Tourism is contributing more than ever to New Zealand’s economic wellbeing, with the industry outstripping its own performance targets, the Tourism Industry Association New Zealand (TIA) says.

The Tourism Satellite Account released today by Statistics New Zealand shows phenomenal growth in tourism, TIA Chief Executive Chris Roberts says.

Total tourism expenditure in the year to March 2015 was $29.8 billion, an increase of 10.3% on the previous year. International tourism expenditure increased 17.4% to $11.8 billion, while domestic tourism expenditure increased 6.3% to $18.1 billion.

“New Zealand tourism is enjoying a boom. We are ahead of target to achieve the Tourism 2025 aspirational goal of growing total annual tourism revenue to $41 billion over the next decade,” Mr Roberts says.

“Tourism accounts for 17.4% or $11.8 billion of New Zealand’s total exports (up from 15% or $10 billion in 2014) and we directly contribute 4.9% ($10.6 billion) of gross domestic product (up from 4.6% in 2014). International visitor arrivals recently surpassed 3 million a year but more importantly, there’s been strong double digit growth in spend by those visitors.”

The strong growth is set to continue, with industry expecting a record-breaking summer.

“On the domestic travel front, new information, including credit card data, has resulted in a better understanding of the size of this market. It’s now estimated to be worth $18.1 billion to our economy. This reinforces the value of the work TIA is leading to boost the value of domestic tourism.”

The new figures show that one in eight New Zealanders are directly or indirectly employed in tourism, reinforcing the industry’s value to communities around the country. Tourism supports jobs in every part of New Zealand, often in areas where few other opportunities exist, Mr Roberts says.

TIA congratulates Statistics New Zealand on the changes it has made to improve the quality of the data in the TSA. TIA has put considerable effort into working more closely with the public sector to explore new and improved methods of data collection that in turn provides better insight to the tourism industry and its stakeholders, Mr Roberts says.

“The challenge for the industry now is to manage the pressures created by the rapid growth in tourism. The TIA National Tourism Summit in Wellington on Thursday 19 November will explore these issues.”

For further information, please contact:

Ann-Marie Johnson

Communications Manager

Tourism Industry Association New Zealand

DDI: 04 496 5001

Mobile: 027 600 4565

Email: ann-marie.johnson@tianz.org.nz

This media release was directly sourced from the Tourism Industry Association New Zealand website here. 

InternetNZ welcomes an announcement made today by the New Zealand Internet Task Force that it has launched a public funding campaign to build a Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT).

The creation of a CSIRT will serve New Zealand’s small and medium sized businesses, and not-for-profit organisations by providing Internet security.

InternetNZ’s Chief Executive Jordan Carter says this is a chance to deliver much needed improvement and will provide greater confidence to New Zealand internet users.

“A CSIRT would mean Kiwi organisations and not-for-profits will have help from real independent experts if they are hacked by criminals or are dealing with some kind of cyber threat,” says Carter.

InternetNZ has long been calling for a national CSIRT to help protect New Zealand’s Internet community and we’re excited to see the New Zealand Internet Task Force create the beginnings of a national incident response capability.

The New Zealand Internet Task Force is seeking funding partners and wants to talk to, and work with, any organisation that wants to work with them and help improve New Zealand’s cyber security.

For more information about CSIRT visit their website or send them an email at the links below.

Website: www.csirt.nz

Email: info@csirt.nz

This media release was directly sourced from the InternetNZ website here. 

Make a bid for success

Tourism New Zealand’s most successful year of conference wins to date will see more than 10,500 delegates visit New Zealand in the coming years, bringing an estimated $25 million to the local economy. The Tourism New Zealand Business Events Annual Awards Dinner, held recently in Auckland, celebrated this achievement – and acknowledged the people who made it happen, a group of 21 key industry and sector leaders from across New Zealand who were instrumental in bidding for the events.

Tourism New Zealand International Business Events and Premium Manager Lisa Gardiner says it’s great to see New Zealand winning international association conventions, and hopes to encourage yet more ‘conference champions’ to get involved and bid for events that will not only benefit the country, but also their organisation and industry sector.

“Much of this success comes down to the influential sector leaders who are putting their hands up to champion their field of expertise to attract key conventions to our shores,” she notes. “The business events awards dinner is about creating lasting relationships with these individuals so that they can continue to bid for international conferences and encourage their colleagues to do so as well.”

