competition – OfdmFORUM

Organizers of the 33rd version of the Singapore International Movie Pageant are obviously eager to establish that the party is as almost as feasible back again to typical soon after two yrs of COVID turbulence. Thong Kay Wee, in his very first total calendar year as application director, has also been keen to put his mark on the lineup.

That exertion has been embodied by a widening of the Asian-themed festival’s geographical catchment place and a simultaneous completion of the shift to thematic presentation of the choice.

“When I came in, I wanted to break the geographical mold of how curation is finished. I needed to in fact profile them in conditions of interests. So, I thought by them in terms of where by you will place points,” Thong informed Wide range.

This year’s lineup stretches to 101 movies (attributes and shorts) from 50 international locations, to perform out about 11 days. Community, Singapore-made films account for about a quarter.

The thematic structure now arranges titles according to 6 various types: Altitude, Foreground, Horizon, Undercurrent, Standpoint and Domain.

Foreground, claims Thong, includes accessible, prime of thoughts, competition movies. Fitting into that classification this 12 months are: “World War III,” Houman Seyedi’s many prize winner from Venice Irish psychological thriller “Nocebo,” starring Eva Green and Mark Potent and breakout Korean debut film “The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra.”

Thong’s new Altitude segment is the highbrow pen for Asia’s top auteurs, earning substantial films. Titles listed here involve: Hong Sang-Soo’s “The Novelist’s Film” Jafar Panahi’s Cannes title “No Bears,” and Carla Simon’s Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarras.”

The other new segment is Horizons. “Our thing here is competition discoveries that definitely expose audiences to diverse views from all-around the environment. And maybe stories that they are not so acquainted with. It’s definitely [designed] for a area viewers to open up and broaden their horizons. Amongst the 10 are: Malaysian folks horror “Stone Turtle” “Divine Manufacturing unit,” an observational documentary by initial time director Joseph Mangat from The Philippines and (significantly uncommon) a Chinese movie “A Long Journey Residence,” another debut movie, by Zhang Wenqian.

The Standpoint portion is a collection of topical, political or usually at the moment applicable titles. Unsurprisingly, this is the showcase for the Asian premiere of “A Home Designed of Splinters,” Simon Lereng Wilmont’s documentary about refugees in Ukraine. It also incorporates incapacity documentary “I Did not See You There,” “Myanmar Diaries,” by the anonymous innovative resistance identified as the Myanmar Movie Collective, and to “We Never Dance for Almost nothing,” motivated by memories of some of the 400,000 Filipino guest workers in Hong Kong.

“The Undercurrent area provides area for more imaginative expressions. We have some artists, filmmakers that are bundled in a area that is more experimental. Some of these movies are not truly from the festival circuit. We truly plucked them from the contemporary artwork scene,” states Thong.
Picks contain “De Humani Corporis Fabrica,” an immersive, visceral journey by means of the buildings and pathologies of

Medtronic is at an inflection point, one that could determine its place in the health care field for the next generation and expand the boundaries of medical device technology.

Chief Executive Geoff Martha is pushing the company to take advantage of technological advances, such as in robotics and broadband, and changing dynamics in where and how people work. He and other top executives presented a new strategic plan with a dizzying number of pieces.

“Medtronic will no longer be known as just a medical device company,” Martha said when it was announced last month. “We’re going beyond devices to help technology serve more people in more ways.”

Medtronic, headquartered in Ireland with operational headquarters in Fridley, restructured into 22 small units to take out bureaucratic layers and spur innovation. It raised its research and development spending to $2.7 billion this fiscal year, from $2.5 billion last year.

It just launched a rebranding effort to emphasize innovation. It also has reached gender equity in pay in the United States.

For all the pieces to work, Martha said in an interview, the company must foster a culture that values equity, sustainability and teamwork.

“The burden of disease brings deeply personal costs. There are deep societal costs as well,” Martha said. “If we’re not going to take a leadership role, then who? Businesses need to step in and lead.”

Streamlined for speed

Medtronic got a lesson in those costs as the coronavirus pandemic unfolded last year.

In the early months of the pandemic, it became clear Medtronic needed to make more ventilators. The company would need to become quicker and more collaborative and use its R&D muscle to keep up with the demand and protect health care workers.

Bob White, president of the medical surgical portfolio, said Medtronic soon realized it would have to innovate differently and more collaboratively to meet the need. The company increased production fivefold at its plant in Galway, Ireland.

After Elon Musk tweeted that he would help, Medtronic reached out and SpaceX started making a needed part. The company also worked with chipmaker Intel to develop remote monitoring and programming capabilities so health care workers would not need to go in a patient room for every adjustment.

Medtronic worked with other partners to put together plans for the Coventor, a simpler ventilator that got designed and obtained Food and Drug Administration approval in less than 30 days.

The company figured out how to outfit the 400-bed Javits Center in New York City over Easter weekend. People who worked in other units asked to help out. Internal approvals were streamlined.

“Work that would have taken months took weeks, work that would have taken weeks took days,” White said.

“The speed with which we operated taught our teams that we could move faster,” he added. “The teams don’t want to go back.”

Besides collaborating with other companies, the pandemic allowed Medtronic to work more closely with socialized medical systems in Europe and with developing markets in African nations.

The United

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Moving beyond devices: Medtronic at critical juncture as technology, competition evolve