Latest Blogs

Taking the Advantage of Monster Beats By Dre Headphone for Amazing Music Experience and also Looking Trendy

fjfj — Thu, 10 May 2012 02:31:35 +0000

I love to read this type of stuff. Good and attractive information I take from it..Thank you for posting such a nice article

New Vancouver Tourism Video

Kathy Woolverton — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 06:18:13 +0000

Have you seen the video from Tourism Vancouver? Great, fun videos of our beautiful city! What do you think?

A Celebration of Clifford Cox's Life

Synergy — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 05:40:41 +0000

Dear members:

Vancouver AM member Clifford Cox has recently passed away at 79.

Clifford was a past director and lifetime board member of Theatre Under the Stars in Stanley Park.

Any that have attended the 2010 Vancouver AM Christmas event would have had a chance to hear Clifford Cox in the choir serenading us with carols.

For those who would like to attend the service for Clifford Cox, a celebration of Cliff’s life will be held on Thursday, February 16^th, at 1:00 PM at St. Philip’s Angelican Church, 3737 West 27^th Avenue, Vancouver. Reception to follow.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Cricket BC, 9173 Shaughnessy Street, Vancouver BC. V6P 6R9.

You are cordially invited!

Gylliayn Art / La G Gallery / Gastown — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:37:39 +0000

You are cordially invited to relax, and enjoy beautiful artwork and delicious wine and appetizers in the company of friends and family. On Thursday, October 27th, La G Gallery transforms into a public space for one night only - Gylliayn original artwork will be on display with bidding beginning promptly at 5pm and closing at 9pm. Also included in the silent auction is a beautiful gown from Blushing Boutique (originally priced at $250) and an amazing hair package from Suki's Hair Salon in Richmond (originally priced at $300) so bring your chequebooks and get ahead of the holiday season by purchasing your gifts early! Part of the proceeds will be directed towards the organization "Speak For Your Life".
Empowering Men and Women to realize their full potential by using Public Speaking and Leadership skills to step into confidence, power and greatness!

+++ Included in our Silent Auction! ++
Blushing Boutique gives us a gown by Canadian Designer: Shelley Klassen.
http://www.blushingdesigns.com/

Suki's Richmond gives us a package of Colour, Cut, and Style: James Valiant
http://www.sukis.com/qs/page/9983/6046/-1?page=1

Coal Harbour Liquor Store has generously donated wine for the event.
http://www.coalharbourliquorstore.com/

15+ Gylliayn Art framed and unframed prints for your home, office decor..
http://laggalleryinternational.com/

For more information: jill@jillpatrick.com or call 604-999-1252

Gylliayn

http://www.laggalleryinternational.com/Events_at_La_G_Gallery_.html

Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) selected BCAMA 2011 Marketer of the Year!

Kathy Woolverton — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:16:30 +0000

Congrats to the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) for being selected 2011 Marketer of the Year 2011 by the BCAMA (BC Chapter of the American Marketing Assocation).

October 13th, 2011 http://www.bcama.com/moy/default.asp

Member remembered - Zena Wagstaff

Randy Vannatter — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:37:41 +0000

Just a note to remember past Vancouver AM member; Zena Wagstaff who passed away just recently. Many will remember Zena at our meetings providing Zena's Musical Staff. Zena was a legend in Vancouver music; serving 50 years with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Hoist a glass to Zena today; make a difference just like Zena.

Randy Vannatter - Past President - Vancouver AM Tourism Association

Manager, Group Sales

Jennifer Campbell — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 01:36:54 +0000

The PNE is excited to be hiring for the position of Manager, Group Sales. Attached please find the job specifications. All applicants must apply at www.pne.ca/jobs to be considered for this position.

Thank you,

Jennifer Campbell

Vancouver AM Tourism Association

Synergy — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 01:32:04 +0000

The Vancouver AM Tourism Association provides great networking events for those in the tourism and hospitality indistry, as well as first hand information on major events, new projects and entertainment in the Vancouver area.

Whether it's developing business leads or staying current on tourism and hospitality issues, Vancouver AM members pride themselves on being in touch with what is happening in the tourism community and the city at large.

