For the second year in a row, iScrap App (Rockaway, N.J.) hosted a silent-auction fundraising event at the ISRI convention to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (Memphis, Tenn.). The "iScrap4Kids" event, held April 17 at the Mandalay Bay, raised thousands of dollars for the hospital by auctioning more than 60 items, such as an iPad loaded with scrapyard software, full-page ads in industry trade publications (including Scrap), travel packages, sports memorabilia, and adventure experiences. St. Jude seeks to find cures for children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Above, even Elvis (Dan Sandoval of Recycling Today Media Group) found time to stop by the "iScrap4Kids" event to commend host Tom Buechel of iScrap App. - www.scrap.org

GIE Media's Horticultural Group has launched its first-ever consumer magazine, A Garden Life. The innovative new media publication will be delivered to consumers as a free app for tablet platforms. The premiere issue is available for download now on iTunes/Apple Store at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/a-garden-life/id504342702?mt=8 and on the Android Market at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.giemedia.agardenlife&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5naWVtZWRpYS5hZ2FyZGVubGlmZSJd

Each issue of A Garden Life will explore and celebrate the concept of "life as a garden." GIE Media Chairman, Richard Foster, describes the magazine's mission: "To create a community of consumers with shared values and interests in lifestyle subject areas such as healthy living, that includes growing and preparing clean food, contributing to community, exploring travel and adventure, art and literature, as well as having a passion for diverse aspects of nature and gardening." GIE will publish six issues of A Garden Life in 2012 (March, May, June, July/August, September/October, November/December) exclusively via iTunes, Android Market and the web. The model for A Garden Life breaks new ground for B2B media companies by creating a free consumer magazine designed to generate consumer sales for its business magazine readers. Prior to launching AGL, GIE Media reached out to its readers in the garden center retail market to promote the free app to their homeowner consumer customers. Hundreds of retailers across North America responded and will benefit from a built-in geocoding function that will point AGL readers to their local garden centers to source products they find in the publication.

A Garden Life will also utilize the latest social media tools to stimulate active reader engagement with its editors and contributors, as well as with one another, be it across town or around the world. "Tablet mobile technology – and the social media it facilitates – can stimulate sharing of ideas through direct one-to-one connections by email and text messaging, and simple tools for sharing imagery, audio and video," says Foster.

A Garden Life has a companion website (www.agardenlife.com) that will offer the magazine app content to consumers who do not yet use tablet technology. The website will include deep databases of horticultural products such as perennials, annuals, succulents, grasses, trees, ornamentals and lawn and garden hard-goods items. GIE will also offer consumer readers a regular electronic newsletter of garden center product insights at no charge.

Richfield, OH – GIE Media is pleased to announce its further expansion into risk mitigation through a partnership with Chicago Weather Brokerage (CWB). GIE’s Ventures Inc, headed by Kevin Gilbride, was initially created to support the GIE Media/CWB partnership in managing risk as it relates to the snow and ice removal industry, and is now growing to include other unique partnership programs.

GIE’s Ventures began in 2009 as a joint program with Chicago Weather Brokerage, focusing on snowfall amounts and helping to educate snow contractors on the risks involved with unpredictable weather as it relates to their businesses. GIE and CWB help to alleviate the risk by offering Snowfall Options, traded on the CME Group Exchange.

In March 2011, GIE Ventures, CWB and CME Group pioneered the introduction of rainfall options. These options, like snowfall options, allow companies with risk associated with high or low rainfall to manage their revenues and profits more effectively. The new department will continue and expand to benefit professionals in several industries that GIE’s publications serve, including snow removal, golf course maintenance, lawn care, manufacturing, ornamental horticulture, recycling, and pest control.

“GIE is entering areas of business outside of publishing, but that offer tremendous value to the marketplace,” said GIE Media President and COO, Chris Foster. “I’m excited that we can bring a product to the snow removal market that substantially normalizes a snow removal contractors cash flow considering weather is never normal.”

Gilbride joined GIE Media in 1996, and has been an instrumental member of the team as a sales manager and publisher in the Lawn & Landscape magazine group. He now oversees this revolutionary program as GIE Media’s Ventures business manager.

“As the industry leader, GIE Media has always brought unique products to the marketplace,” Gilbride said. “I couldn’t be more excited to lead GIE Ventures to the same success that we’ve enjoyed with the rest of our business at GIE Media.”

For more information on risk mitigation, call Kevin Gilbride at 330/523-5368 or visit CWBrokerage.com.

GIE Media, Inc. is a leading B-to-B media company active in some 17 major national and international industries through print and digital trade magazines, websites and interactive media, conferences and tradeshows, reference books and directories, and market databases. For additional information about GIE, please visit www.gie.net.

