Colliers International provides commercial property sale and commercial property lease services, property research industry data, investment property advice, property valuation and property management services to clients across Australia.

Here’s the Herald’s announcement:

THE Hunter is set to go head-to-head with major growth regions like south-eastern Queensland to market itself as an economic powerhouse.

A new venture with private sector backing will be launched in Newcastle on Friday to send the message that the Hunter is open for business.

Called Hunter Advantage, the marketing project will combine a national advertising campaign with an internet site to build a strong case for business and industry to invest in or relocate to the Hunter and stimulate growth.

Among the backers are business heavyweights Jeff McCloy, Hilton Grugeon, Richard Owens, Bill Saddington, Mark Fitzgibbon and Phil Gardner and a host of Hunter corporations and business groups.

“This is about everyone working together to attract economic prosperity and jobs to our region,” developer Jeff McCloy said yesterday.

“We’ve got so much more to offer here in the Hunter and we’ve got to promote it as a great place to do business.”

The campaign follows Hunter Business Chamber warnings that the region is not immune to the deepening effects of global recession and that a growing number of local businesses will be forced to reduce staff in the next three months.

Figures the chamber released yesterday said 22 per cent of businesses surveyed expected to sack staff in that period.

But some of the region’s most influential business people say the Hunter could reap long-term prosperity, and jobs, by promoting its advantages.

An advertising campaign titled “A Sound Business Case”, will go national from Friday and an internet site will provide information on all aspects of the region, including education and lifestyle.

It will also contain case studies of businesses that have successfully relocated premises and staff to the Hunter.

Mr McCloy said the project, set up with seed-funding from the private sector, was working in conjunction with the State Government through the Hunter Development Corporation.

Advantages the Hunter had over other regions included availability of commercial land, a skilled workforce, affordable residential prices and a good lifestyle.

“Put that together with our educational facilities, airport, access to roads, rail, the port, water and power and I can’t see any restraints to locating business here,” Mr McCloy said.

Wests Group chief executive Philip Gardner said many businesses hit hard by the financial downturn and struggling with the high costs of larger metropolitan areas would look at the Hunter as an ideal place to re-locate.

Hunter development Corporation chairman Paul Broad said the project would help to streamline development activity.

Companion have $20,000 available to be donated to the local community and are asking for members and the community for suggestions.

If you know of a not for profit club, group or charity, that could use a helping hand, why not nominate them to share in the grant scheme? Applications are open from 15 April to 15 May and nomination forms can be found here or you can pick one up at your local Companion branch.

This is Companion’s way of saying ‘Thank You’ to their members and the local communities serviced by their branches, and as a member you have a say in who gets the funds by getting involved.

So if you know of a sporting club, charitable organisation or community group that could use some extra funds, let Companion know.

With multi-platinum  selling bands such as Silverchair and The Screaming Jets born and bred in the city it makes sense that that an organisation that prides itself on “giving back to the community that supports it” does so in the most appropriate manner.

Check 1 2 3 4  and enter stage left former Screaming Jets Drummer and local music identity Craig “Rosie” Rosevear  (and bonafide member of the Twitterati: @schoolofrock) with his performance based music school Rosie’s School of Rock. “We were pretty curious when we saw the School of Rock sign go up just across the road” says  King St.

McDonald’s restaurant manager Luke Dippel “so we invited the kids from the school to perform for McHappy Day and it was fantastic !!  We could see the potential in the School and what it could do for the kids of the region and we wanted to be part of something that was so positive and uplifting in their lives, it was like Food for the Soul !!”

So come Monday 23^rd March one lucky student from Rosie’s School of Rock will be awarded the “King St. McDonalds Rock On Scholarship” and will receive a full years tuition paid for by McDonalds. “The relationship we have with King St McDonalds is  a cool thing for both parties” says School of Rock Principal Craig “Rosie” Rosevear. The King St Restaurant provides a great venue for the kids of the School to perform at throughout the year and the kids get a great feeling when they not only get to Rock Out onstage but they know that other kids will benefit when proceeds from these events go to Ronald McDonald House. I think the kids helping kids thing is way cool !!”

