Sponsors

graphics.coop (previously called The Graphics Company) is a workers’ co-operative design agency. One of the good things about working with a co-operative is that you’re always talking to the boss! You’re always dealing with someone who cares a lot about your project. This is one of the reasons why many of our clients stay with us for years, here are some more…

Using limited resources creatively

Design is all about constraints and money is always one of them. We work very hard to keep costs down without sacrificing creativity or quality. We also don’t land you with unexpected additional costs.

Design is a co-operative process

A successful design project is a client-designer collaboration. We believe in this strongly and work in an open way to help this happen. This is backed up by informative written communications. You get copyright on the design we do for you (most other design companies don’t give you this).

An ethical design company

graphics.coop promotes the use of environmentally-friendly materials and ethical working practices. We also take an ethical approach to our own business that is embodied in our constitution.

Helpful Technology is a niche digital engagement agency, helping clients – often in central and local government – to use digital tools and techniques to work more effectively and save money.

It’s led by Steph Gray, former Head of Digital Communications at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, working with trusted associates from a range of niche PR and social media agencies. Steph has been working in digital and e-government for a decade, including roles at Ipsos MORI, top-ten digital agency Reading Room and client-side in central government at DIUS, BIS and COI.

Helpful Technology offers:

• no-nonsense advice and strategies, based on a solid understanding of clients’ goals and the context they work in
• build and ongoing support for engagement-driven websites, with an eye on the user experience and an aim to work in sustainable ways with audiences and clients
• training, coaching and mentoring to people interested in doing this for themselves, helping to develop skills and confidence
• our own ready-to-go platforms, designed to enable rapid digital innovation at modest cost – including The Social Simulator, a social media skills training environment; and Read+Comment, a hosted platform to gather comments on consultations and documents.

Inigo first came to life way back in 1999. ( We say it like that because, in the world of web design, that’s a long time ). Although we’re based in Edinburgh, our clients are around the UK.

If it’s not obvious by now, we design websites, create web-based applications and can look after your entire online presence: content management systems, eCommerce solutions, searchable online databases and a bespoke web development service that means we can deliver online whatever you want, however you want it.

Established as a web development business in 2006, interconnect/it is the UK’s largest independent provider of WordPress solutions to the news, corporate and large enterprise market.

Our ability to understand your needs for durability, scale and low hardware and support costs have allowed us to gain and keep clients such as Informa PLC, Telegraph Media Group, Greenwich PCT, The National Air Traffic Service and many more.

Get in touch and make our day

If you think there’s anything we can do for you, then just give us a call on 0151 331 5140 (or +44 151 331 5140 if you’re overseas) and we’ll be more than happy to discuss your requirements.

Alternatively, you can complete our enquiry form and we’ll get right back to you.

Point and Stare are a small and select team who work to make sure that our clients’ businesses grow as a result of their online presence with experience ranging from working with Apple, Microsoft, Canon, BBC, RBS, Nokia as well as many other companies across the World.

Bringing over 15 years of online development and marketing experience to the table, as well as real life business common sense, Point and Stare offer everything from your first online presence, or brochure website, to a complete online store or corporate presence.

Every part of the project is managed, from concept to completion, ensuring that timescales are adhered to and your wishes are reflected in the design and feel and, most importantly, you are thrilled with the completed project.

Our main services include:

• WordPress/ CMS/ theme design and development
• WordPress as a Service
• General web development and design
• Online store development and design
• Smart phone/ tablet application development
• Social media integration
• Blog addition, news aggregation and article writing
• Consultation, strategy and idea generation

Tetrahedra is the identity that John Adams uses for all things geeky that don’t directly relate to his day job in Government IT.  John works with churches, charities and small businesses in Glasgow that need websites and online solutions based on WordPress, and he is also a part of the growing WP Scotland network.

WP Bees is a freelance WordPress development team based in Liverpool. For the most part it’s one freelance developer called Chris (he’s the Queen Bee). When the project requires expertise outside of WordPress website development, Chris will call on a trusted network of website copywriters, graphic designers, photographers and more to deliver your web project on time and on budget.

To find out more, visit the hive at WPBees.com

Kevinjohn Gallagher is an executive-level Business Transformation and Digital Consultant with almost 20 years of cross-industry experience. Through his growing consultancy, Pure Web Brilliant, Kevinjohn has delivered continued success to an amazing range of companies.

