Daelnet tops the website poll!

DAELNET, the pioneer of Internet services in the Yorkshire Dales, was judged to provide the best website in the area, it was announced at the Craven Herald & Pioneer Business Awards ceremony in Skipton at the weekend.

The entire staff of the company, which operates from a converted barn at Fleets, near Hetton, were at the glittering ceremony at the Rendezvous Hotel. The idea: to give a public pat on the back for local businesses which support the "We're backing Craven" campaign.

Daelnet was founded more than ten years ago by university friends Simon Fern and Phil Barlow, who began experimenting with the then revolutionary web technology which was still rare in big cities, never mind in small, often scattered rural communities.

Although at the time, both lived in the dales area, they realised that they could pursue their fascination with the new technology and make an important contribution to dales life, without needing to move to a more urban location.

They founded the IT service company, QDK, providing IT help and service provision to many local companies and set up a website design operation. Two winners in the other categories at the awards ceremony have websites designed by QDK.

As Simon says, "When you think about it, the Internet is the ideal form of communication for a large rural area with scattered communities. We thought we could help meld those communities together.

"Ten years later, we are getting some 70,000 visits a month, not just from local folk but from the rest of the UK and abroad."

If you want to have an award winning website, contact us. We look forward to talking to you!

Photos Courtesy of The Craven Herald

Other award winners were: