We are excited to announce that Experian are the newest sponsor of Tech Nottingham!
Bullet Journaling with Matt Brunt
Last month Jonathan Relf spoke at Tech on Toast, our morning event, and we asked if he'd write a few words about his experience. He kindly obliged and threw in some gifs for good measure. Enjoy!
Why though?
I’ve been asked this question in various guises quite a bit of late, usually in response to the news that Tech Nottingham is expanding its repertoire of meetups and events.
“Why do you do it [run Tech Nottingham]?”
“What’s in it for you?”
The level of incredulity varies from person to person, and truth be told my instinctive response will also vary depending on when in the month (no I’m not talking about lady time) you ask me, and even the time of day if it’s an event day (ask me right before the start of an event and my inner voice starts asking ME why we do it and right at that moment when we’re running just a minute late or there are technical hitches I yell at my inner voice, “I don’t flippin’ well know, it seemed like a good idea at the time…”).
But 99% of the time, in a nutshell, my responses will boil down to the following:
1. It’s fun.
No, really. It’s SO much fun. Sure, there can be occasional stressful elements, but the stress is worth it when you look around at an event that you helped organise and you see people smiling, laughing and chatting with each other. And I get to do that too! Win.
2. It’s not completely altruistic…
It mostly is. But truth be told, if we weren’t running Tech Nottingham and its associated events we’d hope that someone else would be as we’d want to attend! I always say that I’m not a ‘Woman in Tech’ but more of a woman around tech, having no tech experience whatsoever bar arranging tech events, but boy have I learned a lot over the time that I've been organising and attending our (and other) events. We have some incredible people in the local tech community who are truly passionate about their work and interests and they have been generous enough to share these passions with us all over the years. So as well as facilitating learning and sharing, we get to learn too.
3. The community.
This can be a bit of a cliche, but I truly believe that we have something special in Nottingham. Its tech community is cohesive and welcoming, both in person and online, and we’ve been fortunate to be a part of that and help create and nurture it. And we’ve made loads of friends in the process, which always a bonus. They’re a good bunch.
4. Nottingham is a great city.
Neither Andrew, Dianna or myself were born here; Andrew and I moved to the area a few years ago when Andrew was offered a job in Nottingham and we fell in love with the city. It has two fantastic universities, a brilliant cultural offering, and (now) a thriving tech scene. Along with other organisations we’ve started advocating for Nottingham as a destination for both employers and employees, and our student outreach programme works to keep students in Nottingham long after they’ve graduated. We get to enjoy the fruits of Nottingham, it’s only fair that other people can too and getting the word out is part of that.
And finally,
“How do you find the time?!”
Good question. I’ll be sure to let you know when I have the answer to that one.
About Emma: Emma is an international award winning wildlife photographer, owner of Emma’s Garden and Director at Tech Nottingham. She keeps bees and is a big fan of gifs and donuts. She's mrsemma on Slack and @mrsemma on Twitter.
Our events:
We are delighted to welcome the Rebel Recruiters team as a sponsor of Tech on Toast!
They heard about the coffee and fab breakfast we serve at Accelerate Places and the snappy talks presented by Nottingham’s early-to-bed-early-to-rise (possibly) technologists and creatives, and had to get involved!
Rebel are a bunch of friendly, Nottingham based tech recruiters who put people at the heart of what they do. They are a young company with ethical values at their core; from donating at least 1% of their income to charity, through to working in a non-salesy, more sensitive way with their customers. They are committed to supporting the local tech scene by attending and sponsoring many meetups (including NottsJS, NottsTest and PHPMiNDS, and one of their Rebels even runs her own!), and they get their kicks from breaking traditional recruiter stereotypes.
Tech Nottingham events are funded solely by the kind sponsorship and support from companies like Rebel, and we’re super excited to welcome Rebel to the Tech Nottingham family.
And don't forget, the fun continues online: sign up to the Tech Nottingham Slack group to join in the conversation!
As our third Business Surgery approaches, we're taking a moment to reflect on what we've covered so far! Our Business Surgery sessions provide...
After a year of hard work and continued growth for the Nottingham tech scene; Christmas was a great excuse to bring the community together to drink, unwind and play some games together.
Based in Nottingham with a team of over 550 people, MHR is an award-winning, independent business continuously working to deliver business improvement by understanding what their customers want, engaging with customers and delivering the very best solution to deliver maximum value.
For over 30 years, MHR has provided technology-driven talent management, HR and payroll software and services for over 600 organisations, equating to over 10% of the total UK workforce. They work in partnership with businesses to streamline processes and create a strategic HR function, allowing them to realise bottom line benefits.
The MHR team are active in the Nottingham community, both as attendees and sponsors. Loyal supporters of both Tech Nottingham and Hack24, this is the second year that they have sponsored the #NottTechParty.
Thanks so much MHR!
Founded by Jamie Huskisson, and working unlike any other agency, JH is an award winning ecommerce agency based in the heart of Nottingham’s Creative Quarter. JH only have a few clients at any one time, ensuring they deliver excellent results each time they form a working relationship. They work with clients who have the same mindset and wish to build long term relationships, and together successfully develop roadmaps that ensure clients meet their objectives and goals.
The JH team are active members of Nottingham’s tech and creative communities: they sponsor and host a number of tech events including Nott Tuesday, NottsJS and PHPMiNDS, and the #NottTechParty 2015 saw them announce Design Exchange Nottingham (DXN), a monthly meetup for web designers.
If you haven't been along to DXN yet, it’s at the awesome Antenna every second Wednesday of the month, is open and free to all, and is particularly useful for those working in design or with aspirations to do so. The event attracts a wide range of great speakers from around the East Midlands and further afield, and there are free drinks!
JH continue to be very busy and are on the lookout for developers and designers wanting a new and fantastic challenge - check out their jobs page for more details.
We’re super happy that JH are sponsoring the #NottTechParty - looking forward to seeing you there!
A long time supporter of Tech Nottingham and the wider tech community, Cordius is a Derby based, independent recruitment company, which specialises in providing Expert IT, Engineering, and Supply Chain & Distribution recruitment services to businesses throughout the East Midlands.
Cordius has built up a fantastic reputation based on excellent working relationships with its clients and industry professionals. Justian Blount and his team are familiar and friendly faces at various tech meetups around Nottingham and the East Midlands - sponsoring and attending these events ensures that they are fully immersed in the sector and truly understand what their clients need. They were one of the first companies to start sponsoring local meetups, and have been supporting Tech Nottingham, for example, since 2013!
This will be the second year that Cordius has sponsored the #NottTechParty - the team clearly had a fab time last year! We think the Cordius team are great and we’re very happy that they’re supporting the party again this year - cheers guys!