Quick Gifts Blog

Mother’s Day is fast approaching, so in the next few weeks keep watching for special posts by our customers for comments on the women in their lives who have made a difference.

Nobody knows of the work it makes
To keep the home together.
Nobody knows of the steps it takes,
Nobody knows-but Mother.

~ Anonymous

Well, today marks the end of the first month and the beginning of a new and better romance. Valentine’s Day is fast approaching….but where did it come from???

The mystery surrounding Valentine’s Day and its various legendarous beginnings stretch far into the past to around the beginning of the first Century AD. It is not even know exactly who the guy was, but it is believed he was a Saint, and his name was Saint Valentine or Valentinus. There are various legends purporting to explain his life and how Valentine’s Day came about. But no matter the truth, it is clear that he was a compassionate soul who was willing to risk his life for the love of others, eventually leading to his martyrdom (well according to legend anyway).

Saint Valentine’s influence began to surface more strongly throughout the middle ages. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. It then became more common for people of all status to exchange small tokens of friendship and love in letters and personal notes.

Today it is estimated that over 1 billion cards are sent for Valentine’s Day with an estimated 85% of those being from women.

So, are we any closer to solving the ancient legends regarding who Saint Valentine really was? …. Not a chance!! But isn’t that what makes Valentine’s Day even more special? Sending an anonymous card, flower, small token of appreciation to someone who you care about?

Help keep the special mysteriousness of Valentine’s Day alive - send an anonymous personalised gift card to that someone special. Simply upload a picture of your own choosing and tell us where to send it - Simple, mysterious, romantic, perfect.

Make this Valentine’s Day personal!

www.quickgifts.com.au

While doing a bit of research for this entry, it was incredible the number of resources, articles, and everything else there is that focused on the importance of friendships for children as they are growing up and learning about life. I came to the conclusion that if friendship was so extremely important to our children to help them develop, be successful, and to live a happy and fulfilling life, then perhaps even as adults, friendships are just as important!

The Journal of Attention Disorders conducted aresearch study where children whowere ADHD attended a ’summer camp’ where the primary goal was to get each child to form just 1 close friendship with another child. They implemented what they called the “buddy system” where each child was paired up with someone that they ‘matched’ in various areas like academics, sporting, hobbies etc. Having just a single buddy made all the difference in the lives of these children.

Now that the new year is upon us, don’t be afraid to break out from your shell and be a friend to somebody who needs the friendship that only you can give!

May this year bring you all much happiness.

From the staff at www.quickgifts.com.au

Things are moving quickly here at Quick Gifts. During the past week the Quick Gift’s website has been given a face lift in more than one way!! So check it out at www.quickgifts.com.au

Josh has been busy re-designing the website layout as well as implementing a new Design Tool to enhance your Gifts. Below is a screenshot of some of the new capabilities. New to this feature is the ability to add themes, borders, speech bubbles, and adjust brightness & contrast of you images.

New Facebook Group
In recent weeks, Quick Gifts launched their own group in Facebook. For those who don’t know, Facebook is much like MySpace, a social networking site, where individuals can create their own profile and connect with their friends, both old and new. If you are not yet a member (free to join) and are interested, visit www.facebook.com.

Also to any who are interested, please join our Quick Gifts Facebook group! With this group we will be organising events for all to participate in, including fundraising events for charities.

The media and other sources are constantly reporting the leaps and bounds that Facebook is making with its incredible social networking capabilities and various applications. In fact it is becoming so popular that at Stanford University in the United States, they actually created a special class for it titled, “Create Engaging Web Applications Using Metrics And Learning on Facebook”.

Two of the groups that participated in the class have seen some amazing success. Both groups have had their aplications installed by more than 1 million Facebook users - in just 30 days!

So how did this mania all begin?

Facebook was originally designed for college students, but is now a grand Social Network that has become one of the most visited and most used sites on the entire web!

For further information and stories about the seemingly indestructible Facebook visit:

www.insidefacebook.com

Remember to check out our very own Quick Gifts group and stay tuned for Quick Gifts special Facebook Application that will be launched in the very near future bringing with it incredible options. Join us in this grand adventure and have your say! See you there!

The Gift Card Industry

It has been well noted that the gift card industry in Australia is on the rise with many stores adopting gift card technologies and consumers are demanding greater choice, flexibility, and ease in the gift card market. Trends in the USA indicate that the Gift Card industry is set to reach 93 billion US dollars in 2007. It is forecasted that this trend will have flow on effects through to the Australian Gift Card market in the very near future.

VISA reports that the prepaid cards market in Australia and New Zealand has grown from a low base last year to more than 30,000 issued this year. The Debit VISA cards have also grown tremendously in popularity. In Australia, the number of cards on issue is reaching 4.3 million and the first debit card was launched in New Zealand. New products are providing a platform for growth and market expanse.

Join The Excitement!!

Quick Gifts is the only business within Australia to offer consumers a personalised gift card that operates using the EFTPOS system. This enhances consumer choice and promotes creativity…..take your wife out to dinner using your personalised Gift Card.

Having trouble finding the perfect present to give that someone special who just seems to have it all? The search just got much easier….there is a simple solution. Eliminate the stress with our special Gift Cards that combine convenience with personal touch. Feel satisfaction in your contribution the design process.

Put yourself right in the middle of all the excitement and take part in forging the future with the latest in Gift innovations.

It’s the beginning of November already. Time to get started on those preparations for Christmas. Remember that Quick Gifts personalised gift cards are a smart way to do christmas shopping. Also remember that you can update your card designs to give them more of a Christmas feel. They can be especially useful as a family gift.

Launch Update: The Business launch was a smashing success that received great coverage. Special thanks must go to Michael Peverill from Emerchants, Councillor Sue Wheelan and Queanbeyan Mayor Frank Pangalo, and local MP Gary Nairn for their support and attendance at the launch events.

A New Addition: There has been a new addition to the Quick Gifts crew. We welcome Nathan Cowdrey aboard. Nathan was born in Adelaide and is 23 years of age. He is the Manager Public Relations & Marketing. He is interested in traveling and Internation Relations.Be sure to continue to tell all your friends and family about Quick Gifts. We welcome any questions or feedback. Please don’t hesitate to contact a member of our staff.

Keep an eye out for the commencement of the business monthly email newsletter which is set to begin publication and distribution by mid November. The newsletter will ensure that you are kept up to date with all the latest developments and updates.

We have our ‘Offiial’ Launch scheduled for Tuesday 24th July to be held at the BEC located in the Queanbeyan Visitors Centre at 10:45 for an 11am start.

We are very excited to announce that the launch will be conducted by Cr Sue Whelan and the ‘Official Launch’ will be opened by Mayor Frank Pangallo, Mayor of Queanbeyan. It is hoped that we will get some good media coverage for the event and that the event will be enjoyed by all who attend.

We will post some photos in our Blog after the launch.