As the world gets more globalized, the boundaries not only between countries and states disappear or weaken but also the distinctions between different fields of life also diminish. As business becomes more intertwined with media, marketing becomes more involved in politics and as a result, a company operating in the Far East might carry out operations to influence political views of citizens of a South American society. Social media has become such a powerful tool and apparatus in this paradigm that its applications into such fields of life has gained immense utility and worth for millions of individual and corporate users. Social media marketing, for example, has made it possible for businesses – big and small – to reach a larger audience and find greater success. Likewise, the impact of social media on global politics have brought Facebook to trial in the US courts. Therefore, digital media and marketing have become significantly important aspects of our everyday lives today which means further investigation is necessary to fully comprehend the future of the interactions between human societies and the digital world.

        Saher Ghattas, the Chief Revenue Officer for Flawless Inbound, writes for Forbes Magazine to report his views on the future of digital marketing to begin his  ideas by stating that there is an element of disruption in the world of digital marketing. To overcome such distribution, the author states that his company created digital marketing frameworks to be visited every year or two years to remember crucial details regarding these periods of disruption for the marketers, companies and customers. So far, the global market has undergone three different frameworks of such nature beginning with the year 2000, and in the fourth one will include “More Integrated Global Marketing”, “A Cohesive Marketing Technology Stack”, “Evolving Marketing Roles”, “Omnichannel Marketing Strategy” and “A Focus On Account-Based Marketing (B2B)”. The first element refers to how inbound and outbound marketing procedures should be combined meaning that different internet technologies such as e-mail and websites should be utilized in conjunction with one another. The second element refers to the establishment of an advanced technological infrastructure for marketing processes which means that the marketers and their companies will have to construct “stacks” of such technologies. The third element refers to the development and application of new marketing roles to expand the duties and capabilities of CMOs. The fourth element is about the inclusion of processes such as deep analytics and data mining to be combined with the existent AI and machine learning infrastructure to create further value for your brand. The last element refers to how B2B organizations need to rely on account-based sales operations to survive in the jungle of global business and the capability to adapt to this norm will determine the winners and losers of this sector beginning with the year 2017. The list provided by Ghattas is utile in the sense that it shows how marketing strategy and methodology need to be closely intertwined with one another in the modern age to ensure success and profits for the marketers and companies alike.

        Mark Smith for BBC News reports on new technologies being utilized by British companies, namely the tech start-up “Lightvert”, whose team of marketers has recently bombarded the visions and minds of Londoners with a giant image of the famous Rolling Stones logo suspended in mid-air that lasted for a fraction of a second. This new technology is called Echo which employs a tiny strip of reflective material placed on the side of a building while a high-powered projector place above or below the strip sends off light beams directly into the eyes of passersby. The momentary nature of the produced vision leaves the viewer in a state of constant remembrance because the subconscious mind does not forget what it sees quickly or easily. Daniel Siden, Lightvert’s CEO, states that the reception of the Echo technology has been great so far and that more people are becoming curious to witness an application of it because it is unusual and non-traditional. Siden believes that this technology is a great opportunity for Landlords to “turn their buildings into revenue-generating digital billboards that are huge, yet physically unobtrusive,” which he believes will be a great innovation for digital media and marketing. Smith, the author, also refers to a similar campaign that took place in Moscow, Russia where the luxurious automobile company Jaguar utilized the technology to display its new SUV model to drivers who were driving different SUVs. The system utilized a machine-learning camera to recognize the type of the driver’s vehicle to flash the advertisement directly into their eyes. The presentation also changed in accordance with weather conditions to make it more appealing to the eye. In both cases, the publics were very pleased and the intellect behind these marketing campaigns gained both companies significant respect in the eyes of the customers.   

