The Cars are the Stars at the 9th annual Cobble Beach Concours d’Elegance presented by Porsche, as they take to the stage and to the green, at Cobble Beach Golf Resort Community. A long-held tradition stemming from the 17th century when cars would parade through the parks of Paris, France, evolving into what we now know as a competition of elegance (Concours d’Elegance) displaying not only antique but classic automobiles as well, for both competition and celebration.
With 18 classes in total for judging purposes, a panel of 48 judges will take to the 18th fairway to begin scoring each of the 4 or 8 hand selected vehicles in each class, to choose the best in class. Vehicles are chosen by a committee of automotive experts, studying each vehicle closely, paying attention to the finer details, right down to the correct bolts used for that car’s time period. First, second and third place is awarded within each class, and each class winner is eligible for one of either the Best of Show, the Most Outstanding Pre or Post War awards.
Two classes this year will hold some of the world’s most luxurious, rare and prestigious automobiles, the AACA Pre-War American Full Classics and the AACA Pre-War European Full Classics, featuring some of the era’s most jaw-dropping automobiles: a 1929 Duesenberg Model J Roadster and a 1930 Duesenberg Model J Dual Cowl Phaeton. Among the rarest of the American Full Classics, a 1940 Packard Darrin Convertible Victoria and a 1936 Packard Twelve All-Weather Town Car.
From across the Atlantic, you can expect some classic French masterpieces like the extremely-rare-to-see 1927 Bugatti Type 39/35B and a 1938 Peugeot 402 Darl’Mat Special Sports Roadster known as 1 of 30 left to exist. The United Kingdom is also represented with a stunning example of a 1935 Swallow SS One Airline Coupe, an early model before the manufacturer was renamed Jaguar. And for European rally fans, we have two of the rarest, rally homologation sports cars, a 1972 Lancia Stratos and a 1986 Ford RS200S.
This year’s Cobble Beach Concours d’Elegance also offers a rare opportunity to see some of the most futuristic and innovative concepts of the 1950s from GM’s Motorama, including the 1951 GM LeSabre concept, the 1956 Pontiac Club de Mer and the one-off factory custom, Bill Mitchell’s 1956 Buick Century X, featuring 225 unique options.
What is a Concours d’Elegance? Derived from the French term meaning a competition of elegance, the Concours d’Elegance has a historic story dating back to 17th Century French society. An event that began with horse-drawn carriages being paraded through the parks of Paris, France has evolved into a display of antique and classic cars for both competition and celebration. The 2023 Cobble Beach Concours d’Elegance presented by Porsche will be held on the 18th fairway of Cobble Beach Golf Resort & Community overlooking the beautiful waters of Georgian Bay.
Featuring 70+ speakers to share their knowledge and expertise on the changing face of the banking sector though innovation and technology developments, the 14th Edition of the Middle East Banking Innovation Summit (MEBIS 2023) once again reinforced itself as being the leading banking technology event in the Middle East region bringing together the shining minds of the industry! The summit took place on the 17th & 18th May at the Jumeirah Emirates Tower, Dubai, UAE.
The focused agenda began with a Welcome Address by Jamal Saleh, Director General of the UAE Banks Federation, the official supporting partners of MEBIS 2023, following which, Saad Toma from Title Sponsor IBM also delivered opening remarks. An interactive fireside chat took place between Srinivasan Sampath from First Abu Dhabi Bank and Liaquat Parkar from IBM, which highlighted First Abu Dhabi’s digital evolution and cloud strategy, after which, Ahmad Abu Eideh of Invest Bank, UAE gave a talk on exploration of new revenue engines and capabilities from a MENA banking leadership perspective.
During the second fireside chat of the day, Nidal Khalifeh from Jordan Ahli Bank, Sean Langton of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and Liam Leahy from Thought Machine came together to discuss innovating for greater revenue and enhanced capabilities. The attendees then listened to keynote presentation by Andrés Bernad, IBM Consulting, who shared the 2023 global outlook for banking and financial markets, and Bharani Subramaniam of Thoughtworks presented his talk on moving beyond digital transformation to build digital banking multichannel solution platforms.
