This is just a little post to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a wonderful new year! It has been quite a year for welovelocal.com from getting up and running in London in June to going nationwide last month, and it all is thanks to our great reviewers. Everyone has been really great, and people’s enthusiasm for the site has been overwhelming- thanks guys!

Overall it’s been a great year and the response we have had from businesses signing up has been amazing. Lets hope next year is just as great and we see welovelocal.com moving from strength to strength. More businesses signing up and many more reviews!

p.s. Yes, it was the welovelocal.com Christmas party last night, we went to the lovely Zaffrani in Islington followed by drinks at Bierodrome - both well worth a try! Sorry to disappoint but the image above was not a result of any of our Christmas hang overs, it is in fact a lovely drawing from destinelee over on Flickr (we love it).

The cultural and historical landmark that is The Corn Exchange in Leeds, is facing closure due to the city’s gentrification plans. The plans have caused uproar from city residents and people all over the UK. The exchange is the hub for independent shops and stalls in the north, and if closed could see many of these businesses lost.

Its potential closure has attracted lots of attention so much so, the Facebook group ‘Save the Corn Exchange’ has over 4,261 members - and that’s only one group of two. The group’s enthusiasm is based around the idea that if you can bring the Cadbury Wispa back with Facebook, then you must be able to help the Corn Exchange.

The rejuvenation plans (if they go ahead) will see the exchange turned into a gourmand’s paradise, with restaurants and food sellers. This is not good news for the number of clothing and jewellery sellers, who will not be included in the new plans and face eviction.

Academics form the city’s universities have joined the debate posing the question; ‘Is Leeds going in the right direction?’ This is a common dilemma faced by many towns and cities planning rejuvenation. By ploughing vast amount of money into the city, they then attract multinational and chain stores to pay the increased rents to cover the development costs. The results see local and independent businesses being pushed out of shops and forced to take business on the internet or close altogether. Everyone is concerned with city turning into another clone town, filled with the same shops, restaurants and bars as every other town and losing its unique businesses and communities.

It is really great to see so many people passionate about keeping Leeds individuality and character intact – and wanting to defend their right to shop locally and independently.

Well done guys!

photo supplied by stevecadman over on Flickr (cc)

As you may well know by now welovelocal has been busy working on new ways to make the site better for you. Not only have we launched nationwide, but we have also got some very nice new features to tell you all about.

Ok, kicking off with the most obvious of them all - the welovelocal.com homepage! We now have a snippet from the blog on the bottom, next to that is a taste of some great press that we have been so fortunate to receive. As you may have noticed we have also re-named ‘My Blackbook’ and ‘My Groups’ to ‘Your Blackbook’ and ‘Your Groups’, this change was made after an inspirational presentation from Erika Hall of Mule Design Studio at The Future of Web Apps. In a nutshell it just makes more sense for us not to name things ‘my’ when really they are ‘yours’!

Now here is where it gets exciting….

welovelocal.com is essentially a business directory and we really want to make use of all our great directory pages, they are a great resource for locating shops, restaurants, pubs, plumbers and much more in any area as they take you straight to where you want start searching. We have jazzed these pages up a bit and here’s what we’ve added:

Flickr Photos
As you can see on the homepage we have the most ‘exciting cities’ listed. By clicking on these you are magically transported to a world/directory dedicated to a city. There you will find our lovely Flickr API which will present you with Geo tagged photos of your area. So if you currently have any photos on Flickr of great cities and would like them to appear on welovelocal.com then make sure you Geo tag them – it would be great to see some of your interesting photos!

Tell us what’s great about your city!
On the same directory pages we now have a space for you to have your say, titled ‘what’s Great About (insert city)?’ We want you to share your local knowledge and tell us, and everyone else what is so great about your city or area.

Suggest a link
We also have a space for you to suggest and share any great links that you may have hoarded away relating to a particular place. For example you may want to share a link to a great local website that has gig listings or a great local blog that has awesome photos of your city.

