Three Simple Tips to Attract (and keep) Sponsors For Your Next Event

If you’ve been in the event industry for awhile, you remember what event sponsorships used to be like: a strategically-located banner, logos placed on name tags, or advertising space sold in programs. But with an ever-growing number of events to choose from, sponsors want more than just logo placements – they want engagement, leads, and a higher ROI. In an era when there are more trade shows and more opportunities than ever, event planners need to make sponsorships appealing in a new and modern way. Try these three tips to enhance your events by creating stronger connections between your sponsors and your attendees:

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7-Day Phone Battery Life May Be Closer Than You Think!

Are you tired of having to charge your phone daily, sometimes multiple times a day? If you’re looking to have a less rigorous charging schedule (and want to keep using your phone battery life normally ), British fuel-cell developer Intelligent Energy Holdings may have a solution for you.

Intelligent Energy Holdings, most notably known for developing a hydrogen-powered black cab, claims to be working on a fuel-cell battery small enough to be incorporated into mobile phones. This fuel cell would improve battery life and significantly reduce the need to charge your phone, potentially only requiring a phone to be charged once a week.

Phone Battery Life

So how does a fuel-cell work? In essence, a fuel-cell battery creates electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen, leaving only water vapor as a byproduct. This alternative to the current lithium-ion batteries used in mobile phones is much more efficient and significantly cleaner, which could reduce the impact on our environment as well.

While this development is exciting, it’ll still be about 2 years before any type of fuel-cell powered phone makes it into the hands of consumers- and this is only if Intelligent Energy’s partnership with the smartphone developer financially backing the project continues to be strong. So, much like brushing and flossing, we’ll have to stick to charging daily (for now).

All You Need to Know About the Fuel Cell Mechanism

For all the fast processors out there, QHD displays along with other major technology advancements in the industry, the modern, advancing industry of mobile innovation continues to serve as a way that helps in meaningfully managing the overall battery life in contemporary devices. As discussed, Intelligent Energy Holdings –the leading fuel-cell developer from Britain, has claimed that the company is working on finally cracking the code to battery life in the coming times. 

Battery Life

Intelligent Energy Holdings is highly acclaimed for its impressive work for a hydrogen-powered range of black cabs in the London city. Moreover, it has also been accredited creating a Boeing aircraft that powers on the innovative fuel cell mechanism. Boasting over 25 years of in-depth research & training in the given field, Intelligent Energy Holdings has established as an industry leader in the development of the advanced fuel-cell charging mechanism. The company aims at translating the research into the existing mobile landscape. While this is not an easy task, the company still aims to achieve the desired results over time.

The experts at Intelligent Energy Holdings reveal that a leading smartphone manufacturer is expected to provide them with lucrative funding of around $7.6 million. The main motive of the funding is to design & develop the fuel cell mechanism that is small enough to be used in the modern range of smartphones in the coming era. As per the research reports, it is expected that with the advent of such a system, the users can look forward to reducing the overall need for charging their smartphones every now & then. This implies that in the near future, you can look forward to charging your phone once a week. The question is, “How exactly does such a kind of battery charging mechanism work?” In simpler terms, it can be said that a fuel-cell battery is capable of converting hydrogen into the electric current while leaving water vapor as its byproduct.

When will Fuel-cell Smartphones Hit the Market?

While there is a great need for such fuel-cell charging mechanisms to be soon implemented in the modern smartphones, still, there has been no release of a specific timeline with respect to the release of this high-end innovation in sight. As per the reports of Intelligent Energy Holdings, it is expected that the company will make this dream a reality soon enough. Henri Winand –the Chief Executive at Intelligent Energy Holdings, explains that in case the partnership with the smartphone maker (yet undisclosed) would go well, the company could then observe the market availability of the fuel-cell mechanism technology in a matter of around 2 years. At the same time, currently, there are several unknown factors including cost, replaceable or rechargeable batteries, and so more. The closest that charging giants have reached until is around 2-3 days of battery life on some of the advanced devices including Huawei Mate 8. 

