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A scientific look at music and productivity  By Shannon Marshburn I am a busy person with a busy mind. When I am working my train of thought often derails and questions of when I need to do laundry and what I should make for dinner float by as I pick the font for promotional posters. This is not too much of a hit on my work productivity, but I am not working at my full potential. One thing that helps fill my busy mind is playing music while I work. This is effective for me, but is it effective for you? I set out to find some scientific back up and here’s what I found.
In a study by Teresa Leesuik of the University of Windsor, Canada, she examined a software company of 56 developers on music and productivity. She found that when music wasn't present in the work environment tasks took longer and quality of work was at the lowest. When music was present, that’s when moods and productivity increased.
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By Anna Radachy  Stress is something we can all empathize with, regardless of where we are or what we are doing with our life. Every day there are a million things that will stress us out, delivering things to your boss, forgetting your lunch, unexpected news. And then there are days that we will dread, knowing that the event will come and stress us out undeniably. I am notorious for making a mountain out of a molehill, so when I saw the “How to stay calm when you know you’ll be stressed” TED talk, I figured it was meant for me.
The talk, given by Daniel Levitin, a neuroscientist and writer who is affiliated with the Keck Graduate Institute, was part of the TEDxLondon event. He starts off by speaking about how, in the rush of the moment, he forgot his keys and locked himself out. He blames this act on his hippocampus and his spatial memory, which was really good for our ancestors to use to remember where freshwater could be found or where big fish swim but isn’t so good for finding our keys or our phone that moves around constantly. Admittedly, I liked this part, as it in some way absolved me of responsibility the next time I can’t find my keys or purse! By Nick Glavan  Over the past 18 months, I have really leaned into being more of a foodie. In the early days, I was cleaning out my pantry to find new recipes to try to spice up a full week of being shuttered inside. I was binge watching Top Chef and Chopped on a nightly basis, getting inspiration for my masked and socially distant bi-weekly trip to the grocery store to restock. I read cookbooks and subscribed to magazines to learn more about foods I’ve never cooked or tasted before. But one of my favorite discoveries has been the amazing, diverse take-out experience offered by Akron’s NoHi Pop-Up.
NoHi, or for out-of-towners, North Hill, Pop-Up opened its doors in the late summer of 2020. Supported by the North Akron Community Development Corporation, the pop-up restaurant provides early-stage culinary entrepreneurs the opportunity to develop their unique food artistry in preparation for a weekend to showcase their dishes to the public. The kitchen acts as an incubator, assisting Culinary Art Entrepreneurs (CAEs) with menu creation, food safety and kitchen hazard training, promotion, and acting as kitchen support for the pop-up weekend.  Interviewed by Faye Nicholson
Tell me about yourself. Barry: I graduated from Northwestern University with a Ph.D. in chemical engineering. I went to work for Exxon Chemical and spent my entire career for Exxon in the elastomers business including technology, manufacturing, and business management. I lived in Europe for six years. My final assignment with Exxon was bringing Advanced Elastomer Systems to Akron. One of the proud moments of that assignment was to rehab the BFGoodrich rubber plant. We helped to revitalize downtown Akron on South Main Street. I retired from Exxon Chemical and went to work for OMNOVA Solutions. I was the director of corporate technology and, the technology vice president for OMNOVA Solutions for about seven or eight years. How did you get involved with UARF? By Elyse Ball
All throughout startup land we throw around the term “minimum viable product” or “MVP.” The term is meant to signify a simpler, uglier version of a product that customers will still buy. But for perfectionists like me (and many of the engineers I know), it’s hard to commit to making a product that is categorically less than the best we can do. Why would we show customers a product that is only 50% of what it could be when we’re pre-wired to want to give our customers 110%? It turns out there are a few good reasons:
 By Darius Sharpless
So, you made an invention. Great! But, how do you protect it? What do you need to get a patent? What is “prior art”? This article should help answer these questions. First, let’s get a few patent basics out of the way. Patents protect new and inventive products and processes by giving the inventor or patent holder the right to prevent others from making, using, selling, or importing a patented invention for a period of about 20 years. In order to obtain a patent, the inventor must prove that the idea contained in the patent is:  By Faye Nicholson
Many people think just because they have written a news release it will automatically be picked up by a media outlet. Well, here’s a news alert: That could not be farther from the truth. In fact, studies have revealed that between 55 and 97 percent of all news releases sent to media are never picked up. So, the next time you announce a new product or feature, win an award, host a technology seminar, acquire or merge with another company or share survey results, know that you are competing with the masses for media attention. A study conducted by Greentarget found that 69 percent of journalist spend less than a minute reading a release, even after they have made the decision to open it. The study went on to report that all other releases are dealt with in less than a second. Here are a few tips to consider preventing a reporter or editor from discarding your next news release and instead, ensuring that it gets noticed, read and followed-up upon. You can start by determining your story’s best news angle and applying one of the news pegs below to promote your startup: By Shannon Marshburn As a busy designer filling many roles and many design jobs, I often start my mornings with some tools and resources to get up to speed for the day. Whether it is for design inspiration, to spell check an event description I wrote the night before, or to learn something new, I use these tools everyday. So work smarter not harder and check out and add these websites and resources to your bookmarks:   By Anna Radachy
Being part of Gen Z, I have spent my consumer media life on demand via Netflix and Hulu, and there is only one event that I will put on my calendar to watch on cable… Shark Week! This event is the longest-running TV event ever, as this year will be its 33rd annual run. This enduring event has made itself a mainstay by giving the people what they want, showcasing the unbelievable power of sharks in their natural habitat. But what else has made this event, which is now synonymous with the Discovery channel, come back every year? Marketing! Shark Week marketing is everywhere, they have flooded the market for the month leading up to the event. Billboards, commercials, social media posts, among other things that are identifiable, and create the same hype everywhere. Creating an effective marketing plan is not easy, and these are some key components of creating one:  By Nick Glavan
In my early days as an intern at UARF, one of the mentors who regularly checked in with me before or after he visited the office’s conference room for his startup’s meetings, once handed me a page containing the follow story [The Fisherman’s Parable]: A successful businessman on vacation was at the pier of a small coastal village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tunas. The businessman complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The fisherman proudly replied, “Every morning, I go out in my boat for 30 minutes to fish. I’m the best fisherman in the village.” The businessman, perplexed, then asks the fisherman “If you’re the best, why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish? What do you do the rest of the day?” |
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