cascade's Early Christmas Present

Earlier this summer, cascade was able to share our passion of computers with a group of children across the globe through One Laptop per Child. This amazing non-profit strives to equip underprivileged children with specially designed laptops for educational and personal use. One Laptop's mission and their XO Laptop technology are best summarized in the organization's explanatory video.

Cascade's donation, made specifically by Ben McKinley and Fritz Brumder, went to Chakuwama, a unique childrens' orphanage in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. The donation included a XO Laptop for the children and a personal Dell Laptop for the Chakuwama office staff, a gift for their amazing sacrifices.

Last week, Fritz received an email with images of the children enjoying their new XO Laptop. An awesome early Christmas present for all of us at cascade, especially for Fritz.




Fritz has been working with the children of Chakuwama since 1999 when he visited Tanzania and was introduced to the orphanage. For more about the amazing woman behind Chakuwama and the children involved, please view Fritz's Chakuwama documentary.

To learn how you can donate to One Laptop per Child please visit laptop.org.

Portland Chosen for Google Hotpot

Santa isn't the only one delivering presents across Portland.

Today on Google's Places blog, the tech company announced our beloved PDX was chosen for the launch of their first local Hotpot campaign. Hotpot is an enhanced feature of Google Places. It allows users to rate local businesses and see friends' ratings both during Google searches and in the Hotpot rating app. Google summarizes Hotspot best as:

a local recommendation engine powered by you and your friends

Why was Portland chosen? Because we're awesome. Literally, that's what they said...or at least that's how I read it. You be the judge:

Portland is a tech savvy, forward-thinking city with a history of innovation and some of the best coffee houses, microbreweries and parks in the country. Whether you know it as The City of Roses, Stumptown, P-Town, Rip City or just PDX, Portland’s thriving local business community and strong heritage of being a trailblazer made it a great choice for us to try something new.

Google will be working with several Portland businesses educating them about Places and providing them with Business Kits (businesses can request one if they have a Places page). These kits mainly include marketing material and instructions on how business can benefit from Places and Hotpot.

Voodoo Donuts and fans at tonight's Blazers v. Magic game are already benefiting from Google being in town. They're also taking a group of the top 5 Hotpot users in Portland out for dinner through their second Hotpot Jackpot.

Read more about Hotpot, Google Places and where you might see them around town in the Hotpot Portland announcement, "Trailblazing in Portland".

By Kyle Bridges

A Different Take on Social Media

Blog titles are meant to have attention grabbing titles, but this one was a slap in the face: Why You Should Consider Turning Your Back on Social Media.

As I read on, the shock wore off and the author, David Port, better explained his position. David argues that not all companies are built for social media. This is true as it requires a lot of behind the scenes work. However, more often than not companies "turn their back" on social media because they fail to create an upfront strategy.

Think about it. You have the potential to reach over 500 million customers. Do you (A) "give it a shot" or (B) plan a campaign with a thorough understanding of your strategy, goals, target audience, and a desired ROI in mind?

What goes into a strategy is a topic for another day. Here are a few ways a social media strategy could help solve issues cited by those in the article:

Time/Staff Management: The very basic social media efforts involve much more than simply posting a 140 character message. Dedicating a full time employee to researching, creating and properly implementing engaging content isn't an option for most companies. When bestowing the responsibility on a current staff member ensure he/she is a great writer, interested/involved in social media and has time to add this on to their current workload.

Setting a Priority Level: How do you balance social media with the normal daily grind? This is unique to each individual or company. Before diving into social media, set a priority level and determine where it ranks among every day business processes. Adjust this process as your social media presence and business evolve.

Is It Right for Your Industry?: Maybe not...or maybe you're just thinking about it the wrong way. Take a step back and think how your company can gain a competitive advantage with social media. Choose a unique approach, be creative and put yourself in the customer's shoes.

Still think its not for you?

What is one industry that doesn't belong on Facebook. Funeral Homes? Now search Facebook for the term and see what you find...

Although a strategy will help, I'm not saying social media will benefit every business. However, there are over 500 million potential reasons why it could...

Read more of David Port's article here.

Movember

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term "Movember", here's a brief history lesson.

Movember is a hybrid word for "Mo" as in moustache and November. The basic ideology behind the term is for men to grow a moustache throughout the month of November. Your initial question most likely is...why? Why would you dedicate a month to growing one of the least attractive facial hair styles? (no offense if you rock a moustache the 11 other months of year, be proud that you can pull it off as very few can)

The idea began in 2003 in Melbourne, Australia in the idea of bringing back the moustache as a joke, but also raising awareness to men's health issues. In 2004, Movember became an official campaign and was directed towards fundraising and raising awareness for prostate cancer. The campaign quickly spread internationally. In 2009, nearly 256,000 men sported the stache with over one million raising 42 million for Movember's charity partners.

