EkaBlog - Site Blog for Ekaweeka the Small Business Community

Last night a group of Ekaweeka's leading users met up for a night of wine, cheese, tacos and fun. It wasn't an official event in any capacity but while catching up on our lives and filling our bellies there was discussion about our wonderful new project.

We chatted about some great experiences we had already had while using the site, and we discussed the new features like profile customization, and possible feature developments like the Eka pages.

Lots of great feedback there, possibly interesting direction for the Eka pages. As they are now, you start with a blank page, and add widgets to customize the page content. One suggestion was that they fit the format of the other pages, and have a customizable body, so one could give the page its own title, and enter whatever content/text/photos/html etc.

On styles, we found everyone was very excited about customizing their page. Yet the whole Social Network - Profile Customization phenomenon is largely supported by other people supplying users with style-sheets (CSS) to use. I've taken a slightly different approach. Considering that we don't have avid CSS designer's under our member's list yet I just gave a little direction and hoped people would figure it out.
CSS is by no means an easy editing method for non-web savvy users to pick up overnight, but I do think half providing help and half leaving it up to them to figure it out will only open up more doors and start a little Eka-styling buzz.

So let it be that last night was the first kind of sort of Eka - party. You better bet there many more where that came from.

With the shopping cart nearly in, and the search engine also completed - only waiting for final touches, we've moved on to a new list of things to be updated.

We're adding an event system, users will be able to host events through their Ekaweeka account. We're adding a photo gallery system, to improve photo navigation. And we're fixing a number of small things that you would never guess - yet need the fixing.

The holidays definitely make it more difficult to move forward. But fortunately many of our engineers are more concerned with getting these upgrades in place. Lucky us!

There hasn't been any clear and easy way to get the Ekaweeka Events rolling so to follow some of my own advice we're going to start with one small event here in Los Angeles. We'll rent out a space in
Hollywood probably somewhere between Beverly and Hollywood Blvd and Highland and La Cienga. We'll have 4-10 different users displaying their creations or information about their service. There will be live music, beverages, and some other related stuff. Considering we need to find the location, the tables, the users, and the entertainment - this should be slated for no earlier then June 20th. which gives us about 10 weeks to put it all together. If you are in LA or are going to be around then please contact us for more information on getting a table at the first Ekaweeka Event ever!

Well we may have found an organization to work with for our first event. Talks are young, plans too premature to speak of the details but it is exciting none the less. Once there is a better idea of what where and when we'll start disclosing the potential details.

In the interim all designers such as fashion, graphic, interterior and web and all creators such as artists, photographers, and crafts should contact us if you are interested in having a presence. Even if you aren't going to be in Los Angeles - the more Ekaweeka businesses we can get involved the better the event will be.

Along with the artists, shops, and services we'll have music, drinks, and other party stuff to keep the fun meter blowing through the roof.