online travel conference

The Graduate School
Conference Travel Grant 2010/11

(For travel between Sept. 1, 2010 and Aug. 31, 2011)

Objective of the Grant: The Conference Travel Grant provides funds to assist PhD and MFA students traveling to conferences and/or seminars to make presentations on behalf of the University. The award is not intended to support attending courses at other schools, research or general educational travel.

Eligibility: Students are eligible to receive up to $500/$700 (depending on program -- see below) Conference Travel Grant per academic year (September 1 through August 31). This amount can be used towards one conference or multiple conferences. Students must have completed three quarters of full-time full-tuition registration both counting towards residency and toward the PhD/MFA degree in The Graduate School.Students therefore must provide an unofficial Northwestern transcript. Unofficial transcripts may be obtained from CAESAR. After logging in to CAESAR, you can view your unofficial transcript by selecting "For Students" then "Academic Information" then "View Unofficial Transcript." Select "Switch to printer-friendly view" at the top of the screen. To save your unofficial transcript as an electronic document, copy and paste the entire transcript into a Word (or equivalent) file.
Students who are registered and in good academic standing in PhD or MFA programs administered by The Graduate School are eligible to apply; students who are on an extension of the deadline for degree completion are not eligible. Applicants must have received commitments from other University sources (such as the home department or school) to partially cover the costs of the conference or seminar. In order to be considered,students must provide a copy of their invitation to present or other proof of their scheduled presentation with the application.

Department/School Approval & Commitment: The graduate contact for your program will receive an automatic email once you complete the online application form. Program approval indicates that the department has vetted the application and committed financial support. The dollar amount of the department’s/school’s commitment should be provided on the application. We recommend that you coordinate approval of financial support with your program's graduate contact before submitting an online application form.
Questions: After consulting the FAQ, please contact gradfund@northwestern.edu or call 847/467-0843 with any further questions. Please include your name and department in all messages.

Grant Amount:The maximum Conference Travel Grant is:

• $500 for students in McCormick, Feinberg, WCAS Division I, NUIN, and related interdisciplinary programs
• $700 for students in all other schools and divisions

For a list of WCAS Graduate Programs by Division, see the web athttp://www.wcas.northwestern.edu/graduate.

Covered Costs: Conference Travel Grants will only cover the following items: early conference registration fees, transportation to/from meeting, lodging, food, and ground transportation while attending the conference. The cost of visas required to attend an international conference is considered a covered travel expense. Students are expected to find the most reasonable and economical lodging and transportation. For instance, students are encouraged to share a room, and it is expected that students partake of meals provided as part of the conference rather than incurring additional expenses. Examples of non-covered expenses include: proposal submission and optional pre-conference fees, poster printing, mailing expenses, and internet access while traveling. Do not include non-covered expenses in the application budget.

Air and rail fares and conference registration fees may be charged to a departmental account prior to travel; however, cash advances will not be provided. Expenses for hotel, food, taxis, etc., are to be paid with the student’s personal funds and will be reimbursed upon filing of a properly completed Travel & Entertainment (T&E) form with original receipts. Retroactive charges for expenditures incurred or committed prior to review and approval of this application will not be funded. You may review Northwestern’s travel policies at:http://www.northwestern.edu/finsys/ps/policies/travel.pdf

Application Deadline: Grants for travel from September 1 – August 31 are awarded on a rolling basis throughout the academic year, or until funds are depleted. Students should apply up to two months prior to the conference whenever possible. Under no circumstances will approval be given retroactively if an application is submitted after the conference has begun. The final deadline for receipt of all 2009/10 Conference Travel Grant applications is Friday, June 10th, 2011.

Award Notification: Each student will receive an email notification both when the department approves the online application and when TGS gives the final approval. The entire process should take between 3-10 business days.

Reimbursement: Funds are transferred to departmental accounts for distribution to the student; sponsored project accounts may not be used for this purpose. Departments are expected to handle all reimbursements upon the completion of a student’s travel. Should the actual cost of the travel be less than that initially awarded, excess funding should be returned based upon the proportion originally awarded by each funding entity within two months after completion of the conference.

New Online Application and Instructions:

For Students:

1. Go to: https://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/admin/ctgstudents/

2. Logon using your netid and password (if you cannot access the site, please click on “request an account”. This should automatically start a blank email to tgs-it@northwestern.edu with the subject line “Account Request”. In the body of the email please include your name, student number, and netid. Mention that you are trying to submit an online Conference Travel Grant request, and need an account. If an automatic email does not start, or you cannot send an email from the desktop email it interfaces, simply send an email to tgs-it@northwestern.edu with the subject line and information above. Please allow 3-5 business days for an account to be created.)

