During the course of the first 2 week period traffic from Facebook.com has increased by around 250% over the previous 2 week period, fan numbers exceeded 800 and Facebook.com has risen to become the second highest (non search engine) referring website.

Facebook currently have in excess of 400million active users and in any 24hr period over 200million users will login. Whilst we would often encourage use of a number of different social media channels, the share of the population and the sheer numbers and that Facebook represents means that it will, for the foreseeable future, be quite a force to be reckoned with.

Last week, Cornish web developers, UKNetWeb, hosted a free virtual conference for local businesses wanting to know more about the Convergence round of funding for the county.

The conference entitled ‘Insight: Convergence’ was the second in a series of virtual events organised by the company in a drive to help businesses gain deeper insight into a range of topical issues of importance to business in the region.

The keynote presentation came from South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA), Innovation and Enterprise Convergence Manager, Josie Linton, supported by other members of the SWRDA team.

The purpose of the Convergence Programmes is to speed up the economic development of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. The programme follows on from Objective One which closed for investment on the 31st December 2006.

Josie’s presentation covered how Convergence business support will be implemented; with regards to business support, the aims of the funding and how it will affect businesses operating within the county.

Talking about the conference, UKNetWeb Managing Director, Toby Parkins said,

“We are really pleased that members of the SWRDA team agreed to speak at the event. Local businesses are keen to learn more about Convergence and what it means for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

“Our aim with the Insight Sessions is to give businesses access to more detailed information around a specific issue or subject of a topical nature and you can’t get more topical than the plans for Convergence”. He continued.

A full transcript of the event has been published and can be viewed online at http://www.uknetweb.com/docs/insight-convergence.pdf. Anyone interested in attending future sessions should speak to Aren Grimshaw at UKNetWeb on 01872 555933.

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Notes to Editor:

• For more information on the Convergence Programme visit http://www.objectiveone.com/O1htm/01-convergence/convergence.htm
• For more information on UKNetWeb visit http://www.uknetweb.com
• For information on past UKNetWeb Insight Session please visit http://www.uknetweb.com/blog/tag/insight-sessions/

Cornish web developers, UKNetWeb, have announced the speaker for their next monthly virtual conference session to be entitled ‘Insight: Convergence’.

South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA), Innovation and Enterprise Convergence Manager, Josie Linton, will take the keynote speech with other members of SWRDA team supporting her at the conference.

The conference will take place online at 12.30pm on Tuesday 7th October. Guests can log in at anytime from 12 noon on the day by following instructions posted on the site http://www.uknetweb.com.

Josie will endeavour to explain how Convergence business support will be implemented; with regards to business support the aims of the funding and how it will affect businesses operating within the county.

The purpose of the Convergence Programmes is to speed up the economic development of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly particularly through investing in: skills and helping people into work; the development of a more knowledge based economy; business productivity and innovation; and in infrastructure for a more modern economy.

The Convergence Programme follows on from the Objective One Programme which closed for investment on the 31st December 2006.

Talking about the conference, UKNetWeb Managing Director, Toby Parkins said,

“We are really excited to have members of the Regional Development agency on hand to explain more about  Convergence funding and what it means for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Our aim with the Insight Sessions is to give businesses access to more detailed information around a specific issue or subject of a topical nature and you can’t get more topical than the plans for Convergence”.

Insight: Convergence will be the second virtual conference organised by UKNetWeb with the previous session, Insight: Recession, featuring a keynote speech from economist and former Finance Cornwall Chief Executive, Lord Teverson.

The sessions usually last around an hour with a transcript of the sessions published online following the event. Anyone interested to learn more, including future speaking opportunities, should contact Aren Grimshaw at UKNetWeb on 01872 555933 or email aren@uknetweb.com.

Notes to Editor:

• For more information on the Convergence Programme visit http://www.objectiveone.com/O1htm/01-convergence/convergence.htm
• For more information on UKNetWeb visit http://www.uknetweb.com
• For information on past UKNetWeb Insight Session please visit http://www.uknetweb.com/blog/tag/insight-sessions/

The innovative party was planned by the company to demonstrate how businesses can use emerging technology to cut business running costs while adding new and exciting ways of promoting their businesses.

The party began at 12.30 on Tuesday (29th July) when a link was published on the old UKNetWeb site. Guests were told to go to the company website, UKNetWeb.com and follow the on-screen instructions to enter a virtual room.

On entering the room, guests could select their own music from a selection of preloaded tracks and carry out conversations with other attendees via on screen text based chat. At 1.00pm Managing Director, Toby Parkins, made a speech to the room where he introduced the new site and recession guide.

