News and Views

Accessibility Workshop UKITA & LCIL

2008-12-16T07:32:00.000-08:00

Leicestershire Centre for Integreted Living and UKITA are holding a workshop to unravel the mysteries of accessibility and the web.

Date
Friday 23rd January 9.30 – 15.30

This workshop is a must for web developers who wants to stay up with accessibility issues and the Internet

You will hear from speakers talking about their experiences of living with a disability and using the internet and the problems they face. You will be able to experience first hand how some software and hardware can help with different disabilities and gain a greater understanding into how these speakers would like websites structured.
The workshop will exist of a full day with lunch provided. The aim is to help delegates to achieve a better understanding of the issues surrounding accessibility to the Internet to explore ways in which we can all make the Internet more accessible. There will be a practical session allowing delegates to experience some of the technologies first hand.
The workshop will look into the following issues:

Visual Impairment

Hearing Impairment

Dyslexia

Physical Impairment

Navigation Issues

Text Contrast Concern

Image Descriptions

Style Sheets

Screen Readers

Venue
5 - 9 Upper Brown StreetLeicesterLE1 5TE
The Cost of this workshop is £30 - Includes lunch.

If you would like to book a place please click here to find out about it.

Wordle Doodle Doo

2008-12-11T06:45:00.000-08:00

I have just found a wonderful fun website which takes words you give it and created a wordle for you which you can use where ever you want as long as you say where you got it. I though this may be a good way of displaying things in an image for marketing etc. I have created some images and would appreciate comments.

You can find the images at our FourThinking Website

New Online Booking System for Training

2008-11-03T02:55:00.000-08:00

FourThinking have been working for Business Links for over ten years and have in that time worked with over 3,500 businesses. Their experience of working with and developing these businesses during their early years of growth has enabled the company to provide training which always meets their needs.

It should be noted that the FourThinking training programme has been purchased by three of the East Midlands Businesses Links (Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire) and the training model has been recognised as excellent due to the fact that they provide businesses with practical training delivered by qualified practitioners. For example Marketing courses are only delivered by a qualified marketing specialist.

The delivery provides all the information the customer needs but at the same time shows by example how the subject matter can be used in their business.

This methodology is unique to FourThinking and this is one of the reasons why they have been so successful in this market place. FourThinking practitioners are always able to work with all the people attending courses, as they keep abreast of all information related to specialist areas of business as this is their regular area of expertise. People attending workshops always very often provide testimonials as to why the workshop has made a difference to them. For more information on our workshops see: www.fourthinking.co.uk and www.small-business-advice.biz

FourThinking have also become leaders in their web technology by creating a web booking system for training providers.
This system can be found on: www.eastmidlandsbusinessadvice.co.uk
The system was designed to save time and keep administration cost low. The main benefits are as follows:

· Easy to use
· Reduces staff time on administration
· Low maintenance cost
· Available at all time - 24/7
· View your information from anywhere
· Keeps all information on client up to date
· Full tracking – clients, hours, workshops, reason for cancellations etc
· See the full and up to date picture at any time
· Saves money and time

Our system has been tested over year in a business Link environment managing all client contact details through Training, Advice and Mentoring projects. With this system in place staff numbers could be reduced by half. If you would like a demonstration of the system please contact us we will be happy to arrange this.

Booking delegates for training workshops

2008-10-14T00:29:00.000-07:00

As any organisation knows, booking people on to training seminars or workshops can be time consuming and frought with problems.

If more than one person is in charge of bookings, how do you know the number of places left?
Is the number correct at that time or does someone need to update it?
Is there a master file in the office you need to update and do you have access to this?
How do you send out confirmations of booking and to who?
Does the seminar leader need access to numbers to prepare before the event?
Does someone need to liase with the trainer on a regular basis with updated figures?
How do you record who attended?
Do you need to record the number of hours a delegate has attended training?
Is it easy to send reminders of the workshop so that people don't forget?
Is there a quick and easy way of adding a booking if someone is already registered with you?
Can you send location details easily?
If someone cancels can you record reason so can follow up later?
How di you co-ordinate the training venues with workshops easily?

