(Today we announced an exciting new rewards program for buyers of Xerox Genuine Supplies. The press release follows.)

ROCHESTER, N.Y., April 8, 2013 – Buying supplies just got a lot more fun with Xerox’s new loyalty program which lets customers redeem points for gift cards, downloadable music, movies, books, Xerox equipment and more.

Genuine Xerox Rewards, with more than three million items to choose from, is the first of its kind for this industry. Beyond the opportunity to enjoy the program’s unique rewards package, using genuine Xerox supplies is a smart business decision, as it protects the equipment and ensures years of reliable operation and quality output. The program also validates the authenticity of the products, letting customers know they are purchasing genuine supplies, not counterfeit items.

The program rewards customers using authentic Xerox solid ink and toner products for their desktop single and multifunction printers. Customers immediately earn 1,000 points for enrolling in the program, one point for every dollar spent on Xerox supplies and an additional 100 points for each eligible device registered.

Recognizing the different supply needs and purchasing requirements of customers, Genuine Xerox Rewards offers the following:

• Points can be accumulated no matter where supplies are purchased, including Xerox partners, resellers, retail stores or eCommerce websites.
• Incentives can be redeemed with even small point balances.
• Rewards can be directed as gifts to family and friends or as charitable donations.
• Extra points can be garnered when customers participate in other activities on the rewards website.
• Points do not expire as long as users remain active in the program.

For more information on Genuine Xerox Rewards, visit www.xerox.com/rewards.

By Conrad Mills, Services Line Marketing Manager, Large Enterprise Operations, Xerox Europe

Conrad is a Gartner Symposium veteran and keen amateur triathlete in his spare time, you can follow him on Twitter @conradmills

With just under two months to go, IT professionals right across the globe are busy polishing their presentations, massaging their networking muscles and sharpening their selling skills, all for this year’s much anticipated Gartner Symposium taking place 5 – 8 November in Barcelona. Typically attended by over 4,000 people including more than 1,500 CIOs, this is the event to be at on the European Technology circuit. This year’s agenda offers 350 plus analyst sessions, workshops, roundtables and mastermind keynotes across four full days. So to ensure you get the most out of this event, I have compiled ten top tips for first time visitors to help you be prepared:

1. Book your hotel well in advance. Check out Gartner’s recommended hotels and book now, otherwise you may end up having to stay out of town.
2. Event objectives. Work out what you want to achieve out of this Symposium. With over 100 show exhibitors and a plethora of sessions, there’s a lot to get round in four days.
3. Preparation is vital; book your sessions in advance to avoid disappointment.
4. Remember if you forget anything, there’s a large shopping complex nearby. Visit the Diagonal Mar which is just opposite the Symposium venue Centre Convencions Internacional for all your last minute items. I actually forgot my cuff links last year!
5. Ensure that you have the right shoes. Ladies take note; so many times I have seen event shoe injuries afflicted by killer heels.
6. Pace yourself – Don’t drink too much at the various soirees. It’s not Fresher’s Week and we’re not 21 anymore. However do remember beroccas and alka seltzers just in case.
7. Applications for printing. If you’ve forgotten to print your presentation handouts or meeting documents don’t worry as Xerox will be providing mobile print at the event for all attendees.
8. Restaurant research. For off-piste evenings, book ahead. Barcelona has some of the best restaurants in Europe, but they do get booked up. This guide gives some good tips. My personal favourite is Passadís del Pep, there’s no menu but they have a great range of fresh seafood dishes.
9. Elocution lessons. Take a few classes to learn some useful Spanish phrases to help you feel at home in Barcelona. And remember, beer is cerveza in Spanish.
10. Don’t forget to arm yourself with intelligent and challenging questions when meeting peers and prospects – especially managed print providers. But that’s another blog post so watch this space….

What are your top tips for attending events and trade shows? How do you make the most of them? We’d be more than happy to extend our list. Please share your ideas in our comments section below – we’d love to hear them.

By Carolyn Dolezal, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive, Technology Industry Practice SmithBucklin

We are entering a new era, which requires us to refine our ice-breaker questions.  Many of us have developed a go-to list of ice-breaker questions when attending networking events, conferences, cocktail parties, and holiday gatherings.  These questions allow us to cast a broad enough conversational net so we can snag a response and start a dialogue.

At a recent Dreaming Session discussing the future of work, I overheard just such a discussion.  The question asked of a millennial attendee was “where do you work?”

Even five years ago, that question used to generate a fairly standard response such as “I work for (Name of Company) in their (Location) office as a (Title).”  In a traditional work arrangement, there is a specific place that’s considered “the workplace.”  There is an office building with a specific work area designated for the employee, and most members of the team are co-located in the area where the work gets done.

In the ice-breaker session I observed, when asked, “Where do you work?” the respondent paused for a second before replying.  He is an entrepreneur with his team of three scattered across two continents.  His colleagues are friends from college and they continue to work together on emerging technologies.  He responded to the question in terms of his local (home) office, then quickly shifted to enthusiastically describing their current major project.

