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A new digital visitor information platform created by a local tech startup has been used by more than 7,500 people since it launched a month ago.

The platform is called VIKE (pronounced VICK-ee), which is an acronym for Visitor Information Kiosk Experience. Touch Tourism, the local company that created the technology, credits the owners, managers and staff at local venues who installed the kiosks at their establishments for the strong start.

VIKE allows Kelowna visitors to easily search for the area’s top tourist destinations and experiences. The kiosks have been installed at hotels, visitor information centres, museums and art galleries.

“Being a local business owner that relies on the tourism dollar, I genuinely understand how important it is to determine what my target market is doing, and they’re doing digital,” Touch Tourism’s primary investor and local business owner, Luke Weller, said in a press release.

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True Leaf Medicine International’s large expansion project is right on schedule.

The Vernon-based, plant-forward wellness company for people and their pets announced Wednesday that its new cannabis cultivation and production facility in Lumby, which will be known as True Leaf Campus, is still on target to be completed this fall.

The project features a two-storey, 9,000 square-foot facility that will house the initial grow area, laboratory services, whole-plant extraction and the production of therapeutic cannabis products. There will also be a 16,000 square-foot wing for cannabis cultivation.

When it’s all complete, the buildings will be the hub for the development of the company’s medicinal cannabis products.

True Leaf also announced Wednesday that Dr. Chris Spooner has resigned as a member of True Leaf’s board of directors to concentrate on his role as the company’s chief scientific officer (CSO).

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I read two articles in the last week each stating the opposite. One was titled, “The days of a Realtor are numbered,” while the other was, “Don’t expect real estate agents to disappear anytime soon.”

I always find it funny how people make blind statements and really have no evidence, credibility or competence in the area on which they are commenting. Whoever claims the vocation of a Realtor is going to go away in the near future has obviously never been licensed or at least has not been licensed for long. There is incredible value brought to the table by a Realtor, but this is not the reason why their vocation is not going to go away.

All Realtors out there know that if you put a buyer and seller together directly to try and negotiate a deal on the most important purchase either one of them will ever make, in almost all cases it will not end well. One of the reasons we have a job is that many times perfectly rational, down-to-earth people become incredibly irrational when they are plagued by the fear of making a mistake in the biggest purchase they will ever make.

Technology may duplicate some of the services that a Realtor provides. However, technology will never replace a couple of calm, unbiased and rational people whose job is to put a fair deal together for the two parties that have hired them.

Bill Hubbard is a real estate broker and the owner and broker of a four-office real estate firm in the Okanagan-Shuswap. He has been in real estate for 28 years and has been an owner and broker in Vernon for 20 years. At almost 60 years old he is just as passionate about real estate as the day he started.

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They won’t actually live next to one another for another few years, but the residents of ONE Water Street are getting together this week for a meet and greet.

ONE Water Street’s developers will host a Happy Hour event on Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m. at its presentation centre on Manhattan Drive.

The goal of the gathering, which the company is calling a “kickoff community-building activity,” is to get future neighbours on a first-name basis with one another. It will also give prospective buyers a chance to get a close look at the display homes.

“For many of the downsizers who are buying here to retire in the Okanagan, they’re starting a whole new phase of their lives,” North American Development Group managing partner Henry Bereznicki said in a press release. “We’re excited to be part of their dream by creating a whole new downtown community. Their lifestyle will include enjoying lake views from their oversized balconies, nearby shopping, entertainment, dining and of course Okanagan Lake is walking distance away.

“It’s clear why ONE Water Street is seen as Kelowna’s only true urban, lake-view high-rise development and has become Kelowna’s best-seller.”

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Downtown Kelowna Association’s new president will do what he can to curb the homelessness, addiction and crime that is prevalent in the city’s core.

Yarden Gershony, a lawyer at Rush Ihas Hardwick LLP, recently kicked off his two-year term as the association’s president, and he said those issues are the biggest problem facing downtown businesses.

“It’s easily the overriding issue for downtown right now,” Gershony said.

Gershony has lived in Kelowna and worked downtown since 2013, when he moved his family to the Okanagan from Vancouver. He joined DKA’s board of directors a few years ago, and now he’s the point man.

“I really do love the downtown, and I want to see it succeed,” he said. “I do think it’s the heart of Kelowna, so to the extent that I can have some kind of influence on the trajectory of downtown and to help it grow, that’s a very cool opportunity to have.”

Some businesses have moved out of downtown, no doubt in part because of the homeless and drug problems that are plaguing certain areas. Others are thinking about doing the same.

Gershony admitted there’s only so much he can do as the DKA head, so his goal to fight homelessness, addiction and crime in the downtown core is to get the key players together as often as possible. Those groups include the City of Kelowna, RCMP, B.C. Housing and Interior Health.

“I see those are the big four entities that need to take action in order to help alleviate the problems,” Gershony said. “I see my role as being an advocate for the downtown businesses to be at the table with those entities and attempt to steer them toward a solution that is in line with the businesses’ interests.”

Gershony, who grew up in Vernon, is proud of the work the “clean team” and the “downtown on-call team” do without much fanfare. They are DKA-sponsored entities that do the work on the front lines.

“They do an amazing job,” Gershony said. “The downtown on-call team, the guys in the red shirts, they know the homeless and the addicted population by name and developed good relationships with them over time. And they alleviate a lot of stress and difficulty from the RCMP and the bylaw officers, because usually the downtown on-call team can reason with these people who are sleeping in alcoves when these businesses open in the mornings, and they move on without a fight or a struggle.

