Alcohol-Free Week 2012 - Will you take on the Alcohol-Free Challenge?

Will you take on the Alcohol-Free Challenge?

Alcohol-Free Week 22 February – 28 February 2012 - http://www.alcoholfreeweek.co.uk/

Alcohol-Free Week 2012 runs from 22 February to 28 February. During this week it is hoped people will be persuaded to abstain from alcohol for all or part of the week.

The aim is to make people more conscious of their drinking habits and help them see how big a role alcohol plays in their lives and how easy, or difficult, it is to do without.

A website has been set up at http://www.alcoholfreeweek.co.uk/ to help those taking up the Alcohol-Free Week challenge. The website offers tips on drinking wisely, suggestions on alternatives to drinking alcohol and a chance to win alcohol-free drinks every day during Alcohol-Free Week.

Alcohol-Free Week has been running since 2007. Each year businesses, local authorities, health trusts, health promotion agencies and educational institutions have held their own events to mark Alcohol-Free Week.

Organisations getting involved in Alcohol-Free Week include the health and social care service Turning Point which has a series of activities planned.

Alcohol-Free Week is sponsored by de-alcoholised and non-alcoholic drinks producers and is backed by the charity FAS Aware UK that promotes alcohol awareness in pregnancy.

The event is organised by the country's leading online alcohol-free drinks specialist retailers The Alcohol-Free Shop and the Lono Drinks Co.

Christine Risby from The Alcohol-Free Shop said: “We are encouraging people to give up alcohol for a weekend or the whole week. Health experts advise that we should have at least two alcohol-free days a week. We hope Alcohol-Free Week will inspire people to look honestly at the amount they drink and adopt a healthier lifestyle.”

Studies by the Cancer Research charity have found that consuming even moderate amounts of alcohol every day increases the risk of some cancers by 10% and, health experts warn, can cause serious liver damage.

British intelligence makes smartphones smarter.

Gripsta is a quirky desk top phone holder that works in lots of different ways with all leading smartphone brands. "This vividly coloured foam gadget may not embody the latest cutting edge nano-technology, but nonetheless it’s pretty darn useful."

“This is far from being just a gimmick,” insists Cat Stables, the firm’s marketing manager. “It holds your phone upright on your desk or bedside table, you can angle it in either portrait or landscape, you can tuck it under your ear, and it makes texting a whole lot easier.”

“Our users are reporting that while indoors they never have their phones out of their Gripstas.”

Gripsta comes from the specialist foam company Urofoam Ltd – who design and make products ranging from components for Koenigsegg Sports cars, bits for high tech lightweight robots, to ear plugs for horses (really!)

Attractively priced for under £10 the Gripsta can be bought direct from the website www.gripsta.co.uk and from a range of resellers including Amazon. Corporate clients can have them printed with their logos for promotional campaigns.

Two tasty food festivals confirmed for D&G this year

Dumfries & Galloway in south west Scotland is set to become a popular destination for foodies during 2012 with two major food festivals bookending the summer.

Flavour Taster, 4th – 7th May, is a brand new bite sized foodie experience festival that builds on the success of Flavour Fortnight, Dumfries & Galloway’s autumn celebration of local and artisan food and drink. Among the Flavour Taster events confirmed so far are Souper Sunday, Dawn Chorus Breakfast, a Brewery Tour, a Harbour Festival, wild food forages and various taster menus highlighting locally produced food. The full programme of event will be released in March.

Flavour Fortnight, 25th August – 9th September returns for a third year, and moves forward a week to include the August Bank Holiday weekend. Last year saw 92 events take place across Dumfries & Galloway, from Langholm in the east to Portpatrick in the west. There was a fascinating range of unique and unusual experiences on offer including a wild food forage around an art gallery, a jazz themed celebration of jam, a Greek mezze made with local food, an opportunity to enjoy the first tilapia harvest from Scotland’s first aquaponics project, a gastronomic quiz event, a menu showcasing Robert Burns’ favourite meals, an opportunity to meet majestic Highland cattle and full day butchery demonstrations. Organisers say they expect over 100 foodie events to take place during Flavour Fortnight 2012.

The introduction of Flavour Taster was triggered after an independent evaluation of Flavour Fortnight stated that organisers had created a ‘nationally important event and a food tourism product from the passion and enthusiasm of the artisan food and drink industry in Dumfries & Galloway.’ Flavour Taster has been developed to build on the success of Flavour Fortnight and to satisfy the growing interest across the UK in local and artisan food and drink.

Liz Ramsay, Project Manager of Savour the Flavours, organisers of the festivals, said:
“These festivals give us an opportunity to put quality local food and drink right at the heart of the tourism experience in Dumfries & Galloway. We have some truly world class products in this region, as well as inspirational people in the industry who are happy to share their passion with visitors to Dumfries & Galloway. The success of Flavour Fortnight in becoming one of Scotland’s biggest food festivals in just two years is a testament to the creativity and the enthusiasm of the industry here. A whole host of artisan food and drink experiences available right across this beautifully scenic region makes Dumfries & Galloway a mouth watering short break destination this year. ”

The Flavour Taster programme of events will be unveiled in March and people who want to register to receive information about Dumfries & Galloway’s food events should visit http://www.flavourfortnight.co.uk/ .

Get Your Teeth Into This – Try Domino’s Boneless Ribs First Via Facebook

 

Domino’s Pizza, the pizza delivery expert, is giving Facebook fans the chance to preview a new side order a week before the national launch.

