Chris Hamilton has contributed significantly to the success of the site. His responsibilities include:

• active participation in the design of and enhancements to the website;
• the day to day management of the site;
• the complete relationship with our website hosting company (from development through to implementation) ensuring that they delivered a quality product;
• marketing the website (where his innovation and natural marketing ability has been really outstanding); and
• consistent monitoring of the site (statistics).

Chris has been of enormous value to the website. He has been fully committed to understanding our business, which is demonstrated by the valuable contributions that he continues to bring to the design (technical and content) of the website and that he shows when demonstrating the site and talking to people at shows, staff in the organisation, potential customers etc. This understanding has lifted his contribution way above that of simple website management.

I find him to be an unusually versatile individual who:

• has excellent communication skills (which last for a full day and into the evening when he is marketing the website !!) and works well with people at all levels (suppliers, staff, customers, board members etc);
• is very service / customer orientated which is reflected when one sees him interacting with customers, staff and suppliers;
• is a self starter who uses his initiative and gets on and gets things done;
• has regularly committed large amounts of his private time to this project at his own expense;
• is a focussed, result orientated person who has designed, implemented and consistently monitors performance on the website in order to monitor trends, the impact of a marketing initiative etc;
• attends to detail in a meticulous manner;
• ensures delivery from suppliers in a principled but firm way;
• is prepared to personally undertake really tedious work (moving the site from the initial design to the enhanced design was an enormous task that took 10 full weeks including nights and weekends which he undertook tirelessly);
• is really innovative (he combines traditional marketing methods with internet marketing methods in a way that is so effective yet so inexpensive);
• is really principled which has enhanced his and our relationship with suppliers (Hypertech), staff and the website team;
• is particularly adept at managing conflict; and
• is particularly well read thereby keeping up to date with trends in the Internet world.

Chris pays a lot of attention to planning and prioritising ensuring that he structures his time to allow effective day to day management of the website while still ensuring that it constantly moves forward. There is consistent feedback on trends and items of interest to the organisation and the marketing / IT / CEO's offices and that there is time for meetings with staff and customers. He will not tolerate negative behaviour and refuses to get involved in issues that do not add value to the website. His enthusiasm and commitment have contributed enormously to the successful marketing campaigns undertaken by him.
A skill that is particularly worthy of mention is the effortless way that he integrates traditional marketing methods with that of the Internet. Ideas include a website business card that is put into booking correspondence (to the customer), handed out at shows, on entry into any of our parks etc. This is a good example of the type of innovative ideas that he regularly introduces that are inexpensive yet have yielded huge returns for our organisation (visits to both the website and our parks) These ideas continue to contribute significantly to the overall success of this site.

To conclude, it really has been a pleasure to work alongside such a competent individual. His involvement has resulted in my involvement being able to be at a project management and brainstorming / technical design level only where a monthly meeting has been quite adequate to keep up to date with progress and to discuss issues. Chris has provided a significant contribution to this particularly successful project that after 6 months was already producing a return on investment for the organisation.

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Louise Toucher
Head of Information Services
KZN Wildlife
Conservation, Partnerships & Ecotourism