Daily News & Opinion

This image looks like a relic from a post-COVID world, right? Well, it was actually taken last week in the Great Hall in Christchurch Art Centre, where members from the hospitality and events industries gathered to catch up about what’s been going on over the past few months. The event was organised by MF Events and the Christchurch Arts Centre, and more than 150 people braved the rainy weather to take part.

One of the silver linings of the COVID pandemic has been the combined efforts of suppliers to switch their efforts to supporting those in need. Recently, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) did its bit by assisting food rescue charity OzHarvest with packing food hampers at its headquarters in Alexandria to distribute amongst the community. Together, the 18 volunteers from the IHG corporate office and hotels including InterContinental Sydney, Holiday Inn Sydney Airport and Crowne Plaza packed 532 hampers for delivery to OzHarvest’s Waterloo hub.

Bain Capital has entered into an agreement with its administrators to become the new owner of Virgin Australia. The Virgin Australia Group will now work closely with Bain Capital on its vision for the business. On the announcement, Virgin Australia Group chief executive officer and managing director, Paul Scurrah, said: “It was always the goal to bring our airline out of administration as quickly as possible in a stronger financial position and this announcement brings us a step closer to that.”  

On Friday, BridgeClimb hosted its first climb to celebrate the re-opening of the attraction, and the return of the NSW domestic travel industry. Some of the climbers included NSW treasurer Dominic Perrottet; CEO of Tourism Australia Phillipa Harrison; CEO of Destination NSW Steve Cox; and CEO of BESydney Lyn Lewis-Smith.

If you’ve been wondering this lately, you’re not alone. Cynthia Dammerer has penned an emotional ballad with this title about the uncertainty looming over international travel. The song has been sung by Veronique Neal from the Accor communications team in Singapore, who is joined in the video by Accor teams and staff from across the network. You might recognise some familiar faces. Have a listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C49Qt6uJ5DU&feature=youtu.be

Darren Isenberg had a great response to last week’s reel on bad business names (many of them gave us a chuckle). But, since these videos are supposed to add a bit of positivity to all of our lives, this week he’s decided to switch gears and focus on some of the best business names out there. Quite a few of the business names came from florist shops. We suppose there must be a lot of flower puns out there for the picking.

The 12th Global Investigative Journalism Conference (GIJC21) will take place in Sydney in November 2021, following the successful combined efforts of the Judith Nelson Institute and bidding services specialist BESydney. This will be the first time the event will take place in the Asia Pacific region, with the program including training, practical panels, workshops on the latest investigative techniques, data analysis, online research and cross-border collaboration by the best journalists in the field.

If you’re not all webinar-ed out, you might want to check out the one that the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) is hosting tomorrow on how incentive travel professionals can adapt to the new normal. The webinar will involve a conversation between SITE’s chief marketing officer Pádraic Gilligan and Vice President, Strategy Consultant at Magid Dr Rick Garlick, who will collectively impart data, tips and strategies to help participants adapt to a post-COVID landscape.