Speed networking in Bondi - it’s only for business
Bondi & Districts Chamber of Commerce is holding their first ever ‘SPEED NETWORKING NIGHT’ next Tuesday 1st September and it promises to be an excellent night of networking, pitching, promoting and more!
networking in Bondi
The idea is for everyone to personally meet everyone else in attendance and promote your business.
“These speed networking events can be fun, but they are hard work too”, explains Michael Brecht, partner at ZaaBiz. “There is usually not a lot of time for each talk and you need to be well prepared with a strong 1-2 minute pitch of what you do”.
So, here you go - off to Bondi on the first of the month.
The Host: Bondi & Districts Chamber of Commerce
Start Time: Tuesday, September 1 at 6:15pm
End Time: Tuesday, September 1 at 9:00pm
Where: Depot Cafe
Your ZaaBiz Team
Wine Exports to China
Many of our members on ZaaBiz are involved in the wine business world. We found this interesting article on downunderwines - explaining the dos and don’ts of exporting to this big new wine market.
Wine exports to China
Let us know what you think.
Are you an exporter to China?
What are your experiences?
This is a big market and it might be very tempting to export to China, just be aware of the risks too.
Anabel
Bringing the girls down an inch or two
Unions in the UK have called for an end to women wearing high heels in the workplace.
In the articles I read on the matter, it seemed to be unclear as to whether the issue was one of health, preventing foot and back issues, or of some feministic impulse, stopping women wearing ‘degrading’ footwear.
The UK Trade Union advocates women wearing ‘sensible’ shoes, no higher than 25mm, and whilst I understand the pain of wearing a stiletto heel for an extended period of time, I also think that (outside OH&S laws and maintaining ‘appropriate’ business attire) allowing choice and diversity of opinion is the key to creating a happy and productive workplace.
While I tend to shun heels for work - mainly because I choose to walk to work and would rather not lug around a spare pair - I thought I’d ask some people who wore heels around the office for their opinion, and therefore took the story to a few women in business based in Sydney.
The first person I asked, like me, advocated choice, “I don’t think they should be banned, women make the choice to wear them, unless they’re part of a uniform.”
The second stated that she wore them for a bit of extra height around the office – even sighting a study which showed that salaries go up with your height! Her opinion? “Ladies, get your feet into those sky-high heels and get a pay rise!”
Signing off,
Louise.
Sunday Papers (but not as you now them)
Last week Rupert Murdoch announced that the days of free news online will soon be over and News Corp will soon start charging readers’ for access to online news content. Britain’s Sunday Times is tipped to be the guinea pig for the scheme, although the specifics are all fairly vague at this stage.
On the News Corp owned news.com.au Murdoch is reported as saying that, “an industry that gives away its content is cannibalising its ability to produce good reporting.”
This really is a landmark decision in the world of online journalism – which is a medium that, in many ways, is still trying to find its place and best method of delivery. I have been to many talks this year, which looked at the uneasy place of free news sources and the future of journalism, especially with the existence of sites such as Google News and Wikinews. The current media situation is such that newspaper circulations are dropping like a lead balloon, but due to the increasing modes of access to print news online, especially the ability to access publications internationally, newspapers have a higher readership that ever before.
I’ll be waiting eagerly to see how this plan is implemented, as not only does it impact on the people who work in the media in Australia and the rest of the world, but it impacts on the ways in which we learn about what’s going on around us, and how we remember the events that shape our world.
Signing Off,
Louise.
Raising the wage
Where do you stand on the latest debates over wage rises?
I’m fairly new out of university, so the cuts from opening up my little envelope minimum wages at the end of the week whilst working long days in retail, dealing with some not-so-nice customers, still run fairly deep. I can only imagine the difficulty of fending for more people than myself on that amount of money.
However, I’ve recently come to understand the wider implications of across the board wage rises.
In Australia the vast majority of our businesses are small businesses and start-ups. Whilst a rise of $21 per week doesn’t sound like much spending money to an employee, it certainly adds up very quickly for our small employers. And it’s not just our smaller businesses who would be hit by rises in wages. This week, Myer’s Chief Executive Steve Madden has spoken out about proposed changes to penalty rates, stating that such moves could not only result in job losses, but also mean that the increased cost is passed on to the costomers’ purchases. Restaurants have also, earlier in the year, showed concerns about wage rises which will come into effect in the hospitality industry in 2010.
So, I’m happy to sit on the fence on this one, but I’m sure there are many opinions out there, so please feel free to come to ZaaBiz and share your thoughts.
Signing off,
