28 November 2011 – MONDAY MEMO

 …from Heart of Gisborne acting city manager, Ken Huberts

The week ahead: Now that the election is over, we can get back to focusing on all the exciting things that are happening locally in the lead up to Christmas. Our city’s Christmas tree is now up on Sun City’s roof with over 1000 new LED lights in red and white to kick off the festive season. Flags will go up from Thursday ahead of the much-anticipated Christmas Parade on Saturday, which will be a fun afternoon out for all. With summer just days from offficialy being underway, it’s time to enjoy Gisborne at its best – so make sure you get out and about as often as you can!

Christmas Parade: We have 30 confirmed entries for our annual Christmas Parade this Saturday 3 December at 4pm. The parade promises to be a fabulous family event, so make sure come along and join in on all the fun! Also, please be aware of road closures during this time.

Santa in the City: The crew from Mediaworks have six locations where Santa will be in the city. There are now only four places left, so if you have a retail shop that has a bit of space and you would like some extra foot traffic, emailjmackintosh@mediaworks.co.nz for more information and associated costs.

Late night shopping:  Our late night shopping promotion is on Thursday 22 December. We’re thrilled to hear that several businesses are gearing up for this day/night event with specials, market type stalls, and balloons to get into the festive spirit. This week we will be dropping off more details of what is planned and explain how you can win one of 4 x $500 media packs to spend with The Radio Network!

Win a ride with Santa: This will be judged later today and winners notified – I’m sure they’ll be very excited to ride with Santa this weekend!

Office Star of the Week: This week’s Office Star is Pat Janes of Roberts and Harper Accountants – congratulations Pat!You can nominate someone to be our next Office Star of the week here.

Parting thought: “The only thing we learn from new elections is we learned nothing from the old.” - Proverb

On the Street – your news and views=========================

From Emma Lawrence, web-savvy PR consultant: With now more than 800 million active users on Facebook who, on average, check their account at least once a day, it’s clear that the world’s largest social networking site cannot be ignored. But to use Facebook effectively in business, there are a few simple rules of etiquette that you need to be aware of. In this week’s newsletter, I’ll be talking about Facebook etiquette and how you can make your online presence more engaging. If you’re not already on the mailing list, make sure you sign up here for FREE marketing, PR and social media updates specifically for small businesses just like yours – you don’t want to miss out on all these juicy tips!

Christmas Function at the Grill Room: Enjoy our Traditional Christmas Buffet by Chef Stephan Kellermann with all the trimmings including roast turkey, roast beef, leg of lamb, fresh oysters, mussels, prawns, fresh fish as well as our famous desserts and much more every Friday and Saturday night starting on 11 November. For groups of 40 or more our events centre is available. For more information, visit www.emeraldhotel.co.nz or contact our events manager on 868 8055 or functions@emeraldhotel.co.nz