The kid’s of Rosie’s School of Rock will team up with the staff of King St McDonalds and provide  “more food for the soul” when they  go to Ronald McDonald House Hunter Region on Tuesday 14^th April 6.30pm.

The kids from the School of Rock will perform for the young patients and their families who live at the house and the staff of the King St store will cook dinner for all. Rosevear, an avid twitter user (@schoolofrock) will give regular Twitter and Twitpic updates from the event as well as post Twiddeo: hashtag from this event will be *food for the soul*. “I think it’s such a great opportunity for the kids from Rosie’s School of Rock to connect personally with the kid’s living at Ronald McDonald house and maybe take their minds off things with a dose of Rock and Roll we can take this connection even further by using the social networking power of Twitter, Twitpic and Twiddeo. We’re going to use the positive vibes of the twitterati and broadcast this event from Newcastle to the World”

So don’t be surprised when one day you’ order your   McDonalds and you’re asked “Would you like a Tweet with that ? “

Q. What do a Neo Fauvist artist and a Rockstar have in common ?

A. The Archibald Prize

No, this is not some attempt at highbrow humour but the latest project for Hunter Valley based artist Peter Sesselmann. The Archibald Prize is regarded as the most important portraiture prize and is  the most prominent of all arts prizes in Australia. The Archibald is unique in that the subject should be considered to be someone “distinguished in art, science or politics”. So what subject would be best to compliment an artist such as Peter who is known for his loud vivid  colourful  style ?

Well someone with a loud, vivid style of their own; enter local music identity Craig “Rosie” Rosevear. Best known as the driving beat behind the legendary Screaming Jets and now the Principal of the successful Rosie’s School of Rock the pair met when Peter and his wife Anita (talented musicians of their own right) enrolled his children Brie and Miles into Rosie’s music school. “I wanted to create a painting with volume and energy” says Peter, anyone who has met  Rosie knows that he is volume and energy on two legs”.

The painting process ,which took place in Sesselmann’s impressive Sawyers Gully studio / gallery (located in the Hunter Valley Vineyards) was also characterized by an appropriate soundtrack to such a loud and energetic painting. “Rosie brought in a CD of AC/DC Live in Paris to play while he sat and I painted, when we got through with that I put on one of my favourites “Santana” says Sesselmann.

“You can hear the “Rock” in the painting “says Rosevear. Besides capturing Rosevear’s energy on canvas, Sesselmann, who has previously placed in the prestigious Amnesty International “Freedom” Art Awards, cleverly combined Rosie’s past and present callings by combining his Rock and Roll  pastime with his passion for mentoring the next generation of Rock Musicians via Rosie’s School of Rock, in fact Peter claims that Rosie is the ultimate  “Rock and Role Model”.

The Newcastle Golf Club is excited to announce a special summer rate for all visiting members of Newcastle and Hunter Valley golf clubs.

It allows local golf club members to play one of Australia’s top ranked golf courses at our club member guest rate of $40 per person.

This Summer Special is only available on a Sunday or Monday and ends on the 30th March 2009. So come and play at a NSW golf course that ranks as one of the best.

Happy New Year from Newcastle Golf Club

Note: Please quote your membership number and club when booking and present membership or golflink card on arrival.

Here’s their offer: If we don’t achieve first page ranking for your agreed search terms within 3 months, we will work for FREE until we get the result.

Your business has nothing to lose but a considerable amount to gain by contracting Sticky to deliver better search engine rankings.

How much could you gain? Consider this – Australia has over 14 million online users and according to recent research conducted by Ansearch, “each month over 8 million of these users hit one of the various search engines EVERY DAY.”

People who are searching online for your industry’s products and services already know what they want, they are looking for the company that will sell it to them. Will they find you? If you aren’t on the first page of a search then your chances of being found diminish rapidly.

