First and foremost, I do hope that everyone is staying safe, self-isolating and of course doing their best to help #flattenthecurve during such strange times. Second, as a business owner, I am under no assumptions that a little WordPress design studio really warrants a formal COVID notice (like the ones that have flooded our emails for the past month), so I’ll get straight to the point.

Over the past few weeks, I have received a few questions about Armadillo’s operations during the pandemic. Simply put – Armadillo Studios is still open and still continuing to work with clients. Business is as usual in most daily aspects, except for two major difference:

1) To comply with the physical distancing suggestions, all meetings for the foreseeable future will take place over the phone or through Zoom.

2) There will be an added emphasis on payments made via Stripe or e-transfer moving forward.

Again, these are just a handful of small changes that Armadillo can make to help flatten the curve. I hope everyone is staying well, healthy and look forward to returning to our new normal soon.

Armadillo Studios is once again proud to be acting as an in-kind sponsor for Bow Valley College’s 2020 VentureQuest Awards.

Since 2015, we have had the opportunity to work with many of the finalists of these awards and provide some of the winners with $1,500 of in-kind online development and guidance to help kick start their business ideas. Most recently we worked with Amber of Once Upon A Story to get her business web site up and running. With the reception banquet this evening, we are looking forward to working with the latest crop of young entrepreneurs from Bow Valley College in 2020.

Yesterday, I was incredibly humbled and touched to receive this special print in recognition of the years of support Armadillo Studios has provided to Calgary Alpha House. It has been an honour to have the opportunity to work with Calgary Alpha House Society for the past few years, as they are a critical and part of the Calgary community. Thank you for this special gift. It’s going to have a nice spot in the office.

August 31st, 2015 is the nine year anniversary of Armadillo Studios Inc., so it’s time for a little reflection and celebration. Over the past nine years the Web Design world and Social Media landscape has evolved at a dramatic pace.

Here are some interesting tid-bits about when Armadillo Studios first launched:

• Facebook was still only available for College Students and didn’t have Fan Pages, Business Pages, etc.,
• Twitter wasn’t in existence.
• Other tools such as Foursquare/Swarm, Groupon, Instagram, Snapchat hadn’t launched and wouldn’t launch for a couple more years.
• WordPress was a still in version 1.5 and was considered solely a blogging platform.
• Mailchimp wasn’t available to the public for E-mail newsletter creation.
• Obama was still a state senator and the upcoming social media revolution in politics was barely an afterthought. Nationbuiler wouldn’t appear as an online tool for another 5 years.
• Flash was one of the dominant methods of developing web sites.
• The Web 2.0 phase was just kicking off and the concept of Mobile Responsive web sites wasn’t even on the communities radar.
• … and most importantly, nobody knew who the Kadashians were at the time.

A lot has changed since Armadillo Studios was incorporated in the summer of 2007, but the commitment to quality web services and customer relations still stands. It has been a pleasure to work on a variety of exciting projects and to collaborate with a fantastic roster of great clients.

So here’s to another 9 wonderful years of web design goodness.

Earlier this month, I had the chance to attend the inaugural “CAMP Festival”:http://campfestival.ca/ at Theatre Junction GRAND in my home town of Calgary. In conjunction with “FITC”:http://fitc.ca/, this conference was an intense two-day sprint session revolving around the fusion of art, technology, creativity and new media.

Throughout the two days, attendees were bombarded with traditional sessions and intimate studios conversations revolving around the emergence of art within the technology and creative sectors. Talks touched upon topics such as _Design and Happiness_, _Big Redesigns, Tough Clients and a Lot of Work!_, _Designing the Future of Augmented Reality_, _Rich Web Experiences and the Future of the Web_.

Really enjoying the chat from @repponen at #CAMPFEST14 on the design, pitch and UX process. Fantastic information. Lots of takeaways.

— Armadillo Studios (@armadillostudio) September 8, 2014

It was a mind melting two days of uplifting discussion and idea generating conversations about the direction of Web Design and the Internet. Artists such as _GMUNK_, _James White_, and _Sarah Blake_ delved in to their own personal style influences and how they create unique work for clients and their own personal pet projects that have driven their artistic voice. While creative agency veterans such as _Anton Repponen_, _Irene Pereyena_, and _Kim Alpert_ shared their collective experiences dealing with the business side of the creative industry; discussion such topics as client relations, project budgeting, the art of the pitch and team planning and resource management.

signalnoise getting raw & real. #campfest14 #vscocam http://t.co/kWnH5UN1CY

— Jason⚡Dorn (@jaydorn) September 9, 2014

CAMP Festival was a fantastic two days and a breath of fresh air into an otherwise stagnant local conference scene. The fusion of internationally renowned speakers and industry shakers with some of Calgary’s own local success stories, really created a unique experience. As an event it was fantastic opportunity to catch-up with every single one of our local friends from the the Calgary design community, meet some new friends and to hang out and discuss the topics that were shown throughout the day.

If CAMP Festival’s goals were to challenge and inspire the growing Calgary tech and creative industry, then mission accomplished. It goes without saying that pretty much all of the 330 people who attended this conference left with something inspiring or challenging to incorporate into their own business models or creative endeavours. For a first run conference of this magnitude, it was a pleasant and energizing surprise. So a massive thank you to all who was involved in the planning and organizing of CAMP Fest.

The big take always from #CAMPFEST14 are: 1) follow your side passions and heart. Just create. Don't fear the rest.

— Armadillo Studios (@armadillostudio) September 9, 2014

Plus they had S’Mores. Nothing beats a conference with Beer and S’Mores.

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