Client Updates | Wigley and Associates

More online citizen engagement for the Northfield Public School District: A school calendar conversation with the community

By Griff Wigley, on March 7th, 2013

I’ve been hired by Northfield Public Schools Superintendent Chris Richardson to manage the online portion of a community discussion about school calendars.

Like their Transformational Technology project, it’s happening on a blog that’s part of the District’s WordPress Multiuser platform.

I’ve put up a project blogsite: A school calendar conversation with the Northfield community. The first community meeting is tonight.

New blog site for Countryside Animal Hospital & Kennels

By Griff Wigley, on September 16th, 2011

I’ve been working with veterinarian Dr. Rich Lorang and his wife Virginia Lorang to revamp the website for Countryside Animal Hospital & Kennels. The clinic and newly acquired kennel operation serve the cities of Dundas and Northfield as well as the surrounding Rice County area.

Dr. Rich has begun to blog, along with staffer Jess Renderos. You can also visit the Countryside Animal Hospital & Kennels Facebook page and follow Dr. Rich Lorang on Twitter.

Special event site for the TTC: the Tennessee Knockout Extreme Enduro

By Griff Wigley, on July 26th, 2011

Long-time client Trials Training Center is hosting a special motorcycle competition in August, the Tennessee Knockout Enduro. Its two main sponsors are Kenda Tires and Monster Energy so, like most competitions of this type, it’s branded this year as the "Kenda Tennessee Knockout Extreme Enduro, fueled by Monster Energy."

We’ve given the event its own page on the TTC website, with the special domain name mapped to it. We’re using the TTC blog to post event updates, with a special tag phrase and special RSS feed. We’re also using the existing TTC Twitter account and TTC Facebook page for additional promotion.

NATC: new MotoTrial website and blog; also on Facebook and Twitter

By Griff Wigley, on January 31st, 2011

The North American Trials Council (NATC), home of the NATC/AMA US National MotoTrial Championship Series and the US Trial des Nations Team, has a new site with a new name:

MotoTrial.us

The old domain names for the NATC and US TdN will be redirected and eventually discontinued.

I’ve been working with NATC CEO Brian Behling on the site. Brian is now blogging and is ramping up with both NATC MotoTrials on Facebook and NATC MotoTrials on Twitter.

New blogsite for EnduroTrial 2010

By Griff Wigley, on July 14th, 2010

I’ve been working with my long-time client, the Trials Training Center in Tennessee, to set up a separate blog site for the AMA EnduroTrial Championship this fall. We launched it today.

The EnduroTrial is an off-road competition which is designed to test the rider’s overall off-road riding ability by incorporating some of the technical riding skills associated with observed trials into an enduro racing format.

Client meetings in Northfield: The Citistates Group; the DeKruif for Senate 25 campaign

By Griff Wigley, on July 6th, 2010

My consulting business brings an infusion of $1.65 to downtown Northfield most days, depending on where I have coffee. Last week I was happy to ratchet that up a bit with two client meetings at the HideAway CoffeeHouse and Winebar.

The principals of The Citistates Group paid a visit to Northfield on Wednesday to meet with me and Northfield web designer Sean Hayford O’Leary. Sean and I have worked with Neal Peirce, Farley Peters, and Curtis Johnson for years but had never met with them F2F.

On Thursday, I met with Republican-endorsed Senate 25 candidate Al DeKruif and two of his campaign volunteers, Daryl Bauer and Brian Wermerskirchen. I’m working with them on social media-related activities for Al’s campaign.

The first time my consulting business had a huge economic impact (dozens of dollars!) on downtown Northfield was in the summer of 2004 when a group of Brits from the Blair government descended on the Contented Cow, desperate for British beer. They returned with some colleagues in the summer of 2005.

Blog site: Mark Murphy for Sheriff

By Griff Wigley, on July 2nd, 2010

I’ve been working with Mark Murphy the past few weeks on his Mark Murphy for Sheriff campaign blog site. Mark is running for Sheriff of Rice County Minnesota. He’s currently a Sergeant with the Northfield Police Department.

