SEMA News - June 2009
Inside SEMA

SEMA Vice President of Administration

SEMA News: Can you briefly explain your role and the role of your department at SEMA?

Linda Czarkowski: The administration department’s focus is primarily on the internal operations of the association. Every program or service offered by SEMA will come through or affect this department at some time, in some fashion. The department consists of the executive office, accounting, budgeting, finance, insurance, human resources, benefits, equipment, the mail room and facilities maintenance. I am the liaison to the audit review, budget review and investment committees as well as the internal safety committee, and I participate on various internal cross-functional teams.

SN: What are some of the programs and initiatives you and your staff are working on?

LC: We have been working for some time on the implementation of NetForum, an Internet-based management system. We will be going live with this system for our membership billing in June. Once fully implemented, the system will allow new members to complete their applications and pay for their memberships online. In addition, current members will be able to manage and update their membership information online.

We are also working with the SEMA Educational Institute (SEI), developing procedures to include management of agreements as well as online payment processing and making sure that we have the appropriate insurance coverage.

Internally, this is the time of year when we review all of our insurance policies, ensuring that we have appropriate coverage at the best available price. We also are diligently working on developing our annual budget for fiscal-year 2010. Additionally, we are looking at our own practices to see where we can implement new or improved ones to find cost-saving opportunities or eliminate waste.

SN: What advice can you give to member companies that are dealing with the challenging economy?

LC: I would advise member companies to focus on relationships. Relationships with their banks can be very beneficial. Make sure that you are in a bank that caters to the size of your company. There are several banks that cater to the needs of small- to midsize companies, providing a more personal touch. I would also advise companies to look at the services their banks offer. For example, is it cost effective to take advantage of an eDeposit system? With this system, you scan the checks in your own office and get same-day credit to your account. It’s a great opportunity to increase your cash flow.

Additionally, pay attention to your merchant statement if you are a credit-card merchant. There are often erroneous charges to these accounts.

There are service providers that will analyze your merchant statements on a monthly basis, working with your credit-card processor to correct errors. These service providers typically charge a 50% fee on any savings that they find, and their agreements are usually for a period of two years. SEMA utilized this service over the past two years and recovered several thousand dollars in erroneous charges. These companies will also assist you in negotiating with your credit-card processor.

If you are having cash-flow problems, keep the lines of communication open with your creditors. Many times, you may find that they are open to offering special payment terms. This is beneficial to both parties involved. It is SEMA’s experience that it is better to have a company on a payment plan rather than having to send that company to collections.

SN: What do you see as the greatest opportunities the association offers its members?

LC: SEMA offers members a variety of programs and services, from market research to our efforts on regulatory activity as well as the opportunity to get involved. I think involvement is one of the greatest opportunities we can offer. For younger people in the industry, the Young Executives Network (YEN) is a great opportunity to network and become involved with your peers. SEMA also has two political action committees (PAC)—a federal and a California state PAC. Get involved with the PACs to help SEMA promote the causes of the industry to both state and congressional leaders. Involvement in any capacity with any SEMA program could mean a nomination and election to the SEMA Board of Directors. What better place to have your voice heard and have a hand in molding the future of the association?

SEMA News - June 2009
Inside SEMA

SEMA Vice President of Administration

SEMA News: Can you briefly explain your role and the role of your department at SEMA?

Linda Czarkowski: The administration department’s focus is primarily on the internal operations of the association. Every program or service offered by SEMA will come through or affect this department at some time, in some fashion. The department consists of the executive office, accounting, budgeting, finance, insurance, human resources, benefits, equipment, the mail room and facilities maintenance. I am the liaison to the audit review, budget review and investment committees as well as the internal safety committee, and I participate on various internal cross-functional teams.

SN: What are some of the programs and initiatives you and your staff are working on?

LC: We have been working for some time on the implementation of NetForum, an Internet-based management system. We will be going live with this system for our membership billing in June. Once fully implemented, the system will allow new members to complete their applications and pay for their memberships online. In addition, current members will be able to manage and update their membership information online.

We are also working with the SEMA Educational Institute (SEI), developing procedures to include management of agreements as well as online payment processing and making sure that we have the appropriate insurance coverage.

Internally, this is the time of year when we review all of our insurance policies, ensuring that we have appropriate coverage at the best available price. We also are diligently working on developing our annual budget for fiscal-year 2010. Additionally, we are looking at our own practices to see where we can implement new or improved ones to find cost-saving opportunities or eliminate waste.

SN: What advice can you give to member companies that are dealing with the challenging economy?

LC: I would advise member companies to focus on relationships. Relationships with their banks can be very beneficial. Make sure that you are in a bank that caters to the size of your company. There are several banks that cater to the needs of small- to midsize companies, providing a more personal touch. I would also advise companies to look at the services their banks offer. For example, is it cost effective to take advantage of an eDeposit system? With this system, you scan the checks in your own office and get same-day credit to your account. It’s a great opportunity to increase your cash flow.

Additionally, pay attention to your merchant statement if you are a credit-card merchant. There are often erroneous charges to these accounts.

There are service providers that will analyze your merchant statements on a monthly basis, working with your credit-card processor to correct errors. These service providers typically charge a 50% fee on any savings that they find, and their agreements are usually for a period of two years. SEMA utilized this service over the past two years and recovered several thousand dollars in erroneous charges. These companies will also assist you in negotiating with your credit-card processor.

