Parramatta City Council is supporting TAFE WSI and the Western Sydney Business Connection (WSBC) to conduct a research project to evaluate the skills gap in a local context. The project will eventually expand out to Western Sydney and potentially Greater Sydney.

With the recent changes to the Vocational Education Training (VET) system and the introduction of the Smart and Skilled Skills List by the NSW government in 2014 it has become imperative for businesses and education providers to develop an understanding of the current and future skills usage to ensure financial and business success in the coming years.

As a local business owner, we encourage you to take part in this research. 

Through providing input of current and future skill needs, local businesses have an opportunity to get involved and potentially influence government policies associated with skills development. You will also have an opportunity to opt-in for a customised business report. 

The customised business report will benchmark your organisation’s performance against other businesses in the Parramatta City Council area, other businesses in your industry across the region and other businesses of a comparable size. Results of this research will provide valuable insight to allow businesses of all sizes to better plan their skills and recruitment needs.

The survey will take less than 15 minutes to complete.

Lonergan Research has been commissioned to run this study. To take part in the survey, please click on the link below:

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/2068058/619-Parramatta

Whilst participation is voluntary, your participation will improve the quality of our research. We invite you to please complete this survey as soon as is convenient and by no later than 8th May 2015.

Have you ever thought of how significant the back office process is for your business? Would you like to reduce your overheads without cutting corners?

Back office processes may not drive your business, but without a reliable back office, no business will be able to grow, let alone survive.

More so today than ever before, businesses of all sizes are realising the increased efficiency and cost benefits associated with outsourcing back office functions. Companies who outsource are maximising employee productivity while lowering the hidden expense of hiring their own internal staff.

We understand that your processes are unique, and, we take great pride in our ability to work closely with you in order to ensure our solutions are cost effective, sustainable and align well within your organisation.

Why companies are hesitant to outsource their back office:

·         Hidden costs

·         Loss of control

·         Confidentiality of information

·         Lack of time to delegate

·         Risk of miscommunication and delays

·         Unsure whether you entirely trust the outsourced company

·         Embarrassed of the state of your accounts

Why outsource your back office to Pendragon:

·         No Hidden costs – you will pay 1 fixed cost each month

·         No fixed contracts – month to month freedom

·         No business is too big or too small

·         Secure and confidential platform

·         Accessible from anywhere in the world

·         Australian qualified staff working for you from 9:00am-5:00pm, 5 days a week

·         You will be assured that your accounts are accurate

·         Reports are available at anytime

·         We become your finance department

Pendragon main services include but are not limited to:

·         Set up and maintain chart of accounts

·         Day to day accounts payable and receivable

·         Liaising with suppliers

·         Banking

·         Accounting – reporting, BAS/GST Lodgement and preparation

·         Payroll

·         General Business Advice

Contact us today for a confidential, complimentary analysis of your current position on how we can assist you to run ‘Your Back Office’:

W | www.pendragon.net.au/organisations/your-back-office/

E | chantelle.langdon@pendragon.net.au

P | 02 9407 8700

Land a better deal at Lander Toyota this month with a range of deals on offer including HiLux, Corolla, Prado GXL, Camry and more.

2015 HiLux SR5 4x4 Double Cab Manual

The legendary unbreakable workhorse

3.0L Turbo Diesel Engine & Satellite Navigation

From $47,990 driveaway

2015 Corolla Ascent Sports Hatch CVT Automatic Runout

From $23,990 driveaway

2015 Prado GXL Automatic

From $62,990 driveaway

2015 Camry Altise Runout

From $26,990 driveaway

2014 Aurion ATX 

Includes metallic paint and free 4 years roadside assist*
NOW $29,990 driveaway

Come in and visit Western Sydney’s biggest Toyota dealership where we have all services on one site for your convenience including new and used sales, finance, service, parts and aftercare.

For more information contact us on 02 8488 8797 or visit our website at www.landertoyota.com.au

Land a better deal at Lander Toyota!

St.George expands its Smartwatch App for Apple Watch

St.George’s Australian-first smartwatch app has taken home AIMIA’s Best Smartphone or Tablet Application in Financial Services Award.

As the first bank in Australia to tap into the growing wearable technology trend, the coveted industry award is further recognition that St.George is ahead of the pack in technology and innovation with its unique smartwatch app.

