Readers observations required

My colleagues and I have been amongst other things working hard to test a new portal site for our online workshops and I would like to have my readers opinions regarding which front page layout works best. I will keep my thoughts to myself until I have had your responses.

Version 1

Version 2

It is now over to you to give me the feedback that will help us as we move towards the final version of our site which we hope to release in early September. The site incidentally is being built using Drupal, which is an excellent and very easy to use website building format to use, its other advantage is that it is very easy to quickly build complex and rich sites.

Good luck I look forward to hearing your views.