So...to help the cause a few of the fellas at cascade are attempting to sport the stache for Movember (some are adopting beard-vember). Its been a rough start, and we very well might scare off business this month, but we're down with anything that supports the cause. Be sure to visit our Facebook page throughout the month to track our progress.

For info on Movember and how to support the fight against prostate cancer, visit movember.com.

Rewarded for Employee Health

Much thanks to the Portland Business Journal for noticing cascade's efforts to promote healthy, active lifestyles amongst the workforce. We took home the #6 spot in the 5-99 employees category at the Oregon's Healthiest Employers Awards earlier this month.

This is a win-win for us. We're extremely grateful for the recognition, and, frankly, we enjoy being active. Literally, all of our employees have made the choice to be active not only for the health benefits without anyone twisting their arm to do so (except on Sunday mornings). Whether its biking, running, skiing/snowboarding, hitting the gym or competing in many of Portland's plethora of competitions (see An Event that Took Our Breath Away) it's just something we enjoy. We also encourage healthy living by offering various incentives for our employees.

Hopefully, we'll be able to keep this up and maybe take home the #1 spot next year!

An Event that Took Our Breath Away

Over the weekend the cascade crew competed in the Oyster Urban Adventure Race which had us literally running in circles all over Portland. The race combines a scavenger hunt with all types of physical activities. Throughout the 3-4 hour race we biked up Mt Tabor, played beer pong, found the world's smallest park, completed an obstacle course at a rock climbing gym, tasted some food cart delicacies, tried not to plow over children while sprinting through the zoo and kayaked under the Burnside bridge, amongst other tasks.

Here are some stats on our mileage:

Foot = 6.7 miles
Bike = 14.7
Total = 21.4 (Hence the reason why it took our breath away)

Even though we didn't capture first place, we had a blast!

Ready to start

Post-Race

The Oyster Race takes places in several cities across the US. Be sure to register when it comes to your town next year.

Capital Bikeshare: a Zipcar on Two Wheels

Cascade recently collaborated with Alta Bicycle Share on an exciting new project that incorporates sustainability, economic efficiency and physical activity all in one. Capital Bikeshare allows commuters or those out for a leisurely ride to rent bike from stations throughout the city and return them at an entirely different location across town. As daily commuters ourselves, cascade was right at home helping build a website for Capital Bikeshare.

CapitalBikeshare.com, operated on Wordpress, combines a clean front end design (done by a local DC designer) with a robust secure members area. Through the website and 3rd party software, Bikeshare members have access to the account information, payment options and their activity level on the bikes (i.e. mileage, usage, etc).

Visit the Our Work page of our website for more about our work with Capital Bikeshare.

brandlive Now Lives on the Web

You've heard us mention brandlive since last October when Nordica helped cascade launch our newest web solution. After living within cascade's online environment, brandlive now has it's own web presence.

Cascade recently launched yourbrandlive.com as the home of the live communication tool. The site features client testimonial videos, an internal blog with support topics and details on how companies can make their brands live around the world. It also includes a list of brandlive's current clients and describes how they're using the tool to improve their business processes and enhance marketing efforts. A brandlive Facebook page was also created. (Be sure to "Like" our page)

Brandlive is a live video broadcast tool that allows companies to communicate with clients, employees and end consumers. Viewers of the live broadcast can interact with the presenter via chat creating an unscripted experience that mimicks a face-to-face interaction one would have in a retail store, meeting, event, etc. The brandlive environment is designed to match the clients brand by incorporating brand design elements. We took this a step further by literally replacing the word "brand" in brandlive with the clients brand.

For more information on this truly innovative and unique communication experience, please visit yourbrandlive.com.

TWEAK: A Social Media Phenomenon

TWEAK left footprints all over the web on their first day of business creating a social media frenzy. TWEAK is one of the many companies finding success today by leveraging social media to generate brand awareness and increase profits. Cascade was thrilled to be along for the ride and to facilitate this brand launch by building the TWEAK site on the evergreen CMS.

TWEAK's motto: "It's Your Brand", couldn't be more true. The evergreen based site follows those same principles by incorporating a ton of social media goodness and custom user features. One of the coolest features on the site is how users are able to alter the site's colors and upload background images to really make the TWEAK site their own.

Aside from customizing the site, TWEAK's customers help shape product development thanks to TWEAK's genius business model. Basically, they leverage internet celebrities' audiences to generate brand awareness and supplement product research and development. For their first shoe, TWEAK called upon Rhett&Link, aka "Internetainers", to solicit design ideas from their thousands of followers. The response was incredible as ideas poured in from twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The designs ranged from functional to ridiculous with everything from velcro high-tops to bacon flip-flops. Rhett&Link then produced a series of videos commenting on the entries which served as a critical piece of the product development process and increased the audience's anticipation for TWEAK's first shoe release.

Upon product launch TWEAK barely went 4 minutes without a sale and had comments pouring in from every corner of the social media space. We are extremely excited to be such an integral part of TWEAK's success and can't wait for the launch of their next product.