All guests were given an opportunity to introduce themselves to the room, following a similar structure to conventional face to face networking events. Guests came from all over Cornwall and further afield, with at least one international guest signing in from an Icelandic advertising agency.

The launch of the new site and recession guide was well received with over 300 people accessing the site and over 150 downloads of the recession guide within the 24 hour period after the launch.

Toby Parkins, MD, UKNetWeb

Managing Director, Toby Parkins said, “The possibilities opened up by emerging technology offers exciting prospects for businesses that want to cut costs and attract new sales. This launch party demonstrated that there are alternatives to travel and we hope that businesses will adopt some of the ideas within the guide to help them through more difficult times.”

“Since the event we have been inundated with interest in similar events. It seems everyone who attended has been telling their friends about it and now there is a real buzz for more virtual events to be organised.” Toby continued.

The new website can be found at www.uknetweb.com with the recession guide available for download at www.uknetweb.com/recession-guide.

The system built for Travel Smith Limited, based in the South East, required more than 400 hours of complex programming over a period of 6 months. This was needed to ensure that a range of back end systems could work together seamlessly to assist those booking holidays on the Channel Islands.

Built by St. Agnes based, UKnetweb, the new system allows customers accessing travelsmith.co.uk to book flights and accommodation through the one site building on their previous success in arranging accommodation and ferry travel for customers throughout the UK.

Although flight booking systems of this kind often appear relatively simple to the consumer using them, they involve a range of highly complex programming languages to ensure that the different parts involved in the process work together to generate the required results.

“Many people could be forgiven for thinking that the site is pretty simple, after all, that’s how the customer should see it. However, behind the scenes we have to ensure that thousands of processes work hand in hand to deliver the service they expect.” Says Toby Parkins, UKnetweb’s Managing Director.

“As a company we focus on these kind of projects which other companies find difficult. Knowing that nothing is impossible we work to establish new ways of doing things and have become nationally renowned for a number of European internet firsts.” He continued.

The Travel Smith system is not the first project of this complexity undertaken by UKnetweb, past projects have included a national sales system for genealogy store, Parish Chest and a mobile application for brand leader, Nokia.

Anyone looking to develop their own booking system, or other complex web development can contact the company at their offices on 01872 555933 or visit the company’s website at www.uknetweb.com

Writing on the subject of web cart abandonment, a subject close to the hearts of any e-commerce store owner, Toby suggests a range tactics that can be used to increase site sale conversions and insure higher online store profits.

The full feature will be reproduced on our blog within the coming weeks. In the meantime why not order your copy from subs@catalog-biz.com

*Please note a printing mistake has led to our company name being included as ‘ukneweb’ – it should of course be ‘uknetweb’. Anyone interested in learning more about the company should visit our corporate site at www.uknetweb.com

The business, previously owned and managed by Aren Grimshaw, will be incorporated into uknetweb as it moves to increase links between clients’ online and offline activities.

Uknetweb, Managing Director, Toby Parkins commented, “We have been working successfully with Galileo on a number of projects. This move comes as we work to enhance client relationships and extend partnerships with agencies offering complimentary services.”

“Aren’s experience in running his own business ideally places him to work as a project and account manager. His ability to understand client needs will allow us to ensure the highest online returns as we move forward.”

Galileo’s marketing services will be turned towards the development of more sophisticated web based systems and websites rather than the agency’s former branding and offline marketing work.

The change will take place immediately with Aren joining the team at uknetweb’s offices in The Engine House, Wheal Kitty.

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The new site has been built for Redruth based Cornwall Kawasaki Centre and currently holds more than a million motorcycle parts, making the site the most comprehensive web based store for motorcycle parts in the UK.

Uknetweb’s Managing Director, Toby Parkins, commented on the launch, “Many web developers tend to supply off the shelf systems and packages which are not suitable for more sophisticated web based shopping systems. With each of our sites we take time at the beginning to consider the customer’s needs and identify methods for making their shopping experience the very best it can be.”

“In the case of Cornwall Kawasaki Centre we found that many people experienced difficulties in linking diagram numbers with parts numbers and taking this forward in locating the part for sale. We developed a unique system which allows users to view detailed parts diagrams, identify the parts number, and then order the part, all from the one site.”

The plan for the site is to continue adding to the present catalogue with the aim of providing one site for all bike parts and accessories. The site went live on the web at www.cornwallkawasaki.co.uk on Monday and is expected to be a welcome relief to thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts who often need to spend hours searching for parts for their motorcycle and visiting garage after garage in search of them.

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