Julian Hughes –the Acting Managing Director at Intelligent Energy Holdings, says that the company believes in the notion of embedded fuel cell technology for smartphone charging –along with other portal devices. This advanced technology can help in providing an innovative solution to the modern dilemma of the device’s battery life as the consumers keep on demanding for improved battery life from the respective phones. While battery innovation in modern smartphones has still not kept up, the company aims at offering a comprehensive solution that serves to be both clean as well as efficient. Moreover, it could also imply that consumers can go truly mobile while being free from the grid’s constraints.

How to Achieve Longer Battery Life for Your Smartphone?

As smartphones are increasingly becoming an integral part of our day-to-day lives, it is a challenging task to keep up with the battery life of the modern smartphones. This is the reason why leading giants keep looking for innovative solutions that can help with major advancements in the field of upgrading the battery life of the cell phones. 

While awaiting for any significant innovation is unprecedented, there are some DIY methods that can help you ensure a longer battery life for your phone. Here are some innovative suggestions from our experts:

  • Analyze What is Utilizing Your Phone’s Battery: Before you aim at fixing the slow charging capability of your phone, it is imperative for you to know about the exact cause of the battery dying prematurely in your device. If you are using an Android smartphone, you can ideally advance to the Settings tab. From here, you can proceed to the Battery section. Here, you can get a proper report of the battery’s health. If the system warns that some app or feature is draining a significant amount of power in the phone’s background, you can consider resolving the same. 

Inside the Battery menu of the phone, you can also make use of additional features. You can also leverage the Battery Saver feature that is set to 15 percent of the charging status by default. The Battery Saver option is known to turn off some of the specialized features of the app while restricting specific app usage. 

  • Switch on the Adaptive Battery Capability: For doing so, you can advance to the option Settings in your smartphone. From there, you should head to the Battery section, and then proceed to the Adaptive Battery option. Here, you can slide the available toggle to enable the option of Adaptive Battery in your phone. Using this advanced capability introduced by the revolutionary Android Pie version, you can prevent any app from draining the excess amount of battery capability in the background. These apps might be the ones that you do not prefer using frequently. 

Just below the option of Adaptive Battery, there is another section referred to as the “Restricted App” list. This folder is known to be empty by default. It is important to note that you simply cannot place any app in this restricted folder. Instead, the Adaptive Battery feature of the smartphone is known to monitor the wide number of apps that run in the background. In case any app is utilizing excessive current or energy from your phone, you will be sent a proper notification regarding the same. You can then add the particular app to the restricted folder to maximize the battery output for your phone. 

  • Stop Background Running Apps: While you might not have access to the Adaptive Battery option because your phone is not upgraded to the Android Pie version, you can still look forward to maximizing the battery output through other ways. You should keep a check on the apps that might be running in the background of your smartphone. While in Android Pie, you can check the same by simply swiping up from the screen’s bottom, the older Android versions allow for a separate button located towards the side of the home icon. 

It is important to note that when you tend to force-close a particular app, it can only turn out helpful if you will not be re-launching the app. This is because it tends to utilize more power for re-opening that app than by killing the background processes.

Woman on phone at night event using charging station

  • Utilize Fast-Charging Stations: 

There are several charging kiosks that help in ensuring the fast-charging capabilities for smartphones and other devices. InCharged is a leading service provider of top-class charging stations that deliver optimum performance when it comes to ensuring faster charging services. Moreover, you can also charge other devices using this innovative technology. There are various models of charging stations by InCharged that you can try out.

  • Preventing Running the Apps During Startup: The ability to select the apps that will be running when you start the phone might not be a feature that is observed in Android. However, this feature is available in most of the customized versions of the OS like MIUI. For instance, in Mi9 smartphones, advance to the Settings section and going under the option of Permissions as specified under the App settings. Click on the option Autostart. Then, you can check the apps on the given list that you would like to run on the phone’s background. 
  • Switch Off the Feature of Adaptive Brightness: While some of the cheaper smartphone versions might have dull screen displays, still most of the advanced phone versions are known to deliver the brightness level that could actually hurt your eyes in the darkness. This level of increased brightness only serves useful when you are headed out in direct sunlight and wish to access your phone. However, at other times, increased screen brightness only tends to minimize the overall battery performance.