If you are having cash-flow problems, keep the lines of communication open with your creditors. Many times, you may find that they are open to offering special payment terms. This is beneficial to both parties involved. It is SEMA’s experience that it is better to have a company on a payment plan rather than having to send that company to collections.

SN: What do you see as the greatest opportunities the association offers its members?

LC: SEMA offers members a variety of programs and services, from market research to our efforts on regulatory activity as well as the opportunity to get involved. I think involvement is one of the greatest opportunities we can offer. For younger people in the industry, the Young Executives Network (YEN) is a great opportunity to network and become involved with your peers. SEMA also has two political action committees (PAC)—a federal and a California state PAC. Get involved with the PACs to help SEMA promote the causes of the industry to both state and congressional leaders. Involvement in any capacity with any SEMA program could mean a nomination and election to the SEMA Board of Directors. What better place to have your voice heard and have a hand in molding the future of the association?

SEMA News - June 2009
Inside SEMA

SEMA Vice President of Administration

SEMA News: Can you briefly explain your role and the role of your department at SEMA?

Linda Czarkowski: The administration department’s focus is primarily on the internal operations of the association. Every program or service offered by SEMA will come through or affect this department at some time, in some fashion. The department consists of the executive office, accounting, budgeting, finance, insurance, human resources, benefits, equipment, the mail room and facilities maintenance. I am the liaison to the audit review, budget review and investment committees as well as the internal safety committee, and I participate on various internal cross-functional teams.

SN: What are some of the programs and initiatives you and your staff are working on?

LC: We have been working for some time on the implementation of NetForum, an Internet-based management system. We will be going live with this system for our membership billing in June. Once fully implemented, the system will allow new members to complete their applications and pay for their memberships online. In addition, current members will be able to manage and update their membership information online.

We are also working with the SEMA Educational Institute (SEI), developing procedures to include management of agreements as well as online payment processing and making sure that we have the appropriate insurance coverage.

Internally, this is the time of year when we review all of our insurance policies, ensuring that we have appropriate coverage at the best available price. We also are diligently working on developing our annual budget for fiscal-year 2010. Additionally, we are looking at our own practices to see where we can implement new or improved ones to find cost-saving opportunities or eliminate waste.

SN: What advice can you give to member companies that are dealing with the challenging economy?

LC: I would advise member companies to focus on relationships. Relationships with their banks can be very beneficial. Make sure that you are in a bank that caters to the size of your company. There are several banks that cater to the needs of small- to midsize companies, providing a more personal touch. I would also advise companies to look at the services their banks offer. For example, is it cost effective to take advantage of an eDeposit system? With this system, you scan the checks in your own office and get same-day credit to your account. It’s a great opportunity to increase your cash flow.

Additionally, pay attention to your merchant statement if you are a credit-card merchant. There are often erroneous charges to these accounts.

There are service providers that will analyze your merchant statements on a monthly basis, working with your credit-card processor to correct errors. These service providers typically charge a 50% fee on any savings that they find, and their agreements are usually for a period of two years. SEMA utilized this service over the past two years and recovered several thousand dollars in erroneous charges. These companies will also assist you in negotiating with your credit-card processor.

If you are having cash-flow problems, keep the lines of communication open with your creditors. Many times, you may find that they are open to offering special payment terms. This is beneficial to both parties involved. It is SEMA’s experience that it is better to have a company on a payment plan rather than having to send that company to collections.

SN: What do you see as the greatest opportunities the association offers its members?

LC: SEMA offers members a variety of programs and services, from market research to our efforts on regulatory activity as well as the opportunity to get involved. I think involvement is one of the greatest opportunities we can offer. For younger people in the industry, the Young Executives Network (YEN) is a great opportunity to network and become involved with your peers. SEMA also has two political action committees (PAC)—a federal and a California state PAC. Get involved with the PACs to help SEMA promote the causes of the industry to both state and congressional leaders. Involvement in any capacity with any SEMA program could mean a nomination and election to the SEMA Board of Directors. What better place to have your voice heard and have a hand in molding the future of the association?

SEMA News - June 2009
Inside SEMA

SEMA Vice President of Administration

SEMA News: Can you briefly explain your role and the role of your department at SEMA?

Linda Czarkowski: The administration department’s focus is primarily on the internal operations of the association. Every program or service offered by SEMA will come through or affect this department at some time, in some fashion. The department consists of the executive office, accounting, budgeting, finance, insurance, human resources, benefits, equipment, the mail room and facilities maintenance. I am the liaison to the audit review, budget review and investment committees as well as the internal safety committee, and I participate on various internal cross-functional teams.

SN: What are some of the programs and initiatives you and your staff are working on?

LC: We have been working for some time on the implementation of NetForum, an Internet-based management system. We will be going live with this system for our membership billing in June. Once fully implemented, the system will allow new members to complete their applications and pay for their memberships online. In addition, current members will be able to manage and update their membership information online.

We are also working with the SEMA Educational Institute (SEI), developing procedures to include management of agreements as well as online payment processing and making sure that we have the appropriate insurance coverage.

Internally, this is the time of year when we review all of our insurance policies, ensuring that we have appropriate coverage at the best available price. We also are diligently working on developing our annual budget for fiscal-year 2010. Additionally, we are looking at our own practices to see where we can implement new or improved ones to find cost-saving opportunities or eliminate waste.

