It’s a Good Time to Have a Great Time at the Fair!  And we couldn't agree more.

We recently launched a new Saffire Event Website for YMBL and the South Texas State Fair.  Take a look!

As we mentioned in a previous post, this project presented some new challenges to our team and we were happy to provide YMBL with everything they were looking for in a webssite.

Because the focus of the website changes so drastically between fair season and the rest of the year, we created two very different designs for the site.  We wanted customers to know the focus immediately once arriving on the site so they could find what they were looking for quickly.  You'll want to check out their site again in a few weeks to see the year-round design.

We incorporated our ecommerce platform into their site so they could sell tickets online for the first time.  They can now accept payment online for tickets, vendors, sponsors and YMBL memberships.

This was our first time to create a "Member's Only" section for one of our event websites.  The Member's Only section allows YMBL members to update their profiles, pay for memberships and see upcoming community events as well as member specific events. 

Now, you'll just have to trust us on how good the Member's Only section looks, because we can't show you.  After all, it is Member's Only!

We also helped The South Texas State Fair expand their reach with social media and already has over 100 Facebook fans!

Chris Colletti and his team at YMBL were a pleasure to work with and we can't wait to hear about their successful event this year.

We couldn't help ourselves. We simply had to release a new mobile site for Rodeo Austin.

We spent years telling clients "not yet" when they asked about mobile sites,

but now that the stars have aligned so that the time is right, we were excited to help them get on the mobile bandwagon!

The Rodeo Austin mobile event website released today. We're super proud of it. From this site, you can:

• See a calendar of events by date, event type or location
• Get directions
• Buy tickets
• Sign up for updates

Please visit this new mobile event website from your smartphone.

We just launched several updates to the Rodeo Austin website for this event season, all of which are now in Saffire Event Websites.

As you can see from the slideshow, we kept all that was great about the site and just made it better.

We added a "Locations" page so you can view all events taking place at a particular location. 

We also added a lot of options for Rodeo Austin to control an event page, including all the new tabs in the Admin Site view above like specific event sponsors, important PDFs, URLs, Results and even the order in which all these new features appear on the page.

We also added a way for you to associate particular "Items" with an event.  This can be used in several ways, including selling tickets from various price levels, different times of an event and even different dates of an event.  This allows Rodeo Austin to give their customers even more specific information about an event.

Overall, we are so happy with the site improvements and glad we were able to make the site more user friendly for both visitors and Rodeo Austin!

The 2011 Austin ADDY Awards were also Saturday night, and we were so excited to hear the Rodeo Austin website had been nominated for an ADDY!  We did a little party-hopping so we could attend the Rodeo Austin Gala and then run over to hear the ADDY Award announcements.

We were excited to finally take a look inside Moody Theater, the new home of Austin City Limits and the location of the ADDY's.

There it is!  Our award-winning website.

Kendra and Jessica showing off our entry!

Jeremy was excited when they announced our award with Rodeo Austin:  Silver ADDY Award Website, Consumer Flash, Service.

The view of the stage from our seats on the front row.

Our team was excited to be among such great company at the ADDY's including Shiner Beers, Whole Food Market, Frost Bank and many more.  Congratulations to all of the 2011 ADDY Award winners.  Check out the complete list of winners here.

Rodeo Austin’s website, originally launched in November 2009, was our first website built with the Saffire Event Website platform.  Now others in the fair and rodeo industry are singing its praises.

Rodeo Austin was awarded “Outstanding Website” at the International Association of Fairs and Expositions convention in Las Vegas for the 250-500K attendees category.

And just a few weeks later, the Rodeo Austin website was awarded “Best Website” at the Texas Association of Fairs and Events convention here in Austin.

We are proud to be Rodeo Austin’s interactive partner and look forward to much more success as their website continues to evolve with Saffire.

Our team also looks forward to forming new relationships with the other members of TAFE and IAFE.  We are now associate members of both organizations and would like to work with other members in need of a new event website.

Check out Saffire Event Websites to learn more.

Wright Strategies is excited to officially announce our partnership with the Young Men’s Business League of Beaumont for a new website not only for their organization, but also the South Texas State Fair.

We will be building a completely new site to bring the excitement of the South Texas State Fair online using the Saffire Commerce platform to create and host the site.  This project will integrate a new ecommerce system to make it easier to buy tickets to the fair and include a new mobile version of the website, allowing people to access information about the fair from wherever they are. 

The YMBL organization will be highlighted through a website that focuses on its mission and community programs, including a members-only portion of the site which will allow members to update their profiles, see upcoming events and view a member directory online. 

Our team not only wholeheartedly supports YMBL and its mission to improve the welfare of the city of Beaumont and Southeast Texas, but also wants to help the South Texas State Fair and YMBL lead the fair industry in internet presence. 

Looking forward to this site launching in early 2011!