The Vancouver AM Tourism Association has been busy lining up high quality speakers throughout the year. Here is a copy of the calendar of events for your reference.

An up to date list of coming events is on the Events menu above.

Free Grant of up to $5,000 / company for Innovation!

Kathy Woolverton — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 04:26:10 +0000

Know anyone that:

- Needs to improve their website to enhance sales?
- Wants to do more with social media connect with customers?
- Or software to help their business run smoother?

Would up to $5,000 FREE BC Innovation Grant help?Now's the time to get the Social Media, E-Commerce, Search Engine Optimization, Software and other Web Enhancements you want.

Hands on training and 21 years expertise from Synergy, immediately applying these improvements to your business – with up to $5,000 paid by the BC Government. Just call today at 604-681-0516 before funds run out!

Call us today if you or anyone you know needs help with:

• Enhancing your website to increase sales and better promote your business.

• Using social media to promote your business.

• Create an interactive customer community / social network – Your own brand, In your own web site - to enhance connects with current and potential customers, to increase sales

• Software to help run your business smoother.

• E-Commerce

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

It is available for BC Companies that have been in business at least 1 year, and have 1-50 employees. So, this is a great chance to help people out!

As it won’t be available long, we are trying to let as many people know as possible!

Re the $5,000 grant: since it is hard to know how long the pool of funds for the grant will last, and since it is first come, first served - if interested, call me at 604-681-0516 or 604-813-6065 today!

PS: We appreciate your referrals, and offer a referral bonus for anyone who you refer who goes ahead with a project. This can be cash, or a bonus credit towards any enhancements you may want yourself, or can be used to support Vancouver AM.

Tips to Boost Your Site Search Rank with Social Media

Kathy Woolverton — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:12:39 +0000

No question, tourism, hospitality and entertainment businesses are using social media to connect with
potential clients. It is great to get the customer testimonials, upcoming events, and photo sharing of people having fun at your venues!

Using social media is also helps build internet
search campaigns and search engine optimization.

A recent survey shows how dramatic the improvement is.

Forty-four percent of respondents reported seeing noticeable boosts in search engine campaigns. Forty percent saw a lift in search engine referrals, 25 percent observed higher click-through rates on their paid search initiatives and 25 percent increased their conversion rates.

The majority of these companies leveraged social media to improve search engine optimization.

- Two-thirds (66 percent) are using the platform to create in-bound links.

- 64 percent are using extended profiles to reap more hits from search engines.

- 62 percent are tuning in to social media conversations to plan keyword strategies.

The benefits of social media campaigns inspired many firms to hire more social media experts.

- More than half (56 percent) of companies are devoting more budget to the platform,

- 15 percent are hiring staff

A great extra benefit of adding adding YOUR OWN customer community / social media ON YOUR OWN website using the Synergy Connect web software platform is in the search engine optimization.

Significantly more updated content is appearing within your site, thanks to your customers or fans responding to your community, sharing information, sharing photos, etc. Almost all of this content will include words (keywords) that correspond to the keywords you want your website to be found under.

As well, users viewing your content in your community can press the Facebook LIKE button and/or the Share button on all these community pages within your site, resulting in many more inbound links to your site.

Each of these increases your search engine optimization, and helps more new customers find you.

With hundreds of millions of consumers using social media and online shoppers conducting more than 16 million searches per month, the combined power of social and search channels enable brands to reach a large audience

________

Interested in implementing this positive impact for your business? Adding your own customer / fan community to your site using Synergy Connect is easy. It can connect to almost any website. Your community will be implemented with your business' brand.

Just contact us at Synergy today to get started. Ask about a free internet strategy session for Vancouver AM Tourism Association members.

Also, are you a BC company with 1 to 50 employees? Ask us about the grant of up $5,000 Free to help you with this new innovation. Limited time offer. First come, first served. Ask today!

Are you PCI Compliant

Mun Bagri — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 23:40:41 +0000

Hello Everyone,

This is my first Blog for RoomKey PMS hosted by Vancouver AM. First off, I must say that it's been a great experience attending the Vancouver AM breakfasts and the great people I have been able to meet so far.

