Evermade renewed Slush.org – the spectacular site was built with Everblox
Beautiful, informative, different. Those are the words you could use to describe the new Slush website built by Evermade. The unique tech and startup event that is held annually in November in Helsinki needs more than your average website, says Marianne Vikkula, the CEO at Slush.
– Slush is different, it’s not just another tech conference. That’s why it also has to show on our website through the year. At Slush we have 15,000 visitors per year, so the site needs to be very informative and the information has to be easily found for everyone, says the CEO at Slush, Marianne Vikkula.
For Slush, publishing news has to be easy – and sometimes it has to happen fast.
– We may have to publish something very quickly. On the other hand, we may have to withdraw some information – for example, if one of the speakers would cancel their presentation.
Sometimes the amount of traffic on the website may spike to large numbers and despite that, the site has to work solidly. For example, during the event, many visitors watch live streams on the site. The busiest ticket selling days also increase the traffic on the site.
– At the beginning of the year people visit the Slush site to get the feel and think back on what cool stuff we did and what happened last year. After that, we start to bring new content to the site: new names and the visual atmosphere of the upcoming event.
The site’s role for the whole event is quite big.
– To get the most out of the event, Slush requires a bit of preparation. So visiting the website is very important to all our visitors. The site is also a great information bank for the Slush personnel – it’s simply the best platform to store and check information, Vikkula says.
Easy content producing and site-building – around the world
Slush’s website is built using Evermade’s own Everblox. Block elements make site building easy so that almost everyone in the Slush team can customize and edit the site.
– Our team hasn’t needed hours of training because the customization is so easy. Without the ease of use we would have pulled quite many all-nighters working with the website, Vikkula laughs.
Because Slush has grown rapidly and events take place across the world, from Asia to Iceland, the flexibility of block elements has eased the situation a lot. Each Slush event team around the world has created similar but distinct sites using the Everblox.
– It would be just impossible for us to do everything here in Helsinki for the other Slush teams – we’re not in the same time zone nor aware of every detail. It’s necessary that local teams can manage their own site easily.
Connecting factors: Can-do attitude and ambition
The cooperation between the Slush team and Evermade is not anything new. Vikkula herself has joined the Slush team in 2013 when the team also started developing the website with Mikael Toivio, the founder and designer at Evermade. Since then Evermade has been improving the Slush website every year.
– Our teamwork thrives because of the same kind of can-do attitude in working. Both teams are also very ambitious, Vikkula says.
When building the website Slush has the responsibility on content and Evermade on the technological side. Vikkula thinks this divide has worked well.
– This practice has been realistic and from our point of view has worked the best.
