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CMTA Announces Second Annual “Coolest Thing Made in California” Contest Powered by JPMorganChase

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SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The California Manufacturers & Technology Association (CMTA) is thrilled to announce the search begins for this year’s “Coolest Thing Made in California.” The second-annual contest powered by JPMorganChase, celebrates the innovation and creativity of the state’s manufacturing sector.

The “Coolest Thing Made in California” contest is a unique bracket-style tournament in which the public can nominate their favorite products made in the Golden State. This contest highlights the vital role manufacturing plays in California’s economy, which employs 1.3 million people and contributes $310 billion to the state’s annual GDP.

“We are excited to kick off the second year of this contest, showcasing the remarkable products made right here in California,” said Lance Hastings, CEO & President of CMTA. “The innovation and craftsmanship that our manufacturers bring to the table are truly inspiring, and we look forward to highlighting the best of the best through this year’s contest.”

Last year’s contest made headlines, as more than 90,000 votes were cast, and CMTA reached more than 95,870 social media accounts during the weeks-long contest. California’s Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis partnered with CMTA to promote the contest and presented the awards during National Manufacturing Day 2023. Four companies went head-to-head vying for the first-ever title of ‘Coolest Thing Made in California.’ Tesla’s Model Y beat out Carmazzi Caramel Corn’s popcorn made in Sacramento, Millennium Space Systems’ Victus Nox made in El Segundo, and Northrop Grumman’s James Webb Space Telescope made in Redondo Beach.

The contest schedule is as follows:

Nominations Open: July 29 – August 8, 2024Popular Round: August 12-15, 2024Top 16 Round: August 26-29, 2024Top 4 Round: September 2-6, 2024Awards Ceremony and MakingCA Conference: October 18, 2024

The “Coolest Thing Made in California” contest highlights the outstanding products manufactured in the state and underscores the importance of manufacturing to California’s economy and its role in driving innovation.

How it works:

Nominations: From July 29 to August 8, 2024, the public can nominate any product made in California by visiting the contest website. This is an opportunity to recognize and support local manufacturers across the state. Please note that products that made it into the 2023 Top 4 round cannot be nominated again.Voting: The contest then moves into a series of voting rounds where the public decides which products advance to the next round. There are four rounds of voting starting with the Popular Round which will narrow the field to the top 16 products. A bracket is formed from the Top 16 Round and voting continues to the Top 8 Round, to the Top 4 Round, and finally, the selection of the winner.Awards Ceremony: The contest culminates in an awards ceremony at the MakingCA Conference on October 18, 2024, where the winner will be announced and celebrated.

To nominate a product or for more information about the contest, please visit CoolestThingCalifornia.com. Join us in celebrating the incredible talent and innovation of California’s manufacturers ahead of National Manufacturing Month in October.

About CMTA

The California Manufacturers & Technology Association has advocated for pro-growth laws and regulations before the California legislature and administrative agencies since 1918. The total output from manufacturing in California is $300 billion per year, roughly 10 percent of the total economic output of the state. Manufacturers employ 1.3 million Californians paying wages more than $25,000 higher than other non-farm employers in the state. For more information, visit the CMTA website.

Contact:
Ananda Rochita
Vice President, Communications
CMTA
arochita@cmta.net

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SOURCE California Manufacturers & Technology Association

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CLARION SAFETY SYSTEMS IMPLEMENTS ISO 7010 SYMBOL UPDATE FOR NO ACCESS FOR UNAUTHORIZED PERSONS

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Clarion Safety Systems has implemented a sweeping change to designs containing the No Access symbol as reflected by the recent ISO 7010 standards updates

MILFORD, Pa., April 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Clarion Safety Systems, a leading manufacturer of safety labels, signs, and tags, has updated its safety communication offerings to include the newly registered ISO 7010 symbol for No Access for Unauthorized Persons. This update ensures that facility owners and equipment manufacturers have access to the most current, science based designs for restricting access to hazardous areas.

The refined symbol design has been updated to reflect the official ISO 7010 symbol reference number P080 to align with the latest International Organization for Standardization registration. The primary modification involves the placement of the red prohibition slash, which now overlaps the human figure rather than being positioned below it. This design shift is the result of rigorous comprehension testing conducted by ISO technical committees. The testing confirmed that placing the slash over the figure improves the speed and accuracy of a viewer’s recognition, which is critical for preventing unauthorized entry and reducing workplace accidents.

“Maintaining alignment with the latest ANSI and ISO standards is a fundamental part of our mission to help our customers communicate safety information effectively,” says Angela Lambert, the Chair of ANSI Z535.1 and Director of Standards Compliance at Clarion Safety Systems, “Our active leadership within the standards community allows us to implement these research based refinements as soon as they are ratified. This ensures our clients are using the most intuitive visual language available to protect their personnel and decrease liability exposure.”

