Shortlists announced – Digital Innovators

DIGITAL INNOVATORS

Website Awards

Best Use of Advanced Practices in Web Development

Thap Ltd – Who Can Play Website
Profile Analysis – i-snapshot
dpivision.com Ltd – CannyBill – Invoicing, billing & web hosting automation.

Best Example of Interactive Website

TheBigPix Ltd – TheBigPix Art Angel Website
Mobliq Limited – Graphiq
PNE Group – Shell LiveWIRE

Best News and Entertainment Website

bdaily Ltd – bdaily info
Sunderland Echo – Sunderland Echo website
Lesbilicious – Lesbilicious

Best Example of Accessibility

Mere Mortals – S&ND – Royal Society for the Blind Website Design and Development
dpivision.com Ltd – Tradingeye – XHTML/CSS Shopping Cart & CMS

Marketing Awards

Shortlists announced – Digital Suppliers

DIGITAL SUPPLIERS

Website Awards

Best B2B Website

Website Promotions Ltd – Durham Lifting Ltd – Web Development & Marketing
AYO Media – Imagine Company
r//evolution – r//evolution marketing

Best B2C Website

Waterstons Limited – Newcastle Airport website redevelopment
Welbeck Design – Northern Experience Wildlife Tours
Pearsons – sector 1 jobs website

Best Public Sector Website

Different – Visitor Facing Regional Tourism Website
Onebestway – Red House Academy

Best Not-For-Profit Website

Thap Ltd – TJFA League Website
Fat Frog – Tomafund
1-Web Services – St. Aidan’s JCR

Best eCommerce Website

Rufus – IG Muscle Brand and Website
Rufus – Era Vintage Website
Website Promotions Ltd – Old Mill Apartments – Web Development & Marketing

Best Example of Accessibility

blueshark design – Amazing Places to Stay.com
Rufus – Riveredge Cosmetic Dentistry Website
Rufus – Rufus Website

Marketing Awards

Shortlists announced – Digital Users

DIGITAL USERS

Website Awards

Best B2B website

Direct Holiday Bookings – Direct Holiday Bookings Website
007 Marketing – Website Design and Build
Fizz Bang – Fizz Bang website

Best B2C Website

StuRents – StuRents
Search 2 Drive – Search 2 Drive
UK Offer Media – UKOffer.com

Best eCommerce Website

The Card and Gift Company – The Card and Gift Company website
Education Takeaway – Education Takeaway website
Fifiefofum Ltd – FiFieFoFum website

Best Example of Accessibility

Welcome Baby Home – welcomebabyhome.net
VONNE – VONNE website – RECEIVED

Best Not-For-Profit Website

Teesdale Community Broadcasting Limited – Radio Teesdale
Northern Cultural Skills Partnership – Northern Cultural Skills website
Newcastle University – Teachers’ Toolkit

Best Public Sector Website

Nexus – Nexus Website
Castle Morpeth Borough Council – Events @ Castle Morpeth Borough Council
Hadrian’s Wall Heritage Ltd – Website Redesign

Marketing Awards

New sponsor – R&B Group

Another sponsor to hit the list of the North East Digital Awards is the R&B Group. The R&B Group first opened its doors in 1991 to provide audio-visual services, mainly for the corporate marketplace. A subsequent merger saw them branching out into the technical services needed by the theatre and performing arts sector such as lighting, sound and scenery construction.

Now you will find R&B Group technicians working on a diverse range of projects all over the United Kingdom, Europe and beyond. And not just for conferences.Whether it’s a dynamic product launch, intimate staff presentation, high profile ceremony, international sales conference or persuasive corporate video, it’s all about creating the right impression.

Welcome R&B Group!

New sponsor – welcome Ignition Sales

Another addition to the North East Digital Awards sponsor list is Ignition Sales. Ignition was established by its principles Andrew Sale and Ian Hamilton to meet the growing requirement for businesses that require sales experience, but are not prepared to take on board the risks associated with this.

Ignition can provide the key to improving you sales success. The company provides multiple solutions which together with over twenty years sales experience, enables clients to unlock their true potential.

Welcome Ignition Sales.

A venue for the North East Digital Awards has been chosen

And what a good venue it is too. The fantastic Great Hall at Discovery Museum in Newcastle will host the North East Digital Awards on Wednesday 25 March 2009.

Discovery Museum features a variety of exhibitions demonstrating the evolution of technology, and celebrating the best in local and national innovation. As the North East Digital Awards also promotes excellence in technology and design, and encourages and supports innovation, Discovery Museum was deemed to be the perfect choice. Finding the right location was key in combining a feeling of prestige with a sense of the unique and the museum’s Great Hall certainly has both in abundance.

