Today, we are excited to share some new features that we have added to GoToMyPC that will make it an even better service for you. Say, you finished working on a spreadsheet on your PC / Mac. You travel to meet a customer over lunch and realize that you need to access the spreadsheet. Worry not! With the new GoToMyPC storage and sync features, your spreadsheet will be automatically available for you to access, using your iOS device or the web. You will be able to access it without starting a remote access session. In fact, you can access it even if your PC / Mac is offline. Check out this quick 90-second video with CTO Bernd Christiansen to learn how the new GoToMyPC has been designed to create an even better mobile access experience for you. The features are available this week in a new limited beta release (GoToMyPC 9.0 beta) and we’d like to invite you, our customer, to be among the first to try it. You will have 100 GB of online storage and file sync in addition to the same remote access you have always relied on. Here’s how you can get started. We look forward to your feedback to help us improve the product. Thanks for being a loyal GoToMyPC customer! Getting started To enroll in the beta program, visit the beta participation page after you log in to your account on the GoToMyPC website. (See the beta FAQs for more details.) After you opt into the beta, either GoToMyPC will be upgraded automatically or you will receive an upgrade notification. This may take up to 24 hours. You can upgrade manually right away by clicking on the GoToMyPC icon in the system tray or menu bar and choosing "Check for Updates." Download the updated GoToMyPC app for iPhone and iPad from the Apple App Store. Log in to your account on the GoToMyPC website and follow the prompts. If you do not see prompts for the new features, please be patient with us. We’re adding more beta users gradually to the file sync service to ensure it stays strong and provides the best possible experience for everyone.

Over the summer I’ve enjoyed watching the Ashes cricket series, the biennial tussle between England and Australia for what may be the world’s smallest sporting trophy: a small urn reputedly containing the remains of a burnt cricket bail. I know cricket can seem arcane to those who, sadly, have yet to gain an appreciation for its nuances of strategy and skill. However, there is still a great deal we can learn from the way the world’s best teams approach this hallowed sporting challenge. Embrace randomness In any field, discipline and craft are prerequisites for success. But of equal importance is an ability to prepare for the unexpected. In cricket, this randomness can take many forms, such as an abrupt change in weather, an injury, a batting collapse - or even the sudden appearance of a streaker. Each circumstance can necessitate a new strategy. Where does randomness originate in your business? How can you prepare for it? Dig deep Cricket generates huge amounts of data about teams and players - and, as in business, truly successful game plans take into account of as much of this information as possible. The lesson? Identify your key metrics. Know your team. Know your opposition. Modify your plans and forecasts accordingly. Be adaptable However astute our planning process may be, we also need to adapt as scenarios unfold before us. Successful leaders understand that excessive rigidity can be damaging, no matter how good a plan seems on paper. Specialise Cricketers share core skills, such as throwing and catching, but they also have individual strengths, such as a signature batting style or bowling attack. In the same way, most of us share core abilities with colleagues and co-workers. But what sets us apart? An understanding of your team’s special abilities - and when they can be deployed to have the most impact - can make the difference between victory and defeat. How’s that? Are there any lessons I’ve missed? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Add your comment below or get in touch on Twitter. Photo Credit: David Holt London via Compfight cc

Today we have a guest post from Alan Fine. Alan is a New York Times bestselling author, performance expert and executive and professional athlete coach. Reserve your complimentary seat now to Alan’s exciting webinar, "Unlocked Potential: You Already Know How to Be Great." The presentation, sponsored by GoToTraining, will be part of ASTD’s Career Week. Sign up today for the interactive presentation. Golfers say the game of golf is at least 80% mental and less than 20% physical or technical. Yet to improve, what do most golfers spend their time practicing - the physical or the mental game? You guessed it. They spend far more than 80% of their practice on what they know is only 20% of the game. Why? What compels golfers ‒ and human beings in general ‒ to behave in ways that are opposite to what they know leads to success? It’d be more logical to focus on the 80%, on the behaviors that will actually make a difference. But more often than not, we fail to do it.  This principle of 80% was recently driven home by an experience I had with a CEO. I was coaching the executive, we’ll call him Bob, and he was wrestling with his organization’s inability to "walk the talk" around customer service. He had diagnosed that a significant part of the problem was that his senior managers were spending more time at their computers than leading and coaching their salespeople. I asked him what made it so difficult for him to change that behavior, and he described being buried at his desk with everything he had to do ‒ the exact same behavior he was describing in his senior managers. As we continued our conversation, he eventually volunteered, "I know if I lean right the whole organization will lean right." At this point, he sat back in his chair and said, "So I’m the problem?" to which I replied, "And therefore, you’re part of the solution." Humans are funny. At our core, we are creatures of habit. Once we get comfortable, we lose awareness of our patterns and behaviors. But not only is it possible, it’s simple to free ourselves from the patterns that continually trap us. An easy starting point is to ask ourselves: "What’s the one thing that, if I did more ‒ or less ‒ of it, would make me more effective?" In other words, what is the simple, obvious thing you can do to free up your best self, what is that thing you already know but have been ignoring?

