The event is part of Leeds Digital Festival 2021 and will include speakers from Morrisons and AWS. Read more in Events.
European children’s retailer Vertbaudet, has chosen digital marketing agency, Wolfenden, to manage its UK-focused PPC account, supporting the French-founded brand to strengthen its position in the UK market.
Following a competitive pitch process, Wolfenden was appointed on the strength of its PPC offering, the team’s strong experience within the children and baby retail space as well as the proposed proactive and data-led strategy that looks to maximise wider marketing activity through PPC, too. Read more below....
Well-known handbag and accessories brand Fiorelli has appointed digital marketing agency Wolfenden to implement a fresh paid media strategy to coincide with the recent launch of its new Shopify website, supporting the brand towards its financial targets.
Leeds-based Wolfenden will build Fiorelli’s brand presence and consumer base across PPC, paid social advertising and affiliate marketing, all informed by Wolfenden’s data & analytics insights. Read more in Features.
Over the past year, the boutique team has grown from five to 10, and the agency has launched a dedicated mobile app development team. Having previously specialised in working with professional services, FMCG and arts, the agency has also expanded its client base into the fast-growing Fintech sector, with clients including new-to-the-market fidomoney, plus other established financial organisations. Read more in Features.
Whilst well-known US firms like SpaceX and Blue Origin have taken the headlines recently, the UK space industry has also seen growth in its space technology sector, from new launch sites, to improved satellites, to developing manufacturing facilities in space.
This growth has seen increased funding into the sector as it gains attention. From venture capital to government grants, finance coming into the sector has created many new startups and allowed existing firms to develop new products and markets. However, in common with many industry sectors, it can be difficult to map how many firms there are in the space sector and where they are located.
The latest round of investments will enable the business to further scale-up its operations with these strategic collaborations. It is the third investment for Vet-AI from Correlation. Vet-AI has now attracted a combined total investment of £12.6m from several strategic partners since launching in 2019. See more below.....
The Leeds Digital Festival "mini-fest" takes place on 25 to 27 April, bringing three days of sustainable tech content, the first instalment of #LeedsDigi22 - with the second to follow on 19 - 30 September.
The mini-fest kicks off with '5 Hard Truths about the Road to Net Zero' at 12 noon until 2 p.m. on 25 April, h
Organisers of the new Leeds Digital Charity Ball have hailed the sale of tickets and sponsorship as a great success and have put out a call for auction prizes.
The new event, to be held at the Queen’s Hotel on April 28th, is aimed at bringing the City’s tech community together and raising valuable funds for the Leeds Community Foundation. Read more below...
Photograph shows Kate Hainsworth, Leeds Community Foundation.
In a nutshell, the core content covers the knowledge, understanding and application of contexts,
concepts, theories and principles relating to the following areas: 1. Problem solving 2. Introduction to programming 3. Emerging issues and impact of digital 4. Legislation and regulatory requirements 5. Business context 6. Data 7. Digital environments 8. Security
The students are in need of companies to allow them to complete their industry placement for 9 weeks, which involves including them in projects and allowing them to learn on the job.
If you would like to help someone to enter the world of tech, please contact g.ferguson@notredamecoll.ac.uk
A graduate of Newcastle University, Sadie arrives at Burendo with more than two decades of experience in corporate finance, restructuring and as a Finance Director. She is the latest high profile recruit to an almost 150-strong team at Burendo, which specialises in empowering large organisations and SMEs to improve their agile adoption and delivery processes. Read more on our Features page.
Matt Elcock joins the company with more than a decade of experience in building high growth, innovative technology companies. Matt founded Push Doctor in 2013 and was instrumental in the firm’s recent buyout by Square Health. Push Doctor serves almost six million patients with digital consultations across hundreds of GP practices and had industry-leading integrations into NHS services. Prior to this, Matt held senior roles at MusicMagpie and Gap.
Click and Protect (C&P) offer various Cyber Security Services, to protect and secure businesses against potential cyber-attacks and much more. The team at C&P understand how important it is for their customers to have a quick and efficient process, when determining what they need for their business and employees. For example; businesses who are either looking to protect their data and customer’s data appropriately, can use C&P or if your business needs to be certified i.e. Cyber Essentials or ISO27001, we can do that too.
Click and Protect is provided by the experts at Cyber Security Partners Ltd, as their bespoke package for small to medium size businesses. CSP have years of experience in helping both large and small organisations address their cyber security concerns with practical, pragmatic, and tailored advice. Read more here.
Amidst a tech talent shortage, Fruition IT recruitment consultancy awards coding bursaries to future software developers
Fruition IT, the Leeds-based technology recruitment consultancy, has announced the winners of its bursary to support the living costs for two aspiring technology professionals while they undertake a software coding course. Eloise Chilvers and Max Parker have each received a £1,500 bursary to kickstart their tech careers as they learn the skills needed to become junior software developers.