Next up on the programme, we welcomed the CxO panel discussion where Tim Jennings of Synechron led the discussion on exploiting capital in the new economy with next gen technology. The panellists included Ayman Alqudsi of United Arab Bank, Bart Pietruszka from HSBC, Noman Rasheed from Dubai Islamic Bank amongst others. Ashwani Arora from Nucleus Software was up next to the stage to give his keynote presentation on alternative yield opportunities in private markets, and Sid Bhatia, from Dataiku took us up to the morning break with his talk on the power of everyday AI.
On returning to the conference room, delegates were treated to a lively discussion on data in the digital era & powering the future: advance analytics, RPA and artificial intelligence, moderated by Rajat Prakash from Dataiku and featuring insights from Atul Chandorkar of Qatar Islamic Bank, Bruno Ascencio Bautista from WIO Bank, Gyan Prakash Srivastava of Mashreq Bank and Mehreen Zakaria from Citi Bank. Following the panel, Puneet Chhahira from Infosys Finacle, spoke about banking-as-a-service and embedded finance, and Alexey Sidorov from Denodo spoke on moving into data 3.0 with logical data management.
To explore Innovation for MENA Cards and Payments, we welcomed Abhishek Saha of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Anand Sampath from First Abu Dhabi Bank, Eli Taranto from EQI Bank and Haroon Durrani from the Commercial Bank of Dubai. Yasir Siddiqui from Snowflake took us through the Rise of the Data Cloud, where he spoke on how financial services can transform to meet tomorrow’s opportunities, and James Harvey from Cisco AppDynamics briefed the audience on digitally transforming your banking enterprise using agile development, hybrid cloud environments & innovative integrated platform strategies.
Before closing for the day, expert speakers, Adnan Fasih of Habib Bank, Aleksandra Anna Krejewska of Rakbank, Imran Kannuti from a reputed bank in the UAE, Soumaya Hissoussi of Bank Lombard Odier & Co Ltd, plus Wan Norhaziki Wan Abdul Halim of Crédit Agricole CIB, UAE joined Dr Zakiya Abdul Samad, from the Heriot Watt University for the Islamic Banking panel discussion.
Our final speaker for the day was Deepak Arora, of Panamaxil (MobiFin), who shared his insights on lifestyle banking – the secret of building profitable customers.
Day 2 opened with two featured Fireside chats. Mohamad Nazih Rashad of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Dr Ullas Rao, from Heriot-Watt University considered the Digital Imperative for Global Trade Finance and we welcomed back Noman Rasheed, from Dubai Islamic Bank to discuss DIB’s transformation journey to develop their data strategy with Bishu Panigrahi of IBM Consulting.
The first keynote presentation of the day was given by Motaz Ghazi, and Soren Benfeldt from Kyndryl who spoke about building the bank of the future: unleash collaboration for core banking modernization. This was followed by the Private Banking and Wealth Management panel, with input from Anand Krishnan of Emirates Investment Bank, Kaushik Kadayam of Standard Chartered Bank, Tomasz Bortnik of Citi Bank and Vickram Lal from Mashreq Bank where they discussed technology transformation redefining the value proposition of modern relationship management with Abhra Roy of Infosys Finacle.
Next up, Gaurav Mathur from Safegold shared his thoughts on the New Gold Standard – unlocking innovative revenue streams and engaging your digital customer.