The smartwatch app is a timesaver for people on the go, allowing customers to access their finances directly from their wrist watch or search for the nearest St.George ATM or branch.

Travis Tyler, Head of Mobile at St.George Bank said he is thrilled to receive the prestigious award which highlights St.George’s early move into wearable technology and boosts the bank’s strategy to invest further in this space.

“The timing for receiving this award is spot on with our strategy to expand our smartwatch app to Apple. We’re currently developing an app for the highly anticipated Apple Watch, which we expect will be a hit with our customers when it launches later next month.”  

St.George’s CIO, Dhiren Kulkarni said the bank remains focused on designing and delivering innovation that matters, and what matters is the Apple Watch.

“St.George has a proven test and learn strategy to always be the first to market in innovation. It’s worked well for us in the past with the Samsung Gear 2 and Sony Smartwatch 2, and we’re confident we’ll be the first to roll out a mobile banking app for the Apple Watch.”

St.George’s smartwatch app also took out the Money Magazine best app award in November last year and follows a number of first to market St.George innovations, including the launch of biometric logon capability and the introduction of iBeacon technology last year.

https://www.stgeorge.com.au/

Gallop Solutions is a business management training company, over the last 4 years our team have  worked with over 300 companies, from 1 – 150 staff, with turnovers of $100k to $120m across multiple sectors including construction, real estate, childcare, health services, professional services, resources and manufacturing. 

Some of our clients have expanded nationally and internationally, whilst others have strengthened and stabilised their businesses to become more profitable, giving the business owners more time back for themselves whatever that may mean for them.  For some it is to travel the world, for others it may be to expand their business or property empire and then there are those who wish to create a valuable saleable asset upon which to plan their exit strategy.

Our absolute promise to our clients is that we will educate and support them and their teams to build more profitable, efficient and FUN companies.  Every single one of our 300 clients has done that, we are so proud to have helped them achieve the success and freedom that they deserve.

As the forerunner to our training suite opening in Western Sydney in the first half if the 2016 financial year, we are running our first Gallop Discovery – Business Tools for Freedom Seminar on Thursday 14^th May from 9.15am to 4.00pm at Rydges Rosehilll.  For more information on what to expect please see the review below, this is no sales pitch, it’s a chance to LOOK at and LEARN how you can make a positive difference to your business and your life.

MEMBER OFFER

We are delighted to offer members, partners and friends of WSBC a special invitation to attend the inaugural seminar with two complimentary tickets valued at $399 + GST each for themselves and a business colleague or associate where we will work with you to invest some valuable time working ON the business instead on IN it!

To apply for your tickets simply email or call Caroline Gilroy on 0488 335010 or cgilroy@gallopsolutions.com and quote the WSBC members code WSBCParramatta

 The Business Tools for Freedom Seminar in partnership with ANZ

 The Discovery seminar is designed for business owners and their senior  management teams to spend time looking at their business, where they are now  and where they want to get to.  The day is structured to share some valuable tools  and for participants to have key “lightbulb” moments about how they could view, structure and run their business and their lives more effectively.  We talk about freedom but what does that mean, freedom from anxiety, freedom from stress, freedom to spend more time with their families ultimately this boils down to financial freedom – a core goal of both Gallop Solutions and ANZ for their clients.

A small selection of feedback from previous seminar attendees

“Having been on many seminar and courses, I can safely say the Gallop Discovery Session gets to the heart of the issue that so many companies struggle with.  It may not be rocket science but you still need to know how to apply the tools and today I learnt those.”  Scott Brewster, Forum Group (BRW Fast 100 list 2014)

“Just when you think your company is doing well, you attend a Gallop workshop and realise it could be 1000 times more profitable.” Peter Geraghty, Sanders Property (Largest independent property agent in Sutherland Shire)

We look forward to hearing from you and being a bigger part of the Western Sydney Business community.

All the best, Caroline and the whole Gallop Solutions team

XVenture, creators of Australia’s premier experiential learning program for business teams, today announced an innovative partnership with Event Cinemas to deliver its ground-breaking 100 Leaders program.    

Organisations can now share and learn inspirational lessons in leadership in a unique, moderated cinema experience – for not much more than the price of a movie ticket. 

