Looking for a great hotel in Wilmington NC?

I know that 2 new ones just opened up on Eastwood heading down towards Wrightsville beach.

Here are the top 10 websites for finding hotels in Wilmington NC according to Google:

http://hotel-guides.us/north-carolina/wilmington-nc-hotels.html

http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/ILMNCHF-Hilton-Wilmington-Riverside-North-Carolina/index.do

http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-478397-wilmington_vacations-i

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/ilmcy-courtyard-wilmington/

http://www.coastlineinn.com/

http://www.wilmingtonhi.com/

http://www.hotel-rates.com/us/north-carolina/wilmington/

http://www.redroof.com/

http://www.thewilmingtonian.com/

I would like to wish all of my clients and everyone else out there a Happy Thanksgiving!

Don’t miss the Festival Latino this Saturday Nov. 8 from from 11-8 at
Hugh MacRae Park in Wilmington NC. There will be lots of delicious food from all over
Latin America and great music all day! We’re having more arts and crafts
artists than ever this year, as well as more free children’s activities.

Let the children play while you eat tamales and dance salsa!

Numerous booths from health and human service
organizations, local businesses, and churches will also be offering
information about their services.

This event is free and open to the public – come early, parking is limited!

Link: Google Maps and Directions for Hugh McRae Park

Check out this great resource if you looking for web work: http://www.authenticjobs.com/

I had a friend tell me about Google Gears the other day so I did some digging. I found a page about it on Google, but honestly, I’m still not 100% sure what it is still. From what I gather, it will allow you to run web applications offline? Here is a link to Google’s site – maybe if you can figure it out please leave a comment on this blog.

Shopping in Walmart today (10/9/2008) I saw they already had Christmas decorations up. I haven’t been in Walmart awhile so there is no telling how early they actually put them up, but this is ridiculous. I remember telling my wife a couple years ago that they would start putting them out earlier and earlier and now it is happening. I mean, for crying out loud, Halloween hasn’t even happened yet. Sad, so sad. I don’t mind overriding Halloween that much, but not Thanksgiving. The time we are supposed to be thankful is being overshadowed by the time of the year where we get, get, get. Get a grip Walmart.

I found this site today called Backpage.com – basically it looks and operates like Craigslist.org.

Look no further – FEED MY APP provides a variety of links to websites that provide 2.0 services. The sites are broken down into categories such as:

AUDIOBLOG
BOOKMARKING
BUSINESS
CHAT
CMS
COLLABORATION
CRM
DESIGN
DIRECTORY
EMAIL
EVENT
FINANCE
FOOD
FRAMEWORK
GAME
HEALTH
JOB
KNOWLEDGE
LOCAL
MANAGEMENT
MAPS
MARKETING
MOBILE
NETWORKING
NEWS
ORGANIZE
PET
PHILANTHROPY
PHOTO
PRODUCTIVITY
PROJECT
REAL-ESTATE
RSS
SCRIPT
SEARCH
SHARE
SOCIAL
START-PAGE
STATS
STORAGE
TOOLS
TRAVEL
VIDEO
WEB-OS

I found this great article today on the benefits of a website and how it can help with specific industries such as restaurants, professional services, retail and trade.

According to the article, a website can help you:

“maintain a corporate presence and make yourself accessible to your clients.  Unlike a bricks & mortar shop, a website can have it’s doors open 24/7.  Unlike a brochure or magazine advertisement, a website can be relied on for the most up-to-date information.”

A website can:

• create a corporate presence – if you are a large company clients would expect to be able to find out about you online

• sell products directly to the public

• generate and qualify leads

• gather feedback to help you improve your product or service

• compete with big business

• extend your trading hours

• expand your market

• save time by answering common questions online

Next week is National Small Business Week, and to celebrate, the Google Apps Team is going on tour. From April 21st through April 24th, we’ll be visiting the most entrepreneurial city in each of the four regions of the U.S.*: Washington D.C., Charlotte, NC, Kansas City, MO, and Phoenix, AZ.

Come by to meet members of the Apps team, find out what’s new, and connect with other businesses using Google Apps.

——————-

Event information for Charlotte, N.C.:

——————-

Date: Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Location:

Back Yard Burgers

13736 Conlan Circle

Charlotte, NC 28277

Time: 10:00am – 6:00pm

For more details, visit http://www.google.com/apps/citiestour.

We hope to see you there!

The Google Apps Team

*Based on research from National Policy Research Council, 2006