Month: May 2008

journalism

YouTube attracts a lot of business

The Australian, Entrepreneur MARKETING fads come and go but YouTube and the internet look as if they are here to stay. YouTube is about rich interesting content rather than rich video production companies that usually make expensive TV ads. And this makes it an ideal medium for the small to medium-sized business, according to Sydney-based Laurel Papworth, a social media consultant and evangelist. “One of the things I like about small business is that they don’t do traditional marketing with […]

journalism

GPS will put you on the map

The Australian, Entrepreneur AS was first the case with computers and mobile phones, it’s difficult to know where in the technology cycle to dive into global positioning systems. GPS has only become popular in Australia in the past two years, with the sales value of GPS devices now overstepping digital music players. There are about 1.5 million GPS devices in Australia. About 600,000 were sold in 2007, and over 1 million will be sold this year, says Adrian Tout, national […]

Food blogs

Web tips for restaurants

It is quite bizarre how many restaurant websites use flash technology. It was quite clear at Restaurant08 during my panel session on the internet with chef Raymond Capaldi, Mark Armstrong from Google, Julia Topliss from Web Prophets that none of us like it (and Google has trouble finding sites with it). And we’re not the only ones. Social media commentator Laurel Papworth hates it too and finds this quote: “Flash-based web sites are quite possibly one of the most useful […]

journalism

In my kitchen

Herald Sun, Citystyle Home cooks are spoiled for choice when it comes to equipping their kitchens. ED CHARLES looks at the essentials, and the tools we love to use WE’VE come a long way from cooking in a bush oven over an open fire. The question is whether all our progress has been positive, with kitchen fads changing as frequently as hemlines. Glossy food magazines and products endorsed by celebrity chefs drive our desire to clutter our kitchens. Our grandparents […]

journalism

Wine in a cool climate

Herald Sun, Citystyle There’s a new generation of discerning drinkers, writes ED CHARLES ANDY Roche had never bothered with red wine until last year. The 26-year-old fashion designer had found his niche with white wines, specifically semillons or sauvignon blanc semillons, his favourite being Evans & Tate. But last winter became an odyssey as he discovered the range of flavours of pinot noir and occasionally, the boisterous shiraz grape. “I hadn’t really had it before,” he says. That was until […]

Eat streets

What is good service in a restaurant?

…a waitress who had a giant spot with a head the colour of a pale yellow egg yolk. The only question was on which of us was it to burst. ‘Too much service in my opinion is practically worse than none. You don’t have any opportunity to enjoy the company of the people who you are with.’ The words of Michelle Garnaut, the former Melbourne restaurateur who launched M on the Fringe in Hong Kong in 1989 and M on […]

journalism

In the trenches: Waiters

INTHEBLACK > In the trenches Service is one of those funny things. Some companies care a lot about it and others don’t. But as far as the customer is concerned it can make or break a relationship. Nowhere is there a more concentrated microcosm of the good and the bad of customer service than the restaurant. You almost certainly have been exposed to it yourself. And you may have seen it on reality TV in Gordon Ramsay’s top rating Kitchen […]