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United EVENTures

Together We Will
TGIF: Get the Most out of Your Friday by Preparing for Monday
 TGIF: Get the Most out of Your Friday by Preparing for Monday 575 340 MPatton
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Fridays in the office are basically dedicated to staring at the clock, making excuses to get coffee, and ducking your supervisor lest they give you a project that makes you stay past 5:30. But the clock watching coffee marathon on Friday can lead to an overloaded and chaotic Monday.

There is a solution to your conundrum: work. I know the concept of actually accomplishing something on a Friday is a little on the radical side but hear me out. Using your Friday to get ready for Monday, you’ll be more prepared and less swamped Monday morning. Clear these small tasks off your desk and they’ll add up for an easier week.

weekend-1756858__340Clear out your inbox and voicemail. Catch up on all your emails and voice mails. Use your clock watching time to follow-up with coworkers, clients, and customers. Don’t start a long email convo back and forth – just be short, sweet, and to the point so you don’t end up with extra stuff to add to the pile. Finishing up your communication for the week means no surprises on Monday morning and no weekend texts or phone calls.

Prep for meetings. One of the companies I used to work for loved Monday morning meetings. Sometimes the meetings were productive and sometimes we all took turns bumbling around and shuffling papers to hide that we were unprepared. If your Mondays and Tuesdays are booked with meetings, carve some time out of the day on Friday to get prepped; make info packets, tweak your power point, double-check your reports. Prepping on Friday means you’ll have a few extra minutes to stagger around on Monday morning and shake off that zombie feeling before you hit the conference room.

Don’t dive in to any big projects. If you have a presentation or a big project coming up, leave that for the middle of the week. Starting something big just before the weekend can throw you off when you come back to it two days later. Odds are, you’re not planning to take the work home with you over the weekend. If you have a big project, don’t just jump in with both feet at 10am on a Friday. Break the project down into small sections, do some outlining and a little bit of research so you have something to show if your supervisor wants an update.

Make a donut run. Seriously, make a donut run. You’ve cleared out your inbox, got your Monday prep ready and you’ve got a good handle on that next big project. Take your fifteen and go off site and bring back some glucose encouragement for the rest of the team.

Not every Friday is created equally and, of course, you’ll probably have days where you’re so busy you don’t notice the day fly by or days when the clock never moves forward. Keeping your Friday lightly busy and organized will help you at 8am on Monday.

things to do, jersey, weekend, getaway, activities, camping, flea market, lambertville, new hope, princeton
Spotlight on the Sunlight: Jobs that get you Outdoors
 Spotlight on the Sunlight: Jobs that get you Outdoors 960 635 MPatton
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One of my first real jobs out of college had me sitting in a cubicle (yes, the dreaded cubicle) facing a wall that was painted a bright, cheerful yellow. The sunny yellow of the wall didn’t do much to mitigate the fact that I wasn’t  seeing actual sunlight.

If that weekend itch to get out into nature, go hiking, kayaking, or just hang out with friends around a bonfire starts to become a week-long sting, a career in the great outdoors may be calling you. A lot of outdoor careers are in the sciences or recreation but you don’t have to be field botanist or a survival expert to find a career that incorporates the outdoors and your interests.

Sports Instructors:

Ski and snowboard instructors usually work in the hospitality industry or for a sports complex or training center. Instructor roles tend to rely more on history and experience than educational background. Ski and snowboard instructors generally also assist with trail maintenance and ski patrol and instruct people at all levels of ability. IMG_0135Instructors will need a good skill level and a working knowledge of gear, environment, and terrain, as well as weather patterns.

Gardening:

Gardening, landscaping, and running a nursery or greenhouse can get the sun on your back and the dirt under your fingernails. If you’re interested in running your own small business, this could be the opportunity you’re looking for. Owning and operating a landscaping company or a nursery gives a people person with a natural sales talent the opportunity to work outside, be creative, and work with people.

Nature Guides:

If hiking, trekking, and camping is your thing look into being an outdoor or recreational guide. Outdoor guides may require certification in certain areas like white water rafting and wilderness first aid. Nature guides work in a myriad of businesses: hospitality, travel, scouting, summer camps and with corporate outing ventures, much like United Eventures, to get groups of people from all walks of life engaged in outdoor activities.

Photography:bonfire

Nature and art are closely entwined. Nature and wildlife photography can take you outside in a variety of landscapes and environments. Photography can be a dynamic and adventurous complimentary career; it’s not uncommon for guides and sports instructors to use body cameras to capture film and stills of their stunts, guide trips, and treks for promotional purposes. If you’re more of a people person, wedding and family photography can give you the opportunity to see new and interesting locations while helping families create memories to last a lifetime.

Environmental Impact:

Working in the green industry can take you outside for a cause. Surveying, forestry, and Ranger positions can keep you poised to make an environmental impact. A career in forestry allows you to help manage and clear forests in a sustainable and restorative way and promotes conservation, restoration, and stewardship of public and private lands. Some jobs in forestry require a Bachelor’s Degree or two-year certification. Some ranger positions require a background in law enforcement while others are geared towards educating the public on things like wildlife, outdoor safety, and environmental impact.

