The Vancouver Island Outdoor Adventure Expo is coming April 1st, 2nd and 3rd and Deck Fifty Design is hard at work redeveloping their new website. Currently, www.vancouverislandoutdoorexpo.com is built using Wordpress, but with the limitations of the WordPress platform, our client felt it was time to upgrade to a CMS that would better meet their needs. They've seen many great Drupal sites before, citing a few eCommerce examples, such as www.cargoh.com, and asked if we would be able to rebuild their site using the Drupal CMS. Since that is what we're known for, naturally, we jumped at the opportunity.
The project will take a phased approach; phase one already well underway. The target audience gradually shifts from exhibitors to attendees as the expo date draws closer. With radio, television and print advertisements all referencing the website, it is important to the client that their web presence fully meets the needs of the end user. This includes an eye-catching visual presentation by our amazing web designer - Julianne Mullin. Her web template is shaping up to be a really fantastic display of vector drawn elements and splashes of visual excitement. Social media is important as well so Twitter and Facebook integration will be added along with a blog.
Thankfully, Drupal is very expandable and this flexibility allows us to integrate the eCommerce functionality during phase two. Our objective is to have phase two rolled out for the 2012 tradeshow. Having online booth booking for the exhibitors and early bird online ticket sales is a huge convenience for attendees of the show. Beanstream is our recommended payment processing gateway as it handles Visa & MasterCard payments. Small businesses find this way the least expensive and most convenient way to process credit card payments as the transactions fees are nominal and the system interacts directly with your bank account.
Be sure and check back in the coming weeks to see our progress with the rebuild of the Vancouver Island Outdoor Adventure Expo. The expo date is fast approaching and they will have a shiny new Drupal website to celebrate this landmark event aimed at the outdoor enthusiast in us all!