it is necessary to slowly increase the number of users, as one thousand, five thousand or more users bring with them different technical challenges. It is important always to be one step ahead – to know exactly what ten thousand attendees will see on their screens during the event, and how it’s actually going to work”, he explains.

When setting up the event, content selection is another important task. According to Dainius Baltrušaitis, selecting high-quality material takes longer than one would expect, and investing in promoting your event matters when you want to attract the best moderators to your event. “We approve about 30% of speakers. In our case, with 300 speakers and 20 days of content waiting to be approved, it takes a very long time to go through discussions regarding content with everyone and select the best candidates. This is a crucial but time-consuming process. Choosing the best content and ensuring that everything goes smoothly guarantees a successful event. Long-term experience and good knowledge of the region are very important, too”, he notes.

Our tip to keep viewers engaged

Virtual events are very time-sensitive, explains Dainius Baltrušaitis. While a speaker has two minutes to make an impression during a live event, they only have 30 seconds to grab the viewer’s attention in a virtual format.

 

“If you start introducing yourself in the first minute, this means your visibility has failed, and your message is doomed. In an online format, you have as little as thirty seconds to present your point and convince the viewer to listen on. This is then followed by the main point of the speech, expert insights, and three examples. During a live event, a member of the audience would often feel uncomfortable standing up in the middle of the hall and leaving the auditorium, asking fellow audience members to make room for them as they leave. Here, in a virtual event, all it takes is one second and a click to move to another digital space if the content is not catchy enough.

“Our content professionals put a lot of effort into making the speakers shine. Sometimes a speaker contacts us and claims that there is no way for them to shorten their 40-minute presentation. We would then ask them to write everything down on a piece of paper physically. We would normally delete most of the text, reducing it from 20 pages to about 2. Our recommendation is to limit presentations to 10 minutes,” he explains.

Dainius Baltrušaitis further explains that another important aspect is to have an interactive comment section, which the moderator can control. Upvoting interesting questions works as an additional encouragement for attendees to get involved.

“All conference organisers know how hard it is to get audience members to ask questions. When people are asked if they have any questions during a live event, there is usually an awkward silence. But our trick is inertia. You need to wait out that initial period and encourage the participants to get involved after 4–5 minutes when an avalanche of questions normally begins. In the virtual format, we’ve included interactive comment fields that initially feature a couple of questions that can be upvoted. This method is simpler than users having to take the first step themselves. Upvoting helps us engage with the audience, and it encourages them to write their own questions.” says Dainius Baltrušaitis, who is pleased that technical and content-related ‘know-how’ gained in this region is being replicated abroad. Confinn, which used to primarily work on the largest conferences in the Nordic-Baltic region, is receiving more and more enquiries from across Europe to help organise huge virtual events with up to 100,000 people.

SOURCE: EuropaWire

Guitarist ANIL UZUN to air guitar lessons YouTube

VALLETTA, Malta, 17-Feb-2021 — /EPR INTERNET NEWS/ — ANIL UZUN is going to launch a Youtube series to teach bass guitar. The lessons will start airing on Youtube on Monday, March 1, at 5pm. The lessons will be released weekly on every Monday in March and April. There will be 8 lessons in total and the curriculum will be released soon.

ANIL UZUN is a musician from Turkey that has a Youtube channel, where he shares his experiences and ideas with his followers. He occasionally launches guitar lessons on his channel. Right now there is a beginner guitar lesson playlist on air.

On his channel, he will launch a brand new guitar lessons series. He films the videos at his house during quarantine. He will give free bass guitar lessons for the people stuck at home.

ANIL UZUN says “When quarantine started I wanted to use the healing effect of music and started to give lessons on Youtube for the people who are interested in playing the guitar. That series got a lot of ratings and helped people in quarantine. So I thought maybe I could go on by giving bass guitar lessons for the ones who are into bass. Lessons will help people to beat anxiety and other negative feelings that the pandemic causes.”

Bass guitar lessons with ANIL UZUN will include a lesson per week and will last for 8 weeks. Each video will introduce a new lesson.

The series will air on Youtube on Monday, March 1, at 5pm. The curriculum will be released soon.

Who is ANIL UZUN?

ANIL UZUN is a guitarist from Turkey. He was born in 1982 and he started playing music in his grandfather’s home with his childhood friends. In high school, Anıl Uzun formed a rock band with his fellow friends. He made performances in school concerts and youth festivals. Today, he works as an independent musical arranger, event organizer, and a producer. He continues to cherish his music and tries to give a legacy to his beloved daughter.