SN: What advice can you give to member companies that are dealing with the challenging economy?

LC: I would advise member companies to focus on relationships. Relationships with their banks can be very beneficial. Make sure that you are in a bank that caters to the size of your company. There are several banks that cater to the needs of small- to midsize companies, providing a more personal touch. I would also advise companies to look at the services their banks offer. For example, is it cost effective to take advantage of an eDeposit system? With this system, you scan the checks in your own office and get same-day credit to your account. It’s a great opportunity to increase your cash flow.

Additionally, pay attention to your merchant statement if you are a credit-card merchant. There are often erroneous charges to these accounts.

There are service providers that will analyze your merchant statements on a monthly basis, working with your credit-card processor to correct errors. These service providers typically charge a 50% fee on any savings that they find, and their agreements are usually for a period of two years. SEMA utilized this service over the past two years and recovered several thousand dollars in erroneous charges. These companies will also assist you in negotiating with your credit-card processor.

If you are having cash-flow problems, keep the lines of communication open with your creditors. Many times, you may find that they are open to offering special payment terms. This is beneficial to both parties involved. It is SEMA’s experience that it is better to have a company on a payment plan rather than having to send that company to collections.

SN: What do you see as the greatest opportunities the association offers its members?

LC: SEMA offers members a variety of programs and services, from market research to our efforts on regulatory activity as well as the opportunity to get involved. I think involvement is one of the greatest opportunities we can offer. For younger people in the industry, the Young Executives Network (YEN) is a great opportunity to network and become involved with your peers. SEMA also has two political action committees (PAC)—a federal and a California state PAC. Get involved with the PACs to help SEMA promote the causes of the industry to both state and congressional leaders. Involvement in any capacity with any SEMA program could mean a nomination and election to the SEMA Board of Directors. What better place to have your voice heard and have a hand in molding the future of the association?

SEMA News - June 2009

By Joe Dysart

The Gobbledygook Factor

With the Release of Internet Explorer 8, Expect Some Broken Websites

In the long term, Internet Explorer 8’s adherence to web standards is expected to help reduce web design costs.

Granted, the impending disruption probably would have been even worse in the heyday of Internet Explorer (IE), when the browser was pretty much the only game in town. But even without complete market dominance, the changeover is expected to have a major impact. More than two-thirds (68%) of all PCs still used Internet Explorer as of December 2008, according to a study by market watcher Net Applications. And while rival browsers are gaining steadily, they’re still very far back in the pack. Firefox, Microsoft’s primary challenger, still has only a 21% market share, according to the Net Applications study. And the Safari browser for the Mac clocks in at just under 8%. Meanwhile, Google’s much-touted Chrome browser barely makes a blip, with just 1% of market share.

As with many upgrades instituted by Microsoft, most companies will not be able to “defend” against this latest version of IE, since the new browser will be distributed by Microsoft as an automatic update. Essentially, one day, you’ll have IE7 on your machine, and you’ll walk in to find the new IE8 interface smiling back at you the next morning—like it or not.

Ironically, the anticipated problems with IE8 are the result of a fundamental shift at Microsoft—a company decision to adhere for the first time to web-design standards set by the web design community at large rather than a stance of trying to bully designers into accepting IE as the de facto global standard.

In the long term, Microsoft’s about face is expected to reap real savings for web designers and companies. Coders will be able to spend more time designing and less time making special tweaks for IE idiosyncrasies. And more companies will be relying on standards-compliant sites that take less revenue to produce, download quicker and are better optimized for search engines.

Still, getting from here to there will be a bit painful.

“What’s going to happen is that a lot of sites coded for IE will not work in IE8,” said Jeffrey Zeldman, author of Designing With Web Standards (second edition) and a globally recognized standards guru. “Not only will layouts look wonky, but scripting will also change.”

In common parlance, that means all those request-for-quote forms used by businesses could stop working. Company forums and feedback forms may also cause some trouble. And much of the rich media that many of today’s websites rely on may simply stop working.

Adds a blunt Zeldman: “If you write IE-only scripts, your site will break.”

Companies that regularly use web-based software could also be in for added headaches. These sites could also stop working properly and could take weeks or months to fix by the service providers who decide to play catch up rather than be proactive about IE8’s roll-out.

Companies that would rather wait and see with Internet Explorer 8 can block the automatic update with a special tool designed by Microsoft.

“We have provided a meta-tag usable on a per-page or per-site level to maintain backward compatibility with Internet Explorer 7,” MacKechnie said. “Adding this tag instructs Internet Explorer 8 to render content like it did in Internet Explorer 7 without requiring any additional changes.”

Plus, companies that would rather not deal with an “automatic update” in the dead of the night to a fleet of PCs can stop that change in its tracks with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Blocker Toolkit. Once protected, all PCs with Microsoft’s blocker will remain on IE7 until IT decides the company is ready to upgrade. The best bet is to install the blocker well in advance of IE8’s release rather than after the fact. As many of us have learned the hard way, once installed, Microsoft’s automatic updates are often tough to reverse and are sometimes even irreversible.

The long-term solution to the release of IE8 will be for every company to design and maintain sites based on standards created by the globally recognized web standards body World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Zeldman said. Fortunately, W3C offers two free online tools that validate web standards compliance, one for HTML, and another for CSS—acronyms instantly recognizable to any designer.

