It must be fall in Revelstoke, the leaves are falling, the peaks are dusted with snow, and the Revelstoke Chamber of Commerce has hosted its annual Business Excellence Awards dinner. This years list was chock full of deserving candidates, and I am proud to say that  four Rev Software clients (The Revelstoke Current, Alpenrose B&B, Roxy Theatre (coming soon), and the Crescendo) were nominated for awards and out of those nominated two of them managed to win! In the category of Tourism and Hospitality the Alpenrose Bed & Breakfast took top honours and in the coveted Entrepreneurial category the Crescendo triumphed over a field filled with tough competitors.

I am very proud of all of this years nominees, I couldn’t have picked a better list of deserving local businesses. I hope this year will allow me to work with more enthusiastic entrepreneurs in their pursuit of business excellence. Congratulations to all of this years winners and nominees.

It is always interesting and exciting doing something that you have never done before. When Elvira of Crescendo Retail contacted Rev Software about designing and building their website and e-store it was a great opportunity to really demonstrate our creativity and programming prowess.

When designing and building this web store it was the nature of the products being sold that presented the most challenges. See, selling oils, vinegars, and spices by weight and volume in different containers, or in no containers at all, over the internet is not something most shopping carts and out-of-the-box solutions can handle. This niche market requires something unique, something custom, a solution that can help customers to find the products they want and purchase them in an easy, intuitive, and attractive manor. We are confident that this is that solution.

For us building the web store for Crescendo meant re-imagining the shopping experience. We researched, and white boarded, and thought hard to come up with ways to reproduce the natural and effective shopping experience you get from walking into a Crescendo store and here is what we came up with:

1. Visual: walking into a Crescendo location you are immediately treated to a feast for the eyes, oaken barrels, spices you can see and smell, and a soft and inviting Mediterranean colour scheme. For the web store we matched this by using super high resolution and high contrast images of the base ingredients to really make the different varieties of oils and vinegars “pop”, we had macro photos taken of all the herbs and spices so you could see them as if you were there, and finally we took the mediterranean colour scheme and expanded it with warm and appealing background images.
2. Selection Process: when you are buying an oil or vinegar in a Crescendo shop you first select your liquid, then you are able to select from a wide variety of containers. Your container selection determines the amount of liquid you purchase as well as adding a decorative quality to the purchase. For the web store we built an intuitive system that guides you through this very same process of first selecting a liquid and then selecting the desired container, all the while keeping you apprised of the final price and amount of product being ordered.
3. Information: when you are in a Crescendo shop you will never be overwhelmed by information, but you also will never leave without knowing all of the important information about your product, how to care for it, and how to use it. This same philosphy was applied to the website through the subtle use of info buttons for the products description, origin, acidity and other important information, the FAQ page for answers to common questions, and the Recipes section for all sorts of amazing ways to use Crescendo products to make amazing meals.

So by identifying these, and other, essential features of shopping Crescendo and ensuring they were preserved in the web store we at Rev Software hope that customers find their experience online as pleasant as their experience in store. Well maybe not quite since we can’t offer samples online .

This website and the accompanying web store is our largest and most important web development to date. It is our opportunity to showcase what we are capable of. We encourage all of our readers, and anyone who enjoys amazing food products and fantastic service to head over to Crescendo Canada’s Web Store.

I only hope people enjoy shopping Crescendo online as much as we enjoyed building it. I would also like to extend a very big thank you to Elvira and Daniel of Crescendo Retail for providing our small company the opportunity to create this website.

Tonight I was thrilled to attend the latest in the Revelstoke Chamber of Commerce’s “Business After Hours” series of social events, where this nights star attractor was the presentation of the results of the Hoteliers Association’s re-branding campaign for Revelstoke. The presentation featured a series of poster boards depicting what could be full page magazine ads, as well as various takes on the new logo. For more details see David Rooney’s article at The Current.

Overall I must say I was very impressed with the work done by the Kimberly based marketing firm that was hired by the Hoteliers. The brand looks clean, modern, and the slogans are catchy and appealing. I am very excited with the re-branding and I am hopeful that the community will rally behind this move to modernize and promote Revelstoke as more than just a “pee break” between Banff and Kelowna. The campaign portrayed Revelstoke as more than just a resort community, or a historical railway community, it showed that Revelstoke is a truly magnificent and inspiring place to live and visit no matter what the season. Kudos to Thom Tischik for a great presentation.

All in all it was an excellent event, I met lots of interesting local entrepreneurs and had a chance to witness the unveiling of something that is no doubt destined to change this community, hopefully for the better.

