Gardens are a beautiful part of summer, but it is important to be aware that some plants may be toxic to pets if ingested.  The following is a list of common household and garden plants that can be toxic to dogs or cats:

 

• Aloe Vera, Amaryllis, Apple seeds, Apple Leaf Croton, Apricot pits, Asparagus Fern, Autumn Crocus, Azalea

• Baby's Breath, Bird of Paradise, Branching Ivy, Buckeye, Buddhist Pine

• Caladium, Calla Lily, Castor Bean, Ceriman, Charming Dieffenbachia, Cherry seeds and wilting leaves, Chinese Evergreen,    Christmas Rose, Cineraria, Clematis, Cordatum, Corn Plant, Cornstalk Plant, Croton, Cuban Laurel, Cutleaf Philodendron, Cycads, Cyclamen

• Daffodil, Devil's Ivy, Dieffenbachia, Dracaena Palm, Dragon Tree, Dumb Cane

• Easter Lily (esp. in Cats!), Elaine, Elephant Ears, Emerald Feather, English Ivy, Eucalyptus

• Fiddle-leaf Fig, Florida Beauty, Foxglove, Fruit Salad Plant

• Geranium, German Ivy, Giant Dumb Cane, Glacier Ivy, Gold Dust Dracaena, Golden Pothos

• Hahn's Self-Branching Ivy, Heartland Philodendron, Hurricane Plant

• Indian Rubber Plant

• Janet Craig Dracaena, Japanese Show Lily (esp. in cats!), Jerusalem Cherry

• Kalanchoe (Panda Bear Plant)

• Lacey Tree Philodendron, Lily of the Valley

• Madagascar Dragon Tree, Marble Queen, Marijuana, Mexican Breadfruit, Miniature Croton, Mistletoe, Morning Glory, Mother-in-law's Tongue

• Narcissus, Needlepoint Ivy, Nephthytis, Nightshade

• Oleander, Onions, Oriental Lily (esp. in cats!)

• Please Lily, Peach pits and wilting leaves, Pencil Cactus, Plumosa Fern, Poinsettia (low toxicity), Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, Pothos, Precatory Bean, Primrose

• Red Emerald, Red Princess, Red-Margined Dracaena, Rhododendron, Ribbon Plant

• Saddle Leaf Philodendron, Sago Palm, Satin Pothos, Schefflera, Silver Pothos, Spotted Dumb Cane, String of Pearls, Striped Dracaena, Sweetheart Ivy, Swiss Cheese Plant

• Taro Vine, Tiger Lily (esp. in cats!), Tomato Plant green fruit, stem and leaves, Tree Philodendron, Tropic Snow Dieffenbachia

• Weeping Fig

• Yew

 

-From the ASPCA National Animal Poison Control Center, www.napcc.aspca.org

This is a great list, for people who have pets and want to keep them safe and healthy

Program Benefits

Becoming a Bridgewater Certified Partner provides numerous advantages to your organization.

• Accelerate time-to-market by engaging Bridgewater IOT experts located in your region
• Expedite the IOT process with Bridgewater’s field-proven Test Plans
• Receive IOT-certified documentation validated by Bridgewater proving interoperability based on standard interface and protocol support or modeled around proven use cases
• Differentiate your offerings—the Bridgewater Certified Partner logo gives instant credibility to your organization and provides assurance to your customers
• Build a strong relationship with Bridgewater and realize joint marketing opportunities
• Deploy best-of-breed multi-vendor end-to-end solutions that future-proof your investment, reduce systems integration costs, exceed customer expectations, and achieve customer loyalty

Why reinvent the wheel for language – look at who this company is appealing to (target market), and the language that resonates. If you’re offering a similar product / program, it’s a good template. Moreover, if you’re targeted at similar folks, the language is useful too.

useful messages and graphics – gives a sense of the big picture inherent in open innovation and leveraging social media. Connects to a nice ecosystem of folks in this area.

As crowdsourcing models evolve, they can be used in a semi-open innovation model that has actual potential to address the “squeeze”. We’ve also seen tremendous value with a virtual private expert network (vPEN) model – a retained, contingent network of 20 to 30 people with different areas of expertise that organizations can look to for help….

Love the idea of an agile cooperative group able to flex their knowledge muscles to solve a particular problem, or at least point in the right direction.

Test monetization early. You can fool yourself into believing that there is inherent value in your product but you only really know when somebody has to get out a credit card and part with hard-earned money.

Great blog post coming out of Mark Suster’s blog, interviewing Internet pioneer Bill Gross. In this excerpt about testing monetization, there are a number of models, some of which work better than others. It’s really useful to have a testing environment for monetizing products and services, whereby you can get really useful and qualitative customer feedback, to ensure the little tweaks that can accelerate and improve monetization.

The sales presentation is only a small part of the sales meeting

A potential customer has many ways to get information about your product:

• There is information on your web site
• Your competitors bring the client up the learning curve about the industry
• In your preparation phone calls with the prospect, already a lot of information gets exchanged
• Maybe you sent the customer a copy of the slides of the sales presentation in advance
• There could be a product demo that the client already has been playing with

Sales is the lifeblood of any organization. This author writes about the importance and value of the face to face meeting, which gives your prospect-client a real ability to kick-the-tires and see if s/he can trust you – to the extent that’s possible to figure out during that precious time.