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Rowan Companies PLC (RDC)
Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call
Feb. 27, 2019, 11:00 a.m. ET
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
See all our earnings call transcripts.
Prepared Remarks:
Good morning. My name is Amy, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Q4 2018 Rowan Companies PLC Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks there will be a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions)
I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Brian Jackson, Manager of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Brian Jackson -- Manager, Investor Relations
Thank you, Operator, and welcome to Rowan's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Earnings Call. We appreciate your interest in Rowan. A copy of the company's earnings report issued earlier this morning can be found on our website at rowan.com.
Joining me on today's call are Tom Burke, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Stephen Butz, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer as well as other members of the Rowan team.
Before I turn this call over to Tom, I'd like to remind you that during this call, we may make certain forward-looking statements regarding our company and business that are not historical facts. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict.
Please refer to our annual report and most recent quarterly report filed with the SEC for more information regarding our forward-looking statements, including the risks and uncertainties that could impact our future results.
Our actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements. We caution you, therefore, against relying on any of these forward-looking statements. They are neither statements of historical fact, nor guarantees or assurances of future performance. Any forward-looking statement made by us during this call speak only as of the time at which it was made.
Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law.
With that, I would like to turn the call over to Tom Burke, Rowan's President and Chief Executive Officer.
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Brian. Good morning, and welcome to Rowan's fourth quarter 2018 earnings call. We appreciate you joining us today and your continued interest and investment in Rowan. Following my prepared remarks, Stephen will walk you through Rowan's financial performance. We will then open the call for questions.
I would like to take a moment to make a few comments regarding our proposed combination with Ensco. As disclosed last week, Rowan shareholders overwhelmingly supported the merger with approximately 91.5% of shares voted approving the transaction. From a regulatory standpoint, last November, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission granted early termination of the waiting period under the HSR Act.
The United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority cleared the combination earlier this month on February the 15th. We recently received clearance from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. Lastly, the initial review period for our filings with Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Competition will likely expire on April the 4th.
Over the past several months, we've been diligently working with Ensco to map out the new organization while respecting regulatory imposed limitations. I'm highly encouraged by the process in which the Rowan and Ensco teams have professionally worked together to prepare for the transaction closing and plan combined company operations.
Well, there is still much to do, we have completed a great deal of detailed integration planning, and I'm pleased to see our cost synergy target increased to $165 million per year from a $150 million per year as originally announced in 2018. We would expect to reach full run rate synergies by year-end 2020.
I would also note that this synergy figure is largely reflective of on-shore cost reductions, insurance and facilities. Once we close the transaction, we can better assess rig level opportunities such as procurement savings and best-in-class crewing practices. Also the synergy number does not include any potential savings in capital expenditures, which we will be able to evaluate upon the closing.
Customer feedback regarding the combination continues to be positive, but demands on drillers to work with customers to bring down overall well costs has never been greater. Rowan's combination with Ensco is exactly what is needed to become more competitive, while still managing our cost structure to more appropriate levels.
Turning back to our quarterly results, as we done in past calls. I'm going to discuss the overall market, recent contract awards to Rowan, and what to expect in terms of future contracting opportunities. The fourth quarter of last year with a particularly volatile period in the old markets, as Brent crude oil prices dropped from $86 per barrel to a low of $50 per barrel.
Prices have recovered somewhat with Brent hovering around the low 60s for much of this year, and more recently, improving to the mid to high 60s. Despite this decline in oil prices, oil and gas companies are expected to sanction at least 100 offshore projects in 2019, which is ahead of the 96 projects that received final investment decision last year.
Overall, contracting activity increased significantly in 2018 over previous years. Although contracts would generally have shorter duration. Rowan has clearly benefited from this improvement in the contracting environment, as our backlog days grew substantially in 2018. The number of backlog days for Rowan's fleet, excluding ARO Drilling owned rigs rose from approximately 3,000 days as of April 2018 to 11,300 days based on our last fleet status reported earlier this month.
Assuming a relatively steady oil price environment at roughly current levels, we expect contracting activity to continue to improve in 2019 as our customers take advantage of low service costs and spend offshore capital budgets that appear to be on par with, but slightly higher than 2018 levels.
From an execution standpoint, 2018 was a successful year in which we achieved our best safety performance ever. Our operational up-time, while still very high was slightly lower than 2017 impacted by the reactivation of several rigs during the year.
Over the past year, utilization for the global fleet of ultra-deepwater drillships has remained relatively stable at around 75%. Picks our activity for these types of assets continues to be higher than at any point since before the start of the 2014 downturn. Although, the average firm term of new contracts continues to remain well below one year. Day rates have also improved since bottoming in mid 2018, and customers have a clear preference for high specification assets such as our R-Class rigs.
We expect both trends to continue with the magnitude of further pricing improvements dependent on several factors including equipment availability, and timing of contract commencements. In the U.S., Gulf of Mexico, BP and other operators have announced significant oil discoveries.
Drilling plans and permits activity in the U.S., Gulf today is much higher than at this point last year. And we continue to consider the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, a key part of our future. Currently the Rowan Resolute is finishing up its contract with LLOG, after a short break period the rig will mobilize the Fieldwood for a one-year contract.
The Rowan Relentless is on its first option well with ExxonMobil, who have exercised their second and third options, which should keep the rig busy until the end of the third quarter of this year. The Rowan Reliance is warm-stacked in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and is available for suitable opportunities.
Although the recent leadership changes maybe creating somewhat uncertainties in Mexico and Brazil. We believe that recent exploration successes in Mexico by BHP and in Guyana by ExxonMobil as well as the upcoming bid round in Brazil will keep the industry keenly watching Latin America where ultra-deepwater drillship utilization has increased by 15% to 74% over last year, while marketed utilization is at a strong 95%.
The Rowan Renaissance began operations with Total in Mexico drilling in water depths that we believe is the deepest ever in the Gulf of Mexico. Following this current well for Total, the Renaissance will mobilize to Petronas for a one well plus one option well program also in Mexico.
In Africa, we are seeing many of the long-term requirements in the region shifting to the right sum to 2020. That said, we are tracking opportunities in Ghana, Namibia, Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Mauritania among others. Now I'm going to shift to the jack-up market.
Recovery for jack-ups certainly appears to be unfolding ahead of that for floaters. As of today all of Rowan's jack-up units are contracted, except for our two vintage cold stacked units. In the worldwide fleet, there are 26 more jack-up units contracted than a year ago that in conjunction with the retirements of nine units over that period have resulted in an increased in global marketed utilization by 7% to 76%.
The North Sea continue to experience strong marketed utilization of around 93%, which we expect to remain robust over the near-term. Currently, we have two Super Gorilla rigs, and all three N-Class rigs with contracts in the region including the recently announced contract with ConocoPhillips in Norway for the Rowan Norway, and direct continuation of the current program in Turkey for Turkish Petroleum.
We expect the firm program with ConocoPhillips to keep the Rowan Norway busy until early 2020. Our biggest risk in the North Sea are the gaps between contract periods and we're doing our best to manage these. Latin America and particularly, Trinidad, continues to be an important region for Rowan, as shown by our recent announcements of a further extension for the Joe Douglas with BP in Trinidad, and an extension for the Gorilla 6, with Shell also in Trinidad.
In addition, we secured new contracts with the Ralph Coffman with EOG in Trinidad and CGX in Guyana with other opportunities in the area also being explored. Activity in the Gulf of Mexico has remained steady. In the U.S. Gulf of Mexico 10 to 12 jack-ups have been operating since last March. Mexico is gaining steam with potential interest by the new government that may generate jack-up activity for Pemex.
Finally, the Middle East continues to be a healthy consumer of jack-ups with 132 units on charter, mostly in the UAE and in Saudi Arabia where we operate as ARO Drilling in our joint venture with Saudi Aramco. The Bess Brants and Earnest Dees are in the ASRY shipyard preparing for their contracts with Saudi Aramco. Completion of the reactivation and upgrades on these rigs has been challenging for a number of regions, and as previously disclosed in our recent fleet status are expected to start their drilling contracts in April.
Staying with ARO Drilling for a moment. As disclosed last December, it was decided to push out the ordering of the first two newbuilds to later this quarter or early next quarter. At year-end, ARO Drilling has approximately $178 million of cash on hand, which we believe will be sufficient to fund the down payment and meet ARO Drilling's operating needs.
That concludes my remarks on our business. In closing, the recent decline in oil prices was a stark reminder of the volatility that we must stay within our industry. Although this unexpected price change postponed some potential drilling programs, especially with the few smaller customers and independent. We continue to believe in a long-term cyclical recovery.
Oil price volatility aside, as we start, what will be the fifth year of the downturn in offshore drilling. I'm really encouraged by developments in the offshore drilling industry that have made the exploitation of offshore hydrocarbon resources much more competitive today than when the downturn began in late 2014.
Our pending combination with Ensco comes at an opportune moment in the cycle. Together, we can offer much more to our customers regardless of the commodity environment. We will be prudent with the balance sheet and are better equipped to manage through any prolonged down cycle. When the cyclical market recovery is more pronounced, we'll have greater upside exposure with a larger more diversified fleet and some of the best people in the business to execute operations.
This concludes my remarks. I do not expect that we'll have another earnings release before the merger closes. So, this will be the last Rowan earnings call with Stephen and the rest of the team here in the room at Rowan. It's been a real pleasure working with you through some good times and some tough times.
Some of you will leave, and some will continue with the combined company, but either way. I want to say a deeply felt, Thank You, for all your hard work.
With that, over to you, Stephen.
Stephen M. Butz -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Tom, and good morning, everyone. On the call today, I will review our fourth quarter 2018 results in comparison to third quarter 2018 results. I will also briefly discuss ARO Drilling's operating results. Given the pending merger with Ensco, we will not be providing stand-alone guidance for Rowan at this time.