Enough about us, we want to hear more from you, tell us what is great about you city – and don’t forget to suggest a link!

Yesterday Dan and I attended the launch of the Wedge Card ‘shop local day’ over at Art Vinyl on Broadway Market. The event was hosted by The Big Issue and Wedge Card founders John Bird and his daughter, Diana Bird. The aim of the day was to raise awareness about the benefits of shopping locally, not only for the local economy but also for the social fabric of the communities around local shops.

People from all areas of the local community congregated to support the event, there were people from Hackney City Farm, the editor of Easteight - the local Hackney magazine and local traders and residents of the area alike. The aim was to encourage people to take the ‘shop local’ challenge, and get others around them on board. It will be rolling out across the rest of London in the months leading up to big ‘Shop Local Day’ in June 2008.

John Bird opened the event by giving a very animated, yet moving talk about the benefits to any local community of shopping locally. John is extremely passionate about keeping communities thriving and preserving local people’s element of choice and variation. welovelocal.com along with Sanctuary Hereward and The Big Issue all supported the event, and for us at here at welovelocal John’s message really rings true, if we don’t use our local shops now we will lose them. If that happens then we will lose much more than a shop, but a huge part of our local community.

welovelocal.com runs in similar vein to Wedge in that we aim to foster online communities that act in the real world. Sharing reviews and recommendations, experiences, and sharing that invaluable knowledge with others.

We would love to know if any of you out there are taking the challenge?

You will have to forgive us, at the moment we are finding everything regarding our nationwide launch exciting! We have just received our first nationwide business sign up, and it is a pretty special business at that! The St Fagan’s National History Museum in Cardiff was not only our first business to sign up outside of London, but they were also our first Museum to take control of their listing!

St Fagan’s is one Europe’s foremost open-air museums; it’s also one of Wales’s most popular heritage attractions. The museum is uniquely made up of buildings from different historical periods that have been re-erected in the 100-acre parkland surrounding St Fagans Castle.

By signing up to the site business can take control of their listing, respond to customers reviews and also add more business information.

Welcome aboard St Fagan’s, and ‘hello’ Cardiff!

Let’s hope this is the first of many more lovely nationwide businesses to come!

Tomorrow is the day to get shopping locally

Our friends over at Wedge card celebrate their first anniversary this month, they have received an overwhelmingly positive response from independent business owners, and as such they recently signed up their 500th business – well done Wedge!

To celebrate their anniversary, and success they are challenging the people of London to ‘Shop Local’. The ‘Shop Local London’ campaign kicks off tomorrow in Hackney, and aims to raise awareness of the vital role that independent, local shops play in communities.

The challenge, if you choose to accept, is to shop locally and only use independent shops for a whole week. The lovely guys and girls from Wedge Card will be visiting the high streets of Hackney to give out free, temporary Wedge cards to help you in your independent shopping. They are also throwing in some yummy cookies for those accepting the challenge!

The welovelocal team will also be out on the streets, talking to local businesses and meeting the lovely folk of Hackney.

Kicks off at 10am, at Art Vinyl on Broadway Market.

Hopefully see you there!

more info here

As I mentioned last week, welovelocal.com has been working on some changes to the site and today we are very proud to announce that we have officially launched across the UK. That’s right; you can now search and review the best local businesses all over the country. Gone are the London only days, the UK is now your oyster!

This is really exciting stuff, not only for us here at welovelocal.com, but also for all you reviewers out there, the reviewing possibilities are now endless.

We’ve been overwhelmed with the response from our London members, so let’s keep the momentum going, spread the word that we’re officially nationwide and start sharing your local knowledge wherever you are.

If you run a business, then join the conversation too - sign up and advertise for free to start connecting with new customers and grow your business on-line.

We really hope you enjoy your new improved welovelocal.com, we certainly do!

We would love to know what you think!