Richfield, OH – The PCT Media Group, a leader in structural pest industry communications, is pleased to announce the release of The Mallis Handbook of Pest Control, 10th Edition. This leading reference source for the pest control industry is a scientific guide and practical aid for the biology, behavior and control of structural pests.

The 1,500 page publication, often referred to as “The Bible of the Industry,” provides pest control operators with the information needed to deliver effective, environmentally conscious pest management services in today’s competitive business climate.

“Arnold Mallis had a vision back in the 1940s to bring detailed information regarding structural pests to the pest control industry. This 10th Edition of the Handbook of Pest Control published 66 years after the 1st edition continues his vision and passion for structural entomology and the urban pest management community, “ said Stoy Hedges, Editorial Director for the 8th, 9th and 10th Editions.

“As the industry’s leading reference book for more than half a century, the Mallis Handbook of Pest Control has played a key role in the educational development of the pest management industry,” said Dan Moreland who served as editor of the book. “The 10th edition of this important publication represents the most comprehensive effort to date, and continues the tradition of excellence envisioned by industry legend Arnold Mallis in 1945.”

Written in easy-to-understand language, The Mallis Handbook of Pest Control features more than 600 photographs and insect illustrations, including comprehensive insect keys and an expanded color photo identification section.
The publication includes 24 chapters written by today’s leading entomologists, consultants, pest management professionals and university researchers. Chapter include:

• Rats & Mice by Dr. Robert Corrigan

•  Cockroaches by Dr. Coby Schal

•  Termites by Dr. Michael Potter

•  Wood-Decay Fungi by Fred Strickland, Jr.

•  Wood-Boring Beetles by David Saunders

•  Ectoparasites, Part One: Fleas & Lice by Dr. Nancy Hinkle and Dr. Faith Oi

•  Ectoparasites, Part Two: Mites & Ticks by Dr. Jerome Goddard

•  Ectoparasites, Part Three: Bed Bugs & Kissing Bugs by Richard Cooper

•  Itches, Illusions & Phobias by Anthony Borski

•  Fabric & Museum Pests by Jay Bruesch

•  Ants by Dr. Karen Vail and Dr. David Oi

•  Stinging Arthropods by Dr. Steven Sims

•  Stored Product Pests by Jeff Weier

•  Flies, Gnats & Midges by Dr. Hanif Gulmahamad

•  Mosquitoes by Dr. Marc Slaff

•  Spiders by Richard Vetter

•  Vertebrate Pests by Scott McNeely

•  Occasional Invaders & Overwintering Pests by Frank Meek

•  Insecticides & Pesticide Safety by Dr. Gary Braness

•  Fumigation by Dean Stanbridge

•  Pheromones by Alain VanRyckeghem and Patrick Kelley

•  Equipment by Judy Black

•  Legislation, Liability & Litigation by Gene Harrington

•  Integrated Pest Management by Jeff Tucker

“The most recent edition was designed to be more user-friendly than past editions,” Moreland said. “Every chapter has been fully updated and revised by a distinguished group of industry professionals to reflect the latest thinking on the behavior, biology and control of household pests. The 10th Edition of the Mallis Handbook of Pest Control should be on every pest management professional’s bookshelf.”

Pre-publication price is $143 with discounted pricing for multiple books and ends August 15, 2011. After August 15, 2011 the price is $179 per book. Shipping begins October 10, 2011, and domestic shipping is free with all pre-publication orders. To order, call a PCT Store representative at 800/456-0707 or visit www.mallishandbook.com or www.pctonline.com.

The PCT Media Group, a division of Cleveland-based GIE Media, Inc., is the publisher of Pest Control Technology (PCT) and Quality Assurance (QA) magazines, and developer of the pest control industry’s most interactive Web site www.pctonline.com.

Richfield, OH – GIE Media’s Snow Magazine is pleased to announce the release of Managing Snow & Ice: The Definitive Guide to Professional Snow and Ice Management. This updated second edition from best-selling author and industry legend John Allin provides key elements of running a successful snow removal business.

The 205 page publication provides snow removal professionals with the information needed to become more effective, efficient and profitable in today’s competitive business climate.

“Game-changing technology and business innovations have revolutionized the snow removal industry over the past 10 years,” said author John Allin.   “And no other industry source represents a more comprehensive effort to educate snow fighters on how to succeed.”

Written in easy-to-understand language, Managing Snow & Ice: The Definite Guide to Professional Snow and Ice Management is illustrated and available in paperback.

Pre-publication price is $27.96 with discounted pricing for multiple books and ends July 31, 2011. After August 1, 2011 the price is $34.95 per book.  To order, call a Snow magazine store representative at 800/456-0707 or visit www.snowmagazineonline.com/store.

GIE Media, Inc. is a leading B-to-B media company active in some 17 major national and international industries through print and digital trade magazines, Web sites and interactive media, conferences and tradeshows, reference books and directories, and market databases. For additional information about GIE, please visit www.gie.net.