Earlier this morning, we reported a net loss of $14 million or $0.11 per diluted share for the fourth quarter 2018, compared to a net loss of $144 million or $1.13 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2018. The net loss for the fourth quarter of 2018 included a $66 million gain on the sale of rigs to ARO Drilling, a $68 million tax benefit related to the release of valuation allowance on the company's net U.S. deferred tax assets and $8 million of merger-related expenses.
Excluding the impact of these three items, Rowan reported a net loss of $1.11 per share in the fourth quarter of 2018. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was a negative $7 million, which excludes the aforementioned $8 million of merger-related expenses. And compares to a loss of $15 million in the third quarter, which excludes $1 million of merger-related costs.
The EBITDA improvement was driven by higher deepwater revenue and lower general and administrative expense, partly offset by lower jack-up revenues following the sale of our Scooter Yeargain and Hank Boswell rigs to ARO Drilling.
Fourth quarter 2018 revenue of $179 million, includes $7 million of transition services revenue from ARO Drilling and $26 million of rebillables. Excluding transition services and rebillables, contract drilling revenue was $147 million and a 11% decline from the third quarter level. Jack-up revenue excluding rebillables was $122 million, a decline from $152 million in the third quarter.
The revenue decline was largely driven by the sale of the Yeargain and Boswell as well as the transition of four rigs operated by ARO from managed to leased during the third and fourth quarters. Utilization improved to 91% during the fourth quarter from 74% in the third quarter mainly due to the Rowan Norway and Rowan Stavanger recommencing operations and the leasing of the EXL I and EXL IV to ARO.
Average day rates for our jack-up fleet declined by 27%, largely on mix, due to the ARO related rigs that transitioned from managed to leased, lease commencement on the EXL I and EXL IV, and again the sale of the Boswell and Yeargain.
Deepwater revenue excluding rebillables was $25 million, an increase from $14 million in the third quarter, primarily due to a full quarter of operations on the Rowan Relentless, which also drove the improvement in utilization to 49% during the fourth quarter.
Average deepwater day rates rose modestly to 138,000. Direct operating costs in the fourth quarter were $141 million, excluding cost of rebills compared to $164 million in the third quarter and near the low end of our prior guidance.
Lower costs were mainly due to the elimination of direct operating expense on ARO related rigs that transition from managed to leased as well as the sale of the Yeargain and Boswell. This was partially offset by higher costs on the Stavanger and Norway, as they return to service, and reactivation costs on the Rowan Renaissance to prepare the rig for its contract commencement in the first quarter 2019.
SG&A expenses, excluding merger-related costs for the fourth quarter were $20 million, down from $25 million in the third quarter. This reduction was due to lower professional fees and mark-to-market adjustments on stock-based compensation. We also incurred $8 million of merger-related expenses during the fourth quarter compared to approximately $1 million incurred during the third quarter.
Depreciation expense in the fourth quarter totaled $95 million, down from $99 million in the third quarter and in line with our prior estimate. Interest expense totaled $40 million, essentially flat with the third quarter and in line with our previous estimate. We recorded an income tax benefit of $57 million during the fourth quarter, which includes a $68 million income tax benefit due to an adjustment on our U.S. valuation allowance on deferred tax assets.
For 2018, our tax benefit amounts to $52 million, which includes the fourth quarter adjustment I just mentioned and prior quarters benefits from the resolution of prior-year tax contingency. Income tax expense without these discrete benefits would have been $26 million primarily due to profitable operations in Saudi Arabia and the U.S.
Moving to our balance sheet and cash flow. We ended the year with just over $1 billion in cash and essentially flat with the September 30, 2018 level. Our ARO shareholder loan balance increased to $456 million at year-end from $269 million at the end of the third quarter, largely as a result of the sale of the Yeargain and Boswell to ARO. Rowan also received a net of $91 million in cash from ARO.
As we disclosed last December, the ARO Board during its last meeting elected to pick the interest earned on the shareholder notes during 2018. This move contributed $12 million to the increase in the shareholder loan balance.
Capital expenditures during the fourth quarter totaled $52 million, which was well below our prior guidance of $100 million to $120 million principally due to some slippage of spending on the Bess Brants and Earnest Dees in preparation for their three-year contracts with Saudi Aramco.
As we disclosed in our latest fleet status report published on February 13, we now anticipate contract commencement for the Brants and Dees will occur in April. As a result of the delay, a portion of capital expenditures needed to get these rigs compliant with Aramco requirements has been pushed into the first quarter of 2019.
I would now like to take a moment to discuss the operating results for ARO Drilling, which Rowan accounts for under the equity method. In the fourth quarter, ARO generated net income of $13.6 million compared to $6.3 million during the third quarter. Rowan's 50% share of this net income is reflected on our income statement.
The joint venture generated revenue of approximately $131 million in the fourth quarter, an increase from $89 million in the third quarter. The strong revenue growth stemmed from the addition of the Yeargain and Boswell as owned rigs to the ARO fleet. A full quarter's contribution from the Arch Rowan, Charles Rowan, Rowan Middletown and EXL IV as leased rigs to ARO, and a partial quarter contribution of the Rowan Mississippi and EXL I that are now also leased to ARO.
Operating expenses increased to $73 million from $51 million in the third quarter. This increase was primarily driven by the transition of previously managed rigs to leased rigs, which shifts direct operating costs of these rigs from Rowan to ARO. The lease commencement of the EXL I and EXL IV and the addition of the Yeargain and Boswell as wholly owned rigs by the JV.
All-in-all, ARO generated adjusted EBITDA of $15 million in the fourth quarter compared to $31 million in the third quarter. Looking forward for ARO Drilling, we still expect 2019 EBITDA will range between $160 million and $180 million. Although the delay in the start-up of the Brants and Dees makes the lower end of this range more likely than when we initially provided it.
Now before we start our question-and-answer session, please allow me to digress for a moment. As you all know while our combination with Ensco waits final regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions. These may occur prior to our first quarter earnings call. Since I will not be continuing with the combined company, this may be my final earnings call at Rowan.
Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our sell-side research analysts that cover the company for the diligent work you do and the important function in the market that you fulfill. I also sincerely appreciate all of our shareholders and creditors for the strong support you have shown to our company.
It has been my great pleasure to serve you as well as Rowan's world-class employees, management team and Board of Directors as Chief Financial Officer for the last 4.5 years. During this period, our industry has faced some incredibly tough headwinds. Through Tom's leadership, we have been able to manage through these challenges, and I'm confident that Tom along with the combined company Board and senior management team will successfully navigate Ensco Rowan to more prosperous times ahead. That concludes my prepared remarks.
With that, we're now ready to open the call to questions and answers. Operator?
Questions and Answers:
(Operator Instructions) Your first question today comes from the line of Kurt Hallead of RBC. Your line is open.
Kurt Hallead -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
Hey, good morning.
Stephen M. Butz -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Good morning, Kurt.
Brian Jackson -- Manager, Investor Relations
Hey, Kurt.
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Hey, Kurt.
Kurt Hallead -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
So, congrats to you guys on the next chapter. Stephen very well said. Thank you. Thank you for that. That chat out to what we do, I appreciate that. So, in the context of the fact that you'll be providing some specific kind of guided points on Rowan stand-alone, maybe could focus my Q&A and attention more about the evolving market dynamics, and I know you went through some great detail on that, Tom. But in the context of how we think about the deep -- the drillship market in the fact that you have a warm-stacked asset, you know, how are you looking at that opportunities and do you think that rig potentially get on land to contract in 2019?
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Sure, I'll give you some comments on that. And then I have Alan Quintero who is our SVP of Business Development and Marketing who may want to comment on that as well. So, I think, when we think about our strategy on the drillships as our contracts are fairly short.
We definitely -- we have a year contract with Fieldwood and we have customers with option -- with options with ExxonMobil contract, but we definitely want to try and push work to the hot rigs and on the Rowan Reliance, we would not want to reactivate that unless it had an opportunity to have a reasonable amount of work. So, and the reason for that is that all the rig is hot stacked.
There is a cost both the financial cost and sort of a morale cost ramping a rig up and then ramping it down again around the cost to do that, but also the cost of hiring people and then having to let them go. So, I think, as we think we've got three rigs that are working. We are trying to keep those three working, but it's an opportunity for some longer work or work that clashes comes up. We would put it on the Reliance. Alan, do you want to comment on the opportunities on the Reliance?
Alan Quintero -- Senior Vice President, Business Development
Yeah. So like we said in the prepared comments that we are seeing a high level of fixtures and a high level of interest for rigs. They continue to be primarily short term, but we have seen a couple of longer-term fixtures recently, and we are talking to one or more customers right now about longer-term work that could potentially be something that we bring the rig out for.
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
This year.
Alan Quintero -- Senior Vice President, Business Development
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Kurt, that answers that question?
Kurt Hallead -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
That's really helpful. So maybe the second part of the question then would be, I think, we're all pretty much well first on how challenging the day rate market had been at least very near term for some of the spot work or short term work. Yet, there are some markers out there with respect to say contract starts in 2020 or 2021 that could indicate the near-term dynamics should be positive for near-term dynamics on pricing for ultra-deepwater drillships. So, I guess, what I'm really looking to do here is that, can you help us bridge potentially kind of what the current day rate structure is vis-a-vis the perspective for the day rate structure that's out there for work in 2021 that for all intents and purposes seems being priced somewhere in the $300,000 per day range versus I guess what the current market range have been kind of 135 to 150. So, when we are going to get the uplift on the short-term dynamics and how do you see us bridging that gap?
Alan Quintero -- Senior Vice President, Business Development
Yeah. It's Alan here again, Kurt. Yeah, I think, there are some markers out there that have been made public that show that longer-term work are being bid at higher day rates and the spot market is today. And we ourselves are proposing our rigs for longer-term work at higher rates. And today not just in the ultra-deepwater, but I think we've also made public the fact that we have some of our jack-up work with long-term options also being bid and the options being higher rates than current rates. So, like what's said in our prepare moments, I think, we did hit bottom mid '18 and we see better things ahead.
