Joel Dixon works across a variety of markets to provide solutions for the exploding web content management needs of organizations worldwide. He is responsible for sourcing new business opportunities as well as communicating the message of Hannon Hill's content management system Cascade Server.
Prior to joining the Hannon Hill team, Joel worked in sales and marketing management within the financial services and home improvement industries. He has traveled extensively overseas in Asia, Europe and Africa including 3 months studying Mandarin Chinese in mainland China.
Joel graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in Symbolic Systems/Human-Computer Interaction. He was born in Redlands, California but raised in Atlanta, Georgia BT (Before Traffic). He has laid back west coast sensibilities with a southern gentleman mentality.
Words to live by: "Don't ask what the world needs. Find out what makes you come alive and just do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come ALIVE!"
We are approaching that time of the year that is generally associated with the spirit of giving. Thankfully here at Hannon Hill I have the opportunity to give all year long. As a Solutions Consultant for Hannon Hill’s content management system Cascade Server, I regularly work with organizations in the early stages of their CMS review process. Many times the project lead will be looking not so much for information on our particular CMS solution, but resources to better understand the features, functionality, and benefits of a content management system.
Hannon Hill offers many free white papers such as our Intro to Content Management Systems, Guide to a Successful Implementation, and Top Ten CMS Buying Mistakes. These are just some of the many valuable resources that I can provide for organizations to assist in “bringing them up to speed” on the CMS industry. Furthermore, once a prospect better understands what a CMS is capable of, I am able to offer them more specific white papers that cover real day-to-day benefits of utilizing a content management system such as using workflows, creating templates, and maintaining web accessible sites for 508 and WAI compliance.
The process of giving is always rewarding. In this case, I have the opportunity to provide resources that can save time and shorten the learning curve for most people, developers, organizations and businesses researching CMS options. The benefits of this information offer efficiencies in website management that can tremendously impact any organization. If you are beginning the CMS review process, contact a Hannon Hill representative or check out our white papers at www.hannonhill.com.
MORGAN GRIFFITH: Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Hannon Hill's 'Meet The Team.' Today, we're here to welcome the newest member of our team, Sam Beresford, who joins us a Business/Technical Writer. How's it going, Sam?
SAM BERESFORD : Pretty well, thanks for asking. How about yourself?
MORGAN: I'm doing well. Tell us a little bit about yourself, Sam. Where are you originally from, and where did you grow up? And where did you go to school?
SAM: I was born in St. Louis, MO, I was raised in the fine city of Charlotte, NC, and I'm a proud graduate of Morehouse College, here in Atlanta.
MORGAN: I know you recently moved back to Atlanta from New York. What kind of work were you doing before you came to Hannon Hill?
SAM: I was only in New York for about two years, but I got some great experience working in the fashion industry as an upscale boutique manager, and then as a do-everything kind of guy at a young women's clothing line.
MORGAN: Wow, that's quite a difference from writing for a web content management software development company.
SAM: It definitely is, but throughout my time there, I was writing and editing for a new men's lifestyle magazine called FREE, and I think that working in such varied environments and industries kept me on my toes and able to adapt to new situations pretty quickly.
MORGAN: What initially interested you in the job?
SAM: During my daily Craigslist perusal, I usually stuck to the Marketing/PR board, but I decided to check out the Writing/Editing section too. I saw that it was a position that entailed a whole lot of writing, which is great, and it was for a technology company, which I've been very eager to work for and really get some experience in.
MORGAN: So tell us what you're going to be doing here at Hannon Hill.
SAM: I'll be writing and providing content for any and all of the various ways that we gets our message across to all interested parties. It might be a monthly newsletter for clients, a press release for the media, a users manual for a new version of a product, a regularly updated blog, or even internal stuff for the Hannon Hill gang.
MORGAN: What do you look forward to helping out with most here at Hannon Hill?
SAM: I 'm looking forward to really help to craft the voice that Hannon Hill uses to speak to all of its constituents -- potential customers, current clients, the press, the trade, employees, and everybody else that we need to get our message across to.
MORGAN: Sounds good. So now that you're back, what did you miss the most about Atlanta when you moved away?
SAM: There's so much...the weather, the old hang-outs, the ability to have, and afford, a car...but I'm a Southern boy at heart, so I gotta go with the iced tea. Down here, I don't even have to ask if it's sweet or not.
