Two years ago local Brambleton residents, Chris Engel and Danny Kafafian, designed and developed a gift card consolidation and management app for the Android Market called GIFTur.ego.  Their inspiration came through their own frustrations of dealing with stacks of gift cards, but never having them at the store.  “We quickly discovered that this was not a phenomenon unique to us… a lot of people had the same issue.  The advent of the smart phone opened a lot of possibilities, and with the increased use of barcode technology, the idea just made sense,” says Danny from his home office.  Chris and Danny are proud of their app and have made it 100% free.  “I just can’t see charging people a fee to store a gift card on a mobile device when they’ve already spent the money to buy the card in the first place,” says Chris. “The app works great and we’ve received some really positive feedback; we’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished and it has encouraged us to expand out our business.”

And expanding they are.  This summer Danny and Chris decided to offer their services out to the public as a content development operation.  They’ve named the venture Exceptional Content, a newly formed division of their main organization Ur Ego, LLC.  “We specialize in precision PowerPoint development, e-learning modules, and multi-media products, including 3D visualization and digital video content. We’re small, and we cater to the small,” says Chris. “We live in this community, we’re passionate about this community, and we want to service it.  We feel strongly that people and businesses should be able to get a state-of-the-art product at a reasonable price.  We were motivated because we feel strongly that we can offer cost effective products that are versatile and can really help businesses operating in the local area.   It’s more than just building out a product for someone to put up on a website or use at a speaking engagement.  It’s about building a product that allows them to leverage all of the available avenues for them to maximize their exposure to potential customers and ultimately expand their business.”  This isn’t always as easy as it appears.  Danny recognizes that many companies can offer a product or service, but many of them never actually achieve the desired results.  “We’re different because we look to provide products that suit more than one purpose.  Ideally, we want to build something for a client that can service up to as many as three different outlets … we can easily transform a precision PowerPoint into an e-learning module and/or a mixed media product.  This approach allows for more flexibility and allows the client to better leverage their development dollars. “

Chris is particularly confident the projects designed by Exceptional Content will have longevity in an organization:  “Bottom line, the product needs to seamlessly fit into a company’s overall business strategy, goals, and objectives.  No one needs ‘digital clutter’ in today’s business environment.  We design customized products that can be used for the long-term.”

The potential in their business strategy is obvious.  A well-designed PowerPoint can do wonders.  Danny puts it into perspective: “Everyone is looking to get as much business as they can in today’s environment; having a professionally designed PowerPoint might set you apart from the competition, get you that big account, or serve as the foundation to start your business.”  This sector is expanding rapidly, especially around e-learning.  Statistics show that use of e-learning is growing year after year, while classroom learning is on the decline.  “E-learning is unquestionably the most cost effective method to train employees or teach students.  Once developed, you can literally push the module out to an unlimited number of people for virtually no additional cost. This is something that you just can’t accomplish with traditional stand and deliver training.”  Danny has an extensive background in training, so eLearning development and computer based training is nothing new to Exceptional Content.   

“We are incredibly excited about this new operation and we look forward to working with the people and businesses throughout this community”.

You can contact Chris and Danny at Admin@GetUrEgo.com or ExceptionalContent@gmail.com .  Visit Exceptional Content at http://www.geturego.com/EC_Home.html