Clarion Safety team members are deeply involved in the development of these standards, holding positions within the ANSI Z535 Committee, the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to ISO/TC 145, and the U.S. TAG to ISO/TC 283. This expertise is built into the updated No Access symbol collection, which is available in a variety of durable materials engineered for industrial environments.

The updated symbols are produced in a variety of formats for labels and signs, using long lasting materials rated for ultraviolet light, water, and chemical resistance. To support a seamless transition for its customers, Clarion Safety is offering complimentary consults for those interested in learning more about the changes and updated product libraries across the site.

These updated designs are essential for meeting the requirements of ISO 3864-2 and are encouraged under the ANSI Z535.4 standards. By adopting the current ISO 7010 registered symbols, organizations can improve hazard recognition among a multilingual workforce and maintain compliance with global safety expectations.

To learn more about other ISO and ANSI updates or to request a consultation regarding your safety labeling program, visit the Clarion Safety online Resource Center.

Contact Clarion Safety to learn more about the company’s industry experts and opportunities for collaboration on media and educational projects.

ABOUT CLARION SAFETY SYSTEMS
Clarion Safety Systems, LLC, is the leading designer and manufacturer of visual safety solutions that help customers in more than 180 industries worldwide to make their products and premises safer. Clarion Safety offers a full range of standard and custom products including machinery safety labels, environmental and facility safety signs, pipe and valve identification markings, lockout/tagout products, and safety-grade photoluminescent egress path-marking escape systems. The company also provides custom-printed industrial nameplates, labels, and metal identification solutions through its affiliated business, McLoone Metal Graphics, as well as turnkey machine safety and compliance solutions through  its affiliated businesses, Machine Safety Specialists and Arrow Industrial Solutions. Founded in 1990, Clarion Safety continues to play a leading role in the development and writing of international and national standards for safety signs, labels, and markings. It is headquartered at 190 Old Milford Road in Milford, PA, 18337, and online at http://www.clarionsafety.com.

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SOURCE Clarion Safety Systems

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Palantir and AIP Specialist Firm, Vanyar, Launches

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Founded by enterprise technology leaders, Vanyar addresses a persistent gap between adopting platforms like Palantir and delivering measurable operational impact.

SYDNEY, April 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Vanyar launches today as a specialist firm focussed on Palantir Foundry and AIP. Its launch comes at a critical time in the market when enterprise AI transformation programmes are becoming slower, more complex and increasingly difficult to deliver. These initiatives, which often involve platforms like Palantir, continue to fall short for many companies wanting to get ahead.

Founded by seasoned enterprise technology experts, Vanyar provides top-tier advisory, build, AI agent development, and 24/7 platform support services to organisations across APAC and the Middle East, with their sights set on future global expansion. Led by a team of experts with decades of enterprise experience and deep Palantir expertise, the company offers a compelling value proposition for modern companies.

With the accelerated adoption of AI and rising demand for data-led insights, Vanyar’s timely launch meets demand for Palantir expertise head-on. Global system integrators are racing to build Palantir practices, investing in onboarding thousands of certified professionals. Yet, while the Palantir ecosystem is growing fast, very few specialist partners are focused on enabling organisations outside of government and defence to unlock value from the platform quickly and efficiently.

Uriah Jacobs, Co-Founder and CEO of Vanyar, said of the launch, “Over many years of building enterprise technology businesses, the same fundamental problem keeps emerging. Organisations know platforms like Palantir are powerful, but they struggle to successfully implement these initiatives and deliver real-world, tangible outcomes.

The large consultancies are expensive and slow. Palantir’s own services team is focused on their biggest accounts. There is a clear gap for a specialist firm that moves fast, keeps teams small, and delivers measurable results in mere weeks. That’s why Vanyar exists.”

Vanyar’s services span the full Palantir lifecycle: advisory and strategy to assess platform fit, Foundry ontology design and data pipeline engineering, AI agent development on AIP, 24/7 platform operations, and hands-on training bootcamps. The firm’s engagement model is designed for speed, with a typical path from discovery to delivery production in just weeks.

“The technology behind Palantir is extraordinary, but it takes real enterprise experience to make it work inside a large organisation,” said Rahul Garg, Co-Founder of Vanyar.

“We have built and scaled high velocity tech-services businesses before. We know what great service delivery looks like. Every person at Vanyar is here because they can ship production solutions, not because they look good on a bench sheet.”

Both founders bring proven track records of building and scaling specialist consulting businesses in the enterprise technology sector. Uriah Jacobs was the founding Managing Director APAC of Thirdera, which became the world’s largest pure-play ServiceNow consultancy and was acquired by Cognizant in 2024. He previously held senior roles at Cloud Sherpas (acquired by Accenture, 2015) and Accenture.