In partnership with Northcoders, one of the UK’s leading independent providers of training programmes, the bursaries can be used in conjunction with the fully funded Northcoders Excellence Scholarship Scheme which is a skills bootcamp in coding and is part of the Government’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee and Plan for Jobs. Read more below.
A Leeds-based multi-national web development and digital marketing agency has secured a new client in a six-figure deal with American-based golf buggy manufacturer, Club Car.
GRM Digital, founded in 2009 by Nej Gakenyi has been appointed to support the 63-year-old manufacturing giant as its dedicated digital marketing agency and IT infrastructure partner. The company will manage Club Car’s website, online presence, and user experience to achieve digital growth and generate quality online traffic. It will also help Club Car to expand its presence in China.
Global beauty brand NYK1, has appointed search marketing agency Wolfenden to handle its digital growth across channels - including paid search, organic social media strategy, digital PR and affiliates activity, increasing brand awareness and generating a consistent uplift in site revenue.
NYK1, renowned in the industry for its breakthrough products such as Nailbond Strong Glue and Lash Force Growth Serum, is the number one worldwide seller on Amazon across a range of beauty products. Wolfenden’s appointment will further strengthen online revenue by increasing ROI directly through the NYK1 website. Read more here.
Click fraud protection specialists, Beacon, have won a top industry prize at this year’s Prolific North Tech Awards.
The firm, which has offices on Dock Street in Leeds, scooped the ‘Best Martech Innovation Award’ for its optimisation and analytics platform, which is designed to provide marketers with better quality and more accurate data from their online advertising campaigns. Read more here.
https://leeds.tech/beacon-crowned-best-martech-innovation-at-prolific-north-tech-awards/
Umii acts as a preventative measure to loneliness by providing a safe place for students to develop meaningful friendships. The app connects students with people across campus, who they may have never met before, based on things like their interests, course types and society preferences. Georgia Wheadon and her team aim to reduce the number of people who feel lonely at university by being there from the beginning. By making it as easy as possible for a student to meet people like them, Umii is there before a student even starts feeling lonely. Scroll to read more.
Burendo provides clients in the UK and overseas with experts skilled in tackling software development challenges in short sprints before rapidly reviewing the results to determine the next step in the project. Last month, the consultancy triumphed in the International category at the Leeds Digital Festival Awards 2021 following its work to design and deliver an agile operating model to US pharmaceutical giant McKesson. Read more here.
Co-Founder and CEO of Leeds-based Panintelligence, Zandra Moore has had an impressive career in the technology sector spanning over 20 years. Her infectious passion for helping businesses drive performance with data and analytics has seen her become well known in the UK and European technology and business industries in recent years.
Zandra is now making her mark in the national and global tech field after recently receiving several recognitions in tech industry awards. Most recently, she was shortlisted for ‘Role Model of The Year: Tech & Services SME’ and ‘IT Leader of the Year’ categories in the UK’s Women in Tech Excellence Awards in which she was up against thousands of entrants. Read more here.
Northern digital agency Fablr has won a new brief with recruitment agency Ernest Hunter Green to create a brand refresh and a new website design and build.
Fablr, which has offices in Leeds and Manchester, has already completed initial branding and messaging workshops with the senior team at Ernest Hunter Green and will be delivering a new, modern and dynamic website. Read more here.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., 7th September, 2021 – Global data centre solutions provider, Service Express, announced its acquisition of The ICC Group, a data centre services company based in the U.K. The two companies will combine decades of technical expertise to deliver comprehensive multivendor services in the U.K. Since 1993, Service Express has continued broadening its portfolio of services and achieving double-digit annual revenue growth. The partnership with The ICC Group brings an expansive hardware distribution network, multivendor experience, and an organisation of talented people. Read more here.
Leading click fraud protection specialist, Beacon, has been confirmed as the exclusive sponsor of a conference dedicated to paid social media advertising taking place in Brighton this month.
Beacon will provide sponsorship for the Paid Social Show, a fringe event hosted by brightonSEO, which will be held at Brighton Centre on Wednesday 8th September. Read more here.
Trio Media has launched a new website for print and display design solutions business, Leach.
Leach is a market-leading print house that counts All Saints, Marks & Spencer, and Peloton as its customers. The Huddersfield-headquartered business develops bespoke, large-format display products for global customers, including graphics, lightboxes, and acoustic solutions for multiple sectors – including retail and events. Read more below.
Leeds digital marketing technology firm, Beacon, has been named as a finalist in the ‘Tech Company of the Year – Small’ category at this year’s UK Business Tech Awards.
