Awsome Stairs

The world's most expensive penthouse

Fancy a waterslide that takes you straight from your dance floor to your swimming-pool? What about an unobstructed view of the crystal clear Mediterranean Sea? Believe it or not, this property exists… and it could be yours for a reported $400 million. 

The tiny principality of Monaco, nestled on the French Riviera, is best known as a playground of the rich and famous – with nearly one in every three residents a millionaire, according to WeathInsight research. But it could soon garner a reputation for more than its glamorous Grand Prix and numerous casinos – as it is now home to what could become the world's most expensive apartment.

The property in question is the 3,300-square-meter, quintuplex "Sky Penthouse" in the soon-to-be-completed Odeon Tower.

Developed by Groupe Marzocco – a luxury real estate company – the double skyscraper of 70 apartments will tower over the principality at 170 meters high.

It promises future residents the "five-star experience" with a 24/7 concierge, an entertainment area (with private movie room and lounge) and a "wellness centre", including a gym, sauna, private spas and a selection of pools.

Spread over five floors, the penthouse property will include, among other things, a kitchen on each floor (connected by a lift), five bedrooms, a living-room, dining-room, private home-cinema, sauna and a swimming pool – which is also accessible via a slide.

Scheduled to be completed in September 2015, the Marzocco family is expected to put it on the market for around 300 million euros ($400 million), potentially making it the world's most expensive apartment.

"A property like this one is bought, it is not sold", Niccolo Marzacco said in an interview with French magazine Challenges............Read more..................

 

A record breaker?  

Monaco is no stranger to "ultra-prime" properties, however. In its 2014 Monaco Residential Market report, real estate agent Savills described the city as "a rare gem of particular value in the vault of ultra-wealth".  

The region is supply-constrained due to its limited size, Savills said. Its area is just 6 per cent the size of Manhattan and 3 per cent of Hong Kong Island, but demand for property from the worlds ultra-wealthy is particularly high.  

Whether the Sky Penthouse will sell for the rumored $400 million is another matter, however. Late last year Savills warned that the billionaire residential property boom was slowing.  

But for Yolanda Barnes, director of world research at Savills, Monaco is in a league of its own.  

It is a "honeypot for ultra-high net-worth individuals", she told CNBC in a phone interview. With both land and available properties scarce, the principality "will have a strong market regardless of what happens to other kinds of billionaire properties," she added.  

Furthermore, this type of property is rare and "rarity is incredibly important" for the super-wealthy, Barnes added. "So too is prominence and the importance of Monaco as a location in the billionaire real estate market."  

But despite a whopping price tag which could see it named the world's most expensive apartment, its large size means the penthouse might not claim the record amount per square foot. This is currently held by the owners of 15 Central Park West, New York, which sold for $13,000 per square foot earlier this year.

 

10 Benefits of Presentation Skills Training for Employees

Are your employees well trained to deliver your company's key presentations? Whether you're giving a sales talk, rolling out a product, pitching new business, delivering your value proposition, speaking to investors at your annual meeting, or laying out your strategy to your team, your business success depends upon high-caliber presentations.

So why do so many organizations fail to bring their key staff to the next level of power and persuasiveness for business speaking? Or if training is provided, why is it often information-based rather than laser-focused on effective performance?

It's not surprising that theatre-based techniques are best suited to help professionals reach and profoundly move their audiences. Isn't that what business communication should be trying to achieve? Audiences respond best to speakers who use all of their communication tools to gain influence. One of those tools is always information, but there are many others that are well and truly concerned with performance. (To speak more dynamically and powerfully, download our cheat sheet, "5 Secrets of Powerful Body Language.")

Still, there are many reasons for employee training in public speaking and presentations that go beyond sheer performance. Here are 10 such reasons. Together, they will go a long way toward making your company a more cohesive and effective unit where those all-important business presentations are concerned.

1.BUILD MORALE. Just as the famous saying tells us that most men live lives of quiet desperation, many employees are dissatisfied with the level of their speaking and presentation skills. Most of us get ahead professionally by learning our business, working hard, and making helpful connections. There isn't a reason in the world why public speaking training, and especially the physical skills of in-person performance, should have been part of the mix. Forward-thinking companies know to rectify that lapse by performance-based training by professionals. "I'm no longer avoiding presentations on my job . . . I'm seeking out opportunities!" is a common remark we hear in this regard.