Kurt Hallead -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
Great, thanks. Thanks and congrats on the merger.
Stephen M. Butz -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you.
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Kurt.
(Operator Instructions) Your next question today comes from the line of Greg Lewis of BTIG. Your line is open.
Gregory Lewis -- BTIG -- Analyst
Hi, good morning, and thanks.
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Hey, Greg.
Gregory Lewis -- BTIG -- Analyst
Hey guys. First, congrats on getting this to the finish line and Stephen hey it's been a pleasure and hope forward to seeing you soon.
Stephen M. Butz -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Greg.
Gregory Lewis -- BTIG -- Analyst
Yeah, my -- when I look at clearly congratulations you guys were able to get the Rowan Norway back into Norway. So, we kind of have all three of the N-Class rigs back in the Norway under contract. Just as we think about this are we at a point now in the North Sea or specifically Norway where we are going to start to see some pricing momentum or have we already started to see some pricing momentum.
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, Alan, why don't you take that as well.
Alan Quintero -- Senior Vice President, Business Development
Yeah, hi Greg. Well, like I said, just a little while ago here we are already seeing some pricing momentum, we are being able to price rigs off bottom for the short-term and to price some of our options at increasingly higher day rates. So and we see the North Sea market as a whole, the whole North Sea region as a whole picking up momentum.
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
And it's certainly just add to that and certainly where there's a technical differentiation in Norway and the Central North Sea for sure more in Norway some in the Central North Sea. We are seeing more pricing momentum than into perhaps some of the other areas.
Alan Quintero -- Senior Vice President, Business Development
Yeah, good point, Tom.
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Greg, does that help?
Gregory Lewis -- BTIG -- Analyst
And then just, yeah, perfect and then just big picture, I mean, clearly you guys are emerging, but I know you were pretty active in looking at a lot of potential matches prior to agreeing for the merger with Ensco as you kind of look around the offshore drilling landscape, are we going to look back and see this is probably the last sort of deal out there this sort of cycle -- down cycle or do you think there's still opportunities for some more consolidation?
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, that's a really good question. I think from Rowan's perspective we are very focused on this merger with Ensco and so that's got all of our attention. But I would say in a sort of a much bigger picture for the whole industry, I wouldn't be surprised, if there's more changes and more moves. I think you know when you're in the top of an up-cycle and you think about what the company should do versus five years into a very tough downturn definitely give a different perspective on the world. So, I think, you know the, I think, big picture, certainly I would expect more things to happen, but certainly at Rowan we are absolutely focused on making this merger successful.
Gregory Lewis -- BTIG -- Analyst
Okay. Absolutely guys. Hey, thank you very much and good luck to everybody.
Alan Quintero -- Senior Vice President, Business Development
Thank you.
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Greg.
And at this time there are no further questions in queue. I turn the call, sorry. We do have another question from the line of Kurt Hallead of RBC. Your line is open.
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Hi, Kurt.
Alan Quintero -- Senior Vice President, Business Development
Kurt, go ahead.
Kurt, you may be on mute.
Kurt Hallead -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
Thank you. Here we go. Couldn't let you guys off that easy.
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Kurt.
Kurt Hallead -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
Sure. Hey, Tom, in the past you kind of talked about some technologies that you guys are deploying on a variety of your rigs to kind of make them more efficient to help the oil companies kind of drive down the well costs. Can you give us an update on how that has progressed and what kind of successes you've seen?
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes, it's something I'll try and keep it very short because I can kind of waffle on about it all day, because I'm very passionate about it.
But I would say that as we think about the offshore drilling space, when you're in the sort of cyclical upturn, what you really just focused on is getting, not in the good thing, but when you have a cyclical upturn, and the customers are demanding rigs, everybody is very, very focused on construction, and just getting rigs out of the yard. In a downturn it makes you a lot more introspective about the industry structure, and who earns the technology and how do we compete with other hydrocarbon resource accumulations.
So we've got to become more efficient. And so as I think about some of the things we've done, it's been, we have done and Ensco has done as well. Now, obviously we are separate, but a couple of things that have been really interesting.
One is the ability to move on and off location, the classic offshore drilling of the jack-up, on the jack-up, classically what would happen is the crew would look over the side of the rig and see how -- what the wave height was, and look in the operating manual, it would say don't move at the wave height is more than 5 feet, 10 feet or 15 feet, and that was what the industry has used as a way of moving a jack-up.
The reality is you can do a lot better than that. And so we've applied some fairly, I would say, commodity sensors, but in a very smart way such as wave height, millimeter wave radar, gyroscopes to work out what the rig is actually doing comparing it to the structural model of the rig, and then making and then giving the rig crew actually a decision window based on true structural dynamics of, can I move the rig in this location?
And it's not something that you would leave, you would use in every market around the world because it's dependent on the market. So, that's something we've used to good effect in Trinidad, where the issue in Trinidad is actually getting off location, getting your jack-ups off the platforms when you're in this big Atlantic Swell. And so, I think, we've used that to good effect in Trinidad, we use that on our rig moves down there.
In the North Sea and that's, sorry, and in Trinidad because the bottoms of the ocean is very sticky and you got a lot of penetration. North Sea has very different issues, you don't get a lot of penetration with jack-ups. So, you really have a hard surface on the bottom, and so you have definitely have different issues.
So, that's an area where we've done it, the business has done, the operations that we done one way for years and years and years, but standing back and thinking about how am I more efficient, where can I move, we shouldn't be waiting on weather that just cost the customer a lot of money or it cost the driller a lot of money. How do we become more efficient and that's just a good example of that.
I'm not as familiar with this system, but the Ensco has deployed some continuous tripping technology on a rig, which I believe is going to the North Sea. Again, we're not, I'm not super involved or -- I don't have a detailed understanding on it, but because for competitive reasons, we haven't been able to, but that's an example on the Ensco side of some very clever intellectual property to be able to remove those three minute, two minute breaks when you're connecting pipe. If you can do it without stopping the pipe, it just has immense opportunities.
And the final thing I would say is, I think, all of the companies are doing, but there's a huge amount of data on our rigs and how do we really use that to make safer and more reliable operations. I think that's been a big focus for us on the last couple of years, and we focused on drilling performance, I would say, today compared to 2013, 2014, we truly understand our performance as far as drilling.
We really understand how efficient we are, we are probably four years ago, it just simply didn't and that's has been a big data analytics program at Rowan. And I think it's really helping us as we think about contracting models. That's quite a lot, Kurt. So, but I appreciate the question.
Kurt Hallead -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
That's helpful. And I did have a follow-up on coming back around to the Reliance. How long would it take for that rig to get on location and start to drill and what do you think the cost would be to get it to that state?
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Sure. We've had quite a bit of experience around this in the last. So, we've done this twice actually, recently. What will actually probably dictate the time is customer acceptance, but assuming the customers are, have a ready-to-go when they accept the rig, it's probably 90 days, 60 days to 90 days, 90 days to get the rig from where it is now to ready to move to location.
And as far as the cost, what is the cost, the cost is crew ramp up, right? That is a big part of it, and so the rig is in a warm-stacked state, which means, we don't have any much capital to spend, but we do have to spend some money on moving from a warm-stacked to a live rig maintenance. So, I would guess Alan, Darren $5 million to $10 million?
Alan Quintero -- Senior Vice President, Business Development
Probably, yeah.
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes, $5 million to $10 million. And what is that $5 million to $10 million some of it that crew ramp up, some of these things like the rubber goods. Rubber goods have a shelf life for the BOPs and other things. There's no point stocking the rig with rubber goods because that stuff is sort of go stay and even if you keep it in a refrigerated room which we do, and so we don't buy that stuff until you're ready to go. And frankly we've run down that inventory and using it on other rigs to save money. So, there's probably $600, 000, $700,000 of rubber goods to add. I wouldn't and that's just a guess off the top of my head.
Kurt Hallead -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
Great. Thank you.
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Does that help?
Kurt Hallead -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
Yes, perfect. Thank you.
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, thanks for the questions, Kurt. I appreciate it.
And at this time I turn the call back to the presenters.
Brian Jackson -- Manager, Investor Relations
Thank you, operator, and thank you all for your interest and participation. If there are any additional questions, feel free to reach out to us for a follow-up call.
And this concludes our conference call for today. You may now disconnect.
Duration: 42 minutes
Call participants:
Brian Jackson -- Manager, Investor Relations
Thomas P. Burke -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Stephen M. Butz -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Kurt Hallead -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
Alan Quintero -- Senior Vice President, Business Development
Gregory Lewis -- BTIG -- Analyst
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text: Eurostat Data Research Training LocationLearning Centre - UG08 DatesThursday 14 May 2015 (10:00-12:30) ContactSophie Sinclair - firstname.lastname@example.com Add to my calendar A fantastic opportunity to attend a free hands on training course delivered by Eurostat at the University. With over 300 million statistical data, Eurostatis a mine of statistical information that is unique in the world and covers all areas of European society. Eurostat is the leading provider of statistical information to the European institutions. However, given its broad nature and wealth of information it is equally appealing to other sectors at international, national and regional level. The session will look at the different databases currently available at Eurostat as well as will highlight some important tips in order to better understand the information contained in them.Participants of this session will have the opportunity to work on a number of practical exercise during the hands-on session.This activity will benefit both academics and students interested in accessing and analysing a variety of social data at the European level. Programme for the event 1. What is Eurostat? 1.1 Roles 2. Eurostat statistical areas: Focus on Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) 2.1 Extraction 2.2 Dissemination 3. Other important aspects and services 3.1 Metadata 3.2 Classifications / national classifications and international 3.3 Microdata 4. Publications and data visualization programs 5. User Help Break Hands-on interactive session This is an excellent opportunity to gain a better understanding of the social data that Eurostat can provide and how you can utilise it for studies and research. Places are strictly limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. If you are interested in attending, please contact Sophie Sinclair with your contact details to register.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Altar Guild ministers provide service through the preparation of the altar. This involves set up and clean up for the sacraments of Communion and Baptism, cleaning the tiled area of the sanctuary, ordering flowers weekly, and decorating the altar during festivals (i.e. Thanksgiving). Altar Guild ministers should be Immanuel members who are available to serve before and after services, four times a year (usually two weeks every quarter). Contact Carol Rathjen for more information.


