Business Support Bulletin - August 08

Welcome to the sdesign1 August Bulletin! This month we have provided information on grants available for Charity groups and information on free events and workshops taking place shortly in the North West. There are also some top tips for improving your website! 

Grants for Web Sites

Liverpool Charity and Voluntary Services (LCVS) offers grants for local Liverpool Charity Organisations for up to £5000. If you are a registered Charity or Voluntary Organisation in Liverpool and in need of a website to promote your services, then you could be eligible for a grant.

For more information on the LCVS Trust Fund call 0151 236 7728 or visit http://lcvs.org

Free Events

Business Networking Breakfast

Find out how to increase your client base and generate new leads. Held at the Liverpool Marina on 24th September - 6.45am - 8.30am. Location.  If you might be interested in the chance to promote your business to a host of other businesses Contact us for more information or phone 0151 223 0001. Breakfast is free and substantial!

Presentation – R&D Grant Funding made easy

A presentation will be given on what grants are available and how they can be accessed. The presentation will be held at the Daresbury Innovation Centre on Wednesday 10th September between 11am-1pm. For more information call call 01925 607 000 or  visit www.daresburysic.co.uk/events

Business North West- Exhibition and Conference Event

The exhibition and conference event is held at the Manchester Central arena (formally G-Mex) on Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th November 2008. To register for the free event or to book an exhibition stand, call 01179 071 000 or visit www.businessnorthwest.co.uk.

Daresbury Business Breakfast

The next business breakfast is being held on Friday 26th September 2008.  The event begins between 8-8.30am and lasts till 9.30am. For more information on the Business Breakfast call 01925 607 000 or visit www.daresburysic.co.uk/events

Knowledge Economy Business Breakfast

This event is brought to you by Liverpool Science Park, Merseyside ICT and Shipley Solicitors. The next meeting is on Tuesday 16 September 2008 from 8.30am to 10am at the Liverpool Science Park. Please email: Chris@shipleysolicitors.com or call: 0151 705 3440 to confirm your place.

Seminar - Organically grow your business by tapping into some of the best business brains on Merseyside - Welcome to the science of success! 

Seminar features speakers by Peter Lunt, Brian McCann, Mark Shipley and Andrew Lloyd. The event will be held at Liverpool Science Park on 23rd September 20008, 12noon – 2pm. To secure your place or for more details email mary-anne.cooper@liverpoolsciencepark.co.uk or phone 0151 705 3400

ICDC Free Workshops

The International Centre for Digital Content (ICDC) are holding a series of free one-day workshops in September and October 2008. The workshops provide a hands-on learning experience taught by the experts.

Workshops include:

• HTML: An introduction - 16th September 2008
• CSS (Table less design) - 18th September 2008
• Creating Accessible Websites - 23rd September 2008
• Dreamweaver - 25th September 2008
• Introduction to Flash Animation - 30th September 2008  
• Flash Action Script - 7th October 2008
• Digital Imagery - 9th October 2008
• Introduction to Social Software - 16th October 2008
• Audio : 14th October 2008
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) - 2nd October 2008

The workshops are held at Liverpool Innovation Park between 10am-4pm, lunch is provided. For more information on the workshops available or to book your place, please email ICDCEvents@ljmu.ac.uk. 

Improve Your Website

This week's tips are focusing on content and include hints on typography, structure, images, alignment and use of italics.

1. Typography: DON'T WRITE IN CAPITALS! Why? Because letters which all have exactly the same height are harder to read and it looks cheap.
2. Structure: Use headings and make the main headings the largest and the sub headings progressively smaller. Obvious isn't it - but amazing how many people don't do it and then can't figure out why their page doesn't look quite right.
3. Images: Use images to support content and not fight with it. This especially applies to moving images (usually Flash). If you have something moving or fading in and out on a page, give users the ability to control it i.e. stop it! Provide a pause/play button.
4. Alignment: Think very carefully before centrally aligning text and then don't do it. This is one of those rules that has no underlying logical explanation - I don't know why but it looks incredibly amateurish.
5. Italics: It's harder to read italics so for that reason alone don't use them or at least minimise use of them.

That's it for this month - if I give too much away this could be a very short series of monthly bulletins and there's only so much you can take in anyway in this time poor society we have created for ourselves.