Happy Monday morning ladies! I hope you had a great weekend. I am recovering from a fun-filled Grand Prix Formula One weekend in Montreal. Our city comes alive every year at this time, and it’s when I throw on a pair of heels (albeit not comfortably), and enjoy the festivities.
Here is a memory from Friday night with my man.
I don’t know about you, but it feels good to welcome the end of another school year. I’m kind of done with homework, making lunches, projects and sharpened pencils. Perhaps some of you have children graduating. If you do, I have the PERFECT graduation gift idea for you. Microsoft just launched a new campaign recently called “Chip-In.” In a nutshell, it’s a cool new crowd-funding program that helps students get a new Windows 8 PC with Office 365 University just in time for back to school.
To explain how it works, think of contributing to a wedding registry. And just like a wedding registry, students with a valid .edu email address can sign up for the PC of their choice at www.WindowsChipin.com. Then, they can crowd-source funds from friends and family to help them purchase a qualified PC of their choosing from MicrosoftStore.com. Even better, Microsoft will “chip in” 10% of the purchase price and for the first 10,000 students to fully fund their PC, Microsoft will also “chip in” a four-year subscription of Office 365 University at no additional charge!
The program runs through September 1, 2013. For more information check out the Office blog.
In case you’re wondering, some more info:
WHY CHIP IN?:
- According to a recent survey conducted by Lab 42, 94% of students feel that they need a computer before graduation.
- 82% plan to head to college with a new computer.
- A PC is the number one thing students buy with graduation money.
MORE ABOUT OFFICE 365 UNIVERSITY:
- A four-year subscription (US$79.99) includes the latest Office applications on up to 2 devices (PC or Mac), plus an additional 20GB of storage in SkyDrive, and 60 anywhere minutes with Skype.
- You can also access your Office documents anywhere with Web Apps, Office on Demand and the cloud on SkyDrive.
It’s the perfect graduation gift. When I visited the Microsoft campus in Seattle in April, and they unveiled this new program to me, I was blown away. What a perfect gift idea!
And while I’ve got you, I also wanted to show you a link to a blog that was published on Office.com. It highlights recent Pew Research Center survey findings stating that the number of “breadwinner moms” is at an all-time high in the US. I thought you ladies might be interested in this, as it supports the ongoing discussion around how working parents use technology to make their family life easier. It also includes tips on how Microsoft Office can help organize key family information. I haven’t lived a day without Office in almost 20 years! You can read about that here too: http://blogs.office.com/b/office_blog/archive/2013/06/06/how-the-new-office-helps-me-manage-my-mompreneur-life.aspx
So, I’d love to hear your opinion on Chip In. Is this something you’d opt in for for your graduating child? I think that crowdsourcing will be a new trend in gift giving. Would love your thoughts…
Cool idea!