After a successful pitch we are pleased to announce that we are working with East Hampshire District Council (EHDC).

EHDC approached us in June, and since then we have been initiating the start of an entirely new web site.

A community site that will feature news, events and encourage a two way dialogue between people that live in and around the East Hampshire county area. The website will be the first place to visit for up to date information on villages, services and local groups for example. With various social aspects to the sites content, generated by web site members and council staff.

We look forward to the launch which will be the end of this October.

Here are some recent successes at Callender Creates over the last couple of months that we think you should know about.

• We’ve been accepted into The Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS) for our clean and well structured code. We have done this from the start of our business, so it’s nice to get recognition for this.
• We have becomeBusiness link accredited suppliers. Where we are listed in the online directory which allows Local and National companies to contact us as a trusted and reliable company in Web Design and Development.
• This website has been listed in no less than 10 CSS galleries for our recent web site relaunch and rebrand. We are proud to be sharing space on these sites with some other fantastic examples of web design and branding.
• Finally, our company has been nominated by a long-term client for a Small Business Award for Sussex Business Awards. Watch this space!

This post is regarding online brands, and accompany notes from Internet world which was a while back now, however it’s always a good free event to visit and see the big brands and startups represent themselves in a competitive marketplace on and off-line.

There were lots of seminars on search to content management, from hosting to email, some terrible powerpoint slides.

One particular highlight was Andy Hobsbawm’s (Agency.com) Keynote on “How people value brands and brands value people in an interactive world”.

Below are some quote and points from his Keynote:

• Be a verb not a noun
• Go with the flow
• Be a guide not a gateekeeper

“Today ‘the virtualisation of everything’ is possible”

“A brand is not what you say it is, it’s what Google says it is”

“No place for brands to hide, as information flow to the consumer is so great on the internet”

“The internet is one big social network, email being the biggest tool for networking”

“Don’t assume customers don’t know anything nowadays, they now have the information by searching for the answer = information driven”

“Exploding connections on the web means that brands can’t be linear anymore”

The fastest growing language in Europe in Nerdic, a collection of buzz words and phrases used by computer geeks to describe new gizmos, say researchers. A hundred new words per year are added to Nerdic, which contains all three core elements that define a language – words, phrases and pronounciations.

Two of the latest are Wimax, a supersized wi-fi that gives entire cities internet coverage, and UGC, which refers to User Generated Content online such as Facebook.

Further reading: Geek speak rule at Wired.com

We are pleased to be invited to sign up to the Company Customer Pact.

This reinforces the values with which we follow in our day to day working lives here. Particularly these two which are on the charter.

1. Be human. Use a respectful, conversational voice, avoid scripts and never use corporate doublespeak.
2. Demonstrate your good intentions by speaking plainly, earnestly and candidly with customers about problems that arise

We think things would be very confusing if we didn’t share our knowledge, issues and foster and long term reputation with the company.

We hope you think so too, voice your support in doing business like all the folks at CCPact, by signing up as well.

We are pleased to offer our support to Plastic bag free Brighton. A new community campaign to bring together those of us who want to make Brighton plastic bag free.

Although we don’t tend to use too many bags in our web design and development services, we feel that by highlighting this cause we can help other people think about the environmental consequences of using the bags.

Learn more at www.plasticbagfreebrighton.co.uk

The site gives details of suppliers of plastic bag alternatives, as information becomes available (wholesale and retail) and facts and figures about the detrimental effects plastic bags are having on the environment.

On the site is a excellent video named ‘The amazing adventures of a plastic bag’ – a short film written, shot and edited by the children of Balfour Junior School, Brighton. Looking at the pollution in our city.

Together we can make Brighton and Hove the first plastic bag free city!

So heres a quick list of what you need to know about SxSw, or ‘What I wish I’d known before I arrived’, suitable for Newcomers and even ‘old timers’:

• Say Hello and speak to everyone, there may be some important people to meet, standing right next to you. Ask them ‘where are they from’ then you will be well on your way to exchanging contact details.
• Ditch the freebies, from your welcome bag – if you are lucky enough to get a platinum pass you will collect three bags, don’t worry there are recycling points in the conference centre for plastic paper and aluminium.
• Go to all the parties – Its a lot of fun, soak up the Texan atmosphere, make new contacts and drink the free beer
• Be Polite – You may just be sitting next to your all time web hero, or your next big client.

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