On Friday 19th October, Queen’s University Belfast launched an ambitious fundraising campaign. The aim of the campaign was to raise £140m over the next five years.
Build 2012
by Colm on 20/11/2012
Ever since the tickets for Build 2012 went on public sale away back in April 12th, I had been eagerly anticipating a week full of inspirational people. And I don’t just mean the speakers, I mean the attendees both travelling from the US and Europe as well as the local Northern Ireland contingent. I could not wait. (In all honesty, I had been waiting since the previous year as I missed out on getting a ticket for Build 2011).
Armed with my Student Pass, I was ready to attend each and every event open to me. The Fringe events, the later-scheduled, Shopify Workshop and of course the Conference itself… obviously the After-Party too.
So let’s get stuck in!
Build Conference Talks 2012
by Toby on 19/11/2012
The week long design event known simply as Build is a series of events that build up towards a main set of talks that has attracted the attention of some of the best people in the business, not only with regards to speakers but also with the calibre of attendees and has really helped to put Belfast on the map as the creative hub of Northern Ireland and puts us on par with the rest of the UK in regard to places currently breeding lots of creativity.
Shopify Workshop
by Toby on 16/11/2012
Pierce is pretty well known for delivering awesome eCommerce solutions, and we normally achieve this using the open source platform Magento, but we are firm believers in picking the right tool for the job and know how important it is that our developers have exposure to as many tools as possible. It is with this in mind that both Colm and myself attended a workshop on Shopify.
Cancer Focus Think Pink Luncheon
by PierceComms on 25/10/2012
Pierce Communications were delighted to sponsor Cancer Focus Northern Ireland in taking a table at their Think Pink! Luncheon on October 19th.
Cancer Focus’s Think Pink! campaign raises awareness of the signs and symptoms of breast cancer and highlights the help available to women who have already been diagnosed. The luncheon is the charity’s flagship event during breast cancer awareness month, raising awareness and funds to support local women with breast cancer.
Thriving in a recession is like walking on hot coals
by Barry on 23/10/2012
Last week I attended one of the Innovation Roadshows organised by the Irish Times. This particular event in the series was held at the University of Ulster on York Street and featured a range of speakers, including RepKnight’s John Reid and computer science professor Maurice Mulvenna.
The keynote speaker was Norman Crowley, who’s probably the most successful Irishman you’ve never heard of. A serial entrepreneur, Norman has built a series of highly successful businesses in e-commerce, gaming, and energy.
How to create a new Package/Theme in Magento
by Paul on 16/10/2012
When I first started working with Magento I made a mistake that I swore would never happen again, I opened up the base theme and started editing. Why was this a mistake? Well, as you may or may not know Magento overrides this base theme during an upgrade. This means all modifications to this theme are deleted/removed leaving you with the original theme.
Big changes are happening in the studio this week.
by The Design Studio on 10/10/2012
The new desks, book shelves, drawers and assorted greenery have arrived. Let the banging and drilling commence.
Thankfully we are getting the experts in to do it and not Robert ‘Llewelyn’ Pierce.
If you’re in the neighborhood next week call into see the fruits of our labours. Robert might even make you a coffee!
We’re heading to Magento Live UK 2012
by PierceComms on 09/10/2012
On November 13th, Magento developers from all over the UK & Ireland will make their way to London for the MagentoLive UK conference.
MagentoLive is a new series of events by Magento which give developers and merchants an opportunity to keep up to date with everything Magento, as well as current eCommerce trends.
Walk on the Wild(cat) side
by Joanne on 08/10/2012
As part of our contract with Sport NI, Pierce Communications provided a broad range of promotional collateral for the Activ8 Wildcats Programme. Aimed at children from 3 to 11 years of age, and operated by local councils and community groups throughout Northern Ireland these clubs encourage children to participate in various physical activities to improve coordination, agility, teamwork, flexibility and to have fun!
Pierce go Bowling
by Barry Browne on 05/10/2012
Friday 28th September 2012 was the day that one of the greatest sporting spectacles ever witnessed began, it was also the start of the Ryder Cup. The venue was the Odyssey Arena and 3 teams of 6 competed for the top prize of £0 and a ten year old trophy. The teams were a good mix of varying levels of ability, ranging from rubbish to not bad. Team 1 consisted of Joan, Louise, Will, The 2 Barry’s and star man Colm. Things started well for this team with Colm knocking down every pin in sight, while the remainder of the team chipped in with strikes and spares, building up a healthy lead.
Resources for Strategic Planning
by Robert on 05/10/2012
September is the first month of our financial year and our management team has spent a considerable amount of time over July and August crystallising the Pierce Communications value propositions, setting our long term strategic objectives and determining our business plan for the incoming financial year.
Application Security Workshop
by Colm on 02/10/2012
Last Thursday (or Arthur’s Day, as some of you may have remembered from that mystery hangover on Friday morning) I attended the AppSec workshop run by Realex Payments’ David Rook (@SecurityNinja), and accompanied by 7 Elements’ David Stubley (@DavidStubley). Firstly, a little about these companies.
Richard Stallman Talk at IET
by Toby on 18/09/2012
Last night a couple of us developer nerds went down to the Titanic Science Park to see a talk and Question and Answer session from Dr Richard Stallman.
Beware ‘Search Marketing’ sales calls!
by Barry on 17/09/2012
We’re hearing more and more about local businesses being approached by cold-callers from big organisations – which you wouldn’t directly associate with digital marketing – that are trying to get these local businesses to sign up for ‘search marketing’ services.
We’ve dug a bit deeper in to this and it appears that these are highly deceptive sales calls, giving the client the impression they’re getting great value search marketing, but are in fact nothing but standard Google AdWords campaigns that point to the client’s business listing on a separate directory website.
We’re double DANI Award winners!
by PierceComms on 14/09/2012
Last night the second DANI Awards were held in the spiffing new Titanic building in Belfast. It was a grand venue for a grand occasion. With over 80 entries to choose from in 10 categories, the judges admitted it had been hard to pick winners.
Pierce Communications had four projects nominated in three categories, so we had some measure of hope we’d pick up an award. We were not disappointed – we ended up winning two!
The Multi-screen User Experience
by Barry on 13/09/2012
Google have created a great infographic that visualises the growing trend of users to access multiple devices – with different screen sizes – to consume media and buy online.
This infographic shows the importance of having a mobile strategy for your online presence. Or, rather, to make sure that whatever you do online is fully functional on all current and future devices – from TVs to phones and everything in between.
Here at Pierce Communications we’re ardent supporters of responsive web design, which ensures that the websites we build can be accessed on all kinds of different screen sizes.
My First Three Months at Pierce Communications
by Colm on 11/09/2012
I have been at Pierce Communications for three months now so I guess it’s time for a little update. Previously, I had written a short post on the inaugural BelfastJS meetup but up until now, I haven’t really spoken about my time here and what I’ve been up to.
Interesting data on the UK search market [infographic]
by Barry on 23/08/2012
The guys over at MEC together with Neo Mammalian Studios have created an interesting infographic about the UK search market, specifically on where UK users click in search results.
There are some fascinating tidbits in here that seems to contradict conventional wisdom. For example, the infographic shows that only 6% of clicks on a search results page are on paid ads, and 94% of clicks happen on organic results. This could indicate that UK searchers are a bit more clued in when it comes to distinguishing paid ads from relevant organic results.