The UK Business Tech Awards celebrate the UK’s finest tech businesses and reward innovative and exceptional applications of technology to transform and grow businesses.
The young company has created a wellbeing team of five RapidSpike employees to put healthy high performance, resilience, and wellbeing at the heart of RapidSpike in a bid to enable each team member to excel and the business to thrive. The business has also created a dedicated mental health guide to empower employees and give them resources needed to stay mentally strong and healthy while helping develop RapidSpike’s journey. Read more here.
A pledge to become carbon neutral by 2050 and half emissions by 2030 has seen Leeds-headquartered Bailie Group invited to 10 Downing Street to meet Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, as part of a select group of small and micro companies from across the UK.
CEO Fergus Bailie and COO Philip Walter made the trip to the capital to coincide with the launch of the Government’s Together for our Planet ‘Business Climate Leaders’ campaign – which urges small businesses to cut their emissions to net zero, no later than 2050. Read more here.
With technology speeding ahead, The ICC Group are growing and expanding to keep up, adding new solutions to complement their existing Managed Services offerings, that will add value to their clients. With home working more prevalent, and new ransomware strain attacks increasing by the day, effective and managed security at the end point, is needed now more than ever, to reduce the risk, time to respond and mitigate breaches.
The ICC Group are proud to partner with leading Managed EDR firm Custodian360 to provide new and existing customers with robust and effective endpoint detection and response to lower the risk of attacks propagating on infected end points. Custodian360 are also pleased to partner with The ICC Group, to enable this extended Managed Services offering to customers. Together they plan to accelerate the ability to detect and respond to the increasing volume of endpoint threats, which is critical for any organisation. Read more here.
‘Employer Guide to Digital Placements' on Thursday 3rd June 10am – 11am on Teams.
If you are considering taking a Barnsley College digital student work placement within your company but need more advice and guidance to help you decide if it is right for you, join us to find out more and hear from some local employers.
Collette Evans from Picture Perfect and James Shaw from Barnsley Hospital will share their experience and the benefit of taking on placement learners.
We’ll cover a number of things, from what a good student placement looks like, to what health and safety checks are needed, to facilities and resources needed.
For more information and details of how to join the conversation, please email me on g.mccarthy@barnsley.ac.uk
Photograph provided by Barnsley College.
Video interviewing software solutions provider, Shortlister, has appointed Paul Dickens as Chief Operating Officer as part of its bold plans for fast-tracked growth.
Encompassing all aspects of the business, Paul’s role will see him set the framework for strategic expansion at the York-headquartered firm as it steps up operations, including developing the commercial team and ensuring customer success through product direction. Read more here.
The Festival, which has been running since 2016, saw over 400 events attended by 45,000 people during two Covid-interrupted festivals in 2020. This year, they are holding a smaller, curated festival of just 12 events starting on the 27th of April until 29th April, then returning in September with the usual two-week open-platform format, where everyone is invited to put on an event. Over 300 events are expected in September.
Hosts include Crisp discussing The Rise of Safety Tech, Leeds2023 looking at the collaboration between artists and the tech world, Leeds City Region LEP on the Future of Work, BJSS discussing their international growth and Credera looking at a post-cookie future. Other events are being presented by organisations such as Asda, Leeds City College and Morrisons. Read more here.
Headquartered in Manchester, Purplephish currently provides training and insights to over 100,000 end-users in over 50 mid-market and enterprise clients. The acquisition signals Boxphish’s ambition for growth by bringing increased revenue, staff numbers and customers into the enlarged company. Read more here.
Elland-headquartered cloud technology disruptor Vapour has launched a solution using SD-WAN technologies to protect UK businesses from the overlooked security risks associated with hybrid working.
Deployed as a software licence – with three levels of support available on a ‘price per user per month’ basis – the solution facilitates endpoint visibility and management, secure remote access for employees irrespective of location, and automated threat intelligence and response. Read more here.
Vapour CEO Tim Mercer pictured.
The event is part of Leeds Digital Festival 2021 and will include speakers from Morrisons and AWS. Read more in Events.
At Leeds Digital Festival, Leeds City Region, in association with Oracle, is bringing together a panel of experts to discuss the impact of the pandemic, the effect on the property industry and what the future workplace will look like. How will this new environment change companies future location decisions and what will be the impact for the region? Read more here.
Cyber Security Partners (CSP) have a new service to assist organisations in being secure, compliant and protected against cyber threats that can have detrimental affects on a business. So, what is a Cyber MOT?
Cyber Security Partner’s ‘Cyber MOT’ service, is a high-level overview of an organisation’s security posture and IT Systems. This includes analysing the areas that can affect the IT and Cyber Security of an organisation, such as; personnel and physical elements.
