June  14,  2007

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Today in LiNK:

MOA and Groople  

Mall of America (MOA), one of the top tourist destinations in the United States has partnered with Groople, the leading online group travel booking and planning site. MOA and Groople will provide an online, co-branded booking engine that travelers in groups of five or more can access to search and book hotels near the Mall.  
Currently, the MOA website offers general information about the Mall, visitor itinerary suggestions, special event updates and other offers. Partnering with Groople enables the MOA to expand its services by providing an interactive tool that creates a complete itinerary building package for visitors including where to stay and what activities are available.
MOA is said to contribute more than $1.8 billion to the Minnesota state economy and is an ongoing staple of tourism for the state.
Groople is a combination of the words GROups and peOPLE = GROOPLE. The company understands groups and provides planning and booking tools for any group. Headquartered in Centennial, Colorado, Groople was launched in 2004.  For more than two years Groople has worked with thousands of people from a wide variety of groups and has come to understand that planning, searching and booking group travel arrangements should be a fun part of group travel.
Groople works around the clock to negotiate the best rates for flights, hotels, cars and cruises and find the best locations to fit a group’s needs. Groople provides booking capability on more than 60,000 hotels located on four continents, twenty-five islands and one mountaintop.
Through its social networking environment Groople allows travelers to collaborate and compare travel options before any decisions are made. After reserving a block of rooms, group members are welcome to pay for their rooms individually online or in one payment made by the group leader.

Helping Pets

Triangle Town Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, will be hosting a different kind of food drive this coming autumn. From October 5 through 7, the center will join forces with The Picture People to gather pet food donations on behalf of the SPCA.
During mall hours, shoppers will be encouraged to bring either a 10lb bag of puppy or kitten food, or 20lbs of kitty litter to the Pets Are Family Too Food Drive. In return for their generosity, donors will receive a free sitting with The Picture People, a 10x13 portrait and 15 percent off any additional portraits.
Triangle Town Center says pets will be welcome at the drive, but photo sessions will be by appointment only.

Property Industry’s Young Achiever

Bassett Consulting Engineers Associate Sven De Jonghe led a strong field of nominations to win the Property Council of Australia (WA Division) Young Achiever Award for 2007.
The Property Council’s Young Achiever Award recognizes professional initiative and excellence in the property sector by persons less than 30 years of age. The award was the highlight of the Property Council’s Future Directions Royale Ball, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
“The Young Achiever Award demonstrates the quality of young professionals in Western Australia’s property sector,” says Joe Lenzo, Property Council of Australia (WA Division) Executive Director.
“This year’s Award attracted the strongest field of candidates, since the inception of the Award in 2003. If the quality of the finalists is any indication, the future of the property industry in WA is in safe hands”, he said.
Sven graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering - First Class Honors, from the University of Western Australia. He started as a Graduate Mechanical Engineer with Bassett in February 2001 and was appointed the youngest Associate in the Company at 26 years of age in 2005.
In his time at Bassett, Sven has work on a number of major projects including Perth’s Desalination plant, Fremantle Maritime Museum and the CBD Law Courts. He is currently Project Managing Bassett’s biggest-ever commercial project – a $700 million mixed-use development in Abu Dhabi.
Sven was also the first Accredited GreenStar Professional in WA. He has since been involved in the design and rating of many projects in Western Australia seeking GreenStar certification including Westralia Plaza, 140 William Street office tower, and the 54 Mounts Bay Road office building.
“Bassett is delighted that Sven was recognized by the Property Council as this years' Young Achiever, and “particularly to achieve this result amongst such a talented field of entrants,” said Geoff Hardy, Bassett Managing Director.
“Bassett is very supportive of the Property Council’s initiative to promote the young and talented people within our industry. The number of entrants in this year’s award along with the caliber of the field is a clear indication of the depth of talent that resides in the WA property industry. Sven is one of our brightest rising stars and has been an exceptional performer in Bassett since he joined us as a graduate. We have exceptional confidence in his future,” said Hardy.

Crazy Fun

Germany’s Energy radio station is looking for the wackiest people in the nation, and it’s called on Promenaden Hauptbanhof Leipzig to help find them.
Shoppers had until today to participate in the station’s Crazy People Casting Call by uploading to the video.nrj.de portal a video of themselves doing something wacky—be it holding a handstand for one hour or juggling 25 balls at a time.
Finalists will get an opportunity to perform live on stage at the Promenaden Hauptbanhof Leipzig this Saturday for a chance to win a week’s vacation in Las Vegas.
The casting call coincides with the center’s Crazy Car exhibit, which closes on Sunday.

No Smoking, Please!

Meadowhall was on a mission to stub out smoking this past March 14 when it held a special event in honor of No Smoking Day.
The Sheffield, UK, shopping center introduced a complete ban, which followed restrictions it had already implemented on the malls back in 2001—an initiative that won an ASH Gold Clean Air Award.
“We know that legally we don’t need to enforce the no smoking ban until July 1, however we felt that introducing it on No Smoking Day would give people that extra incentive to stop,” said Dawn Osborne, head of customer and retail services at Meadowhall.
“We do recognize that some of our customers will still want to smoke when they visit Meadowhall, so we will be providing them with a designated area, outside our food court, where they will be able to enjoy a cigarette.”
To help shoppers battle with their will power, Meadowhall disseminated valuable health information during the event and offered several activities to visitors.
The Source at Meadowhall held dance and fitness classes in the malls between 12pm and 6pm so that smokers could test their fitness levels. Those who survived that went on to test their lung function and measure the amount of carbon monoxide in their blood.
In addition, Meadowhall held a cigarette amnesty, and anyone who handed in their cigarettes received two weeks of free membership at The Source gym.

Customize Your Beer Truck

Viral Marketing: Also known as Word of Mouth Advertising. Any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, thus creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence. Just like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands, even to millions.

Here’s a new viral game for Belgian beer company Vedett. In this game players are invited to trick out a beer truck (it’s really a cement truck), create a ramp, and then launch the truck into the air. Players with skill can perform mid-air tricks and still land the beer truck safely. Players each have five trucks per game.
Typical of the viral movement, this game allows you to share it with others through the simple click of a button. 

Find out your beer truck handling by clicking the picture above.