news : news archive 2006

On Friday, January 20, on the steps of T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, New Target President and CEO Laura Machanic led a press conference announcing the 20th anniversary of The Scholarship Fund of Alexandria (SFA).  The conference included announcements of a surprise gift of $75,000 from New Target client The Mark Winkler Company, a new business partnership with Whole Foods Market and a new series of anniversary scholarships.

Visit SFA at www.alexscholarshipfund.org and Mark Winkler at www.markwinkler.com.

Laura Machanic, President & CEO of New Target was elected as Chairman of The Eisenhower Partnership, a public/private partnership organization working to shape the growth of Alexandria's Eisenhower Valley. Laura has served on the Board of Directors for the partnership for the past 3 years.

Elana has a graduate degree in Public Communication from American University and a BA in Communication and Political Science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.  Hailing from Massachuetts, Elana is an avid New England sports fan and can often be found watching games or playing fantasy football.

Land Trust Alliance, the representative organization of land trusts around the country, has chosen New Target to design and test the user interface for their new online learning center.  The user testing will consist of individual online testing for remote users to do at their own computers.  In addition, focus groups will be conducted to reach more users and get information on their opinions about wireframe concepts.  This detailed testing will inform the design concepts New Target develops for the new learning center.

New Target announces the redesigned web site for the 2006 CTIA Wireless IT & Information show.  The show, the largest wireless data event in the telecommunications industry, truly embodies the everchanging, dynamic and innovative world of wireless data in Enterprise and in Entertainment.  To develop the show's accompanying web site, New Target worked closely with the association's marketing and communications department in order to ensure that the new site reflected the show's unique brand identity.  The end result is a web site that captures the energy and theme of the show, 'One Show. Two Personalities,' while still providing visitors easy to find information through clear and concise navigation.  Visit the show site online at www.wirelessit.com.

Both the Digital Library Federation and Council on Library and Information Resources turned to New Target to provide fully-managed web site hosting.  The two web sites, www.diglib.org and www.clir.org, allow the organizations to provide important information supporting their respective missions of piorneering the use of electronic information technologies to extend library collections and expanding access to information, however recorded and preserved, as a public good.  Through our reliable web hosting solutions, New Target is thrilled to play a role in helping the organizations support their missions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

New Target hosted a client seminar focused on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) keyword marketing.  Attendees heard advice from New Target Internet marketing expert Richard Garrison on managing the keyword selection process, the importance of link-building to SEO, and measuring return on investment for both SEO and PPC campaigns.  We welcome you to download slides from the informative session or read our article on search engine friendly copywriting.

www.newtarget.com/seo/handouts.pdf

www.newtarget.com/seo/article.pdf

Each year, the Alexandria Volunteer Bureau and the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce co-host the Alexandria Business Philanthropy Summit to recognize local businesses and individuals for their work within the community.  This year, one of New Target’s clients, The Socrates Institute, nominated them for the award of Alexandria’s Business Philanthropist of the Year.  This award is given in recognition of outstanding philanthropic contributions to the Alexandria community.  New Target was nominated for their work with the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria and First Night Alexandria.  New Target’s President and CEO, Laura Machanic, is currently serving as the Scholarship Fund’s chair for the second year.  In addition, New Target sponsors the New Target, Inc. Internet Business Educator Scholarship, which is awarded to a female student planning to study business or technology at a four-year college or university.  New Target’s Vice President Amy Hissrich serves on the board for First Night Alexandria.  New Target designed sites for both organizations and they can be viewed at www.alexscholarshipfund.org and www.firstnightalexandria.org.

On March 1, New Target launched the redesigned web site for the Emerging Market Development Advisers Program (EMDAP), a program of the International Institute for Education.  Through volunteer advisers comprised of MBA or MA students with concentrations in International Development, EMDAP is able to provide organizations in developing countries with business-level technical assistance.

The newly redesigned EMDAP site features rotating adviser spotlights designed to give prospective advisers a high-level picture of what their experience may be like when participating in the EMDAP program.  In addition, New Target developed a searchable casebook for the site that allows visitors to search through textbooks written by EMDAP advisers containing in-depth information about challenges and opportunities faced by entrepreneurs in emerging markets by pre-determined categories as well as by keyword.  New Target also built the site to be fully compliant with Section 508 accessibility standards and USAID usability and content standards.

Visit the site at www.emdap.org.

Originally from India, Komal began her career in London as a Multimedia Designer.  She later moved to Washington, DC and worked at Votenet Solutions for six years.  She started as their Senior Web Designer and then was promoted to Creative Director and Chief Technology Officer, with the technology department reporting to her.  She was the creative force behind their product development and marketing initiatives.

Komal earned a degree in Fine Art, specializing in graphic design and advertising from Delhi College of Art in New Delhi, India.  She spent a year at University of Groningen in Groningen, Netherlands and earned a post-graduate degree in Communications Technology, specializing in Web/Multimedia.  Her schooling helped foster her exceptional design capabilities which enable her to design sites for trade associations, unions, elected officials, lobbying firms, corporate government affairs offices, non-profit organizations and corporate identity and marketing web sites for small to mid-sized firms.

In December 2005, Sanjeev Kale joined the New Target team as Director of Technology.  Sanjeev has eight years of experience in the software industry, seven of those focused in web application development.  Before coming to New Target, Sanjeev was Senior Product Manager and Software Engineer at Votenet Solutions, Inc. and spent 2 years at MicroStrategy.  He has a Master's degree from Syracuse University in Computer Engineering and a Bachelor's degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from Poona University in India.

New Target is proud to announce the launch of a redesigned web site for the International Cyanide Management Institute.  The site is designed to support the Institute's mission of administering the International Cyanide Management Code (Cyanide Code) for gold mining, promoting the Code's adoption and implementation and making information on the safe management practices for cyanide widely available.

Key highlights of the site include Flash animation, a site-wide search, email newsletter sign-up, CSS compliant code, JavaScript to protect emails listed on the site from spam and printer-friendly pages.  Please visit the site at www.cyanidecode.org.

For more information, please visit the site that was designed and developed by New Target: www.american.edu/academic.depts.

Visit SFA at www.alexscholarshipfund.org and Mark Winkler at www.markwinkler.com.

In 2005, New Target spearheaded a redesign effort to develop a web site that would provide long-time client, First Night Alexandria, the same sense of festivity as the event they host every New Year's Eve. The site was also designed to be easier to use and increasingly targeted to their three target audiences of attendees, performers and sponsors. We incorporated subtle Flash fireworks to reinforce the 'fun' aspect of the events for potential attendees. Additionally, we employed a Flash movie of all of the First Night 2005 sponsors and performers on the home page. Using Flash to highlight the performers and sponsors provided another key promotional opportunity for First Night Alexandria to use in the recruitment of additional performers and sponsors. Finally, to further increase anticipation for the event from all audiences, we implemented a countdown clock that ticks its way to the New Year. Not wanting First Night Alexandria to miss a second of their already brief sales cycle (badges for the event go on sale just after Thanksgiving), we implemented our content management tool to ensure that First Night Alexandria staff can update the web site with performer, venue or any key event information at any time of the day or night. The result couldn't be more satisfying for us at New Target or First Night Alexandria. First Night Alexandria Executive Director, Ann Dorman, notified us today that they had an increase of 40% in advanced web sales over 2004's advanced web sales.