“We had two main goals in the design of the first ever site for KeyArena: first, to interact with the viewer and improve their ticket purchasing experience; and secondly, to build a user interface that is equal parts informative and entertaining,” stated Stevi Boskovich, Marketing Manager for AEG Facilities at KeyArena.

The newly launched website, www.KeyArena.com, is on the forefront of the industry with its new intimate website design, amenities and special features:

• On the Spot Interactive Seating
• Facebook Integration allowing website visitors to add and comment on events through their Facebook Profiles
• Quick updates of upcoming events and event news
• Virtual Video Library
• Contesting System to allow website visitors to win tickets to upcoming KeyArena events
• Easy-to-use navigation and compatibility with the latest web browsers and mobile devices

“Our charge from the beginning was to create an emotionally engaging experience that represents the long history that KeyArena has as the home of sports and entertainment in Seattle,” stated James Sack, President, carbonhouse, inc.

Congratulations to KeyArena on the new site!

Fuel Up

Every industry and profession in the world has conferences. If you are in a licensed profession then chances are that you have to attend conferences, classes, and seminars to maintain your certification. For the rest of us, a conference is a vital part of staying ahead of the curve.

A conference of any kind is only has good as you make it. A well-run conference will have an agenda that is timely, informative, and on topic with current trends and advancements. If you attend these sessions then you should walk away with new ideas that can not only help your company but will help you with your career advancement. If you feel like you are in a rut, then go to a conference and re-charge your creative batteries.

Networking

Networking is always a big part of any conference. It’s not just about hanging with friends and business partners. It’s about meeting new people. It’s about sharing ideas. When you have an opportunity to talk face-to-face you will find that many of your colleagues have the same issues. You have a relaxed setting to share these issues and ideas.

You could also use a conference to pitch new business and maintain current clients. If you plan accordingly you can “kill two birds with one stone”. You can save travel expenses by getting several face-to-face meetings at one conference.

EAMC 2009 at Colorado Springs

The Event and Arena Marketing Conference is coming up June 10th thru June 13th in Colorado Springs. carbonhouse is a sponsor of the conference. We sponsor this for two reasons: 1) we want to expose and market our product to this industry. 2) We want to learn as much as possible about the industry. We need to stay as up-to-speed as you do. We need to hear from our current clients and potential clients. We take this info back to the office where we can create new products that the event and entertainment industry needs to market in the 21st Century.

We hope you will join us at this year’s conference. We plan to be part of a panel session discussing online sales & marketing. We also will host a breakout presentation on what we can do for you. If you see us at the bar, tell us you read this blog and we will buy you a drink. Cheers!

EAMC 2009 Registration

Author: James Sack

The cobbler’s kids.

It is always a tough task creating a website for your own company. We do this all the time for our clients, but as a creative shop we always want to be…well…creative. After many iterations, we decided the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach was best. Get all the good stuff out and available and keep the fluff to a minimum. Really, the problem we were facing was not the look of the site, but the delivery of content.

With that in mind and a blank slate, simplicity became the main goal in the new direction for carbonhouse.com. Building off one of our product sites, venuelements.com, we wanted to keep it uncomplicated, clean and clear, and allow the work to speak for itself. We relied on the typography to create the space, but also improve usability, by providing quick access to all the pertinent information (the good stuff). Taking the single page site concept and amping it up, we used the mootools framework to dynamically deliver the content from our greenhouse content management system and create transitions that aren’t just fluff. These transitions ensure the correct flow of the content to the user and communicate our message.

Design

• Clean, uncluttered design to communicate and focus on work and let the interaction via javascript provide the ‘bling’ or motion
• Single-page format to allow visitors quick access to pertinent information and messaging
• Object-oriented approach to home page spotlight area that showcases recent projects in a less traditional, more unexpected way
• Utilization of sIFR (Scalable Inman Flash Replacement) to present titles and headers in Helvetica Neue Light, which offers a more sophisticated look than the standardized web font palette.

