Paul Annett

I was the front-end developer for the South West Wales Tourism Partnership website, As Wild As You Want It, as a freelancer last summer at Designate Communications. The website is designed to promote the region by showcasing the activity holidays available in South West Wales.

New Media Age magazine recently reviewed the website, but unfortunately they got the wrong end of the stick, concluding “the site showcases the region well, if booking was easier it would be a top site”. There is and never has been a booking section, it’s sole aim is to showcase the region. So I guess, then, that it is considered a top site.

South West Wales Tourism Partnership
aswildasyouwantit.com
Type ‘as wild as you want it’ into a search engine and ‘South West Wales’ is unlikely to feature high up on the list of results. But this is to change if South west Wales Tourim Partnership has its way. Its Web site promotes outdoor sports holidays and is part of a series of sites (onebiggarden.com and inspirationalwales.com are the others) built to publicise the natural beauty of Wales and the opportunities available for themed breaks. Learn about the curious new sport of coasteering, a pursuit which involves scrambling around cliffs at sea level and then jumping in. A useful interactive map invites you to click on hotspots of activity sports including sailing, surfing and moutain biking although it’s a lengthy process reaching any booking information. The site showcases the region well, if booking was easier it would be a top site.
Andrew McCormick, New Media Age magaine.

My recently acquired Wife has been a little neglected of late - not through choice, but simply through the sheer volume of work which accompanies running one’s own business. With that in mind, it’s with some relief that I’ll soon be returning to a more ‘normal’ working pattern where I’ll actually get to spend more time with her.

I’ve been approached to become Online Manager for an online consultancy firm near Oxford, UK, and today I accepted their offer.

And so, I’m also making my third attempt at starting a blog (the first was on Blogger in 2000, the second with Movable Type in 2003). What better use of my new found free-time than blogging! Errr… oh yeah, the wife…

One of the things which struck me when I worked as Lead Designer in-house Harrods.com last year, was the length of time it took to get a new design approved in such a large organisation.

Today I was musing on how the opposite is true for the work I do now that I am self employed. For instance, I maintain easyworld’s website for BMG Records, and when I received the news that their new single has gone to number 1 on The Amp music TV channel and is heading the same way on The Box, their website was updated almost before the channel knew themselves! No approval process required.

And BMG are bigger than Harrods.