A passionate advocate of Open Source Software, Kevinjohn strongly believes that by adopting a pragmatic Agile approachthrough the innovation’s brought about by modern digital thinking, that spectacular Returns on Investment can be found in transforming any business.

For the most part, Phenomenoodle is one woman (Taryn Wallis) and her cat. And, to be very honest, the cat doesn’t do all that much.

Through Phenomenoodle, Taryn provides WordPress design and development services for small businesses with big dreams. This includes custom WordPress theme design, custom plugin development, and training in how to use WordPress.

Taryn is a member of the WordPress Theme Review Team, the folks who check all themes submitted for inclusion in the WordPress repository to ensure that they meet the standards required.

She is also the East Regional Coordinator for WPScotland, the Scottish WordPress user group, and organises monthly meetups and larger-scale WordUp events to promote the use of WordPress and grow the WordPress community in Scotland.

BraveNewCode Inc. is Canadian company, and began in 2007 as a simple design & development portfolio for the work of Dale Mugford. In early 2008, software engineer Duane Storey climbed aboard contributing his extensive talents to the mix.

Dale handles most of the front-end design & CSS, while Duane contributes his extensive programming skills to the mix, making BraveNewCode a full-blown web creation company.

Uniquely, Dale and Duane share cross-over skills and a passion for quality and precision. Together, the projects and plugins they’ve built are thoughtfully created and maintained.

[oik] plugins are an ever growing set of WordPress plugins. Developed by WordPress (and Drupal) specialist Herb Miller, of bobbing wide, [oik] plugins’ goals are to make designers, developers and WordPress website owners lives a lot easier by reducing the unnecessary and sometimes complex duplication of information that goes to make up a website.

[oik] plugins primarily deliver solutions in the form of lazy smart shortcodes; ranging from simple shortcodes such as [bw_telephone], [bw_mailto] and [bw_company] through more complex ones e.g. [bw_show_googlemap] and [bw_follow_me] to advanced and potentially complicated codes such as [bw_pages], [bw_thumbs] and [nivo]

Herb is a freelance developer based in Rowlands Castle,  Hampshire. His first involvement with WordCamp and the UK WordPress community was at WCUK Portsmouth in 2011. Inspired by the weekend and a subsequent event in Brighton, he started WordUp Pompey in October 2011. Herb’s most recent project is the “cookie-cat” plugin and associated website.

base6 is the little studio of Michael ‘Kimb’ Jones, a UK-based creative digital web specialist.

Kimb has been building for the web since the late 90’s, and now works in the NHS providing WordPress-based solutions for Barnsley Hospital.

In 2010 he founded WonderThemes, the fair WordPress theme marketplace, and off-line curates The Digital Barn, a conference aimed at web/digital types.

In 2007, Amir Helzer set up OnTheGoSystems. He wanted to solve problems faced by small businesses in the global marketplace. That drive has stayed with us as OnTheGoSystems has grown into a company that’s constantly looking for ways to improve user experience on the Internet. We do this by focusing on two main areas: how can we make it easier for people to communicate across language barriers? How can we lower the entry-level for people who want to create websites?

To survive in a global marketplace, businesses need to develop strategies to communicate across cultures and language barriers. Since 2007, this has been one of our main focuses. We know that it’s important for all businesses, not just big corporations, to have multilingual sites so in 2007 we launched ICanLocalize, providing self-service translation services for text, software and websites. In 2009, we took this experience and transferred it to the open source market, launching the WPML (WordPress Multilingual) plugin and a Drupal module.

In 2011 we launched the Types and Views WordPress plugins. WordPress is the most widely used open source content management system in the world. More and more people want to build sites using it, but, unless you know how to write PHP, creating anything beyond a simple website or blog can be difficult. Types and Views were developed for creating and displaying WordPress content. Together, the plugins make it possible for any designer to create complex websites with WordPress.

We are always looking towards the future, always looking at ways we can provide better functionality for Internet users.

As the web evolves, we evolve with it, into new technologies and new markets, and we hope to take you along with us.

Canary Dwarf is a small digital media agency dedicated to providing you with high quality services including web and mobile web design and development, digital media, internet marketing, SEO, social media, etc, from their base in Forres, Moray, north-east Scotland.

In 2009, it won the Golden Twits award for use of social media on one of its projects, establishing it as one of the most forward-thinking web companies in Moray.

Run by husband and wife team Marc and Susan Hindley, Canary Dwarf provide businesses, organisations and events with effective web strategies, starting with design and build, and supporting their clients with content management and marketing advice.