Better than a sun lamp.

Better than a sun lamp.

Volunteer!

Not everybody can just ditch their day job and run off into the sunset after going all Office Space on the fax machine. Find a project or nonprofit agency that gets you outdoors and giving back. Volunteer for a team clean of your local park, or assist with trail maintenance on popular local hiking trails. If you’re interested in finding volunteer opportunities by you, check out VolunteerMatch or with your state or local parks and recreation department for what volunteer opportunities are available.

 

If the mountains are calling and that sunlamp on your desk isn’t doing you any favors, get out there. The world is waiting.

United EVENTures: Who We Are
 United EVENTures: Who We Are 1024 791 MPatton
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What comes to mind when your boss says “team building seminar”? A few hours of bad conference center coffee, speed cup stacking, some easy trivia games, and role playing. Does that sound about right?

Let’s be honest: As an employer, keeping your employees engaged, connected, and feeling valued is vitally important. Connection and worth are at the very heart of what keeps employees engaged individually and as a team. Team building matters and not all team building programs are created equally. Creating great memories as a company can help boost team efficacy, company positivity, and ultimately, productivity.

United EVENTures, LLC is a full-service event planning company specializing in team building adventures, entertainment and conference services, as well as planning for all of your special occasions. Whether you are organizing a retreat to strengthen team skills or need help finding a venue or entertainment for a family reunion or party, we are here to take care of all the logistics and delivery.

We pride ourselves in excellence and creating experiences that are memorable, impactful, and engaging. There is no group too small, too large or destination too far that we cannot accommodate. We’re dedicated to creating a positive and memorable experience that goes beyond the basic reputations of team building seminars, group activities, or parties – our goal is to create memorable experiences that last a lifetime.

Work obstacles are never this fun.

Work obstacles are never this fun.

 

A little about our mission and services:

We are willing to travel to you! It’s a common question and our answer is always, of course, we travel.

We can tailor the program to fit your needs. At United EVENTures, you’re working with experienced staff and facilitators with backgrounds in event planning, group leadership, and experiential recreation to help you achieve your goals. Need to work on communication and transparency? Try our Geo Trekking program or a scavenger hunt that incorporates trivia, problem-solving, and information sharing for a successful and fun outing that promotes clear and productive communication. Want to get everybody out from behind their desks and blowing off steam? Knockerballs, water wars, or our obstacle course will get you up and create memories to share around the water cooler.

We give back. Every event we host or coordinate, a portion of those proceeds goes to Tackle Kids Cancer, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending childhood cancer and providing support and resources to children and families dealing with pediatric illness. We are also partnered with other charities and would love to help you host a fundraising or awareness event.

Get moving and get productive!

Get moving and get productive!

Follow up with us next Monday, April 10th for an interview with UnitedEVENTures President, Will Leggett. Check back with us here at the UnitedEVentures Blog for more this week as we shine the Spotlight on Sunlight: Jobs That Take You Outdoors. Watch out for our weekly question on twitter at UnitedEventures.

 

 

While You Relax at Work Before this Three Day Weekend….
 While You Relax at Work Before this Three Day Weekend…. 1024 683 BRendine
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Here are some of our best pictures for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy your long weekend!

Summer, Labor Day Weekend, Labor Day, Party, End of summer
It’s the Unofficial End of Summer – Have Some Fun This Weekend!
 It’s the Unofficial End of Summer – Have Some Fun This Weekend! 1024 683 BRendine
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Here’s a small sampling of what is going on this weekend:

Friday, September 2 to Sunday, September 4 – The 45th Annual Delaware Valley Blue grass Festival – Find out more here!

Monday, September 5th – Bubba Gump Shrimp Festival – Head on down to the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City for all the shrimp you can eat! Find out more here!

Thursday, September 1st and Friday, September 2 – Zoo-Flix After Dark at Van Saun – Take the kids over to Van Saun Park in Bergen County tonight or tomorrow night to watch some movies under the stars. Thursday is We Bought a Zoo and Friday is Jurassic World! Get directions here!

Saturday September 3rd from 11AM-9PM – Rock 4 Special Kids Summer Fest – 11 am to 9 pm – Benefit concert for our exceptional kids. Join us at the Sussex Elks Lodge for a day of music, food, fun, shopping, family, and friends, all for a great cause! Find out more here!

Help Us Name Our New Activity!
 Help Us Name Our New Activity! 1024 768 BRendine
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We recently had a brainstorming session and this was the result, but there is one problem – our brainstorming session ended before we had a name for this event. So we are turning to you for help!

The Event:

In this charity driven team building exercise, groups will be broken up into smaller teams with the goal of building a segment of a race  track which remote controlled cars will navigate as the final challenge. Each segment must match up to the other parts of the course, forcing teams to not only make their section challenging, but adding an element of collaboration amongst the competing teams. Teams will be using items that they will be donating after the event to build their race course. If you choose to work with a food pantry, then teams will use canned and boxed goods as their obstacles. Everything, even down to the remote control cars will be donated at the end of this event. Once the teams have completed their section of the course, they will then challenge their co-workers to a race through the course using remote controlled cars. This fun and engaging activity blends teamwork, competition and giving back to the local community – all while making your team bond stronger.

