Seeing The Future In Style: The Unveiling Of The OWA’s New Website!
After many months, tons of meetings, passionate brainstorming and dedicated work, the OWA’s new website is live, and we couldn’t be more excited!
As we were tasked by our fearless leader and OWA President, Lorie Lippiatt to “imagine” the future of the OWA, I knew a new website was in order. We’ve grown a lot over the past few years, and an updated look is exactly what we needed to go hand-in-hand with the ideas that are brewing for this collective. We wanted to bring you a website with a modern look, more engagement opportunities, and easier navigability. If you haven’t been able to peruse the website yet, let me give you a quick overview of what you’ll find and what’s to come:
Our Navigation Bar
The first thing you’ll notice is a cleaner navigation menu. We wanted to make it easy for you to locate exactly what you need. We paired the menu down to six tabs, archived information that is dated, and added pages to highlight what we feel and have heard is the most important for both our current members and prospects.
Under the “Who We Are” tab you will find information about the organization such as our mission and vision, in addition to virtually meeting our Executive Committee and Board Of Directors.
Want to join a committee? Now it’s easier than ever to get involved! We’ve updated our committee page by highlighting what each committee is responsible for, when the committees meet and who to get in contact with if you’re interested in joining.
Our events now have their own page! Ever wondered what a Fireside chat was or how you could host a regional event? Now on the events page you’ll see not only the upcoming events, but you’ll also be able to learn about the different types of events the OWA has, and how you can get involved.
The resources page showcases our blog, our most recent press releases, and our podcast. The podcast page has brand new cover art for each episode and an easy to navigate side bar where you can learn more about our hosts.
The awards and Sponsors tabs are the newest additions to our navigation bar, and feature an advanced look at our award recipients and dedicated sponsors.
An Updated Home Page
As you enter the site you will now see a fun and welcoming photo banner that highlights our most recent retreat. Updating the photos on the site was a huge priority, and we feel the sisterhood shown in this image is warm, inviting and calling each of you to get involved with our organization.
As you scroll down the page you’re greeted with our We See You video. A short film that totally captures everything the OWA stands for. This powerful footage is a reminder to always lead with purpose and heart, so we felt it necessary to showcase this front and center.
Another exciting main page detail is our Instagram feed! Located toward the bottom of the page you will be able to see our most recent social media posts and can click to follow us right from the bio section.
Last, but certainly not least, our Sponsors have an updated look in the footer of every page on the site. Our Platinum sponsors standout with larger logos and a coral highlighted background, as well as having their own dedicated page on the site.
Our Blog
You may not have realized it, but our blog on the old website was actually hosted on a different platform. With the handiwork of many, we now have our blog connected directly to our site! Excerpts from the blog are now featured on our homepage as well as in the resources section and website footer, and now has engagement buttons so you can like the posts. We kept the commenting features open as well, so don’t forget to go give your favorite articles some love!
Sponsor Highlight
Our sponsors now have their own menu button and we couldn’t be happier! Platinum sponsors now have a highlight page where you can learn more about each company and click to visit their website directly from the page. We also are featuring our Gold, Silver and Friends of OWA sponsors in this menu tab as well for additional visibility.
Why Join
Not currently a member of the OWA, but an avid reader of our blog? Hop over to the “Why Join” page and watch some videos from our beloved members. Read about the benefits of becoming an OWA sister, and easily be directed to our signup page.
With easier navigability, the website offers visitors a seamless experience to locate everything they need in record time, but what about engagement?
Making the website more engaging was a priority for this project, so we are excited to announce that our new and improved member portal will be launching this fall! Currently when you click the login button you will see that we have updated the look and feel of the member only section with brighter colors and easy to locate information. Although this navigability update is great, we’re even more excited to roll out our new member profiles and member only hub.
If you’re into social media and like the look and feel of LinkedIn or Facebook, get ready to have a profile that will have a similar aesthetic. Each member will have their photo, bio and contact information displayed in an updated and visually appealing layout. You’ll be able to see who is attending events if the member chooses to share that information, as well as navigate to their shared social media pages with ease.
In addition to these updated profiles in the backend, we will also be launching our member hub (official name to come!), which will include all kinds of fun and innovative features from our members.
Here you will be able to see special announcements such as births, engagements, and marriages as well as a kudos board where members can shout out others for being the amazing women they are. We’ll showcase beloved recipes, an achievement board for promotion or employment change announcements, book suggestions, inspirational quotes and so much more!
We are so excited for all that’s to come to the website this fall, so be on the lookout for more information, as we will need all members to login to our new platform to view their enhanced profiles and member engagement portal. Have a suggestion on what you’d like to see in the members only section? Reach out to Sarah Lee on the Communications and Website Committee at sarah@barti.com. We hope you enjoy your new browsing experience!
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