Garden Route Business & Technology

Small & large businesses in George suffer equally when it comes to requests for sponsorship. Countless times a year someone knocks on my door looking for a sponsorship for a local football team, a school sports tour or the like.

Note that sponsorship and donations are two entirely different things. Sponsorship is marketing and a business expense. Donations is a decision often made without logic being involved, and is only a business expense as far as the SARS rebate goes, when applicable.

Now how does one know whether a proposed sponsorship will be worthwhile from a marketing perspective? Let’s take an example.

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It is my pleasure to present this report to the membership of the George Business Chamber. The Chamber has enjoyed a very positive term resulting in increased visibility  an enhanced community profile and services provided for the members. The organisation has successfully developed its internal capability, providing a strong foundation for continued growth so much so that the secretarial role within the Chamber has been expanded and become a full day function.

The Chamber welcomed 8 new members for 2013 during November of 2012 and 10 new members during February of this year.The growth of the Chamber continues to strengthen the Chamber’s voice in providing advocacy for the business community.

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From the George Herald, 19 Dec 2012

GEORGE NEWS – A plan to kick start the economy of the region on a sustainable basis, using smart city technology has been taking shape over the past few months.

Citizen connectivity, environmentally friendly transport, sustainable natural resource management and a knowledge economy is all part of the master plan.

The brains behind the concept – George Business Chamber President, Imel Rautenbach and technology strategists Rudie Shepherd & Nathan Jeffrey  – will in mid-January be tabling their roadmap plan for Outeniqua Smart City Corridor (OSCC) at a joint session with the four mayors of the Garden Route, and the Western Cape Finance and Tourism Minister Alan Winde.

Central to the concept is the idea that when the towns in the Outeniqua Corridor from Mossel Bay to Plettenberg Bay join forces to tackle common regional issues, the opportunity arises to gain the benefits of Smart City designs and technology – otherwise reserved for the mega cities of the world. “We should not wait until we develop the problems of urban sprawl, pollution, traffic congestion and technological apartheid. Now is the time to design the future place we will all love to live in,” said Shepherd.

“We already have had significant buy-in for our plan, and believe this collective thinking power can be put to use, for it is our intention that this master plan for making us internationally competitive must be refined and be implemented – as soon as possible,” said Rautenbach.

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