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.

With The 2020 edition of #GivingTuesday just wrapped up and the all important year-end fundraising push around the corner, I wanted to take a couple of seconds to talk about one of my favourite tools for WordPress – GiveWP.

Over the past couple of years, I have been using GiveWP to power the donation processing side of some of our most successful WordPress installs. Essentially, it’s an all-in-one third party WordPress plug-in that allows any organization to accept donations seamlessly and through an enhanced user interface. In particular, GiveWP has been invaluable when working with political campaigns, community organizations (that are not registered charities) and businesses looking to leverage a donation model for their revenue generation.

But what makes GiveWP different from the dozens of third party external donation tools and WooCommerce enabled set-ups? Here are the just some of the key features that I believe give GiveWP the edge:

1. The core GiveWP install is free and relatively easy to install. Development time takes about an hour or two to set-up and the core plug-in comes with a slew of core features that are hard to find in most donation solutions. Additional add-ons are relatively inexpensive to add to a single domain (in comparison to the full cost of other WordPress Donation tools).
2. GiveWP is incredibly versatile and isn’t only for registered charities, it works for non-registered charities, organizations looking to leverage a donation model (cough bloggers cough) and most importantly any sized political campaigns.
3. Two key design features that are incredibly advantageous for online donation campaigns – fundraising goal trackers and donation amount buttons – come prepackaged and ready to go with the base install of GiveWP. (Click here to checkout the tool in action)
4. It connects with Paypal and Stripe, right out of the box. The plug-in recently improved it’s core install to include both Stripe and Paypal payments gateways.
5. Using GiveWP allows you to keep users on your site, without having to take them to a third party donation site.
6. It comes with a full suite of reporting features within the WordPress backend to monitor donations and the email template set-up is easy to set-up to track donations received.

So if you’re a non-profit or an organization that is reevaluating your donation process after #GivingTuesday or looking to beef up your WordPress web site by accepting donations through your site before year-end or even frustrated by the existing tools out there, check out GiveWP.com. When it comes to the available tools out there, you won’t be disappointed at how powerful and easy-to-use the tool is.

For the second straight year, Armadillo Studios Inc., was a not only a sponsor of Calgary WordCamp 2015, but one of the co-organizers. This year’s edition of Calgary WordCamp set a new standard for the WordCamp community, with a sold out crowd of 150 attendees, a packed after party and three solid streams of in depth WordPress content for users of all background.

It was a great pleasure to be apart of WordCamp 2015 and to see the WordPress community continue to foster in our energetic city. The entire organizing committee is ecstatic at the reception we received from the community this year and are incredibly thankful to all our sponsors, volunteers and speakers who made WordCamp Calgary 2015 the best one yet.

We’re all planning to take a few weeks off to reenergize, but we’re looking forward to make WordCamp 2016 even better. Stay tuned.

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.

Check out the Social Media Stream

Before I start, please read this:

As a web designer and e-mail marketer, these comments and thoughts are based on my interpretation of Canada’s new Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) based on my research and conversations. Since key components of CASL kick in on July 1st of this year it is best to consult professional legal consul for clarifications on the various elements of this legislation and how it will affect your marketing operations.

For the past month I have been attending a variety of talks and having conversations with legal acquaintances on “The Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)”:http://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/home. Since this legislation posses to severely disrupt the marketing plans of many businesses and non-profit organizations, I felt it was time to jot down a few thoughts regarding the legislation and why people should pay attention.

1. What is CASL

You can read about CASL on “the government’s web site”:http://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/home, but as with any legal document and government document for the average citizen the information within isn’t as clear as could be. So if you’re looking for resources in a more plain language you may want to check out these resource:

* “MillerThompson’s CASL information”:http://www.millerthomson.com/en/our-services/anti-spam-casl and “one-pager”:http://millerthomson.com/assets/files/article_attachments3/CASL-on-a-page.pdf.
* “Stephen King’s Blog Post”:http://stephdokin.com/10-tips-to-prepare-for-canadas-new-anti-spam-law-casl-starting-july-1-2014/?utm_content=buffer08bda&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
* “Elite Email’s guide to CASL”:http://www.eliteemail.com/learning-center/casl/page6.html and “CASL in plain language”:http://blog.eliteemail.com/2013/05/16/all-about-casl-canadas-anti-spam-legislation/.

