Dining out on instant reservations

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By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 07.10.2010 (The Sydney Morning Herald): When it comes to booking flights, hotels, car hire or concerts, increasing numbers of us jump on to the internet. But booking restaurants is another matter, with most people still picking up the phone or emailing, waiting for the restaurant to open and respond.

However an online booking engine developed last year, Dimmi, is helping to change the face of Australian restaurant reservations.

Dimmi was launched in September last year by Stevan Premutico, who was frustrated by the lack of cost-effective marketing channels available to restaurants to fill tables while marketing the Hilton’s ‘Glass Brasserie’ in 2005. He went on to work with Hilton International in London, winning the 2007 UK Hospitality Young Marketeer of the Year Award.

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From Byron to the world

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By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 13.09.2010 (The Sydney Morning Herald): From its modest beginnings on an old farmhouse stove in 1990, the Byron Bay Cookie Company has become an international brand, exporting to 20 countries and employing 100 people in Australia and another 100 indirectly through its distribution partners in the UK.

The home-grown cookies, originally baked by Maggi Miles and Gary Lines on their farmhouse stove for the local market in the coastal town of Byron Bay under the name of Pickles, Pies and Petticoats, soon became a staple at local cafes. As their popularity grew, the cookies made their way on the shelves of prestigious national and international stores such as David Jones, and Selfridges and Harrods in the UK.

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Moving to a Safer World with a Million Pleas Campaign

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By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 01.09.2010 (InDepth News Analysis – IDN): As the threat of nuclear annihilation becomes more real than ever before, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons(ICAN) Australia has launched a `Million Pleas’ campaign, emphasising the urgency to rid the world of these weapons.

“The Million Pleas campaign gives a face and a voice to the issue of Nuclear weapons and the urgency for total disarmament and abolition of these weapons. People do want to see a complete abolition of N-weapons, but they don’t necessarily have a way of getting the message across to world leaders. Through this initiative, they can”, says ICAN Australia’s Campaign Director and Executive Officer, Dimity Hawkins.

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