Zeldman has also released his own Web Standards Advisor validator, which is designed to work with Dreamweaver, one of the more popular web authoring tools.

“The Web Standards Advisor is great for the designer who is climbing aboard the web standards design train,” Zeldman said. “But it’s also surprisingly useful for the advanced coder.” Zeldman said that he even found mistakes in his own website with the tool.

Additional help is also being offered by Microsoft, which has released a cornucopia of online tools created to help companies understand, adapt to and monitor IE8’s coming roll-out. Those include:

• Internet Explorer 8 main site
• Internet Explorer Team Blog
• Internet Explorer Developer Center
• Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Toolkit for web designers and developers
• Microsoft Interoperability Principles

So far, Microsoft has not set an official release date for IE8. But industry watchers believe it will be sooner rather than later. The new browser has already been through a couple of beta test trials. And Microsoft also began distributing “Release Candidate 1” in late January—a signal that IE8 is nearly complete.

Joe Dysart is an Internet speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan, New York.

Voice: 646/233-4089
E-mail: joe@joedysart.com
Website: www.joedysart.com

SEMA News - June 2009

By Joe Dysart

The Gobbledygook Factor

With the Release of Internet Explorer 8, Expect Some Broken Websites

In the long term, Internet Explorer 8’s adherence to web standards is expected to help reduce web design costs.

Granted, the impending disruption probably would have been even worse in the heyday of Internet Explorer (IE), when the browser was pretty much the only game in town. But even without complete market dominance, the changeover is expected to have a major impact. More than two-thirds (68%) of all PCs still used Internet Explorer as of December 2008, according to a study by market watcher Net Applications. And while rival browsers are gaining steadily, they’re still very far back in the pack. Firefox, Microsoft’s primary challenger, still has only a 21% market share, according to the Net Applications study. And the Safari browser for the Mac clocks in at just under 8%. Meanwhile, Google’s much-touted Chrome browser barely makes a blip, with just 1% of market share.

As with many upgrades instituted by Microsoft, most companies will not be able to “defend” against this latest version of IE, since the new browser will be distributed by Microsoft as an automatic update. Essentially, one day, you’ll have IE7 on your machine, and you’ll walk in to find the new IE8 interface smiling back at you the next morning—like it or not.

Ironically, the anticipated problems with IE8 are the result of a fundamental shift at Microsoft—a company decision to adhere for the first time to web-design standards set by the web design community at large rather than a stance of trying to bully designers into accepting IE as the de facto global standard.

In the long term, Microsoft’s about face is expected to reap real savings for web designers and companies. Coders will be able to spend more time designing and less time making special tweaks for IE idiosyncrasies. And more companies will be relying on standards-compliant sites that take less revenue to produce, download quicker and are better optimized for search engines.

Still, getting from here to there will be a bit painful.

“What’s going to happen is that a lot of sites coded for IE will not work in IE8,” said Jeffrey Zeldman, author of Designing With Web Standards (second edition) and a globally recognized standards guru. “Not only will layouts look wonky, but scripting will also change.”

In common parlance, that means all those request-for-quote forms used by businesses could stop working. Company forums and feedback forms may also cause some trouble. And much of the rich media that many of today’s websites rely on may simply stop working.

Adds a blunt Zeldman: “If you write IE-only scripts, your site will break.”

Companies that regularly use web-based software could also be in for added headaches. These sites could also stop working properly and could take weeks or months to fix by the service providers who decide to play catch up rather than be proactive about IE8’s roll-out.

Companies that would rather wait and see with Internet Explorer 8 can block the automatic update with a special tool designed by Microsoft.

“We have provided a meta-tag usable on a per-page or per-site level to maintain backward compatibility with Internet Explorer 7,” MacKechnie said. “Adding this tag instructs Internet Explorer 8 to render content like it did in Internet Explorer 7 without requiring any additional changes.”

Plus, companies that would rather not deal with an “automatic update” in the dead of the night to a fleet of PCs can stop that change in its tracks with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Blocker Toolkit. Once protected, all PCs with Microsoft’s blocker will remain on IE7 until IT decides the company is ready to upgrade. The best bet is to install the blocker well in advance of IE8’s release rather than after the fact. As many of us have learned the hard way, once installed, Microsoft’s automatic updates are often tough to reverse and are sometimes even irreversible.

The long-term solution to the release of IE8 will be for every company to design and maintain sites based on standards created by the globally recognized web standards body World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Zeldman said. Fortunately, W3C offers two free online tools that validate web standards compliance, one for HTML, and another for CSS—acronyms instantly recognizable to any designer.

Zeldman has also released his own Web Standards Advisor validator, which is designed to work with Dreamweaver, one of the more popular web authoring tools.

“The Web Standards Advisor is great for the designer who is climbing aboard the web standards design train,” Zeldman said. “But it’s also surprisingly useful for the advanced coder.” Zeldman said that he even found mistakes in his own website with the tool.

Additional help is also being offered by Microsoft, which has released a cornucopia of online tools created to help companies understand, adapt to and monitor IE8’s coming roll-out. Those include:

• Internet Explorer 8 main site
• Internet Explorer Team Blog
• Internet Explorer Developer Center
• Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Toolkit for web designers and developers
• Microsoft Interoperability Principles

So far, Microsoft has not set an official release date for IE8. But industry watchers believe it will be sooner rather than later. The new browser has already been through a couple of beta test trials. And Microsoft also began distributing “Release Candidate 1” in late January—a signal that IE8 is nearly complete.

