Fast Growing Agency Takes PRide in Awards Success

Newcastle PR firm O Communications is celebrating another year of growth by winning five accolades at the North East PRide Awards held by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).

Only one year after O Communications won the ‘Outstanding Small Consultancy’ award it leapt into the ‘agency of the year’ category winning the silver award, plus it picked up two gold awards for its work for Space Group and Signposter.com, and two further silver awards for the Prince’s Trust Challenge Trophy media relations campaign.

Managing director Kari Owers, one of the first to share her story with If we can, you can, said: “Being named the silver award winner in North East’s ‘Outstanding Consultancy’ category just one year after being named the best Small Consultancy is staggering. We have had a year of consistent growth in 2008, both in staff numbers, but also in new account wins and successful existing client growth.

“We now work for a significant snapshot of the North East’s most entrepreneurial businesses, awareness campaigns and lifestyle companies and are delighted especially to have won the gold Corporate Communications and Business and Trade awards as creative business-to-business PR is our biggest area of expertise.

“We hope to build on this success into 2009 with the announcement of more people to our team, and new service offerings in line with the changing communications landscape.”

CIPR judges commented on O Communications by saying, “A dynamic, very together and focused agency that knows where it's going and is determined to have fun on the way. The personality of O Communications shines through and its contribution to the regional community is considerable. No wonder clients are flocking to it.”

For further information contact Kari Owers, O Communications on 0191 232 5690 or go to www.o-communications.co.uk. To see more about Kari's journey with O Communications so far, click www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/entrepreneurs/Kari-Owers

MaoCouture Christmas Pampering Evening

If we can, you can Challenge Ambassador Anh Mao of MaoCouture is holding a Christmas pampering evening on Thursday 4th December 2008, 6 – 9pm at the MaoCouture Designer Boutique, 40 Station Road, South Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 1QD.

Anh recently took the plunge and opened the boutique after the demand from her clients reached boiling point. MaoCouture stocks exquisite cocktail and evening dresses from many international designers, and Anh is offering an exclusive preview of their collection and service on this special night.

As well as this fantastic opportunity to meet the designer and beauty consultant, you can indulge in some pamering with a FREE make over or relax and sip a glass of bubbly whilst browsing the rails of party dresses for the festival season, or you can look for a special gift. MaoCouture have organic beauty products and accessories available for you to buy, and it's a great way to meet new friends too.

There's FREE limited space, please reserve your attendance by booking with MaoCouture Tel: 0191 2853864 mobile: 07946646733email: maocouture@yahoo.co.uk website: http://www.maocouture.co.uk/

Be inspired by Anh's story by clicking www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/entrepreneurs/Anh-Mao

Welcome to the re-launch!

Welcome to the brand new If we can, you can website! We're really excited about this re-launch, and we hope that all the new features will allow you to make the right connections with this like minded and buzzing community.

Have a browse of the site to get a feel for how it can work best for you. First of all, you'll notice that you can now manage your own profile- please feel free to keep the community updated with new content and business information, and if you'd like to add more to your story, click on the relevant button. We'll be issuing user names and passwords to anybody who had a profile on the original site.

At the core of the website is an intelligent mentoring matchmaking service, allowing you to find people who can provide guidance to overcome your challenges. Please click on the mentoring tab to find out more information about this feature.

The 'Pick Our Brains' section is an invaluable knowledge base full of answers to those burning business questions from some of the most experienced entrepreneurs in the North East region. If you want to know how to keep an eye among cash flow or how to delegate, or how to do an awful lot of other things, click on this tab.

We also have a new tagging facility that can direct you to the most relevant content based on your individual requirements- for the content to be even more relevant, make sure you tell us exactly what kind of support you need, and as you browse other profile, feel free to tag content that you think would be useful to others.

So get browsing, and get on your way to making some connections. We hope you don't, but if you do experience any problems at all, please let us know.

Finally, thanks to all the members of this community whose contributions has made this site possible.

New site about to go live

Following a period of intensive development, we're about to relaunch www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk with a number of exciting new features.

At it's core is a new intelligent matchmaking service, allowing site members to find people who can provide guidance to overcome their challenges.

Also new to the site is a valuable knowledge-base - Pick Our Brains - featuring answers to frequently asked questions from many of the region's senior entrepreneurs.

And users will now be able to manage their own profiles - which means we should be able to grow the community even quicker than it has to date.

Watch this space as we'll be pressing the live button very soon, and we'll be in touch with the community as to how to navigate around the new site, and how to get the best out of it.

Northumberland Firm Goes From Green To Silver

You may remember an article we placed on here a few weeks ago, wishing Ali McLean of Activities Abroad the best of luck at the Oscars of the travel industry– the prestigious British Travel Awards. He is now celebrating national acclaim after success at last night’s ceremony.

Activities Abroad, based in Stannington, is a leading specialist tour operator for adventure holidays, activity breaks and overseas adventure travel. After reaching the finals in two categories, Activities Abroad picked up the silver award for Most Environmentally Responsible Small Tour Operator, as well as being nominated for Best Activity Sport Operator.

Company founder and Managing Director, Alistair McLean who picked up the prize said; “We’re especially delighted to have won the Environmentally Responsible award and to have gained this national recognition for our commitment to the planet and the communities that welcome our customers around the world. It shows that a North East business working out of a converted farmhouse in Northumberland can compete on a national stage against companies owned by industry giants such as TUI and Thomas Cook.

“We are a fiercely independent company and therefore have the luxury of being able to focus on our key stakeholders rather than corporate shareholders. For us these are our employees, our suppliers, our customers and the environment. Our financial successes can be directed towards the local environment and ensuring that our visits have little or no impact other than a positive contribution.”

Activities Abroad supports numerous projects that provide clients with tangible methods of seeing its green policies at work. For example it supports a tree planting project at a school in Costa Rica and clients who visit this destination will spend the day interacting with the local school children, learning about the importance of reforestation and then planting the trees.

As well as telling customers its methods for carbon offsetting in all of last year’s brochures, Activities Abroad has allowed customers to choose a green e-brochure over a paper one this season.

Activities Abroad was founded in 2002 and since then has created an extensive programme of overseas adventure travel options in a number of different countries, featuring a wide range of sports and activities for people of all ages – including families with children or teenagers. The company was founded in response to the increasing demand for holidays and breaks that offer more than just the usual holiday experience. Their itineraries offer exhilarating experiences as diverse as canyoning in Provence, snowmobiling in Finland and skydiving in Spain.

Activities Abroad is a longstanding member of Responsible Travel – an organisation which promotes holidays that respect destinations and local people, working to support and stimulate local economies and the communities their clients visit while making concerted efforts to act in an environmentally sensitive way.

The British Travel Awards is the largest awards programme in the UK created to reward the best companies in the travel industry. Recognised by consumers and travel professionals throughout the UK, The British Travel Awards are widely referred to as the “Oscars” of the travel industry.

To see more about Ali, click http://www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/entrepreneurs/alistair-mclean

Wii Play To Learn

If we can, you can member Jeremiah Alexander of Ideonic Ltd announces an exciting new venture:

"It is official! Nintendo have approved Ideonic as a developer for the Nintendo Wii. This prestige honour means that we can be one of the first companies in the World to really push serious gaming onto the Nintendo Wii.

We are already exploring a number of concepts both in the education and training space but are always happy to discuss ideas with potential partners. Exciting times ahead."

hello@ideonic.com

To see more about Jeremiah, visit www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/entrepreneurs/jeremiah-alexander