A Golden Web Award for our own Webmistress

Gail French is one of those givers in life. She has donated her incredible skills at creating websites to a number of non profit organizations. The recent Destination: Leadership Conference at Georgian College is a case in point. The conference was a top flight event featuring internationally reknowned speakers and splendid local talent, all pooled by an organizing committee which represented a number of Barrie organizations.

Gail French undertook to develop a website that not only sold the whole concept of leadership excellence, but zeroed in on individual speakers, appropriate workshops, the ability to register online etc. And she did it all for free, because she’s a new business and the exposure was an excellent opportunity for her.

Gail owns NetVisions. She develops audio visual and real audio presentations and incorporates them into websites. All she does is websites. It’s a skill likened to that of a graphic artist.

There are computer programs that let you create pamphlets and folders with clip art and templates. Handy programs, but their users are not graphic artists.

The same holds true with website developers. The point and click programs let a person develop an internet presence, but these programs do not webmasters or webmisstresses make.

Gail, on the other hand, from her home office in Churchill, ON., writes code, and develops processes that make a website innovative with crisp, effective promotional images.

Which is why I’m feeling particularly proud of Gail these days. She developed a website for Ontario Environmental Products, (web address http://oepcanada.com) recently and was honoured by the Association of International Web Designers with a Golden Web Award. This designation allows Gail to apply this icon to every website she develops, with established recognition on her own website and a suitable plaque for her office wall.

Gail’s business this year was launched through the support of the federal government’s Self Employment Assistance Program. She was hired to develop the website of the Annual Report for all those businesses in the 1998/99 year. Go have a look… you’ll meet Webmistress Gail, and 59 other entrepreneurs. Web address: webmistress@netvision.int.com/sea. Enjoy!

Thanks, Gail!