Sticky says that if you haven’t got a properly optimised site then its likely that most of your web traffic comes from paid placement (Adwords, Yellow Pages, banners etc) or through people who saw your address elsewhere in mainstream media. That means you are missing a substantial amount of potential business.

Think about how much you are currently spending on mainstream media advertising. How much is hitting pre-qualified, targeted consumers? How much is being viewed or heard by people who will never buy your product or service?

What if you allocated a portion of that budget to a search engine optimisation campaign that delivered pre-qualified, motivated consumers in your market who are ready to buy? What if that campaign was totally measurable?

Here’s how it works with Sticky:

They analyse the search data around your industry and geographic market then present you with a list of relevant search terms including the numbers of searches for these terms every month. You might be amazed at how many people are searching for your product or service.

Next everyone agrees on which terms you should be targeting. Sticky have a pricing schedule based on number of terms per month.

Depending on how search-friendly your current site, they might need to build something that compliments your site but serves predominantly as the search engine optimisation function. Either way, it won’t take long or cost much.

Then they go to work on marching your site up the search rankings. Results don’t come overnight, but within a month you should start to see the benefits of good search engine optimisation.

Sticky will then provide you with monthly analysis, results and fine tune your site to keep improving or maintaining your rankings.

Once initial results have been achieved you might wish to include additional search terms to the target list.

Sticky’s search engine optimisation service is extremely cost-effective, totally measurable and fully guaranteed. It might change the way you think about marketing your business.

The members of Companion Credit Union have been handed the unusual but exciting task of selecting the organisations new logo via a quirky new TV campaign and dedicated voting website.

Voting on the new logo kicks off the credit unions unique marketing campaign ‘We’re listening’.

In an industry where it is easy to become just another number, Companion is giving its members a feeling of ownership.

“The credit union is really owned by the members and therefore we decided we should invite them to actively participate in helping us decide our future direction” said Ray O’Brien, Chief Executive.

Companion understands that perception and branding are crucial, therefore related focus groups were recently conducted with members and non members as part of research undertaken on Companion’s corporate identity and branding, and how Companion was perceived in the market place.

The feedback from the focus groups was very clear cut – the logo and positioning needed to be updated to better reflect Companion’s identity and its relationships with current members, as well as to become more appealing to potential new members.

Staff will also be encouraged to vote for their favourite new logo, “Next to the members, the staff at Companion are an integral part of our organisation. Therefore we also wanted to ensure that they were a part of our process to refresh our corporate image” said Mr O’Brien.

The television campaign will run through until the end of October with voting to close on 31st October.

The new Companion logo as voted by its members will be unveiled at the Annual General Meeting on 12th November.

For more information and to vote visit: www.wearelistening.com.au.

SNOBS is an online magazine designed for businesswomen and providing relevant information, news and events. SNOBS embraces social media philosophies of online community, open feedback and citizen journalism.

Carlee describes SNOBS as “an online magazine and social network for businesswomen. It is a resource for news, information and advice where career-driven women can connect with fresh industry contacts and keep in touch with valued friends.”

A former Newcastle radio announcer (NEWFM and NXFM) and freelance journalist (Sun Herald and Ralph), Carlee has moved boldly into the digital publishing world with SNOBS. The site mixes conventional magazine-style columns and social events coverage with interactive events calendars, citizen journalism and networking opportunities.

The site was designed and built by Sticky who continue to assist Carlee with her introduction to the world of social media. SNOBS will continue to evolve over the coming months with more features and contributors.

Newcastle Golf Club’s new state-of-the-art site went live today introducing visitors to a stunning new layout and a raft of user-friendly features.

Sticky has designed a site that allows members a greater range of relevant information, up-to-the-minute golf news and feedback.

The site is also designed to allow the management, directors and club pro to post regular updates quickly and easily.

Sticky have built-in an ability for the club to sell advertising on the site and offer members additional services and benefits.

Newcastle Golf Club was rated in the top 15 courses in Australia (Australian Golf Digest 2008), the only public access golf course in the Hunter Valley to be so highly ranked.