Wales has a surprisingly vibrant IT sector, but it also has a very high proportion of SMEs and Micro-business when compared to the UK as a whole and it's these business who are often lagging behind in getting themselves online with a web presence.  This is in spite of the fact that Wales' geography makes selling online a potentially lucrative additional market to add to the footfall of the relatively small 'in person' market.

Google, in conjunction with a group of local partners are looking to change that and we went to the launch event in Cardiff to find out how they plan to do it!

There ws a jazzy, modern, fun atmosphere at the event, as we'd rather expected given its host - the branding was strong and the 'juice bar' doing a lively trade as we collected our badges, explored the stands of those business which had 'been there done it' and investigated our goodie bags.

The rolling demo on the large screens in the conference area were showing Welsh businesses with quotes about how getting online had helped them (you knew they were Welsh businesses by the regular interspersing of shots of Pontcysyllte and Cardiff Castle!)

Edwina Hart opened procedings with the by now familiar stress on the implementation of rural broadband.  Interestingly, the importance of maintaining Wales' bilingual identity also got a lot of discussion and the event as a whole made plenty of use of Welsh which was good to see.

Dan Cobley, the Managing Director of Google UK was next up, and impressed us all with a very down-to-earth presentation, full of solid practical tips on using things like Insights for Search, localisation, mobile-friendly sites and emphasis on What makes you special".

There were also case studies with particular businesses who had found that getting a website up and running had made significant changes to their business.  Again very practical and clearly more than just marketing blurb.

The event got a lot of coverage, both tweeted at the event and blogged afterwards as well as in the mainstream media (BBC here and Wales Online here)

Overall a very interesting evening.

Oh, and while we're talking about driving sales from website - if you are a business that needs some help getting online we offer both design and hosting or the option to have your own staff trained up to produce websites themselves!  Contact us or have a browse of the course list up there on the left!