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Culver PQ-14/Q-14/TD2C
In 1942 Culver designed a larger and more powerful derivative of their PQ-8/TDC Cadet target as the model NR-D. A single PQ-8 was converted to the new configuration and tested by the USAAF as the XPQ-14. This was followed by YPQ-14A service test aircraft and more than 1400 PQ-14A production models. Of the latter, about 1200 were transferred to the U.S. Navy, which designated them as TD2C-1 Turkey.
The PQ-14A was powered by a Franklin O-300-11 piston engine and had a retractable tricycle landing gear. Like the PQ-8, it was flown manned for ferry or check-out flights, and by radio-control from the ground as a target drone.
Photo: © Aerofiles |
The YPQ-14B was a slightly heavier variant, which was followed by a production run of more than 1100 PQ-14B targets for the USAAF. A single PQ-14B was converted to use an O-300-9 engine and designated XPQ-14C.
Photo: © Kenneth W. Shanaberger, Ken's Aviation |
PQ-14A/B (exact model unknown) |
In 1948, the U.S. Air Force redesignated the remaining PQ-14A and PQ-14B drones as Q-14A and Q-14B, respectively. A few Q-14Bs were converted to drone control aircraft (presumably to control other Q-14s) and designated DQ-14B. The latter were always flown by an on-board pilot. The last Q-14s left the USAF inventory around 1950.
Note: Data given by several sources show slight variations. Figures given below may therefore be inaccurate!
Data for PQ-14B (Q-14B):
Length | 5.94 m (19 ft 6 in) |
Wingspan | 9.14 m (30 ft) |
Height | 2.54 m (8 ft 4 in) |
Weight | 830 kg (1830 lb) |
Speed | 300 km/h (185 mph) |
Ceiling | 5200 m (17000 ft) |
Range | 580 km (360 miles) |
Propulsion | Franklin O-300-11 piston engine; 111 kW (150 hp) |
Main Sources
[1] Gordon Swanborough, Peter M. Bowers: "U.S. Military Aircraft since 1908", Putnam, 1989
[2] John M. Andrade: "U.S. Military Aircraft Designations and Serials, 1909 to 1979", Midland Counties, 1979
[3] James C. Fahey: "U.S. Army Aircraft 1908-1946", Ships and Aircraft, 1946
Back to Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, Appendix 1
Last Updated: 20 March 2003


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007: The World is Not Enough is based off of the 1999 James Bond film of the same name. In it, Pierce Brosnan's Bond must investigate the murder of a British oil tycoon and attacks on his new pipeline, which leads to a larger sinister plot requiring gunplay and frequent flier miles to diffuse.
The GBC port is most well known for appearing in GBC emulator issue trackers for its non-standard use of the window. It also pans the music to the left ear and the sound effects to the right ear for some reason.
Alyosha completes the game in record time.
See this movie played back on a real console right here.


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Leo delivered some pretty nice groundies, but it was Nadal who, once again, prevailed. Rafael Nadal didn't break much of a sweat in taking down Richard Gasquet in straight sets on Saturday, but that's okay. Enter ball kid Leo. The young man was introduced by Marion Bartoli during Nadal's post-match interview and Nadal said he'd be happy to have a hit with the young lad.
Here's how it shook out:
He can never get enough. @RafaelNadal practices with ball boy post match. #RG18 pic.twitter.com/Qhqt3m1GlP
— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) June 2, 2018
We're sure a lot of you will argue with Marion Bartoli's assessment that Leo is Nadal's biggest fan, but we must say, the young man acquitted himself nicely against the King of Clay. And here is today's impromptu French lesson: Ball kid = ramasseur de balles!
See the full video below… .
Léo, ballkid, had a nice moment with @RafaelNadal !
Après sa victoire contre Richard Gasquet, Rafa Nadal a joué avec Léo, ramasseur de balles ! 💫❤#RG18 pic.twitter.com/HDNz5bdFs5— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 2, 2018


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Home | Products | Support | Company | News | Contact
The world has changed a lot in the last couple of decades. Instead of simply dealing with local or regional concerns, many businesses now have to think about global markets and logistics. Many companies have facilities spread out across the country or around the world, and there is one thing that all of them need: A way to maintain fast, secure and reliable communications wherever their offices are. Until fairly recently, this has meant the use of leased lines to maintain a wide area network (WAN). Leased lines, ranging from ISDN (integrated services digital network, 128 Kbps) to OC3 (Optical Carrier-3, 155 Mbps) fiber, provided a company with a way to expand its private network beyond its immediate geographic area. A WAN had obvious advantages over a public network like the Internet when it came to reliability, performance and security. But maintaining a WAN, particularly when using leased lines, can become quite expensive and often rises in cost as the distance between the offices increases. As the popularity of the Internet grew, businesses turned to it as a means of extending their own networks. First came intranets, which are password-protected sites designed for use only by company employees. Now, many companies are creating their own VPN (virtual private network) to accommodate the needs of remote employees and distant offices.
Image courtesy Cisco Systems, Inc. A typical VPN might have a main LAN at the corporate headquarters of a company, other LANs at remote offices or facilities and individual users connecting from out in the field.
Basically, a VPN is a private network that uses a public network (usually the Internet) to connect remote sites or users together. Instead of using a dedicated, real-world connection such as leased line, a VPN uses "virtual" connections routed through the Internet from the company's private network to the remote site or employee. In this article, you will gain a fundamental understanding of VPNs, and learn about basic VPN components, technologies, tunneling and security.
What Makes a VPN?
A well-designed VPN can greatly benefit a company. For example, it can: • Extend geographic connectivity • Improve security • Reduce operational costs versus traditional WAN • Reduce transit time and transportation costs for remote users • Improve productivity • Simplify network topology • Provide global networking opportunities • Provide telecommuter support • Provide broadband networking compatibility • Provide faster ROI (return on investment) than traditional WAN What features are needed in a well-designed VPN? It should incorporate: • Security • Reliability • Scalability • Network management • Policy management
Remote-Access VPN There are two common types of VPN. Remote-access, also called a virtual private dial-up network (VPDN), is a user-to-LAN connection used by a company that has employees who need to connect to the private network from various remote locations. Typically, a corporation that wishes to set up a large remote-access VPN will outsource to an enterprise service provider (ESP). The ESP sets up a network access server (NAS) and provides the remote users with desktop client software for their computers. The telecommuters can then dial a toll-free number to reach the NAS and use their VPN client software to access the corporate network. A good example of a company that needs a remote-access VPN would be a large firm with hundreds of sales people in the field. Remote-access VPNs permit secure, encrypted connections between a company's private network and remote users through a third-party service provider.
VPN Security: Firewalls A well-designed VPN uses several methods for keeping your connection and data secure: • Firewalls • Encryption • IPSec • AAA Server In the following sections, we'll discuss each of these security methods. We'll start with the firewall. A firewall provides a strong barrier between your private network and the Internet. You can set firewalls to restrict the number of open ports, what type of packets are passed through and which protocols are allowed through. Some VPN products, such as Cisco's 1700 routers, can be upgraded to include firewall capabilities by running the appropriate Cisco IOS on them. You should already have a good firewall in place before you implement a VPN, but a firewall can also be used to terminate the VPN sessions.
VPN Security: IPSec Internet Protocol Security Protocol (IPSec) provides enhanced security features such as better encryption algorithms and more comprehensive authentication.
A remote-access VPN utilizing IPSec
IPSec has two encryption modes: tunnel and transport. Tunnel encrypts the header and the payload of each packet while transport only encrypts the payload. Only systems that are IPSec compliant can take advantage of this protocol. Also, all devices must use a common key and the firewalls of each network must have very similar security policies set up. IPSec can encrypt data between various devices, such as: • Router to router • Firewall to router • PC to router • PC to server
Tunneling Most VPNs rely on tunneling to create a private network that reaches across the Internet. Essentially, tunneling is the process of placing an entire packet within another packet and sending it over a network. The protocol of the outer packet is understood by the network and both points, called tunnel interfaces, where the packet enters and exits the network. Tunneling requires three different protocols: • Carrier protocol - The protocol used by the network that the information is traveling over • Encapsulating protocol - The protocol (GRE, IPSec, L2F, PPTP, L2TP) that is wrapped around the original data • Passenger protocol - The original data (IPX, NetBeui, IP) being carried Tunneling has amazing implications for VPNs. For example, you can place a packet that uses a protocol not supported on the Internet (such as NetBeui) inside an IP packet and send it safely over the Internet. Or you could put a packet that uses a private (non-routable) IP address inside a packet that uses a globally unique IP address to extend a private network over the Internet. Tunneling: Site-to-Site In a site-to-site VPN, GRE (generic routing encapsulation) is normally the encapsulating protocol that provides the framework for how to package the passenger protocol for transport over the carrier protocol, which is typically IP-based. This includes information on what type of packet you are encapsulating and information about the connection between the client and server. Instead of GRE, IPSec in tunnel mode is sometimes used as the encapsulating protocol. IPSec works well on both remote-access and site-to-site VPNs. IPSec must be supported at both tunnel interfaces to use.
