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It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is just a few days away. In an effort to celebrate the holiday, we wanted to reflect on a few reasons we’re thankful this holiday season.

Our Team
We wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for our dedicated team of employees. Our employees work around the clock to ensure your orders receive the dedicated attention to detail we pride ourselves on. Whether it’s a member of our sales team reaching out to a first-time buyer, a member of our printing team working on a custom-printed whiteboard, or a member of our shipping department making sure each order arrives at its final destination, our employees play a large role in Magnatag’s success.

Our Friends & Families
The company our employees keep is equally important to us. You’ve been there to help recharge the batteries when the weeks grow long, and we can’t thank you enough being the ultimate support system.

You
That’s right, we’re thankful for you. Regardless of whether you’re a longtime customer or first-time visitor, we appreciate that you’ve invested your time in our business. We understand that your time is important, and just knowing that we’ve made something that is worthy of a few minutes of your day makes our work all the more enjoyable. Using your feedback we have—and will continue to—innovate and change the way we use whiteboards. Your support is what has helped keep the lights on for over 50 years. Thanks!

On behalf of the entire Magnatag Team, we’d like to wish you and your family an enjoyable, relaxing, and happy Thanksgiving.

Here at Magnatag, we take pride in knowing that our whiteboards help businesses visually communicate big-picture objectives and shed light on the lesser-known details that keep your organization running. In the spirit of Halloween, we thought we'd follow in our own footsteps and shed some light on some of the world's lesser known Halloween festivities. Take a look at the infographic below to see 5 of the most elaborate halloween festivals celebrated in Mexico, Hati, Ireland, China, and Nepal!

Ted Talks are a great source of inspiration for the forward-thinking individual. With speakers ranging from ex-presidents to world-renown comedians, Ted’s content always feels fresh and insightful. In May the company welcomed American rock band, OK Go, to take the stage and discuss the thought process behind the band’s number of unique and entrancing music videos. The talk, How To Find a Wonderful Idea, uncovered some of the technical aspects buried beneath the band’s videography, but the gist of the conversation centered around how to spark creativity when looking for your next great idea. It’s an issue we’re no strangers to here at Magnatag, and we’d venture to guess the same could be said for your business too. Here are some of the bands takeaways:

Here at Magnatag, we’re all about maximizing efficiency so you can spend more time focusing on the important things in life—like spending time with family for example! With one of America’s most popular holidays just around the corner, and we’d like to help you spend more time with your loved ones and less time planning. So here’s five ways you can plan ahead for turkey-day.

With Halloween weekend just around the corner, the Magnatag team wanted to create something a bit different than our typical blog post to celebrate the holiday. And with a company slogan like "Show what's happening", what better way to bring in the Halloween spirit than with an explainer video?

Whiteboards are everywhere: in the office, behind the counter at your local coffee shop, in a coaches hand during the final moments of a championship game, in your child’s kindergarten classroom. To many people, they’re considered a go-to resource for articulating and embracing ideas and conversations.

This year marks the 46^th annual Earth Day, a worldwide event that was established in 1970 in an effort to exhibit support for environmental protection. Among the billions of people that plan to celebrate today’s event, leaders from over 160 countries will also be taking part in celebrations as they sign the Paris climate agreement. The agreement, which began its initial stages back in 2011 and was completed just last year, will primarily focus on combating the amount of greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale.

For the rest of us working folk, Earth Day is just another day at the office. Sure, we may be a bit more conscientious and recycle a couple pieces of paper and feel as though we did our part, but the reality is that few workplaces actually take part in celebrating this global event. In an effort to step up our own game, we’ve put together a list of five ways you can help your office go green this Earth Day!

A few weeks ago Business Matters Magazine ran an article featuring how some UK-based startups spark creativity and collaboration in their offices. The article details that Epson UK—a leader in worldwide digital imaging technology—recently conducted research amongst 500 entrepreneurs, which found that over 70 percent of new businesses utilize dry-erase technology on a daily basis.

How many times do you think you’ve used a dry erase marker? Hundreds, perhaps even thousands of times? Some of us interact with these objects on a daily basis, but do not have the slightest inclination of what they are made of and how they function. I was recently writing on one of Magnatag’s own whiteboards earlier this week and I found myself asking this same question. So I did some research around the office. I questioned our R&D department and in turn, I developed a better understanding for how dry erase technology works.

