This year sees the show returning to Dublin’s RDS from Friday 9th to Sunday 11th April 2010 and we are delighted to reveal an exciting addition to the 2010 event as the show travels beyond Dublin to Cork’s Silver Springs Hotel from Friday 14th to 16th May.

You will be left breathless by the cutting edge ideas from the catwalks, top tips from the country’s leading make-up artists and beauty experts, private consultations with designers and a sensational fashion show that will take place up to 4 times each day.

Xposé LIVE also presents a unique opportunity to meet the Xposé team face-to-face. Over the 3 days you will have the opportunity to see the glamorous team in action, as they take part in the fashion show and interview celebrities live on the central stage.

The show is one giant kaleidscope of fashion, beauty and entertainment – check out the latest trends on the Fashion Boulevard, indulge yourself in the PamperMeZone, pick up the latest tips in the Beauty Zone and look after yourself in the Health, Wellbeing and Fitness Zone. Planning something special? Then why not head over to the Wedding Pavilion or the Debs Fashion Stage. For all you mums to be out there then check out the fabulous Yummy Mummy section, it’s all about the style.

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An Post has set the stage for one of the biggest marketing events of the year, the 2010 An Post Direct Marketing Awards. The An Post awards, themed “Work that Rocked” give recognition to the best of home-grown talent for ideas that rocked Irish business in 2009.
Marketing agencies and clients nationwide can strike a chord by entering their classic ideas from 2009. Entries must be received by 5pm, Friday, April 30th with the main event taking place in the Mansion House on May 20th 2010.
An Post is urging marketers, agencies and their clients to take a look at last year’s output, pick out only the material that really did get classic feedback. To make into the canon of work that rocked Irish business in 2009, the A-list of direct marketing campaigns will have to meet the awards’ key criteria of creativity and strategy. Entries will need to strike a chord with the judges, demonstrating evidence of results, whether that be best use of data, understanding of customer behaviour that provides insight, strategic targeting for successful communications, or customer loyalty and retention.
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LIMERICK lothario Kamal Ibrahim has been crowned Mr World 2010 at a glittering ceremony in South Korea in front of a TV audience of millions.
He has won a cash prize of US$50,000 and a number of modelling contracts following the ceremony in Incheon on Saturday.

Kamal, 24, from Thomondgate, who has worked in promoting the Trinity Rooms niteclub and has modelled with the Celia Holman Lee Agency, was crowned Mr Ireland in the national finals at Limerick’s Strand Hotel last August.

“Myself and all the models here are absolutely thrilled for Kamal,” said Celia Holman Lee on hearing the news this Saturday.

“He hasn’t been out of the gym in months in preparation for this. He has worked really hard and really deserves it,” said Celia.

City fitness conditioner Blue Shinnors worked with Kamal to get in shape for Mr World, which was broadcast by Korean national TV and worldwide on ESPN. Among the judges who crowned Kamal as the world’s sexiest man were several former Miss World winners.

Kamal was born in Limerick to a Nigerian father, Abdul, and Italian mother, Roma.

He also revealed to the Limerick Leader how he is a second cousin of diminutive Hollywood
Star Danny Di Vito. And while he thankfully doesn’t share hir relative’s looks, he now has the same Iternational star quality.
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Since it’s invention in 2004, Irish boutique arts’n'music festival Electric Picnic has gone from strength to strength, becoming the sole rival of the hugely popular Oxegen.

Though it remains the smaller of the two festivals, EP has certainly stood it’s ground with it’s signature staple of big dance artists but relying on the smaller, lesser-known folk, pop, indie, techno and ambient artists to garner support for the weekend in Stradbally.

The line-up often polarises people and manys a week in early Spring are spent by festival-lovers deciphering which festival has the better line-up to get tickets to.

The first year, in 2004, had acts such as Godlfrapp, Royksopp and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. It especially gave a platform to practically unknown Arcade Fire who are now hugely successful. The following years have had exceptional talent play – the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bloc Party, Basement Jaxx, Pet Shop Boys, Elbow, Groove Armada, M.I.A, the Beastie Boys, The Chemical Brothers, Bjork, Sonic Youth, Franz Ferdinand, the Sex Pistols, The Gossip, MGMT, The Klaxons and The Flaming Lips.