Home | Technologies | Products | Company | News | Contact


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What Was The Last Non-Fiction Book You Read?
Read today's quote from legendary football coach, Lou Holtz and today's message will make more sense to you.
"The only things that are going to change you from where you are today from where you are going to be five years from now are the people you meet and the books you read."
Lou HoltzFootball Coach
I was 35 when I took up reading as a full-time endeavor. When I managed to "squeeze" a degree out of UMASS in 1971, I gave up reading for a few years. Little did I know I was retarding my growth exponentially at the time. But having successfully juggled studies with two collegiate sports for four years, I figured I had read enough for a while.
Today I sing a different tune. As a matter of fact, I am working from my local library while writing this column. I just heard over the library PA that the annual dump-the-old-book-sale was in motion down in the basement.
Like a mouse attacking an unattended cheese pile, I found myself in the basement in very short order. I knew this was a dangerous study break. I surfaced carrying a bag of new reads.
As if I needed more to think about, here are my latest titles: They are all over ten years old but truth never grows old and what worked yesterday, just might work again today. I often refer to this as the "pendulum" swinging back through the present.
1. EVEolution: The Eight Truths of Marketing to Women. by Faith Popcorn, author of The popcorn Report. I am a firm believer that women are in charge. Call me a wimp or call me one smart fellow. Although published eight years ago, I figured there was something in this book that I could use. (I did not read the Mars/Venus thing but perhaps I should have.)
2. The Fighting Irish by Lou Holtz. Always a fan of Holtz, I will see if this one can hold my attention while managing to capture a few quotes for future seminars. A few of you may be familiar with my signature Notre Dame story.
3. Keeping Your Valuable Employees by Suzanne Dibble. If employees happen to be people, I think there just might be a few jewels in here I could use.
4. 12 Step Wisdom of The World by The Hazeldon Foundation. Sounded like they might know what they are talking about, and I liked the title. Chapter 1: Why we change and why we don't. I am receptive to a little change in my life. Stay tuned.
5. The library "threw-in" three cassette tapes: 19 Country Hits; Dan Fogelberg's Greatest Hits; Don Williams' New Moves. You may remember Don as the Gentle Giant. A very smooth country crooner.
6. Marketing Textbook. And this one might throw you for a loop. Last published in 1990, I picked up a copy of someone's old college textbook on Marketing, Fifth Edition. (Let's see if there really is something to the belief than you can't teach an old dog new tricks.)
Throw-Away. The book I picked up and put back down had something to do with statistics. I was about to challenge myself when I got a grip. It looks like a Regression Analysis re-do will have to wait until next year.
Total investment: $5.00.
Now, let's see if I can become just a little bit smarter than a fifth grader. Don't count on it.


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Three Rooms Press is a fierce New York-based independent publisher inspired by dada, punk and passion. Founded in 1993, it serves as a leading independent publisher of cut-the-edge creative, including fiction, memoir, poetry translations, drama and art.
Friday, April 20, 2007
The Cut-Off Point Now on YouTube
Three Room Press' Peter Carlaftes short film, The Cut-Off Point is now on YouTube. This 3-minute comedic wonder is a spoof on Lorena Bobbitt who cut off her husband penis. Here Mr. Carlaftes cuts off his wife's vagina after he suspects her of cheating on him. The ensuing bust-a-gut hilarious action is far different than Lorena's adventure.
Carlaftes says he was inspired to create his 1994 movie after becoming "sick and tired" of the ludicrous media exploitation of the situation, which posited Lorena Bobbitt as a spokesperson for radical feminists. While the abuse she suffered at the hands of husband John Wayne Bobbitt was universally considered detestable, the resulting media feeding frenzy hardly raised an eyebrow. The director's own "cut-off point" came after Vanity Fair ran an article on Lorena, complete with photos by renowned photojournalist Mary Ellen Mark (recently voted by American Photography readers as their favorite female photographer of all time). Mark's photos captured a semi-pornographic wide-eyed Lorena Bobbitt, halfway in a swimming pool, wearing a white bathing suit, dripping wet. The magazine's justification of such a blatantly exploitative shot? "Lorena is, after all, property now."
Carlaftes' film vividly exposes the bitter exploitation by recasting the story's main characters in opposite genders, and the resulting drama is gut-wrenchingly funny. As with all of his work, behind the laughter is a Vonnegut-like sense of compassion, and bemusement that even as civilization continues its descent into oblivion, a few moments of bliss remain.
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Travel Documents
For certain aliens who wish to re-enter the United States after they travel abroad, they may apply for travel documents with the USCIS. There are two kinds of travel documents available for the eligible aliens: Advance Parole Advance Parole is a document for certain aliens, whose I-485 application for adjustment of status is pending, to re-enter the United States after traveling abroad. There are two purposes for advance parole. First, it preserves the alien's I-485 pending status at the USCIS. Second, it enables the alien come back to the U.S. after traveling abroad without the necessity of obtaining a visa to the U.S. Such aliens must be approved for Advance Parole before leaving the United States. If they have not obtained Advance Parole prior to traveling abroad, they will not be permitted to re-enter the United States upon their return. For more information about Advanced Parole, please click here. Re-Entry Permit An Re-Entry Permit is issued by permanent residents or conditional permanent residents who wish to remain outside the U. S. for a prolonged period of time, but less than two years. A re-entry permit usually enables a permanent resident, who traveled abroad for a period of time of more than one year but less than two years, to avoid the risk of not being allowed to come back the U.S. on the ground that the alien abandoned his permanent residence status. A re-entry permit can also serves as a passport for a permanent resident who wants to travel outside the U. S., but cannot get a national passport from his country of nationality. For more information about Re-entry Permit, please click here.
Related Items Adjustment of Status Third Country Visa
Adjustment of Status | Adoption | Advance Parole | Application Fees | Asylum & Removal | Business Entities | Corporate Clients | Consular Processing | Divorce | E-1 & E-2 | EAD | F-1 | Family Immigration | FAQs | Forms | Investor Visa | Immigration Glossary | K Visa | L Visa | Marriage | Naturalization | Non-immigrant Visas | O-1 | Processing Time | Road to Green Card | TN | Visa Bulletin
"The best way to predict your future is simply to create it." - Peter Drucker. .


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Located at the base of the fingernail just above the cuticle, a half moon, or to put it scientifically, a lunula is a whitish almost transparent shape that is part of the nail matrix. While spotting a half moon on a client's nails is no cause for alarm, the discoloration or lack of one may warrant a call to their doctor.
According to an article from womansera.com, when the lunula is not visible on the nail it may indicate certain blood issues. In addition, the discoloration of the lunula (read: yellow, blue or red) may also be a sign of serious health concerns, including diabetes or heart problems.
A separate article from healthline.com states that if your client does not have a visible half moon on their nails, it could be a result of trauma or a sign of anemia, malnutrition or depression.
If you notice either a discolored lunula or one that is not visible on a client's nails, suggest a call to their doctor to discuss if it is cause for concern.


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Bring out the adventure for your next children's birthday party. Rock climbing is suitable for all ages from junior to teenager. We have a wide choice of locations we can take the children depending on the activity, from easy beginners climbs to more adventurous locations. We'll discuss and agree the perfect location with you!
Benefits for your kids?
- Above all fun! Outdoors with friends using specialised equipment to challenge and support each other and what is seen as a super cool activity!
- Teaches hand, feet and eye coordination.
- Encourages trust and teamwork as we get all the kids involved in the activity.
- Builds personal confidence as each child gets to explore their own limits.
- Helps with problem solving and decision making.
- Develop effective communication and listening skills.
- Giving and receiving instructions.
Suitable for all ages!
We've taken children from as young as 3 years climbing but generally from the age of 8 upwards is the age when most children have the personal confidence and the ability to follow instructions without becoming too overwhelmed. Our guides work frequently with groups of children so you can be confident we have the right sensitivity and skills to ensure each and every child gets the personal support they need in this activity to end the session exhausted and happy!
Adventure parties…
If this activity will be a birthday party we make sure that the location is suitable for you to arrange refreshments. We'll supply the gazebo, table and music speaker so you can bring a cake, drinks and snacks allowing the children to have the fun of a birthday party in an adventurous location and fun activity.
Not just climbing!
If you want to try other activities we don't just do climbing! We can tailor most of our other adventure sports into a birthday party event for your kids, juniors or teens giving them a unique experience to remember.


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Hawkeye Fan Shop — A Black & Gold Store | 24 Hawkeyes to Watch 2016-17 | Hawk Talk Monthly — May 2017 | Game Notes — Ohio State (PDF)
Dates: | May 12-14, 2017 |
Location: | Iowa City, Iowa (Duane Banks Field) |
Game Notes: | IOWA | OHIO STATE |
Statistics | IOWA | OHIO STATE |
Radio/Streaming: | Hawkeye Radio Network | Hawkeye All-Access ($) |
Live Stats: | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 |
Video Streaming: | Game 1 (BTN Plus) | Game 2 (BTN Plus) | Game 3 (BTN Plus) |
Game 1 | May 12 | 6:05 p.m. (CT) | |
Pitching Matchup: | Iowa: RHP Nick Gallagher (6-1, 2.30 ERA) |
OSU: RHP Jake Post (1-5, 3.98 ERA) | |
Game 2 | May 13 | 2:05 p.m. (CT) | |
Pitching Matchup: | Iowa: LHP Ryan Erickson (2-2, 2.70 ERA) |
OSU: LHP Connor Curlis (3-3, 4.53 ERA) | |
Game 3 | May 14 | 1:05 p.m. (CT) | |
Pitching Matchup: | Iowa: LHP Elijah Wood (0-0, 2.93 ERA) |
The University of Iowa baseball team will host Ohio State in its final home Big Ten Conference series of the season from May 12-14 at Duane Banks Field. Friday's series opener is slated for a 6:05 p.m. (CT) start, Saturday will begin at 2:05 p.m., and the series finale is Sunday at 1:05 p.m. Sunday is Senior Day.