You can look forward to making use of the Adaptive Brightness feature available in most of the latest smartphone range out there. You can reduce the screen brightness by going to the option Settings and then, selecting the option Display. After this, you can move the slider of the Brightness level option downwards to minimize the screen brightness. As you are using this feature of the smartphone, you might as well consider switching off the capability of Adaptive Brightness. 

  • Reducing the Screen Resolution: While all phone models out there might not allow you to adjust the screen resolution, some of the notable flagship models by Samsung are known to reflect this property. These models are renowned for their presence of Quad HD+ display resolution along with the default Full HD+ setting. This helps in reducing the process of battery drain as less power is required to push the given pixels.

Make the most of the innovative battery-saving techniques while awaiting the 7-day battery life capability by the experts.

Wireless Charging at CES 2016

This year at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), many were focused on completely cutting the cord for a totally wireless charging experience people would actually want to use. With the amount of smart devices we use growing every year, it can be tedious to keep everything charged. Having to allocate space for all of your various chargers at home or in the office can leave you without enough outlets, or worse- tethered by your power cables. Continue Reading

Cell Phone Charging Stations at CES 2016

The end of the year is arguably the most exciting season of them all. Yes, the holidays are wonderful and New Year’s Eve is a lot of fun, but did you know the most exciting event happens after January 1st? If you’re like us at InCharged, you’ve been biting your nails, listening to Christmas carols, and waiting patiently for the CES 2016 tradeshow on January 6th-9th. Continue Reading

Jessica Gonzalez Recognized as a New Jersey SmartCEO 2016 Future 50 Award Winner

Somerset, NJ (Dec. 10, 2015) — New Jersey SmartCEO and Headline Sponsors Norris McLaughlin & Marcus P.A. and Wilkin & Guttenplan P.C. are pleased to announce the 2016 Future 50 Award winners. The program recognizes the region’s 50 fastest-growing, mid-sized companies and 5 small Emerging Growth companies who have experienced outsized growth based on a combined three-year average of revenue and employee growth. The 2016 Future 50 winners collectively generate $5.2 billion in annual revenue and employ 14,960 individuals in New Jersey. This impressive group will be recognized in the March/April issue of New York SmartCEO magazine and celebrated at a black-tie-optional awards ceremony on February 18, 2016 at The Palace at Somerset Park.

“Ask any CEO and they’ll tell you that leading a fast-growing company is one of the most challenging and fun things an entrepreneur can do. Whether they’re just starting out or rapidly trying to scale an established operation, this year’s Future 50 winners have executed their growth visions year after year, created job opportunities and made our region a better place to work and live,” says Jaime Nespor-Zawmon, President of SmartCEO Events. “There is nothing these amazing entrepreneurs can’t do if they put their minds to it. We honor them for their unwavering determination to rise above the rest and build the future of our region, our nation, and the world at large.”

More than 500 local business executives and guests are expected to attend this year’s black-tie-optional awards gala at The Palace at Somerset Park to celebrate the winners and their achievements. The rock ‘n’ roll-themed event will kick off with a cocktail reception and high-energy networking followed by a video-packed awards ceremony and seated dinner. The evening and celebration will culminate with dessert and additional networking.

About the Future 50 Awards

The Future 50 Awards program is the largest and most highly anticipated SmartCEO awards program of the year. This program recognizes 50 of the region’s fastest growing mid-sized companies and 5 small “Emerging Growth” companies. These companies represent the future of the region’s economy and embody the entrepreneurial spirit critical for leadership and success. The winners, chosen based on a three-year average of employee and revenue growth, are listed alphabetically, not ranked. The winners are profiled in the March/April issue of SmartCEO magazine and celebrated at a black-tie-optional awards ceremony in February.

About SmartCEO

SmartCEO’s mission is to educate and inspire the business community through its award-winning magazine, connections at C-level events and access to valuable online resources. SmartCEO’s integrated media platforms reach decision makers in the Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Long Island, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, metropolitan areas.

