Vancouver Magazine announced today select finalists for its upcoming 25^th Annual Restaurant Awards.  Finalists were named in the magazine’s new Best of Neighbourhood award categories including: Best Downtown, Best Yaletown, Best West End, Best Gastown & Chinatown, Best West Side, Best East Side, and Best Richmond.

These categories join Best North Shore in highlighting establishments for diners for whom location is at least as important as reputation, type of cuisine, ambiance, and price. Click here for finalist restaurants.

“For the past 25 years, Vancouver Magazine has been cataloguing the city’s finest rooms and creating a definitive compendium of all that is delicious, masterful, and of the moment,” said John Burns, Vancouver Magazine Editor-in-Chief. “The addition of Best of Neighbourhood awards reflects our judges’ view that for many people, location matters a great deal when deciding where to dine.”

Finalists in the remaining 42 categories won’t be revealed until the gala, to be held at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel on April 22^nd. More than 700 of B.C.’s top chefs, restaurateurs, sommeliers, and food critics will gather to recognize the city’s best. Vancouverites can follow the event live on Twitter and Instagram using #VanMagAwards.

Vancouver Magazine’s May issue includes a 42-page feature on all the award categories. The issue will be on newsstands on April 28^th and digital subscriptions will be available at vanmag.com.

About Vancouver Magazine:

Since 1967, Vancouver Magazine has been informing, guiding, and entertaining people who engage with the city. Mixing quality journalism and service-driven pieces, the magazine chronicles and reflects Vancouver’s emergence as a dynamic, cosmopolitan urban centre. Vancouver Magazine is available as a monthly magazine, through a weekly e-newsletter, The Fix, online at Vanmag.com, and on Twitter and Instagram (@vanmag_com).

The May 2014 issue of Style at Home magazine is on newsstands now, and the Workbook section includes the Burritt Bros. / Zoe Pawlak rug collaboration. Check it out!

Volunteer Opportunity - Event Coordination Event: Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards

Date/Time:  Tuesday, April 22nd, 10:00am – 6:00pm

Elettra Communications is looking for student volunteers to assist with Vancouver’s premier restaurant industry event. This opportunity will appeal to students who have an interest in public relations, publishing, marketing, or event management.

Vancouver Magazine’s Restaurant Awards event is the biggest of its kind in North America, and this year marks the event’s landmark 25th anniversary.  Twenty of the city’s top food critics form the judging panel and vote on the best dining experience in more than 40 categories. The event itself includes a reception and awards show. The annual extravaganza welcomes more than 800 restaurateurs, chefs, sommeliers, suppliers, and food and wine critics.

Duties: Volunteers will assist with a range of activities including: ·       Event set up ·       Guest check-in ·       Awards presenting/backstage coordination ·       Coat check ·       Gift distribution

Benefits to volunteering: ·       Event coordination experience. ·       Exposure to the behind-the-scenes workings of a large event. ·       Opportunity to build contacts in the PR, marketing, and publishing industries. ·       Lunch will be provided.

Dress code: All black. No jeans; no running shoes/sneakers.

How to apply: If you would like to volunteer for this opportunity, please contact cassandra@elettra.ca.  In your email please provide a brief introduction of yourself, and include a description of your current course of study and your contact information. 

This week we've been helping our friends at Spring Advertising out with Hugs for Hunger, their cuddly fundraiser in support of the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society.

Today - the first day of spring - cute, furry, and gregarious animals are waking up from hibernation and giving hugs to Vancouverites. For every hug, Spring will donate $1 to the Food Bank. More valuable hugs, such as those on the Celebrity Hug Hit List, are described on www.HugsForHunger.com and on Twitter @springad. People can also donate through on-site Food Bank volunteers or the Hugs for Hunger website.

The hashtag #HugsForHunger is being used throughout the day to spread information and to attract the animals to specific downtown locations.

Big thanks to BT Vancouver, Miss 604, Inside Vancouver, The PEAK, 24 hours, Shore 104, and Global for getting the word out to their listeners/readers/viewers.

So if you see a fuzzy mascot downtown today be sure to get your hug!

Excited to share that starting this week, we have a fresh face at the Elettra offices - we're pleased to introduce you to our new intern, Leanne Kedrosky. Leanne is completing her final year as a Marketing Communications student at BCIT and wishes to use her passion and skills to pursue a career in public relations.  In her spare time, Leanne is a professional horseback rider and has an avid interest in painting and outdoor fitness.

