Sport in the community

Wed, 2 Feb 2011 16:19:57 +0000

The importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, coupled with a nutritious diet is very much a hot topic at the moment, with the government’s Change4Life initiative promoted via a number of high profile advertising campaigns.
As you can imagine, when the Community Sports, Physical Activities Network (CSPAN) based in Perry Barr, Birmingham, asked us to design and create a website promoting good health and sports in the local area and beyond, we were very keen to say yes!
Aimed at young people, the Ice Sporting website will help small community groups promote themselves, as well as allowing users to search for classes or groups that interest them. It will also provide users with an up-to-date resource of interesting articles, and other information about sport and healthy lifestyle choices.
The website that we have created features a search facility to help find classes and groups, embedded Google Maps showing leisure centres and classes, user polls, ‘ask an expert’ pages that include a question form, and listings of jobs and volunteer opportunities in sport – as well as latest news, articles and a ‘find a sport’ search. One aspect that the client is particularly pleased with, however, are the community pages, which allow community groups to create and manage their own media-rich page. In simple terms, the ability to upload photos and videos to ‘their’ page.
Since the launch on 24th January, response to the website has been overwhelmingly positive. Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture, Councillor Martin Mullaney, described the site as “the model for promoting community sport across Birmingham... a fantastic resource for the people of Perry Barr, it’s seen very much as a pilot project. I’m sure other constituencies will be looking on with interest.”
Perry Barr Sports Development Manager, Panikos Panayiotou, who worked on the development of CSPAN and the website, added, “Helping people lead more active lifestyles is a big challenge, and we know there is a lot of interest in our work, not just across Birmingham, but in other parts of the UK.”
However, as anyone who has ever commissioned a website will know, creating it is phase one. Phase two is to engage community groups and individuals to provide the information needed to populate the site and keep it up-to-date. As such, it is still a work in progress – but first impressions are that it will be changing the way community sport is promoted in the area, and maybe even in the UK!
To visit the Ice Sporting website, click here.

Gingernut Of The Year

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:01:43 +0000

Before we go too much farther into the new year, it’s time to single out the person who, in the opinion of the Gingernut Creative directors, has given the greatest contribution to the company over the course of 2010.
Singled out for plaudits at the Annual meeting were Sulaiman and Simon, but the overall prize – and praise – goes somewhat inevitably to Gary.
This was a very popular decision with the assembled Gingernuts, as Gary is, in turn, the driving force of the company, a shoulder to cry on, account manager, goalkeeper extraordinaire, confidence coach, bearer of the beating stick, confidante and general go-to guy. There hasn’t been a problem invented that ‘The Thack’ can’t deal with. Oh, and he also invented pub o’clock!
So congratulations to Gary from the Gingernut family, we all look forward to working with you in 2011 and beyond.

MVP December

Fri, 7 Jan 2011 14:10:21 +0000

And so we reach the final award of 2010, a landmark year in the life of Gingernut Creative. So what of the December award?
The winner, and retainer of the trophy for a second month, is... Gary ‘is my top lip meant to be this cold?’ Thacker.
Comments from the voting forms included:
“For being the life and soul of the GC team.”
“For insisting upon excellence always!”
“For all the help he's given me, selflessly taking on more jobs such as writing copy and proofreading; for his fairness, and for always keeping his promises; for teaching us all continually about how to improve the business; for supporting me when I am enthusiastically trying to develop things at Gingernut Creative.”
“Simply for being Gary Thacker...”
“He always tries to help – no matter how busy he is. He also works harder than any other staff member.”
Well done, sir! Another award for the bulging trophy cabinet...

On the blog

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 11:45:18 +0000

Greetings from snowy Birmingham!
This is just a very brief news entry just to let you know that we have now launched ‘The Gingernut Blog’, another way that you can keep in touch with all the goings-on at Gingernut Creative.
It will contain more in-depth details on the breaking news her at Gingernut HQ, as well as ruminations from the Gingernuts and a whole host of other stuff that we’re excited to tell you about.
The blog can be found here.