There are elements of CASL that make a tonne of sense, such as rules about subscribe buttons, adding physical mailing addresses and properly representing your organization in e-mail communications. Where CASL really gets confusing is in the definition of expressed and implied consent.

2. I’ve Heard a Lot of People Talking About It, But Is CASL Really That Bad?

From an e-mail marketing and small business owner perspective, my interpretation is that CASL is bad. Really bad.

One of the most confusing elements of CASL is that by *July 1st, 2014* all senders of commercial emails (i.e. email newsletters, advertising emails, anything to do with E-Mail Marketing lists) must have received expressed consent from receivers *and* be able to prove that they received “expressed consent”:http://www.eliteemail.com/learning-center/casl/page5.html to continue sending out e-mail messages to existing subscribers. _After_ July 1st, they will not be able to ask for expressed consent for existing e-mail marketing lists.

In laman’s terms, what this means is that businesses and organizations who have spent year’s building an e-mail marketing list *need* to sent a note out to all their users and request them to send an email back of written consent saying that they agree to receive e-mails from the business or non-profit moving forward. And this has to be done by *July 1st, 2014*. After that you’re not allowed to ask for expressed consent from those lists.

Now, as any e-mail marketer knows, the average good open rate for emails is about 20-30% for a single email blast, with a click through rate between 10-15%. So knowing those numbers the likely hood of 100% of your current e-mail marketing list replying back with expressed consent will be far less. In my opinion, this will be the biggest damage that CASL imposes on to organizations, by essentially making their existing marketing lists useless.

3. No seriously, is CASL really this Bad?

Yes and in my opinion, it should be taken very seriously. I maybe just an e-mail marketer, but there are two key reactionary signs by other groups to help understand how serious this law _actually_ is.

The first indicator, is the reaction by many legal firms to CASL. For the past few weeks, many people have started receiving emails from Legal firms requesting *expressed consent* for e-mail marketing subscriptions. Given that it’s the job of legal firms to understand and abide by all aspects of the law, their serious reaction is a telltale sign about how important CASL compliance is.

The second indicator, is actually one of the key exemptions of the law. It also has to be the most comical aspect of the legislation. There is actually one group of organizations that is completely exempt from CASL and that’s *political parties*. Not to sound like a conspiracy theory nutjob, but if CASL _wasn’t a big deal and wasn’t disruptive_, I doubt a genre of organizations that rely solely on e-marketing for funding wouldn’t be exempt from CASL’s rule.

4. But I’m Using Constant Contact, Mailchimp, etc., I should be fine with CASL.

Unfortunately not. Since many of the top e-mail marketing tools out there are American based, many of them haven’t taken the proper steps to become CASL compliant. (Although, many of their existing features do cover some elements of CASL) When you factor in how small of a market Canadian subscribers are to their bottom lines and the fact that compliance with CASL rolled out within 6 months, it’s easy to understand why these top companies don’t have the proper tools in place to help Canadian marketers.

In addition, it’s also not the responsibility of Third Party providers to receive consent for e-mail marketers, that responsibility rests solely on the heads of *the sender*. So in the end hiding behind a third party provider won’t be good enough under CASL.

In the two talks I’ve attended, the most fascinating aspect of CASL has been watching the audience reaction upon understanding the key elements of the legislation. Most people’s reaction, and my own included, swayed from intense rage to out right denial.

For a legislation designed to help consumers and prevent SPAM, CASL appears to be doing more harm to business owners and non-profits than good. The fines for “CASL are pretty extensive”:http://www.davis.ca/uploads/files/CASL-Penalties.pdf and it opens the door for private litigation against companies that don’t comply, so it would be wise to make these changes. CASL should be taken seriously by all businesses and non-profits, if you have questions do your research and contact legal consul.

But do it quick, as many of the key elements of this legislation kick in just over a month.