MORGAN: That's a good enough reason to come back. And we're certainly glad to have you here. Thanks for stopping by, Sam, and thanks to everybody out there for checking out this edition of Meet the Team at Hannon Hill. See you next time.
A business and technology enthusiast, David Cummings founded Hannon Hill Corporation in 2001 with the goal to provide powerful XML web content management (WCM) solutions, with an emphasis on personalized customer service.
A WCM subject matter expert, David’s articles have been published on O'Reilly's XML.com and OnJava.com, in addition to popular web development sites such as SitePoint.com. He has presented at the Silicon Valley Web Guild, for Silicon Networks, and the Independent Computer Consultants Association (ICCA).
With more than 10 years of software development experience, David is an experienced programmer and has written code for commercial applications in Java, PHP, ASP, and Visual C++. Prior to founding Hannon Hill Corporation, David worked as an engineer for IBM.
David serves as chairman of the board of the Technology Association of Georgia Content Management Society. A native of Tallahassee, Florida, David holds a bachelor of science degree in economics from Duke University.
Recently, several Hannon Hillians and I had the opportunity to attend the annual Educause Conference in Seattle, Washington. Educause focuses on topics that are relevant to IT specialists in higher education. Hannon Hill attended this popular conference to network with and present our content management solution, Cascade Server, to technology experts in the education industry.
We had our first and only experience of Seattle’s infamous rainy weather on the first day of the sold-out conference. The location had been planned ten years in advance, and the attendance was much larger than expected with 4,300 full conference registrants and over 2,000 exhibitor registrants from 230 companies. The conference was forced to turn away an additional 2,000 prospective attendees. Thankfully, we registered early and were able to learn valuable information from the panels which covered subjects such as “Tomorrow’s Students: Are we Ready for the new 21st Century Learners,” “Disaster Planning: Maintaining Academic Programs During a Pandemic,” and “The Role of Information Technology in an Age of Access, Affordability, and Accountability.” We were also delighted to chat with many of our clients and prospects.
If you missed out on Educause this year, you can check out some of the sessions on the Conference Happenings page on the Educause 2007 site. We had a great time and look forward to attending Educause again next year!
When the standard 5pm quitting-time rolls around, most people in the workforce rush out of the office only to dread the inevitable 9am arrival to work the next day...but not for Hannon Hillians! Last Thursday, November 7th, 2007, roughly 20 members of Hannon Hill team and their friends reconvened after work for an evening of WhirlyBall at WhirlyBall Atlanta in Roswell.
I’m sure there are many of you out there like myself who have never previously heard of WhirlyBall before. Well let me tell you, you’re missing out! Whirlyball is a strange combination of basketball, lacrosse, and everyone’s favorite part – Bumper Cars!!
The game is played with two 5-person teams, red and yellow, and 13 minutes on the clock. Players try to utilize scoops similar to those used in lacrosse to maintain possession of a softball-sized plastic whiffle ball while attempting to maneuver the 4,000 sq. ft course to their respective goals at each end. The ‘goals’ are very similar to a basketball backboard; only, the objective in WhirlyBall is not to simply shoot a ball through the net. Instead, players must fling the plastic whiffle ball through a 15-inch hole in the center of the backboard to hit a plexiglass swing gate that rests behind it.
When the ball passes through the target and hits the swing gate, a buzzer sounds to alert the referee that a team has scored and two points are added to the scoreboard. As you can imagine, with ten frantic lacrosse stick-toting players all chasing the same moving object in bumper
cars, things got a little bit chaotic!
Highlights of the evening included Mike Strauch’s awe-inspiring WhirlyBall 3-pointer (most of us could not even score), and a no-look over the shoulders shot from Jason Ramsey, friend of Hannon Hill employee, Beth Willis (who also scored at least 3 goals last night, if memory serves me right!)
A big thank you is owed to Blaine Herman and David Cummings for making this wonderful evening possible. The office is abuzz with discussion of making WhirlyBall an annual Hannon Hill celebration, or even the possibility of implementing a HH WhirlyBall league! Count me in!
For more information on WhirlyBall, or to schedule a time to partake in the fun yourself, visit: www.whirlyballatlanta.com.