3. Once you’ve logged in, please be sure to review all of the required fields to make sure you have all the information you need on hand. You can only fill out and submit an application once.

4. Once you have all the information you need, please fill in all the required fields, and relevant unrequired fields. Upload a copy of your invitation to present, and a copy of your unofficial transcript (which can be either downloaded from Caesar as a .pdf, or you may cut and paste the information into a word document. Please note, the online application will change the name of your documents once you upload them. This is okay).

5. Hit “add Conference Travel Grant – Student”

6. An email confirmation will then be sent to you, and the appropriate department contact for your program.

*** If there are any problems with the submission of your application, or you receive an error message, please send an email to gradfund@northwestern.edu.

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crm for travel agents

The launch of a radically new offering called OpenTravel CRM™ in mid -September, is reportedly taking off. Within its first 30 days, it is expected to have garnered over 1,000 registered users. OpenTravel CRM™ is the first free, all-inclusive software for travel agents. The web based software handles all aspects of customer relationship management and bundles that with e-marketing, trip planning, custom itineraries, commission tracking and reporting and accounting-interface functions. It is also the first to deliver integrated social networking relationship management into a travel agent business application, which brings customer relationship building to a new level through active online community presence and interaction. OpenTravel CRM™ is available at www.opentravelcrm.com.

According to Joseph Mazzarella, president and CEO of Travel Sciences, which developed OpenTravel CRM™,” less than half of all travel agents have access to any CRM or contact management solution for their businesses. OpenTravel CRM™ was designed to reach out to the agent community and help organize, maintain and grow their businesses," he explained “It helps facilitate the growth of existing and new customer relationships by knowing those customers better, understanding what they like and bringing them products that they want. It also has a set of easy to use marketing and selling tools that can be used everyday to grow the business. Best of all, OpenTravel CRM™ is a first rate, web based application offered for free,” he continued.

It is ideal for smaller agencies and home based agents as well as larger agencies and consortia who either currently have no access to good quality technology or who have expensive, outdated technology that want to upgrade without taking on additional financial risk.

OTC breaks new ground with the first Web 2.0 based business management tool for the travel professional community. OpenTravel CRM™ is super-scalable. It was built from the ground up with the newest web technologies available. “This is not out dated technology resurrected and repackaged around a pretty web front-end. This brand new, best of breed, enterprise level software,” says Mazzarella. Commercial paid license versions of the software with no advertising are available for larger travel agencies, tour operators and other organizations.

The core functions complimented by advanced Web 2.0 features include an integrated RSS reader, instant messaging and online presence monitoring, Skype and interactive mapping. Also, online community networking technologies, such as integrated blogging and publishing, and online forums, are meshed into and part of the business solution.

All that travel agents need to do to get up and running on this robust, new platform is log ontowww.opentravelcrm.com and enter a user ID and password and their account will be created. Among the features and benefits that will be immediately available to them:


• An advanced customer relationship management module that enables agents to dynamically maintain and update customer and prospect profiles;
• A visual trip planner and custom branded itineraries
• Integrated web e-mail that can be linked to their personal and business email services, including services like Hotmail or Yahoo!.
• A bulk email delivery service which will handle large out-bound email campaign management and also click through response reporting
• A marketing campaign tool with list building capabilities and editable templates
• Supplier Web Site connections with automated booking information capture, a Supplier web directory with links, and direct electronic supplier connections
• There are no restrictions on use or availability of suppliers, and OTC does not charge suppliers connection or transaction fees
• Numerous business productivity and customer service tools, including enabling agents to send updates on airline delays and cancellations directly to client e-mail addresses or PDAs.

The response thus far has been beyond our best expectations, and we see no let up in demand. Not only is the price right, but the solution is a first class, highly functional business solution,” comments Mazzarella.

Formed in 2001, the Hartford-based Travel Sciences is a leading developer of intelligent, web-based software solutions for the travel industry. It offers reservations, distribution and business automation solutions for cruise lines, tour operators and retail travel business.

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travel risk planning system

Businesses apply systematic planning appliance as a formula to key out their sought after future position. It is a procedure of formulating and carrying out programs to get hold of aimed aims and objectives, and it is likewise really crucial for Travel risk planning system business, more than anything else since it affords guidance to the business.

Businesses are constructed on substantial base once you are aware that strategies supplants formulas in almost all of your planning and it is of high effectivity to establish strategic programs that can offer and keep up dividends for a long time and more. At the time you are in business there is a demand to perpetually step-up with strategic planningprocedure to leverage preceding achievements and eradicate reasons of losses.

The essential prospects for systematic planning appliance in business are immense; one of such advantages is the ability to rapidly adjust formulas to fulfill the altering demand of the perpetually altering business aspects, and business that can’t cope up with these hardships are at their own danger of failure.