IBM hosted a discussion on Hybrid Cloud Choices in the Financial Services Industry, where Ghazanfar Ali of IBM was joined by Sylvia Scheerová, IBM Power Services EMEA and Osama El Samadoni, of Guld Business Machines. Before moving to the networking break, we invited Zsombor Brommer, of United Arab Bank, Abbas Bou Diab from BLOM Bank Qatar, Noman Chaudhary from Habib Bank and Abhishek Pratap Singh from the National Bank of Oman to share their views and expertise on powering intelligent risk, compliance, governance, fraud & audit with digital modernization & transformation with Andrea Gay from Boston Consulting Group.
After the morning coffee break, delegates reconvened for the Retail & Commercial Loans, Mortgages and Lending panel, featuring Mahmoud Ibrahim, Ajman Bank, Abdelrahman Ahmed, Arab National Bank, Rajeev Chalisgaonkar of Mashreq and Shaker Zainal from Emirates Development Bank who spoke about next-gen technology platforms empowering digital transformation and access to capital with Bhavya Kumar from Boston Consulting Group.
Dmitrii Ilonov from Data.AI shared his views on how traditional Banks are evolving to become mobile first, followed by a presentation on the practical outlook on blockchain technology for banking transformation given by Sunath Kolazhi from Settlement.
This led into the From CX trends to Metaverse & multichannel marketing hubs panel session, with Marcello Baricordi, from Strands leading the discussion, and panellist included Alex Bak from Commercial Bank International, Dongjun Choi from Rakbank, Mai Momani, Invest Bank, UAE, and Ernesto Giralt of Strands providing input.
We closed off MEBIS 2023 with a CISO fireside Chat, between Frida Kleimert, IBM, Abhishek Pratap Sing, National Bank Oman and Somnath Sarkar from Mashreq Bank.
The intensive 2-day programme was well received by over 400 senior bankers and fintech leaders from across the MENA region and the networking sessions provided the ideal opportunity for people to connect with industry leaders and share new ideas and developments.
The event emphasized the fact that the banking industry is adapting and evolving to meet client expectations and how GCC-based banks are proving to be leaders in embracing new technologies and transformation for enhanced sustainability across the banking sector.
Just in time for the Ukrainian Independence Day, the Social Spirits Brand “Vodka 4 Peace” is launching their limited edition “Vodka Zelensky” in the US.
Caused by the sudden war in the Ukraine, this Swiss team founded a social impact brand within 7 days: Aim immediate support for Ukrainians. In just 5 months, they went from an idea to social impact brand selling in over 5 countries (Switzerland, Germany, Austria, UK, Georgia) and now, also available in the United States of America.
Already 34,400 CHF donations made directly to selected humanitarian NGOs in Ukraine. For example: Ohmatdyt children’s hospital, is the largest children’s hospital in Kyiv and the Dusha Foundation, which helps low-income families and single mothers who have had to flee the war zone. With the donated money, the organisation buys and delivers humanitarian aid in the form of food and basic daily necessities directly to the families that need them most.
“The launch of Vodka 4 Peace in the United States is a milestone moment for the Social Impact brand,” said Georgia von Gleichen, one of the founders of Vodka 4 Peace. “We are constantly looking to grow our markets and with the Americas we are taking it to the next level. Our mission is to become the social impact brand helping people in need all over the world.”
This next step came with a new partnership. For every bottle sold in the US, there is a donation of $1 to BlueCheck Ukraine, an organisation co-founded by Liev Schreiber (actor, film director, screenwriter). They vet urgent financial support to non-governmental organisations and aid initiatives in Ukraine.
“It was a great opportunity to talk about our cooperation and the efforts we can take to help Ukraine,” Georgia says after she met Liev during the World Economic Forum Davos, Switzerland in Summer 2022.
The Product: The Social Spirit Brand Vodka 4 Peace produces in small private distilleries in Switzerland and Germany.
The Vodka is three times distilled with 40% alc./vol. and filled into 700ml glas bottles. It’s designed to represent the cause, and also intended to symbolise “Peace” in Ukraine. The limited edition “Vodka Zelensky” will retail for $41.99 and will be available to order online through www.vodka4peace.com and also through www.Passionspirits.com as of today 24th of August 2022. It will be available in New York, Florida and California, with more states to come due to stock by end of September.
