Author Archives: Barrie Foster

About Barrie Foster

Barrie trained and worked as a photographer in the 1960s and began working in marketing services in the 1970s. After some years with London agencies he established his own marketing consultancy in 1985 and soon chose to specialise in tourism and leisure. He moved to Pembrokeshire in 1987 after joining the Wales Tourist Board Business Advisory Service as an independent marketing specialist and gaining accreditation under the DTI Marketing Initiative. Although he has worked in all sectors of tourism, for private and public sector clients of all sizes, his main interests lie with SMEs [Small and Medium Sized Enterprises] and with the development of collaborative initiatives, whether by trade groups, joint marketing consortia or local communities. He believes strongly that Share Wales takes the idea of co-operation to a new level and feels sure that new ways of working and new alignments will be stimulated by the Share Wales team and by contributions from both the trade and from digital professionals. Barrie's interests, not entirely unrelated to his working life and his Pembrokeshire base, include surfing (of the goat boat variety), rock climbing (sadly pretty much a thing of the past), walking his camera on the Pembrokeshire coast and hills and people watching. When recovering from all of this he enjoys history, cinema, and blues and jazz from the first half of the 20th Century.


Posts by Barrie Foster

Google Penguin 2.0 rolled out today

Matt Cutts, head of Google’s webspam team, has announced that the rollout of Penguin 2.0 was completed today (23 May). This is not simply an upgrade of previous anti-spam algorithms but a whole new generation which will penetrate deeper into … Continue reading

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Training & Events Calendar

Whatever your training needs and wherever you are in Wales, there should be a training event coming to a venue near you. Stop Press: Anyone interested in a Photoshop course in Carmarthen? Software Alliance Wales is planning a 2 day … Continue reading

Posted in Blog, Calendar, Copywriting, Innovation, Internet Security, legislation, Mobile Devices, Photography, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media, Still photography, Training, Trends, Video photography | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Death of the PC???

According to figures published in April by marketing intelligence agency International Data Corporation, sales of personal computers and laptops fell by 14% in the first three months of 2013, the fourth consecutive quarter of year-on-year decline. Some commentators have seen … Continue reading

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Milestones on Flickr

Update: Share Wales Flickr Group In the three weeks since 21 April, Share Wales on Flickr has broken through 300 members and 3,000 photographs. We continue to be encouraged by most contributors following the protocol that allows content to be … Continue reading

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New trade web site for Welsh attractions

New opportunities for collaboration Day visitor attractions are an important contributor to Welsh tourism. Taken together, they offer an enormous range of experiences, from large capacity family oriented venues, to museums of all sizes, to steam railways and to our … Continue reading

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Share Wales: A retrospective

The Digital Tourism Business Project has a mission to move the tourism industry in Wales to full digital maturity by the end of 2014. The Visit Wales:Share Wales web site is an important part of this effort:  an eclectic mix … Continue reading

Posted in Blog, Calendar, Cloud, Content Sharing, Financial Assistance, Innovation, Internet Security, Mobile Devices, QR codes, Search Engine Optimisation, Share Wales Toolbox, Social Media, Training, Trends, Visit Wales Trade Events | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Words or pictures?

Words of wisdom It is an interesting (and sometimes tedious) part of the Share Wales editor’s role to monitor the blogs and postings of digital gurus for tips, tricks, new developments and other useful information. Perhaps every business should do … Continue reading

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Rural communities: The pub’s the hub

Local communities – bringing it all together It has been part of our mission to help small tourism enterprises create their own online space and develop their own, individual, content. Individual content differentiates one business from another, addresses the pre-occupations of selected … Continue reading

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Something for the weekend …

The best coin ever spent … We just had to share this, which has been cropping up all over the place on Facebook. A small girl drops a small coin into a hat and unleashes five minutes of splendour in … Continue reading

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Broadband & Coastal Communities Support Schemes

The Broadband Support Scheme If you are in one the many broadband not-spots or slow-spots in Wales, the Welsh Government Broadband Support Scheme provides funding for alternative solutions. Eligibility is across a broad spectrum – small businesses, local communities, voluntary … Continue reading

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Fruit of the Vine

At the end of January we wondered whether Vine, the video sharing app that integrates with Twitter, would stimulate imagination and offer another viable platform for instant posting and sharing. (See And now … instant video postcards). The six second … Continue reading

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New on Share Wales: The Trade Events Page

Visit Wales Trade Events in 2013 The theme of the latest 2013 Visit Wales tourism industry trade events has been “Improving the Visitor Experience”. The events, that have been taking place across Wales, have been developed in partnership with the … Continue reading

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