Joe Dysart is an Internet speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan, New York.

Voice: 646/233-4089
E-mail: joe@joedysart.com
Website: www.joedysart.com

SEMA News - June 2009

By Joe Dysart

The Gobbledygook Factor

With the Release of Internet Explorer 8, Expect Some Broken Websites

In the long term, Internet Explorer 8’s adherence to web standards is expected to help reduce web design costs.

Granted, the impending disruption probably would have been even worse in the heyday of Internet Explorer (IE), when the browser was pretty much the only game in town. But even without complete market dominance, the changeover is expected to have a major impact. More than two-thirds (68%) of all PCs still used Internet Explorer as of December 2008, according to a study by market watcher Net Applications. And while rival browsers are gaining steadily, they’re still very far back in the pack. Firefox, Microsoft’s primary challenger, still has only a 21% market share, according to the Net Applications study. And the Safari browser for the Mac clocks in at just under 8%. Meanwhile, Google’s much-touted Chrome browser barely makes a blip, with just 1% of market share.

As with many upgrades instituted by Microsoft, most companies will not be able to “defend” against this latest version of IE, since the new browser will be distributed by Microsoft as an automatic update. Essentially, one day, you’ll have IE7 on your machine, and you’ll walk in to find the new IE8 interface smiling back at you the next morning—like it or not.

Ironically, the anticipated problems with IE8 are the result of a fundamental shift at Microsoft—a company decision to adhere for the first time to web-design standards set by the web design community at large rather than a stance of trying to bully designers into accepting IE as the de facto global standard.

In the long term, Microsoft’s about face is expected to reap real savings for web designers and companies. Coders will be able to spend more time designing and less time making special tweaks for IE idiosyncrasies. And more companies will be relying on standards-compliant sites that take less revenue to produce, download quicker and are better optimized for search engines.

Still, getting from here to there will be a bit painful.

“What’s going to happen is that a lot of sites coded for IE will not work in IE8,” said Jeffrey Zeldman, author of Designing With Web Standards (second edition) and a globally recognized standards guru. “Not only will layouts look wonky, but scripting will also change.”

In common parlance, that means all those request-for-quote forms used by businesses could stop working. Company forums and feedback forms may also cause some trouble. And much of the rich media that many of today’s websites rely on may simply stop working.

Adds a blunt Zeldman: “If you write IE-only scripts, your site will break.”

Companies that regularly use web-based software could also be in for added headaches. These sites could also stop working properly and could take weeks or months to fix by the service providers who decide to play catch up rather than be proactive about IE8’s roll-out.

Companies that would rather wait and see with Internet Explorer 8 can block the automatic update with a special tool designed by Microsoft.

“We have provided a meta-tag usable on a per-page or per-site level to maintain backward compatibility with Internet Explorer 7,” MacKechnie said. “Adding this tag instructs Internet Explorer 8 to render content like it did in Internet Explorer 7 without requiring any additional changes.”

Plus, companies that would rather not deal with an “automatic update” in the dead of the night to a fleet of PCs can stop that change in its tracks with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Blocker Toolkit. Once protected, all PCs with Microsoft’s blocker will remain on IE7 until IT decides the company is ready to upgrade. The best bet is to install the blocker well in advance of IE8’s release rather than after the fact. As many of us have learned the hard way, once installed, Microsoft’s automatic updates are often tough to reverse and are sometimes even irreversible.

The long-term solution to the release of IE8 will be for every company to design and maintain sites based on standards created by the globally recognized web standards body World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Zeldman said. Fortunately, W3C offers two free online tools that validate web standards compliance, one for HTML, and another for CSS—acronyms instantly recognizable to any designer.

Zeldman has also released his own Web Standards Advisor validator, which is designed to work with Dreamweaver, one of the more popular web authoring tools.

“The Web Standards Advisor is great for the designer who is climbing aboard the web standards design train,” Zeldman said. “But it’s also surprisingly useful for the advanced coder.” Zeldman said that he even found mistakes in his own website with the tool.

Additional help is also being offered by Microsoft, which has released a cornucopia of online tools created to help companies understand, adapt to and monitor IE8’s coming roll-out. Those include:

• Internet Explorer 8 main site
• Internet Explorer Team Blog
• Internet Explorer Developer Center
• Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Toolkit for web designers and developers
• Microsoft Interoperability Principles

So far, Microsoft has not set an official release date for IE8. But industry watchers believe it will be sooner rather than later. The new browser has already been through a couple of beta test trials. And Microsoft also began distributing “Release Candidate 1” in late January—a signal that IE8 is nearly complete.

Joe Dysart is an Internet speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan, New York.

Voice: 646/233-4089
E-mail: joe@joedysart.com
Website: www.joedysart.com

SEMA News - June 2009

By Joe Dysart

The Gobbledygook Factor

With the Release of Internet Explorer 8, Expect Some Broken Websites

In the long term, Internet Explorer 8’s adherence to web standards is expected to help reduce web design costs.