This year is no exception and a stellar line-up has already been announced for the Co. Laois festival from September 3rd to 5th, these include:
The Frames, Imelda May, The Horrors, Massive Attack, Roxy Music, LCD Soundsystem, Bloody Beetroots, Crystal Castles, Mumford & Sons, Seasick Steve, Fever Ray, Jonsi, Hot Chip, Beach House, The Big Pink, Dublin Gospel Choir, The Villagers, Messiah J and The Expert, Edan, Memory Tapes, Steve Mason, Cymande, New Pornographers, Villagers, The Redneck Manifesto, Modest Mouse, Afro Celt System, Booka Shade, Bad Lieutenant, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Leftfield, Gill Scott Heron, Adrian Crowley, Liquid Liquid, Here We go Music, Breakestra, 808 State, The Alarm, The National and Left Field.
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“More and more hotels are looking at online marketing tools like social media site Facebook to help them bring guests through the doors”, writes Alex Gibson.

The Irish hotel sector has been rocked by the perfect storm of over-capacity, a sharp weakening in the value of sterling and the dollar, and the falling away of demand from the domestic sector. A recent survey from the Irish Hotels Federation indicated that only about 10% of hotels could expect to turn a profit in 2009, and even this may prove an optimistic assessment if the stories of cancelled Christmas parties are to be confirmed, thereby taking away the last glimmer of hope for many of them.

Against this backdrop the marketing teams of Irish hotels are expected to perform something akin to a loaves and fishes act – getting more rooms filled and protecting the rate at the same time. The evidence appears to be that, while there has been deep price cutting, it has not served to increase demand – something that a first year economics student might have pointed out was an inevitable outcome in a recession.
The era of €20 rooms in Ballsbridge may have heralded a short-term boost in that locale, but it’s left a bitter taste in the mouth of most hoteliers. The average room rate in Dublin is now one of the lowest in Europe’s capital cities according to Smith Travel Research. And what’s more worrying perhaps is that increasing this will be a long climb.

I recently attended a conference in Canada where the head of STR said that it might take a full ten years for US hotel rates to return to their pre-recession levels, and it seems likely to me that this is equally the case here. Yet among the gloom there are examples of hotels that are, if not quite bucking the trend, at least pointing the way to recovery. The recession has certainly caused the hotel sector to radically re-evaluate the way that it runs marketing campaigns. The Celtic Tiger economy led to an over-reliance on domestic marketing where traditional channels such as print advertising and direct mail had dominated in the budget allocations; with that market gone more innovation is called for to reach niche markets via the internet.

The tourism industry has been to the fore in exploiting the internet’s potential not just in terms of lowering distribution costs and increasing marketing coverage, but also as a tool to really engage the customer. As customer empowerment is facilitated by sites such as Tripadvisor, Dealbase and Aboutanywhere, hotels will have to be more conscious of the need to be ever present in responding to the opportunities provided.
This degree of nimbleness required is magnified even more when it comes to social media. In this environment people talk a lot about the hospitality product, where they’ve been, where they’ve stayed, what they did. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are perfect social environment for hotels to, in the first instance, listen to conversations about their sector, their competitors and, yes about themselves.

I recently chaired the Hotel Website Marketing conference where one of the speakers, Guillame Thevanot from Hotel-Blogs.net, pointed to the dramatic rise in social media influenced sites where people could effectively organize their own collective clubs to drive down prices from hoteliers – expect to see more of this ‘people-power’ emerge in the future. Sites such as Inoqo.com are examples of how the hotel marketing process is moving more towards a model that will require a dexterity of approach hitherto not seen before. It’s also the case that hotel marketers will have to perform a role as destination marketers as much as product marketers. Sure, the national tourism agencies will continue to have a key role in building the attractiveness of Ireland as a destination, but if we are to take anything from the emergence of social media as a powerful driver of demand, then the hotel industry itself will have to exploit the opportunities to join the conversation with prospective visitors.

Alex Gibson is Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the School of Hospitality Management and Tourism, DIT and presents The Persuaders radio show and podcast.
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Organising a charity ball can be a daunting prospect, but with due care and consideration any fears will give way to great satisfaction and rewards.

