Tuatara on the hunt for Gold

In late February, the staff at the Tuatara office were busy completing the company’s application for the 2011 Wellington Gold Awards. These awards are sponsored by The Dominion Post and are basically the premier annual business event for the Wellington region. Readers may recall that we were finalists in the Emerging Business category last year, though we were pipped to the Award by Yellow Brick Road who were worthy winners.

We got our application in on time (just) and were delighted to find out last week that we have again been selected as a finalist in the Emerging Business category. This category, kindly sponsored by ANZ, is for “smaller enterprises”. The finalists will be judged again in the coming weeks with the Awards being presented at a black-tie dinner on May 18. It is one of the rare occasions the Tuatara team will dust off the monkey suits and try to look respectable for an evening.

Our fellow finalists are:

• Celcius Coffee – boutique family owned coffee roasting and cafe company
• Corner Solutions International – world leader in R&D for bending paper faced plaster boards
• Shott Beverages – specialists in premium, innovative hot and cold beverage syrups
• Urban Harvest – an online farmers market representing 70 local growers and foodmakers

There are lots of great local companies who have made the finals but Tuatara wishes the best of luck to our friends at Wellington on a Plate who are short-listed in the Vibrant Gold category. That category covers events, visitor and hospitality facilities.

We will, of course, keep you posted on the final results. In fact, Sales Manager Will may well live tweet the entire Awards ceremony. On the subject of Twitter, @TuataraNZ has recently passed 1,000 followers. That is over 800 more than Hon Peter Dunne but a demoralising 3,583,000 or so behind Charlie Sheen.

On the subject of winning, the Kingsgate Hotel in Wellington is running a Devour Wellington promotion with rooms priced at just $129. Now, that is a tidy price but they will also throw in breakfast for two and a six pack of Tuatara beer for every night booked. We hear the deal has been very popular since it was launched at the end of March.

Cheers from the team at Tuatara