        Gabriel Snyder for Wired magazine reports on the famous newspaper, The New York Times as a great example of a company that has managed to convert its operations into a digital format so far with reasonable success, thanks to its infringements with other digital media companies in New York City. The newspaper has a history of 165 years but recently put its crew of employees, including hundreds of professional journalists, designers, communication specialists etc., to work on this gigantic transformation project. The idea is to preserve the quality of the newspaper’s journalism while ensuring a more secure and profitable future for the company. In order to accomplish this, the newspaper intends to focus on its digital subscriptions to extend its subscriber and reporter networks to become a fully integrated global news agency. Following the strategies employed by companies such as Netflix, Spotify and HBO, The New York Times seeks to invest heavily into its core journalism related offerings while also expanding its other services to add more features to the online experience it offers to its visitors. This way, the administration for the newspaper wishes to eradicate the barriers of nations, countries and languages to be able to reach out to a global community of individuals interested in learning by reading high quality journalism. This way, the company seeks to increase its subscription fees as well, to make more profits, because as the quality of NY Times services will increase, it will become possible to charge extra for new services or improved versions of already existent ones. This way, the newspaper wishes to transform into an online system with more to offer and less to fear, in the name of resisting against the growing demands of the new age of capitalism in America to continue its century old existence.  

Think web design and what instantly comes to mind is the look and feel of a website. Web development is the construction of a website for the internet. Web development can vary from a static, single page text to dynamic pages and internet applications. From the perspective of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), a website design includes all this and more. SEO is architecture of the website that encompasses everything that makes a site search engine-friendly.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) goes beyond website development. It constitutes a range of activities such as content, keywords and title tags. Search engine optimization is a methodology by which developers make websites visible to internet programs that are constantly crawling the internet for new content. Search Engine Optimization is of vital importance to web design as even a well-designed website would be useless if no one has the wherewithal to find it. A web designer needs to strike a good balance between web design and SEO to create SEO-compliant sites that can be crawled faster and easier by search engines.

Fundamentals of SEO

The SEO process features some crucial elements.

Website Ranking

SEO boosts the ranking of a website on the web. Thanks to SEO, users searching for products that are available on an SEO website will be able to view the website immediately after typing the keywords.

Domains

The chosen domain should make sense, and all variations and sub-domains should lead to the main site and to a single version of the site. Example.com is the most commonly used domain name, but there are equally noteworthy ones.

Hosting

Website hosting is the culmination of the website development process. The hosting should be fast, platform-specific and located in the vicinity of the audience as a slow website makes for unhappy users.

CMS

The content management system (CMS) has a major impact on the success of a business. One needs to ensure that a CMS is a good fit for business, rather than be swayed by the web company’s preferences.

Creating SEO Content

Creating SEO-based content depends on various factors such as keywords and the actual content itself. Keywords, when used in different variants and placed in the proper context, provide a much-needed boost to search engine optimization. Variations are important as the same word can render the content repetitive and boring. Moreover, short content pieces should not use the same keyword more than three times and important keywords should be placed at the beginning of the text, preferably within the first 50 words. Data trackers play an important role in detecting people using the same keywords and determining appropriate keywords. To ensure your website is SEO-friendly in both design and development, consider investing time working with a leading digital marketing agency that offers exceptional web design, web development, and SEO services.

Conclusion

SEO is indispensable to web development and is driven by technological advances. One should, however, not lose sight of the human element as SEO rankings ultimately hinge on the extent of human interest.

Food and beverage is a key element that factors into the success of any event, be it a business conference or a wedding. This is why clients favor catering service providers that are well-known in the community or highly reputable. Before, generating word-of-mouth was the most effective marketing strategy, but now online marketing weighs more in a potential client’s decision to engage a catering service.

Online marketing is not only useful in elevating a caterer’s brand, but also in providing social proof and in increasing customer satisfaction, which is important for any catering business. Here are four online marketing ideas that your catering business can benefit from:

An Informative and User-Friendly Website

The first thing that a potential customer will do when they hear about your food service is to visit your website to find more information, whether it be a restaurant menu or learning how to order fish online. The basics that they are looking for would be company history staff and chef information, the packages you offer, pricing, contact information, and testimonials or your portfolio of clients. You can be sure that they will compare your website to your competitors, so make sure it is well-designed, mobile responsive, and it’s easy for customers to find what they are looking for.

You may also want to include online ordering and payment applications in your website to make it even more convenient for customers. To complement this, an online catering software could be integrated to help you manage your orders, inventory, customers, and reports on the go.