Cascade Brand Announcement

We recently announced the launch of our new brand, logo and website. Here is an excerpt from our new story regarding our make-over. For the full story with more about how our company has evolved, check out our news page.



Cascade Web Development is quickly breaking free of our web development tag and transforming into engineers of industry leading online solutions. With the introduction of brandlive by Ben and Fritz Brumder, a Cascade Web Development veteran, more and more national and local companies are beginning to adopt these technologies. The Portland Developmental Commission (PDC) saw this potential and recently awarded the Portland based company with a working capital loan.

To culminate our rapid growth and better explain our brand structure, we realized we needed a new identity; One that provides stronger brand recognition and does not limit our abilities in consumer's eyes. In a similar situation to companies like Apple and Google, we decided to establish an umbrella brand which houses our current solutions. With that said, we would like to introduce a new look and ideology behind our family of brands.

Cascade was chosen as the name for the parent brand using web//development as a secondary title. Cascade appropriately represents the company in a strong and memorable manner yet personifies a more modern feel than Cascade Web Development was able to accomplish. The logo specifically expresses our strengths as a web services provider and our ability to develop custom solutions to meet our client's needs.

You'll also notice a different visual expression of our three solutions: evergreen, whitepass and brandlive. Each brand features a similar style and color pattern yet individually elicit a unique and distinguishable brand image. We hope these logos will become commonplace in our industry and personify each solution's features and functions at first glance.

As always, we thank you for your commitment to cascade and will continue to support your business with innovative solutions and tools to help you evolve.

New Addition to cascade

Congratulations to Cam, cascade's Director of Business Development, and his wife Rachel on the birth of their first child. Bennett Clear was born in the wee hours of the morning on July 21st.

We are thrilled to have a new edition to the cascade family and couldn't be happier for Cam and Rachel.

Sorry for the Lapse

I apologize for the lack of posts this month. We've been extremely busy at Cascade prepping for a major announcement this week.

Be sure to keep checking the blog and follow us on our twitter and Facebook pages to ensure you hear the news first.

New E-commerce Sites Launch on Evergreen

What happened to June?!? Before we even had time to enjoy the month, it was already over. All of us at Cascade were too busy geeking-out on 2 awesome, new websites to even notice the start of summer (well, maybe not in Portland).

June marked the launch of 2 new websites for 2 progressive product companies. Both sites included heavy doses of e-commerce and design in vastly different business environments.

JoFit Women's Performance Apparel

Sokol Blosser Winery

Check out this News Article for a project overview or the relevant posts on our Portfolio page for more details.

Taking Home Some Hardware

Finally, we have a trophy to put on the shelf. The Cascade crew had a great time last night at the Portland Business Journal's 100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies banquet at the Portland Art Museum. Congratulations again to our clients who also made the list:

• AKT Services, LLP #88
• Papa Murphy's International #89
• Info Group Northwest #32
• Lewis and Clark Bank #16
  

Water Logged

You might think we're all brain, but there's some brawn mixed in as well.

A few weeks ago we took a company rafting outing to the Clackamas River and navigated the rough waters thanks to our guides at Blue Sky Rafting. Due to our Portland-esque spring weather, the water was insanely high which made for a turbulent and speedy ride. After a few cliffs jumps and potential raft spills, we made it out safely and lived to tell about it.

Check out the rest of our trip photos on the Cascade Facebook page.

Just Do It

The term made world famous by Nike seemed a fitting title when I discovered the success story of fashion brand Burberry's use of live video to sell product. "Just do it" is most perfectly used for the moment before the leap of faith that a person or a brand makes when trying something new.

To be an early adopter takes guts and in business deep pockets. The inevitable course corrections take skill, insight and an ability to sustain. However, the moment the path has been charted by a select few is the moment to Just do it.

For the launch of it's fall 2010 line, Burberry used live video (in 3D) to broadcast the exclusive runway show to thousands of buyers that could not be there in person. During the broadcast, viewers could ask questions and chat with each other and Burberry staff. For the 72 hours following the show, viewers could buy the exclusive merchandise, sight unseen, before it hit retail stores. Burberry will continue their use of live video for Spring/Summer by broadcasting the show direct on their website. Read more on the Mashable website.

Supporting Your Audience on brandlive

A lot of technologies are built with hundreds of bells and whistles that 90% of users never know exist, let alone need. For brandlive, we purposely left out all those unnecessary features making it simple for you to implement and even easier for your viewers to operate.

Given it's ease of use, it is extremely rare for a viewer to experience a technological issue with brandlive. Regardless, we still want you to be prepared for those rare circumstances.

Below you'll find a short list of troubleshooting topics to refer to when an audience member encounters a problem. Follow these steps when you are hosting a brandlive session to ensure you and your customers get the most out of broadcast:

1. If customers are having problems seeing the live video, ask them to refresh their browser OR click the "arrow circle" in the lower left corner of the video player.
   
