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How to throw the perfect corporate function

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Throwing a corporate function can often be fraught with danger – striking the balance between casual and professional, while juggling budgets and priorities is never an easy task.

Lincoln of Toorak manager Dimmy Alevizos has overseen hundreds of corporate events and said that planning a corporate event is often overcomplicated when planners get bogged up in the tiny details, failing to see the overall big picture.

“People often overthink things when they plan the event,” she said.

“Quite often, planning a corporate event is down to several basics – once you’ve written up a plan and stick to it, the rest of the event will be a success.”

1.            Create a budget
Know your limits and beware of hidden costs when organising a corporate event, especially if it is a large-scale one. Don’t get carried away with decorations and centrepieces as costs often add up in the end. Your budget will also determine if spouses, significant others, children and clients will be invited to the event.

2.            Lock in a date
Avoid days near the beginning or end of a company holiday period, as employees may be away. If you can, choose a weekday so that employees are not forced to forgo their personal commitments for a work function. Also, don’t worry if people are unable to make a day you choose – you will never be able to cater for everyone, especially if you have a lengthy guest list.

3.            Determine the type of event
Work out if it is best for the event to be indoor or outdoor, casual or cocktail. Factor in the seasons, the aim of the event and the guests who will be attending. If you are planning to have numerous presentations and speeches, it is best to provide plenty of seating and tables so people can sit and eat for the duration. On the other hand, stand-up cocktails and finger food is more appropriate for meet-and-greet networking events so that guests can move around and mingle.

4.            Pick the right entertainment
Don’t go for a big-name entertainer, as they may not have the most professional attitudes due to their already-established fame. Select entertainment appropriate for the event and its guests, making sure you have activities to appeal to everyone attending. Hosting a creative function? Perhaps burlesque dancers and circus performers could be an option. Planning something a little more serious? A guest speaker on a relevant topic may be a better choice.

5.            Spend on quality food and beverages
Be mindful of both quality and quantity – make sure that the food provided is good and plentiful, as it will make or break the event. Don’t forget to check your guests’ dietary requirements ahead of time as well.

6.            Make sure the right people attend
When the event begins to take shape, begin promoting the function and send invitations out. Invitations should always be personalised. If you can, make a follow-up phone call to make sure your guests received their invitations. After drafting your RSVP list, make a second round of follow-up calls to ensure they are all attending. This will also ensure that the event won’t slip from people’s minds, potentially increasing the amount of guests as well.

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Marketing

How to increase your profits by focusing internally

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Humbled by an employee discussion in our Atlanta office, I was pleasantly surprised that given the hypothetical situation of winning the lotto, all employees said that after a brief holiday, they would want to come back to work at Marketing Eye.

The engagement level on a day-to-day basis in our Atlanta office is very high – not to say, other offices are not the same. Company culture is everything and there are many reasons why it has a direct impact on bottom line.

There are a number of lessons learned from having a start-up in Atlanta that is inherently different from other offices we have.

The first being that all employees have chosen each other

Usually, a senior manager or myself makes the ultimate choice on who is going to join the team and in what capacity. Instead, in Atlanta, I have been over-ruled twice, and both times, I had to put my hand up and say that my choice would have been wrong for the team.

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Travel

Lessons from the Road: Insights from My Global Journey

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The travelling gypsy “If you believe you can, you probably can. If you believe you won’t, you most assuredly won’t. Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad.” Denis Waitley

It’s been a big 2 weeks for me. I have travelled to Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, Munich, throughout Italy, Monaco and St Tropez – all without drawing breathe!

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Travel

Atlanta, here I come!

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It’s time. We are ready. The curtains have been drawn. In 3 weeks, I will be living in America to follow my dream of building a global small business marketing firm.

It’s summer over there and winter here in Australia, so the weather is definately a big plus. Cost of living is significantly less which means I can buy more shoes. There is a god after all 😉

And… the business is ready. Most importantly, we have dotted all of our ‘i’s’ and crossed all of our ‘t’s’.