2.INCREASE Retention. A corollary of the above. Professional development is not merely necessary for key employees to learn and grow; it is expected. Sales people, executives on leadership teams, marketing professionals, financial and healthcare executives, human resources professionals, government staff, and all other managerial-and-above levels want and need their organizations to invest in their development. If their desire for communication skill improvement is not met, they will look elsewhere. A prospect pointed this out to me in the midst of my pitch, and mentioned that I should include this in my discussion of ROI. I took the suggestion!

3.SHARED SKILL SET. Even in work environments where collaboration is strong, employees often must think and work on their own. Communicating with others on one's team also does not mean that individuals learn and progress at the same level and are focused on the same material. In group training in company presentation skills, they do. On-site corporate workshops are usually carefully planned with the company's goals and objectives in mind, along with pertinent issues and personalities. There is simply no substitute for all key employees being in the same room, learning the same skill set at the same time. The result for the organization is truly greater than the sum of the parts involved.

4.PROFESSIONALISM. When it comes to reaching a higher level of communication effectiveness and influence, the right type of training is essential. Workshops open to the public must aim for a low denominator given the wide range of knowledge and experience represented. Corporate workshops in presentation skills don't have that limitation. Whatever level the organization wants to reach in terms of speaking success is where such a training starts. Add on-your-feet presentation practice and videotaping, and the results can really allow a company's impact and influence to soar.

5.TEAM IMPACT. Presentations by a team may be a group activity, but more often they involve individual team members presenting by themselves. A common scenario, for instance, is for individuals to present in a string of meetings with a prospect or client when that team member's particular expertise is needed. A team weak in its presentation abilities will announce itself with either a collective failure or a drip-drip-drip of inneffective appearances. In both cases, that team needs to be trained to present with a clear purpose coupled with memorable skills. Recently, I trained a global marketing team that had been assembled by a pharmaceutical company for an important marketing effort. The polyglot nature of the team showed, and it was only in an on-site 2-day training that the members themselves not only burnished their own skills, but started to genuinely work together in a collective effort.

6.ABILITY TO SELL. Another interesting effect can sometimes announce itself when a sales team hasn't been receiving timely sales presentation training. When a "capabilities" presentation in PowerPoint is used by the entire sales staff, the fact that the deck is dated or no longer accurate may not be perceived. A "we've always done it this way" mentality may be harming the company. Sales presentation training workshops--often done at annual sales meeting--can bring this problem to awareness. Partly it's due simply to a fresh set of eyes from outside seeing the problem. But a skilled trainer will also be able to connect the company's stated goals for influencing an audience, with what that audience is actually seeing and hearing. That's part of his or her job, and it's actually not rare that we see this need among the sales staff emerging in a workshop.

7.COMPANY SPEAKERS BUREAU. Does your company maintain a speakers bureau? It's a terrific way to keep the learning going with your employees who speak frequently, after the on-site workshop is over. And it's custom made to increase your employees' comfort level and eagerness to speak on behalf of your organization.

8.CREATE YOUR OWN COACHING STAFF. This is one of those under-the-radar benefits of presentation skills training for your employees. Often a human resources executive or Chief Learning Officer will bring this up in their initial discussion with us concerning a training. That executive is interested in learning how it's done, i.e., how she or he can coach key executives on an ongoing basis once our workshop has concluded. Usually this person will ask if they can attend the seminar themselves so they can learn. We are very happy to say yes.

9.BUILD STRONGER CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS. As I say to clients and trainees, your competitor's product or service is probably very close to yours, and the price is also usually in the same ballpark. So what makes that customer or client decide to do business with you? The answer is that they want to! That usually means they enjoy communicating with you and conducting business together. One of the ways they understand early on that they probably will, in fact, like dealing with you, is that you've given them evidence in your presentations. Trustworthiness and honesty are the bedrock of successful presentations. Of course, they only emerge when confidence and one's comfort level is high. That's a key reason to give your employees presentation skills training that meets that need.

10.BE RECOGNIZED AS AN INDUSTRY LEADER. Isn't it time your company or organization left Presentations 101 behind? The competition is stiff, and of course, in the 21st century it's truly global. When your employees present, they represent everything that you offer, and everything that you are. Audiences do not separate the message and the messenger. If you want to be recognized as an industry leader, your business presentations must go beyond good, beyond effective, up to the level of the extraordinary. Give your employees the right kind of presentation training, and they will.

Source : www.genardmethod.com/blog