We are proud to announce that last August we were attributed “the Most Innovative WordPress Web Agency 2023 – Western Cape” award for the African Excellence Awards 2023 held by Mea Markets for the past five years.

MEA Markets is a quarterly publication dedicated to researching and publicising the major moves and events across the Middle East and Africa region. 

The African Excellence Awards is a truly comprehensive programme, accepting nominations across every country within Africa, and covering all relevant industry sectors.

The 2022 African Excellence Awards highlighted and acknowledged the industry leaders across the continent who have helped Africa to be recognized as one of the leading places for national and international business.

Through the African Excellence Awards 2023, MEA Markets celebrates the growing influence of African business on the world stage, providing the region’s leading enterprises with the opportunity to showcase their companies.

In LightSpeed we offer a variety of web design and development services, such as discovery phase, web design, web development, WordPress migrations, support & maintenance, WordPress hosting, WordPress security, and Mailchimp email marketing. 

We are fully dedicated to delivering online success for businesses by understanding their needs, providing expert guidance, and creating fast, secure, and reliable websites, striving to continuously improve our solutions and services.

Valuable Outcomes

Entering the competition back in February this year meant a valuable exercise for LightSpeed, it galvanised us to create content that became of great worth  for our company:

The outcome was an impressive company profile document with LightSpeed’s new branding and a great new product brochure for LightSpeed’s new LSX Theme. 

In response to an innovative selective process with strict criteria, we highlighted our latest achievements and our ever-standing company’s mission which made our merits stand out in the competition. 

We successfully explained how we have been able to par with the best international agencies acquiring World-class skills and products, and how, through our progress and growth, we enhanced our team’s synergy, resulting in faster project completion delivery and user-friendly websites, adding a special training for our clients to be able to take control of their websites.

Here is an outline of our main key-points for entering the competition:

Our open-source Flagship Solutions

Available for free download via WordPress.org theme and plugin repositories these are:

1. LSX Theme: A custom-developed, versatile, and flexible theme for building custom solutions for customers.
2. LSX Extensions: A collection of extensions, including LSX Blocks, LSX Customizer, LSX Blog Customizer, LSX Mega Menus, LSX Team, LSX Testimonials, LSX Search, and LSX Sharing, which enhance the functionality and customization of websites built on the LSX Theme.
3. Tour Operator: A WordPress plugin specifically designed for the LSX theme, allowing tour operators to build comprehensive websites showcasing tour itineraries, accommodations, and destinations.
4. Tour Operator Extensions: Additional plugins, such as Tour Operator Special Offers, Tour Operator Reviews, and Tour Operator Team, which enhance the functionality of the Tour Operator plugin.
5. WETU Importer for LSX Tour Operator: A WordPress plugin that enables the import and synchronisation of tour itineraries, destinations, and accommodations from the wetu.com dashboard, requiring the LSX Tour Operator and LSX Theme for storage and display of imported content.

Our Stand-outs in the African region

1. Community involvement: In commitment to the WordPress ecosystem’s growth and development, LightSpeed has been an active participant in the community since 2008, organising local WordCamp Cape Town events in 2011 and 2012. 
2. Global insights: By attending international WordCamps and events, LightSpeed brings back valuable insights and learnings to the African region staying ahead of the curve and implementing cutting-edge technologies and methodologies in our work.
3. Local focus: Having a team based solely in South Africa allows us to provide a more dedicated service to our clients in the African region. 
4. Reliable service: We pride ourselves on our ability to deliver projects on time and within budget, ensuring that our clients receive high-quality, dependable solutions and services to our clients. 

Our latest achievements

1. WordCamp Europe Conference, June 2022: In Porto Ash Shaw discovered the new WordPress block theme technologies. Despite facing a steep learning curve and limited resources on the subject, LightSpeed began implementing them immediately.
2. lsdev.biz Redesign Project – Nov 2022 to Feb 2023: Embracing a block theme that required minimal custom coding, we revamped the lsdev.biz website. Our design team mastered WordPress Full Site Editor, gaining a thorough understanding of crucial building blocks, which enabled us to develop more efficient designs that streamline implementation and enhance overall performance.
3. Upskilling Developers – Nov 2022 to Apr 2023: We engaged a consultant from one of the world’s leading WordPress agencies to provide training on cutting-edge technology, aligning them with the design and coding methodologies practised by top-tier agencies worldwide.
4. Upskilling Designers – Nov 2022 to Apr 2023: Widely used by major tech companies like Uber, Airbnb and Microsoft, Figma became our primary design tool resulting in a remarkable impact on our workflow by collaborating on designs simultaneously, accelerating our design process. 
5. LSX Block Theme Development Project – Feb to Apr 2023: With invaluable support from the international consultant, our team successfully developed our new LSX theme, a significant improvement over the previous version that took years to perfect for effortless website building. The contrast between the old and new versions is like comparing chalk and cheese. 
6. LSX Design System Project – Feb to Apr 2023: We researched public design systems from major tech companies and created our own version, which allows us to rapidly design new projects and save time. While the developers coded the new LSX block theme, the designers designed our new LSX design system, collaborating with each other to ensure the design system’s success. 

*Take a look at our Award Application here: 

Conclusion

It was a true honour to be acknowledged as the Most Innovative WordPress Agency. 

When drafting the entry document we were required to propose the name for the award to be obtained, it was therefore very gratifying to be recognized by MEA Markets as we reflect ourselves to be. 

In LightSpeed we constantly engage with innovation, upskilling to stay up to date within the tech industry, and continuously learning and evolving to be able to offer our clients, colleagues and community the best possible solutions and services. 

We focus on the future, and being granted with this prestigious award motivates us even more to keep on walking down this road. We aim for excellence in our performance and customer satisfaction and we are delighted to be recognized as a leading WordPress development agency in the African region.