Technical (all the techy goodness)

• A degradable javascript navigation for users with javascript-disabled browsers allows the site to be navigated while also providing search engine-friendly standard hrefs for our links.
• We utilize AJAX calls with the mootools framework to load page content and project details from our greenhouse CMS, thus avoiding page reload.

Accessibility Benefits

Overall, there are a lot of different ways to handle navigation. By incorporating the degradable javascript within our navigation, we have reduced the possibility of viewers not seeing the site as intended, while increasing the ability of Google and other search engines to find our links.

Author: Taylor Nall

Statistics published on Facebook.com show more than 150 million active users and more than 3 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide) with the fastest growing demographic being 30 years and older. The average user has 100 friends on the site and more than 20 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared each month. <http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics>

Stocks For Tots was created as a way to bring together stock car racing and its fans, while raising awareness of the child abuse problem in North Carolina. The idea was to collect toys and raise money during a festive, family-oriented holiday event. Organizer John Maloney, “One of the cornerstone’s for Stocks For Tots was Don Miller winning the inaugural NASCAR/Home Depot Humanitarian Award in 2007 which gave $100,000 to Stop Child Abuse Now in NC & a new Kaboom Playground.) Stocks-for-Tots celebrated its 20 year anniversary and continues along with Stop Child Abuse Now to help thousands of children, families, and parents in NC.” www.stocksfortots.com

Second String Santa is one of Charlotte’s largest social holiday parties! The mission is to deliver holiday gifts to children in the Charlotte community. “We celebrated our 20th Anniversary of the Second String Santa holiday party Tuesday, December 2 at the TimeWarner Cable Arena.  This was a record year for us as we raised over $61,000 and collected 2,790 toys for needy children in the Charlotte area.  Our website has helped us promote our charity and events to the Charlotte community,” Jackie Savage, 2008 Second String Santa Co-Chair. www.secondstringsanta.org

I would describe my paintings as thoughts emerging from my finger tips.

Jonathan Grauel, Director of Media Design, carbonhouse, inc.

Jonathan Grauel, director of development at carbonhouse, will be on hand for a gallery night with the artist for his gallery show, VILLAGES / a collection of visual interactions, at the Warehouse 242 Gallery, Friday, December 5th at 7:00 PM.

Also be sure to get your copy of the the companion book created for the show.
On Friday, September 26th, the Gallery at Warehouse opened its fall show featuring Jonathan Grauel’s work: VILLAGES / a collection of visual interactions.  Opening night saw over 150 visitors attend, mingle, talk with the artist, meet the surgeon, and experience the work first hand. The show presents an evolution of Jonathan’s work from sketch through completed art.

VILLAGES explores and expands on Jonathan’s ‘village’ series. The show reveals some of the mystery behind the process of creation, and the way the loss of a finger from his drawing hand has impacted the way he makes art. This visual trip through live environment sketches, inked gray panels, oil pastels, and 3D installation interpretations is a stunning examination of getting there, being there, and what lies ahead.

The gallery is open for visitors every Sunday 8-12:30 and by appointment through the rest of the year.

Jonathan Grauel was also featured in a cover story of the fall issue of OrthoCarolina Magazine, which features his work and the story of the incredible surgery that has enabled him to continue making art.

Jessica Davis is a recent graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology where she majored in New Media Interactive Development.  “I love a challenge and have a passion for learning new things and am very excited about my opportunity here at carbonhouse.”

Joel Kuehn jumped into the world of design soon after moving to Charlotte in late 2006.  Joel’s passion for creativity and technical functionality lead him to focus on web design as he developed skills through a web-based t-shirt company he started after earning a BSBA from Western Carolina University, majoring in Entrepreneurship.

The elements that carbonhouse has brought to our new site are amazing.

Meegan Ditton, Marketing Director, AT&T Center

carbonhouse recently completed the new website for the AT&T Center in San Antonio. The venue is home to the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, WNBA’s Silver Stars and the San Antonio Rampage hockey team.