2. If the video keeps 'buffering" (meaning they get a little spinning wheel), remind your viewers that video plays best when only a few web pages and computer applications are open.
   
3. No audio? First try the volume button and make sure you have speakers. If they do not work, suggest headphones for the next live session.
4. If your customer reports not seeing a video screen at all, only a puzzle piece in it's place, they will need to install adobe flash (http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/).

That should be it! We've worked out the kinks saving you the troubleshooting headaches. Brandlive is easy to use and should not require much support. If you do encounter a problem not listed above, please contact us.

Linking Social Media Channels to Facebook

Sure, Facebook allows you to upload and post your own media files in tabs, but, as a business with time already invested in Flickr, YouTube, twitter, etc. are the time worth it? Granted they give users a peek into the personality of your business, but why not just link your audience to your other social media accounts?


Thanks to the app developers at involver, you can link all those social media channel to your Facebook page in the blink of an eye. Involver developed a series of apps you can insert in the Tabs bar of your Facebook page linking users to your YouTube channel, Twitter feed, Flickr galleries, RSS feed, etc.


It is a free and easy, 5 minute installation process that cleanly integrates with the Facebook interface. Check it out on the Cascade Facebook page.

Brandlive: What camera should I use?

When broadcasting live video, what is the best camera to use:

1. BUILT IN CAMERA: Your first and easiest option is to use the built in camera on your computer. Typically these cameras are about 2-4 megepixels on the newest modules. PRO: is is easy to use, requires little set up and works without fail 99.9% of the time. CON: They do not handle light changes very well so if you are moving around the camera will re-focus and change aperture and it is only good picture quality, not great.
   
2. Logitech USB WEB CAM: These cameras create a really nice image. They are getting better and better every day. Some even come in HD. However, it is important to note that mac/apple don't always work with USB web cameras. Be sure to read if the camera is mac compatible. PRO: really nice picture quality, easy to use, you can get them in wide angle, they often come with a mic built in and you can control zoom with a PC. CON: predictability on a mac, great but not the best possible picture, ability to zoom easily while broadcasting and lack of tri-pod connections.
   
3. CAMCORDER: The highest end option in terms of features and video quality, camcorders provide a number of benefits but there are some things you need to know. 1. the camera must be a mini DV camera with firewire and your computer must have firewire. 2. settings on the camera must be adjusted right for light, exposure and sleep settings. PRO: ability to zoom, ability to record a local copy of the video, tri-pod hook ups, wide angle attachments and picture quality. CON: More options means more can go wrong, firewire is not available on all computers and it requires more set up and lighting.
   

We hope this helps you make the right choice. All options will provide a high quality brandlive video experience, so pick the one that seems right for you.


Web Cameras:
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/webcam_communications/webcams/




Camcorders:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Electronics/Cameras-Camcorders/abcat0403001.c?id=abcat0403001

Getting the Most Out of Your brandlive Sessions

Below you'll find several ideas on how to add value through your brandlive sessions:

1. USE IT and do so often. Make it a practice to frequently broadcast sessions with customers and employees so they're accustom to using it and recognize it as part of your business process.
2. Perfect your pitch. As with any speech and presentation, you want your points to be concise and direct.
3. Place yourself in the viewers shoes. What are the best methods to engaging the viewer and enhancing their experience?
4. Be personable. Talk to the audience as if you were face to face. This is were you add the most value. Joke around, make conversation, don't be stale--just be yourself!
   
5. Be prepared for questions. You never know what you'll be asked.
6. Be creative. Use brandlive where ever you see potential. Set up sessions at events. Use it as a social media tool. Make company announcement via brandlive. We don't limit you on how you can use it so why limit yourself?
7. Evolve. None of our solutions at Cascade are out-of-the-box tools. Brandlive is no exception. If you have an idea on how to improve it, lets talk about it. We're always open to new ideas.
   

Honored by the Portland Business Journal

The Portland Business Journal released their annual list of the Top 100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies, and we were thrilled to see Cascade Web Development included in this prestigious group. We are extremely humbled by our inclusion in this list and proud that we are able to keep are heads above water in this difficult economy.

We sincerely thank you for supporting us and for your commitment to Cascade.

We thoroughly enjoy our relationships with our great clients and partners (well, at least 90% of the time). It is amazing to be able to say that we genuinely love what we do.

We also want to congratulate several of our clients who were included on the list as well:

• AKT Services, LLP,
• Papa Murphy's International,
• InfoGroup Northwest,
• and Lewis and Clark Bank

The ranking of the companies is currently "Top Secret" but will be announced at the reception on June 24 from 5:30-8:30 at the Portland Art Museum. Please visit the Portland Business Journal to register for the event.

WebVisions 2010 Hits PDX

The circus is in town, and I'm not referring to Cirque du Soleil. Webvisions is back in Portland for its 10th year as the mecca for future web trends, designs, innovations and strategies.

