Creating the Magic in the Hospitality Industry - CFCC Free Seminar

If Disney ran your organization, what would it look like?

Cape Fear Community College Small Business Center (CFCC SBC) recently announced it's upcoming seminars for the Fall/Winter season.  Among the free seminars is one called "Creating the Magic in the Hospitality Industry" with John Formica.

Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce members may want to take note of this offering designed for resorts, hotels, restaurants, and other tourist-related businesses and their employees.

Speaker John Formica spent 30 years as a leader with the Walt Disney World Resort organization and other top service industries. He will share Disney’s Success Model on People Management, Exceptional Service and a Positive Working Environment, that has helped hundreds of organizations and professionals, “Create the Magic” for success.

CFCC SBC previously held a workshop with Mr. Formica called "Creating the Magic in the Healthcare Industry - Sharing Disney's Customer Services Practices."  It was a great success and very well received.

For details and more information, please visit www.CFCC.edu/sbc or call Kim LeClair at 910-362-7216.



This seminar will be held on January 28th, 2010.

Residential Building Code Change Workshop

Do you have questions about the recent changes in the State of North Carolina Residential Building Code? Town officials from Carolina Beach and Kure Beach will be on hand to present a workshop regarding these changes.

Details:

• What: NC Residential Building Code Workshop
• When: Wednesday, October 7th from 4:00 until 6:00 pm
• Where: Carolina Beach Town Hall Offices, Police Training Room
• Info: Contact Van Paxton at (910) 458-8238 with any questions
  

Van Paxton from the Town of Carolina Beach and John Batson from the Town of Kure Beach will be conducting this workshop regarding the recent changes in the State of North Carolina Residential Building Code.

Free Small Business Resource Summit

If you own or are thinking of starting a small business, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has partnered with organizations that provide services to prospective and current small businesses to hold a Small Business Resource Summit.

Details:

• What: Small Business Resource Summit
• When: Tuesday, September 29th from 8:00 am until 12:00 pm
• Where: UNC Wilmington, Burney Center
• Info: John Meeks at (919) 787-8727 ext. 4915 or email at jmeeks@fdic.gov

This Summit will be a “one-stop shopping” opportunity that brings together 50 small businesses and farm service providers including providers of loans, grants, contracting and procurement opportunities and technical and educational services.

Upcoming Seminar - New Technologies for Small Business - Social Networking and More

The Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce announces an upcoming seminar for members as well as non-members:

New Technologies for Small Business - Social Networking / Computer Freebies / Portable Communications Workshop

• When: Thursday, September 17th, 2009 from 6:00 - 8:30 pm
• Where: Carolina Beach Police Training Room (located in the Carolina Beach Town Hall)

In this seminar you will learn how to utilize the newest tools and technologies for your small business. Topics include social networking, business software, productivity and marketing. From the mobile phone to the web browser, there is a world of low cost and free software available for today’s small business. Seminar also includes plenty of Question and Answer time.

This workshop is being co-hosted by the Cape Fear Community College Small Business Center.

Free Parking is available behind the Carolina Beach Town Hall offices next to the Recreation Center. You may access the parking lot by taking the driveway directly south of Town Hall or you can enter off of Seventh Street.

How to Register

There is a $5.00 charge for this seminar and seating is limited, so be sure to reserve your space today. Food and beverages will also be provided.

You can register by calling the Chamber at 458-8434.

For more information about the Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce, please visit the website at www.PleasureIslandNC.org.

Learn more about becoming a member.

FACTA Workshop - July 22, 2009

The Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a workshop regarding the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA) from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Details:

• What: FACTA Workshop
• When: Wednesday, July 22, 2009, 6 pm - 7:30 pm
• Where: Carolina Beach Police Training Room (located in the Carolina Beach Town Hall)

If your organization sells products or services on credit, take note: August 1, 2009, is the deadline to comply with the identity theft requirements in the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA).

Dubbed the “red flag rules”, they require all financial institutions and creditors to create and implement a written program for detection, prevention and mitigation of identity theft of consumers’ data. In general, if a business regularly extends credit (or arranges for someone else to do so), the red flag rules apply. Accepting credit cards doesn’t make you a covered creditor.

Businesses must comply if there’s a reasonably foreseeable risk that identity theft could occur against a new or existing business account. If there is such a risk, you must develop a plan to detect, prevent and mitigate the theft and its effects. The plan must be in writing. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has identified 26 examples of red flags that could be incorporated into your program. It says the plan must be adapted to your business, so you can’t adopt a canned format based on minimal standards.

