For The Bookseller the principal personnel involved in the project roll-out were Head of Events Grace Lewis, and Online & Digital Specialist Mat Tor. For Affino the team was headed up by Susan Kerrigan - Head of Projects, and our development team led by Julius Metyko.
 
A huge part of the Collaboration was in the origin and handling of specifications - and making sure that everything stayed on task, and didn't overcomplicate the management of the solution.
 
Every decision needed to be impact-reviewed from every angle - both agency-side and client-side - to make sure everything matched up to expectations. There was also a specific need to ensure that the solution didn't get too complicated and land beyond the reach of the engaged project team.
 
These projects are always easier when you have great leadership at both ends - and Grace definitely came in with a very specific game plan which was crucial to how quickly we were able to roll out the enhanced solution.
 
Projects often break away into committees and subcommittees which can all too easily stifle progress - for this particular project - movement was swift and highly focused. Everyone knew very early on what we were working towards - and it made for a very swift and streamlined experience.
 
There's always some snagging to be done at the end - where elements don't end up exactly as they were conceived - and by and large all of those wrinkles got very elegantly resolved in the end.
 
It really helps when there is a solid and fully shared plan where everyone understands their role from the start.
 
I believe the development elements here were added in an entirely pain-free manner for both sides. It all made for very smooth running.

Much of the Affino functionality was already in place - and it was in part a case of applying those options somewhat differently. While as mentioned in the intro - we also of course needed to add a number of new settings to the Advanced Events Module - to yield further options on specific formatting and surfacing of content and media.
 
The hierarchy was broadened - such that you could feature different navigations, include or bypass header banners and media, and have a lot more flexibility in the various underlying pages.
 
Those extra settings were mostly about empowering the system and The Bookseller Staff - to achieve the preferred look and feel / house style that Grace Lewis had set out. It was critical that The Bookseller Staff would be able to roll out this site build on their own, and be able to tackle new  and subsequent Event Site Builds with relative ease.
 
A big part of the Affino Platform is Empowerment and Productivity - enabling very small teams to achieve the nigh impossible with relative ease. After the original site setup and rollout - most Affino Clients are able to deploy new sites freely at will - with a very high degree of flexibility.
 
The smooth rollout of the new site was much to do with Grace Lewis's clear vision from the start, and how well the two teams worked together.

Obviously this project had much to do with esoterics, ergonomics and advanced formatting. Where the final proof was in how slick the new site experience was and the small deft touches for all the underlying content. Using Article Steps Publishing Times and Security to sequentially and dynamically introduce new content details.
 
There aren't really any empirical measurements here - beyond the general customer satisfaction from the improved user experience.
 
At project completion Mat Tor stated - "We’re very happy with the flexibility and user experience the new platform offers - and we're confident that the more granular control over all event content will reap substantial traffic benefits in the future”.
 
Mat further referred to how effortless he found the build and rollout - as he did much of that work himself - and how substantial the cost savings were that The Bookseller Team could carry out all the work themselves - while with a different platform there would almost inevitably be additional setup charges. With Affino they could roll out the new Nibbies Award Site themselves, and can henceforth build up additional full-featured Event Sites without encountering further costs.
 
With most Event Systems out there - you pay for every individual and additional event - and whenever that needs to be renewed - when the next one rolls along for instance. While for Affino - you can deploy new Events Sites yourself - all at will and with no costs moving forward!
 
Affino was already a powerful system at the start of the project - it is even more powerful now!
 
We at Affino are delighted with how well the new Nibbies Site turned out - and it's for sure a flagship ambassador for the Affino Advance Events Module!

www.thebookseller.com/the-british-book-awards