Introducing Our New Digital Union Member: Structured Start

What are your first impressions of Digital Union?

After my initial meeting with the team (Emma et-al) I understood the intentions of Digital Union immediately, not just to promote North East businesses creative, digital leaning businesses but to promote the North East business community as a whole. This is a value that resonates with me, I want to bring value to the region with Startup Safari, in a way quite similar, connecting local businesses, startups through to corporate to other local businesses who may have been unaware each other existed, developing and generating new business relationships through this 3 day event.

What is your main motivation for joining?

My first reason for joining was a result of trying to find out where there may be business opportunities to develop in the region through my startup consultancy, after joining, and with all connections Digital Union has provided directly, this has already come about and now its my opportunity to give back by bringing something to the local business community from the startups, SMEs, local authorities, colleges & university students and corporates based in the North East.

Are there specific elements of the membership you think you will utilise more than others?

Digital Union is a primarily a communications platform with a great deal of business support added in, for me communication is the key to all business, and I have utilised this element of membership more than any other. I don’t think this will change.

What are your thoughts on the tech/digital/creative scene here in the North East?

I’ve been out of the region for the last 7 years living abroad and when I returned to the region I took a view that things had gone off the boil – well I certainly couldn’t have been more wrong. In fact there is more going on at this moment than ever to promote business in the North East with events like Newcastle Startup week in its 3rd year, Thinking Digital in 12th year, Tech Talent in its 4th Year, Pitch@Palace in its 2nd year hosted by Sunderland Software City and others too numerous to mention – now Startup Safari – 21- 23 May has an opportunity to join these fantastic events in May 2019 to make up 2 weeks of events under the banner #northeastdigitalfestival running from 13-24 May 2019. I’ve also been really impressed with the investments being run through, or as part of the local authorities initiatives such as the state of the art Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality facilities at Proto, which for me demonstrates forward thinking in how the regions technical skilled labour is developing and should develop in-line with the manufacturing capabilities it already has.

How do you see the scene evolving over the next few years?

If the region can retain its talent that has and is being developed across the 5 universities with innovative companies setting up here and employing them I see lots of further growth, this is not solely reliant on talent retention as the region is the 2nd fastest growth area in the UK already. Startup Safari Newcastle Gateshead will add to this as the safaris intention is to give like-minded people the chance to take a deep dive into their local startup scene, find future employers or employees, create meaningful connections and discover potential innovation partners and promote them all.

Why should someone relocate to the North East and/or invest here?

The reasons are almost too many to recount, so I’ll give you my top 3, the people, the place and so, the opportunity to work with the people in the North East! By far the friendliest I’ve ever encountered, but I am slightly biased..

Web: https://ne.startupsafari.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startup-safari-newcastle-gateshead
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/startupsafariNewcastleGateshead
Instagram: https://instagram.com/startupsafarinewcastlegateshd
Twitter: @startupsafaring

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