Welcome to the Elettra team Leanne!

Pacific Centre has made the top-10 list of “most-productive” shopping malls in North America, meaning they have among the highest sales per square foot on the continent. The 2013 list, compiled by Retail Insider, pegged Pacific Centre at No. 4, with $1,335 sales per square foot.

Check out the full article and list via The Province.

Vancouver-based Meetingmax selected by renowned festival to provide hotel reservation software

Vancouver, BC; February 24, 2014 – In keeping with its mission to support industry innovators, South by Southwest (SXSW) has signed a contract with Meetingmax Systems, provider of the travel industry’s most flexible online housing reservation system. Through the agreement, Meetingmax’s online accommodation platform will handle hotel room bookings for SXSW’s roster of events and conferences. The companies expect the system to process more than $15 million in hotel transactions during the first year.

The Canadian company’s technology has gained popularity in the United States amongst meeting planners, conference organizers, and convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs), however this agreement marks the first time Meetingmax will work with an annual festival on the scale of SXSW.

“Since 1987, SXSW has been a standard-bearer for independent business and independent thinkers," says Mike Shea, Executive Director, SXSW. "Meetingmax is cut from that same cloth and we think their housing technology is the right system at the right time."

Discussions between the two companies began in 2012 when SXSW started researching options to replace its previous system, developed internally more than 20 years ago. That software was not designed to handle the increasingly complex requirements of SXSW’s ever-growing line-up of events. After considering its options, including internally redeveloping the software, SXSW decided to engage Meetingmax.

“Meetingmax’s core competency matched exactly what we were looking for. They know housing inside and out,” says Michael Brown, Technical Project Manager, SXSW. “Rather than building a system with similar capabilities, working with Meetingmax means we know the system will function at the level it needs to. We’re now free to focus our energy on innovation in other areas.”

Recognized for its stability and ease of use, Meetingmax’s software also allows for customizable features. For SXSW this will mean special comprehensive billing and refund options and an integrated logic enabling the system to provide unique options to guests based on their role at the event. The housing technology began testing with smaller SXSW events starting in fall 2013, with the full launch projected for August 2014 with registration for the SXSW 2015 Austin conference.

“This contract is a long term, significant investment for Meetingmax and SXSW. Ensuring the fundamentals of our organizations aligned was important to both of us,” says Jeff Duncan, COO and Founder of Meetingmax. “It feels great to be working with a team that will benefit from our software and that also functions like ours in terms of goals and culture. We’re excited to develop this relationship in the years to come.”

First held in 1987 in Austin, TX, SXSW was founded as a conference and festival for the music industry but has since blossomed into a tool for creative people and organizations from different disciplines to share ideas. In 1994, SXSW added film and interactive components, and has since added events spotlighting education (SXSWedu), sustainability (SXSW ECO), and entrepreneurs (SXSW V2V). Today, the SXSW flagship event attracts more than 40,000 registrants to Austin every March, with a local economic impact calculated at more than $218 million in 2013.

Congratulations go out to the Vantage Airport Group.  Yesterday the Airports Council International announced the recipients of the prestigious 2013 Air Service Quality Awards, and Nassau’s Lynden Pindling International Airport has been recognized for Best Improvement in the Latin America-Caribbean region. The full list of winners can be found here: http://bit.ly/1eYn8mi

Vantage currently operates the airport and broke ground in 2009 on a $410 million dollar redevelopment, leveraging its expertise to build a world-class airport that would align with the expanding tourism industry on the islands. Two other Canadian firms, Ledcor and Stantec, were also involved in the construction and design of the redevelopment, which was completed on time and on budget.

The infrastructure project was one of the largest in the Caribbean and was officially completed in October 2013.   Improvements include:

• A 24% increase in airport size.
• Ability to accommodate 50% more passengers (now over 5 million).
• Upgraded and expanded options for food and beverage, retail and other amenities.

Sounds like a great place to start and finish a trip to The Bahamas!

PR, Vancouver, Pacific Northwest, public relations, agency, firm, media, magazines, design, decor, Burritt Bros., Zoe Pawlak

If there's one thing that makes coming home from a beautiful, sunny vacation a little easier, it's finding something awesome like this on your desk when you get back in the office... Gray magazine's February issue has a beautiful cover feature on the Burritt Bros. / Zoe Pawlak Over Oceans Rug Collection. The piece highlights the inspired collaboration between artist and retailer, and describes the process of transforming a painting into a series of five hand-knotted Nepalese rugs.