“That adds a lot of value to the downtown businesses and also the clean team. When homeless people leave a mess, they will come along and clean it up. A lot of times, business owners and property owners don’t even know that those folks, the red shirts and the blue folks, are part of the DKA.”

Gershony won’t focus on only the negative during his term. Just as important to him is to grow the downtown’s vibrancy, attract new businesses and make it a destination for visitors.

Photo: Chelsea Powrie

A first-of-its-kind business for Penticton beaches has opened on the shores of Skaha Lake, with the aim of making lazy days on the sand even more comfortable.

Local businessman Braden Baker and his father, who used to own a bike rental shop where Loco Landing is now, have wanted to start a business renting beach chairs and umbrellas at Skaha for years.

“We finally decided to go ahead with it. I have a bunch of nephews and so we started this up thinking we could give them a summer job,” Baker said.

Beach Bums Chair Rentals was born, and it opened in early July. Luckily for some local high school kids, the nephews decided to stay in Alberta for the summer, so the shop is now a summer job for some local grade 12 students.

“This was more just as sort of a fun project to see if it would work. We’ve seen it done elsewhere,” Baker said.

Baker added that they are the only place on Skaha offering these rentals, which go for $15 a day for a chair and $10 for an umbrella, or two chairs and an umbrella for $35. And everything is half price after 3 p.m.

Beach Bums operates 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily and can be found on the beach by the volleyball nets.

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A little over 2.5 acres of undeveloped land near Cottonwood Park in Osoyoos has been donated to the municipality.

The Robert L. Conconi Foundation acquired the two empty lots adjacent to the Palms by the Lake condominiums through foreclosure on the original developer.

The two parcels at 6010 Maple Dr. have now been donated to the Town of Osoyoos and discussions are underway to subdivide the property from the first phase of the Palms development, to which the lots are tied by strata.

The Robert L. Conconi Foundation funds initiatives in health care, poverty and economic security, and education.

“The Town is thankful for the generous donation which enables the opportunity to further the goals of the Conconi Foundation and address community needs through the planned use of the land,” the municipality said in a news release.

The news release said town council has committed to a public engagement process making any decisions about the land.

Business at the non-profit B.C. VQA Wine Information Centre in Penticton has been collateral damage to a strike taking place next door at Cascades Casino.

The info centre shares a parking lot with the casino, where unionized workers have been on strike for nearly three weeks.

Staff says business is down 20 to 25 per cent compared to usual for this time of year.

“This is our busy season. This is what we gear up for every year. It’s kind of an important time for us,” BCVQA wine expert Kayla Sahara says.

“Our staff hours have been shorter, and some of our part-timers have lost their shifts because it’s just not busy enough to have them on board.”

The wine centre sells and promotes VQA wines made in B.C., and as a non-profit facility all retail profits go back into the community. While the centre provides scholarships and bursaries each year, it also donated more than $300,000 in 2014 to a new wine education program at Okanagan College.

“We’re actually the only store like this in all of (B.C.),” Sahara says. “We’re an information, education centre for our locals and our tourism industry about all of these different B.C. wines.

“We hope people know and tell their friends that we are open, and we’re geared up. We have more wines than we ever have, we have tastings on the weekend.”

Mediation between Gateway Casinos and the BC Government Employees Union, which represents the workers on strike, is expected to resume Friday, which will begin a fourth week of strike action.

In the meantime, Sahara reminds that the centre isn’t associated with the strike in any way, and merely shares the same building and parking lot.

“Where they are striking, in front of the roundabout, it does look like to the customer they’re crossing a picket line to come into our store, but you’re not crossing a picket line to come in here.”

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Tickets are now on sale for one of the biggest bashes on the Bench, the annual Naramata Bench Wineries Association Tailgate Party to celebrate the end of the harvest.

On Sept. 8, the 28 member wineries of the association and attendees will party like it’s 1909, with the theme of “Bootleg Bash” offering a throwback to the founding of Naramata after the turn of last century.

There will be food, wine, music and dancing, and prizes for those wearing especially good period hats.

Wineries will circle their trucks around the historic Naramata Heritage Inn, and chefs from Naramata restaurants will cook up tasty bites.

Tickets are $125 and restricted to those 19 and over. The association says the event sells out every year, so it’s best not to wait.

Click here for more information or to buy tickets.

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A loaded mixed martial arts fight card which includes UFC veterans, prospects and local pro fighters is coming to the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre this weekend.

The Diablo Fight Series, presented by Xcessive Force Fighting Championship, takes place Saturday, marking the first MMA event held in Penticton in five years.

Darren Cliffe, president of Xcessive Force, said this will be the first time the company has brought an event to the Okanagan, and notes there’s a “definite local flavour” on the fight card.

“We’ve put together an impressive card featuring the best of the best in professional and amateur MMA,” Cliffe said.

Former UFC fighters Matt Dwyer and Dominique Steele will fight for the Xcessive Force Middleweight title as the main event.

Dwyer is from Kelowna, and Cliffe notes “it’s the first time he’ll be fighting in the Okanagan, so come out and support him.”

Other Okanagan-base fighters on the card include Grayson Wells, Damian Johnston, Steve MacDonald, Terrence Chan, Cleveland Bentley, Blake Sigvaldason and Justin Doege.

Tickets for the event are $55 and can be purchased at valleyfirsttix.com. Cliffe said there will also be a remote box office set up at the PTCC entrance on Saturday, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Cliffe started Xcessive Force five years ago in Grande Prairie, and he said it’s now rated the second-best MMA promotion in Canada, “showcasing western Canadian fighters as they pursue their UFC dreams.”

More information on The Diablo Fight Series can be found here.