One of the attendees, Spencer Beasley, Clinical Director of the Department of Paediatric Surgery, Canterbury District Health Board, led the successful bid for the Pacific Association of Pediatric Surgeons Annual Scientific Congress 2019. “Winning this conference gives us a chance to showcase our specialty and its achievements internationally,” he says. “It increases our standing overseas and gives recognition to our contribution in both research and clinical areas. That may lead to all sorts of indirect benefits for us, including facilitating overseas training options for our trainees, as well as enhancing recruitment opportunities to New Zealand in an environment where there is a worldwide shortage of senior skilled people in our specialty. But most of all, we are proud of our country, and like to show it off to our overseas colleagues.”

Dr Davinia Thornley, Senior Lecturer, Department of Media, Film, and Communication at the University of Otago, played a major role in winning the Screenwriting Research Network 2017 International Conference. “This is an important gain for Dunedin on a number of fronts: artistic, cultural, and academic,” she says. “It will allow Otago's Humanities Division to showcase their strong research culture, in particular, the innovative work going on in the Department of Media, Film and Communication. I am especially keen to put a ‘New Zealand’ stamp on the material that’s covered at the conference, including possible keynotes by prominent local scriptwriters. I really want to introduce the SRN delegates to the incredible work being done by our national filmmakers.

“Obviously there’s the flow-on effect of tourism before and after the conference, but even more potential is in the cinematic connections that are made. For example, several of the SRN delegates are working filmmakers looking for ideas, collaborations or partnerships with creative personnel here in Dunedin. I foresee essential links being made between industry practitioners and academic researchers at SRN 2017, links that will continue to lift both Dunedin's and New Zealand’s image as creative frontrunners in the global film industry.”

Thornley notes the strong backing she received from Tourism New Zealand in winning the event, which included funding her trip to Germany to make the successful bid.

Tourism New Zealand has significantly increased its work in the business events sector in recent years, with its Conference Assistance Programme providing strategic funding and marketing support to those bidding for an international convention. In the year to June 2015, it reached a new milestone of 58 international conference bids. If successful, these bids will see an additional $97 million injected into the New Zealand economy.

Beasley agrees it is well worth partnering with Tourism New Zealand when making a bid for conference success: “TNZ were brilliant. Their knowledge, expertise and support gave us a huge advantage securing the conference for New Zealand. They function in a highly professional way, and took all the angst out of bidding for the event internationally. They get results - and good results at that!”

For many small businesses, holiday periods can be a time of both pleasure and pain. Everyone loves a holiday, but when you rely on periodical payments from clients and customers to keep your cash flow alive, it can also be a worrying time if you don’t have the right systems in place.

Constant cash flow

Using a direct debit billing system like PaySmart can help moderate your cash flow, so even when you’re taking a holiday, the direct debits will continue to land.

Convenient for your customers

With a direct debit billing system in place, even when clients and customers get busy during the silly season, their bills are paid automatically and won’t add to their to-do list. It also means your invoice won’t become lost in a pile of Christmas mail, so you won’t be spending January following up overdue payments.

Customer retention

Direct debit billing also provides consistency and continuity, so you don’t have the pressure of encouraging customers back after the holiday period or resigning them—your association is uninterrupted and ongoing, which contributes to developing long-term customer relationships.

Other things businesses can do in November to manage risk and keep relationships strong ahead of the quieter periods in December and January:

1. Start a campaign now to ensure customer payments continue to come in during the festive season.
   
2. Communicate directly with each customer to recap on their achievements with you during the year or the service you’ve provided—remind them of the value delivered to reduce the likelihood of cancellations.
   
3. Build upon results from this year and look towards the next to keep your momentum going. 

Ultimately, anything you can do to reduce cancellations, and increase sales will set you up for a successful start to the New Year. 

Talk to your local PaySmart Business Development Manager for more tips or to get started with PaySmart today.

AuSAE has welcomed new members from the following organisations this month.

Is your organisation on this list? If your organisation is on this list as an AuSAE organisational member but you are unsure if you are part of the membership bundle, please contact the friendly AuSAE team at info@ausae.org.au.

Not on this list? To join AuSAE today please visit our membership information page here.

AUSAE WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS FROM:

Note: To respect the privacy of our members, we only release membership type and organisation details publicly each month. 

Since our last newsletter there have been a number of significant sporting occasions. Regardless of who you support, there are wonderful analogies between sport and business. Hawthorn’s Grand Final three-peat, the Cowboys fairy-tale Grand Final win with Johnathan Thurston’s extra time drop goal, a fourth RWC finals appearance for both the Wallabies and All Blacks and the complete dominance of Australia and New Zealand in world netball all have the hallmarks of not only successful teams, but outstanding organisations.