Webvisions breaks the mold giving you more than just all the bells and whistles associated with the other 80% of conferences you'll attend this year. The event also hosts several parties (including a 10th anniversary bash), concerts, and their own awards show w/ karaoke (which will probably get awkward).

WebVisions explores the future of design, content creation, user experience and business strategy to uncover the trends and agents of change that will shatter your assumptions about the Web. Be ready to network, share ideas and be inspired by an all-star lineup of speakers.

The conference begins tomorrow at the Oregon Convention Center and runs until Friday (May 19-21). Keynote speakers such as Agnieszka Gasparska, Merlin Mann, and Luke Williams as well as numerous local faces will be on hand to wow you during sessions, panels and web design workshops.

Online registration is closed however passes are still available at the conference center.

Also, if you see Cam from Cascade be sure to say hello!

Cascade is Proud to Introduce: The Hello Foundation

At first visit, the new Hello Foundation website evokes feelings of childhood, construction paper and big crayons (or maybe thats just me?). This wasn't done by accident.

The design is driven by storytelling, imagination, and artistic expression and genuinely portrays the ideology behind The Hello Foundation:

Everyone has a story to tell, but it's how you tell it that sets you apart. It's more than combining words and sentences. It's being connected to a language and articulating ideas. It's feeling empowered enough to say hello.

The Hello Foundation (formerly SLP Services) is a industry leader in SLP, OT and School Psychologist Services across the country. They embrace innovation with open arms and are looked to as a thought leader with their progressive approach.

Don't believe me?!? Check it out for yourself:

• Art of Hello - encourages verbally challenged students to express their story through art
• Ask a Specialist - integrates Cascade's brandlive into their site providing students, parents, etc. with a personal resource to call upon for help and answers to sensitive questions

If you can't tell, all of us at Cascade are very proud of how this site turned out. Kudos must go out to Frank Creative for working closely with the Hello Foundation team and for creating such an amazing website design and brand strategy.

We thoroughly enjoyed working on this project and hope you enjoy the site as well.

www.thehellofoundation.com

Serotta Switches Management Gears

Serotta has taken huge strides in the beginning of 2010 with no signs of slowing down.

Aside from launching a brand spanking new, custom website with Cascade, (see my previous post: Cascade Invades the Serotta HQ) Serotta Competition Bicycles has undergone changes in its organizational hierarchy and company name.

The cycling giant recently introduced Stan Mavis as President of the newly formed Serotta Sport. Stan and his wife Bonnie, current VP of sales at Serotta Sport, join Ben Serotta and his wife Marcie as owners of the company.

I couldn't pass up this incredible opportunity to help lead a brand with a storied history and tremendous potential for the future, Mavis commented.

Stan is not a stranger to the industry as he co-founded Pearl Izumi and is an avid cyclist himself. Ben Serotta and Stan first forged a relationship 20 years ago as major sponsors of the Coors Light Cycling Team.

There are a range of things I can do, but I cannot do everything well. I've needed someone to work with me at the level of an owner, with an intensity for the business, and Stan brings that," Ben said about bringing in Stan.

For the full article, please read the May edition of the Bicycle Retailer or check out bicycleretailer.com

SoMe Awards: One Tweet Too Many

Clear off a space on the trophy shelf...the SoMe's are back. The SoMe Awards are back for a second go-around honoring the Pacific Northwest's best social media projects and campaigns.

Cascade was recently announced as one of 19 finalists for our social media work. There are around 10 categories ranging from Best Brand Awareness, to Best ROI, to Best in Show. Although we don't know which one we're up for yet, we hope to bring home some hardware.

The award show is this Thursday, May 6, from 7-10 at the classy Multnomah Athletic Club. Everyone is welcome, and we'd love to have you join us on the red carpet. Tickets are very reasonable and it should be a great night out. Plus, we'll need you in the crowd cheering us on and heckling other nominees. (jk...be nice)

If you can't make it, I'll be sure to post a follow-up article on the night's events.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Live From Portland Vol 1: The Cascade Live Sessions

If you missed out on our brandlive sessions over the past few weeks, too bad.

Okay, just kidding. Hopefully, you'll be able to join our next live broadcast. Or, if you'd like us to set up a demo for you, just let me know.

brandlive is easy to set up and even easier to use. The brandlive videos below are obviously missing from their normal exterior skin. Here is a sample of the new Cascade Live environment (which we refer to in the videos).


Each of these presentations were directed towards different audiences as you will see from our session location and message. So check them both out and let us know what you think. We love feedback.

4/23 Product Demo
(Video begins after a moment of set-up w/ a cameo from yours truly)

4/27 Professional Services Demo
(2nd of 2 sessions)

Please feel free to send any brandlive questions or inquiries to us at the Cascade site.

Portland Vies for Google's Heart with...Hops?!

They say the best way to win a man's affection is through his stomach. So then how does Portland win the affection of one of the most popular tech companies in the world?

