ISSUE #1 NEW ZEALAND
The excitement is building towards the Smaller Earth Global Staff Conference gathering in Slovakia.
participants and all of you who work so hard to ensure those outcomes are met.
This year’s event promises to be as memorable an occasion as conference in North Wales in 2013.
The theme will also build on past conferences by moving from the idea of being consistently good to being great.
The fundamental aim of this year’s gathering is undoubtedly to focus on renewing our friendships with one another and welcoming those who have recently joined Smaller Earth.
We do that by ensuring that what we do, will result in experiences being as fantastic and life changing as they can possibly be for all concerned.
As you know there is a fundamental understanding among everyone of how Smaller Earth does things differently. To that end, we intend to focus once again on our overarching goal of positively impacting on 20 million people by 2020. The theme of this year’s conference will be ‘Enjoy the Journey’.
On the face of it, that is not an easy task because expectations, personalities and even goals can often be very different. To help you in this quest, we intend to introduce a number of global principles, which when applied to ways of working, can help us achieve that overarching ambition. Have a good, if not a great journey, and we will see you all shortly!
The essence of that theme is true for everybody including our clients and
THE VENUE HIGH in the peaks surrounding Mount Chopok sits the Wellness Hotel Grand. The 157 bedroom hotel , was opened in 1994 on a peak on a 1,100 metre hill of the Lower Tatras. It lies in the Demänovská valley and provides the perfect rural idyll for both summer and for winter outdoor and sporting activities. In the winter the hotel’s location. alongside a ski slope enables snowboarders and skiers easy access to the cableway boarding station. In the summer, activities include walking and cycling around the surrounding beauty of this valley which lends itself to stunning vistas in all directions. The hotel’s wellness centre and spa provides the additional tranquillity of this setting and one in which you can take a rest from the busy routines of every day life. Sit back, relax and enjoy!
NEW ZEALAND
When it comes to living life in the fast lane and achieving much our team down in New Zealand is definitely the bees knees. As everyone knows Emmily Campbell has not only just upped sticks and moved the colossal distance of 1,556 kilometres, from the SE ‘office’ in Auckland to Queenstown, but has found a superb office in the most happening part of town. Emmily reflects on the choices she had to make after the team at SE decided to take its business to a potentially more lucrative location in the south of the country, which attracts nearly 2 million visitors annually. “The move to Queenstown became almost a no brainer particularly after Alex Fekete, had been there with us for all of ten minutes before he fell in love with the place.”
And while the team still considered its options the mere mention of it to employers in Queenstown elicited some very positive feedback and interest. Apart from being located close to the universities and embassies Auckland had no other obvious advantage, whereas moving to Queenstown offered a communal feel about it and much closer support for our participants. The joys in opening up shop here has more than an element of fun for the SE staff too, who will operate out of a town, which has been tagged the ‘adventure capital of the world’. It is really hard not to love this place the minute you arrive here and rest assured our future participants are in for a treat. “And now we are right here amongst it there will be numerous positive benefits from a developing inbound program and to grow the SE relationship with employers.”
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The town is teeming with pubs, restaurants and hotels all within easy walking distance. While nature’s playground sits on Queenstown’s doorstep meaning there is oodles to do both in the summer and winter months. Top left: Office view - Bright and sunny, excuse the sun glare - From the office looking up the Gondola. Top right: Teresa Howell (Left) Emmily Campbell (Right). Bottom left: Lake front at lunch time - Just 150metres from teh office is the lake front. A popular place to buy lunch or take your own down to eat with a view. Bottom right: Rob Burchell on skiis on Coronet Peak Ski field - Remarkable mountain range in the background (To the left) and Lake Wakatipu in the distance.
“I spent a couple of winters here and as much as I love the snow, I am really looking forward to my first summer when the days are long and people are active, which is probably my favourite thing about this town.” Emmily recalls the challenges facing her and Rob when they had just 96 hours not just to find an office but to recruit staff. “My initial enquiries seemed like every estate agent wanted to offer us the same office, and it got to the point where I thought I would have to rethink the office location and instead move an extra desk into my living room!”
However, within hours of arriving Rob had identified a premises on the main street and a deal was struck. The next job was to interview potential staff and it wasn’t long before the pair chose Teresa Howell to join the team. She adds: “We met some great people but Teresa stood out with a great attitude, skill set and a strong desire for a new challenging project to take on.” And Emmily has already thrown out her own challenge to Dave Robinson as she adds: “He thinks I am a bit too ambitious, but don’t you all think it would be a cool place to hold the 2020 staff conference?”
Smaller Earth New Zealand introduces its latest recruit
TERESA HOWELL Customer Journey Support
I’m Teresa and have just started with Smaller Earth. I’ll be working with Emmily in our brand new office down here in Queenstown. We’re starting to get settled in and love our new space, located right in town with lovely views of the mountains! I’m originally from the west coast of Auckland and I moved down to Queenstown just over four years ago, after falling in love with the South Island and its unique lifestyle.
snowboarding but as much as I enjoy it, summer is definitely my season! Lake Wakatipu is absolutely beautiful and means I can get out on my paddle board or go for a swim if I’m feeling brave, but please note the lake is freezing! We then have plenty of camping and hiking spots in pretty close proximity too.
We’re very lucky to live in a place that offers so much, no matter the season!
Queenstown itself is a pretty small town which has a great community feel with heaps going on which is the one thing I love about it.
It’s winter here at the moment so my weekends are spent up the mountains
I’ve been working in tourism since I got here and my most recent job was
as the reservations manager for Nzone Skydive. This meant I got to chat with tourists every day and hearing their travel stories as well as getting them enthused about their sky dives. I’m really excited to now be part of the Smaller Earth team, I’ve already had some conversations with very excited people and I can’t wait to help them prepare for their adventures. I am also looking forward to working with you all and meeting everyone later this month.
Good morning! Dobré ráno! Good afternoon! Dobrý deň! Good evening! Dobrý večer! Welcome! (to greet someone) Vitájte! Hello my friend! Ahoj How are you? (friendly) Ako sa máš? How are you? (polite) Ako sa máte? I’m fine, thank you! Som v poriadku, ďakujem! And you? (friendly) A ty? And you? (polite) A vy? Good Dobre Not so good Nie veľmi dobre Thank you (very much)! Ďakujem (veľmi pekne)! You’re welcome! (for “thank you”) Prosím! Nech sa páči! My pleasure Teší ma Come in! (or: enter!) Poďte/ (polite) pod (friendly) ďalej! Have a nice day! Prajem príjemný deň! Good night! Dobrú noc! Good night and sweet dreams! Dobrú noc a príjemné sny! See you later! Vidíme - sa neskôr! See you soon! Vidíme - sa čoskoro!
SLOVAK LANGUAGE 101
Hi! Ahoj!