How a $720-a-night hotel shot to glory

13/06/2011 0 Comments read Business and Trade

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 13.06.2011 (The Sydney Morning Herald): Reinventing the service culture to encourage staff to bond with guests helped a Hunter Valley lodge join the ranks of the world’s most prestigious group of hotels and restaurants, Relais & Chateaux.

Tower Lodge, in New South Wales, became part of the association in November 2009, and last year gained further kudos when it was crowned the Best Global Luxury Lodge at the 2010 World Luxury Hotel Awards.

Simple strategies such as playing different music and rearranging the furniture have paid off too.

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Australia an ideal home for leading U.S. ICT companies

01/06/2011 0 Comments read Business and Trade, Features, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 01.06.2011 (AMCHAM Australia): With growth in Internet and Globalisation, American Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies have been quick to clinch business, trade and investment opportunities that Australia offers.

A significant research infrastructure, highly skilled and experienced workforce, technology-hungry and solutions-driven customer base, strategic geographical position offering proximity to Asia-Pacific, and an English-language base with multi-lingual capability make Australia an attractive destination for U.S. ICT companies.

Major Fortune 500 companies including Microsoft, Alcatel-Lucent, IBM, Dell, AT&T and Google, amongst others, have set up offices and built research and product development facilities in Australia.

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Indigenous Say It on Film

24/05/2011 0 Comments read Features, Indigenous

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 24.05.2011 (IPS): From the Australian bush to Alaska’s Arctic wilderness, indigenous peoples’ stories and perspectives take centre stage at the Message Sticks Film Festival, the only annual event of its kind in Australia.

Message Sticks opened at the Sydney Opera House on May 13 and tours nationally until August 24, through remote Aboriginal communities in the towns of Broome, Townsville, Cairns, Alice Springs and Yirrkala, besides screening to mainstream audiences in state and territory capitals.

“The festival has grown in terms of audience and the quality of works,” said Australian indigenous film and documentary director Rachel Perkins.

“The pool of indigenous filmmakers has also grown with more access to targeted programmes for skills development. This, coupled with the means of production becoming more economically viable, has meant that there is more content to draw from,” Perkins, who has been the festival curator for the past 12 years, told IPS.

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