So, what’s next?

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Entrepreneur

From Family Business to Fashion Photography: The Journey of Tommy Mendes

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I worked as a 12-year-old in my family business, a family shoe store called Plaza Bootery. At a very young age, I was exposed to business and cash – as a teenager, that made a great impact on me. I was destined to take over the family business, but left it to pursue my own venture, opening my first shop next to the family business. It was called Plaza Too and sold only women’s shoes and accessories.

Why women’s fashion? Firstly, selling a pair of kid’s shoes for $20 versus selling a handbag for $150 was easy math for me. The fashion part grew on me as the business transgressed.

Being at such a young age and not having a true business plan and proper funding made things harder, but was also more beneficial because I was always working from an “all or nothing” point of view – failure was not a word I took kindly.

Inspiration Behind Photography

What inspired you to start photography? Have you always had a camera in your hand? What was the first camera you bought? What do you use now? What do you shoot? What is the best thing about being a photographer? Where from here?

Plaza Too was a homerun. Selling women’s shoes and accessories on an affluent suburban main street was an instant hit, because your typical high street only had drug stores, local variety stores and so on. We were selling brands like Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, and Tory Burch – seeing brands like that at a local street level was highly unusual at the time. Mind you, there was no internet or ecommerce around then.

The business grew to make about $23 million in gross sales in 2008 but was closed in 2010 for many reasons, mostly personal ones. Both my parents got sick and needed our attention, plus I wanted to do something on my own as well. At age 21, most people don’t really know what you want to do in their lives.

From Shoes to Shutter: A New Chapter

You are a smart investor in property – has that helped through your startup phase as a photographer?

As an entrepreneur, my hands were in everything, but I was most passionate about the creative side of our business and wanted to get more seriously involved in every aspect of that.

After leaving Plaza Too, I knew I didn’t want to work at all for at least a year. I also felt very, very accomplished with what I achieved and decided to start a new venture instead of taking a logical step. So I took a road less traveled, which has been quite uniquely different from anything I ever have done. Starting this new path has had many challenges and tested my resolve – it has not been easy by any means. I have often been knocked, kicked, and rejected like never before but that is where the personal growth and professional challenge came for me.

When it came to photography, I always had a camera and took photos personally, but didn’t have the foundation. Because of that, I decided to go back to school at ICP and knew what I wanted to do from there: trying to tell my story through the lens.

I have always been a Canon guy, though I own a Leica, and shoot with Hassleblad for work and also shoot with a 4X5 film camera.

By day, I work as a fashion photographer with a lot of modeling agencies and work backstage at many fashion shows as well. By night, I work on long-term art projects and am working on some photo books as well.

The best thing for me as a photographer/artist is the chance to tell my story in a unique way through a lens. I also truly enjoy capturing special, rare moments – it especially brings joy to me if it makes you smile.

Influences and Aspirations in Photography

What photographer do you admire most? What is your favorite subject? What style of photography do you tend to lean towards?

My favorite photographers have always been Martin Parr, Guy Bourdin, and Paolo Roversi. Women and shoes are my favorite subjects to photograph, along with American life, like Art Basel in Miami and the Maine Lobster festival. I did a cross-country road trip this past fall and documented fashion boutiques and the clerks in them.

If you are interested in Tommy Mendes’ views and insights, follow him on Twitter @tommymphotos, LinkedIn or visit his website at http://tommendes.com/

An Insight Into the Gallery of Tommy Mendes:

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Entrepreneur

Heart of a Champion

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There’s a freedom associated with riding a bike. whether it is a push bike, race bike or motorbike, the open air and speed provides a thrill that exists from childhood to adult life. Chris Reynolds has intimate knowledge of that freedom and it is his inherent sense of freedom and adventure that led him to buy the Australian division of global powerhouse Champion System.