Congrats to Zoe and our friends at Burritt Bros. This is been a fantastic project to work with you all on!

Gray's February issue is on newsstands now. A couple more pics after the jump....

It's been a busy week for the Burritt Bros./ Zoe Pawlak Over Oceans Rug Collection. On Thursday, Zoe sat down with Fiona Forbes on Shaw's The Rush to talk about the Rug Collection. Watch the whole segment here.

BC Living magazine's February issue came out with a lovely piece on the Collection in their Home Trends section.

BC Living'sFebruary issue is on newsstands now. And Western Living editor, Anicka Quin, chose the rug collection as her Pick of the Week.

magazine, PR, public relations, decor, deisng

Landmark complex’s new look features redesigned food court, lower level

Vancouver, B.C.; January 22, 2014 – This week, Harbour Centre Complex Limited is marking the official opening of its lower level and food court after a multi-million dollar redevelopment. The extensive interior upgrades began last spring and focused on creating a brighter, more welcoming space through higher ceilings, open-concept lounge spaces, and a fresh colour palette

The expanded eating and common area occupies approximately 17,500 square feet, and features seating for more than 600 patrons. 13 vendors in the redesigned food court offer a variety of options ranging from healthy fare to selection of world cuisines, including local concept Rice ‘N Spice and the first Canadian retail location of popular New York based chain Famous Famiglia Pizzeria.  A full list of retailers can be found here: http://bit.ly/1dPjtMY.

“There’s a daytime population of 130,000 within one kilometer of Harbour Centre. We saw an opportunity to create a more contemporary and inviting atmosphere to better serve existing customers and attract new patrons to the Centre,” says Richard Lui, General Manager, Harbour Centre Complex Limited. “We’re thrilled with the finished product and look forward to welcoming customers to the revitalized space to experience all we have to offer.”

Other new amenities include complimentary Wi-Fi zones, larger washroom facilities, and digital directories. The redevelopment was designed by SSDG Interiors Inc. in conjunction with project architects, DA Architects + Planners.

The building’s exterior façade is also currently undergoing improvements that are scheduled for completion in late spring. Wider entryways, new canopies, and improved signage will add colour and light to the building, improving street presence for pedestrians.

About Harbour Centre Harbour Centre is home to a 28-story office tower, a nine-story office building with historic origins, Simon Fraser University Downtown Campus, The Vancouver Lookout Observation Deck, Top of Vancouver Revolving Restaurant, and two levels of shops and services. Recognized as the Information Technology Hub of Western Canada, Harbour Centre houses 5,000 office workers, students, and faculty. Located at the junction of Vancouver’s key transportation arteries, it is easily accessible from anywhere in the Lower Mainland, by road, bus, train, floatplane, Seabus, or Helijet. For more information, visit www.harbourcentre.com.

Earlier this year, we met with the team from The Kettle Society to talk about their Facebook page.  Together we all brainstormed some ways they could build a stronger page, engage their existing audience, and gain new followers that would find their page helpful and interesting.

Since then, they’ve done an awesome job with their updating their page regularly and posting valuable content related to their services, events, news, and topics important to their organization.

Head to their Facebook page  to learn more about the society and the great work they do!

File this one under: Really Great Gift Idea for the foodie / spirit connoisseur on your Christmas List. Vancouver's first micro-distillery, Long Table, has launched Peppermint Mist just in time for Christmas. Made with local, organic peppermint, this little tipple has Christmas in every drop. Imagine Peppermint Mist in hot chocolate, drizzled over vanilla ice cream, or served chilled as an accompaniment to a chocolatey Christmas dessert.

I, for one, can't wait to take this beauty along on my next wintery hiking trip. It will be heartily enjoyed along with some hot coffee on top of a snowy North Shore Mountain.

And in other news, Charles & Rita Tremewen, owners/distillers of Long Table, have just told us that next week they are launching Vancouver's first Aquavit. Aquavit is a traditional Scandinavian spirit made with herbs and spices. It's traditionally served around Christmastime, so it makes another great gift choice for a spirit-lover on your list.

- Simone