Iain Watson, assistant director of Tyne & Wear Museums: “We are delighted the North East Digital Awards is being held here and have already worked closely with the organisers to ensure the night will be a huge success. From the beginning they were looking for something unusual and impressive and we were able to meet all their criteria.”

Remember: The deadline for entries is 27 February. Winners will be announced at the Awards ceremony in March.

Julie-Anne Smith – Amplusfigura

Name: Julie-Anne Smith

Job title: Proprietor

Company: Amplusfigura.co.uk

What does the company do? Online lingerie shop providing a wide choice of high quality plus size lingerie in back sizes 32 – 56 and cup sizes D – L, exclusively for the fuller figured lady so that they can celebrate their curves and feel brilliant. This is relayed through our mission statement – to offer exclusive plus size lingerie for the larger lady – adore your curves and show them off in beautiful lingerie!

Which part of the region are you based? South West Durham (all my life)

Please tell us about the project(s) you’re entering into the North East Digital Awards: I have entered the Best eCommerce Website (Digital User) category as feel that the website has grown significantly since launch as a result of sheer determination and hard work. I have embraced IT fully – the site is easy to navigate, easy to make purchases and easy to edit and update as and when required. The site is changed on a weekly basis – sometimes more often and I have learnt from my mistakes along the way. Also own the the business logo, the site (copywrite) and the software behind the site. I have made the site customer focussed with monthly newsletters published online, contact us page, testimonials page, search facility etc. to enable customer to navigate around as simply and as quickly as possible.

Complete the sentence: I’m going to win a North East Digital Award because….. I have worked extremely hard to promoting Amplusfigura as a large professional business with excellent customer care with the personal touch. This has been difficult as the business is an independent solely owned business ran purely from home whilst juggling a part time and full-time job, two children and running a home. There are lots of attributes which make a successful entrepreneur but fundamentality in my experience the crucial ones are having the energy to keep going even when you are completely shattered! Having a vision and never loosing sight of it; putting your heart and soul into your venture and never admitting defeat! If you are really passionate about something but unsure whether you can do it, believe in yourself and go for it and finally, recognise and celebrate the great work that you do – i.e. enter awards such as North East Digital Awards.

Complete the sentence: The North East digital scene is… high energy, fast, competitive, passionate – Businesses in the North East are encouraged to think ‘Passionate people. Passionate places’. Something which I have embraced 100% – I am 100% passionate about my business, my fellow business colleagues, my valued customers and am constantly striving to achieve the vision (the place) of where I want to be at. Once you start the long road it becomes so empowering and gives you the feel good factor of doing something that matters.

Are you a Mac or a PC? PC

Finally, state your level of geekiness on a range of 1 to 10. 1 being a technophobe and 10 being an uber-geek. At the onset I would have rated myself probably a 3 or 4 but now further along the long winding road I would rate myself probably a 6 – so not urber geek yet! An important lesson to learn is that you can have the flashiest website (and spend huge amount of money on marketing/developing site) but without giving the customer what they require/want (i.e. easy access, speed, simple navigation etc) your business will fail very quickly and I do not think that you need to be a urber geek to work that one out!

Michael Kirby – Twisted Studio

Name: Michael Kirby

Job title: Creative Director

Company: Twisted Studio

What does the company do? Twisted Studio is a fresh and innovative Flash and Flex media studio. We deliver interactive web-related media designs and developments including custom web applications, online marketing materials and advanced web programming. Combining our solid business domain experience, technical voodoo, profound knowledge of next generation industry trends and quality-driven delivery model we offer progressive end-to-end web and software solutions.

Which part of the region are you based? Middlesbrough

Please tell us about the project(s) you’re entering into the North East Digital Awards:

Captain Mack:

To support the launch of CITV’s hot new property ‘Captain Mack’, we were commissioned to create a thoroughly exciting flash game for the CITV.com website. The client required it to be fun and addictive whilst staying strictly loyal to the brand. Working with the CITV creative’s, an original story and script was developed to ensure it remained kid friendly and on message. We walked that extra mile or two to ensure it was a highly polished, top quality product, which was graciously received, having already been completed by over 100,000 users.

Project Advokate:

For this project the client required an innovative, highly custom flash website to effectively convey their brand and assist in building audience awareness for series of themed Hardstyle dance nights, to be held in the North’s only super club; ‘Tall Trees’. We worked very closely with the client to ensure that the site portrayed the right message and would be a representative ‘experience’ for its users, and be able to compete with well established and very highly funded European competition.

