Online contracts and selling

Jill Wells has been running seminars about Basic Contracts for us. There is some key legislation around contracting and selling online. When forming contracts online you must provide your customers with information about:
• all technical steps required to conclude the contract, eg "click this box"
• whether the concluded contract will be filed by you and whether it will be accessible
• the languages offered for the conclusion of the contract
• any relevant codes of conduct to which you subscribe, and information on how these can be consulted electronically
• You must make sure that your website allows customers to go back and correct any mistakes made in their order before the order is placed.
• Once a customer has placed an order electronically, you must acknowledge receipt without undue delay. For more on ecommerce regulations www.outlaw.com/page-431

Creative Women of Achievement

The creative sector had various successes at the Leicestershire Women of Achievement Awards which took place on Friday night (20 March) at the Walkers Stadium: Ellen Bianchini, founder & Director of The Spark Children’s Arts Festival, won overall Woman of the Year. http://www.sparkfestival.co.uk/. Sarah Cressall won Business Woman of the Year. Sarah set up The Creation Station http://www.thecreationstation.co.uk/ . The business runs creative sessions for parents and their children in community centres, village halls and the like. It now has franchises around the country as well as in Leicester/shire. Julia Damassa, founder of Storyshapes Ltd was a finalist for Rural Business Woman of the Year. Storyshapes are a resource which help children to tell and record their own stories. http://www.storyshapes.co.uk/ . Pleased to add that Sarah and Julia were nominated by Creative Leicestershire and are past Bursary winners.

Totem gets pole position at iconic library

The University of Manchester’s world-famous John Rylands Library has commissioned a £40,000 piece of public art from Leicestershire Artist Derek Hunt. His 11 metre high “Totem” was the top choice from more than one hundred applications from across Britain, Europe and the United States.
Funded by the Oglesby Charitable Trust, the glass and steel sculpture will be installed in the Library’s new entrance wing close to the original 1890s building famed for its gothic architecture.
Derek’s design referred to the original Victorian colour scheme of John Ryland’s architect Basil Champneys, as well as iconic images from the library’s archive. The commission is a coup for the artist whose work is seen around the UK in mosques, churches, public buildings, theatres, schools and shopping centres.
He said: “I wanted to create a glass installation which would embody the spirit of the John Rylands Library, reflect and celebrate its many collections of rare books, manuscripts and archives, and help to create a sense of place.
For more information on Derek’s work, go to http://www.limelightstudios.co.uk/

Low Cost Marketing Ideas

Alastair Campbell (no, not that one) of the Ideal Marketing company lead a seminar for us yesterday in Coalville on 12 ideas for small creative businesses. Lots of practical, no-nonsense stuff. More on Alastair and his seminars at http://www.idealmarketingcompany.com/ . He'll be repeating the seminar in Hinckley on 17 September 09.

One thing I've found very useful re. website optimisation is google's free tool to find out what keywords people are typing into google and therefore what you should use to optimise your website. Go to google and type in keyword tool external.

Clare