Partners: They are proud of their collaboration with Gate Group in UK. Vodka 4 Peace 5cl bottle is available on all 1st class train rides in the UK. The Swiss pharmaceutical brand KAEX supports Vodka 4 Peace with a sachet with each order made in Switzerland.
Media Contact
Georgia von Gleichen Georgia@vodka4peace.com Phone: +41797332781
Vodka 4 Peace Georgia von Gleichen +41797332781 www.vodka4peace.com
Several ways to sell your manufactured home in California. or almost anywhere in the U.S.
YORBA LINDA, Calif. – June 1, 2022 – PRLog — Home Quest is a mobile home retailer with a license permitting them to sell new and pre-owned mobile homes in California on behalf of homeowners. The company has an extensive portfolio of mobile property courtesy of sellers. They use their expertise and experience to help their clients sell homes.
Their client profile falls into three broad categories. The distinction is by no means exhaustive. It only shows the broad categories of mobile home sellers in California.
Their first type of client has their mobile home in a leased park. Homes located in California leased parks are commonly known as Trailer Parks or Manufactured Housing Communities. Homeowners in such communities pay a monthly fee to use the land.
The company also sells mobile homes situated on private land. Most of the houses in this category are old and require extensive repair and improvements. Additionally, many mobile properties in this category were once in Trailer Parks and then moved to private land. After purchasing a home in this category, the new homeowner will have to vacate the private land.
Mobile homeowners can also live on their private land converted to real property without initially inhabiting leased land. The buyer has to make provisions for relocation once they purchase a mobile home in this category.
Home Quest has a tailored solution for all its mobile home sellers regardless of the seller’s land situation or mobile home condition. They use strategic marketing and sales to find the right buyer for all the homes in their portfolio. They ensure every mobile property finds the right new owner at rates that satisfy the parties involved.
Home Quest specializes in selling mobile homes, giving them a competitive advantage against real estate agents whose expertise is in real estate. For instance, Home Quest has a ready market for manufactured home buyers. The variety in real estate agents’ portfolios makes them spread too thin in the mobile home buyers’ market share. Although they can match a seller to a buyer, the process will be rigorous because the market is not familiar territory.
Specialization also increases efficiency and quality of service delivery. Home Quest knows what the average buyer wants in their manufactured home. They understand what makes such property sell or how sellers can add value to their property before trading it for cash. Therefore, they are a significant resource to mobile home sellers and buyers.
Aside from their extensive knowledge about the market, Home Quest makes free home evaluations to give sellers an estimation of their property worth. The information is essential for sellers to make needed improvements and increase their property’s demand in the market. Home Quest also provides valuable recommendations to sellers to increase their profit margins.
Additionally, Home Quest’s involvement enables buyers to get quality mobile homes that they can enjoy for years. The quality of their listings increases consumer trust. Therefore, sellers have a higher probability of finding a buyer for their property when they partner with Home Quest.
If you are selling your manufactured home in Califonia and want to work with a certified agent, give Home Quest a call at (866) 720 2207. You can also visit their web page (https://homequestsales.com/) and engage with a mobile home sales specialist directly.
Glennies Thomas, author of the new release Where Do You Poop? And What Do You Eat? was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Much later, she lived in New Jersey and later moved back to New York, where she currently lives. She is a certified paraprofessional, a member of the NYC Board of Education, and an alumnus of FIT, the University of Technologys Fashion Institute. Where her career and professional skills blossomed as an accessory designer; designs and manufactures bags, shoes and sneakers, but she originally started as an entrepreneur; swimwear designer.
She has volunteered in reading to children, community services, and participating in walks for Muscular Sclerosis, March of Dimes; Birth Defects, Zero Prostate Cancer, and last but not least, Susan G. Komen: Breast Cancer.
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