The Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History (CBIRH) is pleased to announce the arrival of its highly anticipated Website Transformation and Rebranding project.

“We are extremely grateful for the $30,000 of support from the Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) and their willingness to help us to realize our vision and achieve our goal to modernize and rebrand the CBIRH’s digital presence,” said CBIRH Executive Director Erin Knutson.

With the expertise of contractors Chris Murray from Murray Technical Excellence (MTE) and Shawn Wernig of Eggplant Studios (EPS), the CBIRH has accomplished the revitalization of a twenty-year-old website and operating system.

“It was a necessary move to keep the Institute going forward – it was the next step in our evolution as an organization and to ensure the future of our work,” said Knutson.

The project spanned almost two years and began when the CBIRH started working with the Kootenay Association of Science and Technology (KAST) in their DER3 program for non-profits to create a plan to migrate their massive site (over 100,000 files).

KAST DER3 facilitator John Leishman from Tursa Group was successful in helping the CBIRH with a blueprint to move their project ahead.

“The next part was finding the funding and the right people to accomplish this gigantic mission – we knew with the right team and the right proposal we could find the funding.”

Murray of MTE arrived on the scene shortly after working with KAST and the CBIRH hired him to help with IT.

“It was then we knew we had the beginning of a solution. He was the first half of our team and working closely with MTE we were able to craft a successful proposal to find Wernig of EPS. Both contractors were local and qualified and were an excellent fit from the start,” said Knutson.

The winning combination of the team proved meritorious and the CBIRH successfully launched their new site and rebranded their image on time.

“Thank you to all involved and all for supporting us. Please enjoy our new site at basininstitute.org and thank you for acknowledging and appreciating our mission to preserve the Canadian Columbia Basin’s history,” said Knutson.