The Name: ?

Leave your suggestions below….

Why the Ball Costs 5 cents…
 Why the Ball Costs 5 cents… 1024 550 BRendine
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The ball costs 5 cents. If a bat and a ball together cost $1.10 and the bat is $1 more than the ball, then $1.05 plus $0.05 is $1.10. I was reading the book, Thinking Fast and Slow, where Daniel Kahneman explains that there are two systems to the brain. There is the fast thinking side of the brain, which relies on past experiences to give you the quick responses, like what is 1 plus 1 – you don’t have to use energy to get an answer. Then there is the slow side of the brain, which needs to work its way through a problem. The downside of the slow side of the brain is that it uses energy and wants to rely on the fast side of the brain. So it will default to reason if we do not sit down and force ourselves to think though a seemingly simple problem. Take our bat and ball question for example – this question is designed to see how lazy your brain is. A brain that heavily relies on the fast thinking side of the brain, will say 10 cents… $1.10 minus the dollar for the bat is 10 cents; however, the fact checking, slow thinking side of the brain, if given the chance to think it through, will stop us in our tracks and say “Wait a second, a dollar more than 10 cents is $1.10 but then we need to add those numbers together since we are buying BOTH the bat and the ball, which would total $1.20 and not the $1.10 total we were given.

It’s a good read…

Pathways

Bat and Ball Trivia Question – Warning, This May Make You Crazy
 Bat and Ball Trivia Question – Warning, This May Make You Crazy 275 183 BRendine
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Here is a trivia question that we often use in our Adventure Quests! You will want to check back later for the answer and explanation…

A bat and a ball together cost $1.10. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?

link roundup, links, great articles, read, reading, articles to read
Link Roundup – Some Useful Links from Around the Web
 Link Roundup – Some Useful Links from Around the Web 1024 681 BRendine
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Need a Catchy Subject Line for Your Email? 10 Cool Ideas You Can Use

I was on Reddit the other day when this post caught my eye. How many times do you send an email to then call then person and say “Did you get my email?” Well here comes help! Take a look at this article to get the subject lines that will not only catch the recipient’s attention but also give them an incentive to open that email.

http://blog.bizzy.io/need-a-catchy-subject-line-for-email-10-cool-ideas-you-can-use/

 
The 5 Second Test

You have 5 seconds to capture a visitor to your website. Does your website stand up to the challenge?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/4y36hy/your_site_has_5_seconds_to_capture_a_visitors/

 

How to Grow Your Business Through Social Media

I was reading some articles the other day and came across this thread. It is a list of all the free tools out there to help you manage your social media outlets. Take a look, there are some really good comments in here..

https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/4ww3v4/how_to_grow_your_small_business_through_social/

 

6 Ways to Integrate Social Media and Influencer Marketing 

Ok, I’ll admit it, I went a little heavy with social media this week, but here is another great article about social media and different ways to leverage your marketing outlets.

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/6-ways-integrate-social-media-and-influencer-marketing

wine glass, wine festival, nj, what to do, nj events, events in nj, new jersey, new jersey events
What’s Going on in NJ? – an Open Forum!
 What’s Going on in NJ? – an Open Forum! 1024 1024 BRendine
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It’s that time of the week again, work week is winding down and we are all getting restless thinking of our weekend adventures. Here are a couple that I found while scouring the internet, if you know of some others, leave a comment below!

Thursday, August 25th – The last day of Hot Halloween at Jenkinson’s. Head on down to the boardwalk to enjoy some Halloween games, activities and some trick or treating a few months early.

Thursday, August 25th 5PM -8PM – Head on over to Hoboken for their Spaghetti Dinner Block Party! Find out more!

Friday, August 26th to Sunday the 28th at the Wildwoods Convention Center is the 2016 Sports Card, Toy, Comic and Collectibles Show. “Featuring over 125 tables of the hottest collectibles on the planet! Sports cards – old and new – sets, autographed memorobilia, posters, supplies, toys, coins, beanie babies, comics, jerseys, videos and much more!” Find out more!

Saturday, August 27th from noon to 9:30PM – Long Branch Jazz and Blues Festival. There will be music, crafts, kids activities and a lot of sun on the beach. Find out more!

August 27th and 28th – “WINE DOWN SUMMER AT RIVERWINDS COMMUNITY CENTER ON AUGUST 27 & 28, 2016 IN WEST DEPTFORD, NJ. Featuring the best of the Garden States wineries, fabulous live bands, unique artisan crafters and delicious food. Bring your family and friends to this end of summer bash.” Find out more!

Sunday, August 28th at noon – “The 2016 Grapestomping Festival offers guests free admission! Come out and celebrate the end of Summer with featured vendors and crafters from all over South Jersey! Stomp grapes for just $5! Enjoy delicious snacks and meals prepared by our head chef and drinks from our cash bars! You don’t want to miss out on the end of summer celebration!” Find out more!