Arguably the most successful team in sporting history, the All Blacks have won 77% of their games since 1903, are the only international side with a winning record over every country they have played and have only been beaten by 5 nations in their 112 year history. As the first team to defend the RWC and to win three RWC finals, the question is how has this remarkable feat been achieved by the All Blacks?

It begins with the clarity of purpose, the structure to achieve that purpose, an uncompromising belief in themselves and those around them, detailed planning to leave no stone unturned, inspirational leadership at multiple levels and trusting that by putting everything in place, the results follow.

As I reflect on the many wonderful presentations at the Leadership Symposium held in Wellington two weeks ago, a common theme was about getting back to basics. The longer term strategic direction implemented through annual operational plans and sticking to your knitting. Really understanding who your constituents are and delivering valued products and services to them. Ensuring you have the best team around you, providing leadership to those people who are on-board with the organisational vision and allowing everyone to contribute in a meaningful way so the organisation can thrive.

AuSAE is also getting back to basics and I’m looking forward to sharing our new strategic framework with our constituents in the coming months. In the meantime, I’ll be having my once a year flutter on the race that stops the nation(s). 

Brendon Ward, CEO, AuSAE 

It can be tempting for managers to remain vigilant over every activity their team members are performing, especially if the employees are working remotely. However, doing so will only breed feelings of resentment and distrust in employees. Managers should instead aim to be team leaders who empower their employees to work independently and reach goals within a reasonable time frame.

Dangers of Micromanagement

Micromanagement can occur when leaders are insistent upon things getting done their way. Such behavior is often a result of managers not trusting their employees to perform tasks correctly. This approach to management hinders business growth and is harmful to both employees and managers.

Pluralsight blog contributor Jack Wallen discusses some consequences of micromanagement that leaders should avoid at all costs. The first is a loss of control; when leaders drastically limit their management styles to only controlling, they lose the ability to effectively communicate and manage altogether. Micromanagement also kills trust. Employees will not trust a leader who burdens them with a never-ending scrutiny of their performance. This lack of trust leads to lower productivity and high turnover rates. Employees who are micromanaged will lose confidence in their own abilities to perform well on the job. They will not do anything that isn’t explicitly dictated to them, such as going the extra mile to solve a problem on their own. Employees will start to become dependent on their manager, and will constantly turn to him or her for guidance they’ve been conditioned to think they need. Habits like this will cause managers to get burnt out quickly, as it’s exhausting to always be peering over everyone’s shoulder. What’s more, employees are likely to feel the effects of their manager’s burnout, causing the entire team to suffer. Overall, micromanagement damages the manager-employee relationship and prevents teams from finding innovative solutions to problems or ways to finish projects.

What does effective team leadership look like?

A great leader is one who supports his or her team and who is willing to give up some control by letting employees take matters into their own hands. Remember that employees were hired in the first place because of their skillsets and ability to execute. Managers should heed the traits listed below, which are cornerstones of effective leadership.

• Strong Communicator
  

Communication is what forges bonds between managers and employees, and between members of a team. In her article “The Top Complaints from Employees About Their Leaders,” author Lou Solomon writes that effective leaders “know productivity is tied to communication. They are intentional about building a sense of connectedness with their teams…” Having an efficient means of communication is vital for remote teams who do not have the same opportunities to connect with one another as their office counterparts. It’s up to managers to implement a system that lets them contact employees as frequently as needed and vice versa. Such a system should also enable employees to collaborate with each other. In fact, the four traits discussed below can be more easily attained with a good communication platform in place. Luckily, there are affordable technologies available that include real-time instant messaging and announcement functions, making communication amongst remote teams effortless.

• Active Goal Setter
  

It is impossible to expect teams to excel if they have nothing tangible to work towards. Without a cohesive vision, teams are sure to fall apart. Team leaders are responsible for relaying organizational goals to their employees. There should be no ambiguity about individual expectations or how each employee’s role is essential to the success of the entire organization. Goals should be expressed using a common language throughout the organization. Such uniformity in team leadership prevents confusion and helps keep remote teams in the loop. Employees can also motivate each other when they are working to meet the same objectives.