The potential penalty for noncompliance is up to $2,500 per violation.

Daniel Vulin of Pre Paid Legal Services, Inc., will be conducting the workshop which will include a 30-minute presentation with a question and answer session following the presentation.

How to Register:
Call the Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce at 910-458-8434.

Please note: There is a $5 charge for all Chamber members and a $10 charge for all non-members.

Become a member of the Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce and get access to more business-friendly workshops and seminars, networking events, area news, resources, and more!

RASP Class Resheduled for April 13th

The Responsible Alcohol Sellers Program (RASP) Class that was originally scheduled for March 26th has been rescheduled for Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 6:00 pm at the Carolina Beach Town Hall Police Training Room.

The RASP class was developed to assist permittees in training employees/volunteers on the responsible sales and service of alcoholic beverages.

The program teaches the latest techniques in detecting underage and intoxicated patrons.

The RASP class is FREE of charge and lasts approximately 1 hour.

Once you have taken this class, you are registered with the State of North Carolina and you will receive a certificate showing you have taken this course.

Please call Gail or Aimee at the Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce at 910-458-8434 to reserve your space today.

Thank you!

Survive and Thrive Workshop Cancelled

We are sorry to report that the Survive and Thrive workshop set for tonight, Monday, March 23rd at 6:00 pm is CANCELLED.

We hope to offer this workshop again later in the year.

If you have any questions, please call the Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce at 910-458-8434.

Thank you.

Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce Announces Upcoming RASP Certification

The Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce announces an upcoming RASP certification course:

• Responsible Alcohol Sellers Program (RASP) - Thursday, March 26th at 6:00 pm. The purpose of this class is to certify everyone who volunteers to serve beer at any of The Pleasure Island Chamber events (Chowder Cook Off, Beach Music Festival, Seafood Blues & Jazz Festival, etc). Additionally, this class is great for our local establishments who serve alcohol as it teaches how to detect underage and intoxicated patrons, fake, altered, or imposter identification, and covers the general rules and regulations of the ABC Commission. Each participant will receive a certificate showing that they have taken this course. The session will run from 6-7:00 pm in the Police Training Room at the Carolina Beach Town Hall offices.

Please contact Aimee at 910-458-8434 or via the Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce website to register to attend this certification class.

Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce Announces Upcoming Seminar

The Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce - serving businesses, residents, and visitors of Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, and Fort Fisher as well as the greater Wilmington, NC area - announces an upcoming small business seminar:

• Survive and Thrive Panel Discussion: Monday, March 23rd at 6:00 pm. This workshop is designed to assist small businesses seeking strategic and operational input to help manage their businesses more effectively and efficiently in this downturn economy. The panel will consist of senior members from the SBA, SCORE, the UNCW Small Business Technology & Development Center, the New Hanover Business Resources Center, and the CFCC Small Business Center.

Wow! Small business owners won't want to miss this one.

Please contact Aimee at 910-458-8434 or via the Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce website to register to attend this event.

Pleasure Island Chamber Hosts SEO / Adwords Workshop

The Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce is holding a Search Engine Optimization and Google Adwords seminar on September 17, 2008 from 6:00 - 8:30pm at the Carolina Beach Town Hall Police Training Room.

The focus of this seminar is online marketing for your Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, or Wilmington, NC business. If your business has a website or if you're thinking about starting a website for your company, then this seminar is for you. It's not enough to just have a website. To really get your money's worth, you need to market your website so that people can find it and use it.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves website design and creating content for your site so that the search engines (like Google, Yahoo, etc) understand what it is about and recognize it as a relevant and important resource for your targeted search terms. If you can get your website to appear on the first page of Google results for a given search term, then you're likely to get more organic traffic to your site and ideally more business leads.

For instance, if you sell and install hurricane shutters in Carolina Beach and Kure Beach, then you want your website to turn up on the first page of results for the search term "hurricane shutters carolina beach nc." Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are the tools to help you get those results.

The seminar will cover:

• Basics of Google Adwords Advertising Program
• Writing effective ads
• Tracking your success
• SEO basics
• How to build traffic through inbound links
• Intro to Google Webmaster Tools

You can sign up for this seminar by visiting the Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce Website and sending an email or calling the number listed on the contact info.