Planning and Organising a Charity Ball
A charity ball needs a chief organiser who is committed, passionate about the cause, blessed with some organisation muscle and up for a challenge. If you fit the bill then read on for some tips about organising a charity ball.
To begin your planning, first outline a list of overall aims you wish to achieve with your event and then don’t lose sight of them through the organisation process. These could include:
• Raising as many funds as possible for the charities.
• Improving the profile of the charities.
• Giving all the attendees an occasion to remember.
• Putting on event that offers value for money.

Deciding on a Date
The next stage is deciding when the ball will take place. This should be carefully chosen to pinpoint the date when most of the target audience is available. It is therefore vital to avoid choosing a date which clashes with a major sporting event, local event or school holidays.
The date should also be far enough into the future to allow you sufficient time to organise the event so you’re not rushing around in a blind panic on the eve of the occasion. A recommended preparation period is 3 to 4 months.

Choosing a Venue
The key to choosing the right venue is to be realistic in your expectations and not overstretch. Remember that the main objective of a charity ball is not to stage the most lavish spectacle but to raise money for the cause whilst providing a good old knees-up. The focus of the venue choice should therefore be on minimising expenditure and maximising fundraising and attendee enjoyment.
With this in mind it always worth using the event’s non-profit, fundraising intentions to secure free or discounted venue hire, such as by asking for the use of a local town hall, community centre or hotel.

There are also several other factors to consider when choosing a venue:
• Its location – is it in a central, easily accessible place?
• Its feel – go along and get a feel for the space before you book a venue. Can you imagine having a whale of a time there?
• Does the venue have a cancellation policy – if you don’t sell as many tickets as you’d hoped and want to avert financial ruin by jumping ship then will the venue offer you an escape?
• A dance floor – if you expect your attendees to dance, then is there an appropriate dance floor to accommodate them?
• Are their any extra venue hire costs?

Additional Help
Organising a non-profit event is a lot of hard work for one person and so it is vital to gather some friends together to help share the load. Their designated duties could include:
• Selling tickets.
• Obtaining sponsors for venue hire, free food and drink etc.
• Acting as the charity ball MC or raffle caller.
• Sourcing prizes from local businesses.
• Acting as auctioneer, unless you opt for a silent auction.

Tickets Sales and Donations
Being for charity then it’s safe to assume that people would not expect a bargain occasion but they don’t want to be fleeced either. Therefore unless your audience is particularly well off, it is sensible to not go overboard on the ticket price. Your attendees will likely be spending a lot of money during the night on drinks, raffles, a silent auction etc and if they want to contribute any more then they are always welcome to make any extra donations.
The basic ticket price should generally be somewhere between £5 and £10 and additional costs for any food or entertainment provided should be added on top of that.

Food and Drink
If your event includes food then it is sensible to keep costs down by providing a limited selection that pleases as many people as possible. Chicken and salmon are popular meat choices and it is important to always have a vegetarian option.
If you are considering providing complementary drinks then it is worth trying to get a local business, such as a wine merchant, to sponsor the event and thereby provide free wine for the tables or bubbly for a drinks reception.

Prizes
Holding auctions and raffles are a great way to generate charity funds on the night. To save forking out for the prizes, it is a popular idea to ask friends, colleagues and local businesses to donate them.
It makes it more fun and charitable to encourage non-materialistic prizes that have no specific value, such as by someone offering their skills as a gardener, beauty therapist or their home grown vegetable, or a week in their holiday home.
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DESIGNER to the stars Tory Burch has created this canvas tote bag which will be sold in aid of the annual Fashion Targets Breast Cancer Ireland campaign.

The limited edition bag, which features Tory’s signature bright orange lining, will retail for €45.
All the proceeds raised will go to Action Breast Cancer, a programme of the Irish Cancer Society, and Europa Donna Ireland, which raises awareness of the disease in Ireland.
The tote is due to be launched exclusively at Brown Thomas and BT2 stores on Friday March 19, when the designer will visit the Brown Thomas Dublin store.

Tory Burch has a legion of celebrity followers including Cameron Diaz, Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez, Anne Hathaway, Reese Witherspoon, Uma Thurman, Hilary Swank, Isla Fisher, Rachel Weisz and Katherine Heigl.
When she appeared on Oprah in 2005 as the “Next Big Thing in Fashion” her website received eight million hits the following day, catapulting her into the fashion elite.