I’m excited to introduce the Citrix Guide to Productivity, the first in our new series of bite-sized eBooks. Each guide in this series will be jam-packed with practical tips, tricks and useful case studies. If you follow me on Twitter or have read my blogs here, you know productivity is exceedingly important to me. Not only is it absolutely vital for business success, but it also supports a balanced and fulfilling life. Right now, technology is transforming our lives. And it’s reconfiguring business too, with cloud-based services and fast, increasingly accessible connections bringing a new dimension to working from anywhere. There is immense opportunity for organizations and individuals to become more competitive - but only if they are prepared to embrace this opportunity.  Read, download - and please share - the Citrix Guide to Productivity below.    

A balanced working life shouldn’t just be a nice thing to have -  it should be a necessity. Yet in a survey carried out at the start of last year, nearly half of all UK employees were dissatisfied with their current work-life balance. Now, nearing the end of 2013, I ask: has the situation changed in the interim? This seems a particularly apt question to ask given that it’s National Work-Life Week. I suspect the needle hasn’t shifted much (but please let me know if you think otherwise!). After all, we’re still working too long and travelling too much. By the time we’ve logged 9 hours at the office, commuted for 2 and slotted in time to eat, there can’t be much left to the day. I believe truly successful business is dependent on happy, fulfilled employees. And one way we can support this is by recognising and supporting people’s hobbies and passions. For example, if there are gamers in your office, why not run a weekly or monthly games night? The recent release of two eagerly awaited game sequels, Grand Theft Auto V and Rome II, has unleashed legions of gamers keen to mastermind bank heists or take on the armies of Carthage. Of course, not everyone wants to spend yet more time in front of a screen. For runners and cyclists, why not set up an office club? Social fitness apps such as Strava take the leg-work out of club administration, encouraging camaraderie and friendly competition. And let’s not forget the early adopters - the people trying new technology and platforms before they become mainstream. Six years ago Twitter was a niche interest. Today it is viewed by many as an essential communications tool, with even the likes of Ryanair opting to join the platform. So my final tip is to support and encourage the early adopters within your business. You never know when these niche interests will become must-haves, giving you an edge over competitors. Taken together, these small changes can help re-establish a healthy work-life balance. And that’s a good thing for all concerned.   Photo Credit: Yug_and_her via Compfight cc

Once, not long ago, office space was considered an essential component for nearly every business. You’d fill it with desks, chairs, telephones, a fax machine and photocopier and then people, who’d arrive each day at 9 and leave by 6. Most of us still utilise office space to some degree, but increasingly its role is shifting from essential to optional extra. For the first time, powerful mobile devices, the cloud and social collaboration tools are enabling staff to step outside the traditional confines of office and desk. If colleagues need us, we can chat, share information and collaborate seamlessly, wherever we happen to be. This freedom gives businesses greater agility and offers staff a work-life balance that is no longer a nice perk but instead a given. But some are going further, faster than others - like Andy Bargery , CEO of Klaxon Marketing. Andy and Klaxon operate an entirely remote workforce, allowing every single member of the team to work from the location that suits them best. Andy was interviewed for Radio 4′s You and Yours, along with Sarah Jackson from the UK’s leading work-life balance organisation, Working Families. Listen to the interview to learn about their radical approach to the workplace and what they’ve learned about establishing an equilibrium between work and life. (The section on work-life balance starts at 40:13.) So, where does your business fit in? Are you embracing new ways of working or yet to take the plunge? If you’d like to dip your toe in first, you can try GoToMeeting using our new 30-day free trial.   Photo Credit: Phil Gyford via Compfight cc

When was the last time you worked in the park or a café? It’s easier than you might think. Check out this bite-sized video of our team putting GoToMeeting through its paces - complete with giant foam fingers. (If you can’t see the video below, click here to open it directly.) So where’s your favorite place to work? Send a tweet to let us know. PLUS Don’t forget to check out the Citrix Guide to Productivity, the first installment in our new mini eBook series. Photo Credit: Giorgio Montersino via Compfight cc