In today’s world of work, we see more distributed teams who “meet” in virtual conference rooms, hosting conference calls spanning multiple time zones.  Employees may come to the physical office on designated days to an assigned office, or share hoteling work space.  Employees telecommute; working from a home office, from a variety of destinations on the road, or perhaps in shared office space at a supplier or customer location because that proximity is important to get work done.

Some participants in the Dreaming Session indicated they preferred the office setting, because of the more comfortable environment, better infrastructure and information access, and opportunity to meet with colleagues without the distractions and interruptions experienced in other (home) settings. Other participants had a strong preference for a virtual office because the nature of their work, the location of their team members and travel schedules required a fluid environment.  “I am the workplace” said one participant, reflecting the true nature of how his knowledge work gets done.

The Dreaming Session was an eye-opener.  It encouraged broad thinking on the topic of “where do you work?” to include “how do you want to work?”  What does that answer look like for you?

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The content shared in this blog post is the author’s opinion and does not necessarily reflect the views of Xerox. Carolyn Dolezal is Executive Vice President and Chief Executive, Technology Industry Practice and participated in the Xerox Future of Work Dreaming Session in June 2012.

By Breanna Banford, Social Marketing Specialist, Xerox Enterprise Business Group

Recently, I attended a Citrix webinar presented by Charlene Li, founder of Altimeter Group and coauthor of Groundswell, discussing The Future of Work: A Social and Mobile Revolution. One of the things that struck me during the presentation was Li’s explanation of gamification in business. She explained how social dynamics and social recognition drive behavior change. People want to be noticed for their efforts by their peers and executives. By integrating rewards, benefits, recognition, competition and fun into employee programs or tools, gamification works as a mechanism to motivate employee behavior and collaboration.

Prior to the webinar, I read a few articles about gamification’s emergence into the market for various industries, but Li’s discussion hit home for me and I thought, “Wow, this could be a game changer.” For instance, Gartner said by 2015, more than 50% of organizations that manage innovation processes will gamify those processes. It made me wonder, will gamification be the next big thing to shake up the workplace?

The topic was woven into a recent Xerox Dreaming Session discussion about the ideal workplace. There was a debate over the pros and cons of gamification in the enterprise. The millennials and emerging leaders believed it offered new opportunities to engage colleagues, ignite recognition for work well done and inspire new projects with the core of its benefit being personalization. On the other hand, one of the social scientists in the group described it as behavior modification similar to “Pavlov’s dog” psychology experiment. Some of the seasoned technologists and executives said it would standardize our processes and limit creativity as we try to reach a goal set by a program.

Clearly, the jury is still out on gamification. How will it fit into the ideal workplace? Can we bring the best aspects forward to match the perceptions of the different generations working together?

Both parties agreed that we need to build an infrastructure with tools that let us work how and where we need to – we should be better than we are at the routine things. Still, there is a fear that the technology that exists is broken or ineffective. I think if organizations implement gamification appropriately focusing on team building or if we’re able to make our technology “smarter” it will have a positive impact on the future of employee collaboration.

Would you like to see elements of gamification added to your job? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

By Kate Dobbertin, Communication & Collaboration Project Manager, Xerox Corporate Communications

At the end of June, I had the pleasure of attending the Future of Work Dreaming Session, which explored different perceptions of the ideal workplace and the future of work. Here is my summary of the conversation that took place in my group’s discussion.

“You’re looking at it all wrong.  I am the workplace,” said Steve Hoover, CEO of PARC, moments after arriving at the Future of Work dreaming session.  He had missed the 15-minute introduction and explanation of the task at hand, but it wasn’t important.  Everything he needed to know was staring at him from the giant white board with four headings:  Home, Travel, Remote Office, and Main Office.  “It doesn’t matter where I am; my work is always with me,” Steve said, tapping his smart phone.

The intent of the workshop was to examine the challenges of “Today’s Worker,” then to propose solutions to said challenges.  The fairly obvious assumption was that most of these challenges would focus around tools:  email, voicemail, and various other technologies needing improvement or invention.  But Steve (along with the rest of his team) had a different idea.  “We talked about the tool problems, but we assumed they’d be fixed within the next ten years.  So we moved on,” explained Nicole Heinsler, who works in New Business Development at Xerox.

Instead, the discussion revolved around a different set of pain-points. There were some age-old complaints – such as the desire for meaningful work and a workplace that encourages a sense of enchantment – but there was another idea that was brand new to me. In an always-on workplace, group members were tired – not of answering email at 6am, 11pm, and on vacation, but of living a double life.

These contributors are not your average employees – they are the super-engaged, the mythical women and men who wake up psyched to go into work.  They fully embrace the integration of work and life.   They passionately love work (crazy as it sounds, would you question an opera singer who blasts Mozart 24/7?), but they hate the mess it creates – files stored on multiple devices, pictures uploaded to different cloud repositories, and a list of social media profiles longer than your arm. Should I tweet about a concert I’m attending, or is this handle strictly professional?  Do I let colleagues Friend me on Facebook, or only Connect via LinkedIn?  Moreover – if I’m expected to pick up work at a moment’s notice, why can’t I take more of who I am into work?