Chris is nothing if not opportunistic. When his wife was offered a trading position in Hong Kong, Chris contacted Champion System, who had been supplying the wares for a bike wholesaler with whom Chris was working in Sydney.

He understood the industry, had the runs on the board and it was clear that Chris was a ‘go-getter’. It meant the powerbrokers in Hong Kong had no hesitation in hiring him.

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Features

Change for the better

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Logistics can be a tricky market but as Grant Gurney, general manager business development for Yusen Logistics explains to Marketing Eye, an integrated business model is the way forward.

Yusen Logistics was born on October 1, 2010, of a merger between the NYK Group’s freight forwarder, Yusen Air & Sea Service, and its domestic logistics company NYK Logistics.

The merger occurred as a direct result of the Global Financial Crisis. The GFC had hit many of the world’s largest shipping companies and NYK wasn’t exempt. However, it was strong enough to survive, despite the challenging time.

According to Grant, the GFC meant that NYK Group recognised that it was impractical to have two main logistics providers as subsidiaries that were competing with each other.

“They recognised it was time to take advantage of the synergies and integrate the two companies.”

To do this in Australia proved simple and was conducted in good spirit.

“In actual fact the two businesses complemented each other very well,” Grant says. “Yusen Air and Sea was very strong on the freight forwarding side and did very little contracting logistics work. NYK Logistics on the other hand were very strong in contract logistics and domestic transportation, but did little in the way of freight forwarding.”

The company has, since April 1, 2011, been integrating its overseas logistics operations, growing into what is now a global comprehensive logistics network boasting operational bases in 36 countries throughout the world.

It is this integration that makes the company so attractive to clients.

“It makes it easier for our customer base. If you look at our point of difference, compared to the supersized logistics providers such as DHL or Toll Holdings and compare what they offer, they cannot offer a total logistics solution for any one of their entities. Toll has 53 different business units, so if they talk to you about different services, they bring a separate salesperson for each service. Yusen Logistics can offer a fully integrated solution.”

Yusen itself sees the industry in transition from ‘Specific-Optimal’ to ‘Total-Optimal’ when it comes to client needs. While in the past logistics companies were expected to offer services that were seen as separate and distinct, such as freight forwarding and warehouse storage, today’s client demands an approach that takes a holistic view of the supply chain by integrating a variety of logistical functions to provide optimised logistical solutions.

To meet the evolving demands of clients, the Yusen Logistics Group offer a true ‘one-stop service’ through a service lineup that enables rapid response to their international logistics needs.

Grant also believes that the traditional founding philosophy of Yusen’s Japanese parent is also what makes the business a success.

“We are very aware of the NYK Group’s core values, particularly the three is: innovation, intensity and integrity.

“Intensity means always striving to be the best and to produce the best outcome for yourself and your customer; integrity is being honest with yourself and giving it your best effort and innovation is always looking to do things better. We have a strong commitment to Kaizan (change for good, or continuous improvement). We have a strong adherence to this principle and are audited several times a year in terms of our Kaizan.”

The Japanese are well known for quality and a high degree of integrity and innovation, so getting the message across the organisation was not that difficult. It is embedded and runs through every other business practice.

For Yusen, part of their integrity is to offer their clients a plus one option. This means if the client wants third party warehousing, they can also be offered an ocean freight import service, or customs brokerage.

For Grant, the ability to offer this fully integrated service means that Yusen will no doubt meet its goal to be a top five freight forwarder globally by financial year 2015. To do this they must expand their ocean freight forwarding.

“To expand our ocean freight forwarding business is the main area of focus and through that we can expand other areas. We are on the cusp of being a top five air freight forwarders, but nowhere near that with ocean freight.”

Yusen Logistics boasts 1,600 employers, 427 locations and a total of two million square metres of warehousing under management. Suffice to say, this is a large operation, which Grant believes can only get bigger.

His own experience in freight forwarding and shipping means the company is in good hands. In fact Grant has experience as a client and provider.

