The deadline to submit an entry in this year’s annual Downtown Christmas Parade is Friday, October 31.

To receive a copy of the Parade Application email us at info@downtownstjohns.com or call 726 8244. Space is limited!

The Annual Downtown Christmas Parade is scheduled for Sunday, November 30 at 1:00 pm.

Ocean Net is inviting your business to join them on Saturday, October 25 from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm in a street cleanup of Water Street and Duckworth Street.

Lend a hand as they target litter, especially cigarette butts, in an effort to protect the ocean, marine animals, tourism industry and your Downtown! To get involved you could simply gather employees to volunteer; clean up the front of your business or your neighbours; donate a broom to a volunteer; commit to installing a cigarette butt holder on the outside of your business.

Partners included in this Street Sweep event are Ocean Net, Katimavik, Memorial University and St. Bonaventure College.

For more information contact Ocean Net at 753 3680 or via email at info@oceannet.ca. Check them out online at www.oceannet.ca

The St. John's Board of Trade is offering a complimentary session on Thursday, October 23, 2008 at the Capital Hotel on 208 Kenmount Road beginning at 8:15 am. and running until 9:00 am.

The topic of the session will be The Changing World of Retail - What Does it Mean to us in Newfoundland & Labrador? Guest Speaker Derek Nighbor, Senior VP, National Affairs, Retail Council of Canada will be presenting.

Space is limited. Call 726 5590 to reserve your seats for this informative and dynamic presentation.

The retail landscape in St. John's has been transformed in recent years. We're seeing bigger players in the market, product sourcing from around the world, a growing local economy and an industry that is now the largest employer in Newfoundland and Labrador.

In this discussion of local and national trends, Retail Council of Canada's Derek Nighbor will offer some insights into the challenges and opportunities that exist for retailers and the local and global communities they serve.

Derek Nighbor co-ordinates RCC's government relations efforts with the federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments and leads the RCC files related to international trade, privacy and product safety.

The Retail Council of Canada is a not-for-profit, industry-funded association representing more than 40,000 store fronts of all retail formats across Canada, including department, specialty, discount, and independent stores, and online merchants.

City of St. John's officials have been notified that the Icelandic tour company TREX-Vesttravel has cancelled its annual charter flight and tour to St. John's this autumn. A group of approximately 200 people were scheduled to visit the City from October 29th until November 3rd. According to Councillor Sandy Hickman, Chair of the City of St. John's Tourism Standing Committee, the company made its decision to cancel the visit due to current economic conditions in Iceland.

TREX-Vesttravel of Reykjavik, Iceland, issued a statement late last week which outlined currency fluctuations, credit card transaction delays, rationing of foreign currency, mass layoffs in the financial sector and requests from Icelandic clients asking that the flight be postponed as factors that influenced their decision to cancel the program.

TREX-Vesttravel has been bringing groups of Icelanders to St. John's annually for ten years. "While this is a tremendous disappointment to everyone involved, company officials have advised us that they hope to reschedule the charter flight for spring or early summer in 2009, assuming that the Icelandic economy is more financially stable by that time," said Councillor Hickman.

Johnson Inc. is moving forward with plans to develop its new head office in downtown St. John's, on the former Horwood Lumber site, on the corner of New Gower Street and Hamilton Avenue.

President Ken Bennett says they have been growing the company at an exciting pace across Canada in recent years, and look forward to having a new head office developed in St. John's, where their business began more than 125 years ago.

An application regarding the proposed development will be submitted to City Hall today. It will be an eight storey, 140,000 square foot building, with some 500 indoor parking spaces. Johnson Inc. is nationally based, with over 1,100 employees in 65 locations from coast to coast.

Excerpt VOCM News Friday, Oct 10, 2008

The Saga Ruby arrives in port today at 8:00 am on its Autumn in Canada and New England Cruise. This will be the last Canadian port of call for the Saga Ruby and its 655 passengers and 388 crew members before heading back to Southampton. The Saga Ruby departs today at 6:00 pm.

This is the final scheduled cruise ship visit of the year.

For more information call the City of St. John's Tourism office at 576 8106.