And here’s where we wrap back to the tools.  They desire a tool that manages the total me – work and play.  One inbox, one calendar, one task list, and – for goodness’s sake – one login for everything.  Transition between work and life should be seamless.

Technology should do the legwork, translating data into wisdom.  Forget inbox rules, think in terms of Ironman’s Jarvis – a personal assistant in digital form.  “I read probably 5% of the email that hits my inbox every day,” said Alexander Manu, Senior Partner at Innospa International Partners. He wants his digital assistant to help him with time management by providing only relevant data, queuing notes he’ll read and meetings he’ll attend and ignoring the rest.  “It’s Siri for business, plus the intelligence of IBM’s Watson.”

Steve chuckled at this request.  “We’re already doing that at PARC.  It’s called contextual intelligence.”  He described a system that learns from user behavior and presents email in order of importance based on the amount of time it’s historically taken the owner to respond to that type of message.

The team drew up a list of seven principles, features, and functions that could help manage work and life on a continuum.  Glancing over the list, one stands out:  “Evolve the workplace with integrity.”  It seems there will always be business problems we can’t fix with technology.  We can’t help the unengaged employees who view the workplace as (at best) a necessary evil.  But we can have a much bigger impact on their all-star colleagues.  Perhaps those superstars at PARC can build the tools to blend work and life as seamlessly as answering your phone, “Hello, corporate sales, how may I help you?” or “Hey, Honey, I haven’t forgotten the milk, just finishing up a presentation on the way…”

By Breanna Banford, Social Marketing Specialist, Xerox Enterprise Business Group

First of all, what is Augmented Reality? Augmented reality (AR) is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It’s an extension of Virtual Reality. It “adds graphics, sounds, haptic feedback and smell to the natural world as it exists.” (How Stuff Works)

During the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival at the end of June, we decided to boost the festival experience by incorporating Augmented Reality as part of a physical scavenger hunt.

Jazz Fest attendees can follow clues to collect badges featuring 10 specific types of jazz, ranging from bebop and modern to soul and acid. Once they complete the collection, they stop into the Xerox House of Grooves to fill out a card to enter a drawing for cool prizes.

The experience didn’t stop there… Xerox also developed a free smartphone app for the tech-savvy music lover. Dubbed JazzFinder, it uses augmented reality to bring the Find Your Jazz game badges and posters to life. An overview of the genre, a full lineup of festival artists, concert times and more emerge from the printed artwork on your smartphone to enhance the festival experience. It’s just one way to take your smartphone and physical experience to the next level.

Personally, I loved the app and it was easy to scan the posters that were up all over the festival site. Once I found the types of jazz I wanted to listen to, I was able to easily locate the venue and preview some of the songs that fell into each of the 10 categories of jazz like fusion, swing and soul.

Clearly, this was a fun way to use augmented reality, but there are so many opportunities for practical applications in the real world. Since augmented reality intertwines the physical and digital world, how can it be used in other ways? Here are a few examples:

• Healthcare – doctors can use AR to better understand physical and  internal injuries or better diagnose diseases.
• Tourism – use AR to build on learning and experiencing new cities by integrating restaurant reviews, historical information about the local sites and better navigate through an unknown location.
  • Right now, you can download, Layar, an app for your smartphone that shows information about restaurants or other sites in the area, overlaying it on the phone’s screen.

How soon will we see this used in other ways – like digital integration with a physical newspaper? Will we only need a pair of glasses or “smart” content lenses to add this “digital sixth sense.” How do you see this technology as part of our future?

By Breanna Banford, Social Marketing Specialist, Xerox Enterprise Business Group

If you could have anything in the world real or imagined that would help improve or simplify your work, what would it be?

As a matter of fact, today, you have the chance to tell us! A group of “great minds” are gathering at Xerox Rochester International Jazz Fest to discuss the future of work. You can be a part of the conversation virtually as I’ll be live tweeting the session highlights.

What?

• Xerox Rochester International Jazz Fest Dreaming Session
• An intimate gathering of about 20 attendees to discuss the choices and demands that are changing our daily work lives and how all of us use and exchange information in all its forms.

Why?

• We would like to hear about what the participants are working on and how they see it having an impact on the future of work, and making work simpler. The group will explore the dynamics of a mobile work world, and discuss how together we could make the sharing of ideas and business information faster, simpler, and more secure.

Who?

• Representatives from major technology companies, members of Rochester Young Professionals, entrepreneurs and innovators, Rochester Institute of Technology students, Xerox executives
• A few notable attendees at the event include Bill Taylor, co-founder & editor of Fast Company (moderator); Angele Boyd, IDC (moderator); Steve Hoover, CEO of PARC; Greg Brown, CTO of Cloud and Data Center Solutions at McAfee
• …and you!

When?

• June 28^th, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. EST

Where?

• Follow @XeroxOffice, search hashtag #FutureofWork on Twitter and join the discussion.