• All three games will be carried on select stations around the state via the Hawkeye Radio Network and be streamed online via Hawkeye All-Access with Zach Mackey and Steve Duncan on the call.
• Select games will be available on AM-800 KXIC in Iowa City and all three contests will be on WDBQ in Dubuque.
• The duration of the series will also be video streamed online via BTN Plus on BTN2Go.
• Live statistics will be available at www.hawkeyesports.com and fans can follow the action via Twitter/UIBaseball.
• On Friday, Hawkeye beach balls will be handed out prior to the game. Iowa's 1972 College World Series team will be honored during pregame.
• Saturday, free Hawkeye fanny packs will be handed out prior to the game. It's "Have a Catch" Saturday with adults and children being able to play catch in the outfield for 30 minutes at the conclusion of the game.
• Sunday, Iowa will honor its six seniors in a pregame ceremony and it's "Momma's Boy Day" at Banks. The first 200 fans will receive a free Hawkeye mini baseball bat, and it's "Sunday Runday" with kids being able to run the bases after the game.
• Tuesday is Iowa's final home game of the 2017 season against Omaha at 6:05 p.m. It's $2 Tuesday and there will be postgame fireworks.
• Iowa has won six of its last eight Big Ten series dating back to the 2016 season. The Hawkeyes are tied for fourth — 1/2 game back of league-leading Nebraska — in the Big Ten standings with six games remaining in the regular season.
• The Hawkeyes are one win shy of win No. 30. It would be the program's fourth straight 30-win campaign — a feat that hasn't been accomplished since winning 30-plus games in seven consecutive seasons from 1979-85.
• Iowa is 16-3 at Duane Banks Field this season and 49-13 at home dating back to the 2015 season. Iowa won eight straight home games from March 24-April 21.
• Junior Nick Gallagher, who was the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week on May 1, is 4-0 with a 1.45 ERA over his last seven starts. In Big Ten play, Gallagher is 3-0 with a league-leading 1.73 ERA, posting a quality start in four of his six starts.
• The Hawkeyes rank in the top five in the Big Ten in eight different offensive categories, including ranking second in doubles (86), fourth in home runs (42), batting average (.281), slugging percentage (.425), and runs (271), and fifth in hits (438), on-base percentage (.370), and RBIs (250).
• In Big Ten play, Iowa is second in team ERA (3.40), third in team batting average (.293), and fourth in team fielding percentage (.979). Mason McCoy (sixth, .370), Jake Adams (seventh, .366), and Tyler Cropley (t15th, .338) all rank among the top-15 in the league in batting average and McCoy is tied for the league-lead with 20 runs scored.
• Iowa is fifth nationally with 53 double plays this season and the team ranks 30th with a .978 team fielding percentage.
• Junior Jake Adams ranks among the national leaders in four different offensive categories. He is seventh in home runs (16), 20th in total bases (123), 25th in slugging percentage (.672), and 36th in RBIs (51).
• Adams hit his Big Ten-leading 16 home runs — five off the NCAA lead — April 29 against Penn State. Adams is the third Hawkeye since 2000 to hit 10 or more home runs in a season. The 16 blasts are the most by an Iowa player since 2002 and tied for the seventh-most in a single season in program history. Adams is on pace to hit 18 home runs; Iowa's school record is 22 by John Knapp in 1986.
• Iowa will honor its 1972 College World Series team on Friday, while the Senior Day ceremony will be held prior to Sunday's series finale. There will be postgame fireworks following Tuesday's game against Omaha.
• The Hawkeyes will honor the 45th anniversary of the 1972 College World Series team prior to Friday's series opener. Iowa will hold its Senior Day ceremony prior to Sunday's series finale. The six seniors are Ryan Erickson, Josh Martsching, Mason McCoy, Sam Norman, Drake Robison, and Corbin Woods.
• Iowa had 13 hits in its 9-4 series-clinching victory at Michigan State on May 7. The 13 hits were the most for the team since April 14 at Nebraska.
• The Hawkeyes have Big Ten series victories over Purdue, Nebraska, Penn State, and Michigan State. The road series win in Lincoln was the first in program history.
• Iowa has won 19 of its last 21 midweek games dating back to the 2015 season. The Hawkeyes lost for just the second time in 21 contests, falling 7-5 at Western Illinois on May 2.
• The Hawkeyes have overcome deficits in 15 of their 29 victories this season.
• Iowa hit two grand slams — one from Tyler Cropley and one from Robert Neustrom — in a 12-1 midweek victory over Bradley on March 22. It was the team's third grand slam of the season.
• The Hawkeyes have had 10 or more hits in 24 games this season and have scored 10 or more runs in six contests. Iowa has scored seven or more runs in 17 games.
• Iowa won its first 13 games when finishing with 10 or more hits. The team is 18-6 when reaching the 10-hit mark.
• The Buckeyes have lost four consecutive series (three in Big Ten play), dropping their record to 19-30 overall and 6-12 in league play. Ohio State is tied for 11th in the conference standings — two games out of eighth place.
• Ohio State hits .247 as a team with one player hitting over .300. The Buckeyes average 4.7 runs per game and have 32 home runs, 76 doubles, and 18 triples. Freshman Dominic Canzone leads the team with a .356 average; Jalen Washington has team-highs in doubles (13), triples (4), home runs (5), RBIs (31) and steals (12).
• The Buckeyes have a 5.16 team ERA and allow 5.9 runs per contest. Ohio State's Seth Kinker is 3-0 with a 2.51 ERA with five saves and 46 strikeouts in 46 2/3 innings.
• Ohio State will start RHP Jake Post (1-5, 3.98 ERA) on Friday and LHP Connor Curlis (3-3, 4.53 ERA) on Saturday. Sunday's starter is TBA.
• Ohio State leads the all-time series over Iowa, 74-52-1. The Buckeyes went 3-2 against the Hawkeyes last season, taking 2-of-3 games in Columbus before splitting two contests at the Big Ten Tournament. Ohio State won 8-7 in the Big Ten Tournament title game.
• This is Ohio State's first trip to Iowa City since the 2010 season when Iowa took the series, winning 2-of-3 games.
• The Buckeyes have won the last two series over Iowa; the Hawkeyes' last series win over Ohio State came in 2011 in Columbus.
One victory will give Iowa its fourth straight 30 win season under head coach Rick Heller. The program hasn't enjoyed a stretch of 30 or more wins since accomplishing the feat in seven consecutive seasons from 1979-85.
• Iowa won 30 games in Heller's first season, 41 in 2015 en route to the program's first NCAA Regional appearance since 1990 before winning 30 games last season in a run to the Big Ten Tournament title game.
• Iowa is out-scoring its opponents, 37-21, in the first inning this season. The Hawkeyes are 17-5 when scoring first.
• Over the first three innings, Iowa is out-scoring its opposition, 103-65.
• The Hawkeyes are 20-1 when scoring six or more runs this season. Iowa is 9-16 when scoring five runs or less.
• Iowa is 17-8 when hitting a home run this season. The team is 10-3 when hitting two or more long balls.
• The Hawkeyes are 22-3 when leading after six innings, 23-2 after seven innings, and 23-1 after eight innings this season.
• Twenty-three games have been decided by two runs or less this season; Iowa is 13-10.
• Iowa is 16-3 at home this season running its record to 49-13 at Banks Field since the start of the 2015 season.
• The Hawkeyes went 17-3 in 2015 — the most home victories since 1996 — and followed it up with 16 home wins in 2016. Iowa has eight walk-off victories at Duane Banks Field since the start of 2015.
• Iowa hasn't won 20 games at home since the 1996 season when it won a school-record 25 home contests.
The Hawkeyes are fifth in the Big Ten with 359 strikeouts in 2017, averaging 7.8 per game. Iowa is on pace to shatter the program's single-season record for a second straight season. Iowa had a record 382 strikeouts in 2016; the team is on pace for 413 this season.
UI head coach Rick Heller won the 800th game of his collegiate coaching career when the Hawkeyes swept a March 12 doubleheader over Lehigh at the Snowbird Baseball Classic.
The Hawkeyes are tied for fourth in the Big Ten with 42 home runs this season. Ten different players have hit at least one home run.
• The 42 home runs are the most for the team in the Rick Heller era and the most for the Hawkeyes since 2002. Iowa hit 46 home runs in 2002.
• Iowa had 26 home runs in 56 games during the 2016 season.
Junior Jake Adams is leading the Big Ten with 16 home runs this season. The South Dakota native hit his 16th blast — a solo shot — in Iowa's 9-1 victory over Penn State on April 29. Adams' 15th home run came April 25 — a shot that went 400 feet and had a 118 mph exit velocity.
• The South Dakota native is seventh nationally with 16 home runs. Morehead State's Niko Hulsizer and Eastern Kentucky's Ben Fisher are the national leaders with 21 blasts.
• Adams' 16 home runs are the most by a Hawkeye since Brad Carlson hit 16 in 2002 and are tied for the seventh-most in a single-season in program history. Just three Iowa players have reached 10 home runs since 2002.
• Iowa is 12-2 when Adams hits a home run this season.
• Adams hit three home runs (and had seven RBIs) in Iowa's 12-11, 10-inning victory at Kansas State on March 19. Adams is the first Hawkeye since Jason White in 2007 to hit three home runs in the same game.
• Adams is one of five Big Ten players to hit three home runs in a game this season.
• Iowa's single-season home run record is 22, set by John Knapp in 1986. Adams is currently on pace to hit 18 home runs in 2017.
• Adams hit a school-record 25 home runs last year during his All-America season at DMACC. In two junior-college seasons, Adams hit 42 career home runs — a school record.