Search Engine Optimization

Clicks from search engine results will form most of your total website traffic, which is why you have to maintain SEO efforts as long as your catering business is active. Over time, these efforts will help your website rank in the first few pages of the search engine results. SEO includes researching most-searched keywords for the catering industry and frequently answered questions asked by potential customers, in order to incorporate them into your website content. This requires a bit of brainstorming, as well as usage of keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner or Moz’s Keyword Explorer.

For catering companies that only serve one or a few cities, it’s recommended to focus your efforts on local searches and more localized long-tailed keywords. You will also have to work on backlinks, which is getting another source or website to mention or link to your site.

Be Active on Social Media

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest are powerful marketing platforms. They have a broad reach and can prove to potential customers how credible your brand is. Use social media to document great F&B ideas that your catering service executed and events that you catered for. Also, food is a highly relatable subject, so don’t be afraid to use social media to converse with your audience, whether it’s through a contest or through votes and polls.

Keep a Blog

Other than social media, a blog is a great channel for caterers to connect and engage with your potential customers. By sharing recipes, décor ideas, hosting tips and documenting recent events your business catered for, you are keeping your brand relevant and establishing your company as a reputable caterer. Incorporating keywords into your blog posts also helps to boost SEO. However, make sure you blog consistently and keep the content fresh and relevant. No one wants to read about recipes or décor ideas that are overdone.

Did you know that with one hour worth of energy provided by the sun, we can potentially meet the global energy requirements for an entire year? Since we are able to secure and harness only 0.001% of the available energy, solar-powered systems have become a popular topic while discussing renewables. Environmentally friendly and extremely economical in the long-term, solar-powered systems are being used everywhere today because of the following benefits:

• Low Maintenance costs:
  Solar powered systems, for the most part, don’t require a great deal of upkeep. You just need to keep them reasonably clean, so cleaning them two or three times each year should be okay. If all else fails, you can easily depend on specialized cleaning companies, that charge £25-£35, depending on the infrastructure. Most reputable solar panel makers also offer 20-25 years of warranty. Additionally, since there are no moving parts, there is generally less wear and tear.
  
  The inverter, which is the heart of any solar powered system, is often the only component that requires changing every 5-10 years, as it is consistently attempting to transform solar energy into electricity and heat. Apart from that, the cables might need your attention once in a while to ensure maximum efficiency and performance of your solar power framework. So, once you’ve covered the initial setup costs,  you can expect next to no spending on maintenance and repair work.
  

• Reduces electricity bills:
  Since most of your energy need will be taken care of by the electricity generated from solar-powered systems, you will notice a significant drop in electricity bills. The amount you save money on your bill depends on your energy consumption and the size of the solar-powered system you are using. Moreover, if you end up generating more energy than you utilize, the surplus will be sent back to the ‘grid’ and you will receive bonus pay for the same. You can also use the solar-powered system during the day, and the grid at night (when the rates are considerably low) to save more money.
  

• Renewable energy source:
  Solar energy being a renewable source of energy is probably the most important benefit of installing a solar-powered system in your home. Not only is it consistently available at all times, but it can be harnessed anywhere in the world. As long as we have the sun, you can rely on solar-powered systems for your electricity and heat requirements.
  

• Technology Development:
  Technologies harnessing solar power only continues to grow in sophistication and efficiency. Quantum material science and nanotechnology both show huge promise in solar energy research, and could possibly help double or even triple the efficiency of solar panels in the coming years.
  

• Diverse Applications:
  Solar-powered systems can especially be beneficial for remote areas with no electricity, or access to the energy/power grid. You can use solar energy to distill water in regions with a shortage of clean water or limited water supplies. It is also being used to power earth-orbiting satellites, water pumping appliances, remote radiotelephones, hydronic collectors, consumer systems (e.g. handheld calculators) and much more.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an integral part of any digital marketing strategy. It is the process of optimizing websites for search engines and enhancing their search engine rankings. Search engines such as Google use algorithms to scan websites and allocate a higher ranking to websites that contain informative content and relevant keywords.