Beer!?
Gigabit IPA, invented by master brewers at Hopworks, is one of the ways Portlanders hope to entice Google to choose our city as the test site for Google Fiber, their ridiculously fast high speed network. For a video with the brewer and more info on the beer, please visit Silicon Florist's post on the Google phenomenon.

The tech giant has had over 200 cities respond to their RFI, and we're not the only ones with an over-the-top sales pitch.

• Peoria, IL - Deemed "Google Day" as a new city holiday and recorded a song "Google It Now"
  
• Grand Rapids, MI - Organized a large support group and steering committee, created a YouTube video, and has the largest facebook group (over 22,000 strong) supporting the city's bid. Oh yeah, the city also organized a huge rally earlier in March where people joined hands to create a "Human Fiber". These guys are pumped.
• Duluth, MN - Not to be outdone, Duluth is hosting "Googlefest" (read more in the link below). Mayor Don Ness took it to a new level and plunged into the freezing waters of Lake Superior to show his devotion to the city's Google Fiber bid.
  

Check out this Fast Company article "Cities Go Gaga for Google Fiber..." with videos and more stories on the lengths cities are going to in order to win Google's affection.

Cascade Invades the Serotta HQ

In a recent trip out east, Ben McKinley, at the envy of cyclists, stepped foot in Serotta's headquarters in New York to tour their operation and discuss the launch of the bike manufacturer's new website on Cascade's Evergreen Platform. Serotta's new site, www.serotta.com launched earlier today with a ton of awesome features, including a video giving you a look into what Ben witnessed first hand on his tour. On the site, Cascade helps bring to life the intricate science and production capabilities that go into building a custom bike. Whether you examine the technological aspects or thought placed into the size and fit system, Serotta's attention to detail is astounding.

Although the majority of Serotta's magic is done on the production floor, a substantial amount of business operations lives online and is done behind the scenes. By placing their site on Evergreen, Serotta can easily update their new online environment with reactions to the world of cycling, news on Serotta products and technology, and new opportunities. One awesome feature soon will allow both employee and customer access to production status of bikes. With this service, you'll be able to track what stage of production your bike is in similar to how you track your package with Fedex, UPS, etc. Pretty cool!

Serotta.com is as focused (if not more) on portraying their brand story (i.e. company heritage and production strategies) while promoting the community aspect of the company rather than their bikes. We [Cascade] see this strategy becoming more and more prevalent with sites built on the Evergreen platform but that is a topic for another day.

Filming the Cascade Web Development Story

Ben McKinley, Cascade's fearless leader, is making his big screen debut on April 27th. It might not be in the venue you're imagining, but I'm sure it'll still be on a large screen.

Spirit Media stopped by the office earlier this week to film a short movie they'll be showing at the Portland Business Alliance's Annual Meeting. The film highlights the importance of innovative companies in Portland. Kerry Tymchuck of the PBA sat down with Ben (along with the cameraman, Spirit Media crew, and the individual holding the light reflection thingy) for an interview about Cascade and the business environment in Portland.

We were more than happy to have Spirit Media and PBA at the train and sincerely thank them for including us in this event. It is a great honor to be noticed as one of the many innovative companies in Portland, and we genuinely appreciate the exposure.

If you're interested in attending the Annual Meeting and claiming front row seats for the movie, please visit the PBA site. We'll try and obtain a copy of the video for those of you who can't make it. Stay tuned...

Cascade and Dreamworks Hit the Big Screen

Dreamwork's newest animated film "How to Train Your Dragon" topped the box office this past weekend earning $43.3 million. Could this be in part to Cascade Web Development and AMP Agency's website promoting the film? We'd like to think so...or at least hope.

"How to Train Your Dragon" is a film about Hiccup, a scrawny young Viking, who befriends the very dragons he's been training his entire life to fight. With the plethora of marketing channels available today, Dreamwork's called upon Boston's AMP Agency to create a promotional website that would engage the audience and allow them to interact with the film. AMP Agency came up with a great idea, called upon Cascade for the development of the site, and train-your-dragon.com was born.

The collaborative effort resulted in a vivid contest site that asked amateur filmmakers (amateur might be a stretch) to submit a short video of their best dragon taming skills. Dreamwork's employees judged the submissions earlier last month sending 3 grand prize winners to LA for the premiere of the film on March 21st.

All of us at Cascade are extremely excited about the success of the site and the film, and, apparently, others are beginning to take notice as well.

The Portland Business Journal wrote a great article in Friday's edition, about our experience working with AMP and the development of the contest site. It just hit newsstands this morning but, for a sneak-peak, check out this sample at the PortlandBusinessJournal.com.

Go grab a copy of today's Portland Biz Journal for more info or check out the news article on the Cascade site for an inside look.