Complete the sentence: I’m going to win a North East Digital Award because… we always endeavor to push the boundaries to create high quality, innovate products with a strong blend of creative flair and technical expertise to provide our clients with a unique product their users will remember, and make us stand out from the crowd.

Complete the sentence: The North East digital scene is… an opportunity to make ourselves known by the wider digital community in the North East and demonstrate what we are capable of, as well as winning a little Kudos and hopefully and an extra bullet point on our website or certificate for our wall.

Are you a Mac or a PC? I’m a person

Finally, state your level of geekiness on a range of 1 to 10. 1 being a technophobe and 10 being an uber-geek.

As a Company : 9

Me personally : 5

Thinking Digital 13-15 May 2009

Yet another digital initiative the North East has to be proud of is the Thinking Digital conference. Unofficially named the UK’s answer to TED, Thinking Digital “is an annual conference where the world’s greatest thinkers and innovators gather to inspire, to entertain, and to discuss the latest ideas and technologies.”

Recent news confirmed by the people at Thinking Digital and in their own words:

• Tan Le, the founder & CEO of Emotiv Systems has agreed to join us from San Francisco in May. She will talk about her company’s ground-breaking work in creating a headset interface that allows you to control your computer with signals coming directly from your brain. It’s science fiction minus the fiction. Goodbye QWERTY keyboard! You don’t want to miss her talk.

• We’ve also received confirmation from three other great speakers whose names we’ll be announcing in the next week. Go to http://www.thinkingdigital.co.uk/speakers/ for the low-down on our latest recruits.

• Due to popular demand we’re happy to announce the addition of three pre-conference workshops on Wednesday 13 May. Full details will be released mid-February along with a full programme update.

• Thinking Digital and the GameHorizon conference have signed up to become sponsors of the TyneTwestival on Thursday 12 February, part of the global Twitter Twestival event that will take place in Newcastle-upon-Tyne at The Other Rooms. Go to http://newcastle.twestival.com to find out more. Also follow us on Twitter for all the latest news: http://www.twitter.com/ThinkingDigital.

• The new Sunderland Software City initiative and the Institute for Digital Innovation (IDI) at Teesside University have signed up to become major sponsors for Thinking Digital. We welcome them both and look forward to working with them in the coming months!

• We can happily confirm that we’ve now signed up 205 Thinkers to the conference, proving that we’re going from strength-to-strength. On behalf of everyone who brings Thinking Digital to life – thank you for being part of the community.

Early Bird’s extended visit…

Due to the sponsorship generosity from the IDI and Sunderland Software City – we’re going to extend our Early Bird rate by another week.

We hope you’ll consider taking advantage of the Early Bird’s extended visit before we see it off.

Get your ticket by 23:55 on Tuesday 10 February to save £350 off the full price – a discount of more than 50%. More than 200 people have already registered, so book your place soon or risk missing out.

Book online today at http://www.thinkingdigital.co.uk/book_now (enter the promo code n-e-life_TDCN09 where prompted).

For any questions of for further information contact Thinking Digital’s Producer, Maxeen Turton on 0191 556 1132. Alternatively, email maxeen@thinkingdigital.co.uk.

What is Thinking Digital?
http://www.thinkingdigital.co.uk/blog/?p=84

Lee Callender – Search2drive.com

Name: Lee Callender

Job title: entrepreneur (dogs body)

Company: Search2drive.com

What does the company do? The first online comparison site for learner drivers to seek a driving instructor and view rating and feedback on driving instructors from other learner drivers.

Which part of the region are you based? Cramlington, just moved here yesterday from Blaydon

Please tell us about the project(s) you’re entering into the North East Digital Awards: Best B2C website is what category we have entered as this is a brand new website that has slowly been developed over the last year, with the backing of Gordon Brown and my local MP and the DSA we are trying to get the minister of transport to assist in making S2D the OFSTED of driving schools but this seems to be a long process. We provide topical information to help new and old drivers alike and for potential drivers we have information aimed at them plus free mock tests supplied by the DSA.

Complete the sentence: I’m going to win a North East Digital Award because we are the first site to have developed this concept and until now had no experience of online business prior. Who else would get an invite to 10 downing street for a garden party because of the website!!! LOL

Complete the sentence: The North East digital scene is varied, exciting and also confusing if new to the scene like me! but there are good friendly helpful people to assist and advise you in the north with some outstanding companies and developers to carry work out.

Are you a Mac or a PC? PC

Finally, state your level of geekiness on a range of 1 to 10. 1 being a technophobe and 10 being an uber-geek. Well I think I am now at a 4 or if big headed a 5. A year ago I was defianately a 1!