Although Easter is a Christian observance, the Easter weekend is a special time for South African families regardless of religion.

It is the longest holiday after Christmas for most of us, and the time when many South Africans travel to see friends and family that live far away.

It is also the time for the Rand Easter Show, the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK) and the Zion Christian Church’s Easter Festival.

Whether you are travelling to Johannesburg, Oudtshoorn, Moria or anywhere else in our beautiful country, we at Intengu would like to wish you a safe and happy journey and weekend. And if you’re staying put, good for you! We love it here too!

Intengu has been buzzing with activity during the past month, as you will see from this edition of the Chirp, so this will be a well-deserved break. Easter is considered to be a time of new life, as symbolised by Easter eggs, so our hope is to return from the weekend full of new life and a renewed passion for what we do!

Enjoy the break!

Best wishes,

Celia and the Intengu Team

Intengu Communications recently assisted the Eastern Cape Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture (DSRAC) and the Eastern Cape Sports Council (ECSC) in staging the Eastern Cape Premier Sport and Recreation Awards event to acknowledge and reward the province’s sports stars for their efforts and achievements in sport for the previous year.

The event was held on Friday 26 February at the Regent Hotel’s International Convention Centre and 360 guests attended the event. The Premier of the Province, Noxolo Kiviet, was the guest of honour at this event ably assisted by the MEC for Sport, Recreation Arts and Culture, Xoliswa Tom.

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Lyndon Collins, our Production Manager, was fortunate enough to travel to Monaco to attend the UIM (Union Internationale Motornautique – the International Powerboating Union) World Championships awards ceremony, which was held on 6 March, to accept his World Championship trophy for winning the P750 (Blue Print) World Championship.

Lyndon says that his trip got off to a bad start with his plane in Johannesburg not taking off due to engine failure, which caused further delays in both Frankfurt and Nice. After having had hardly any sleep for two days, he arrived at his hotel in Monaco with only five hours to spare until the award ceremony started!

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Intengu recently provided secretarial services for two major provincial conferences, including the Eastern Cape 2010 FIFA World Cup Government Summit, which took place on 25 and 26 February, and the Political Economy of HIV and AIDS Conference, which took place on 7, 8 and 9 March.

The Eastern Cape 2010 FIFA World Cup Government Summit, which was organised by the Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture, discussed the readiness of the province for the World Cup, whilst the Political Economy of HIV and AIDS, which was organised by the Eastern Cape Socio-Economic Consultative Council (ECSECC) and the Eastern Cape AIDS Council (ECAC), discussed the political economy of HIV and AIDS in the province.

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On Friday 12 March the Intengu team headed to Areena Riverside Resort for a strategic development session with top East London psychologists Jancke and Ida Pienaar.

The two main topics for the session were social styles, or the behaviour we exhibit when interacting with others, and conflict management. Jancke and Ida gave us all extremely valuable insight into our own behaviour, as well as the behaviour of our colleagues, as well as practical guidelines on how we may improve the way we interact with each other.

MD Celia says that it was an “eye-opener” to find out which social style each person has, and hopes that the session will lead to an “even better understanding of and appreciation for each other.”

The team also learnt through play: we developed our creativity through the creation of clay sculptures representing ourselves, and improved our ability to work as a team by directing a blindfolded colleague on a quad bike through an obstacle course.

Everyone left feeling wiser and more equipped to deal with the complex social situation of workplace, and refreshed and revitalised after spending a day in the beautiful riverside setting of the resort.

Here at Intengu, we have a burning passion for promoting our beautiful province, and so have always loved working on anything tourism-related. Luckily for us, this month we had no shortage of tourism-related work, and our design studio produced several stunning tourism-related designs.

The designers worked on a wide variety of projects, including a tourism map book for Cacadu District Municipality, a tourism book for Amathole District Municipality and event branding for the Amathole District Municipality Tourism Indaba.

In the coming weeks, the designers look forward to starting work on a stand for Ukhahlamba District Municipality for the Tourism Indaba in May, as well as a variety of tourism publications for Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality for 2010, including tourism map, pass guide book and visitors guide.

On Thursday 25 March, Intengu birds Celia and Cara were invited to be guest judges at a talent competition at Kingsridge High School for Girls in King William’s Town. Their fellow judge was Tish Wingate, a History and Afrikaans teacher at the school.

The competition, which was modelled on the popular show “SA’s Got Talent,” had categories for senior primary and high school learners, and showcased a variety of items, including song, dance, drama, ballet and even karate from both solo acts and groups.

After much deliberation it was decided that in the senior primary section winner was solo singer Hlumelo Grootboom, and in the high school section, a first place went to a wildly popular dance group led by Siphokazi Peter.

The dance group, which consists of Grade 12 learners Siphokazi Peter, Siphelele Ndevu, Nandi Nazo and Siyasanga Makie wowed the judges and the crowd with their high-fashion costumes, outrageous zombie-like make-up, and wild dance moves. Celia and Cara made sure to get their number to book them for events in future!

All judges agreed, however, that the real winner of the competition was the crowd, who loudly cheered on every contestant walking onto and leaving the stage and at one point collectively snapped their fingers to create a beat for a contestant whose CD started skipping during her song. So, in addition to talent, it’s clear that Kingsridge’s Got Spirit!

Celia says that spending the afternoon with talented young people inspired her, and that many of the songs and dances are still “echoing” in her mind.