The revolutionary cinema experience is the latest advance from XVenture, who started out delivering a special experiential learning challenge program for business teams on free-to-air channel ONE and subscription television channel SKY Business in 2011. 

Since then, XVenture has delivered challenges and experiences to some of the world’s best organisations, in Australia and overseas.

This month XVenture announced the launch of the 100 Leaders program digitally, with a unique profit-sharing model that benefits charities via their own digital platform. Now the new venture with Event Cinemas opens up a fully interactive learning experience designed to engage, inspire and motivate the masses.

Over an 18-month period, XVenture interviewed and recorded 100 people from all walks of life to create the 100 Leaders program. From LA to London and Hong Kong to Sydney; from small, medium and large organisations, doctors, dancers, designers, educators, entrepreneurs, artists and musicians to business executives, financiers, manufacturers, technologists, charity leaders and sports people – all have participated in this exciting project.

The project is self-funded by the XVenture team led by founder and CEO Mike Conway, who is also an Adjunct Professor at Macquarie Graduate School of Management.

XVenture has produced these interviews into short video clips, supported by animation, music and imagery to deliver some of the most inspiring contemporary thoughts and views about leadership ever seen.

“Whilst we’ve interviewed some very high-profile and amazing people including Steve Waugh, Laura Geitz and Ronni Kahn, every person we’ve met has had an incredible story to tell and wisdom to share,” said Mr Conway.

Organisations can now share and learn from the leadership interviews and connected themes in a unique cinema experience. 

“Just imagine your organisation’s people turning up to an Event Cinema first thing in the morning to experience a 100-minute 100 Leaders program,” Mr Conway said. “People get to walk the red carpet, enjoy a breakfast and a moderated cinema experience for not much more than the price of a movie ticket.”

“In typical XVenture style, each event is exciting, different, and tailored to suit the audience by using voting app technologies where the audience get to choose what and who they see on the big screen. Within hours of the experience, the organisation and all the participants also get a summary of the key lessons and messages.”  

“We are blending state-of-the-art learning techniques with the content delivered, so the retention of the content is very high.”

“The 100 Leaders program is inspiring and engaging. Influential and current leaders share philosophies and ideas, which are delivered on the big screen.  The programming is delivered like no other training, its an enjoyable and entertaining experience, meanwhile you’re team is learning, sharing and then reflecting within the session. It really is a special experience and we are thrilled to be working with XVenture on it,” said Luke Mackey, General Manager – Operations at Event Cinemas.

The first to try this innovative learning concept was global charity Adara Group, founded by Audette Exel. Adara’s global team has already included the 100 Leaders experience as part of their annual conference. 

“It’s so beautifully done, clever and inspirational. It is such a unique way of sharing knowledge,” said Ms Exel.

Pepper Group Co-Group CEOs Patrick Tuttle and Mike Culhane have integrated the 100 Leaders forum into their quarterly staff update to ensure as many of their Sydney-based staff as possible could experience it. More than 250 people spent a morning with 100 Leaders and heard messages and insights from people like Steve Waugh, Kristie Buchanan, Mark McCrindle, Ronni Kahn and many more on a range of themes, including “being courageous”, “embracing change” and “decision making”.

These participants were surprised by 100 Leaders world water ski champion, Leanne Campbell, who shared her thoughts on leaders and themes from the session, as well as taking questions from the audience. For those who couldn’t attend this session (and those from other Australian cities) access to all the content was enabled via XVenture’s digital platform after the event.

Organisations are now booking in for the Event Cinema sessions in June and July, seeing this as a way to engage and inspire a large portion of their employees in a cost-effective and timely way. It’s also a clever way for organisations to gain an insight about what type of leaders and leadership traits resonate with their employees via the special app voting system.

The 100 Leaders forum can be customised to suit any type of organisation and delivered around Australia to groups of 36 to 800 people at a time.

Book your next event at Novotel Norwest and RELAX. Win a five night Fijian holiday for two staying at the magnificent Sofitel Fiji.

To enter simply book and hold your conference at Novotel Norwest between April 8th and September 30th 2015 and you could be relaxing by the pool in beautiful Fiji.

The more you spend on a conference or event the more entries you'll get in the prize draw.

