Hey there swingers and hipsters!

Check out the NEW website for Holiday Club, Chicago, IL.
holidayclubchicago.com

Holiday Club is one of our favorite places to eat, brainstorm, hang out with friends or dance on Fridays. So when they asked us to help update their site and make it easy for them to keep current we said HECK YES! With a new layout and design supported by a CMS back-end (Joomla!), the Holiday crew can log in anytime and make updates to the site using their browser based editor. A few sparkling gold animations, some classic photo booth shots and daily updates keep their customers in the know and at the bar. And check out the site on your phone - I bet you can find your way over and check the specials or hours even faster now!

So now you know our secret, if we aren't in the office, we are at the Holiday Club where they've been serving comfort food and snazzy cocktails for over 15 years! Why not make like Sinatra and sip an ice-cold martini while you swing to the eclectic jukebox, snap a picture in the retro black and white photo booth, chill on the sidewalk patio (when it's warm out!), or enjoy some interactive nightly entertainment in the late night lounge! And if you see us there, feel free to come over say hi!

Give us a call about how we can help you keep your site fresh!
Call 773-665-2552 or visit yourplanb.com

YPBCo MEMBER PROFILE: Catherine Larson, Lead Designer

Cat is not only our superfantasticwonderful web designer here in our office, but an established artist outside of the office! She was awarded the Community Arts Assistance Program grant (offered through the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs) in 2008. And she studies woodworking as well. From tables to frames to boxes to birdfeeders, she can wield a saw. This weekend she is off to study chip carving at the Chicago School of Woodworking.

"Creativity is a mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. (thanks wikipedia)"

And Cat does just that! Check out this cool table she made (on the left).

Your Plan B Company is proud of our team, our artists. Each one of our team members exercises their creativity not only in the office but outside of it as well. We believe it is essential to problem solving, design and development. You can see more of Cat's creativity through the YPBCo client portfolio, as well as on her artist site at catherinelarson.com

It's that time of year again - HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMEYB!

On February 2nd, JameyB turns one year older.
And along with the groundhog - will she or won't she see her shadow?

(let's hope for an early spring in Chicago this year!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

(photo left to right: vintage 1970's JameyB and her mom playing Twister)

A dozen years making websites - Your Plan B Company turns 12!

Happy Anniversary! And thank you for your continued support!

We've definitely had some fun with the wide variety of client projects through the years - everything from rockbands to musuems from small starts ups to Fortune 5's. And now travel guides to gardening and cooking for kids to antiques! Learning new things is just part of what we feel makes our work great!

And then there is the technology... in the beginning there were only grey backgrounds and html, then animations and sound, flash and ecommerce and now CMS solutions and more interactivity! Keeping ahead of the curve is something both challenging and good for us to stay creative.

DavidB and I would like to thank everyone who has worked with us as a team since we started back in 1997. We couldn't have done this without you ;) Special thanks to Catherine and Atalee for rounding out the YPBCo crew for the past 8 years! You guys rock!

A big bash is in the planning stages to celebrate this year - watch your inbox for our party invitation!

2009 Cool Internet Conferences

Get your calendar ready for upcoming must-go events about the web!

Web Content 2009
Web Content 2008 brought together nationally recognized technology, content, and marketing authorities involved with creating, organizing, maintaining, and delivering web content, to share best practices, new approaches, lessons learned, and provide real-world examples.
Date: June 15-16, 2009
Location: Chicago, IL
Link: http://www.webcontentconferences.com/chicago/

2009 Media Summit
The 2009, Media Summit New York is the Premier International Conference on Media, Broadband, Advertising, Television, Cable & Satellite, Mobile, Publishing, Radio, Magazines, News & Print Media and Marketing
Date: March 18-19, 2009
Location: McGraw-Hill Building, 49th St. & 6th Ave., New York City
Link: http://www.digitalhollywood.com/MediaSummit.html

Getting Started with Dreamweaver and CSS
Learn everything you need to know about building compelling websites using Adobe Dreamweaver CS4!
Date: March 26, 2009
Location: Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, IL
Link: http://www.mogo-media.com/seminars/getting-started-with-dreamweaver-and-css/2009/chicago/

The Next Web Conference
The Next Web is about the vision of the future of the web. We've great speakers who'll share their vision with the audience. The conference is known as one of the best networking events of Europe
Date: April 16th & 17th, 2009
Location: Westergasfabriek terrain, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Link: http://2009.thenextweb.org/

UIE Web App Summit 2009
The must attend event for anyone building web applications!
At the UIE Web App Summit, you'll meet the innovators and world-class designers behind today's most successful web apps.
Date: April 19-22, 2009
Location: Coronado Island, California
Link: http://www.uie.com/events/web_app_summit/2009/

CONNECTIONS
The digital living conference + showcase
Date: June 2-4, 2009
Location: Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA
Link: http://www.parksassociates.com/events/connections/2009/index.html

An Event Apart
An Event Apart Chicago features 12 great speakers and 14 sessions—new material you haven't heard anywhere else! The schedule will be posted August 1, 2009.
Date: October 12-13, 2009
Location: Sheraton Towers, Chicago, IL
Link: http://www.aneventapart.com/2009/chicago/

Web 2.0 Summit
Only the Web 2.0 Summit (formerly named Web 2.0 Conference) brings the intelligence, innovation, and leadership of the Internet industry together in one place at one time. The Summit is known for its interactive format, encouraging audience interaction and participation.
Date: October 20-22, 2009
Location: San Francisco, CA
Link: http://en.oreilly.com/web2009/public/sv/q/102


We will update more cool web conferences throughout the year! All the details and dates have not been updated for some events coming up in the Summer and Fall...

Add some spice to your site or some fun to your enewsletters with Flash animations or games!

Adobe Flash Player is the standard for delivering high-impact, rich web content. Designs, animation, and application user interfaces are deployed immediately across all browsers and platforms, attracting and engaging users with a rich Web experience.


And here at Your Plan B Company we can integrate Flash to spice up your site!

Everything from animated banners to mini games to entire sites, we can design and build something to help attract new users, forward your site to a friend and have them bookmark the site for repeat visits!

See some of our Flash work:
BlackStarMines.com (flash map)
Chicago History Museum (greatchicagostories.com)
GreensbyWhite.com (process demos)
MarketEdgeGroup.com (entire site)
Motorbrains.com (entire site)
RonaldKnox.org (navigation)


Give us a call 773-665-2552
to brainstorm ways we can spice up your site today!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! What is your new year's resolution for your online marketing?

When was the last time you updated your website?
What is the date of the copyright?
Are you using the current standards like CSS?
Are you making your site easy to use? Easy to find?
Tracking your visitor stats?
Have you tested it on all the browsers?

REMEMBER the fresher your site the more visitors you will attract!

Give us a call 773-665-2552 to schedule a review of your current website and how we can help meet your 2009 online marketing goals!