Granted, the impending disruption probably would have been even worse in the heyday of Internet Explorer (IE), when the browser was pretty much the only game in town. But even without complete market dominance, the changeover is expected to have a major impact. More than two-thirds (68%) of all PCs still used Internet Explorer as of December 2008, according to a study by market watcher Net Applications. And while rival browsers are gaining steadily, they’re still very far back in the pack. Firefox, Microsoft’s primary challenger, still has only a 21% market share, according to the Net Applications study. And the Safari browser for the Mac clocks in at just under 8%. Meanwhile, Google’s much-touted Chrome browser barely makes a blip, with just 1% of market share.

As with many upgrades instituted by Microsoft, most companies will not be able to “defend” against this latest version of IE, since the new browser will be distributed by Microsoft as an automatic update. Essentially, one day, you’ll have IE7 on your machine, and you’ll walk in to find the new IE8 interface smiling back at you the next morning—like it or not.

Ironically, the anticipated problems with IE8 are the result of a fundamental shift at Microsoft—a company decision to adhere for the first time to web-design standards set by the web design community at large rather than a stance of trying to bully designers into accepting IE as the de facto global standard.

In the long term, Microsoft’s about face is expected to reap real savings for web designers and companies. Coders will be able to spend more time designing and less time making special tweaks for IE idiosyncrasies. And more companies will be relying on standards-compliant sites that take less revenue to produce, download quicker and are better optimized for search engines.

Still, getting from here to there will be a bit painful.

“What’s going to happen is that a lot of sites coded for IE will not work in IE8,” said Jeffrey Zeldman, author of Designing With Web Standards (second edition) and a globally recognized standards guru. “Not only will layouts look wonky, but scripting will also change.”

In common parlance, that means all those request-for-quote forms used by businesses could stop working. Company forums and feedback forms may also cause some trouble. And much of the rich media that many of today’s websites rely on may simply stop working.

Adds a blunt Zeldman: “If you write IE-only scripts, your site will break.”

Companies that regularly use web-based software could also be in for added headaches. These sites could also stop working properly and could take weeks or months to fix by the service providers who decide to play catch up rather than be proactive about IE8’s roll-out.

Companies that would rather wait and see with Internet Explorer 8 can block the automatic update with a special tool designed by Microsoft.

“We have provided a meta-tag usable on a per-page or per-site level to maintain backward compatibility with Internet Explorer 7,” MacKechnie said. “Adding this tag instructs Internet Explorer 8 to render content like it did in Internet Explorer 7 without requiring any additional changes.”

Plus, companies that would rather not deal with an “automatic update” in the dead of the night to a fleet of PCs can stop that change in its tracks with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Blocker Toolkit. Once protected, all PCs with Microsoft’s blocker will remain on IE7 until IT decides the company is ready to upgrade. The best bet is to install the blocker well in advance of IE8’s release rather than after the fact. As many of us have learned the hard way, once installed, Microsoft’s automatic updates are often tough to reverse and are sometimes even irreversible.

The long-term solution to the release of IE8 will be for every company to design and maintain sites based on standards created by the globally recognized web standards body World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Zeldman said. Fortunately, W3C offers two free online tools that validate web standards compliance, one for HTML, and another for CSS—acronyms instantly recognizable to any designer.

Zeldman has also released his own Web Standards Advisor validator, which is designed to work with Dreamweaver, one of the more popular web authoring tools.

“The Web Standards Advisor is great for the designer who is climbing aboard the web standards design train,” Zeldman said. “But it’s also surprisingly useful for the advanced coder.” Zeldman said that he even found mistakes in his own website with the tool.

Additional help is also being offered by Microsoft, which has released a cornucopia of online tools created to help companies understand, adapt to and monitor IE8’s coming roll-out. Those include:

• Internet Explorer 8 main site
• Internet Explorer Team Blog
• Internet Explorer Developer Center
• Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Toolkit for web designers and developers
• Microsoft Interoperability Principles

So far, Microsoft has not set an official release date for IE8. But industry watchers believe it will be sooner rather than later. The new browser has already been through a couple of beta test trials. And Microsoft also began distributing “Release Candidate 1” in late January—a signal that IE8 is nearly complete.

Joe Dysart is an Internet speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan, New York.

Voice: 646/233-4089
E-mail: joe@joedysart.com
Website: www.joedysart.com

SEMA News - June 2009

By Joe Dysart

The Gobbledygook Factor

With the Release of Internet Explorer 8, Expect Some Broken Websites

In the long term, Internet Explorer 8’s adherence to web standards is expected to help reduce web design costs.

Granted, the impending disruption probably would have been even worse in the heyday of Internet Explorer (IE), when the browser was pretty much the only game in town. But even without complete market dominance, the changeover is expected to have a major impact. More than two-thirds (68%) of all PCs still used Internet Explorer as of December 2008, according to a study by market watcher Net Applications. And while rival browsers are gaining steadily, they’re still very far back in the pack. Firefox, Microsoft’s primary challenger, still has only a 21% market share, according to the Net Applications study. And the Safari browser for the Mac clocks in at just under 8%. Meanwhile, Google’s much-touted Chrome browser barely makes a blip, with just 1% of market share.

As with many upgrades instituted by Microsoft, most companies will not be able to “defend” against this latest version of IE, since the new browser will be distributed by Microsoft as an automatic update. Essentially, one day, you’ll have IE7 on your machine, and you’ll walk in to find the new IE8 interface smiling back at you the next morning—like it or not.

Ironically, the anticipated problems with IE8 are the result of a fundamental shift at Microsoft—a company decision to adhere for the first time to web-design standards set by the web design community at large rather than a stance of trying to bully designers into accepting IE as the de facto global standard.