Bookies are Ready for NCAA March Madness to Return

San Jose, Costa Rica, 2021-Feb-10 — /EPR INTERNET NEWS/ — Sportsbook software companies like PayPerHead are gearing up for what should be an exciting NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament. Called March Madness, the three-week event starts on Thursday, March 18, and finishes on Monday, April 5, with the 2021 NCAA Men’s College Basketball National Championship.

The NCAA canceled the 2020 tournament due to the coronavirus pandemic. Although the pandemic remains, the body that governs college sports says there are no plans to cancel this year’s event. Instead, in early January, the NCAA declared that all games would take place in Indiana, with the majority of the sixty-seven NCAA Tournament games happening in Indianapolis.

Traditionally, the March Madness Tournament produces the second most sports betting action of the year. Historically, the Super Bowl drives the most wagering action. The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is a close second. With no tournament in 2020, bookie software agents relied on other gambling, like live dealer casino betting, to replace lost revenue. This year, per head agents are excited about the return of March Madness and expect pent up demand from customers.

Pay-per-head companies, the organizations that provide bookmakers’ software to run their businesses, are also excited. PPH sportsbook provider PayPerHead.com will run a promotion starting on February 8 to the college hoops title game on April 5. During the promotion, new customers only pay $4 per head for the company’s Prime Package. Per product manager Nate Johnson, the low price encourages non-customers to discover how PayPerHead is different.

“We’ll never be the low-cost leader,” Johnson said, “because our digital platforms provide player stickiness. The stickiness means players stay on our platforms longer, which means that with our platforms, agents make more money.” Johnson also added that the $4 per head promotional rate includes Live+, the company’s updated in-game betting platform. Johnson said Live+ includes game trackers and video streams. “Players have access to game stats that help them make informed live bets. They can also view games through video streams.”

After the $4 March Madness promotion ends, the company believes most customers will stay. “Our software is the best,” Johnson said. “We also provide things that other organizations in the per head industry don’t. Agents can pay and collect online, offer two separate live dealer casinos, provide their players a props platform, and offer 3D casino games. We’ll even help you create a branded website, and if you’re a master agent, we just developed reseller tools.”

Via EPR Network
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CDP Industry Update July 2020: revenue for 2020 estimated at $1.3 billion, 30% up YoY

SWARTHMORE, PA, U.S.A., 28-Jul-2020 — /EPR INTERNET NEWS/ — The Customer Data Platform industry continued to grow in the first half of 2020, but at a slower pace as cautious buyers absorbed pandemic-related budget cuts and assessed new entries from enterprise software vendors. The CDP Institute’s semi-annual Industry Update found a record number of new vendors entered the industry but that growth in employment and funding was the lowest in two years.

The CDP Institute estimates industry revenue for the 2020 at $1.3 billion, a respectable 30% increase of $1 billion in 2020. Enterprise software vendors listed for the first time include Adobe, Microsoft, Oracle, and SAS. These firms were added because they now offer products that meet the CDP Institute’s RealCDPTM standard. Estimated 2020 sales for these vendors are modest but are expected to grow rapidly in future years.

In all, a record twenty-two vendors were added to the report. More than half were U.S.-based and the majority offered campaign management and message delivery in addition to the core CDP function of building and sharing unified customer profiles. Most of these were large, established companies that were adding CDP to existing products. A minority were small, new companies that with products designed as CDPs from the start.  These were more likely to be based outside the U.S., with particular growth in Europe.

The period also saw a sharp slowdown in investment activity, with only one major acquisition (Evergage purchased by Salesforce) and one large funding round ($45 million for mParticle). There were no significant acquisitions made by CDP vendors and no CDP vendors left the industry. The preceding six month period saw six major funding events, three acquisitions of CDP vendors, four acquisitions by CDP vendors, and four CDP vendors ceasing to exist.

“The CDP industry was entering a transitional phase even before the pandemic, with increased competition from CDP capabilities embedded in larger systems,” said CDP Institute CEO David Raab. “The pandemic has accelerated this development and put increasing pressure on small CDP developers. But the need for CDP capabilities remains strong and many firms are prioritizing CDP investments as they prepare for the post-pandemic world. We expect that industry growth will accelerate as economic activity picks up and buyers have a chance to assess the new options that are now becoming available.”

A free copy of the complete report is available here.

SOURCE: EuropaWire