The venue is beyond pleased with the new site.  When asked about the overall take on the new AT&T Center website  and its features, Marketing Director Megan Ditton replied, “The new AT&T Center website it out of this world!  It is so easy to use and navigate and it has all of the assets that we were missing with our old website.  The look is so crisp and fresh that it gives that “wow” factor when people open the page for the first time.  Its features allow us to house so much information on our site and really interact with our viewers.  It allows us to do promotions, blog, post videos and so much more.  We are so happy with it and we know it will make a huge difference in our marketing efforts.”

The marketing team at AT&T Center wanted to take things a step further and create something special.  “They wanted to leave a lasting impression on their clientele and captivate visitors,” said Brandon Lucas, Principal at carbonhouse.  “So we created the Backstage Club feature.”  The Backstage Club is a private area that AT&T Center customers can sign up for that allows them to get behind-the-scenes information on their favorite shows.  This club will give them special offers, set lists, and photos and videos from the shows. Not to mention that the club will drive additional traffic to the site and create repeat visits due to the unique content.  “We are very happy with the way that our Backstage Club has worked out.  We are getting people signed up and it will really help add to our database,” said Ditton.

The reoccurring theme for venues choosing to work with carbonhouse is the ease of utilizing the Venuelements website platform.  Ditton said, “The elements that carbonhouse has brought to our new site are amazing.  It is so easy to go in and modify the site and make updates.  It is also efficient that changes can be made from anywhere that you have internet access including a phone.  We love that the site includes Google analytics and that it does such a great job showcasing our events and the building itself.  We have always been impressed with the professionalism that carbonhouse has shown us in the time that they took to make sure our site was exactly what we wanted.”

“We have not visited an arena that had so many colors and things that caught your eye.  We knew we were in San Antonio once we saw the southwestern themes and the festival flags.  We would have done a disservice to the arena and community if these elements were not added to the look and feel,” said James Sack, carbonhouse Principal/Creative Director.  Each building and city has its own unique qualities, especially San Antonio, known for Fiesta San Antonio, of the nation’s largest festivals.  carbonhouse wanted to incorporate a bit of that character into the site, and the site visit made this clear.  “When they came in for a site visit, they were very careful to take pictures of specific building elements that they later incorporated into the site.  They were great about listening to our needs and working with us on every element”, explained Ditton.

“We are far from finished with the site. We are looking forward to launching an interactive seating chart in the near future,” said Sack.

When asked about making a recommendation Ditton simply states, “I would definitely recommend carbonhouse to other venues.”

Visit AT&T Center website at attcenter.com.

There’s not a bad seat in the house!

Brandon Lucas, Partner and Business Director

Made the trek down to Alpharetta/Atlanta a couple weekends ago to meet up with some old friends and visit a client venue of ours, Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park.

I’ve been to a lot of amphitheaters over the years (for business and pleasure) and to be quite honest I was expecting more of the same. And then I got there. My reaction was….THIS is what an outdoor amphitheatre should be and feel like.

The facility looks like a transformer coming out of the middle of the wilderness. Tree completely surround it once inside. It has a one-of-a-kind white, patchwork roof that works wonders in combination with the lighting during a show. There’s the old cliché comment every venue rattles off, “There’s not a bad seat in the house”, which is sometimes true and sometimes not…..in this case it’s 100% more than TRUE. 7,000 covered seats and 5,000 lawn. That’s only 12,000, perfect size! This place has hosted the Eagles, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Rush and on the day I was there Boston & Styx. So, not only is the place beautiful and unique, it’s an intimate place to see acts that generally perform at places much larger. And the most incredible part? There are real, living, towering trees on the lawn!

Driving home I had tons of ideas flowing through my head on how we can further help the ASO make the website that we built for them [see it: www.VZWAMP.com] as over-the-top as the venue itself. I was blown away!

The site is built on carbonhouse’s Venuelements system, tailored exclusively for major event-driven facilities.