Researches have shown that Travel risk planning system lines of work which are more flourishing and lucrative have distinguished the significant effectivity of systematic planning appliances as a business program for the future. As a long-run planning; it is not just about estimating and budgeting but treating practically the serious fusses. Careful planning assists to see your business from a macro purview by not drawing a blank on the micro aspects, it anticipates the future about a specific business experience; specify the finances to spring it up more and ascertains a long-run success through carrying outinvestment opportunities at a frequent fundament.

As a business’s success counts totally on getting hold of and keeping up lucrative markets, systematic programs assist to specify aims/goals in the right way, as a leading main purpose for flourishing lines of work. Once employees acquire a more estimable interpreting of the business’ ways and aims, it assists them to feel as part of the staff and take possession in the achievements of the program.

A different crucial advantage of systematic planning appliance is assist to key out your business strong and frail sides: Every business limited, medium or large scale has its strong and frail sides, reckoned preparation assists to be aware which areas to keep up your strength and to manage area that demands melioration.

Moreover, a systematic program is crucial for it distinguishes and illustrates accessible chances and potential menaces to the business; this assists business to set up for the future taking into account its chances and possible menaces. Besides, strategizing is helpful in the formulating of a supervising formula to appraise advancement in a business, distinguishing issues that Travel risk planning system demand concern before they become a considerable barrier to lucre.

Systematic planning appliance is crucial in Travel risk planning system business can be determined nearly in what it intents to attain as a whole, which demands assisting the business concentrate on the crucial issues; like apportioning the accessible bounded resources to those planning activities that will ease up the most effective consequence for the business.

In order for business to flourish, it must have systematic planning appliances; since without it, a business is menaced from both internal and external aspects, systematic program assists your planning line of work to be more effectively Travel risk planning system organized to manage unexpected fuss, save you time, disbursement and preservation of resources.

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motorcycle travel tips

Whether you go touring for a day or a weekend, or want to have a vacation riding on your motorcycle, sometimes it is convenient to be able to cover long distances on your motorcycle.

Is that possible with every motorcycle or isn't it? What do you have to do to stay for hours in the saddle without getting tired or getting a sore butt? How many miles can you cover in an day? This page tries to formulate the answers

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atlanta business travel

To some, it is the thriving capital of the New South and the home of such blue-chip businesses as Coca-Cola and UPS. To others, it is the cradle of the civil rights movement, where the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., lives on in the city's burgeoning black middle class. To the less charitable, it is a case study in urban sprawl as its perimeter edges ever farther into the surrounding Georgia countryside. Atlanta lacks the grandeur of New York or Chicago, the glamour of Los Angeles or Miami, and the beauty of San Francisco or Seattle. While it is unlikely to ever become the truly great international city of its civic boosters' aspirations, it would be equally wrong to dismiss Atlanta as a characterless expanse. The city's yearning for recognition and respect backfired in 1996, when it hosted an uninspiring Olympics that served only to highlight its deficiencies. But for the business traveller expecting little but a big airport and a slew of corporate headquarters, Atlanta can be a surprisingly rewarding place to work and play.

Where to Sleep
Downtown Atlanta, like the centers of many American cities, can be desolate after commuters have left for the suburbs each evening. The local government has tried to regenerate the area by cracking down on crime and panhandling and encouraging the development of new leisure attractions, but the results have been mixed so far. For business travelers attending conventions in Atlanta, a downtown hotel will usually be most convenient. Choices include the Marriott Marquis, the Hyatt Regency, the Westin, and the Omni.

If your destination is Coca-Cola's global headquarters on North Avenue, you can choose between a cluster of hotels in nearby Midtown, including the Four Seasons, the Sheraton, and the Wyndham. Another Midtown option is Twelve, a swank hotel in a lively new commercial and residential development called Atlantic Station. Farther north, the W Atlanta at Perimeter Center is convenient for visitors to UPS's headquarters in Sandy Springs.

Where to Eat
For those staying downtown, the revolving Sun Dial restaurant, on the seventy-second floor of the Westin, offers great views. Most of the best places to eat, however, are outside the city center. Buckhead, an upscale commercial and residential district about six miles north of downtown, is a reliable option for business meals, with the Blue Ridge Grill and Chops among the favorites of local executives. If you're looking for something less formal, try Café Dupri, a small Buckhead bar and restaurant owned by Jermaine Dupri, the rap star and producer. Virginia Highland, a leafy neighborhood near Midtown, caters to a younger crowd of twentysomething professionals with its eclectic mix of cuisines, including Southwestern at Noche and Italian at Sotto Sotto. Atlantic Station is the hottest and hippest new spot in Atlanta dining, with Rosa Mexicano and Dolce—franchises imported from New York and Los Angeles, respectively—offering the highest quality.