Sure, Jake Adams has a Big Ten-best 16 home runs, but he's more than a home run hitter. Adams has hit safely in 35 games, reached safely in 40 contests, and posted 21 multi-hit games. He is tied for 11th in the Big Ten with a .333 batting average.
Adams leads the Big Ten in slugging percentage (.672) and total bases (123), and is tied for first in RBIs (52). He is tied for third in doubles (14), sixth in hits (61), and tied for ninth in runs (37).
Junior Jake Adams and sophomore Robert Neustrom are tied for first and fifth in the Big Ten in RBIs. Adams is leading the league with 52 RBIs — the most by a Hawkeye since 2008. Adams has driven in at least one run in 27 games. Neustrom is fifth with 43 RBIs; he had the game-winning RBI double in Iowa's 4-3 win over South Dakota State on April 4.
• Adams drove in seven runs (on three home runs) in Iowa's 12-11 victory over Kansas State on March 19. It was Adams' second game with six or more RBIs this season. He is tied for 36th nationally in RBIs.
• Iowa is 23-5 when Adams has at least one RBI.
• Adams is on pace for 60 RBIs this season, which would be the 11th-most in a single-season in program history.
• Neustrom had a career-best four hits and five RBIs to complete Iowa's doubleheader sweep of Lehigh on March 12. Neustrom has six games with three or more RBIs.
Sophomore Robert Neustrom has hit safely in all but eight games this season (38-of-46 games). The outfielder had a career-best 14-game hitting streak from April 4-28. He has two 10-plus game hitting streaks, as he opened the year with an 11-game hitting streak.
• Neustrom's 64 hits are third in the Big Ten, he leads the conference with 15 doubles, and has a team-best 21 multi-hit games. His .335 average is 10th in the conference and he has 30 runs and 43 RBIs. He has nine games this season with two or more RBIs and has driven in at least one run in 25 games. Iowa is 18-7 when Neustrom has at least one RBI.
• He tallied his first career four-hit game against Lehigh, finishing 4-for-5 with a career-best five RBIs.
• The Sioux City, Iowa native, has a career-best four home runs, including a three-run shot in Iowa's road loss at Minnesota and a grand slam against Bradley.
After being Iowa's primary third baseman as a junior, Mason McCoy is back at his natural position at shortstop in 2017. The Illinois native is tied for sixth in the Big Ten in doubles (13) and is second in runs (43).
• McCoy tied a career-high with a 15-game hitting streak from April 4-28. He has reached base safely in a career-best 20 straight games.
• McCoy has 18 multi-hit games this season and has hit safely in 38 contests. He has scored at least one run in 27 games. He tied a career-high, scoring four runs in Iowa's 9-4 series-clinching victory at Michigan State and he had a solo home run — his third of the year — in game two.
• He is tied for 14th in the conference with a .330 batting average and his 61 hits are tied for sixth in the Big Ten.
• McCoy was an Northwest League All-Star selection in both 2015 and 2016, playing for the La Crosse Loggers.
• McCoy is one of the top all-around shortstops in the Big Ten. Iowa has had an all-conference selection at shortstop in each of Rick Heller's first three seasons. (Jake Yacinich, first-team, 2014; Nick Roscetti, third-team, 2015, first-team, 2016).
Sophomore Chris Whelan is hitting .309 with 27 runs and 17 RBIs. He also has four home runs and seven doubles.
• The Illinois native hit two home runs in Iowa's 5-3 loss to Rutgers on April 22. He posted three-straight multi-hit games against the Scarlet Knights.
• Whelan has 16 multi-hit games this season and he reached base safely in a career-best 14 straight games from April 1-23.
• As Iowa's leadoff hitter, Whelan is hitting .333 with 41 hits and 20 runs scored.
As Iowa's every day center fielder, freshman Ben Norman is hitting .295 with 14 multi-hit games. He has scored 24 runs and has 13 RBIs and eight doubles.
• Norman is Iowa's top base-stealing threat, swiping 14 bags in 18 chances this season. He is tied for ninth in the Big Ten.
• Norman went 4-for-6 with two runs and two RBIs at Kansas State, which included a game-winning RBI double in the 10th inning of Iowa's 12-11 extra inning win at Kansas State.
Junior Tyler Cropley was hitting as low as .105 midway through March before clawing himself out of his early-season hole. Cropley started April with a .203 average and through the first game in May, he has improved 67 points to a .270 clip.
• Cropley hit .308 with four home runs and four doubles in April, while driving in 12 runs and scoring 15 times. Since the UNLV series (March 31-April-1), Cropley is leading the team with a .341 average with seven doubles and four home runs. He has nine multi-hit games during the stretch and has 20 RBIs.
• Cropley had the game-winning RBI single in the top of the ninth in the series opener at Michigan State before tying a career-high with four RBIs in the series-clinching victory in East Lansing.
• Over his last 10 games, Cropley has a team-best .455 (15-of-33) average with nine RBIs and six multi-hit games. He is tied for 15th in Big Ten play, hitting .338 with a .569 slugging and .419 on-base percentage.
Iowa has batted around the lineup eight times during the 2017 season. The Hawkeyes batted around twice in an April 7, 14-2 victory at Northwestern. Iowa is 6-1 in such games.
• Feb. 24 – vs. Alabama St. – 9 batters – 3rd – 3 runs
• Feb. 26 – vs. Morehead St. – 10 batters – 2nd – 6 runs
• March 7 – N. Illinois – 10 batters – 1st – 5 runs
• April 7 – at N'western – 9 batters – 2nd – 5 runs
• April 7 – at N'western – 13 batters – 8th – 7 runs
• April 9 – at N'western – 9 batters – 4th – 3 runs
• April 29 – Penn State – 10 batters – 8th – 5 runs
• May 7 – at Michigan St. – 9 batters – 9th – 4 runs
• Sophomore Mitchell Boe has hit safely in five of Iowa's last seven games. He had two hits April 28 against Penn State — when he finished 2-for-4 with a double, triple, and three RBIs. Boe had the game-winning RBI single in the 10th inning in Iowa's 7-6 victory at Nebraska on April 14. It was his third late-inning game-tying or go-ahead hit since April 1.
• Freshman Grant Judkins hit two home runs in a three-game stretch, becoming the 10th Hawkeye to hit a home run this season. The Pella, Iowa, native hit a solo shot April 29 against Penn State for his first career home run before connecting on a solo shot May 2 at Western Illinois.
• The Hawkeyes are sixth in the Big Ten with a 4.04 team ERA. Iowa's staff ranks fifth in the league with 359 strikeouts, averaging 7.8 per game.
• Junior Elijah Wood will make his third weekend start against Ohio State on Sunday. He has gone a career-long in back-to-back starts, going 3 1/3 innings against Penn State and 3 2/3 at Michigan State. Wood is 0-0 with a 2.93 ERA over 24 innings.
• Senior Josh Martsching factored into both victories at Michigan State, earning the win in the series opener and the save in the series finale. He is 2-0 with a 2.12 ERA this season with 34 strikeouts (to seven walks) over 29 2/3 innings and leads the team with five saves. Martsching has made two weekend appearances five times during the 2017 season.
• Martsching has allowed four earned runs over his last 13 appearances, spanning 20 2/3 innings, and has 25 strikeouts during the stretch. The right-hander tied a career-high with five strikeouts April 25 against Milwaukee. Martsching's 65 career appearances are the fourth-most in school history and his 10 career saves are seventh all-time.
• Sophomore Zach Daniels is second in the Big Ten and tied for 35th nationally with seven victories. He is 7-3 with a 3.72 ERA in 19 relief appearances.
• Redshirt freshman Kyle Shimp made his return May 2 at Western Illinois after missing three weeks with mono. Shimp earned his fourth victory at Michigan State, allowing one run on one hit in two innings. Shimp hasn't allowed a run in eight of his 11 appearances, where he is 4-0 with a 1.56 ERA. Opponents are hitting .155 against the southpaw this season and he has surrendered more than one hit just once in 11 appearances.
• Sophomore Shane Ritter has allowed two runs over his last 13 appearances, spanning 16 1/3 innings. He has allowed 14 hits during the stretch and fanned 16. Ritter notched his fourth save at Nebraska on April 15 via his first career three-inning save.
• is 14-4 with a 2.40 ERA in 34 career appearances, including 20 starts. He has 139 strikeouts against 47 walks in 154 innings.
• is 6-1 with a 2.30 ERA in 2017 — his ERA is tied for third in the Big Ten and wins are tied for fifth. He has 63 strikeouts to rank seventh and his 70 1/3 innings are third despite missing his March 17 start at Kansas State.
• In Big Ten play, Gallagher is 3-0 with a league-best 1.73 ERA. He has 31 strikeouts over 36 1/3 innings and is limiting batters to a .221 average. He has had a quality start in four of his six Big Ten starts.
• in seven starts since, Gallagher is 4-0 with a 1.45 ERA. He has allowed 32 hits and fanned 37 over 43 1/3 innings against Purdue, UNLV, Northwestern, Nebraska, Rutgers, Penn State, and Michigan State.
• has eight quality starts in 2017 and has logged at least seven innings in seven of his 11 starts.
• was the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week on May 1 after scattering three hits over eight innings and fanning a career-high 10 batters (without issuing a walk) against Penn State on April 28 to earn his sixth win. He struck out eight of the first 10 batters he faced. He is the first Hawkeye since 2014 to strike out 10 in a game.
• went eight innings in Iowa's 7-6 victory over Hawai'i at the DQ Classic where he had eight strikeouts (without walking a batter) in the game.
• tied for second in the Big Ten with eight victories as a sophomore, which were the sixth-most in a single-season in program history.
• was named to the 2016 Big Ten All-Tournament team after allowing one hit over six innings and fanning a career-high nine in a victory over Maryland.
