Check out which service Digitwirl recommends for bulk photo scanning. That's right, ScanMyPhotos.com is clearly the recommended service. Preserve your precious photo memories for a lifetime and more by digitizing all those photos you've stored away in overfilled boxes. Enjoy your digitized photos and share them easily with friends and family. By the way, the National Association of Professional Organizers' (NAPO) January Get Organized month urges Americans to declutter, organize and streamline their lives. What better way than digitizing all your photos, slides, negatives and video? Watch the video recommendation by Digitwirl by following this link. Have fun reliving all your photo memories!
American ExpressOPEN profiled the corporate work environment of ScanMyPhotos.com and how all the employees enjoy numerous perks that keep morale and productivity extremely high. Aren't you glad to hear your photo memories are treated with the utmost respect and care by employees who love their jobs and take extreme pride in their work?
For some business owners, good culture is everything, and they will pay top dollar for it. Mitch Goldstone is one of those business owners. Goldstone, who is president and CEO of California-based photo scanning service ScanMyPhotos.com, has no qualms about going way over-the-top for his annual employee retreat in Las Vegas. The price tag is a whopping $65,000.
Goldstone’s grand design includes meeting his 17 employees at the airport with chauffeured Rolls Royce Ghost limousines. At the MGM Grand’s swanky Skylofts, employees receive nonstop attention from personal 24-hour butlers and mingle with celebrities. They eat at five-star restaurants, score front row seats to Cirque du Soleil and third row seats to Elton John, and cap it all off with a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon.
Employees as First Priority
Creating a culture of appreciation is one thing, but is this much appreciation really necessary? Goldstone thinks so. “Successful entrepreneurs understand that it is all about the employees; they are the fuel that powers a company's success. Employees have to be put first, even ahead of customers, so you can’t be cheap and send everyone to a local restaurant. No level of extravagance is too much to reward loyalty,” he said.
Apparently, it works. Goldstone claims that his organization has zero turnover and that ScanMyPhotos.com recently marked its 21st year in business. The Vegas retreat cleverly ties into the company’s mission, too. “Our business is to preserve millions of precious photo memories, and along the way, we want to create new ones for ourselves that we’ll remember forever,” said Goldstone.
Bonus Benefits
Employee morale aside, Goldstone and his advisors recognize the public relations value inherent in pulling off the most spectacular employee retreat anyone’s heard of. All over the web, blogs are buzzing about ScanMyPhotos.com and prospective customers are flocking to the website. In all likelihood, these new customers will pay for the revenue lost when Goldstone suspended operations for the retreat.
I suppose my question is: What kind of message does this send to companies looking to improve their cultures and create more desirable places to work? Is culture about putting your employees in an elevator with A-listers, or is it about sending them handwritten birthday cards and ensuring they can pay the hospital bill if they get in a car accident? Is it about letting them live like gluttons for a weekend, or it is about making retirement contributions that will help feed them until they’re 90?
Goldstone is the first to admit that Vegas isn’t everything. ScanMyPhotos.com employees also receive benefits including free lunch and 100 percent health coverage. And perhaps what says the most about ScanMyPhotos.com’s culture is the fact that the employees are willing to spend all of this time together and seem to genuinely have a blast. I mean, hey, I’ve worked in cultures that couldn’t even make Vegas fun.
Here’s something else to consider: It sounds like the ScanMyPhotos.com culture has been a pretty nice one all along. But if your work environment is unsupportive or even hostile and morale is really suffering, a gesture like this may well seem empty and contrived and has the potential to turn off employees even more. If you really want to improve things, it’s simple: Listen and make gradual changes based on the feedback you receive.
For his part, Goldstone is now under pressure to keep the party going. “The Vegas retreat was the experience of a lifetime…until next year.”
Alexandra Levit is a former nationally-syndicated business and workplace columnist for The Wall Street Journal and the author of Blind Spots: The 10 Business Myths You Can’t Afford to Believe on Your New Path to Success. Money magazine’s Online Career Expert of the Year, she regularly speaks at organizations and conferences on issues facing modern employees.
While everyone continues to capture Kodak moments each day, and ScanMyPhotos.com continues to digitize precious analog photo memories, the company responsible for countless photographic innovations and technology just last night announced they have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. "Not a Kodak Moment" quips Ina Fried of Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital. Read about recent Kodak news and share your thoughts on the evolving history of legendary iconic brand Kodak. ScanMyPhotos.com supports Kodak's restructuring efforts to keep this special brand a major part of the photographic community.