“I have sat in our clients’ shoes. I’ve worked as a group purchasing and supply manager in New Zealand for a large manufacturer and importer, worked in shipping lines and freight forwarding companies.”

It means he brings an empathy, which may be lacking in other companies. It also means he has the know-how to reach his targets.

“When I came in to the company, we were known as Yusen Air and Sea Service. I joined in 1999 and the main objective was to grow our ocean freight service which we did successfully and we moved away from predominantly Japanese customers to grow our non-Japanese business globally.”

The next global target is to reach one million TEU, (20 foot equivalent units) to be forwarded around the  world.

“We currently move around half a million per year,” Grant says. So the year on year target is around the 30% mark.

“The bulk of our focus is business development in that area.”

Yusen Logistics main focus is to expand the business through new custom. To do this, they will take a vertical, industry-centric approach.

“We can’t be all things to all people. Some verticals we are good at handling and we have the infrastructure to support those industries. To grow it is important to play on our strengths and not waste time on bids we can’t win.”

It is this practical approach, the knowledge of what can be done and what can’t, the commitment to company philosophy and the ability to offer a fully integrated service that sets the company apart.

In short, these company traits are the quintessence of Kaizen.

If you are interested in Yusen Logistics, visit their website at http://www.au.yusen-logistics.com/index.html

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Features

The Food Stalker: Sandie Ward

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What inspired me to write a blog?
I want to “Go to Oz” like Dorothy did and share my passion for food and fashion. All of my time spent traveling the world relate directly to finding a human face to associate with my destination, the food I eat and the memories. In a time of fast growing technology I think we are all seeking ways to “connect”, encouraging us to find through the universal language of food a genuine human connection.

Documenting my experiences with pictures and videos creating a blog seemed like a natural way to connect with the world. My most memorable experience was meeting Wolfgang Puck for the Oscars.

What obstacles have you had to overcome to get where you are today?
Technology has been a challenge for me. I am not a techie-person and learning new programs and how they work has driven me to have a cocktail before 5pm! It has been important to align myself with people who have a shared vision without ego (Ego stands for “eliminates growth opportunity”). In the beginning it takes time to find your voice. Things must grow organically and it takes time.

Who inspires you the most?
My husband Joe. He’s the one I am always “ditching” to chase for that next adventure, but behind the scenes he is my rock. He is a great son, father, friend and brother. When we met he shared his “Rocking Chair Theory” with me and once I was sold on the idea, we’ve been on a hell-of-a-ride ever since. ( Yes, that we would be in those proverbial rocking chairs, on the same porch, proud of the family legacy we created together.) A self-made man, he has utilised the most important masculine qualities of hard work, perseverance and most of all personal responsibility to become the captain of his own destiny. Not content with lounging on the shore waiting for his ship to come in, he has reached deep inside, pulling himself up by the bootstraps to become a successful, selfmade man. He’s a fighter and has the emotional tools in his toolbox to repair the cracks and dents life brings (let alone deal with this crazy blog-a-holic). His true gift is his “Midas Touch” and I have learnt so much from him over the last 20 years. He continues to put his family first, always, and rises each day making himself available to help others, living his life in a way that makes me proud.

What should every person who visits Laguna Beach, California, experience?
Laguna Beach offers miles of soft sand and surf and has a small town feeling and as far as I’m concerned is simply paradise here on earth. (just don’t tell anyone). It’s half way between Los Angeles and San Diego and offers year-round activities for art lovers, nature enthusiasts and beach lovers. In summer the town is flooded with visitors to see the world-renowned production “The Pageant of The Masters” which has been combining theater and art by creating “living pictures” of some of the world’s most well known works of art. You sit in the outdoor amphitheater under a starry sky watching this extraordinary production. Nearly 100 galleries are sprinkled around the town and The Sawdust Festival in the Canyon is another great event each summer. There are art museums, Patriot Day parades on Main Street, Music in the Park events, The Playhouse for live theater, hiking, biking, boating and surfing. Laguna has something to offer for everyone, with a more laid back feeling than Los Angeles and it’s been a great place to raise our son. He has fallen in love with the ocean and loves to skimboard which was started here in the 1920s. There are many wonderful restaurants and cafe’s to enjoy and The Montage Resort offers delightful views, a full spa and incredible cuisine. The Laguna Beach Farmer’s Market every Saturday is a great spot for us foodies.

