Mike Hearn announces the 2019 AmCham Innovation Awards
The American Chamber of Commerce is delighted to announce the launch of the 2019 AmCham – DHL Express Success & Innovation Awards, held in conjunction with United Airlines. The Awards celebrate business achievement between New Zealand and the United States.
With the growing tourism and air freight volumes with the USA, AmCham is delighted to welcome Auckland Airport as a silver sponsor of this years awards.
Full details on the Awards Page including entry forms
Categories for awards
Entries close May 31st and the Awards Dinner is on 22nd August 2019.
Air navigation services provider Airways New Zealand and global science and technology provider Leidos have agreed to work closely together on future air traffic management (ATM) opportunities under an agreement recently signed in Washington.
The two organisations have already been working together on the SkyLine-X air traffic management system, a $58 million system that will replace Airways’ two existing ATM platforms.
This latest agreement, signed by Airways International CEO Sharon Cooke and Leidos Vice President Fran Hill, lays the foundation for Airways and Leidos to cooperate on several customer opportunities spanning the air traffic management sector, including a joint flow management solution anticipated in the near term.
“The co-development of the SkyLine-X platform really does provide a launch pad for an exciting and much broader collaboration with Leidos,” Airways International CEO Sharon Cooke says. “We value the long-standing relationship we have, and we’re excited about this new commitment to work together, where Airways will complement Leidos’ ATM capability with our training, simulation, and technical support expertise.”
More information
TV station, ABC7 Chicago remarks on the 'breathtaking' breakfast and lunch menu which has been serving residents in the Windy City for about a year.
It’s Mojo Coffee’s only location outside of New Zealand, and the original menu is pretty much intact from back home.
Since 2003, Mojo Coffee has been a constant presence in New Zealand. When they wanted to break into the US market, they first thought East Coast.
“We looked at New York first, but realised pretty quickly that for a new business breaking into this market, retail is really expensive, so a bit risky,” owner of Mojo Coffee Steven Gianoutsos said.
“Coffee’s gotta be premium. The quality has to be up there. The consistency has to be really, really good,” Gianoutsos said.
The flat white is new for many Americans, although typical for us. But that's not the only innovation. Mojo has an ambitious menu, with some grab-and-go, light snacks and a few ambitious dishes.
Not only is Mojo’s menu a little bit different than the standard US fare, There's no wifi, and hence, no one sitting on laptops. The intention is come down, have a bite to eat, have your meeting and then move on.
Original article by Steve Dolinsky, ABC7 Chicago.
Thanks to NZ Edge for the link.
One of the largest privately owned fleets in North America has become EROAD’s largest U.S. based enterprise customer.
The master supply agreement was signed in the United States for approx. 4,900 EROAD EHUBO 2 units.
Given the fleet size and diverse geographical locations, it is anticipated that the majority of these units will be installed during FY20.
The decision to switch to the user-friendly, accurate and reliable EHUBO 2 was made after a successful pilot programme. The customer’s full fleet operates out of hundreds of branches located within most States, forming one of the largest privately-owned fleets in the USA.
Read full press release.
AmCham joins all New Zealanders in condemning violence against any individual based on race, religion or creed.
The Prime Minister's words "You may have chosen us, but we utterly reject and condemn you" send the strongest possible message to the world. Our condolences go out to all the families of victims.
AmCham has made a donation on the United for Christchurch fund raising page. [Photo Credit: Christchurch City Council Newsline/Kirk Hargreaves ]
Thank you for the photo.
This month we celebrate our 27th year at ATPI Business World Travel – established in 1992 our longevity is attributable to our loyal Clients, our amazing team of Travel Professionals and our proactive Suppliers. A winning combination. Thank you and congratulations to all!
We’re amidst the peak of our inbound tourist season in New Zealand and Australia which creates the perfect storm as our Business Travellers have also gotten back on the road with a flourish. Domestic New Zealand travellers will be aware of the challenges with securing hotels or motels at reasonable rates and of course car rental availability is a problem. We’re concerned about containing your travel budget and to avoid extremely high accommodation rates (most are plus 50% to 100% over normal year round rates) we strongly recommend just making day trips to your business destinations. Once there, think about taxis, Uber or car sharing firms instead of scarce rental cars. Also keep an eye on our New Zealand Calendar of Events (call us for your copy) and avoid destinations hosting concerts, sports events or multiple cruise ships on a single day. The record hotel rate we saw was a 4-star hotel in Albert Street Auckland – last room between Hamilton and Warkworth – at $10,000 for the night! The pressure will ease as we move toward Easter.
