2010 Vero Award Winners. Well, there is only one topic that I can talk about this week. The 2010 Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards. As has been reported in the Daily Post and over the radio... more...
AGM and Elections The Annual General Meeting and Executive Board Elections were held last week. There have already been considerable media articles on both, but I thought I would share a little of the background to our decision to move electronic... more...
Awards of Distinction The Westpac Rotorua Business excellence Awards are well underway and already interest in entering has been considerable... more...
Eat Street I was personally disappointed to see that the RDC had decided to return Eat Streat to a limited traffic street for three months. I recall a lunch just a couple of weeks ago when myself and another leading business person were enjoying an alfresco lunch... more...
EBOP Rates - Water and Air Quailty There has been some concern expressed by Council over the impression of rates increases by the inclusion of the Environment Bay of Plenty regional rates in with the Rotorua District Council Rates. The RDC have kept their rates rise to a minimum, less than 1 per cent compared with EBOPs rates increasing by 12.6 per cent. I can understand their concern... more...
Election time at the Chamber At this time of year many businesses who have a 31 March financial balance date are reviewing their audited annual accounts and getting together with their shareholders, their directors, or their fellow investors to discuss That Was The Year That Was'... more...
ETS and Aus Tax Regime There were a couple of interesting issues that floated across my desk during the week... more...
Executive Nominations The annual election for the governing executive board of the Rotorua Chamber of Commerce is underway. The organisation has moved in to the 21st Century and moved to a web based voting system. more...
Fintrax Duty Free Scheme Last week I had the opportunity to arrange a lunch for selected members of the tourism retail sector with Scott Lingard, General Manager of Fintrax Australia. Fintrax is the company that has implemented the Australian Tourist Tax (GST equivalent) Refund Scheme (TRS) since June 2000. Fintrax are currently discussing the possibility of a similar scheme being introduced in New Zealand. Our Member of Parliament... more...
Kerbside Recycling scheme From the draft Rotorua District Council 2010 Annual Plan, one of the topics creating considerable discussion is whether or not the council should offer kerbside recycling. The RDC Corporate preferred option is not to offer kerbside, instead to provide an enhanced recycling centre drop-off service. more...
Let the games begin! Take your marks .. get set .. go . Well the race is certainly on. Not the Race to the White House, but for Rotorua, probably equally as important!!
Rugby Business Club What an enjoyable day I had last Friday. It was one of those days when office work took second place. Before luch I had the opportunity to meet with Leon Grice from NZ2011 and Rugby Ambassador David Kirk to scope what the Rugby World Cup will mean to Rotorua and in particular the advantages of the recently formed NZ2011 Business Club... more...
The Essential Guide and M2M This week I thought I would talk about a couple of the programmes that the Chamber currently has underway... more...
Achieving Positive Economic Development For the last two weeks my articles have focused on Rotorua's lack of growth and the apparent lack of a dynamic economic development strategy. So how do we address this? more...
Alarming vacancy rates: need for a new approach? Reid and Reynolds Ltd, Rotorua have just released their Rotorua CBD Vacancy Survey. This is an analysis of vacant premises that offer either retail or office space. more...