Looking forward to the next “Business After Hours”

You can feel it, summer is fast fading and the cool crisp days of fall are upon us. For many businesses in Revelstoke this means a changing of gears, a small reprieve before the onslaught of winter tourists and gear hungry winter sports enthusiasts descend. Rather than sitting back and waiting for winter to come, I have 5 great reasons why your business should get out there and get a quality website. (Now of course we would love it if you got us to build it, but get out there either way)

1. Online Advertising – This year online advertising dollars surpassed that of TV advertising in the US. Advertising follows consumers, and consumers are rapidly transitioning from dead or dying media sources like newspapers, TV, and radio to the web. If you want your business to take advantage of this you had better get yourself a website, because you can’t click on an online ad that takes you to a brick and mortar store. Want to advertise on Revelstoke’s hottest new media property, The Current ? Not gonna happen without a website.
2. Expand Your Audience – There is absolutely no cheaper, easier way for your business to reach a new market and attract a ton of new visitors to your store. For the price of a single fancy display unit you can reach out to literally millions of potential new customers for your products.
3. Affordable – Startup costs for a beautiful website are under $2000 and maintaining the site is under $300 a year. When you compare that with rent and upkeep for your meat world location you will be wondering why you didn’t get a website earlier.
4. Maintain Your Own Site – Web technology has changed a lot since the early days, the websites we build today are completely updated and operated by business owners and staff just like you. With little to no technical knowledge you can update and maintain your own website (for free) using custom tailored content management systems like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal.
5. Your Customers Expect it – Anyone under 30 these days just expects you to have a website. They don’t have a phone book, and they don’t want one, they already make many of their purchases online, and they would rather read reviews online than go to a store and ask for an opinion. If you don’t have a website, they might not even know you exist. I read a tweet (A micro-blog post on the Twitter social network site) the other day by a 30 something that said, and I quote, “I don’t care if you’re a plumber, if you don’t have a website I won’t use you”

I hope you find this list useful, as always I would love to hear your feedback and suggestions.

Rev Software has completed design and implementation of the Screen Smart organizations new website. The site, which will be hosted by Rev Software, can be found at http://www.screensmart.ca and is a product of the hard work of all the Screen Smart organization members, including Andrew Sykes, Anne Cooper, Jane Morris, and Linda Chell, to name just a few of the volunteers who have contributed to the sites content.

The Screen Smart website will be dedicated to providing families the information they need in order to make informed decisions about screen time. This website is loaded with high quality, well cited information on all aspects of media awareness, and the effects of screens and the media on health, education, and internet safety.

As Rev Software’s lead web designer I created the site using structured W3C validated XHTML and CSS integrated with the PHP content management system, ModX. This design will ensure the Screen Smart organization members can update and maintain their website within the safe and user friendly ModX system, while enjoying fast, streamlined, XHTML & CSS code.

I highly reccommed you check this website out, and I guarantee you will learn something new.

Local internet company Adventure Touring Inc, responsible for the highly successful RV rental websites USA RV Rentals and Canada RV Rentals , has branched off in a new and local direction by registering a new company name and web domain Revelstoke Vacation Rentals Ltd.

With this new company came the desire for new corporate branding including logo design, web design, and business cards. The design of the business cards for RvR was contracted to Rev Software where we were able to match the sharp logo design of local artist Rene Turlinden with a modern design and sharp text to produce some crisp looking business cards.

The new company/website, Revelstoke Vacation Homes Ltd,  will be providing vacation property owners in Revelstoke the opportunity to list their property on a #1 Google ranked website and have the staff at Revelstoke Vacation Rentals handle all of the processing and booking of their vacation homes. The site is also the perfect place for people looking to visit Revelstoke to find the accommodations they need.

For more information on how Rev Software can help you with branding or other print related media check out our services page and drop us a line at info (at) revsoftware.ca or 250.200.0627

Rev Software has been working with the Revelstoke Community Social Development Committee on a new website for past month and with their final approval the site has officially gone live.

The new website features up to date information on social services being provided in and around Revelstoke. The website uses the ModX CMS to enable the committee members to create, edit, and delete website content, and even goes so far as to allow the creation of new website pages, adding all the linkage and maintaining the template throughout.

One of the goals at the outset of the project was provide a website that could be maintained by members of the committee who might have limited computer knowledge. The solution provided by Rev Software provides a standards compliant XHTML and CSS web template where content can be created and edited through the MODX WYSIWYG editor without the need to understand code and without risk of breaking the CSS layout or website look and feel.

Rev Software has been commissioned by the Revelstoke Screen Smart association to design their new website and build their online presence. Just to give you a little background on the Screen Smart organization; Screen Smart is a Revelstoke community based initiative that encourages families to better manage the ways in which TV, computers, and the internet influence their lives. They hope the website will prove a valuable resource for people looking for information about managing screen time for themselves and their families, and I am happy to be a part of this project.