In the long term, Microsoft’s about face is expected to reap real savings for web designers and companies. Coders will be able to spend more time designing and less time making special tweaks for IE idiosyncrasies. And more companies will be relying on standards-compliant sites that take less revenue to produce, download quicker and are better optimized for search engines.

Still, getting from here to there will be a bit painful.

“What’s going to happen is that a lot of sites coded for IE will not work in IE8,” said Jeffrey Zeldman, author of Designing With Web Standards (second edition) and a globally recognized standards guru. “Not only will layouts look wonky, but scripting will also change.”

In common parlance, that means all those request-for-quote forms used by businesses could stop working. Company forums and feedback forms may also cause some trouble. And much of the rich media that many of today’s websites rely on may simply stop working.

Adds a blunt Zeldman: “If you write IE-only scripts, your site will break.”

Companies that regularly use web-based software could also be in for added headaches. These sites could also stop working properly and could take weeks or months to fix by the service providers who decide to play catch up rather than be proactive about IE8’s roll-out.

Companies that would rather wait and see with Internet Explorer 8 can block the automatic update with a special tool designed by Microsoft.

“We have provided a meta-tag usable on a per-page or per-site level to maintain backward compatibility with Internet Explorer 7,” MacKechnie said. “Adding this tag instructs Internet Explorer 8 to render content like it did in Internet Explorer 7 without requiring any additional changes.”

Plus, companies that would rather not deal with an “automatic update” in the dead of the night to a fleet of PCs can stop that change in its tracks with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Blocker Toolkit. Once protected, all PCs with Microsoft’s blocker will remain on IE7 until IT decides the company is ready to upgrade. The best bet is to install the blocker well in advance of IE8’s release rather than after the fact. As many of us have learned the hard way, once installed, Microsoft’s automatic updates are often tough to reverse and are sometimes even irreversible.

The long-term solution to the release of IE8 will be for every company to design and maintain sites based on standards created by the globally recognized web standards body World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Zeldman said. Fortunately, W3C offers two free online tools that validate web standards compliance, one for HTML, and another for CSS—acronyms instantly recognizable to any designer.

Zeldman has also released his own Web Standards Advisor validator, which is designed to work with Dreamweaver, one of the more popular web authoring tools.

“The Web Standards Advisor is great for the designer who is climbing aboard the web standards design train,” Zeldman said. “But it’s also surprisingly useful for the advanced coder.” Zeldman said that he even found mistakes in his own website with the tool.

Additional help is also being offered by Microsoft, which has released a cornucopia of online tools created to help companies understand, adapt to and monitor IE8’s coming roll-out. Those include:

• Internet Explorer 8 main site
• Internet Explorer Team Blog
• Internet Explorer Developer Center
• Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Toolkit for web designers and developers
• Microsoft Interoperability Principles

So far, Microsoft has not set an official release date for IE8. But industry watchers believe it will be sooner rather than later. The new browser has already been through a couple of beta test trials. And Microsoft also began distributing “Release Candidate 1” in late January—a signal that IE8 is nearly complete.

Joe Dysart is an Internet speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan, New York.

Voice: 646/233-4089
E-mail: joe@joedysart.com
Website: www.joedysart.com

SEMA News - June 2009
International

By Steve Campbell

How to Get Your Products Recognized by the International Media

Even a simple press release provides instant credibility with enthusiasts, and the chance to make a positive impression with an editor or producer can be greatly enhanced by targeting the promotional material both to the particular country or region as well as to a specific magazine, website or program.

At a seminar during the 2008 SEMA Show, two prominent international publisher/editors shared their top tips for getting coverage in global media. They offered candid advice about not only what to send, but how to send it—ranging from a basic product release to a complete turnkey article.

Zlatko Mulabegovic, founder, director and editor of Top Performance and Top Auto magazines in the United Arab Emirates, has written numerous editorials on developing the specialty-equipment market in Dubai and the Persian Gulf region. Top Performance focuses on the most well-known tuning platforms, while Top Auto is focused on more generalized tuning.

Eduardo Bernasconi is the founder and editor of Fullpower magazine in Brazil. He also runs a very popular consumer event called Extreme Motorsports, which featured about 100 exhibitors and drew about 60,000 attendees in its fifth year. Bernasconi recently opened an automotive studio that is designed to bring enthusiasts together to develop joint projects.

Be Relevant

Every publication, global or domestic, wants to receive a company’s most recent press materials regarding new or popular products, project cars, success stories and so on—but exclusivity is even better. If you can provide a magazine with information or a story that no other outlet in the region has yet received—and the content matches the publication’s interests—the editor will be more likely to publish your item.

Relevancy also means ensuring that the products or platforms you wish to promote are available in the publication’s region. SEMA can help you do the research through its database of market reports for 27 countries around the world. Available on SEMA's International homepage, the reports include the top-selling vehicles in the market—both pickups and cars—as well as the most popular modifications by niche, top distributors, leading trade and consumer shows and leading magazines. Contact SEMA Director of International Relations Linda Spencer at lindas@sema.org for information or to inquire about upcoming reports not yet posted to the website.

Conversely, a story that is general in nature may still see publication even if it features a vehicle that isn’t common to the region. For instance, a generic exhaust system story may be performed on a Nissan car that isn’t available in a magazine’s home country, but if the topic of the story is pertinent to vehicles that are available there, the editor may chose to use it to provide information that is of universal interest for his readers.

