I suppose what I should be blogging about today is that Karl, along with Astoria Sunday Market Director Cyndi Mudge, built a brand new site for this event, but what I want to tell you is this: Start training now: The Commercial Fishermen’s Festival is just 3-1/2 months away!

The mission of the Commercial Fishermen’s Festival is to offer fishermen and industry professionals an opportunity to bond and share information that will save lives, improve productivity, increase demand for seafood products, and promote job opportunities. The mission is also dedicated to educating the public about the fishing industry including the steps fishermen have taken to ensure a renewable resource for the future. The Festival will showcase American fisheries and the process of selecting, preparing and cooking seafood.

The REALITY of the Commercial Fishermen’s Festival is FUN FUN FUN!

• Captain Phil Harris Highliner Competition, the Signature Competition of the Festival – No Whiners, Only Highliners! There are three categories:  kids, under age 40, and 40 and above. Cash prize for 1st place is $500 plus prizes from industry leaders.  Additional $500 to overall winner for a total cash prize of $1000.  There is a practice area set-up for competitors.
• Dover Sole Relay – Slimy, Fishy Fun!  Teams of three compete for the highly coveted Dover Sole Crown. This is a relay race carrying a shovel full of Dover Sole – the slipperiest, slimiest fish in the sea.  Winners are based on speed and number of fish left on the shovel.
• Filleting Competition – Surgical Precision at Lightning Speed! Filleters will be competing in three heats with the winners of each heat competing in the final round.  Cash prize plus industry prizes for the top filleter.  Winners are judged on speed and recovery.
• Hyster Competition – Contestants maneuver through an obstacle course
• Survival Suit Races – See crabbers run.  Run crabbers run!
• Wizard of Crab Coiling Competition – Do we even have to explain this?

September 18-19, 2010

When you visit the new site, take a look at the Captain Phil Harris Memorial CD and the Raffle Tickets.  Both of these were also beachdog projects!

The Port of Ilwaco got a little face lift this spring, adding a right sidebar for their social networking activities.  If you’re not yet a fan of Discover Ilwaco on facebook, make a point of it!  Then head down to the Saturday Market tomorrow.  It’s the best!

The Rotary Clubs of Astoria and Warrenton Sunrise are joining forces to produce the inaugural “Columbia Canines Woof Walk” on August 7th in Astoria.  The event takes place along the Riverwalk, between the Red Building and the Columbia River Maritime Museum, where participants can stroll at their own pace and have their entry card stamped by volunteers.  Walk both directions, or take the dog-friendly trolley one way.  At the end, enjoy vendors and performers.  You KNOW we’ll be there!

Keleigh designed and illustrated the collateral package for the event, from logo to postcard, brochure, posters, entry form and website.  Who do you think was her inspiration?

In just one month, Long Beach’s Doggie Olympic Games will be putting smiles on the faces of a hundred or so dogs and their owners.  Keleigh designed the event brochure and registration form, which is available through our office or the Long Beach Peninsula Visitors Bureau:

She also designed a carbon-less registration form to use on the beach;  it lets the registrant keep a copy as a receipt, which includes the full text of the release they agree to at registration.  We can create custom, affordable carbon-less forms in all the popular sizes.

David is working on giving the Doggie Olympics their very own home on the web: www.doggieolympicgames.com. Check it out!

We built a web site for the City of Long Beach quite a few years ago, which had been well-maintained by city staff.   The time had come, however, to do some serious housecleaning, and to bring the site into the social media generation.   We gave them an installation of WordPress and transferred the data from the old site into the new one.  A little tweaking, fresh photos, functional plug-ins… whoosh!  A new site was born!

Long Beach citizen volunteer Mark Perez has been hard at work editing the site’s content and developing new pages.  Longbeachwa.gov grows more comprehensive and useful every day!

At the same time, Tourism & Event Coordinator Ragan Andrew envisioned a section of the site dedicated to package travel and tour operators. She, along with Councilman Jerry Phillips and contractor Melody Johnson, designed the site structure & function, including a password-protected area. The “scrapbook-y” look and feel of the micro site was inspired by a sales book Ragan had developed.

They’re thrilled with the results, and that makes us very happy!