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New Chamber Website Launched!

Tuesday, June 18th, 2013

We recently launched a brand new website for the Greater Derry Londonderry Chamber of Commerce. This website incorporates new technology that helps the chamber promote their members and local events in a very sophisticated way, but with the ease of editing a word processing document.

Authentic Content

It is well known that having tons of authentic content is the best way to raise where a website appears on search engine results pages without having to resort to paying. Unfortunately, created and managing complex content for a website is typically very difficult and/or expensive to do. What Render Edge Media, LLC has developed for the Chamber is a way to create, aggregate and publish content that is not only attractive for the visitor to view, but also maximizes the exposure of the content to the search engines. The impact can been right away on the Chamber's Home page.

The Home page has many distinct areas of content - more reminiscent of a newspaper. In addition to the introductory information about the Chamber, the page has "Chamber News" and "Featured News" sections, general local informational links, an events calendar, and several advertisement sections. Once a story has been published, the underlying system knows where to make the content available throughout the rest of the website automatically. This makes it very easy for the Chamber to manage the website. Instead of worrying about how things are formatted, they can concentrate on the creation of their content.

Great For Chamber Members Too

The great thing about this website is that this same technology is also available to the Chamber members. Instead of only being listed in the on-line member directory, each member can also have their own page on the website, complete with the ability to publish articles on a continuing basis. For small businesses who do not have a website, this is a very compelling on-line solution for them because for very little expense, it allows the business to piggy-back on the great traffic that the Chamber website receives due to its inherent popularity. Chamber websites throughout the country are often some of the most visited websites on the Internet. By being a part of the Chamber website, the business benefits from both the number of visitors the website attracts as well as its high ranking in the organic search results. The Chamber benefits as well because the additional articles published by the members broadens the amount of authentic content available on the website which the search engines love.

Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden June 11, 1977

Sunday, January 3, 2010

I was a Junior in High School when Led Zeppelin booked Madison Square Garden in New York City for a week of concerts in June of 1977. We were able to score tickets because they were sold by mail order - the promoter's brilliant plan to circumvent the scalpers from getting the best seats. The downside, of course, was that we had no control where our seats would be. To our great surprise we received seats in the first tier of the Garden right next to the stage (stage left). Simply awesome seats! The last photo below shows the perspetive of where we were.

I shot Tri-X, Kodacolor II, and Panatomic-X. A whopping three rolls of film! Today I would easily snap off a thousand shots at a concert. Boy, how times have changed.

I had a 50mm and 200mm lens and my Dad's Pentax body. Looking back at the photos now, I'm disappointed to see blurred shots and the graininess of the film. I kept the negatives in plastics sheets, but they still had tons of scratches and dirt on them. I discovered that the anti-scratch software on the Nikon Coolscan 4000 scanner would not work on the black and white images at all, so these shots were cleaned up entirely by hand - not the most fun Photoshop work.

I was amazed to see how much information there is on the web for this specific concert date. Personal accounts. Photos. Even audio from the entire concert! All these years I had no idea.

The first black & white photo of Jimmy Page was just as the show opened with "The Song Remains The Same" playing his famed double-neck Gibson guitar and sporting nice, blown-dry hair (that didn't last long). The color picture was taken during his extended guitar solo towards the end of the show. You can't see it, but he is wielding his bow above his head. During the solo he was touching the laser beam that was passing over his head. This scattered the light all over the arena. I remember at the time thinking it was a very cool effect and a novel use of the laser.

I know people might find this hard to believe, but I found the concert to be both one of the best shows I ever saw while also having the distinction of being the most boring at times (during the extended keyboard and drum solos). I think I would have appreciated those moments more now. Back then I was probably more interested in just hearing what I was familiar with from the albums. With age I've come to appreciate and enjoy the improvisation more.

I remember at the end of the show that the lights came up in the arena and no one left. The crowd continued to scream loud and unabated. After what seemed a VERY long time, the lights cut out and Jimmy starts playing those great notes from the beginning of "Heartbreaker." In looking at the play lists for all the shows during the week at the Garden, they didn't play this every night, so I think it was quite special to see them perform it. Great way to finish a Led Zeppelin concert.

I hope the die-hard Led Zeppelin fans find this article so they can enjoy the photos. I have more to post if there's any interest.

Go here for more first-hand accounts for this concert.