United Airlines has confirmed its schedule for the Northern Summer and will offer three flights weekly between Auckland and San Francisco every Mon/Thu/Sat. The flight departs at 1330hrs and lands into SFO at 0640hrs which allows for connections to destinations right across the US and Canada and with an appealing early evening arrival into East Coast destinations such as New York, Boston and Miami. United will operate a Boeing 777-200 aircraft featuring the well-liked Polaris Business Class, Premium Economy Class, Economy Plus and Economy Class.
Emirates has reduced the check-in luggage allowance on its lowest fare categories. Seat sale type fares are often booked in V or X class and these categories of fare will only attract a 15kg luggage allowance. Conversely Emirates does offer one of the highest luggage allowance of all airlines for all other economy fares at either 25kg, 30kg or 35kg per person. Emirates flights between the US and Dubai sit at 2 pieces/ 23kg each for Economy Class.
North American airlines operating the Boeing 737 Max8 model aircraft include Southwest, American Airlines, Air Canada and Westjet. The FAA has now grounded the entire fleet of this aircraft type worldwide (there are 350 in service around the world) following the safety concerns raised about this newer model Boeing following the two devastating aircraft crashes. The aircraft is denoted as ‘7M8’ on your itineraries – not to be confused with the widely used Boeing 737-800 which carries the code ‘738’. The various airlines have advised us of the adjusted schedules and we have re-arranged clients travel to accommodate this.
Bonvoy is the new branding for the Marriott group’s Guest Loyalty Programme. Previous brandings have been Marriott Rewards, The Ritz-Carlton Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest. The three-programme integration will be completed this month and the new cards issued to members. Marriot merged with Starwood in 2016 and from the New Zealand perspective most clients have been SPG Members. The top tier Bonvoy Ambassador Elite recognises those roadwarriors who stay in the group’s hotel for a minimum of 100 nights or spend more than US$20,000 annually, individually.
One of our US based Virtuoso partners arranges our private sightseeing for clients in a number of cities in the US. One of the highlights is their private tours around Washington DC. They offer guided tours into a wide range of attractions – from the National Archives, Mount Vernon, walking tours of Alexandria and their popular tour of the Potomac River. Clients enjoy the personalised attention from their very skilled and specialised Guides.
Zion National Park in Utah celebrates its 100th Anniversary this year. There are activities planned throughout the year.
A reminder that travellers to the US who qualify for an ESTA must apply for these a minimum of 72 hours prior to departure. These can no longer be applied for within this time frame. And an additional reminder to ensure you carry a hard copy of your ESTA form for both the US and Canadian versions. The US ESTA can be re-printed from the ESTA system any time (via our website www.bwt.co.nz/Traveller Resources/ESTA). The Canadian one allows only one print when you first receive your application. Remember that if you need to show it that there is no wi-fi or other means of internet access within most Customs and Immigration halls.
Travel better! At ATPI/Business World Travel we’re a member of the prestigious US-based Virtuoso, an invited group of the world’s leading travel agents and where we can achieve benefits over and above any other travel agent or booking site for our clients. For a similar rate as any advertised rate included on the hotel site, Bookings.com or Expedia you’ll receive:
Grant Bevin is an AmCham member and Managing Director of ATPI
Organic Initiative (Oi) is delighted to announce that its 100% certified organic cotton feminine hygiene products will now be available in most Walmart stores from March 12, 2019.
By being 100% certified “organic cotton, the tampons, pads and panty liners are free from synthetics, chemicals sprays, perfumes and dyes. They are also biodegradable, and with a woman using about 11,000 products in her lifetime, having a readily available alternative to synthetic feminine hygiene products is a game changer. Being affordable and available throughout Walmart in the USA gives women easy access to the product range, and more choice.
