With the topic of green and eco-friendly on everyones minds right now we thought it was a great time to show what Canada has to offer in ecotourism. We’ve constructed a comprehensive guide to ecotourism and green travel options, along with sustainable travel advice and lots of other useful, practical and in many cases - cost saving - tips. Visit the Green Travel Guide for more information.
Earlier today I was interviewed by Vancouver’s Channel M television station for part of a news report about business financing for immigrants. 
I have gone through the hoops and hurdles which immigrants face when coming to Canada and are required to have a Canadian credit history, assets and collateral when dealing with major banks. Fortunately some of the smaller banking institutions, including Vancity where we bank, have excellent programs which permit immigrant entrepreneurs access to mainstream financing.
We’ve also received support from MOSAIC BC - the immigrant settlement and advice service located in Vancouver.
The interview will be on Channel M News Tuesday 13 May and will be broadcast in 3 languages.
Today I had an interesting lunch event. I met Gordon Campbell, the Premiere of British Columbia, and was fortunate enough to have lunch with him and some members of the North Vancouver Chamber of Commerce.
The topics of the event, which Gordon Campbell was keynote speaker, surrounded partnerships and progress BC has made and what steps need to be taken to continue this trend.
An interesting day, interesting people and insightful discussion.
Last night I was invited to attend the Vancouver Board of Trade’s member reception at the Vancouver Rowing Club. This was an excellent opportunity to network and after reading Darcy Rezac’s (MD of the Board of Trade) article in Make it Business magazine about positive networking, I felt I had to get out more to events like this.
There was definitely a diverse gathering and some of the people I met included:
King George International Business College
Summer Hill Promotional Products
Any many others who’s names and coordinates I didn’t collect and don’t recall.
Getting out and meeting peers and colleagues is an important part of running a business. Finding and making time for it will pay dividends with marketing, partnership opportunities, sales and obtaining opinions and business advice from those who have been there, done that.
Trail Canada began as a blog. Six years later it has become Canada’s most popular online travel guide. The Vancouver Sun recalls Trail Canada’s history and looks at Peragro Media as a successful venture that is growing and gaining momentum in the travel industry.
Trail Canada reaches over 190,000 visitors per month (Feb 2008) and has over 7,500 pages of free to view content.
Coming soon: Green Travel Guide. More information on this new website will come soon.
I finally made it out to a Green Drinks event in Gastown, Vancouver yesterday.
Green Drinks is:
Every month people who work in the environmental field meet up for a beer at informal sessions known as Green Drinks.
We have a lively mixture of people from NGOs, academia, government and business. Come along and you’ll be made welcome. Just say, “are you green?” and we will look after you and introduce you to whoever is there.It’s a great way of catching up with people you know and also for making new contacts. Everyone invites someone else along, so there’s always a different crowd, making Green Drinks an organic, self-organising network.
I found the networking fun and very relaxed. A great place to meet people from all different backgrounds and also, if you are new to networking, this is probably one of the easiest groups to get together with.
Vancouver’s Make it Business magazine has a little mention of our recent win at the BC Small Business contest this February.
There is a good video by Fundfindr recapping the Small Business BC event. Questions are asked about business planning, do you need to write it down, and some tips… including some by me!
Peragro Media was mentioned in this week’s issue of the Business Journal. Photographed: me accepting athe winning prize money from Cybele Negris Chief Operating Officer of Webnames.ca.
I appeared in the North Shore News, Canada’s most well read and award winning community newspaper . The article by Caroline Skelton discusses how commitment is key when getting any business off the ground.
Peragro Media’s main source of business is Trail Canada, Canada’s largest and most popular online travel guide. In the article I discuss how the website started and where it is headed.