Where to See and Be Seen
It used to be Atlanta's version of Bourbon Street, but many of the bars and nightclubs that once lined Buckhead's Peachtree Road have been shuttered in recent years after a clampdown on late-night drinking and crime. Buckhead still offers numerous lively bars clustered around its upscale hotels and shopping malls, but it is not the party zone it once was. Some of the fun has shifted to Atlantic Station, where Twelve and Dolce have become hangouts for the young, hip, and wealthy. Midtown and Virginia Highland offer a more bohemian choice of bars and restaurants, including a thriving gay scene.

Where to Close a Deal
For 124 years, the great and good of Atlanta's business community have been wheeling and dealing in the Capital City Club, the oldest private club in the South. Members have included Asa Candler, founder of Coca-Cola, and John Portman, the renowned real estate developer said to have inspired A Man in Full, Tom Wolfe's biting satire. Non-members need an invitation to gain access. For a more understated setting, try the White House, a traditional Buckhead diner, where the city's business and political elite enjoy breakfast and the morning papers.

Local Codes
For all its attempts to promote itself as diverse and internationally minded, Atlanta remains rooted in the South. Its business culture is clubby and conservative, with a jacket and tie typically worn by men even in the height of summer. Atlanta prides itself on being "the city too busy to hate," having largely avoided the civil rights-era riots encountered elsewhere in the region. The overwhelmingly white business community and black-dominated political leadership have long worked together to ease racial tensions and promote economic growth. As a result, Atlanta has one of the biggest and wealthiest black middle classes in the United States. Race, however, remains a thorny issue. While most workplaces are racially diverse, the rest of Atlanta society is much less well integrated. The city is starkly divided between the largely white north and mostly black south.

Airport Intelligence
Many, perhaps most, business travelers pass through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International without setting foot in the city. The airport is America's busiest hub, with 2,700 takeoffs and landings a day—twice the traffic of London Heathrow. Hartsfield deals surprisingly well with its 86 million annual passengers, and a new fifth runway (opened last year) has further increased capacity. But the two terminals—adjacent to each other in a single building—are severely strained at peak times. A new international terminal is under construction but will not open until 2010 at the earliest. The airport is a 20-minute ride from downtown on MARTA, the city's light-rail system, but a rental car is necessary for most destinations beyond the main business district.

The Three-Hour Tour
Pay homage to Dr. King by visiting his childhood home and final resting place and by peeking inside Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the civil rights leader preached. All three sights can be reached on foot from the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site visitors center, in the Sweet Auburn district, minutes from downtown. MLK's archives—bought by the city government from the King family last year for $32 million—are on display at the Atlanta History Center, in Buckhead, including an early draft of his "I Have a Dream" speech. The papers will form the centerpiece of a planned civil rights museum.

Unlikely as it seems, landlocked Atlanta is home to one of the world's biggest and best aquariums: the Georgia Aquarium, opened in 2005 with a $250 million gift from Bernie Marcus, co-founder of Atlanta-based Home Depot. Buy a ticket in advance, and, if visiting on a weekend, be prepared for long lines for headliners such as the giant whale sharks (the biggest fish on the planet). Across from the aquarium on the south end of Centennial Olympic Park, a pleasant city-center green that represents one of the few visible legacies of the 1996 Games, is CNN Center, where visitors can take a tour of the cable news station's global headquarters.

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business travel newcastle

business Travel have been providing cost effective corporate travel services to companies throughout the UK from our Newcastle base since 1984. We have become the largest independent business travel agent in Newcastle due to our 100% commitment to excellent customer service.
Need to cut back on business travel costs? Are you paying too much for economy & business class flights, rail travel, hotels, car hire or ferries?

We can give you savings that you simply can not get from other business travel agents, particularly those based in the South Eastand London. As we are a Business Travel agent based in Newcastle,we operate from a substantially lower cost base - this means that wepass on all these savings to you.

Call our friendly travel consultants now on 0191 477 0111 to discover how you can start saving on Business Travel today.

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asbestos law suit

COST OF FILING AN ASBESTOS LAWSUIT

At the Simmons firm, we understand that filing an asbestos lawsuit is not a simple process, even under the best of conditions. While no amount of compensation can buy you a medical miracle, a mesothelioma lawsuit can help you afford the mesothelioma treatments you need and eliminate the worry that medical costs are draining your family budget.

This section about mesothelioma asbestos lawsuits will address many of the initial questions you may have. If you have additional questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. Even after you contact us, you do not have to choose a Simmons firm employee as your mesothelioma attorney should you decide to move forward with an asbestos lawsuit.

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