From Monday February 6, 2012, Domino’s UK Facebook fans can try a portion of delicious new bite-sized spicy Boneless Ribs, served with a BBQ dip, for an exclusive promotional price of just £2.99. Simply log on to Domino’s UK Facebook page and click through to Domino’s ordering site where the Boneless Ribs will automatically be added to the customer’s checkout basket.

Simon Wallis, sales and marketing director at Domino’s Pizza, said: “We’ve now got over 400,000 fans on our UK Facebook page and to thank them for coming back to our page time and again, we wanted to give them a sneak preview of our new Boneless Ribs and enjoy them at a very special price. Our Facebook fans are very knowledgeable when it comes to our menu so we can’t wait to see what they think of this tasty new addition.”

The Boneless Ribs will be available on general sale from Monday February 13, 2012.

Find Domino’s on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DominosPizza

“I’m an employee, get me out of here!” – workers put off by forced team-building

- New study suggests majority of British workers think doing more team-building events would be a waste of time

- Eye-popping examples of activities mentioned include 'bush tucker trials', bikini-clad bed-baths and lingerie parties

- Better communication, a supportive atmosphere and tools for flexible working are preferred ways to improve teamwork
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We may be a nation of good sports, but most British workers think that doing more company team-building events would not help improve how they work with colleagues. A survey by Vodafone UK and YouGov suggests employees feel that some organised team-building activities can be a waste of time, and at worst, are toe-curlingly awkward.

British workers would much prefer being able to communicate with each other better at work rather than being forced to build rapport with their co-workers by sharing adrenaline experiences or performing 'trust' exercises.

The research among more than 1,000 British employees with colleagues uncovered some eye-popping examples of awkward and silly team-building activities, including enduring bikini-clad ‘bed baths’ and massages from colleagues, holding lingerie parties, and eating crickets as part of a 'bush tucker trial' style event.

While the majority of workers surveyed (66 per cent) have been made to do some form of team-building activity, more than half (54 per cent) don't feel that doing more would help them work better with their colleagues.

“British companies are spending a huge amount of time and effort in building more effective teams,” says Peter Kelly, Enterprise Director at Vodafone UK. “This research confirms that people place more value on open, collaborative and flexible ways of working every day than one-off team-building exercises.”

According to the survey, adrenaline experiences like speed-boating and bungee jumping are considered the least effective team-building activities, followed by trust exercises such as being blindfolded and led by colleagues. Those deemed most effective are social events like going out for a drink or a meal, followed by volunteering and charity work.

Rather than potentially waste money on frivolous team-building exercises, respondents with a negative view of team-building suggest that companies should instead focus on providing a more supportive atmosphere at work, enabling better team communication and offering tools for flexible working as their top three priorities.

“Many genuine team-building activities can be valuable, but ultimately, to achieve better teamwork businesses need to get the basics right first. Employers need to focus on how their employees work day-to-day, and give staff the tools they need to be able to do their job best. Employees also want to be able to work smarter – and that means easy access to customers, colleagues and information wherever they are," continues Peter Kelly.

Respondents are also clear about the negative impacts of not working effectively as a team. The most serious of these were delayed decision-making (named by 31 per cent), unhappy customers through poor response (29 per cent), missing targets because of lack of timely input from colleagues (28 per cent), and making the wrong decisions because of lack of access to the right people and information (28 per cent).

Overall, only 26 per cent of respondents feel that more team-building would help them work more effectively with their colleagues. Whether it’s down to cynicism or wisdom, age seems to engender a more jaded view of team-building exercises: only 10 per cent of people aged 55 and over say they help improve team working, compared with 42 per cent of 18–24 year-olds. People in Scotland seem to be more positive than those south of the border, with 33 per cent of respondents saying that more team-building events would encourage better team working.

Key findings:

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov plc. The total sample size was 2,014 adults, of which 1,059 were workers with colleagues. Fieldwork was undertaken between 20th and 23rd January 2012. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).

The key findings are as follows:

· Most workers with colleagues (66 per cent) have ever participated in some form of organised team-building event at work.
· The most common team-building events people have participated in are social activities such as team drinks and dinners (56 per cent) and away days or weekends (24 per cent).
· More than half of all respondents (54 per cent) say that doing more team-building events would not help them work more effectively with colleagues. For this group, the preferred ways of encouraging effective teamwork are a more supportive atmosphere at work (39 per cent), better team communication (37 per cent) and tools for working flexibly (23 per cent).
· Only 26 per cent of respondents feel that doing more team-building events would help them work more effectively with their colleagues. For this group, better team communication was an even more important factor in improving teamwork (cited by 49 per cent of respondents).
· The team-building activities people considered least effective are adrenaline experiences such as speed-boating and bungee jumping (18 per cent) and trust exercises such as being blindfolded and led by colleagues (17 per cent).
· Those deemed most effective are social events (cited by 23 per cent), followed by volunteering and charity work (11 per cent).
· Among people aged 55 and over, only 10 per cent say doing more team-building events would help them work more effectively with colleagues, and 75 per cent saying they would not. By contrast, 42 per cent of 18–24 year-olds say more team-building events would help them work more effectively with colleagues, and 40 per cent say they would not.
· Wales is the region with the most negative view of how effective team-building events are, with 71 per cent of workers saying they would not contribute to better teamwork.