| REVIEWS
Cruising
Cyberspace
Web
Site Pick Of The Month
By Pam Wegmann
As business people,
we should always look for new opportunities, but sometimes we limit our
opportunities by limiting our perspective to our own backyard. This month's
Web site will help you broaden your business horizons:
http://www.wtc-no.org
This is the site
of the World Trade Center of New Orleans, which incidentally, was the first
founded and is the oldest of 326 World Trade Centers around the globe.
This site will provide
you with information that you can use to seek out new business relationships
and new opportunities. It will also give you information on where you can
get even more information on doing business in a foreign country or with
a foreign company.
This site receives
excellent marks for content, but needs to improve its ease of navigation.
Although the WTC-New Orleans site is loaded with valuable information,
I found it lacked the user friendliness it should have to aid in easy navigation
through this voluminous site.
The home page is
rather long and a little too cluttered with graphics that add to its load
time. It also cannot be viewed on one screen. Likewise, many of the pages
are very lengthy, a situation added to by the overly large font size used.
The long pages cause the user to scroll a lot. You can, however, choose
to use the Text Version (in the menu on the left) which will speed load
time and make the site a little easier to use.
That said, don't
let the navigation deficiencies stop you from accessing this valuable site.
The link to the Trade
Calendar will give you a listing of events the New Orleans WTC is holding
for about the next sixty days as well pertinent scheduling details. This
list includes educational business seminars, networking, receptions and
other special events. At the Upcoming WTC Programs page, you can also get
the text of speeches made by foreign dignitaries who visited New Orleans
in the last three years.
The Foreign Language
link provides information on the schedules and the reasonable fees
for classes the WTC hosts for learning French, Spanish, and other commonly
used foreign languages.
Under the Trade
Publications page you can find out how to get reports, reference books
on foreign trade and business subjects, as well as some satellite maps
of the Mississippi River industrial corridor.
One of the most useful
pages is found by clicking on Trade Information. This is really a
link to the World Trade Centers Association site. Here you can register
free as a guest and get into their Trade Opportunities bulletin board to
search for postings. For a monthly fee, or membership in a world trade
center, you can post your own.
Another great page
is accessed by clicking on the Hot Leads button on the left of the home
page. Here you will find companies looking to buy or sell everything from
conveyor belts to computer software. This Louisiana buy/sell opportunities
link can help you build business in foreign countries.
The above information
touches on only a little of what's available at this site. To do this site
justice, visit it more than once because the next time you are looking
for new customers, markets, suppliers or business partners, look worldwide!
November, 1998
Knowledge is Power!
Happy cruising! :-)
Questions/Comments
can be sent to pam@info-matters.com
or faxed to 504.738.0016. You can also reach Ms. Wegmann at 504.738.0070.
|
