In July of 2006, I celebrated the first anniversary of 28 Media – which also marked the middle of a whirlwind year of press coverage, exciting client projects, travel, and volunteer work.

Over the course of the year, 28 Media was written up in Richmond magazine, WORK magazine, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch. This exposure helped expand my client base to include projects for healthcare, non-profits, technology startups and commercial businesses.

I also found time to attend An Event Apart, a national conference series featuring some of the brightest minds in the web industry, including Jeffrey Zeldman, Jason Santa Maria and Jim Coudal. After seeing how this event brought together designers from across the country, I was inspired to attempt something similar at home: Refresh Richmond.

Refresh Richmond is a networking and training group I organized and established for area web professionals. Since it began in May, the group has grown quickly to a core group of 30 regular meeting attendees, an active member discussion forum, a job board listing freelance and full-time positions, and a mailing list of almost 200 web-minded Richmonders.

So, what’s ahead for 2007? There are several exciting new projects in the works; check back often at 28media.com for the latest news.

Have you ever wished you could update your company’s website yourself?

I was contracted by Richmond agency PUNCH to execute their design for the new Children’s Hospital website, which I coded and programmed using the Expression Engine content management system.

This allows the hospital staff to manage their hundreds of articles, photos and file downloads through an easy-to-use browser interface. And because the site is dynamically generated, the navigation, event calendars and news pages will automatically reflect any changes that are made.

As web-enabled devices grow increasingly popular, the need for mobile sites grows right along with them. So, who would need a mobile version of their site?

There are countless possibilities for an effective mobile site – a specially developed site that is optimized for viewing on web-enabled phones and other handheld devices.

Take Fandango.com, for example, whose traditional website sells movie tickets that you can buy in advance. With their mobile version, you can pull up to the theater, order your tickets from your car and walk straight to the front of the line to pick them up.

QuickLaunch was introduced last year as a new service in which a fully-functional, custom-designed, one-page website is designed, built and deployed in just one business day-all for an affordable flat fee.

Although this service was originally introduced in response to a very specific client need, but it is applicable to businesses such as:

• A small business with impending, unexpected media coverage.
• A company in need of a “microsite” to support an upcoming product launch or advertising campaign.
• A business owner seeking their first web presence, but without the time or budget for the full site development process.

Click here to read more about this convenient product. And, any QuickLaunch sites launched by the end of February will be eligible for a free year of hosting and domain registration.