I’m proud to say that at last my web-design business, Strawberry Designs, has launched. I am working on this with my partner Michael. The idea for this business is to accumulate revenue streams.

We will be working freelance on bespoke projects, create and sell graphics and templates and use affiliate marketing. Doing things this way means that we can continue to do this as well as our normal jobs, with more flexible hours and taking projects we feel we can best deliver on.

I have been researching the market for a while now and I am confident this is the best way for this specific business to go forward. This is indeed a crowded market but Strawberry Designs focuses on creativity and web communication.

I realize I now effectively have 11 years of experience creating websites. So far I have not capitalized on this skill, creating websites and designs for friends and personal websites. I now feel I want to use this skill more and capitalize on something I love doing. It is also fabulous to be working on this with my partner who is himself very enthusiastic in graphics design and produces great logos for example (I love the one he made for my business card).

If you are looking for web graphics, a new website or webdesign, need a good looking business card, please contact us, we’ll be delighted to help. If you would like to help a start-up, follow us on Twitter or Facebook and send our link to your contacts! Your support is greatly appreciated.

I will also be posting updates on this blog when we publish new templates etc. Our marketing strategy is indeed rather straightforward: creating links on many social networks, efficient SEO (which we offer as standard when building websites) and great service.

Visit: Strawberry-Designs.com

It is always difficult to get across in a less robotic way when communicating online. As we discussed in the marketing office I have recently started working at, the best marketing technique really is to show yourself, knock on people’s door, give them a call, follow up. There’s what’s called ‘closing relationships’, which in short means keeping in touch and in good terms with costumers. But how do you create better opportunities to create a healthy business relationship? My best guess is personalizing your communication.

Two examples spring to my mind. When I sent my application for the St Gallen Symposium I thought it was such a huge competition there was no way it could be as friendly an environment as it was described. I was dead wrong: My letter saying I was invited to the actual Symposium was fully personalized and so was every single item that was sent or given to me thereafter. Talking with fellow attendees that was definitely a major ‘wow’ factor and I really think the organizers did a superb job. Every letter appeared signed, your name appeared handwritten, your documents had your photo ID and name on it and your personal conference information was type which means that they made and printed a different file for each participant (and there were hundreds!) Students who were part of the organizing committee or helping explained how they spent a fair amount of energy and time on this process and all I can say is that they definitely did not waste their time.

My next example comes from my website development experience. When I was 15, I used to own a Harry Potter website and it grew rather well, actually too well for my pocket money at the time. I’m now feeling very silly because had I not been against publishing ads on my site and known more about SEO I would have been able to keep it running. One thing that certainly contributed to it doing well though, and despite my lack of knowledge in advertising at the time, was that I personalized it a maximum. It certainly takes extra effort but if you subscribe to a website you want to only have to use one log in for the whole site however big it is and enjoy every feature for yourself. Your contribution is important and must be recognized. I should probably make a whole separate topic on website building, marketing and personalization because that is definitely something that deserves its own blog. I have learned a great amount about that from managing sites that required managing a team and networking. I will ponder over it and will publish it later on. Actually, since I am working on a new Harry Potter site project now that I can finance it better, I will probably wait until I launch it in October and publish a report on my strategy for that website, which should allow me to have more insight into that project.

In general personalizing your online communication comes down to using the person’s name, recalling elements of your conversation and showing genuine interest. I simply have to think of how I would like to be treated and it should come naturally. I would suggest to think of that in any case but I would have to add “show yourself”! If the best marketing strategy is to show yourself in real life and knock on doors, then surely you want to get as close to it as you can get. The only way to do that is to pull in some of your personality when you communicate online.

My trick of the day is to add your own handwriting to your online documents. I study paleography as part of my MA in Medieval History, which is quite an art and something I am far from able to master as of now: reading and analyzing ancient handwriting. Your handwriting is an extension of your personal style, and every time my Professor looks at scripts I hear him, with good reason, talk about the scribe himself in relation to the script. It’s actually fascinating to think of the psychology behind the way you write. Your handwriting is used to tell something on paper but it tells a lot about you also. To a certain extent, showing it to your interlocutor makes you seem more trustworthy. For example, whenever I send an online application for a job, I always add a digital signature to my cover letter. So far I’ve had a reply to every cv I have sent through, and even in cases when I did not land the job for various reasons (I think I’ve been too ambitious in my choice of jobs to apply for…), I am always told how my presentation was “great” and my personality and passion (I only apply for a job if I’m genuinely interested) came through in the application which is “refreshing and interesting” because people want to see that you care.

Of course, not everyone has a digital tablet and can write on their computer – although really if you want one it’s a fantastic investment, I should also take time to discuss ways to use one without only focusing on creative outlets and digital art. It is also too time consuming and rather inefficient to write and scan letters. So instead I suggest you make your own typing font. I thought about that when I was making my Harry Potter site. I would send personalized digital letters to subscribers. You could do it the hard way like I used to but why would you when you can have it done for a minimal price. My best link is Yourfonts.com, which provides a template and offers to do this for you for only $9.95, which you only need to pay if you find yourself happy with what you get. To me that is a puny investment you would make back in minutes.

