July 2009 Newsletter

It's been ages since our last newsletter – and we're sorry about that. The simple fact is, we've been really busy with lots of interesting projects and, as a pleasant surprise during the demise of our economy, we've been working with a lot of start-up companies. If you'd like to keep more up to date with the Blue Lobster team, you can always follows our exploits on Twitter – or simply call us and say “Oi, what you up to?”.

We've Moved

That's right, we've outgrown our office at the Riverside Business Centre and have now moved to:

Unit 8, Quayside Business Centre, Lowestoft Enterprise Park, School Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk. NR33 9NW.

Those of you who know Lowestoft well will realise we've only moved up the road. We're still decorating a bit but settling in nicely. We still have the use of the facilities at all the NWES buildings (including our old building at Riverside).

Some of our recent Websites

We can't put them all here, but here are a few recent sites:

We've Moved

That's right, we've outgrown our office at the Riverside Business Centre and have now moved to:

Unit 8, Quayside Business Centre, Lowestoft Enterprise Park, School Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk. NR33 9NW.

Changes to the Blue Lobster IT Website

Some of you may have noticed some changes going on with the Blue Lobster IT website. We've recently made significant changes to our website and it's Content Management System (CMS) and over the coming weeks we'll be adding significantly more content to the site. We'll be adding resources for Business Start Ups and considerably more information about the services we provide. We're also working on a DIY Search Engine Optimisation guide, designed to help you carry out SEO by yourself, which may improve rankings and what we're all looking for, quality traffic. So keep checking back and seeing what we're up to. If you're particularly interested in SEO, you can follow along with my blog where I often talk about SEO subjects.

Launch of ILPTools Application for local schools

In conjunction with Ashley School, we have developed an Individual Learning Plan Application (called ILPTools) for students and tutors to keep online records of qualifications, training and progress, learning targets and objectives. Students and Tutors are able to produce PDF files from the Learning Plans and may interact with each other to adapt the plan to fit the learning requirements of the individual. The application will be launching across the area over the coming weeks.

Marine Data Tools

Blue Lobster IT have been working with Cefas and around 30 European Marine institutes to develop a unique set of web-based marine data tools. These tools will enable European scientists to monitor changes in the health of our seas. The tools will bring together data from ships, satellites, and buoys into charts, maps, and Google Earth for the first time...ever! And...anyone can use them!

The tools have attracted global attention and look set to be extended to include even more data from around Europe and perhaps the World.

Blue Lobster IT Supporting The Make Your Mark Campaign

The Make Your Mark Campaign is designed to “Increase entrepreneurial behaviour amongst young people - to encourage them to have ideas and make them happen. Having a can-do attitude and the skills to spot opportunities, overcome challenges and implement ideas is more important than ever in today’s tough global economic climate.”

Blue Lobster IT are proud to be involved with the campaign in the Lowestoft area and we're looking forward to working with and for young people to help them achieve their aspirations.

We recently held a stand at an Innovation and Skills Event at the Orbis Energy Centre, Lowestoft. Representatives from local businesses and schools gave presentations and discussed innovation in the area. It always amazes us just how much is going on around Waveney. We made some good contacts with young entrepreneurs that we'll be following up. Read About Make Your Mark.

Changes to our branding

Some of our branding has been changing. We have new business cards (which I've just realised will have to be re-printed due to the move!) and some of our electronic media has been 'retouched' too. We're pretty good at branding, ideas, logos, business cards, letterheads, and digital.

New Staff

We've recently welcomed two new staff to the team. Their profiles are below:

Jonny Goddard, Senior Web Designer

Originally from an acting and teaching background, it was clear early on in Jonny's career that he had significant flair for creative digital media. Jonny specialises in graphic design, web design, content management systems, e-commerce systems and search engine optimisation (SEO). Jonny is a keen advocate for web design standards and is constantly researching and trying out new technologies to improve the usability of web interfaces.

Oliver Sale, Senior Web Developer / Linux Expert

After finishing his degree in creative multimedia, Oliver started his career working for one of Norwich's leading web agencies. After two years experience, he moved closer to home and began working for Blue Lobster IT. Oliver has significant experience in a variety of development technologies but his key skills are: .NET, Linux, PHP, XHTML, Javascript and Flash development. He is also experienced in using a variety of creative media including image manipulation, sound & video editing and 2D & 3D animation.

Twitter

You can now follow us on Twitter. If we're doing work for you, you can keep up to date with progress by reading our Tweets – or even ask us directly. Have you embraced Social Media?

Skype

Prefer to Skype us a quick question? Either by Chat or Voice, our Skype ID is: 'bluelobsterit'.

So until next time – and it won't be so long....promise.

Simon Keeble

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bluelobster

http://www.twitter.com/bluelobsterit

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