After spending a long four-and-a-half years getting my Business Marketing degree from the University of Montana, I am preparing to graduate this December. Just like most last semester seniors, I am finding myself beginning to prepare to enter the work force. Considering myself extremely lucky among many of my fellow graduates, I have a concrete knowledge of what I want to spend the rest of my life doing and have been provided the opportunity to do this at my university. With that being said, my uses of technology have morphed and evolved since I entered college as a wide-eyed freshman. There have been several pieces of technology that I have used during my career here in Missoula. These, however, are the five that are making my transition into the “real world” as smooth as possible.

1. Applications—Oh the wonderful, crowded new world of apps! In fall 2010 if someone had told me that I could have had seven pages of my favorite games, websites, and music one thumbprint scan away, I would have been blown away. In the few short years that I have been using these square little helpers, they have changed radically. It has gone from using Candy Crush, Words With Friends, and Pinterest to keep me entertained in class to needing LinkedIn, The Wall Street Journal, and Dropbox to keep me on the same page as my peers and competitors.

2. Email—Gone are the days when I would be relaxing in the evening only to realize it had been two weeks since I checked my inbox. In the world today, people will respond to emails in a matter of minutes (if not seconds), making being away from your lifeline for more then a few hours unheard of and often unacceptable. At this point in my blended college/professional career, I am receiving messages from professors, bosses, classmates, my internship director, and, of course, IAVM updates on a daily basis. Four years ago, my email could be left for days and be just fine, while now it is the last thing I check before I go to bed and the first thing I look at when waking up.

3. Online Banking—It did not take long for me to realize that a plastic debit card does not make it fake, plastic money. At the age of 18, living in the dorms with a meal plan, rent, and groceries were a non-factor in my life. This quickly changed as I moved off campus and toward becoming an “adult.” Soon my life was filled with pay periods, time cards, electric bills, and takeout transactions. Online baking makes it easy to not only manage my account balances, but track spending and even deposit checks from home. When you’re going to school full time, working, and doing an internship like I am, these little conveniences are truly life changing.

4. “The Cloud”—This mythical land that holds my research papers, marketing plans, music, and photos has followed me over to my job in the venue management industry. This file storage makes sharing documents—such as spreadsheets, waiting lists, and event information sheets—available to all different departments within our multipurpose venue. This makes forgetting to CC necessary personnel on an attached email a much smaller crisis then it has in the past.

5. Smartphones—Or what I like to call the “Queen Bee.” I sheepishly will admit that this five-inch, four-ounce plastic and metal piece of technology runs my life, much more than it should. Not only does it hold the power to run all of the before mentioned items, but it also keeps me in touch with my family and friends through calling, texting, and a plethora of social media. Without my smartphone, I could not keep track of all the details of my crazy schedule such as class, group meetings, work shifts, and other events. These little pieces of heaven make our worlds spin round.

What technologies are helping you in the “real world”? Please let me know in the comments.

(photo credit: Matthew Clark Photography & Design via photopin cc)

The first Stage Management Day took place last year on October 10. It’s being held again this year on the same day, but renamed the International Stage Management Day due to its popularity worldwide.

“Last year, as it turned out, Stage Management Day captured the imagination of people right across the world,” Andy Rowley, executive director of the Stage Management Association, told The Stage. “We traced Stage Management Day from New Zealand all the way across Australia, through Europe, the U.K. of course, and all the way across the U.S.A.”

The day celebrates all the work that stage managers do. Celebration examples from last year include letting stage managers take over Twitter feeds, food prepared for them by casts, and mentions in performance programs.

“It seems to be a chance to network and celebrate all the backstage really,” Rowley told The Stage. “Stage managers are such a lynchpin backstage that they could hardly do it without all their colleagues—so it’s becoming more of a celebration backstage full stop.”

What are you doing to celebrate your stage managers on October 10? Please let us know in the comments.

(photo credit: Loungedown via photopin cc)

An interesting study just came out of Vanderbilt University that addresses women in business negotiations.

“We found that men and women alike were targeting women with more deception than men,” said Jessica Kennedy, an assistant professor of management at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management and co-author of the study. “It was interesting that men and women alike tried to deceive women in negotiations.”

Please watch the video above, in which Kennedy talks about the study and why women face negative experiences during negotiations.

It’s October. Do you know where your vacation days are?

According to Skift’s latest travel habits survey, almost 51 percent of U.S. workers say they haven’t taken a single vacation day in 2014 so far.

“About 15 percent of Americans say they have taken more than 10 vacation days this year, while the rest is split between those who took fewer than 5, and those who took between 5-10 vacation days this year,” Rafat Ali reported.

The survey of 1,008 participants also found that women and lower-income Americans take the least amount of vacations.

“More American women than men have taken no vacation days this year,” Ali reported. “On the other hand, more men have taken more than 10 vacation days in the U.S. this year than women.”

Check out the Skift report to learn more results, and if you haven’t schedule a vacation yet, get to it. They’re great for your health, mental and physical.

(Image: Skift)

Hear me now and believe me later: you can give your memory a lift by lifting weights. So says a Georgia Institute of Technology study released this week that shows working out for as little as 20 minutes can improve a person’s long-term memory.

“Our study indicates that people don’t have to dedicate large amounts of time to give their brain a boost,” said Lisa Weinberg, a Georgia Tech graduate student who led the project.

Previous research has shown how aerobic exercise can improve memory. This study took a new approach. Participants lifted weights just once two days before being tested, and the researchers had the participants answer questions before a workout rather than after one. And even though weight lifting was used, Weinberg said that other resistance activities (e.g., knee bends) may produce the same results.

The reason lifting weights helps improve memory is due to acute stress responses, the researchers suggest.

“Even without doing expensive fMRI scans, our results give us an idea of what areas of the brain might be supporting these exercise-induced memory benefits,” said Audrey Duarte, an associate professor in the School of Psychology at Georgia Tech. “The findings are encouraging because they are consistent with rodent literature that pinpoints exactly the parts of the brain that play a role in stress-induced memory benefits caused by exercise.”

Watch Weinberg explain the study and its results in the video below, and then hit the gym.

(Image: Saturday Night Live/NBC)