Now in its sixth year, the Fashion Targets Breast Cancer campaign has gone from strength-to-strength in Ireland having raised f500,000 through the sale of the bullseye target T-shirts, and tote bags designed by Diane von Furstenberg, Orla Kiely and Paul Smith.
For this year’s campaign, Brown Thomas approached Tory Burch to design a bag which would appeal to women of all ages.
The tote reflects this season’s hottest trend — leopard print — and Tory Burch’s signature design style, while incorporating the distinctive Fashion Targets Breast Cancer logo.
The bag will be sold in Brown Thomas, Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway and BT2 Grafton Street and Dundrum and Blanchardstown Shopping Centres.

Meanwhile, the latest data from the National Cancer Registry of Ireland shows that 2,815 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in 2008. One in ten women living in Ireland will develop breast cancer during their lifetime.
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The world’s largest marketing communications group WPP may have saved up to £50m in tax by switching its headquarters from London to Dublin in 2008.
According to some reports in the UK media, the move effectively meant that it was able to cut its effective tax rate from 31.2% in 2008 to 23.5% in 2009 according to its most recent results. This led to a saving of approximately £50m. It is expected that as the company will be in a position to lower this rate again in 2010, leading to further savings in tax.
However the £50m does not take into account currency fluctuations and it masks a 16% decline in pre-tax profits to £663m. Either way, the saving has been substantial according to financial analysts.
Since the company shifted its HQ to Dublin, it has held all its board meetings in Ireland.
The world’s largest marketing communications group WPP may have saved up to £50m in tax by switching its headquarters from London to Dublin in 2008.
According to some reports in the UK media, the move effectively meant that it was able to cut its effective tax rate from 31.2% in 2008 to 23.5% in 2009 according to its most recent results. This led to a saving of approximately £50m. It is expected that as the company will be in a position to lower this rate again in 2010, leading to further savings in tax.
However the £50m does not take into account currency fluctuations and it masks a 16% decline in pre-tax profits to £663m. Either way, the saving has been substantial according to financial analysts.
Since the company shifted its HQ to Dublin, it has held all its board meetings in Ireland.
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Jump on in?

Thinking of starting an internal corporate blog? Think again, carefully. Blogs are an interesting new communications tool but too many organisations jump into the “blogger pool” without testing the water temperature or depth.
The combined forces of slashed communications budgets, job cuts and a renewed focus on the competition have many firms in a panic looking for the next cost-effective tool. But, it’s like your mother always said: “Would you jump off a bridge just because John is doing it?”

Checking the top and bottom togs
Blogging is a simple, inexpensive way to share information with colleagues and employees. The author simply types up the message, posts it online and readers take a look. Blog messages can be top-down (nothing to do with convertible cars) or bottom-up (definitely not associated with after work drinks).

Internally, executives often use top-down blogs to communicate strategy, announcements or company status and to build team spirit within an organisation. Bottom-up messages are more community spirited and can be written by anyone from managers and project coordinators to new recruits.

When done properly, blogs can actually replace the thousands of screaming “urgent” and “important” emails that employees ignore each day. Ideally, in-house blogs are a corporate collective brain housing memories of experiences, events, lessons learned, successes, failures and general information.

Blogs have many benefits – from project management, team building and communication to idea development and knowledge sharing – but they need to be developed using realistic strategic thinking.

Hot or cold audience?
Corporate culture is a very specific thing. It trickles down from the top and is often based on leaders’ personalities: formal/ informal, jargon-happy or straight-talking, conservative or experimental, old or young, technology competent or newbie.

Leaders who are secretive, formal and unwilling to share details on the inner workings of the organisation are unsuitable candidates for a blog. Blogs should be open, honest, interactive conversations that invite comment. They’re more like a roundtable discussion than a passive lecture.