Spend $2,000 - $4,999 = 2 entries in the draw

Spend $5,000 - $9,999 = 4 entries in the draw

Spend $10,000 - $14,999 = 6 entries in the draw

Spend $15,000 - $19,999 = 8 entries in the draw

Spend $20,000 -or more = 10 entries in the draw

Simply call (02) 9634 9634 or email MEETINGS@novotelnorwest.com.au 

*Terms and conditions apply.  Valid for new conferences booked and held between 8th April to 30th September  2015.

On Thursday 12 March 2015, the award winning Rosehill Gardens welcomed close to 1,400 guests to the NSW Premier’s Harmony Dinner, hosted in the superb Grand Pavilion. It was a spectacular evening of multicultural food, fashion and performance.  

Being the largest gala event of its kind that the venue has hosted, it was definitely a welcomed challenge. Rosehill Gardens is not unfamiliar with large scale events; in fact that is exactly what it is set up for, playing host to some of Sydney’s largest events including the Golden Slipper Carnival and the NSW Caravan, Camping and Holiday Supershow, attracting crowds of over 40,000 and 80,000 respectably.

While the Grand Pavilion is set up to accommodate large scale functions, an event of this size still required additional planning and resource. The event was originally planned for 800 people; however within the final weeks leading up to the night the numbers grew to close to 1,400 guests. Previous to this, the largest Gala Dinner held in this space was for 1,200 guests; therefore it was still somewhat unknown how well the number of guests could be accommodated. 

With two kitchens already on site, an additional kitchen was also bumped in to service the extensive catering requirements. Being a multicultural event, there was also an impact from a catering perspective, having a large amount of Halal and Kosher dietary requirements. A total of 17 Kosher meals were served on the night, with additional requests received just hours prior to service, whilst the remaining meals were all Halal certified.  A whopping 168 kilograms of Lamb Rump Tenderloin was served during the night, with 20 chefs all spending an enormous 30 hours on food preparation.

The Harmony Dinner was all about celebrating various cultures, involving a smoking ceremony and various multicultural performances throughout the night, presenting operational considerations.  Smoke detectors were required to be disabled for the smoking ceremony, in addition to a regular presentation stage at the front of the room, three satellite stages were bumped in around the room to accommodate the performances. Four large projection screens were also installed at the front of the room to ensure guests did not miss a single bit of the entertainment throughout the night.   

Being a multi function event space comes with its challenges. A large function was hosted in the Grand Pavilion the night prior to the Harmony Dinner; meaning bump in could only take place on the day of the event. Exceptional communication and planning was critical to ensure the success of this.

In addition, being the home of the famous Golden Slipper Carnival running over three Saturdays in March, Rosehill Gardens was in full preparation for the Carnival during this time. With Carnival bump in starting approximately one week out, any work surrounding the function space itself could not happen until after the Harmony Dinner, leaving only one day for bump in. This also meant the Harmony Dinner had to be bumped out the same night. All events over this time were successfully executed, highlighting the scale and flexibility of Rosehill Gardens as a multi function event space.

In summary flexibility, impeccable planning, and being well equip to handle large scale events, was the key to the success of the Premier’s Harmony Dinner. We look forward to hosting this again in 2016.  

Rosehill Gardens offers a wide selection of versatile indoor and outdoor areas which can be designed to meet any request. Offering award winning catering and a contemporary suite of spaces, Sydney’s prestigious racecourse has the ability to cater a diverse range of events from intimate meetings to large scale lifestyle exhibitions, product launches, corporate events and outdoor festivals.

Click here for more information about Events at Rosehill Gardens.

For all corporate and special event enquires contact:

Terri-Ann Mikulic
Group Business Development Manager
Australian Turf Club
Ph: (02) 9663 8518

How do you think you fare when it comes to comparing your company to your competitors?

Rub shoulders with some of racing’s elite, along with corporate VIPs, right on the finish line at Rosehill Gardens at the Ronald McDonald House Westmead's 2015 Winter Cup Day.

Tickets are $220 pp and include a complete food and beverage package, live and silent auction opportunities along with a special guest keynote speaker. 

This is an event not to be missed!

Contact michelleb@rmhwestmead.org.au for more details.