Our very own Matt Simo has been invited to be the guest speaker at the WordPress Developer and Technical User Group in Dallas/Fort Worth ( #dfwwptech) in Dallas, TX on May 13, 2010.
#dfwwptech is a community of WordPress developers and technical users in the Dallas / Fort Worth area. In April, 2010 they began meeting monthly to discuss development on the WordPress platform and tangential topics like HTML5 or running a WordPress-based consultancy.
Matt actually lives full time in the Dallas area and works off-site for May, mastering the skills of skype communication, time zone management, and juggling freelance clients while also meeting the numerous client deadlines imposed on him from being May’s “code guy” 20-30 hrs a week on average.
In the past 8 months or so we’ve challenged Matt with a lot of demanding WordPress requests, and he ceases to impress us every project with his WP back-end finesse and pushing the boundaries of the CMS’ functional capabilities.
If you’re in the Dallas vicinity May 13 register here to be schooled by Simo. We wish we could be there!
We are pleased to announce the launch of the completely redesigned Santa Barbara Adventure Company website. SBAC owners Suzanne & Michael Cohen are long time friends of May’s Founder, Garth Humbert and it was great to be working with them again.
Fresh out of college (UCSB), Suzanne and Garth launched Print Lab Design Bureau in 1998. When Suzanne married Michael and got involved in SBAC’s daily operations, she hired Garth to launch the company’s original website. Needless to say, that was awhile ago, and SBAC approached May last fall to help revamp their online presence – complete with full force social media integration, beautiful design, and full control Wordpress content management.
Here’s some before & after screenshots to show the evolution.
We look forward to many more years of working together and can not wait to celebrate our one year anniversary of May this summer with a team building adventure outing courtesy of SBAC! It’s gonna be epic!
What was expected to be an average Friday workday turned into an exhilarating real-life episode of CSI this morning at May HQ. Garth pulled up to the office to what could have been doomsday – a brick through the front window, as well as the front window of the unit next to ours.
With thousands of dollars of computer equipment, drawers full of irreplaceable client files, and racks of inventory (RedisWhite) we were immediately relieved to see everything intact and our office untouched. The “locksmith” next to us however, didn’t get away so lucky.
After racking our brains why they wouldn’t care to touch our valuables, we starting sleuthing around, putting together the pieces, and discovered the remnants of pot plants and (what we thought was) dog food in the back alley. Ah ha! Evidently the bandits knew exactly what they were after, and mistook our office unit (with no signage out front) for the underground growing operation next door. That explained why our neighbors never actually appeared to be doing any real work (he claimed to have won the business in a high stakes poker game), and why they’d sometimes leave their barking american bulldog there for long periods at a time. Mystery solved.
What was expected to be an average Friday workday turned into an exhilarating real-life episode of CSI this morning at May HQ. Garth pulled up to the office to what could have been doomsday – a brick through the front window, as well as the front window of the unit next to ours.
With thousands of dollars of computer equipment, drawers full of irreplaceable client files, and racks of inventory (RedisWhite) we were immediately relieved to see everything intact and our office untouched. The “locksmith” next to us however, didn’t get away so lucky.
After racking our brains why they wouldn’t care to touch our valuables, we starting sleuthing around, putting together the pieces, and discovered the remnants of pot plants and (what we thought was) dog food in the back alley. Ah ha! Evidently the bandits knew exactly what they were after, and mistook our office unit (with no signage out front) for the underground growing operation next door. That explained why our neighbors never actually appeared to be doing any real work (he claimed to have won the business in a high stakes poker game), and why they’d sometimes leave their barking american bulldog there for long periods at a time. Mystery solved.
Given the opportunity to reflect back, we are extremely blessed that we can continue on with business as usual. However, a couple huge lessons learned: 1) Backup all your files off-site immediately. Services like Mozy, Carbonite, and Dropbox are great places to store your files. Google Docs now lets you upload any files to their servers for free. Most project management tools like Basecamp and Intervals also support online document storage. There really is no excuse to not backup. 2) Insure your property and equipment. If you work from home, make sure your homeowners insurance is enough to cover any loss. If it seems like you can’t afford insurance, then you REALLY can’t afford for your equipment to get jacked, so just do it. 3) Finally, get to know your neighbors. Your livelihood may depend on it.
One last positive – we now have a really cool brick paper weight as a reminder of today’s events.
Last week we journeyed outside on our first company field trip and traveled to San Diego to scope out this quarter’s recent grads from the Art Institute of California – San Diego (the alma mater of our very own Amanda Ashcraft). The event took place at the Wonderhaus, a spacious, brick warehouse space in downtown SD.
It was inspiring to observe the fresh talent of hungry artists straight out of school. Many of their final thesis projects were the culmination of 9+ months of sweat, blood, and probably a few tears. Their dedication and creative passion was super apparent, and we wish them all the best of luck with venturing out into the ‘real world’ design community.
A few noteworthy designers, illustrators, and web developers we made friends with include
Jed Bridges // Sereli Rodriguez // Eric Gravlin
Be sure to check out their impressive online portfolios, follow them on Twitter, and if you get overwhelmed with work - toss some their way!
