One of the “trailblazers from around the globe” at the three-day Women in the World 2012 Summit is HP’s vice president of Sustainability and Social Innovation, Gabi Zedlmayer. She takes to the stage with Barbara Bush, CEO and Founder of Global Health Corps (GHC), to discuss how technology is helping to tackle critical global health challenges.

The summit, hosted by Newsweek and the Daily Beast, opened in New York, USA, on International Women’s Day, March 8, bringing together extraordinary leaders and activists in support of women and girls.

Using first-person storytelling, Gabi describes HP’s collaboration with GHC and many other partners to improve global health. A particularly powerful example is HP’s Early Infant Diagnosis program with the Kenyan government and the Clinton Health Access Initiative, which uses HP technology to save babies’ lives by speeding up HIV testing of more than 65,000 infants in Kenya.

Click to join the HP presentation: Hi-tech health for women, Gabi Zedlmayer & Barbara Bush

[link to live stream]

(This entry was posted by Jeff Wood, Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Commercial Solutions Business Unit - Workstations and Thin Clients, HP)

HP Z Workstations have made a name for themselves in Hollywood. With their behind-the-scenes roles in some of 2011’s Oscar film nominees and winners, they’ve been getting a lot of buzz for their star turns on the Big Screen.

HP workstations are key to the Oscar-winning work of Rob Legato, visual effects supervisor for Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo,” which took home five Academy Awards, including the award for visual effects. Legato, who used an HP Z800 Workstation and HP DreamColor Display to achieve his award-winning visuals, said “The Z800 became the gateway to the multiple platforms I like to use during a production … The sheer speed and flexibility of the design of the machine became the new benchmark – it is state of the art. Other workstations simply don't favorably compare.”

Much of the feature animation work on “Rango,” winner for Best Animated Feature, was done on HP workstations by ILM (Industrial Light and Magic), and HP workstations also featured prominently in two of the four other nominees in that category – DreamWorks’ “Puss in Boots” and "Kung Fu Panda 2." HP and DreamWorks have a rich history together – the HP Z800 Workstation even walked the red carpet at the premiere of “Puss in Boots” last fall.

2012 is also off to an amazing start for HP Z Workstations with the Bandito Brothers’ new hit film, “Act of Valor.” The Bandito Brothers relied on HP Z800 Workstations, HP EliteBook Mobile Workstations and HP DreamColor LP2480x Monitors in extremely difficult locations around the world. For a closer look at how the Bandito Brothers put HP workstations to use in the field and in post-production, take a look at the post on 367AddisonAvenue.

So why do so many leading companies in Hollywood use HP workstations? Earlier this month, on the occasion of the launch of the industry-first all-in-one HP Z1 Workstation, I posted my take on why workstations matter. As I said in that post, we believe it’s due to our dogged commitment to innovation based on customer needs. HP’s high level of customer intimacy ensures that we know our customers and what they need, and this intimacy fuels how and what we design.

It also fuels our customers’ passion for our products. In just a few short years, HP climbed to the No. 1 position in workstation shipments worldwide. Industry research firm IDC reported that HP maintains its leadership in the workstation category with a 46.1 percent share worldwide for the fourth quarter of 2011, according to the IDC Worldwide Workstation Tracker, Q4 2011.

Today, the “head-turning” Z1 Workstation has been joined by the next generation of workstation workhorses that continue to deliver on our promise of innovation – the HP Z820, Z620 and Z420. By setting the standard for innovation, performance and reliability, the HP Z Workstation family has secured a place not only among the Hollywood elite, but with customers far beyond Tinseltown. It’s not just Hollywood, Bollywood, and blockbuster movies – it’s also doctors and radiologists; the world’s financial traders; developers; drillers; teachers and students; architects and scientists; the innovators who create your experience when you step in a plane, train or car; and even the White House.

Today there’s a Z Workstation for all these people and their needs. And no matter which of HP’s new Z Workstations is right for you – the all-in-one HP Z1 Workstation; the full-featured, no-compromise Z820; the ultraversatile and stylish Z620; or the price/performance-leading Z420 – I invite you to see for yourself why HP Workstations matter more.

(This entry was posted by Alison Graves, Director of Communications for HP's Imaging and Printing Group)

Musicians, technorati and innovators from around the globe are heading to Austin, Texas for the annual South by Southwest Music, Film and Interactive conference and festival. New to this year’s conference is the SXSW.Edu summit, where educators, vendors and leaders in academia will convene to discuss technology and social trends in education.

IPG’s Jeff Walter manages the team responsible for developing a number of education initiatives for HP, including a partner program with Scholastic. For this program, HP is helping to develop education curriculum for teachers and students. As part of that syllabus, teachers’ use HP’s MagCloud – a cloud-based self-service publishing platform that allows them to take stories submitted by the students and convert them into a printed book.

Another key initiative is the HP Write and Read program – a joint effort with HP India and in association with Katha, an NGO that focuses on bringing quality reading and education to children living in poverty. This program also encourages children to use their creativity and imagination to produce great written stories and enter them into a contest. Children can print vibrant color copies of their stories using the web-enabled HP printers made available to them. 

Jeff has spent the past year researching the role of technology and print in the classroom. He will be presenting “Classroom Connection: Print and Digital Inspires Students to Learn” at SXSWedu on Tuesday, March 6 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. His session will take place at the Hilton Downtown Austin.

Jeff will discuss the impact technology has on learning and will engage the audience in a lively debate about technology and traditional printed material in the classroom.  He’ll share how the evolution of print in the classroom is about more than just textbooks – it’s about inspiring students and helping them to build connections with their classmates and teachers.

We’ll have more to report from this session, so check back here for additional SXSW related updates as we share our findings. For real-time updates on HP IPG’s activities at SXSWedu, be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook. To join the discussion online, use the #SXSWedu hashtag.