How to Conserve Battery Life

As a mobile phone user, everyone wants their phone to have enough battery life to last the day, making it easier to handle the daily tasks that are done on mobile phones. However, the older the device, the more frequently the battery will drain leaving you with low battery anxiety. The amount of battery life mainly depends on two factors – the usage of the cell phone on a particular day, and its usage in the past days.

 Most of the smart phones do not provide easy access to the users for their batteries and it includes iPhones and various Android devices. The official battery replacements are expensive and inconvenient, but if you want to extend the lifespan of the batteries, then these points will help you to understand the reasons for drainage.

  • Understand how your battery degrades

You must be aware that with every charge cycle your mobile device battery degrades slightly, and if you want to extend the lifespan of the battery, you need to slow down these charge cycles. 

Therefore, if you will lessen the use of your phone, you can prevent it from draining or charging frequently, to enhance the lifespan of the battery. 

However, it is common that if you have the phone, you surely want to use it, so if you want to avoid such situations, you can balance the life of the battery and the longevity of its usage by knowing you frequently you need to use it. You should prevent cell phones from getting extreme cold or hot, to make them more energy-efficient, and keep the screen brightness as low as possible.

3D Battery cell rendering with half full bars

Battery Life

  • Avoid extreme hot and cold

If your phone gets very hot or cold, it can affect the battery and shorten its lifespan, so it is essential to prevent your mobile devices from such situations. You should avoid leaving your phones in the cars, or the hot or sunny weather or the freezing winters.

  • Avoid fast charging

The quick charge of the cell phones stresses the battery, so it is necessary to avoid the fast charging unless you need it. If you will charge your mobile devices slowly, the better lifespan they will gain. You should not charge your cell phones with a computer or with the smart plugs, as they can limit the current, resulting in slowing down its charge rate.

  • Prevent the battery from getting 0% or charging it up to 100%

Phone batteries are suitable if you keep them above 20% and while charging you need to be sure to keep them below 90%, and they are extremely precise, they are happiest around 50% capacity. The older rechargeable batteries have battery memory, as if you will not charge them to full and discharge them to zero then they are remembered and reduces their useful range.

  • Charge your phone to 50% for long-term storage

If you want to have the healthiest charge for a battery then it should be about 50%, and if you are going to store your phone for a more extended period then charge it 50% before turning it off. The battery continues to degrade and discharge if the phone is turned off and not used at all, and if you want to keep your battery reliable then keep your phone on for several months and charge it up to 50%.

Low battery white smart phone charging status dead

Charge your Mobile Device

  • Turn down the screen brightness

A Smartphone’s screen is the essential component that typically uses most of the battery, and if you will keep the screen brightness low then it will save energy. With the use of auto-brightness, you can save battery for most people as it automatically adjusts the screen brightness, and does involve more work for the light sensor. However, if you want to save your battery you can do so by managing it manually and fairly by setting it to the lowest visible level whenever there are high lighting levels.

  • Reduce the screen timeout

If you leave your screen without using it, then it will turn off automatically after some time, maybe in one or two minutes. If you want to save energy, you can do so by reducing the timeout time of the screen which is known as auto-lock. You can set the timing according to your needs, but it will be accurate to set it up to 1 minute or 30 seconds.

 On the contrary, if you will reduce the auto-lock time then you will see the screen dimming frequently when you are tarot reading something, so it is up to set the time according to your needs.

  • Choose a dark theme

If you will have the black display on the screen it uses no energy, and mainly the darker colors use less energy than the bright colors such as white. Most people prefer darker themes as they are easier on the eyes, and prevents eye strain or unnecessary pains.

  • Look for the apps that waste battery

You need to look for the battery settings for other apps that use excess energy and delete, disable, or restrict permissions where it is possible. If you don’t want to restrict permissions, then there are some light versions of some popular apps that take space, use less data, and a little power, so you can download them for the convenience.

  • Learn how to turn on the phones’ energy saving

Your phone has various energy saving modes that can limit the performance of the CPU and the other features, as a result, you will get the irrelevant performance but better battery life.

Tips to conserve the Battery

 Conserve Battery Life

You can conserve the battery of your phones with these tips.