Today we have a guest post from Gihan Perera. Gihan is a consultant, speaker and author, who helps professional speakers, trainers, thought leaders and other business professionals to leverage their products, services and business practices - particularly with their online strategy. He is also the author of the books Secrets of Internet Business Success and Webinar Smarts, among many others. Find out more at www.WebinarSmarts.com. - See more at: http://videoconferencing.com/the-7-things-you-must-never-do-in-an-online-meeting/#sthash.ayihQKIP.dpuf The technology for online meetings has advanced to the stage where many organizations see them as a viable alternative to in-person meetings, conferences and other events. However, there are still concerns that online meetings don’t provide the same benefits as their in-person equivalents. The good news is that this doesn’t have to be an either-or proposition. Organizations, meeting planners and conference organizers can get the best of both worlds by combining virtual and in-person meetings. Despite concerns about travel costs, security, and an economic downturn, the U.S. meetings industry is thriving. It already supports 1.7 million jobs and contributes $263 billion to the economy, and will continue to grow, with employment in this industry expected to grow by 44% this decade (3 times the overall average). At the same time, online meetings technology is also growing - due to better (faster and more widespread) Internet access, better software and hardware infrastructure, and the need for this technology in a more connected but more dispersed world. Some leaders believe online meetings are a poor substitute for in-person meetings, and that might have been more the case in the past. However, recent research suggests this is no longer the case. For example, participants at an in-person meeting are as likely to be distracted (for example, checking e-mail) as their online meeting counterparts (about 80% in both cases), and are as likely to leave the meeting for some reason (about 65%). The real debate shouldn’t be about choosing one format over the other, though. The best organizations run "hybrid meetings," which add online components to an in-person event to get the best of both worlds. A simple and well-known example is the use of a "Twitter backchannel", where in-person participants are encouraged to tweet their comments live during the event. That’s just one way for an in-person event to leverage online technology. Here are some others: Live streaming of presentations for remote participants Live webcasts of presenters from remote locations Online chat rooms and discussion groups, for both in-person and online participants Live blogging of the event Use of social media before the event (for example, encouraging participants to use LinkedIn for background information on speakers, sponsors, and other attendees) Webinars by presenters leading up to the event, to increase registrations, help preparation, and boost engagement Online mastermind groups and special interest groups after the event, to reinforce the learning, follow through on actions, and facilitate collaboration Online archives of presentations, handouts, notes, photographs and other reference material, to form part of the organization’s knowledge base Even if you can’t use all of these ideas directly for your event, consider how you could adapt them to suit your needs. For example, for an internal sales conference where attendance is compulsory, you might not need your guest speaker to present a webinar beforehand to increase attendance. However, you might use this opportunity for the National Sales Manager to present a webinar instead. Hybrid meetings, no matter if they are webinars, trainings, or conferences, reduce travel expenses for remote members and dispersed organizations, extend the reach of the meeting, capture knowledge and insights for future reference, increase workplace flexibility, and allow participants to interact in different ways. If you’re already conducting online meetings and events, look for opportunities to turn them into hybrid events. It’s not just the way of the future - it’s right here and now. Photo Credit: linh.ngan via Compfight cc

What music do you listen to at work? Sure, for some people, this question still borders on crazy. Music? At work? No. Not ever. But for a growing number, the office playlist is an actual thing - an important, often intensely debated piece of workplace infrastructure. The arrival of applications like Spotify has made it easier than ever to access and share music. The shift in listening habits engendered by Spotify is representative of the wider changes, driven by technology, that are taking place in our lives and businesses. The world of work is increasingly shaped by web tools, mobile devices and concepts like the cloud. We store so much of ourselves digitally, from photographs to calendars and essential work documents. We take care to choose the right tools, testing and discarding, in search of solutions that are easy to use, yet secure. Apple’s fingerprint system is evidence of this desire. But as the soundtrack to our lives and work evolves, why are so many of us still devoted to journeying to the office and meetings, to managing life via our inbox? Why do we still feel guilty about working from home? We can seem oddly reluctant to utilize the technology at our fingertips to truly make life easier. Are you making the most of the opportunities presented by technology - and I don’t just mean forcing the office to listen to "Get Lucky" for the 12th time (although that would be awesome) — or are you yet to make the leap? I’d love to hear what you think. Workplace Anthems Tweet us your favorite #workplaceanthem! If it’s added to our Spotify playlist, you’ll win a year’s free subscription to GoToMeeting. If your song doesn’t make the cut or is already taken - "Never Gonna Give You Up" is pretty popular, after all - you can also try GoToMeeting free for 30 days right here. Join the conversation Reading in the UK? We’ve joined forces with London’s Biggest Conversation to help you discover the benefits of online meetings. Each week we’ll be giving away an awesome prize - like an Apple Macbook, with headset and webcam, and a year’s subscription to GoToMeeting. Find out more here. Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk via Compfight cc

Marketplaces were perhaps the first social networks. These were places where people shared technology and exchanged goods and services, building connections and reputation. Ancient highways such as the Silk Road, which extended some 4,000 miles across Europe and China, linked local trade networks, which branched off it like tributaries. Today, in much the same way, we are connected by the Internet. Charged by the connectivity of the Internet, digital social networks continue to flourish, abuzz with energy and interactions, just like the first marketplaces. These networks link disparate people around the world; but at the other end of the spectrum, they can also link people within the same organization in a way that unlocks creativity, collaboration and productivity. Internal social networks act as a place for us to let colleagues know what we’re working on and thinking about, and to identify where skills and expertise lie across an organization. They are the antithesis of the office cubicle and the business silo. Consider yourself dared If you don’t yet utilize an internal social network, I dare you to give one a try. Our very own Podio is free for you to use and explore. Share the link with a like-minded colleague and see what you can achieve by working together in a new, easier way. Join the conversation Reading in the UK? We’ve joined forces with London’s Biggest Conversation to help you discover the benefits of online meetings. Each week we’ll be giving away an awesome prize - like an Apple Macbook, with headset and webcam, and a year’s subscription to GoToMeeting. Find out more here. Photo Credit: Stuck in Customs via Compfight cc