New Addition to the CWD Crew [Pt. 2]

Now that Cam has been with Cascade for a few weeks I thought it'd be good if we all got to know him a little better. My previous post didn't really provide any juicy background info on Cam (hence the photo) so I thought a little impromptu questionnaire would paint a better picture of the newest member of the team:

First job - Mowing lawns for some politico's

Last movie you saw in the theater - Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (long flight)

Dream aspirations as a kid - Olympic skier and/or test pilot

If you could be any superhero, who and why - The Flash. To defy physics on a regular basis and prevent evil would be a great daily routine. Plus, if things go bad--I can scramble our of there in a flash

Free trip to anywhere in the world, where and why - A place with no name where the mountains are high, steep with feet of fresh powder to ski. Since its a free trip, I can afford the private jet, helicopter, snow cats, Sherpa's and satellite necessary for me to get there

Ever been in a fight, if so who started it - Not as a participant, but I've been hit trying to break them up

Favorite restaurant in Portland - Habibi. The chicken shawarma is amazing

Biggest fear - Anything that can take my life without me knowing about it. Like a spider bite while I sleep, or a rabid animal biting me while I'm walking through the brush

Nickname you had growing up - Cam (I rolled with a creative crew)

What attracted you to working at Cascade - The team and suite of products**

Career goals - To have no regrets and happy with the outcome

**the answer to your question is yes...we did pay him for that answer

Portland, From Worst to First

The public perception of Portland has made a quick turn-around since Business Week ranked Portland as the #1 unhappiest city in America. Its been almost a year since our city was given that title and oh how times have changed. A recent article by Laura Rich on FastCompany.com explains why Portland is now one of the 10 best cities in the country for start-ups. In her article, Why You Should Start a Company in..., Laura noted:

"It rains an average of 155 days of the year in Portland, Oregon, which sits near the coast between Silicon Valley and Seattle. That may be what drives some startups and engineers indoors to coffeehouses armed with laptops to hatch ideas such as MyOpenId, Voyager Capital-backed AboutUs, interactive TV company Ensequence, which raised $20 million last year, and ShopIgniter, which just closed a $3 million round from Seattle's Madrona. Quite a list. They make up part of what some call “Silicon Forest,” and the city clearly sees its future: In February Mayor Sam Adams announced a $500,000 seed fund aimed at startups and small businesses."

She then documents her interview with Jive Software chairman, David Hersh, who has some pretty cool things to say about the city. My favorite quote by the chairman is:

"In terms of the startup phase, I mean there's so much energy around that--around the ideas and going off on your own and there's so much support for doing that that I think it's one of the great things about the city. It's just the overall psyche of the city around its kind of aggressive independence that makes for a very vibrant startup culture."

I thought this was a great description of the culture in the city and the pride Portlanders carry. I know specifically at Cascade, we support PDX's business mindset in everything we do, from our train car office to our customizable, innovative web solutions (cough, cough...brandlive).

Portland might be a little sluggish getting up from the blow the recession hit us with, but we're definitely not hanging our heads. Thanks Fast Money for putting us back on top.

The entire Fast Money article can be viewed here.

Portland's Finest Find a Home

Thanks to Rick Turoczy of the Silicon Florist for turning me on to an awesomely simple site. If you weren't aware, Portland houses some of the most creative and artistically gifted minds in the country. Thanks to Chris Kalani (who also created yayeveryday.com), they now have a home.

we are PRTLND showcases Portland's community of designers, developers, photographers and a combination of innovative minds in a layout impossible to turn down. There isn't much to the site: profiles can be filtered by profession, click on a someone's witty picture and you'll be taken to their website, or select LOAD MORE to view more profiles. But that's what makes it great.


Whether you're a freelancer or employed and looking for talent, PRTLND is a fun place to explore and see what this city has to offer (the pictures are pretty awesome too)!

Reinventing American Business--One Bike at a Time

The recession, depression or just bad economy (you choose) hasn't been very inviting to new businesses ventures, however many entrepreneurs have ignored the warning signs and dove in head first. Case in point, I just read an article, "Young Guns Change Rules of Retail" from the Bicycle Retailer and Industry News (BRAIN).

The story showcased several young (pre-25) bike enthusiasts who've started custom bike shops in Colorado, New Mexico, Atlanta, and all across the US with a pretty cool spin on the normal retail business model. Rather than hustling customers with bikes off their sales floor, they've created an environment encouraging road warriors to hang out and tune up their bikes hoping sales will grow through a genuine relationship. They're basically selling the experience more than the product. The experience is basically a recreation of your old dorm room i.e used furniture and tight spaces. Regardless, this unique sales method seems to be working well for these young start-ups. They've found their niche and have viral marketing supporting their cause. I mean they did make it into BRAIN and (roll out the red carpet) the Cascade Web Development blog.

People in what seems like every industry have ditched their day job, whether forced or voluntary, to pursue their dream of being their own boss. The success stories sound great, but roughly 70-80% of start ups, in a normal economy, go under within the first 3 years of operation. You have to give credit to those who try but applause and pats on the back don't pay the bills.