Strive for Quality

A photo of your company’s project car shot in the back lot under the uneven light of the spreading chestnut tree may be cheap and easy, but it is likely to immediately hit the trash bin if you send it to an editor. Magazines impress their readers—their customers—with professional presentation. High-quality photographs that are shot in a studio may cost more, but they’re also far more likely to catch and hold an editor’s eye.

All types of materials should be presented at the highest level available, including text, technical data and any other information that will simplify the editor’s task of processing and producing a quality article. Check carefully for factual accuracy as well as spelling mistakes and typos. An editor who is under deadline pressure will appreciate clean copy almost as much as top-notch photography.

Provide Variety

You may think that the best photo of your product or vehicle is a straightforward shot, but an editor may have four other identical treatments that he plans to run side by side in a buyer’s guide. If you send him three different angles, he’ll be able to use the one that best suits the story layout—and that ultimately sets your product apart from the others.

Again, you’re trying to make it as tempting as possible for the editor to include your materials. Explanatory text should accompany the images, providing comprehensive descriptions of the product or vehicle. It’s much easier to cut an article down to fit a given space than to fluff it up to fill a hole. The more the editor knows, the more accurate the story will be, so include additional materials, such as backup data, product comparisons and additional technical information. In some cases, an editor might even wish to use the story behind the story, such as why and how your company developed the product and any details that might help spice up the magazine article.

“The extent of the material you supply directly affects what we publish in the magazine,” Mulabegovic said during his presentation at the SEMA Show seminar. “Be aware that a monthly publication such as ours is hard work, and we face tight deadlines. The more complete and extensive the materials you supply are, the better it is for the production people.”

		Zlatko Mulabegovic is the founder, director and editor of Top Performance and Top Auto magazines in the United Arab Emirates. He explained what international publications look for in everything from product releases to complete stories during a seminar entitled “Top Tips for Getting Your Products Covered in the International Media” at the 2008 SEMA Show.
		Eduardo Bernasconi is the founder and editor of Fullpower magazine in Brazil and is also the promoter of a popular Brazilian automotive consumer event called Extreme Motorsports. He joined Mulabegovic at the dais during the SEMA Show seminar to explain his magazine’s requirements and how best to establish contacts with international media.
		During his opening remarks, seminar moderator Wade Kawasaki, chairman of SEMA’s international committee and secretary/treasurer of the association’s Board of Directors, noted that the current financial crisis has taught us that we live in a global economy. “But with this crisis comes a tremendous amount of opportunities,” he said, “including the opportunity to get your products recognized in the international press.”

Know the Formats

Most international publications use industry-standard document and image formats. For photos, those consist of JPEG, TIFF and EPS files. Magazines utilize high-resolution images, meaning 300 dpi (dots per inch). A 72-dpi image is fine for Internet or e-mail use, where the photo will be viewed on a screen, but unless the photo dimensions are huge—something 17x20 inches—and it can be converted to 300 dpi and downsized dimensionally, a 72-dpi image just won’t work. If you send images that are too small or too low in resolution, the magazine will either have to ask for something better or simply not publish the image. It also helps if the image has been color corrected. If you don’t know what that means, talk with someone proficient in photo work.

Text press releases should also be supplied in standard formats, such as Microsoft Word, plain text (TXT), rich text format (RTF), portable document format (PDF) or even Notepad documents. Technical data and tech sheets may be supplied in any of those formats as well as in Excel spreadsheets.

Providing quality, ready-to-use materials greatly improves the chance that your promotional piece will be published in a magazine. The most basic form is a press release, which magazines use in news columns, new-product columns or similar brief stories. You can send text alone, but most magazines prefer the option of running a photo with every item. The ultimate submission would be a complete story or feature with a large selection of images. That gives the editor the option of publishing either a news brief or, if space permits and fortune smiles, a longer article.

Know How to Send

Not too long ago, regular mail was the only option for submitting articles to magazines either domestically or internationally. Computers and the Internet have created whole new worlds. If you’re submitting only a product release with one or two photos, you may submit them to the editor as e-mail attachments. However, do not embed the photo(s) in the text document. That just creates work for the editor. Instead, send each piece as a separate document and/or image file.

If you want to submit a longer piece that includes multiple documents, numerous images and other backup data, consider using an FTP (file transfer protocol) site or sending the materials on a CD or DVD through the regular mail. High-resolution images, in particular, can be 3 to 10 MB or more, and multiple images can not only take forever to download, but may also clog the editor’s mailbox. With an FTP site, you can upload a large selection of files and send the FTP address along with a user ID and password to the editor. (For more information about how to establish and use an FTP site, just enter the letters FTP into your web browser’s search engine. You’ll find everything from basic information to the latest in file-transfer solutions.)

Get to Know the Editor/Publisher

Each publication may have its own specific requirements, so try to contact the editor prior to submitting materials. Inquire about the types of products, vehicles and articles the magazine is most interested in as well as the methods and formats it most commonly uses for submissions. E-mail is a great way to break the ice, and SEMA can usually be of help in providing information about regional magazine titles, appropriate addresses and contact names.

The SEMA Show is also an outstanding venue for making contact with international media representatives. For more information about events, such as the International Happy Hour, the International New Product Awards program, or SEMA’s international programs in general, contact Linda Spencer.