Shallow or deep purpose?
Good communications have specific objectives and blogs are no exception. They can be a short, sharp information tool. This might include a blog that reports – in an interesting way – on the progress of a short-term project or goal. Or it could be a HR blog that acts as an internal bulletin board or the “what’s on?” section of a newspaper. However, these blogs will struggle to attract repeat readers unless they are written in an entertaining way and provide information that’s important to the audience.
Deeper blogs need short, medium and long-term goals. Maybe a newly appointed CEO needs to raise her internal profile or a manager needs to bring together diverse teams? Blogs like this must be carefully planned and constructed to ensure they get results.

Taking the plunge: top tips
1. Know the blog’s purpose. Internal corporate blogs should be linked to specific corporate strategic goals. Don’t just start a blog because it’s the new technology, someone thinks it’s a brilliant idea or because your competitor is doing it. Your blog must have a focus and a strategic communications purpose.

2. Find and maintain a voice. Blogs must have a recognisable human voice. Although some internal blogs are ghost-written by marketing staff on behalf of an executive, it’s important that they use the “real” voice of this person. Authors should think like a speechwriter: follow the person around for a day or two taking notes of their turns of phrase and speaking patterns.

3. Be open and transparent. Blogs are designed to be interactive so you should invite comments. It’s essential that the blog responds to, or manages, both positive and negative reader opinions. If it does not address the hard questions, it loses all credibility.

4. Have clear terms and conditions. Blogs are not a free for all. They’re a place for controlled but open discussions. Develop clear written policies on anonymous or defamatory postings and stick to them.

5. Be timely. You can’t expect staff to keep checking the blog hoping that something new has appeared. Announce your publication dates and stick to them.

6. Plan, plan, plan. Although corporate blogs might seem like a few informal scribblings written when the author has a few spare minutes, they’re definitely not. A good blog is a strategic corporate communication that is planned to within an inch of its life. All good writing takes time, planning and effort.

It’s ok if you don’t have an internal blog. They’re not for everyone or every company. Some people never learn to swim and, for them, there should be no shame in being wise enough to get the towel and go home.
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In order to succeed and combat the competitive online world, you need to maintain a good reputation online. A good reputation not only builds confidence and grows sales, but ultimately leads to better revenues and higher profitability. In today’s Internet buzz nasty rumors, wrong opinions and incorrect news spread rapidly and if not taken timely action to handle the news properly, you may face a serious threat to your online business and credibility.

1. Respond to customers
Being open and responsive to customers is an important part of creating a positive impression and managing your website’s reputation. If someone asks you a question, answer it there or through e-mail. Be quick in addressing your customer issues before the word spreads.

2. Answer the negative comments humbly
Be real, not everyone is satisfied with your work and services. If these people are among the ones spreading negative comments about you for whatever reason like delayed service or unfriendly attitude, answer them instantly to terminate the issue right there! Be very polite when putting your point of view in front of such people and you’ll sure succeed in saving your reputation. Answering negative remarks modestly can be a great way of turning a bad situation into positive one.

3. Create official online profiles
Create your own platform for users to share their experiences they’ve had with you. Create your own profiles and websites complete with the kind of information you actually want to be available about you. Let users communicate with each other and comment about your products or services, whether positive or negative.

4. Report stolen material from you
It’s very well possible that online competitors may steal material from your website to increase their ranking and traffic. This may lose your credibility among your users, making you “not-so-unique” in their eyes. To control such theft, you can report their site through strict action.

5. Write blogs
Writing blog posts are extremely effective in promoting your business. Through blog reviews and blog comments, you even increase your chance of getting high traffic volumes to your website. If you or any of the experts in your business have important knowledge like instructions, guidelines, tips and trick that can be useful for the users, share them through writing blog posts. This will greatly enhance your online reputation.

6. Optimize For Search Engines
Majority of the internet users accept results from Google searches or any other search engine as highly credible. Therefore, to maintain a good website reputation, don’t forget to optimize your website. You can consult professional search engine optimization services for this purpose.

7. Using the social media
Setting up social media networks in order to maintain your website’s online reputation is a great thought. To begin with, set up your profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace. Once you have your accounts setup, you will need to do the following things:
• Create a complete profile by putting all the information
• Engage and Interact with the members
• Monitor comments for both positive and negative remarks

You’ve spent a lot of time building up your website’s good reputation, so it’s important not to let anyone drag it through the mud. Follow the above given tips to maintain your positive reputation among the online community.

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