Great news – our SMART website has won the prestigious Trade Association Forum’s (TAF) Website of the Year award.

Up against some stiff competition that included four other associations, the award was presented to ICA Director, Kai Hughes and John Lowe, Bolland & Lowe (our web partners) by comedian Simon Evans and event sponsor Jon Vanstone, Borough IT at a special ceremony held on 9th July 2015 at The Shakespeare UnderGlobe in London.
After accepting the award, Kai Hughes, ICA Managing Director said: “I am delighted that we have won this award for our members. It recognises all the hard work and creativity put in by the ICA team, along with our web partners Bolland & Lowe.  I was particularly keen that our website should not only be a ‘shop window’ and a way to transmit information, but a dynamic platform and resource that adds real value for our members.”
Our SMART website went live last July. Six months in the making, it was one of the most challenging projects we have ever worked on, as project leader and ICA’s Marketing & Communications Officer, Nicky Simon, explains: “Our aim was to develop a mobile friendly website that would enable us to reach, engage and support the global cotton community and provide essential safe trading resources for our members. 
“We are already seeing some great results. Page views have risen dramatically, as has time spent on the site and our new safe trading feature now appears as one of the sites most popular pages.”
The TAF awards recognise, reward and promote best practice amongst trade associations in the UK and are a chance for its members to showcase their hard work and achievements.
And in case you are wondering why the website is ‘SMART’, it stands for: Safe, Mobile, Automated, Resourceful, Trade.