Feminine hygiene sales in the U.S. are $2.7b per annum and Walmart accounts for about 20% of these.
Oi CEO, Helen Robinson says that Oi believes all women should have access to an affordable range of premium, organic tampons, pads and liners. “Our initiative is to be the new norm and we invite all women to make the healthy, certified organic feminine choice. It’s a small change each month every woman can make for themselves and for our world."
Read more
By Paul Adams, CEO EverEdge Global
According to a recent report from the UK Treasury, the world’s five most valuable companies are together worth £3.5 trillion, yet their balance sheets report just £172 billion of tangible assets. The other £3.3 trillion of value is missing in action.
Imagine if the directors and management teams of these five companies chose to only actively manage the 5% of assets recorded on their balance sheets. They would be ignoring the key driver of 95% of corporate value – their intangible assets – and critically failing to fulfil their fiduciary duty to manage all their company’s assets.
It seems almost inconceivable that directors and management would not actively manage their valuable intangible assets, but we see it happening everyday – albeit to varying degrees, ranging from merely failing to actively recognise these assets to outright denial they are even relevant. A large driver for this is that accounting standards like GAAP or IFRS were essentially designed for an industrial age economy and consequently they almost completely ignores intangible assets, lumping them under the amorphous term “good will” or recording them solely at cost.
When and why should you value your intangible assets?
Read the rest of Paul's article.
I’m Ian Leader with United Way New Zealand - see video below
It used to be. But the impact of social negativity requires it impacts on business and so business has a very active role to play in their own sustainability and sustainable communities mean sustainable business.
There are lots of ways from pure charity and philanthropy. Through to very strategic ways of engaging with community through employee volunteering and through strategic investment and now with the growth of social enterprise by actually doing business with social good business.
There’s lots of ways. We find now that a lot of employees vote with their feet and business that is seen to be anti-community and if there is not an alignment with their values, people are not interested in working for companies that do bad things for the community. We are now getting employees voting with their feet.
A lot of employees now expect employers to be setting up community engagement programmes which is everything from employee volunteering through to payroll giving. And also a huge expectation that companies should be contributing to the community from their own coffers.
A wonderful book Corporate Social Opportunity by Professor David Grayson and Adrian Hodges.
It talks about the need to shift away from social responsibility which is more of a tax and legislation approach to corporate social opportunity to actually take advantage of all of the opportunities that strategic and thoughtful engagement with community provides to business as an employer for its shareholders and also from a trade point of view. So it is doing business and doing business well not just in the community but with the community.
US-based investment firm Bridgewest Group has acquired Provoke Solutions, the owner of the popular Xero add-on, SuiteFiles.
The terms of the agreement will see Mason Pratt remain as CEO of the Provoke brand while, corporate services will become centralised, delivering back-office support for finance, human resource and technology functions.
“We have an amazing bunch of people working across our companies, and now have the resources to fast-track growth and create new job opportunities through Bridgewest’s expertise and financial support,” Pratt told Reseller News.
“Partnerships with global leaders like Bridgewest are extremely hard to come by in New Zealand, which makes this new relationship all the more exciting for our team.”
Headquartered in San Diego, Bridgewest is a global investment platform with expertise across technology, biotech, wireless communications, infrastructure for Internet of Things and semi-conductor sectors, in addition to real estate and financial services.
Bridgewest - which completed the deal through its Kiwi subsidiary Bridgewest NZ Holdings Limited - has been a major funder of Provoke for 18 months, working closely with the company directors since forming a strategic alliance in 2017.
“This is a very exciting transaction for us,” said Dr. Masood Tayebi, co-founder and CEO of Bridgewest Group. “Having spent the last 12-18 months looking to add a software services business to our high-tech portfolio, we wanted to take the time to ensure capability, culture and a focus on innovation were aligned with Bridgewest’s vision.
“We recognised that Provoke is a leader in enterprise software, especially in the cloud, artificial intelligence and machine learning disciplines, and believe their design-led approach makes them an excellent partner for Bridgewest.”
According to Dr Tayebi, securing the executive leadership and providing continuous service to Provoke’s client base was a “non-negotiable” component of the acquisition.
Read more in Reseller News
Image credit: Provoke
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