Your wedding day is finally here; all the planning, all the primping, and all the pressure of the past months will finally be over as you, your family, and your closest friends enjoy the start of your new life together. The cameras are snapping as the smiles abound, the memories are being captured at each turn. Sue and Brian VanPackard thought it would be a great idea to be able to share these memories with the members of their wedding party. While a gift for your wedding party pals is customary, the one the VanPackards chose was anything but! Brian came up with the idea of giving each member of the party a thumb drive pre-loaded with wedding photos. Sue then found that she could get the drives engraved with their friend’s names as well as the wedding date on them for free! You can imagine how thrilled their friends were to have their own personalized thumb drives complete with the wedding pictures from that special day. They didn’t have to worry about taking any shots themselves and they were free to enjoy the long planned party. “It must have been a great idea, we hear the rest of the attendees at the wedding were a bit jealous!” Great idea Sue and Brian, and congratulations on the start of your new life together!

It’s tax time again, the time of year when we all scurry to compile loads of financial information to give our accountants or tax people. Gone are the days of hauling folders upon folders of computer generated papers and reports to their offices and then back home. At least they are for Jamie Myello. Jamie is one of those organized individuals that does all his banking online, as well as takes advantage of receiving other billing or tax related information via email. Throughout the entire year he gathers information and puts it on a thumb drive designated for tax preparation to bring to his accountant when the time is right. It makes the normally daunting job a lot easier as everything he needs is right there when he needs it. “I do spend some time during the year updating my information, but it’s so much easier when I have a place to keep the information I need. I don’t have to waste time at tax season looking for any misplaced invoices, reports or papers.” Jamie is confident the information on the drive is secure all year as well. He downloaded the free Store-Lock Security Software available on the Pexagon website allowing him to password protect the valuable information he has on his drive. We think Jamie found a great way to make the best out of the normally stressful, tax preparation process.

It’s a fact; the best way to get new business in the photography world is by word of mouth. And its happy customers sharing their photos with others that helps Doris & Alan Harwell of Harwell’s Digital Studio enjoy great success. They have truly come up with a creative and unique way to thank their customers, as well as impress them. This professional photographer team uses Store-It thumb drives on key chains as gifts for some of their clientele. Selecting the best wedding photos or family portraits from a shoot, Doris and Alan create a slide show of the photos and pre-load them on the drive. When the drive is plugged into a USB slot it automatically launches the show allowing a bride or proud mother to show off their favorite images. Occasionally the viewer might notice a Digital Studio logo or a promotional slide interspersed here or there, and of course there’s the Digital Studio logo and phone number engraved on one side. Yet there’s nothing about this drive that’s anything but classy and well received, as the lucky recipients get to carry their favorite images with them wherever they go. We think Doris and Alan have come up with the perfect way to say thank you and to promote their business while making their customers very happy.

I’m a platoon leader currently serving in support of operation Iraqi Freedom. At the close of a tour of duty it is customary for leaders to present their soldiers with a gift, a small token of their appreciation for a job well done. Usually this takes the form of a commemorative coin or small plaque or something similar. While the sentiment is good, I’ve always thought of these items as shiny, overpriced dust collectors. So, with the time approaching for me to acquire a farewell gift for my soldiers, I gave it some serious thought. Being an exceptionally practical individual, it didn’t take long to come up with the idea of a customized flash drive. Serving in this desert climate, flash drives are absolutely essential for reliable file management. “Operation Flash Drive” had another very distinct advantage; I could fill the drive with all manner of useful information which would serve as a legacy for my soldiers. When this mission comes to a close and we all go our separate ways, they will carry forward all manner of army regulations, manuals, and forms that will serve them well in their military career, plus some select photos to remind them of their time here in the desert. Their personalized flash drive will serve both a sentimental and practical purpose. This mission will end, as will this war, but the professionalism of the American soldier never quits. As a leader it is my duty to provide those in my charge with the tools to succeed. Your company has helped me to do just that.

Nicole Campbell is only 9 years old, proving tech savvy users have no age limits. Nicole owns a bright pink Store-It Drive engraved with her name and ‘Golden’s Rule’ on one side of the drive. She then creatively chose to have several paw prints and ‘I Love My Dogs’ engraved on the other. Bingo and Lucy, Nicole’s lucky pets, are not only lovingly referenced on both sides of the drive, but her favorite photos of them are stored on it! Nicole hopes to get into agility training with her dogs so she saves articles she finds helpful from the web onto the drive. With a tireless energy born of youth, Nicole is also writing a book whose main character is involved with dogs, saving the finished chapters on her Store-It Drive. In 4th grade Nicole isn’t required to hand in her home work on a flash drive yet, but she knows that next year as she enters the middle school a flash drive will appear on her back to school shopping list as a mandatory item. Looks like Nicole is already well prepared!

Mary Greenan, a teacher and professor from Berkeley California, had a great idea for organizing her life with a set of Store-It™ Thumb Drives. Ordering 4 different colored drives, and labeling each one with a unique number (1-4), she has plans to use each drive to hold files specific to each of her teaching jobs. She has one for her workshop presentations, one for her graduate class work, and two more for the other classes she teaches. By color coding the drives, she can quickly associate the right drive with its class. “I’m very busy and have my hands in so many things, having these four Store-It™ Thumb Drives helps me to keep things more organized and in their proper places.” We think Mary is onto something with this idea!

Ellen Rubin, a professional court reporter, purchased four thumb drives as gifts for her fellow reporters. Court reporters are responsible for transcribing every spoken detail from a trial into a printed transcript with a computer file backup. Their job requires them to be exact, which takes time as well as a great amount of focus. Ellen and her coworkers like to back up these files so that they can be printed when ordered by attorneys for either appeal or other purposes. For efficiency’s sake, Ellen makes sure she has the transcribed files stored on a Store-It™ Thumb Drive, saving her valuable time if she’s called on to reproduce information. Personally, Ellen owns more than one Thumb Drive. From a 256 drive to a 4GB, she saves family photos to her drives and carries them with her when she travels overseas, sharing her favorite family photos with friends and other family members.