Kodak's "Big" app
Kodak has invented and reinvented aspects of worldwide image capture, storage, sharing, printing and has make taking pictures fun for millions of people globally. With their Share button and app, picture takers instantly upload their photos to all their social media and photo sharing sites including Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Kodak Gallery and many others - with just the touch of a single button. How has Kodak influenced your life? You might be surprised to know that Kodak invented digital photography so it's pretty likely you use technology first innovated by this creative brand in your everyday life. Do you use a Kodak digital photo frame? Have you printed a large banner or poster with their "Big" app? Maybe you bought a Kodak camera, printer or one of their numerous products that have won Consumer Electronics Show Innovation Awards?
Kodak's booth at CES 2012
Read Ina Fried's article, "Not a Kodak Moment: Legendary Camera Maker Files for Bankruptcy Protection" and share your thoughts on all things Kodak. Use the comment section to share other news about Kodak. How do you think Kodak should transition in this digital world? What would you do if you were a Kodak decision maker?
Hear and see Mitch Goldstone, President and CEO of ScanMyPhotos.com interviewed on the radio by Dave Graveline on "Into Tomorrow: The Consumer Electronics and Technology Show":
"Into Tomorrow with Dave Graveline"
radio booth at CES 2012
Mitch Goldstone speaks with Dave Graveline about ScanMyPhotos.com and the future of scanning photos, slides, negatives and transferring VHS & film reels to DVD. Interview conducted at the "Into Tomorrow" booth at the Consumer Electronics Show 2012 (CES 2012). Photos are everything: we make yours last a lifetime and more.
Before your precious photo memories are lost forever due to natural disaster, wear and tear over the years or simply losing them during a move, send those photos, slides, negatives and videos to ScanMyPhotos.com to be expertly and professionally scanned. Declutter your home and get rid of that storage unit where all your photos are collecting dust and not being enjoyed. Enjoy all those memories with your family and friends by digitizing them and sharing them with everyone in your life.
If those photos have been damaged due to mold, sun exposure, water damage or if they've been torn, restore them back to life and relive those important memories. But don't just save the professionally photographed, staged memories. Preserve all your photos, including those goofy, funny, unplanned moments which are often the ones we cherish the most. Those are the moments that tend to show our true personalities and capture some of the most memorable moments.
Dave Graveline and Mitch Goldstone
"Into Tomorrow with Dave Graveline"
CES 2012
Mitch Goldstone
President and CEO of ScanMyPhotos.com
2012 is the year to digitize all your precious analog photo memories, declutter and get organized. Throw away those old photos and keep digital, scanned copies. For all those photos that have been torn and damaged by water, the sun and mold, restore those images back to life and enjoy those special memories for generations.
What's the absolute best way to scan all your photos? We created the Family Generation Collection to scan and preserve approximately 10,000 photos! Many of our repeat customers tell us they never knew just how many thousands of analog images they have amassed. Get all of your photos scanned, digitized and preserved with the Family Generation Collection from ScanMyPhotos.com.
Since 1990: We have preserved ten's of millions of photo memories.
All scanning completed at our Irvine, CA headquarters: Your photos are NEVER shipped out of the country to be scanned.
All photos are returned to you: Choose our prepaid options and there is absolutely no additional charge to return your photos; all shipping is 100% FREE.
Official Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2012 party list. Las Vegas CES 2012 is almost here - find some of the senior management of ScanMyPhotos.com at CES!
7:30 – 10:30 a.m.: IDC Breakfast - Encore hotel – Encore Ballroom 5 (Invite only)
5 – 9:30 p.m.: iHollywood Forum/LaunchFest Party – Clarion Hotel, 303 Convention Center Way, Theatre, various levels of tickets, including some free (http://www.ceslaunchfest.eventbrite.com/)
6-8 p.m.: Shuttle Hospitality Suite – Bellagio, Shuttle Suite (Invite only)
6-9 p.m.: Netshelter Party – Venetian, TAO (Invite Only)
7-10 p.m.: Bluetooth SIG Party – Venetian, TAO (Invite only)
7-10 p.m.: Marketnews Canada Night – Bellagio, Bank Nightclub (Invite only)
7:30 p.m.: Monster Cable Retailer Awards – Paris Hotel, Paris Ballroom, starring Chicago (Invite only)
6-10 p.m.: 6th Annual CES Partylist Party, private residence in Paradise Palms (5 minutes from Convention Center), presented by SocialRadius and sponsored by WeVideo (for media, VIPs, video content creators and friends – for information/consideration, please email party@socialradius.com)
Check out which service Digitwirl recommends for bulk photo scanning. That's right, ScanMyPhotos.com is clearly the recommended service. 