• Provides Feedback
  

In her article, Solomon references a poll conducted by Interact/Harris of roughly 1,000 U.S. workers where respondents were asked to identify the communication issues that prevent effective leadership. 63% of participants did not feel adequately recognized for their achievements and 39% reported a lack of constructive criticism. These findings highlight employees’ need for feedback. Team members will feel more valued and are likely to go above and beyond if their efforts are acknowledged. Managers also shouldn’t hesitate to administer negative feedback, as it’s vital for improvement. Feedback should be delivered on a regular basis, not just during performance reviews. Solomon advises that providing continual feedback keeps an organization healthy and nimble.

• Believer in Transparency
  

When rumors of change are spreading through an organization, employees can become anxious about how their futures will be affected. This anxiety is a distraction that prevents employees from working productively. Moreover, remote employees who are already disconnected from office culture will feel ignored if they are informed of change at the last minute. For this reason, team leaders need to be transparent with employees new happenings as early as possible. Managers will gain more respect from their teams if they are forthcoming with inside information, according to Solomon. Consequently, employees will want to work to their fullest potential if they respect the person they’re working under.

To read the full article please click here. 

This article was originally sourced from Business 2 Community here and was written by Victoria Vessella. 

When was the last time your employees got excited about training? Those responsible for training must continually find new, creative ways to “sneak in” learning opportunities whenever possible to make it accessible and engaging.

Technology has drastically changed the way we learn, and employers are incorporating it frequently to reduce the time and costs of training. In fact, technology-based training is up to 90 percent less expensive than traditional classroom based training. It cuts down on the time employees spend traveling as well as travel expenses (airfare, gas, mileage, hotel rooms, food).

In the coming year, we’ll continue to see companies adopting new, innovative forms of learning. Here are three leadership training and development trends to keep on your radar for 2016 and beyond.

1. Blended Learning

Blended learning—using e-learning or the virtual classroom as well as in-person sessions to give employees the best of both teaching styles—is on the rise as technology becomes the norm for training. More than 29 percent of training hours were delivered through blended-learning programs in 2014, which was a 0.8 percent increase over the previous year.

2. Using Gamification as a Training Technique

Companies are moving toward using games and simulations to foster greater employee engagement by tapping into the innate human preference for fun. By applying games to work related scenarios, employees can use their problem-solving skills to develop business solutions.

For example, Deloitte built a leadership development training program for its senior executives, but had difficulties getting them to complete it. The company revamped the program to include gaming components like badges, leaderboards and status symbols to track the executives’ progress. This change resulted in a 50 percent shorter completion time and a 46.6 percent increase in the number of users returning to the site daily.

3. M-learning as a Training Technique

Said to be the future of learning, mobile learning—or m-learning—is expected to coincide with the rising use of mobile for everything. The key benefit mobile provides is access to information anytime, anywhere. For learning purposes, m-learning condenses lessons into shorter, bite-sized micro lessons that can be easily absorbed on the go. Microcontent such as graphs, charts or 2- to 3-minute videos can be consumed while commuting on the train or during a lunch break.

Less formal than structured learning environments, m-learning is mostly done in between other tasks and is self-initiated. Some mobile learning platforms even include social elements that encourage learners to share their experiences and learn from one another on social media. The global market for m-learning is expected to reach $12.2 billion by 2017.

The Bottom Line

Research has shown that when companies spend more time and money on training they have lower turnover rates, more top-performing employees, higher promotion rates and overall higher engagement and satisfaction. When employees feel like their company invests in them by providing training and advancement opportunities, they are more likely to perform better. This means employees are more satisfied in their positions and with the company as a whole. The ROI of leadership development efforts is clear for high-potential employees who aspire to leadership roles.

As workplaces continue to update their training processes, it’s important to choose approaches that will keep employees engaged and design programs that play to their preferred methods of learning. Using newer training techniques like games, m-learning and blended learning can set your employees up for success and have a positive impact on your organization.

This article was originally sourced from Business 2 Community here and was written by Darleen DeRosa. 

Most social marketers I know have been hard at work trying to build a robust presence on various social channels, be it Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram. But when they go to their executive team to tell them about all the success they have been having, they get a resounding, “So what?” Any marketer that cannot show the economic value of their activities will fail to earn the attention of their executives. Period. Further, they will fail to get those same executives to focus on the right social strategy because they are not demonstrating the impact of their efforts. The good news is that proving the value of your social media marketing strategy is not as hard as it seems.