• will make his ninth consecutive start this weekend against Ohio State. The southpaw is 2-2 with a 2.33 ERA since joining the starting rotation March 17 at Kansas State. He is 2-2 with a 2.70 ERA this season; ERA is sixth in the Big Ten. In league games, Erickson is 2-1 with a 2.38 ERA — the sixth-best ERA in the conference.
• has allowed 51 hits over 53 1/3 innings and fanned 35. He is 8-4 in his career with a 3.21 ERA, fanning 87 batters over 143 innings.
• Has three quality starts on the season, including two in back-to-back games against Penn State and Michigan State.
• earned his first career victory as a starter at Nebraska on April 15, allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits over six innings. It was his first career quality start.
• went a career-long 7 1/3 innings in a victory over Penn State on April 28. He tied a career-high with five strikeouts.


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19th Sep , 2019
Tapping into creativity to maximise business potential comes easy to many entrepreneurs, business owners and executives, but sometimes creativity needs a catalyst to help you unlock its potential. One great creativity catalyst is your own business coach or mentor from International Business Mentors. They can help you tap into your creative self and offer suggestions from their experience, allowing you to generate ideas and new insights to help develop your business to achieve further success.
We all have some degree of creativity, and you can see this in our successes with arts, such as writing, painting, music or dancing, and in social interactions. We also use creativity strongly in business strategic thinking, market anticipation and operational decision-making. Creativity is a business competency and is increasingly being recognised as an immensely important attribute for success.
Very creative people may be born, but for the rest of us, we are creative to a greater or lesser extent. Many people find it difficult to tap into their creative space despite possessing the talent. At International Business Mentors, we are often approached to help businesspeople recognise and realise their potential to think and act creatively.
The business coaching and mentoring professionals at International Business Mentors are practiced and experienced creative thinkers who have facilitated many businesspeople in the creative process. They use their own imaginative and creative thinking to help build highly successful businesses and establish successful corporate careers.
A business coach or mentor offers you confidential support and encouragement while sharing their own experiences and utilising creative thinking. This can help you to unlock your own creativity by:
Acting on a creative thinking idea on impulse can be a dangerous route to take. Use your business coach or mentor to help you wrap around approaches to assessing ideas before you try and implement them. Brainstorming with your business coaching professional will allow your ideas to flow freely, helping you to generate more ideas for inspiration or problem solving. This will also help you gain the knack for continuing idea generation, enabling you to progress to a new level of thinking where you can be practical while avoiding negativity, particularly when reviewing and assessing business ideas.
With the help of a business coach or mentor from International Business Mentors, you can better review your ideas to establish which are best to implement and avoid the risky tendency in believing an idea will or won't work before it's critically assessed. This will improve the creative process and encourage more ideas while also providing business implementation benefits.
You need to keep fit to be more creative. This can be achieved through running, working out in the gym, team sports, racket sports, golf, skiing or snowboarding, dancing, swimming, hiking, sailing, fishing, or even going on good walks with the dog. Exercise not only makes us healthier, but helps to increase the blood supply to our brains, which enables better thinking and lets ideas flow more freely. Also, exercise stimulates the release of positive organic chemicals in our brains, such as dopamine, that facilitate creativity and make us feel more positive generally.
Your business coach or business mentor will challenge and support you to find creative ways to solve problems, one of which is tapping into your creative abilities.
In order to appreciate creativity and the benefits it can bring to your business, you need to understand it. Creativity is one of the competencies packaged in the 'soft skill' basket, along with adaptability, collaboration, communication, time management and persuasion. Some people embrace these skills naturally, while others need more coaching in order to adapt to and utilise creativity. Creativity is about making connections around ideas, as well as coming up with something new or unique. You might see creativity as a time slot in your diary with your business coach or mentor to generate ideas and consider problems that need solving. You may also consider longer term strategy or market competition strategy in that creative process.
Effective leaders must be proficient in creative processes to maximise their use and development of this creativity asset to the business. Whilst creativity is currently accepted as a top business competency in the soft skills area, the other skills are also essential for generating business growth strategies and maximising business success.
Your individually matched business coach or mentor from International Business Mentors can further assist you in emphasising how structures, skills and processes can be adapted and used, both in the thought process and the delivery of business ideas and solutions to problems.
Communication of ideas within the business is crucial. This includes direct communication with all staff of new ideas and solutions, as well as communication to get support for ideas and their subsequent implementation, with persuasion being a critical form of communication.
In Australia and around the world, creativity and innovation are becoming more recognised as highly valued skills, with substantial investments in training programs being made. Workshops on creativity are being delivered to all levels of people, from corporate leaders and business owners through to management teams and staff.
Business coaching is highly recognised as a valuable business resource to help facilitate creativity. At International Business Mentors, we can provide you with support for creativity as part of a business mentoring or business coaching approach aimed to help you improve your business' performance. Our business mentors and coaches know from their own business experience the importance of innovative and creative thinking. They can help you develop and deliver on your competitive strategic advantage for ultimate profitability.
Call International Business Mentors today to get your own business coach to assist and support you in unlocking your creative business talents.


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The general feeling, as far as we can tell, is that 2016 can piss right off.
Yes, there were a lot of celebrities lost this year, a number of whom had made a social impact that went beyond their craft.
Then there was that election thing, which is probably the biggest argument for making up and tacking on a few more months after December.
Alas, 2017 is upon us, and while we can't change what's occurred this year, we can definitely jot down a few asks in our new year wish list.
First, the city can hurry up and get that navigation center open for the homeless; a throwback to last week's editorial, but still very much a priority for Seattle.
Another redux ask is that Capitol Hill become a parking benefits district. The city is jacking the cost of parking in the neighborhood during peak times and taking away most of what is left of "free" parking options in the Pike/Pine corridor. There are also plans to extend paid hours later in 2017; hopefully cheap drunks don't decide to drive instead of sleeping it off in the back seat.
It's simple: The money made in Capitol Hill by squeezing drivers should go to improving the neighborhood and not be allocated elsewhere.
We're also still waiting for those two safe drug consumption sites that were proposed to be opened in Seattle. Of course, this was something that came out of a joint county task force that formed in March. Considering the eight recommendations that came out of the task force were made in September — after just six months of discussion — we can only assume the city of Seattle will find a way to spend more money for more study, because this city can never have enough data or too little action.
And not to sound too greedy, but it would be great if funding were to materialize to implement the improvements identified in the Cal Anderson Park Lighting Master Plan. It sounds like the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict has secured some funding for planning, so we'll look forward to learning more in the new year. It seems like there was a good deal of shenanigans going down there this summer, and the cold months should be an opportune time to rally the troops.
We're also looking forward to an all-gender restroom remodel at Cal Anderson Park. Not only will this give people more privacy and safety, those restrooms just need a major upgrade. We don't encourage people to urinate on the side of buildings, but it does seem somewhat preferable to using those facilities.
This last one is probably the most selfish, but it would also be very helpful in helping us achieve our mission of providing the most current and useful news to you, our readers. It's very simple: Call or email us with your thoughts on what you want to see us cover in the new year.
We can't be everywhere, but we'd sure like to be where we'll be doing the most good. We're always open to suggestions, and we rarely bite.


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NewsTop Stories
Rider selects 2015 Motorcycle of the Year
Rider Magazine, a sister publication of Powersports Business announced the recipient of its Motorcycle of the Year award on July 22.
Eligibility for the award was limited to current-model-year motorcycles. The Kawasaki Versys 1000 LT took the honors. Other contenders for Motorcycle of the Year included the BMW R 1200 R, Ducati Multistrada 1200/S, Ducati Scrambler, KTM 1290 Super Adventure, Harley-Davidson Street 500/750, Suzuki V-Strom 650XT ABS, Indian Scout, Yamaha FZ-07, Kawasaki Vulcan S and Yamaha FJ-09.
To read the full article from Rider, click here.


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Livestream Concert Calendar
Looking for an online concert to watch? Browse our free calendar to find a show! Submit ConcertThis resource is available for free to everyone in the folk music community, whether a fan or part of the industry. It is updated and maintained by the staff of Folk Alliance International. If you'd like to support FAI in continuing to providing free community resources like this, we invite you to make a tax-free donation here.
- This event has passed.
#LiveToYourLivingRoom presents: Dervish
March 13, 2021 @ 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM GMT
£14At the end of 2019 Dervish received a prestigious lifetime achievement award from the BBC, a fitting tribute to the band after over 30 years of recording and performing all over the world. Described by the BBC as "an icon of Irish music", the band have played at festivals from Rio to Glastonbury. They accompanied the Irish President on state visits to Latvia and Lithuania and Prime Minister of Ireland on a trade mission to China as Cultural Ambassadors taking time out to play an impromptu session on the Great Wall of China. Dervish have a line-up which includes some of Ireland's finest traditional musicians, fronted by one of the country's best-known singers, Cathy Jordan.
Dervish were the first Irish band to play the world's biggest music festival, Rock in Rio, performing to an estimated 250,000 people, and over the years they've been on the same bill as artists such as James Brown, Neil Young, Sting and even Iron Maiden! All six members of Dervish are steeped in the musical traditions of counties Sligo and Leitrim in north-west Ireland. It's an area which matches Atlantic coastline with storied mountains and rural landscapes. It has inspired a host of musicians, artists and writers, including the Nobel Prize-winning poet W. B. Yeats.
Dervish marry technical brilliance with a rare sensibility, born of an understanding of the music and many years of playing together. The Irish Times said their "integrity makes the group a formidable heir to the throne abandoned by The Bothy Band, if not a serious contender for The Chieftains' international space." The News Journal (Delaware) described Dervish as: "The most compelling, most soulful Irish traditional folk band playing today."
We're absolutely delighted to welcome the Sligo-based members of Dervish to Live to your Living Room – sadly due to travel restrictions they will be performing as a four piece rather than their usual six, but regardless this is set to be a fantastic evening – miss out at your peril!