A free workshop will take place in Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) to help businesses in the hospitality sector to become green aware and gain environmental certification. The workshop, being run by Green Hospitality Awards (GHA) comes on the back of a survey by Failte Ireland which discovered that 52 per cent of visitors to Ireland would seek to stay in a hotel that has reduced its environmental impact.

A huge proportion, over 90 per cent, of Irish employers believe a yes vote will support FDI in Ireland. This was one of the findings of research carried out by IBEC, which surveyed over 500 employers of every size and from all over the country. 90 per cent of respondents believed a yes vote was very important or important to send a positive message to international investors and attract FDI into the country.

Two Cork companies picked up awards this week at the annual Good Food Ireland Awards. Winner of the award for top regional member in the Southern region was Glebe Gardens and Cafe in Baltimore while Nash 19 Restaurant and Food Shop on Prince's Street, took the award for Host of the Year. The award picked up by Glebe Gardens was sponsored by Tourism Ireland while the Host of the Year award was sponsored by Failte Ireland.

Name: Chris Crowley
Appointment: Resident Manager
Company: Ambassador Hotel
Chris Crowley, a native of Mayfield, has taken up the position of Resident Manager at the Ambassador Hotel & Health Club, Military Hill, Cork City, as of 13 September 2009.

The new weekly market in Douglas was officially unveiled last Friday by the Lord Mayor, Cllr Dara Murphy. The market, which will take place every Friday morning, will be located along the main road through East Douglas Village and will have over 20 food stalls featuring the best of local artisan producers and farmer's market traders. The market will run from 10am to 3pm each Friday.

A Cork company has reported significant pre-tax profits for the last year, despite the current economic difficulties facing business. James . Barry and Company Ltd., trading as The Barry Group and headquartered in Mallow, has reported an increase of sales to €212.5m in the financial year to 31 January 2009, up four per cent on 2008 while overall group profit before tax rose to €2.67m.

Cork tour operators were in attendance at a workshop to familiarize British tour operators with their Irish counterparts. The workshop, which took place in Limerick, was a one-day event and part of a familiarization visit for those working in the British tourism industry. Organised by Failte Ireland, in conjunction with Tourism Ireland and Shannon Development, the event allowed participants to meet with many more buyers

Cork's first Tesco Express has opened its doors in Dennehy's Cross. Last Friday saw the store opened by Manager, Elaine McHugh and Helen Cahalane from Cork University Hospital (CUH) Paediatric Department. As part of the opening, The Paediatric Department was presented with a donation of €1,000 from Tesco Ireland.

Businesses today are continually looking for ways to save money and nowhere is that more evident than in the current economic climate. TangarineIT specialise in providing a complete computer consultancy department for businesses only. A family operated firm (plus two) TangarineIT has been operating in the Cork region for the last three years but has clients in Kerry, Waterford, Dublin and Belfast so distance is not a problem.

The results of a recent survey show that the majority of Irish businesses use social networking website, Twitter, as part of their business activities. 69 per cent of companies surveyed said that they use Twitter to build an online community enabling them to develop a greater knowledge of their customers and potential customers and also create an audience for them to promote company news to, while 97 per cent thought that Twitter would become more important for business.