So... When you think of Hot and Exciting news in the Tourism Industry you may not think Property Management Software. Trust me, I usually don't either except this year when the Payment Card Industry (PCI) decided that October 2010 would be the deadline for merchants that use Credit Cards as a payment option to become compliant to the strict conditions that they have provided. This is indeed big news, but won't make the mainstream industry news until someone unfortunately becomes made an example of. A lot of properties in Canada have admitted that they do not know much, or as much as they feel they should about PCI Compliance and my concern is that the lack of awareness provided may result in some unpleasant surprises should credit card fraud occur at their property and they report it. I could go on forever on PCI, but I will keep it short, but be available if you have any further inquiries on PCI compiance and how it may affect you and your company.....

Have a great day!!!

Mun

PHOTOS: VancouverAM @ Sutton Place Hotel

Mark Kinskofer — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:27:38 +0000

PHOTOS
Date:
Aug 13th, 2010
Event:
VancouverAM Sutton Place Hotel breakfast
Speaker:
Graham MacLachlan, Regional President of RBC - BC Granfondo Whislter Bike Race

Photos by: Mark Kinskofer of Vision Event Photography (mark@visionphoto.ca)

CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK TO THE PHOTOS

Building on that heady Olympic vibe

Kathy Woolverton — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:16:53 +0000

It was amazing to see the power of social media during the recent Olympics to engage people, share experiences, and expand market reach.

Businesses and organizations involved in tourism, entertainment, hospitality, and sport are actively getting involved in social media, both on other sites, and adding social media to their own sites.

Through events such as the tourism and Olympic speakers at VancouverAM Tourism Association and other groups, is is great to be able to exchange and learn, to build upon success.

Here is a interesting article I just came across in The Vancouver Sun - July 8, 2010.

By Kevin Krueger, BC's Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts.

Tourism is vital to British Columbia, providing over $13.8 billion in annual revenues and supporting over 131,000 jobs. Growing the tourism industry has been and continues to be a high priority for the B.C. government.

We proudly hosted the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, which many are calling the best Winter Games ever. Some even believe British Columbians have sparked a new level of patriotism in Canada. The beautiful images of British Columbia broadcast during the Games provided an unprecedented opportunity to drive sustained tourism growth.

We are building on the momentum of the Games by marketing B.C. and all its tourism advantages around the world. Here are just a few examples of how we are working to help grow the tourism sector in B. C:

In mid-March, we launched an integrated North American advertising campaign targeting travel, lifestyle and news websites, coupled with highly effective social media and search engine marketing strategies. We're also accessing our database of more than two million consumers to send customized information encouraging both first-time and repeat visits.

Overseas, we plan to launch more than 120 cooperative advertising campaigns with key travel trade organizations, to aggressively market B.C. For example, in the U.K. we have already partnered with a leading tour operator, Air Canada and The Telegraph newspaper to reach a high-end U.K. audience of 824,000 and worldwide audience of 27.1 million.

In Japan and South Korea, we're partnering with the Canadian Tourism Commission and various tour operators in multimedia campaigns encouraging consumers to visit B.C. this summer, with very positive results.

Here at home, we've launched a campaign to persuade more B.C. residents to "staycation" this summer. This campaign began in June and includes TV and print advertising, as well as special contests and promotions designed to excite British Columbians about vacationing right here at home.

We've also enhanced the HelloBC website by increasing interactive options for maps and information to help visitors enjoy some of our most spectacular driving routes. We have doubled grant funding for our smaller visitor centres.

On June 24, tourism got a major boost with the signing of the Approved Destination Status (ADS) agreement between Canada and China. With the ADS designation, Canadian tourism businesses and destination marketing organizations -- including ours in British Columbia -- can now actively market within China.

Further, tour operators to the Chinese can organize, promote and advertise leisure group travel packages to Canada. This was not previously allowed so we are very excited about the potential this market holds for us.

The agreement is expected to boost the number of Chinese visitors to B.C. by 10 per cent in 2010, 15 per cent in 2011 and an additional 15 per cent for 2012. Last year, 160,833 Chinese visitors came to Canada, with more than half visiting British Columbia.