SEO marketing is crucial in today’s competitive business environment. Search engine users are more prone to click on the first page links on a Google results page – SEO helps a person to be on this list. SEO boosts website visibility and sales as people who locate a website through a Google search tend to promote it on social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter. SEO integrates keywords into the content in such a way that people searching for specific products and services can find a business with ease.

The first step in SEO strategy is to define the target audience. “There is only one winning strategy. It is to carefully define the target market and direct a superior offering to that target market,” so said the marketing guru, Philip Kotler. A target audience is a specific group of people who may be interested in the products and services on offer, and is usually defined on the basis of gender, age, location, profession and income.

Keyword research is about getting the right kind of visitors to a website. The keywords should be relevant to the website’s content and help users to find what they are looking for. The SEO marketers should zero in on at least 5-10 topics and create an equal number of keywords for each topic.

It is next to impossible to create a webpage for all keywords or even a handful of keywords. What is definitely possible is to develop a web page for each topic and provide content that is relevant to the target audience.  

Blogging is an incredible means of engaging the website users. Every blog post is a new web page that throws up an opportunity to establish a high ranking in search engines by providing a link to the website.

The mobile devices market has exploded in the past few years, with the ubiquitous smart phone overtaking the desktops as a device of choice for internet use. If you want to rank well in search engine results, optimizing websites for mobile browsers is of immense importance.

Social media has metamorphosed from a basic communication tool to a marketing communication platform. Many users start their searches on social media and subsequently make their way to a business site. Engaging and personalized content is therefore a sure means of attracting people to a social profile and website.

Website ranking is only one part of the story; what is more important is the traffic and website conversions generated by SEO.

It is never easy to run a business if one does not understand some of the important cash terminologies. For any business to succeed, it is wise to keep an account of what cash flow is all about and why it is important.  Without cash, it is not easy to run a business and it will be hard to control the will of employees as some may become irritable when they know there is not enough money to pay them. Without money, suppliers will cut off their supply. Generally speaking, a business owner can run out of cash while his or her business is still making money.

This happens to many business owners out there and an individual has to understand what cash flow entails and how it can change the growth of a business. Cash flow is simply the way through which money moves in and out of a business. When there is an increase in cash flow, then that is what is referred to as positive cash flow. When the amount decreases, that is negative cash flow. With this in mind, a business owner should, at all times, keep his or her cash tank full and know what is coming in and out of the organization.

Reasons Why a Cash Flow Statement Is Imperative

Get to know where the money went

A well-executed cash flow statement will not say anything about what a business owner pays to the bank.  A business owner may be making good profits but the amount he or she is paying to the bank is vast and this could be putting him or her out of business. With a cash flow statement, the business owner will know where they spent their money. From the statement, a business owner will know whether he or she spent the money to increase the stock or to buy capital equipment.

Helps business owner to focus on creating extra cash

It is a great feeling and motivation for any business owner to know their business is making profit. With good profits, it also becomes easy to create extra cash. But to make more money, a business owner has to spend less on capital equipment. He or she has to collect payments from customers as fast as they can.

Provides better key performance indicators

With key performance indicators, it becomes easy to create value for a business entity. Knowing what makes it easy to create more profit is part of any business development story. A business that concentrates on making extra cash always gives the company value with time.

Helps in making financial decisions

It is never easy to make financial decisions. With the cash flow statement, one will figure out where the money is going and make the right decision. A business owner has to figure out whether his decision will help the business grow financially and stand above his competitors.

The Bottom Line

When running a business entity, it is wise to take into account where the money is going. Invest wisely and seek help when you are facing cash flow problems.  A cash flow statement is a great tool for financial analysis. Therefore, in order to maintain a healthy and profitable business, one should understand what cash flow financing is all about. Cash flow financing allows businesses to improve its working capital by releasing immediate cash from accounts receivables. Businesses can access up to 80% of the invoice value in as quick as 4 hours, allowing them to get on top of operating expenses and grow.

When an individual seeks to optimize their personal and professional obligations – achieving work-life balance – they enjoy a sense of flow and euphoria. When an individual has trouble finding work-life balance, burnout will eventually rear its ugly head. In fact, job burnout has become increasingly rampant in corporate America and, if you haven’t already, you may experience it in the future. Knowing how to escape unscathed is a skill you’ll need if you want to enjoy sustained success.