Every lefty writer has smudged his or her handwriting on multiple occasions. A few years ago we listed a few simple methods for helping lefties better manage smudge marks on dry erase surfaces. We recently spent some more time studying lefty habits and picked up a new list of techniques that can help left-handed writers avoid sloppy handwriting.

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, everyone in the Magnatag office can’t help but think of all the delicious food that will be on our plates this coming Thursday. So we decided to take a break from our traditional whiteboard-related posts, and poke around the office and gather some of our employee’s favorite holiday dishes! Here are some Magnatag-appoved recipes that you can try this Thanksgiving:

Writers block is an issue that all creative minds have suffered on more than one occasion. Creative visions are not always guaranteed to be a bona fide success; I often times find myself drafting multiple blog topics before delving headfirst into a post. There are a myriad of ways to help hone our creativity, including using a whiteboard to brainstorm ideas! Here are three ways in which using a whiteboard can help enhance your creativity:

Has October been a crazy month for you? Have you forgotten to grab yourself a costume for Halloween weekend? There is no need to worry; Magnatag has got you covered. We’ve spent some time brainstorming easy, do-it-yourself costume ideas, so you don’t have to! Scroll down below for all the details including: what you’ll need to make the costume, how to put it together, and a photo of the finished product!

Whiteboards are an essential tool for every professional. We use them everyday; some of our customers use them to keep organized, while others use them as a practical method of displaying information and communicating with coworkers. A lot of times using a product like a whiteboard becomes second nature of sorts; we are so used to having them around the office, yet many of us know so little about them. Have you ever wondered where the whiteboard came from? The whiteboard has undergone quite an evolution since its conception in the 1960s. What originally started as a substitute for the traditional chalkboard quickly revolutionized the way we display information.

Everyone’s seen it happen before: the teacher leaves the room, the students run up to the whiteboard, and just as they lift the pen off the board they realize their fate has been sealed.

As another March Madness ends, coaches are naturally curious to learn how the top programs prepare for games.  How do coaches communicate strategies so players have a clear picture of what they need to do to win? Some university athletic programs such as Sacred Heart University come to Magnatag Visible Systems for help developing the visual tools they need. Interestingly enough, the current Sacred Heart coaches adopted the strategy of using a Magnatag custom whiteboard for their game preparation from former employer, Hofstra University.

The grand pillars on ancient Greek temples, modern soda bottles, and the metric system all testify to the importance of geometry in our world. For millennia, human beings have been engaged in the study of geometry, which is a subset of mathematics that addresses issues such as position, space, size, volume, shape, and so forth. Today, it is a required course in most secondary education programs.Euclidean geometry is the most famous branch of geometry, but there are several other branches such as differential geometry, projective geometry, and others. This resource guide to geometry deals mainly with Euclidean geometry and features links to several resource pages with lessons, games, and other activities to help you master the subject. Use it to enhance your understanding of this important branch of mathematics and to have fun with shapes, lines, points, and more.

Creativity in the workplace is often underestimated. Sure, some people will just come in and go through their daily routine, never changing things up even in the slightest. However, I have discovered the importance of creativity and innovation over the years, not just because it can make you a better person but because it can make you much happier and feeling more innovative. This can benefit you both at the office as well as outside of the office.

Believe it or not, mindfulness meditation can be an outstanding way to relieve stress and ultimately boost your creativity. This is important to keep in mind because when you're stressed about anything, you won't be as creative or motivated to accomplish the tasks that are put in front of you. With that said, I had a friend recommend meditation to me, and I'll be honest - at first, I was skeptical about it. I wasn't overly enthusiastic about it because I assumed that the perceived benefits were a little over-exaggerated.

But I was wrong.

It's no secret that it's important to be a positive influence on those around you. From my experience, this is especially true in the office. It's good to keep morale up, and if you're someone who is in a managerial role, it's very important to be influential in a positive manner. Face it - influence matters, and it's not exactly easy to be influential in a positive way. However, with that said, I'm confident that I can help.

Here, I want to share with you some tips on how you can influence others in a positive way around the office.

Hey Everyone!

My name is Tom Shaw, and I'm a Visible Systems Specialist for Magnatag. I'm looking forward to contributing fresh, great, & informative content for all of our readers, but first, I would like to introduce myself a bit.

I'm originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated with a degree in communications in 2000. I originally started my career in my home state of Ohio, around the Cincinnati area, but after some time there, I felt that a little change would be good. This is when I was presented with the opportunity to join the outstanding team at Magnatag, and didn't even hesitate at the chance to join.