Ottawa Race Weekend’s purchase of these medals helps to put $10,000 into Cameroon’s local economy. A crew was sent to Cameroon to record the process of cutting down coconuts, stripping the bark, sanding them down, shaping them, and  hand carving thousands of medals. After the video was shot, Halogen Marketing edited the video down, placed the clips together, added the text, and uploaded it to YouTube. See the video below.

Fuse Communications came up with this great idea for Run Ottawa (the people that put on the Marathon and the Race Weekend), a playlist contest, showcasing everyone’s favourite running songs. It was up to Halogen Marketing to turn that idea into a reality. We used YouTube as the song engine and developed a form-to-database tool that allows us to keep track of the votes and contestants. For the draw, we have created an automated program that will randomly choose winners and associate prizes to them.

See the contest to find out more.

1. . . . like riding a bike
   Many CMS tools, like Drupal, can be very difficult to use, often requiring in depth manuals. WordPress is easy to use, and a lot of people already know how.
2. The student becomes the teacher
   We are often trying to learn the latest SEO (Search Engine Optimization), while finding relevant places to post links. We do this to get visitors to our sites. Instead of a site taking your direction, you can learn from WordPress. Proper SEO is already implemented, and it will send notice out to thousands of sites every time you make an update, resulting in thousands of links back to your site.
3. Work smarter, not harder
   Like other CMS tools, WordPress has a database, which can save time and money. Data, like client information, can be easily moved between WordPress and other tools. The potential here is endless, from creating newsletters to full shopping cart systems, all with only one set of records.
4. Don’t break the bank
   Compare WordPress to other systems, like Joomla, and you will find that the development costs can be half the investment for what would be a comparable site. The “out of the box” architecture that WordPress offers cuts down on coding time for developers.
5. The best things in life . . .
   WordPress is 100% free to download, install, use, and upgrade.
6. Meet the family
   With over 70 000 registered members of the community, it is easy to get well coded, bug free, and up to date software from WordPress. Feel the support network.
7. Not ready for marriage?
   Getting a developer to install their own custom CMS solution can be very enticing. It is sometimes very good and inexpensive, but you will have a lifelong commitment to your developer. It is unlikely that anyone will not know how to develop within this custom CMS, so your developer has secured the relationship based on necessity rather than quality of service. Non-proprietary systems like WordPress save development costs in the long run, and since any developer can code in WordPress, you can freely choose an affordable, reliable, and service oriented developer.
8. Move in ready
   There are no template requirements with WordPress. Any design that can be conceived and coded will fit nicely into its structure, no compromises.
9. Easy on the pocket book
   With over 7000 plugins available right on the WordPress website, this CMS gives the ability to install, activate, and configure a new plugin in as little as one hour. This makes it very inexpensive to make upgrades to a website.
10. Securing the future
    WordPress easily plugs in to social media sites like Facebook. Its RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feature allows the networking sites to automatically update based on your newest WordPress content.

Related Resources

Content Management Systems

• WordPress
• Drupal
• Joomla

Social Networking Sites

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

The Business of Climate Change Conference draws on the expertise from leading corporate executives about their strategies, successes and challenges in analyzing climate change across business units, reducing risks, increasing value and realizing positive bottom line results.

Over the past four years, Halogen has provided a full range of marketing and creative services in support of the Business of Climate Change Conference, including the creation of the initial event identity.

Here are a few samples…

To me, it’s an easy answer. I always say: use PHP. The client sites I have worked with have ranged from 4 to 4000 web pages, and 100% of them would have been best off with a PHP solution.

At this point, a curious person asks: “what makes PHP so much better than ASP.NET?”

My challenge is to help this person understand that PHP is not better, just different. There are certain factors (such as support, security, scalability, reliability, and speed) that are just as good for ASP.NET as PHP.

“What’s the cost difference?”

ASP.NET must be on a Windows platform (which costs money), but PHP is platform independent, so it could run on Mac, Windows, or Linux (a free system). The technologies themselves are both free.

“Can’t ASP.NET plug into other Microsoft technology?”

Yes, .NET is great for that, although of the many web sites I have worked on, they have not had the need for this.

“What about browser/user accessibility?”

Both technologies are processed before they reach the browser, so neither one has compatibility issues.

“Which language is better for scripting?”

If you want to use something like ecommerce, blogs, CMS, or anything else mainstream, it is much easier to find good PHP solutions that are already developed. If you want a large custom built solution (which comes with high developer costs), .NET is the way to go.

In every case I have recommended PHP, only because it has fit the scenario of budget and effectiveness much better. ASP.NET definitely has its place, but I would only ever recommend using it for very large sites that need to be custom built.