Greg Farries

Experience

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  The University of Lethbridge

  Oct 2000 - Jan 2011

  Maple Leaf Web was a non-profit, non-partisan Canadian political education web-site that aimed to provide educators, students and the attentive public with a credible source for political education and information.I oversaw entire operation of the Maple Leaf Web project; provided leadership, direction and management of a diverse and geographically separated team of editors, writers, researchers, moderators and interns to produce a world class educational website.- Managed all budgetary and financial reporting to project partners (the University of Lethbridge) and to funding organization (Max Bell Foundation and Arthur Child Foundation).- Used SEO and content marketing to increase organic traffic by over 86%- Moderated and maintained active discussion forum containing more than 1.2 million postings- Incorporated advanced workflow mechanisms to manage publishing for editors and writers, increasing efficiency and eliminating costly and embarrassing mistakes. Show less Policy.ca was a non-partisan resource for public discussion of issues in Canadian and international public policy. The site consisted of a database of online public policy research publications, as well as information on policy organizations, institutes and researchers. I managed all aspects of this public policy website. From development and management of the Policy.ca website, to management of the research interns, editors, and contributing academics and researchers.- Inherited a defunct website from the University of British Columbia, completely revamped the look and focus of the project to more closely track public policy publications in Canada.- Recruited and worked with public policy researchers in academic, think tank and governmental departments across Canada. Show less Building on what was created on the project during my tenure as Web Developer, I moved into a more managerial role and took on greater responsibility. As the project grew in size we hired more freelance writers and editors, and academic interns to widen the scope of topics we could cover.- Interviewed and hired freelance writers and editors, lowering project costs associated with in-house staff and interns.- Migrated from static design to Drupal CMS, drastically lowering development time and website management costs.- Updated logo design and overhauled the website design, modernizing the look and incorporating new features such as blogs and an updated discussion forum software.- Increased website traffic exponentially, reaching 324K unique users (2.6M page views) in 2006 using only organic marketing methods. Show less I was hired to develop a political education website called, Maple Leaf Web. The project was created to provide students and the attentive public an accessible and unbiased source for information on political events and institutions in Canada.- Developed, from scratch, the initial website and brand and any visual elements for the Maple Leaf Web project- Used Basecamp project management system to oversee the publication workflow and worked with a team of research interns and writers to produce educational copy for the website.- Contributed a number of engaging topical features and articles- Arranged and set up email and web hosting and dealt with any technical requirements that were needed. Show less

  • Web Project Director (Maple Leaf Web)

    Aug 2006 - Jan 2011

  • Web Project Director (Policy.ca)

    Jan 2003 - Jan 2008

  • Web Project Manager (Maple Leaf Web)

    Jan 2003 - Aug 2006

  • Web Developer (Maple Leaf Web)

    Oct 2000 - Jan 2003
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  Interstrategy Inc

  Feb 2002 - Jul 2019

  Owner, Project Lead

  Interstrategy Inc. is a successful website development and communications consulting agency that provides services to a wide range of businesses, non-profits and governments. Services include domain & website hosting, WordPress and Drupal development, website/content management and search engine optimization. - Incorporated Genesis Framework into development process, lowering coding and theme development costs by 50-80%.- Invested in physical and cloud-based server infrastructure and established strategic partnerships with third parties to ensure clients websites are fast, secure and protected from data loss.- Created a managed security hosting add-on that completely stopped customer support requests relating to website hacks and malware.- Increased traffic and engagement on clients websites through targeted advertising and social media campaigns.- Employed latest SEO and HTML/CSS coding techniques for client and personal websites.- Developed engaging and highly readable websites in both WordPress and Drupal CMSs.Current and past client list includes, Ward Bros. Construction, Brewsters Brewing Company, University of Lethbridge, Prime Minister’s Office (2004), Max Bell Foundation, Palix Foundation, Sinneave Foundation. Show less

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  Civic Squared

  Jan 2010 - Jul 2019

  Owner, Project Lead

  Civic Squared is a specialized web development product tailored to the municipal market. This product was designed to provide website development and management, web hosting, municipal domain registration, writing and IT services, for cash-strapped small to medium sized communities.- Created and developed unique content and design frameworks, specifically designed for the municipal market, that improved the efficiency and drastically lowered the cost of development.- Handled all aspects of website creation, launch and management, including municipal domain registration, hosting and email setup, and copywriting and editing.Current and past client list includes, Town of Coaldale, Town of Coalhurst, Village of Barons, Village of Milo, Village of Barnwell, Village of Arrowwood, Milo Sustainability Committee and more. Show less

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  Privatenode LLC

  Jul 2019 - now

  Chief Executive Officer

  Private Node LLC provides premium managed WordPress web hosting, custom and non-custom WordPress development, domain registration, maintenance, and strategic consulting to small business brands throughout the United States and Canada.