About 30 people heard ideas on the way the Internet can have an impact on commerce after attending an e-business conference hosted by the Rainy River Future Development Corp. over two days last week at the Red Dog.
“I thought it was informative, and it gave us some ideas as to what we can do further on the Web,” Darryl Allan, manager of administration and finance for the Town of Fort Frances, said of the Northern Ontario Online Outreach Initiative (NOI).
“We’ve already got some follow-up plans about improving our Web presence, expanding what we’re doing,” Allan added. “We want to do some of what people really want to see.”
The town’s Web site can be found at fort-frances.com
Lincoln Dunn, of the Fort Frances Times’ Electronic Publishing Division, had a mixed review of the workshops. “It was moderately informative. But I don’t think it delivered exactly what some people wanted,” he noted.
“It was too general. They tried to cover too much in two days. I got some useful information out of it but some others may not have,” Dunn added.
“I think they did a good job of offering a cross-section of topics,” agreed Dave Ashworth, owner of the local Jam 21 Internet Service Provider. “But I think in the future, it would be better to have seminars that focus on more specific topics.”
Still, Ashworth said it was worthwhile to him. “I thought it was very informative. If you keep your mind open, you can picks things out that are useful,” he remarked.
Angela Halvorsen, Northern Ventures officer for the RRFDC here who organized the event locally, said the response was as important as the information delivered.
“I had several people say, ‘Great information.’ I had others who said, ‘It wasn’t what I expected.’ But all in all, it was a good response,” she said.
“I was hoping for a few more people but given the responses, we’ve found it could have been tailored to suit different needs,” she added.
“We are thinking of doing one on Web page design–not so much the e-business end of things. Just about getting up a Web site.”
The workshops, which will make a few more stops in the area this week, was organized as an initiative of the Northwestern Ontario Associated Chambers of Commerce to give communities exposure to the world of e-commerce.
Presenters included Edward Hoshizaki, Doug Lampi, Dean Hayes, Peter Olsen, Geoff Gillon, and Judy Sander, who spoke on a variety of topics from the ideal Web site to customer relationship management and the Northwestern Ontario Technology Centre’s “Incubator.”
A handful of hardware, software, and computer service exhibitors also were on hand.
NOI was funded by FedNor.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
