This article was extracted from Content Is Queen, the blog by Anna Murray, President, e*Media Division, TMG e*Media, which won the Stevie Award for Blog of the Year in the 2007 Stevie Awards for Women In Business.

IBM, now there’s a name. International Business Machines. Says what it does, does what it says. Okay, so it does other things now too. Not just Big Blue anymore; more like Big Blue Man Group.

Here’s a question: What’s a Lenovo? You’d think, having nailed the name game at the start, IBM could do better. Legend, maybe? Plus a soupcon of innovation? Also, it has that dashing ‘ovo’ ending, suggestive of first person present tense action verbs in Spanish, Italian, and Greek. “I create legends! I innovate!” (Holy Cow, that took a lot of thought. What was wrong with ThinkPad, again?)

This years Ad:Tech made my head hurt in a similar way. It also made me a little afraid. The last time I encountered hip, coy, utterly impenetrable names like the list of Ad:Tech exhibitors was, well, on a list of Ad:Tech exhibitors. Only it was 2001.
Of course, in any dot.com crowd, there will be the simply bizarre–Blue Lithium, JargonFish–that don’t fit in any distinct category. But the rest are roughly classifiable. Here’s a list. First, the mash-ups. Those Frankenstein’s Monster eponyms that shove together bits of suggestive roots with some kind of suffix to indicate it’s an actual word:

Imaginuity
Adconion
Findology
Acquisio
Alterian
Adify

Then there are the names that use edgy media words and plays on the word “broadcast:”

ClashMedia
AdverbMedia
MeMedia
MediaWhiz
MediaText
Oddcast

		Read the entire article

American Express Business Travel’s AXIOM (Intelligent Online Marketplace) won a Stevie Award for Best New Business Service at The 2007 American Business Awards. “Being named a winner is a significant achievement for the AXIOM solution and American Express Business Travel as a whole,” said Andrew McGraw, senior vice president and general manager for North American business travel. “As a company, we are committed to providing our clients the most advanced technologies that allow for greater control over travel and entertainment spend. This recognition underscores the growing need for expanded services in business travel, and further adds to our growing list of industry accolades.”

Powered by California-based Rearden Commerce, Inc., this Web-based marketplace for services was described by The Wall Street Journal as something that “could help usher in the next generation of online travel-booking tools.” AXIOM brings together inventory from more than 135,000 suppliers to provide a one-stop-shop to find, purchase, and manage everything from traditional travel (flights, hotels, and car rentals) to non-traditional services such as airport parking, dining, ground transportation, event tickets, package shipping, and audio/web conferencing.

Another useful—and timely—service provided by American Express Business Travel is their annual Global Business Travel Forecast. Here are highlights from their 2008 report:

The American Express annual Global Business Travel Forecast reports that—no surprise—demand for business travel services will again outweigh supply in 2008, driving continued increases in rates across air, hotel, car rental and corporate meetings and events. While airfares are expected to continue their steady climb, hotel rates are projected to experience double-digit increases in demand-heavy markets across the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Said Mike Streit, Vice President and Global Leader of American Express Business Travel Advisory Services: "In 2008, we expect a domestic trip inclusive of airfare, car rental, and hotel stay will increase six percent, or $63 USD, bringing the average trip cost to a total of approximately $1,110 USD. For an international trip, the increase is expected to be nearly seven percent, or approximately $205 USD, bringing the cost of an average trip to $3,171."

Gloomy news, but while pricing pressures that have influenced the rise in airfares in the past are expected to continue in 2008, more competition in certain markets should help ease some increases.
- Fuel costs, improvements in airline inventory and pricing technology, capacity constraint, and demand for long haul are likely to drive price increases.
- Greater competition through the USA-EU Open Skies Accord, together with the growth of low-fare pricing models and more efficient aircraft, will moderate increases.

		Read the entire review

Bernice Maria Paolozzi is an international business developer based in Dublin, Ireland who won the 2007 Stevie Award for Best Entrepreneur in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) in the 2007 Stevie Awards for Women in Business presented by Infiniti. The awards were announced on November 12 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

We recently spoke with Bernice about her career in the international business arena. She shared with us tips on how to open up new markets overseas, and offered her thoughts on common mistakes that companies make when doing business in other countries.

Listen to our podcast interview with
Bernice Maria Paolozzi...

Blogs, or web logs, are all the rage these days. Each month in this space we'll point you to several blogs that we think might be of interest to you.

Robot Wisdom : Started by Jorn Barger in December 2007, this is considered to be the first blog, now celebrating its 10th Anniversary.
Three Minds : Organic's blog for digital advertisers.
Publishing 2.0 : Covering the (r)evolution of media, driven by the migration of media to the Web and new digital technologies.
PopularFront's Snowdays : The flakes are still falling at this site: create your own snowflake for charity.