On another note, reading through reviews and testing it I thought their idea was fantastic because making your own font is tedious and my geeky website creator mind had only ever thought of website creation uses, but truly, you could do so much more. For example, if you are far away from your family and it is more convenient to send an email, you could instead type your message in a word document with your handwriting font and simply send it as an attachment (though it would be best to save it as a PDF file when you have finished writing it so the formatting stays perfect). Of course it isn’t exactly the same… but it’s so much better than the regular email.

Have fun!

First of all Wow, what a fantastic week I have had in St Gallen, attending both the pre-conference programme, then the conference itself and finally the after-the-conference celebrations. All of it was enriching on a personal and professional level and has definitely been a worthy challenge in my life. I had the opportunity to meet a huge variety of people from many places around the world, all of whom were very interesting and remarkably enterprising people.

To me above all, for once, I was not the only one who had traveled a lot and did not especially feel like I belong somewhere in particular in this world – I met others who are citizens of the world. I am French by birth and Canadian through my mother but I have moved to different places all my life and although even my closest family sometimes does not understand it, I have a different view on nationality and I have a rather nomadic lifestyle. I often think it would be great someday if this notion that one human being can detach him or herself from a specific national identity and adopt a wider one (edit: although I am not saying that I am not French or not Canadian) existed when it is not only about living on Earth but also on other planets – should it happen someday, who knows there might also be another way of doing things-. You might then hear someone like me say that they are a universal or cosmic citizen, doesn’t that sounds particularly nice in terms of adventure potential? Nowadays universal and cosmic are words that tend to avoid defining a sense of limitations. But surely someday – if we don’t destroy the human existence prematurely- we will need bigger words to explain what other unknown but expected challenges lie beyond our next geographical milieu and then cosmic and universal (although I believe the word universal has already become a slightly more limited word) will be in usage in the same limited way than worldly now is. Who and what will create this change? But enough on this divergence.

Many things made this an exceptional experience so I will discuss them in parts:

1) The participants themselves: The event was organized by a huge panel of students from St Gallen University and their work, organization and execution was breath-taking. It clearly defies any assumption that students cannot possibly be put in charge of world-class events and do as well if not better than most others. The organizers were all very friendly and I think they can really be proud of themselves. The helpers were also all very interesting people doing an excellent job and I had great discussions with some of them. There were 100 students including me selected for the essays they submitted for the Wings of Excellence Awards, with 3 winners of the competition who had the great opportunity to present their work in front of the audience of the symposium on the last day. There were also another 100 people, usually also students, who were selected by the organizers as knowledge pool for the symposium. Finally there were hundreds more of important business men and women, politicians, journalists, researchers and academics from all over the world some of whom were speakers at the Symposium. Everyone was someone who is actively trying to do something out of the ordinary and challenging. Their backgrounds were extremely diverse and I enjoyed talking to each person I was able to talk with. The networking opportunities alone were incredible and I look forward to hearing what the people I met will accomplish and tap into the possibilities to create more opportunities together.

2) The location: St Gallen itself was beautiful. The university was great too. As a medieval history student, I was thrilled to go to such a richly historical place. The Abbey library contains hundreds of fabulous manuscripts. I was recently researching music and sound in medieval magic and discovered, for example, that the first form of musical notes in Europe, called neumes, were partly developed in St Gallen by the monks and can be found in 9th century manuscripts there. All manuscripts can be found online [LINK], but it was really awesome to experience being there.

3) 100 years of Swiss Aviation: This year was not only an anniversary Symposium, 40 years, but also an anniversary for the Swiss aviation, celebrating its 100th year. For this occasion, both days of the Symposium we had the privilege to see a flight show by the Patrouille Suisse and on Thursday evening I attended the anniversary dinner. All of it was truly fantastic.

4) I challenged myself: One of my mottos is that if you feel fear, you must figure out why and face the object of that fear as soon as you know it. Well I had never experienced anything like this before, my business experience is limited because I am only just starting, I had never spoken in front of such a wide audience nor had I ever received such form of acknowledgment of belonging to a group of people, deserving to be there. I know this sounds strange, but I am actually more used to going against expectations, and although I was the only medieval historian and was often asked ‘so why are you interested in this symposium?’ (answer: ‘I have many interests and projects’) or even the always difficult to answer ‘where are you from?’ (to which I tend to reply, ‘I move a lot’), I felt very welcome. The symposium overall was a strange yet amazing mix of challenging and stimulating situations in a very formal context and a very inclusive type of -exclusive- event however confusing that may sound. For example: I asked a question at one of the plenary sessions. I was afraid of doing it, I rarely ask questions in public in general, I have the curiosity to think of a great many but I usually wait for more private conversations. It was great to try it. It sounds a small step but if you think about the audience there which was exceptionally big and filled with very important people, then how easy it is to ask a silly question and regret it, I’m glad I tried and I am happy with what I asked although I wish I had spelled it out more eloquently and clearly because I might have received better answers.

There is so much more to think of and as I start assimilating it all I shall post more but I believe these were the main things. I must thank the ISC team for the great opportunity, the students I became friends with there for making this an even more incredible experience, and my host who really welcomed me and helped me. I plan to do a Phd at some point later and accumulate experiences and projects in the meantime and I have this nagging feeling that it is a shame I will not be a student next year to participate again. I will try to become knowledgeable enough to come back in another category otherwise!

You can find all info on the symposium, photos and videos etc at the following link: http://www.stgallen-symposium.org/