The Signs and Symptoms of Work Burnout

According to a local clinic, “Job burnout is a special type of job stress — a state of physical, emotional or mental exhaustion combined with doubts about your competence and the value of your work.” Common symptoms of work burnout include:

•     Cynicism at work
•     A trend of getting up later and later each morning
•     A feeling of uselessness or lack of purpose
•     An inability to motivate yourself to start your workday
•     A lack of energy to accomplish basic tasks
•     Unexplained health issues, such as chronic headaches
•     A lack of focus and clarity in your life
•     A feeling of haze and fogginess over your workday
•     A feeling of uneasiness the night before starting a new workweek

These aren’t the only signs and symptoms, but if you’re experiencing a few of these, you can bet you’re on the verge of burnout. Learning to identify it early on will help you develop a plan of attack.

According to a property management company, Green Residential, burnout is most common when individuals fail to purposefully prioritize work-life balance. And while you may never achieve perfect work-life balance, you should aim for it.

4 Tips for Avoiding Burnout

Sometimes the only answer to job burnout is to pivot or switch careers, but you shouldn’t let it get this far. If you spot burnout in the beginning stages – or even before it sets in altogether – you should be able to ward it off.

1. Understand Why You Work

It’s not enough to know what you’re doing at work, or what your job responsibilities are. You need to understand the why behind your work. You need to attach your work efforts to something of practical value. For example, you might work so that you can pay for your child to go to college debt-free, or maybe you work in order to help people who are less fortunate.

Every situation is different, but try to dig beneath the surface. In doing so, you’ll realize that you have purpose.

2. Take Time Off

There’s often a direct correlation between high job burnout and a lack of time off. If you have a bunch of unused vacation days that you’ve been saving for years, go ahead and use them! Time away from work will allow you to return refreshed.

3. Know When You Work Best

Everyone has a unique personality and specific set of strengths. It’s possible that you’re working against yours, rather than with it. Find out when you work best – such as in the morning or late at night – and optimize your schedule and commitments accordingly.

4. Set Goals for Yourself

Burnout is typically tied to a lack of purpose. If you want to increase your sense of purpose, make it a point to regularly set goals– both of the short-term and long-term variety. They’ll keep you moving towards growth, rather than wallowing in stagnation.

Get Ahead of Burnout

The faster you can address the signs and symptoms of burnout, the less likely it is that you’ll have to switch careers or make a dramatic change. Use the tips discussed in this article to gain control of your situation and rediscover the flow that you once experienced on a regular basis.

Mobile phone technologies keep advancing everyday. To the point that we are now asking ourselves if a picture was taken with a phone or a camera. With Apple’s iPhone being the leader in mobile phone photography, it seems as if everything is continually changing, so much so it can feel difficult to keep up with trends. From new application updates to software updates, our phones hold a vital position in our everyday lives. It is the main point of contact for our loved ones. Many companies will now issue their employees a mobile phone only to be used to professional use.

Mobile phones, just like the internet, was originally created for military usage. In the mobile phone’s first stage, it was the newest form of military communication technology. As mobile/cell phones made their way into the consumer market, they started as a military bag phone. From there, there was the revolutionary Nokia phone. Then as cellular providers such as Sprint, U.S. Cellular, Verizon, and AT&T started popping up all over developed countries, they began to recognized the potential for financial growth and investment opportunities in the new market of mobile phone technologies. From the original versions of phones, they started advancing to be more compact. Something so large became a tiny little phone in two parts that was easy to flip and open with a tiny keyboard. The next came a Razor phone from Motorola. What was first just a means of calling another person utilizing cellular towers now became an text message device and camera. The first camera phones took very low quality pictures, but they were pictures on a mobile device nonetheless. As companies began to realize that mobile phones were becoming necessary to the everyday lives of citizens in developed countries, cellular providers and carriers started to charge users even more for texting and data to send pictures. Mobile phones began carrying internet on them where users were able to download applications for games or for email accounts. They could receive and view emails from others and send emails themselves, thus beginning a new area of mobile internet communication.