FourThinking Consultancy and Training Ltd have developed an Online Booking System which will do all this for you. Because it is online, it is available from any Internet enabled device meaning that you can book delegates on from virtually anywhere.

If your delegate has already been on training you can add them to further workshops with one easy click. Confirmations are instant, meaning that the delegate, trainer and administration recieve confirmation of every booking or cancellation keeping every one in the loop at all times.

Password protection means that only authorised users can use the system with 2 levels of access for general users and administration.

Easy to use admin module means that extra workshops can be added at any time and different schemes can be accommodated together.

The ability to be able to change delegate details and resend confirmation means that communication is efficient and easy.

The ability to send a message to every one on a workshop easily means less time hunting for email addresses or setting up mail merge.

The Online Booking System will also enable you to print out a confirmation should your delegate not have an email address and also print out a delegate list for registration.

A module is also available for appointment booking with times slots to suit your needs. The efficient communication method work extremely well with this toomaking this a valuable addition to the Online Booking System

Using this system to manage your training bookings can save you valuable time and money against conventional methods and being online makes it an extremely flexible way to work for all.

If you would like to find out more about this system, contact FourThinking

Helping Your Online Presence

2008-09-17T06:04:00.000-07:00

Developing your Company Website Workshop

You have a business and are marketing in the usual ways. You have your brochures, leaflets, business cards, letter headed paper and adverts in the local media. These are all good marketing practices but in these times or increasing technology and global communication, there is another marketing medium which is becoming increasingly important. The internet has completely opened up the ways in which businesses can be marketed. No longer have companies to just look locally or nationally for their marketing material, the Internet is global by default and means that your products and services can reach a far wider area than ever before.

A website is a open invitation to all to view your company and how you present this needs careful and thoughtful deliberation.

On the day we will discuss:
• Budgets and how much a website is like to cost
• The different types of site and which is most appropriate to your business
• What kind of domain name and hosting are best for your company and website
• What information you should include and what you should not on your website
• The different types of design and what works best for your business
• The ins and outs of getting your website developed
• Search engine optimisation and what should be included on your website
• The importance of testing
• How to take payments through your website

The investment for this course is £50 + VAT

The next course is 30th October In Glen Parva

The course is a full day from 9.30 to 16.30.

You can book a place on this course at http://www.fourthinking.co.uk/website.html

Find out what others have said about this course at http://www.fourthinking.co.uk/testimonial.html

Website Accessibility - imput required please

2008-06-20T05:33:00.000-07:00

Over the past few months I have been increasingly aware of the need for websites to be accessible to all. On doing extensive research I have come to the comclusion that there is no definitive answer to how and what youw website should include to be deemed as accessible. I know that is should comply and that there are 3 different priorities:

A - Must comply to
AA - should comply to
AAA would be good if it complied.

Where my confusion lays in the array of tools available to check your webpages. They all seem to be looking ar different things and even if they say that the site complies there seem to be bits that would be useful missed out.

So I thought I would start this blog and invite anyone interested to join me in this discussion. My objective is to come to some kind of consensus of opinion as to what a well designed accessible webpage should contain.

I am particulary looking for comment from those who may have a disability as user experience is worth far more than valuable than those who can't really completely understand what is needed.

So please everyone share you opinions.

I shall over the course of this blog be putting my findings up on my website for others to view. If you have any examples of accessible websites that work well for you please let me know. Click here so that you can contact me .

Nlabs Conference Leicester

2008-06-20T04:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I attended and presented at the NLABS Conference in De Montfort University (DMU) Leicester which was discussing Social Networking. I was a very informative day in which I learn't a lot but also had a large list of things to do. There were many informative people attending it was a great pleasure to be able to attend. Some of the high lights for me were Jim Benson talking about setting your goals and how using social networking can make you more cost effective and Ken Thompson's mobile phone swarm experiment. My presentation was on Search Engine Optimisation and how Social Networking can help with this. The Social networking and SEO presentation can be downloaded by clicking here
My congratulations to Professor Sue Thomas and her merry band who organised this sucessful event