New liquor blog for City of Eden Prairie, MN

By Griff Wigley, on May 12th, 2010

The City of Eden Prairie, MN has been a client since early 2003 when I helped City Manager Scott Neal get going with his blog. Fire Chief George Esbensen started his blog in early 2005, and the EP Police Department started their blog in early 2009 (after former Police Chief Dan Carlson retired along with his long-running blog).

The latest to join the City of Eden Prairie blogosphere: the Eden Prairie Liquor blog, launched last month by communications staffers Joyce Lorenz and Katie Beal, with the managers of the EP municipal liquor stores doing the blogging: Mitch Dean, Tammy Wanchena, Holly Smith, and Tana Wold.

Blogsite revamp for Club 95

By Griff Wigley, on March 31st, 2010

Waaaay back in April of 2003, I set up a blog site for the Club 95 restaurant in Hixton, Wisconsin, working with then-owner Steve Kirschner. Jerel and Jen Gunning bought the restaurant from Steve in 2004 and Jerel took on the blogging duties.

In September 2009, I set up a blogsite for Re-Pete’s Saloon & Grill in Black River Falls, Wisconsin which Jerel and Jen had recently purchased. Jen has assumed blogging duties there along with one of her employees, Jamie Bailey.

We’ve now revamped the Club 95 blogsite, converting it from Blogger to WordPress and using the Atahualpa Theme by BytesForAll. Jen and Jamie will likely be taking over blogging and web upkeep duties.

A new blogsite for First Congregational Church of Cannon Falls

By Griff Wigley, on March 18th, 2010

I’ve been working with First Congregational Church of Cannon Falls Pastor Barbara Martin and her technology team to convert their web site to a blog site.

The site is build on WordPress using the Atahualpa Theme by BytesForAll.

We created three custom banners from parishioner photos. The banners randomly display as one clicks on different pages of the site.

Rev. Martin began blogging on March 15.

Customized WordPress theme for Flamenco Organic Coffee Company

By Griff Wigley, on February 25th, 2010

flamenco organic sshot Two years ago we worked with Upper Midwest Gourmet (UMG) to put up three companion blog sites and we’ve recently revamped one of them, Flamenco Organic Coffee Company.

Northfield web designer Sean Hayford O’Leary took a design from UMG staffer Alan Erbach and, working with another staffer, Michael Applen, created a special WordPress theme and navigation bar for it.

See the UMG Coffee Portal for all their coffee-related sites.

Empowering Voices Online (EVO): community leadership blogging

By Griff Wigley, on February 5th, 2010

I’m working with my Gallomanor colleagues, Shane McCracken and Mary Reid, to deliver a series of one-day community leadership blogging workshops in the UK called Empowering Voices Online (EVO) .

Shane and Mary will be delivering the face-to-face sessions while I concentrate on the coaching and feedback via various tools, including the Interactive Learning Environment (ILE) on Blogging for Leaders.

First up on the 6th of February: participants from the city of Dewsbury in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. They’ll be meeting at the Ravensthorpe Community Centre.

Blog site for Forza!

By Griff Wigley, on January 28th, 2010

I’ve been working on a blogsite with Gretchen Falck, owner of a fitness studio in Northfield called Forza! Building strong bodies and minds one core at a time.

Forza! features classes that “use Kettlebells, TRX Suspension Training, Resistance Stretching, and Body Weight Exercises.”

A new blog for Kutzky Park Neighborhood Association

By Griff Wigley, on November 26th, 2009

kutzkyparklogo120w Back in 2004, I helped Rochester, MN neighborhood group, the Kutzky Park Neighborhood Association, set up a new website with a blog using Blogger.

They asked for an updated site this summer so we converted all the old Blogger posts over to WordPress. We gave the admin keys to local volunteer Pam Gjertson who’s been learning WordPress on her own and experimenting with various WordPress themes… currently using one of my favorites, Atahualpa.