The Amazing Beer Keg Christmas Tree Returns

The revision of four normative documents regulating the requirements for development and maintenance of Forest Stewardship Standards (FSS) is starting soon. We are looking for technical working group members to support the process; apply today! Applications are open until 24 May 2022. In March 2022, during the 91st BoD meeting, the FSC Board of Directors approved a full revision of the documents, based on the review report, and recommended the revision to be done through a technical working group. The four normative documents contain requirements for development and maintenance of Forest Stewardship Standards. The revision process endeavors to update these requirements to make them outcome oriented and user friendly.

LocaliQ, the Digital Marketing Solutions (DMS) business of Gannett Co., Inc. unveiled its next-generation conversational AI Voice Agent—a powerful new feature within Dash™ by LocaliQ. Dash is an AI-powered prospect and lead management software solution that helps businesses attract, engage, and convert potential customers through automated, intelligent conversations. This AI Voice Agent builds on the success of Dash’s AI-powered SMS agent—adding voice capabilities to create an innovative and seamless, omnichannel customer engagement experience. “AI-driven customer engagement is one of the fastest-growing frontiers in marketing,” said Bill Scanlon, General Manager of LocaliQ. “Every unanswered phone call represents not just lost revenue, but a missed relationship. By extending Dash from SMS to voice, we're giving businesses—from single-location shops to national brands— a straightforward way to turn every call into a live conversation that becomes a qualified lead, leading to scalable revenue growth.”

AI agents can analyze huge amounts of consumer data such as browsing history, purchase behavior, and social-media activity. The potential, especially for privacy concerns, could solve many of the challenges of online advertising. Google and Microsoft are working on their own individual AI agents, but there is no word on how the technology might support advertisers, brands and agencies. It is mostly speculation at this time. The technology would provide the ability to support real-time ad bidding, personalize messages and budget allocations while monitoring in real-time privacy settings based on state or country in which the ad targets the consumer.