Here are 4 simple metrics you can use to prove the economic value of your social media marketing strategy to your executive team:

1. Engagement Rate

The engagement rate is the total number of audience comments, likes, and shares (basically any action a fan or follower takes) per social post. The primary function of social media is to have engaging conversations with your audience. If you analyze your engagement rate you will understand what is interesting to your audience as a result of how many user comments you get. This is very important to understand because if no one is replying to your posts then why are you posting? Tracking the engagement rate forces you to go back and understand which posts resonate with your audience and which do not—and then, allows you to hypothesize which specific elements of these posts are winning your audience over. Once you know that, you will be able to test the elements you incorporate into your posts going forward, such as humor, images, surveys, or questions. To tie this back to demonstrating value to your executives, by tracking your engagement rate, and identifying the elements that are and aren’t successful, you can show your executives how your efforts drive deeper engagement over time.

2. Amplification Rate

The amplification rate is the number of forwards per social contribution. Social shares are very important because, according to Nielsen, 92% of consumers trust the recommendations of their friends. (92%!!). If my direct audience shares my messages with their networks, they are magnifying my messages and my brand (and do my work for me!). The core purpose of the amplification rate is to understand if the people who are following you are amplifying your message beyond your immediate reach. This is brilliant marketing. Now you can go to your executive team and not only show how your followers have grown over time but also how your messages are being amplified by orders of magnitude! Now that will get their attention!

3. Affinity Rate

Affinity rate is defined as the number of “positive clicks” per social contribution. One of the key things about social media is that it is really hard to understand the quality or relevance of our contributions to our audience. Normally, brands go on to social media and start shouting at people—here are some promos, here is our content, here is our website. Well, the truth is that this is not always very useful to the audience in general. So, then, how do you measure the quality of your contributions? That is where affinity becomes a great metric. What affinity rate measures is that for any given contribution, how many people have you delighted enough to like or favorite your post? If I see that a post has a zero or very low affinity rate, I can understand that it is not relevant, high quality, or of value to my audience. Remember we are trying to initiate engagement on social, so this becomes very important. By tracking your affinity rate, you can show your executives that you are driving brand affinity over time.

To read the full article please click here. 

This article was originally sourced from Business2Community here and was written by Jamie Lewis. 

Lots of conference organisers want a magic formula for pricing sponsorships.

Sadly, there isn’t one.

To grow this critical revenue line, sponsorship seekers must do the following:

• Earn a high concentration of participants who have influence on deal making or purchases.
  
• Involve leadership in the relationship building of primary investors or targets.
  
• Place attendees’ needs and desires above those of the organization or sponsor.
  

Four Common Sponsorship Pricing Models

Most conference organisers use one or more of these pricing methods:

1. Expense Recovery

These are in-kind or cash investments that you would otherwise be paying out of pocket for.

2. Cost Plus

(Cost to deliver benefits + Cost of Sales + Cost of Servicing) times three. These should never be discounted by more than 30%. To calculate labor, multiply the adjusted net hourly wage by two to cover benefits, taxes, etc.

3. Market-Based

This pricing strategy is based on intelligence gained from competitive research…what the market will bear.

4. Value-Based

This is the holy grail of sponsorship pricing. Sponsor seekers usually can only achieve this with a combination of exclusivity and strong alignment with the sponsors target market. Attendee mattering must also be high.

Beyond these four, sponsor seekers get creative with bundling of various properties and assets. Some apply discounts for first year sponsors to get them in the door.

Pricing Intangibles

Conference sponsorship programs are not created equal. After analyzing dozens of them, there are seven key attributes that must be present for a thriving program:

1. Fewer investors, but bigger investments. Get rid of the micro-sponsorships! They usually have very low attendee value/appreciation. It’s always the highest area of churn and negatively impacts cost of sales.
   
2. Benefits beyond eyeballs and logos. If the sponsorship doesn’t have high attendee mattering (i.e. bag inserts, banners, etc.), replace it with something that does.
   
3. Activation plans that span 90 days plus. The conference dates are the pinnacle. Pre and post conference amplification adds great value and touches more people.
   
4. If the attendee doesn’t win, nobody wins. Never sell your attendees out!
   
5. Good concentration of an elite or elusive attendee segment(s). Show me an underperforming sponsorship program and I guarantee it has an audience problem.
   
6. Leadership participation in sponsorship strategy discussions. Executives need to open doors and match power with power. Big investors expect a seat at the table.
   
7. An account management strategy where you don’t have multiple team members or vendors trying to sell different visibility options. A single relationship owner is strongly preferred by your major investors.
   

This article was originally sourced from Velvet Chainsaw here and was written by Dave Lutz.