We will take full advantage of this opportunity. The B.C. government will continue to work with the Canadian Tourism Commission to maximize B.C.'s exposure to potential Chinese tourists through expanded marketing campaigns highlighting the many tourism opportunities B.C. has to offer.

These campaigns will include travel stories on B.C. in print, online and broadcast to increase awareness in China of B.C. as a highly desirable travel destination, including cooperative advertising of packaged group holidays available through selected tour operators. This will benefit tourism throughout British Columbia.

We have a strong plan and our team of highly talented people is dedicated to making Super, Natural British Columbia one of the world's top vacation destinations. The result will be a growing tourism sector in every region of the province.

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Interesting article. What are your thoughts? Is this helping tourism in Vancouver and BC? What do you think is most effective? What are other tourism, entertainment and hospitality areas doing well?

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Contact Synergy today for a complimentary strategy session to discuss your businesses' social media goals and how Synergy Connect can help you start achieving these today. Call us today at 604-681-0516 or info@synergycc.com.
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Kathy Woolverton, President of Synergy, proudly holding the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch at a Vancouver AM Tourism Association breakfast.

Gartner's Social Software predictions - 2010 and beyond

Synergy — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 01:24:42 +0000

The social software and collaboration space for businesses has been expanding rapidly over the past few years. Tap into the best practices for embracing success in social networking.

Analyst firm Gartner, Inc. has revealed its key predictions on the use of social software and collaboration in the enterprise. These predictions focus on offerings ranging from team collaboration to dynamic social networking applications that offer rich profiles and activity streams.

"The growing use of platforms such as Twitter and Facebook by business user has resulted in serious enterprise dialogue about procuring social software platforms for the business," said Mark R. Gilbert, research vice president at Gartner and co-chair of the Portals, Content and Collaboration (PCC) Summit. "Success in social software and collaboration will be characterized by a concerted and collaborative effort between IT and the business."

To help businesses easily meet this goal,Synergy Connect.com was designed to easily add a social software platform directly to any business' or organization's website.

Just as on this Vancouver AM website, you can engage your customers, members, prospects, and other influencers.

Gartner offers five key predictions where social software is headed over the next several years.

By 2014, social networking services will replace e-mail as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20 percent of business users.

Greater availability of social networking services both inside and outside the firewall, coupled with changing demographics and work styles will lead 20 percent of users to make a social network the hub of their business communications. During the next several years, most companies will be building out internal social networks and/or allowing business use of personal social network accounts. Social networking will prove to be more effective than e-mail for certain business activities such as status updates and expertise location.

"The rigid distinction between e-mail and social networks will erode. E-mail will take on many social attributes, such as contact brokering while social networks will develop richer e-mail capabilities," said Matt Cain, research vice president at Gartner. "While e-mail is already almost fully penetrated in the corporate space, we expect to see steep growth rates for sales of premises- and cloud-based social networking services. "

Gartner recommends that organizations develop a long-term strategy for provisioning and consuming a rich set of collaboration and social software services, and develop policies governing the use of consumer services for business purposes. Companies should also solicit input from the business community on what collaboration tools would be most helpful.

By 2012, over 50 percent of enterprises will use activity streams that include microblogging.

The huge popularity of the consumer-microblogging service Twitter, has led many organizations to look for an "enterprise Twitter". Enterprise users want to use microblogging for many of the same reasons that consumers do to share quick insights, to keep up with what colleagues are doing, to get quick answers to questions and so on. "However, it will be very difficult for microblogging as a stand-alone function to achieve widespread adoption within the enterprise. Twitter's scale is one of the reasons for its popularity," said Jeffrey Mann, research vice president for Gartner.

Through 2012, fifty percent of business-led social media initiatives will succeed, versus 20 percent of IT-driven initiatives.

Enterprises will need to develop entirely new skill sets around designing and delivering social media solutions. But long term, enterprises will realize that social media is not a "hit or miss" activity naturally prone to high failure rates, and that a calculated approach to social media solution delivery must be an IT competency. At that point, post 2012, the social software market growth will accelerate as will the overall impact of social media on business and society.

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Contact Synergy today for a complimentary strategy session to discuss your businesses' social media goals and how Synergy Connect can help you start achieving these today. Call us today at 604-681-0516 or info@synergycc.com.