Andy elaborated on the whole e-Den experience:
Q. What made you decide to become a candidate for e-Den?
A. We had always been impressed with Nicholas through our contacts with Business Link Wessex and we were keen to support him in his ventures with Bowshot. We had already decided to go along to the event, recognising that we would gain something valuable...but then we warmed to the idea of how useful it would be to hear the advice of the panel, and audience, relating directly to us, rather than have to assimilate advice given to other companies and apply it in a manner we deemed appropriate. All web development had been undertaken in house and we knew this was an area that we wanted to develop and introduce an element of input from outside the organisation. We all thought "Let’s do it - this can only be a positive experience" - and it was.
Q. How did you prepare for your presentation to the panel?
A. We knew that we wanted to develop our web offering. Becoming a candidate at e-Den gave us the opportunity to focus on this. I spent an afternoon with our web site manager, drilling down into what our key issues were and then pulled together a series of notes and bullet points to use on the night.
Q. How would you describe your experience at e-Den?
A. Overwhelmingly positive! The feedback from the expert panel has made such a tremendous difference and the audience came up with some great points too. The contacts we made through networking have been of great value and ultimately we won some valuable prizes. Our work with Bluhalo's design team is now well underway and we’ve gained enormous insights into web trading by becoming a member of the Bowshot e-traders' group. Our web site is now a million miles from where it was 12 months ago. That is all down to e-Den.
Q. Do you have any advice for future e-Den candidates?
A. Think carefully about what your issues are – everyone will have something but make sure you address the critical ones. Be prepared – not only with your presentation but for the work that will follow. I found that using notes as prompts rather than reading from a prepared presentation helped me to engage with the audience, to relax and talk passionately about Naturetrek. Winning e-Den did result in us having additional work – but that’s why we applied in the first place. We wanted to take action. We were now confident that we were taking the most effective action. Our web site manager, Paul Marshall has worked extremely hard implementing all the ideas but he agrees that the affect this has had on the business is phenomenal!