Rahul Garg co-founded CloudGo, a ServiceNow Elite Partner that was acquired by RGP in 2023 and is Singapore’s first ServiceNow Certified Master Architect. Together, the founders have a vision to solve complex problems with simple, data-led solutions.

About Vanyar: Vanyar is a Palantir Foundry and AIP specialist that helps organisations turn fragmented data into answers they can act on. Founded in 2025 and operating from Singapore, Australia, and the UAE, Vanyar provides advisory, build, AI agent development, platform operations, and training services. Visit vanyar.com.

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SOURCE Vanyar

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Wondershare Demonstrates AI-Powered Document Workflows with PDFelement at Microsoft AI Tour Hong Kong

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HONG KONG, April 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Wondershare, a global leader in digital productivity and creativity software, showcased its latest AI-powered solutions at the Microsoft AI Tour Hong Kong, highlighting how its flagship product, Wondershare PDFelement, integrates with Microsoft technologies to enable smarter, more secure, and more efficient document workflows for enterprises.

As Microsoft’s flagship global AI event, the Microsoft AI Tour brings together partners and industry leaders to explore how AI is transforming business operations. At the Hong Kong stop, Wondershare demonstrated its deep collaboration with Microsoft across key solution areas, showcasing how its product ecosystem aligns with Microsoft technologies to deliver integrated, end-to-end AI workflows.

At the center of the showcase was Wondershare PDFelement, an AI-powered, all-in-one PDF solution designed to streamline document-centric processes in enterprise environments. Through deep integration with the Microsoft ecosystem, PDFelement enables seamless interoperability with widely used applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, allowing users to convert PDFs into fully editable formats while preserving original layout and structure. With built-in Office plugins, users can also generate standardized PDFs directly within Microsoft applications. PDFelement further supports deployment in Microsoft Azure environments, enabling Single Sign-On (SSO) for streamlined access management, while maintaining compatibility with Microsoft Rights Management Services (RMS) to securely manage protected documents.

Beyond its ecosystem integration, PDFelement also introduces a suite of AI-powered capabilities to enhance productivity across document workflows. Smart Redact enables automatic detection and masking of over 70 types of sensitive data to support compliance requirements, while Professional AI Translation delivers accurate, industry-specific language output for cross-border collaboration. The Admin Console provides enterprise-grade centralized access and permission control, allowing IT teams to manage AI, cloud, and eSign features with real-time visibility into license usage. At the event, attendees can also experience a range of enhanced AI features, including AI Summarize, Chat with PDF, AI Translate, AI Detect and Rewrite, as well as AI Proofread, Voice, Explain, Grammar Check, and Mind Map Generation.

In addition to PDFelement, Wondershare also showcased how its broader product portfolio integrates with Microsoft technologies. EdrawMax offers full compatibility with Microsoft Visio through bidirectional .vsdx import and export, along with Office add-ins, OLE embedding, and data-driven diagram generation from Excel, while also featuring AI-powered capabilities such as the Edraw Agent, natural language-driven diagram generation, and text-to-diagram conversion across platforms. EdrawMind enables one-click conversion of mind maps into PowerPoint and supports intelligent analysis of Office documents to generate structured knowledge frameworks, alongside AI features including webpage summarization, node-based note generation, and AI-powered search. Filmora is optimized for the Windows AI PC ecosystem, leveraging on-device NPU acceleration for AI-powered video processing, supporting Windows on Arm, and enabling natural language interaction with RAG-based asset matching, while also incorporating AI Extend, AI Portrait, and Smart Cutout. Reelmate provides an AI-powered, agent-driven platform covering the full content production pipeline from generation to post-production for creating premium comic series.

Through live demonstrations, attendees were able to experience how Wondershare’s AI-powered solutions can be applied across real-world enterprise scenarios, from document processing and knowledge management to visual communication and content creation. The showcase attracted strong interest from professionals across industries such as finance, education, information technology, and telecommunications, particularly around capabilities related to document security, automation, and cross-language collaboration.

Wondershare’s participation in the Microsoft AI Tour Hong Kong highlights its continued commitment to advancing practical AI adoption through deep ecosystem integration. By combining AI capabilities with seamless compatibility across Microsoft technologies, Wondershare is helping enterprises build more secure, connected, and efficient workflows for the future.

About Wondershare:

Wondershare is a globally recognized software company founded in 2003, known for its innovative solutions in creativity and productivity. Driven by the mission “Creativity Simplified”, Wondershare offers a range of tools, including PDFelement for document management; EdrawMax, EdrawMind for diagraming, Filmora and SelfyzAI for video editing. With over 2 billion cumulative active users across all products and a presence in over 200 countries and regions, Wondershare empowers the next generation of creators with intuitive software and trendy creative resources, continually expanding the possibilities of creativity worldwide.

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SOURCE Wondershare Technology

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