Where does your passion for food and fashion come from?
Early childhood memories of playing dress up, modeling and being a creative person have fueled my passion. My mamie and mother always had great style. I still have a picture on my desk at age six in front of my mamie’s refridge wearing black and white checkered pants with a matching cap and sassy red jacket she purchased for me. Growing up part Italian and marrying a man who was 100% Italian for my first marriage, I had those remarkable experiences in
the kitchen that were priceless, learning “old school secrets” from grandmothers who were eager to share.

Tell me about your blog in 200 words:
It’s where food and fashion collide. Half of the stories are how I get there, gaining access and making something happen. It’s not easy and if everyone could be doing it they would. The other half is “the reward”, getting to meet the chef, restaurant owner, top designer, attending a red-carpet, etc. Placing a normal person in abnormal situations and watching the fireworks explode.

How far would you go to get what you want?
When it comes to food, I’m willing to ditch my husband and wade through the ocean in my Louboutins to join a band of local fishermen in search of the best “Catch of the Day”. I’ll chase trains, planes and automobiles to get to that next food story. Sometimes you just have to take a chance, no matter how many designer shoes you loose, because only those willing to risk even their husband’s sanity get what they want, and no one wants that food tale more than Sandie. There is always a story, behind the story, after all, and even the most unlikely kitchen filled with them. Whether a five-star chef with a penchant for bone sucking sauce or an aged olive farmer in the groves of Tuscany, each has an imprint on the foods we love and long to learn about. Except this huntress is willing to risk her marriage and her designer wardrobe to get to them, and doesn’t care what it requires, even the aid of an utter stranger. Savvy, adventurous, even dangerous with a sense of humour and an insatiable craving for food and fashion, that’s THE FOOD STALKER and you never know where I’ll turn up next. So grab your fork and knife and get ready for the wildest food adventures ever with this wild fashion-crazed, food-seeking gal because once the scent strikes there’s no telling where it’ll take me –or how many therapy sessions my husband might need!

If you were to be someone else for a day, who would it be and why?
Although comfortable in my own skin I would say Oprah Winfrey. She rose from a childhood so poor it sounded like a punch line for a joke and yet through it all she has risen to become one of the most powerful women in the world. Her philanthropy in founding a school in Africa, Oprah’s Angel Network which gives educational grants and personally donating $10million to rebuild homes after Hurricane Katrina are nothing short of remarkable. Her endorsements have the power to make careers and change lives. That must feel pretty incredible and oh, over all the years of interviews, the rich stories she must have.

Who is your role model?
Kathy Ireland. At 48 she is still as stunning as she was when she appeared in 13 consecutive Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues. With three children and two dogs she fronts the Kathy Ireland brand with credibility and manages to balance a career and a family effortlessly with class and style. “Please” and “thank you” are part of her every day vocabulary. She was an entrepreneur long before she was a model. As a child she painted stones and peddled them door-to-door and sold crafts at art fairs. At age 11 she applied to an add beckoning newspaper deliverers stating “Are you the boy for the job”? She wrote a note to the editor stating she was the girl for the job, and got it. My kinda gal. Considering she barely graduated high school, her success is staggering. Her business is about investing in people and ending up on the cover of ForbesMagazine in February 2012 is an inspiration for all women to follow your dreams and reach for the stars.

What makes you successful?
Hard work and no fear.

If you are interested in Sandie Ward’s views and insights, follow her on Twitter @TheFoodStalker, Facebook or visit her website at http://thefoodstalker.wordpress.com/

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