About UsAbout us
From our headquarters in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, we build websites for organizations and individuals throughout North America. Since our launch in 2006, we have served a diverse range of website customers—individual business consultants, retailers, construction companies, arts and entertainment groups, community and provincial sports associations, not-for-profit government initiatives, and more.
Joomla? Odd name ... amazing software!
We use Joomla, an open source content management system, to build beautiful, practical, and, above all, easy-to-use websites. Joomla is the phonetic spelling of the Swahili word Jumla and means "all together".
Websites that work beautifully
We believe websites should be practical and good looking. That's why, in addition to helping you attract new clients and retain existing customers, our websites are designed to streamline and enhance your overall operations.
For example, one of our recent customers needed a way to register new members of different ages in their association, collect specific details about each member, and process each registration fee, which would vary depending on age—all from a single online form. Since no off-the-shelf offerings could do exactly what our customer wanted, we created a solution by combining and tweaking two separate components. Our approach gave our customer what they needed, and at a price that was far less than if we had hand-coded a solution from the ground up.
Another customer needed a way to track repairs and locations of heavy equipment used for road and bridge construction. Before they approached us, they were considering a proprietary system that wasn't online, was difficult to learn, and demanded annual-use payments. We came up with a system that was web-based, secure, and easy to use—at a fraction of the price of the proprietary solution.
We're easy to reach, and easy to work with
A shockingly large percentage of websites wither and die simply because the site owners gave up trying to get in touch with their developer, or they tired of explaining, unsuccessfully, their needs to disinterested support drones. At A1Media.ca you'll deal directly with the owner, Douglas Helmer, who will personally oversee every aspect of your website from design and development to maintenance and support.
EXPERIENCE3
Douglas Helmer, Website Developer
Doug has a rare combination of business acumen and technical savvy. He builds websites that address business objectives and motivate target audiences, while enhancing each organization’s operations.
An Internet early-adopter, Doug won a student business competition at the U of Calgary in 1988 with his online community where students sent emails and posted items for sale in his online classifieds. The service was hosted on the U of Calgary's mainframe computer and gave his customers access to ARPANET, the forerunner of today's Internet. Innovative thinking earned Doug a position at a high-tech firm soon after graduation.
He spent the next ten years as a marketing manager, marketing vice president, and eventually, owner of his own marketing company. In total, Doug has 26 years of business experience and has worked with such companies as ConAgra, Hasbro, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, ATI, and nVIDIA.
During his business career, Doug created two award-winning online communities where he oversaw every aspect of the online operations, from building and maintaining the websites, to managing forums with over 15,000 members, to writing product reviews, and editing and publishing over 5,000 news items and feature-length articles.
Gail Helmer, Social Media and Business Marketing
Gail is a certified social media and web marketing professional.
A self-described Internet junkie, she has been labeled a social media guru by several online and print publications; most recently, she was featured in The New Yorker magazine.
She is a much in-demand social media marketing strategist and educational seminar speaker for corporations, entrepreneurs, and non-profit organizations. Additionally, she teaches a beginners-to-advanced series of social media classes at Bow Valley College in Calgary, Alberta.
Over her 20-year career as a marketing professional, Gail has worked for and with Fortune 500 corporations including IKEA, Loblaws, Hasbro, and Microsoft. She has held senior positions with some of Canada's top corporations, including Ivanhoe Cambridge, Yellow Pages Group and Alberta Ballet. Gail's dedication and professionalism have earned her multiple award recognitions.
Currently, Gail is the Senior Web Communications Strategist at Bryan Mills Iradesso, while maintaining her independent consultancy through A1Media.ca.
Janice Laurie, Writer
An experienced marketer and skilled communicator, Janice has an uncanny ability to simplify and clarify complex issues to identify core concepts and messages. She is known for creative problem-solving and compelling, meaningful writing that speaks heart-to-heart with an audience.
Over the course of her 30-year career, she has used her exceptional writing skills to engage everyone from farmers and executives to homeowners and homemakers. In addition to website copy, she has written national advertising campaigns, corporate brochures, annual reports, speeches, and sales kits.