So, the Annual Geekfest in Austin Texas is almost upon us.

Just one look at the events calendar is enough to make any person nervous, with the amount of world renowned speakers and also some homegrown talent going over to share knowledge, hang out with friends and make new aquaintances.

How to maximise everyones time at SxSW08

This is how I can see the event working. After the initial check in for flight, and at the hotel. All delegates are required to register. This will be a good initial check to get a vibe for just how friendly and excitable everyone will be about the week ahead. Hopefully to spot some of the Brightoninan’s that will also be there.

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After a great night with some leading agencies in London, here are the notes of the evening hosted by Chinwag.

The evening had 5 speakers, all from different areas of the digital market place.

• Marketing - Jon Bains - Co-Founder, Lateral
• User experience - Nikki Barton - Creative Director, CIMEX
• Agencies - Andy Hobsbawm - European Chairman, Agency.com & Co-Founder, Green Thing
• Advertising - Guy Phillipson - CEO, Internet Advertising Bureau
• Media Planner - Pete Robins - Co-Founder, Agenda21

A marketing look in the future for digital media. Based on what brand is all about rather than the bling of web 2.0.

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So 2007 was good for Business, here what happened at Callender Creates:

• Jim Callender was Awarded Freelancer of the Year. A very useful tool for gaining extra publicity and leading to fantastic networking opportunities at various UK events.
• Contributing writer for freelanceuk.com and The Insight Magazine. Insight’s distribution in the Brighton area is 20,000.
• Variety of interesting pitches for global projects either as main company, or collaborating with other local agencies
• Developing company and marketing services in the business communities of the South East UK and London
• Moved into new offices right in the heart of the North Laine
• Established team of 4, including designers, developers and programmers we are outsourcing work to
• Streamlining of work by using variety of online applications. Particularly, Google apps for your domain.
Established a full testing suite for testing web sites and applications. Including Mobile platofrms on Iphone, Symbian and PDA devices. Furthermore, html newsletter testing facilities for email marketing.
• Move from Windows based PC’s to Mac based system.
• Enjoyed a variety of work from consultancies employing our skills for web marketing and development review of web sites, full integration to CMS based systems and database apps

I’m certainly excited about the prospects for developing relationships with colleagues and other businesses in Brighton. Also reaching out to new clients with our new site which we aim to launch by easter this year.

Jim Callender

We launched the Concordia International Volunteers in August.

Since then we have been getting great feedback from the charity based in Portslade.

Programme Manager, Fiona Taylor says:

The number of bookings has far exceeded out targets for this year, and it’s all thanks to the site review Callender Creates carried out, they executed the findings in the design and structure of the new site. Very Exciting.. We are just watching the traffic grow each month!

Site redesigns that are done well, are often regarded as switching a switch and letting all the visitors who could not understand the way to navigate around a site, and get the information they require.

In this instance, this has led to:

• Increase in number of bookings
• Increase in seo and accessibility
• With database work planned soon, to make searching and booking even easier online

We have used Google analytics and Crazy Egg to demonstrate to the client the actions and visitor journey on the site. We have explained also the way the pages are written can determine which pages the visitor clicks onto.

Check out the site at www.concordia-iye.org.uk

We often use the content in the following post, when explaining designs and layouts to clients who. We make it easy to understand why homepages and doorway pages are so important for new visitors to your site.

Probably the most important one being “You have less than 5 seconds to catch your customers attention.” If the design or interface of the web site or application confuses you will repeatedly lose valuable customers.

A company’s homepage is its face to the world and the starting point for most user visits. Improving your homepage multiplies the entire website’s business value, so following key guidelines for homepage usability is well worth the investment..
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Brighton Digital Festival has evolved and grown each year, reflecting the industry it represents. Now in its third year, the Festival will be split into 3 separate themes embodying all elements of this vibrant industry.

We are really excited as it looks like a lot of thought has gone into the line up this year. Browsing the events calendar and you will see friends and colleagues running some excellent events.

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After reading ‘Getting things done‘, by David Allen, we have looked at the way we do our filing, improved our working practices by having more structured weekly reviews of what has happened, as well as what is coming soon.

A point which is always worth bearing in mind is the purpose of a project, or method of working.

Almost anything you are currently doing can be enhanced and strengthened by the value of thinking about ‘Why’, for example:
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