  • Turn off vibrations

Vibrations are great to get the notifications about the incoming calls or messages while you are in the meeting, library or other places where you have to keep your phones in silent mode. However, vibrations use more power than the ringtones, as the sound that arises from the ringtones is the tiny vibrations in the Smartphone’s’ speaker that consumes very little power. So, it is the better way to conserve the life of the batteries, or you have the option to lessen the magnitude of the vibrations.

  • Dim the screen

It is among those that affect the battery life severely and if you want to reduce the power consumption of your smartphones, then you need to dim the screen while using your phones. If you check your emails, or notifications every few minutes, then it will consume the battery, so keep the setting to auto-brightness while conserving the battery life.

  • Keep the screen timeout short

If you want to minimize the power consumption of your Smartphone, you need to keep the screen timeout short, as it will decide the longevity of the screen. Most of the people do not lock their phones after they are done with it, and they just leave it to light out by itself, so if you will keep the timeout duration short, it will ensure that the phones do not waste power when you are not using them.

  • Switch off the mobile when inactive

When you turn on your mobile devices, it takes more power than unlocking the phones and if you will keep your phone switched off for a few hours than it can save more battery than leaving it on airplane mode.

 However, you do not use your phone when you are attending a meeting or sleeping so it would help if you will keep your cell phones switched off during that period. You must be thinking that why you need to bother about the level of the batteries when you have a charger with you, but the repeated charging lowers the volume of the batteries. Therefore, the best way to prevent such situations is to conserve the life of the batteries as much as you can.

  • Close all the unnecessary apps

Most of you open various apps, at the same time, and avoid closing them even if you are not using them, but it is the main reason that the battery life gets drained quickly. Leaving the apps open makes the batteries to drain quickly, so if you want to conserve the battery life you should close the apps when not in use.

  • Disable GPS

Various apps on your mobile devices use more battery than others, mainly the apps that use the GPS to track the location. In case, your mobile device has a GPS that allows you to send or receive the signals to and from the satellites to determine your location then you should use them effectively to conserve the battery life. 

Make sure to turn the GPS off after using it, as most of the apps send and receive signals continuously if left on and utilizes most of the batteries. Hence, you should ensure that to close such apps if you are not using them and disable the location services to slow down the efficiency of these apps.

  • Turn off the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or mobile data when not in use

Your cell phone batteries consume energy while they search for the signals, whether it is Wi-Fi, mobile data, or Bluetooth as your phone continues scanning for a good connection. However, if you keep these signals off when not in use you can save the battery life by enhancing its lifespan. The most convenient way is to keep your phone at ‘Airplane Mode’ or switch off the phones when you are not using your phone or when you know that you can’t get any signal.

  • Minimize the notification

When you turn on your mobile data, you get notifications – the updates of the latest news, emails, messages, new apps, and much more, but you open only the text messages or sometimes the news. Such notifications make sound alert or vibrations when they light up your screen, so it is essential to manage your settings well to save the battery power.

  • Maintain the cool temperature

Most of you must have observed that your battery drains faster when your phones are warm, so it is essential to avoid leaving your Smartphone in the direct sunlight, or any hot places. The battery performs in a better way if the environment is cooler, so you should look for such places to prevent your cell phones from unnecessary and excessive heat.

  • Conserve Power

Most of the cell phones provide you with an option of power-saving mode that automatically adjusts the settings to use less battery, enhancing its lifespan. Mainly, the low power mode shuts down all the features that are not useful or necessary, resulting in conserving more battery life that keeps the phone functioning.

Mobile Device Power

Finally, if you are still not satisfied with the life of your mobile device battery, you should check the battery usage of your Smartphone to eliminate the issues. You need to go to the settings, and then to the battery to check the list of issues that are restricting the life the battery and you can delete them according to your necessities.

Staying InCharged and In Touch for a Safer Halloween

For any parent, not knowing where their child is or who they’re with can be scary- scarier than all the haunted houses and candy induced stomach aches combined. Just because Halloween is the spookiest part of the year (cue the black cats, witches, and ghouls) doesn’t mean you have to fear for your child’s safety. Through the use of smartphone apps and proper planning, parents who are letting their children trick-or-treat in a group setting without adult supervision can rest easy this Halloween knowing their children are safe. Continue Reading