Those new companies who do survive will be on the forefront of new business models and practices that we'll all be trying to emulate soon. New products are always popping up, but innovative thinking and breaking out of the mold might be the best solution to getting out of this mess (and the banks not throwing parties with government bailout money.....just a thought).

Okay, gather and discuss...I'll expect your feedback on Facebook.

New Addition to the CWD Crew

If you happen to visit us on the train and see a unfamiliar face, you could be faced with 1 of 3 situations:

1. A passerby saw us working and stopped in to tell us how awesome our office is (happens about once a week),
2. a hobo broke in and he/she is trying to hitch a ride to San Fran,
3. or you're staring at the newest member of the CWD crew, Cameron Clear (so don't call the cops, he's legit)
   

Last week, Cam came on board (literally, he's working on the train) as our business development lead to spread the word about CWD and our web services. We're excited to have him join the group and are looking forward to what he can bring to the company.

Brand Live Comes Alive

Without further ado, I give you...Brand Live.

(If I could insert bright flashing lights around this I would. For now, just use your imagination.)

Ahem...Brand Live is Cascade Web Development's latest brain-child. Initially launched with "Nordica Live" in October last year, Brand Live has been generating a lot of buzz in the industry. At its core, Brand Live allows product demos, employee training sessions, sales rep clinics, live event showcases, and e-commerce presentations to be streamed via a secure URL and live video feed. Invited viewers can interact with the presenter by posting messages via text providing an unscripted, live presentation mimicking the experience you would receive with a face-to-face interaction.

Here are just a few benefits Brand Live offers:

• Cost Effective - eliminating the need to travel for events or sales rep presentations
  
• Operated through a secure URL and can require login
  
• Does not require any program installation or additional hardware
  
• Live video and chat feature mimics a live shopping experience. Presenter reacts to user questions and comments in real time (sessions can be archived and recorded as well)
  
• Marketing and branding tool as the "Brand Live" identity is masked with your Brand
  
• Allows product intricacies to be showcased with live video
  
• Fully customizable allowing you to manipulate site features, appearance and added applications
  
• Sessions can be 1-to-1 (currently in development but soon to come) or 1-to-many

We first envisioned Brand Live would be great for the high-end, outdoor sporting industry, and it'd make a lot of noise in that market. However, as we've casually spread the word about Brand Live we've seen it evolve into a multi purpose tool reaching across vastly different industries. For example, Brand Live is either currently being utilized or developed for clients in Skiing, Footwear, Bikes, Financial Services, Specialty Retail, and Wine industries.

So what do you think? We're pretty into it, and our clients seem to be as well. We'd love to hear your comments on our Facebook page.

Planting the Seed for "Plant an Evergreen"

Cascade Web Development just launched our Plant an Evergreen campaign earlier today. Through our partnership with Friends of Trees and their Gift Tree program, they are helping us plant evergreen trees in Portland for new clients on our Evergreen platform. Thanks to our clients and Friends of Trees for making the world a better place, one tree at a time. (so corny but so true)

Friends of Trees also helped us out on the PR effort by blogging about the Plant an Evergreen campaign on their Friends of Tree blog.

Thanks, Friends of Trees for your partnership and support.

CWD on the pages of USA Today

Cascade Web Development's recent launch of the sweepstakes site for "How to Train Your Dragon" was recently promoted in USA Today. I snapped a picture of the ad. Pretty cool!


Check out our previous blog post on the site launch and visit train-your-dragon.com for more sweepstakes info.

40 the new 30? Recapping the "40 Under Forty" Awards

The Cascade Web Development crew had a great time last Thursday celebrating Ben McKinley's nomination to the Portland Business Journal's 2010 "40 Under Forty" list.

The event was a huge success as Portland's future leaders came together at the Gerding Theater of the Armory for an excellent evening. Kudos to the Portland Business Journal for putting together a memorable night for all of us at CWD.

Here are a few photos of the celebration (sorry about the poor quality, blame the iPhone):

Lobby of Gerding Theater at the Armory

Ben accepting his award from Senator Ron Wyden

CWD group (Left to Right: Kyle, Paul, Fritz, Stephen, Ben, Christi)

CWD's VIP Trip to the Sokol Blosser Winery

Last week, a few of us from CWD were invited to the Sokol Blosser winery in Dundee, OR to take a tour of the vineyard. Immediately after walking onto the grounds, you receive a homey, one-of-the-family type vibes and that was true throughout the day as everyone at the winery could not have been more hospitable and welcoming. Sokol Blosser is family owned and the heritage was evident throughout the tour. Aside from amazing wine, they are also on the forefront of instilling green technologies and sustainability efforts in the Dundee area.

Thanks to everyone at Sokol Blosser for the tour.

Here are a few photos from the trip:

Their tasting room and community center from the parking lot

The community room

Bottling Sokol Blosser Wine

Information Session in the Cellar

What the Sokol Blosser Vineyard look like on a good day (i.e. not the day we were there)

For more information on Sokol Blosser visit their site at sokolblosser.com.