Why host your next corporate meeting or extravagant celebration at the same ho-hum venue when you can give your guests the experience of a lifetime?  The Sky Deck on the Wills Tower, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and home to the OfficeLinks Chicago office space location, offers a flexible 10,000 square foot space on the 99^th floor that can accommodate 250 seated guests or 400 guests, reception style.  Voted one of the 7 Wonders of Chicago by Chicago Tribune Readers, The Sky Deck offers the best view of Chicago and beyond.  Prove it to the VIPs at your gathering: take them on a VIP visit to the Ledge and give them an experience that will not be soon forgotten. 

Conveniently located just upstairs from the OfficeLinks Chicago location, this venue is sure to leave a lasting impression on anyone and everyone at your event.   For more information, including availability and pricing, contact Faith Mulvihill at 312-875-9803 or fmulvihill@theskydeck.com.

Born, raised and currently residing in Chicago, Richard Hunt is an internationally renowned artist best known for his abstract metal sculptures and public artwork. The first African-American artist to have a major solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1971, Hunt has received accolades and recognition throughout his career, including the International Sculpture Center’s Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, which he received in 2009.

Hunt has completed more public sculptures than any other artist in the country, including one of his signature pieces, Jacob’s Ladder, the three-piece welded-bronze sculpture that hangs from the ceiling and rises from the floor of the atrium in the Woodson Regional Library, located at 9525 S. Halsted Street right here in Chicago.

OfficeLinks invites you to venture down to Wills Tower’s main lobby now through May 7, 2010 to check out the amazing artwork of one of the finest artists of our time.  For more information about Richard Hunt and his artwork, click here.

Just a short walk from OfficeLinks Bryant Park office location, you can also step onto history at the Discovery Time Square Exposition at 226 W 44th St (between Seventh and Eighth Aves) seven days a week between 10am-10pm.  This new large-scale exhibition center, will offer limited edition runs of exhibits from across the globe, including the Titanic exhibit. The 60,000-square-foot space is just around the corner from OfficeLinks Bryant Park office location and is housed in the former New York Times building, and includes a learning center, a space for special events and a café.  For more information, click here.  What a great location.  This is just another benefit of being an OfficeLinks office, virtual office and meeting room client.

Now through January 22, you can help Chicagoan stay warm this winter!  There are Coat Drive donation boxes located in the Wacker & Franklin lobbies for you to donate coats, boots/shoes, scarves, hats, gloves and mittens.  Donations will be distributed through the assistance of the YMCA.

Together, in the annual Toy Drive this December, we filled 14 boxes with toys that were donated to the Walter & Connie Payton Foundation for distribution to local children.  Thank you for bringing smiles to children’s faces this holiday season! 

OfficeLinks was delighted to hear that SkyRise Chicago raised over $800,000 for Willis Tower’s charitable partner, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC)!  More than 1,800 participants from 31 states and 5 countries took part in this November 15, 2009 fundraiser.  

Individual impressive stats include:

• Top Male: Matthais Jahn, 26, with an overall time of 13:09
• Top Female: Cindy Harris, 40, with an overall time of 15:08 (Cindy won the female division for the eighth straight year!)
• Youngest Top Male: Jack Sullivan, 10, with an overall time of 22:26
• Youngest Top Female: Allayna Gagnard, 10, with an overall time of 22:51

Registration for SkyRise Chicago 2010 opens in late spring.  For more information, click here.

OfficeLinks’ Chicago location is pleased to be a part of a community that is so willing to give and support Chicago.

Did you know that 5.7% of New York City’s residential waste is textiles, yet they are 100% recyclable?  Since 2007, the Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC) has offered textile recycling drop-off sites at select Greenmarkets, including one at the Union Square Greenmarket just a short walk from the OfficeLinks Chelsea office location, redirecting hundreds of thousands of pounds of material from the landfill. 

Every Monday at the Union Square Greenmarket (due to construction, the site may move around the park, so you can just ask at the Market Manager’s tent if you have trouble finding it), from 8 am - 6 pm, you can recycle your unwanted textile materials, including clothing, shoes, linens, bedding, and towels.  They are then sold for reuse or to recycling markets that turn materials into wiping rags, fiber for car seats and insulation.  And, yes, your donation is tax deductible!  So, before or after work, or even on your lunch break, take the short 1/3 mile walk from the OfficeLinks Chelsea office location to the Union Square Greenmarket and turn your Manic Monday into a Material Monday and help “green” New York!  For more information, click here.

According to David, CDM Software Solutions, Inc.’s approach to business, though simple, is absolutely essential to their success: Listen to clients. Understand what “keeps them up at night”.  Use the firm’s expertise to identify the root of the issues, map the plan and deliver the services to eradicate the issue and optimize performance.  Then, invest and stand by the client.  For CDM Software Solutions, Inc., listening to clients allows them to provide comprehensive, yet efficient and user-friendly software solutions that meet the clients’ needs and help them to achieve their business objectives.  Committing to stand by their clients allows CDM Software Solutions, Inc. to provide the necessary technology innovation that helps them as their needs evolve.

In our conversation, David shared with me some of what I’d like to call “pearls of wisdom” - and I just had to share them with you because they are just that important:

• Be patient - as an entrepreneur, you know that the marketplace is dynamic. Charter your path and stay the course while being nimble and patient.
• Perform your due diligence. Meaning: learn about your clients - research them, ask them questions, get to know everything about them. Utilize your skill and core competency to provide real value. A solution that they would otherwise not realize.
• Show loyalty - it will make a difference and pay off in the long term. And this again wraps around to patience - you may not see the pay off tomorrow, next week or next month. But, you will see it. It will return dividends.
• Be flexible and dynamic. Success isn’t a formula written in stone. You may have a standard model or approach but adapting that approach to the unique needs of your client will yield the greatest success. Being flexible and dynamic allows you to add significant value to each and every client.

There’s a valuable lesson in what David shared with me: it’s not about giving the client what you think they want or need, it’s about truly listening to the client and committing to giving them what their business actually needs.  Now that’s what makes a business a success - no matter the economic situation.  To learn more about CDM Software Solutions, Inc., click here.