This new mobile technology quickly started to act a catalyst for brand wars. As phone technology became increasingly intelligent, companies capitalized on touch-screen phones. One of the first groundbreaking technologies was the Apple touch screen iPhone. It brought music listening, messaging, and linking to a computer full circle. Now Apple ID users were able to link all of their devices and have music downloaded directly to their phone. It brought the iPod and a phone into one device. Android smart phones were in early competition with Apple for differing features. Androids were much more customizable and powered by Google. Google is a driving force in search engines on the internet, so having something powered by google with a gmail account made it very simple to link everything. Linking devices is important to consumers that own multiple technologies that utilize data.

Mobile technologies are so integrated into to lives of consumers that now instead of a brand war, it has become the latest application must haves. Phone companies continue to capitalize on data usage from consumers by charging them for data/internet. Videos take the most data to load, but connecting to wifi doesn’t charge consumers against their data plans. Many companies have now come through with plans with unlimited data that allow consumers to use as much data as possible without being charged for going over their data limit. This can be beneficial to consumers that do not have the means necessary to connect to wifi constantly or are in continuous travels throughout their career.

As companies continue to fight for advertising revenue on mobile applications, they will have to be extremely intellectual in strategizing their marketing and advertising campaigns to consumers. Mobile phone technology used to be something that was targeted at the general public. Now with everyone owning a phone and a mobile data plan, the market share is targeted more at advertising revenue to get consumers to click on advertisements, subscribe to their newsletters, and turn on notifications. Companies and brand gain increase awareness when consumers sign up for mobile text notifications. This will send a text their way anytime they decide to alert them of information. Even insurance companies have mobile applications and text alerts to notify customers when their bills are due. Consumers have so many apps available from ones that allow them to play games to ones that show them football odds and have sports betting communities. With global network access, mobile phone owners are able to communication anywhere in the world. This creates tiny niche communities and large organization and networks. The entire communication process of mobile technology is ever evolving into the most efficient and fastest way possible to reach out to others.

As previously stated, mobile phone technology went from being a large military phone to something so compact, and then to a device with a touch screen. Now phone’s are reverting back to larger sizes for bigger screens. Some of the largest iPhones aren’t much smaller than a mini iPad. As marketers and brand managers research the industry, they will have to partner with software developers to provide the most advanced mobile technology for consumers to adopt and begin utilizing in their everyday lives.

The trends in marketing have changed over the last few years. These trends have had enormous impact on the collaboration, communication, innovation, and evolution of businesses, both physically and online. The ecommerce market is expanding relentlessly, and as a result the importance of remaining relevant cannot be overstated. Many businesses may find change to be a daunting prospect, but it is vital to the longevity of any business in this modern era. Some businesses tend to struggle to align themselves with the ongoing changes, most often because such changes are unfamiliar to them. While there is bravery in determination, businesses that opt to tackle new concepts on their own rather than invest in the appropriate marketing put themselves at a disadvantage. This is the story of a thousand businesses struggling to cope with digital marketing changes.

Inbound and outbound marketing should be combined, particularly now. Conversion rate optimization is one of the most sophisticated digital marketing tools available, but it is also one of the most necessary for a successful business. Aimed at improving website content to draw in more prospective consumers, CRO functions as the backbone of online marketing. While SEO is equally as important, it is CRO that houses all the strategies and concepts that SEO and other online marketing tools are built around.

The online marketing landscape is a fickle one, and it takes time, consistency, and innovation to keep it afloat. The nature of online marketing suggests to some that it is easier than running a business in the physical streets, but that could not be further from the truth. On-location stores are built with the understanding that they have a very specific demographic, a specific reach beyond their doors. Moving a physical store without literally relocating is virtually impossible, save for pop up stores, and so the expectation for consumer visitation is only set so high.

Online stores, however, are built with the understanding that their reach is not only immediately local, but global. As a result, the limits for consumer reach are practically non-existent, making it imperative that the business uses every marketing tool available to stand out among the competition. Online brands have a vastly larger prospective consumer base, and so there is vastly more competition. Online marketing tools like search engine optimization and conversion rate optimization coexist to bring a business to its best self, putting on a front that is not only important, but critical to an online business’ survival.

For each and every business model, there are marketing concepts that function as the basis of its success. It is impossible for an online business to thrive on its own without the use of marketing tactics for the simple reason that, like all industries, ecommerce is dependent on consumer engagement and loyalty – without the interest of the consumers, a business dies within a matter of months (sometimes even sooner). Marketing is the core of every business, no matter its platform, and it is crucial that marketing tactics are used in accordance with individual business goals to achieve maximum – and long-lived – impact.

Since the advent of civilization, humans have always been curious. Curious to see what lies beyond the world they inhabit. Whether it is early nomads travelling through desserts, forests and rivers or the pioneers that sailed across oceans with no knowledge of what them might find, people have continued to push forth into the uncharted. Today of course this same curiosity has fueled our exploration into worlds outside of our own. Space travel has become a real part of life as we know it. Modern day pioneers will very soon be making trips across our solar system and maybe even beyond. To boldly go where no man has gone before.

It is incredible to think that less than a hundred and fifty years since the first powered human flight, we are seriously considering habitation of worlds outside of our own. In the context of human history, the timeframe is miniscule.

With the development of civilization, one of the milestones that has led to the globalized world we live in is the advent of constantly improving means of transportation. Once people could travel safely across most parts of the inhabited world, we began to see the flow of people, culture and ideas across continents. Without this we could not imagine the culturally diverse societies that have formed across the world.

Apart from carrying people over what once seemed impossible distances to cover, transportation has contributed to another large aspect of the way our world is built. The advent of the industrial revolution made it possible to produce goods at high volumes. All these volumes would have no value unless these goods could be transported to a large number of people that might not necessarily be in the same area. The transportation industry was critical to the boom of industrialization and its continued march into the modern day behemoth we have become accustomed to.

Even today, the large conglomerates in the field of transportation are testament to how dependent we are on its merits. Countries all over the world have invested heavily in highway infrastructure to aid the smooth movement of goods and people. The ease with which commercial vehicles can transport goods across the country is integral to its economic growth. This is especially relevant in countries whose economies are heavily dependent on manufacturing.  If transporting products to docks and ports is not cost effective, it often defeats the price advantage the manufacturers of the country, integral in an extremely competitive global economy.

The landscape of the transportation industry is deeply linked with industrialization. As one evolves, we see the repercussion flow through the other. Today with greater automation and dependency on technology becoming a theme across most sectors of business, from advice on car detailing to innovations in the transportation industry.

The ambition of large transportation companies like Uber and Hyperloop seem to be following the same path.

They are innovating rapidly, trying to make the transport of goods and people more efficient. One of the hallmarks of their innovation is the lack of dependency on human operators. Instead they aim to use technology and systems to make sure they optimize routes, consuming the bare minimum amount of time and fuel to complete the journey safely.

While there is an obvious push towards improving technology, there is another hurdle that stands in the way of the industry at large. Since its inception it has been dependent on carbon based fossil fuels to power it. In the recent past this has come under heavy criticism owing to the massive emissions that are a byproduct of the mass use of existing technology. Countries all over the world are aware of their carbon footprint and the need to control it. They are slowly but steadily bringing in legislature to curb the output and reverse the damage caused to the environment.

This has led to the need, for the industry as a whole, to shift to sustainable sources of energy. Like the energy industry, we see larger sums of money dedicated to research and development, dedicated to finding alternatives powered by eco friendly sources of energy. Whether the change is enforced or just natural evolution, the technology and innovation seen in the field is undeniable. Apart from the obvious environmental benefits, the use of such technology is making it easier and more affordable for an increasingly large part of society to adopt such means of transportation.

The human desire to see new places is a part of our programming. That coupled with the economic benefits of moving goods and people across distances efficiently will continue to drive the technology we adopt to do so. With the realms of possibility no longer restricted to our world, it is only a matter of time before people are making journeys that were once considered possible only in science fiction. As a species, we will always remain on the move, the only question is where we are going.