Areas covered in a Cyber MOT review include; Employee Awareness, IT Environment, Security of Data, Device Security/BYOD, Software Vetting, Policies, Passwords, Physical Security, Employee Security and Ongoing Security. All these areas play a key part in an organisation’s security posture. Read more here.
Yorkshire-headquartered tech firm Every has recorded its highest performing year to date – investing a seven-figure sum across the business, doubling its workforce to 65 and seeing 10% of its existing 3,800-client base invest in its education-focused HR solution.
Specialising in providing compliance and HR management software solutions to the education sector, Every is aiming to further increase its employee headcount by 77% over the next two years – boosting its staff numbers to 115. The company also invested £1m across the business – enhancing and growing its IT development and sales teams, providing more staff training, recruiting additional personnel, and creating specialist customer engagement teams to support product roll-out. Read more here.
In a first for borrower wellbeing, ilumoni the brand new, fully FCA authorised app, helps its users to understand and manage their borrowing better and is now available for free through its private beta.
ilumoni provides users with rich insights into how they borrow and repay, including how much they owe, how long it will take to repay their borrowing and how much their borrowing will cost in interest, all based on their current borrowing behaviour. Read more here.
Disruptive cloud technology specialist Vapour recently made a number of team changes to support the company’s progress towards £7m turnover.
Long-standing operations lead Carol McGrotty (pictured) – who has been with the business almost since its inception – has moved into the new role of Head of Transformation. The promotion – in what marks her 20th year in the telecoms sector – will see her assume responsibility for all aspects of Vapour’s service delivery. Managing the technical, field and administrative teams, she will define the operating model and capabilities required to run successful TechOps and business support functions, in an ever-changing technical climate. Read more here.
Calls9 is a digital transformation agency changing the way that professional services businesses operate. Working with both startups and established firms, they develop digital platforms that enable new business models, better ways of working and improved customer experiences. The company is delighted to announce the arrival of two new members to its Board of Directors. Paul Smith and David Pearce are well-known figures in the region’s business sector and will be adding their extensive industry experience and leadership to the digital transformation of professional services businesses. Read more here.
The Yorkshire-headquartered firm has been appointed as a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (Microsoft CSP), having signed a new deal with global distributor Tech Data. Read more here.
The partnership will spotlight quizzing as a force for good, bringing people together virtually to boost morale, mental health and social engagement at a critical time.
The Chase star Paul Sinha and leading quiz tech company SpeedQuizzing have joined forces to encourage more people to take up quizzing, in order to deliver a timely boost to mental health and social engagement. Paul, is currently hosting his own primetime quiz show for ITV called Paul Sinha’s TV Showdown featuring a host of well-known celebrities. Read more here.
eviFile’s agile digital data workflow solution is currently used by major contractors and service providers across the UK and has provided ground-breaking solutions for Network Rail, SPL, United Utilities, and Drax.
Founded in 2018, Cambridge-headquartered AI company Nodes and Links is backed by world-leading investors alongside prominent universities. Read more here.
Leeds-headquartered software and security specialist IDS Group has been accredited with the Government-backed Cyber Essentials Plus scheme certification.
Part of the UK Government’s National Cyber Security Strategy — developed alongside the Information Assurance for Small and Medium Enterprises (IASME) — the endorsement demonstrates IDS Group’s commitment to protecting its products, services and clients against online security threats.
The Cyber Essentials Plus certificate is further supported by leading industry bodies including the Federation of Small Businesses and the CBI and is a government requirement for many contracts within the NHS, MOD and public sector. Read more.....
An award-winning social media agency has increased its client retention rate whilst also saving ‘heaps of time’, thanks to Beacon.
Founded in 2014, Shoo Social Media creates results-driven Facebook and Instagram advertising strategies to help its clients increase brand awareness and generate a strong Return on Investment [ROI]. With a vast amount of time consumed by reporting and analysis of advertising spend, the West Yorkshire-based firm wanted to provide in-depth analysis of client campaigns and enable the team to make well-informed decisions on ad spend.
Using Beacon, Shoo is now saving hours of valuable time on monthly reporting, enabling the team to add more value to each client with enhanced campaign planning and measurement, increasing retention as a result. Read more here.
Noel Kennedy has been recruited to the newly-created role at the Horsforth-based company, which designs, manufactures and installs digital, LED and retail displays for a range of clients across the UK and Europe.
UXG Managing Director Alistair Wright: “We’re delighted to have brought Noel on board as we set ourselves up for what is set to be a big year for UXG. His experience, knowledge and network of contacts are second-to-none, and I’m looking forward to working closely with him to build our presence within existing sectors and explore opportunities to expand into new markets.”
Read more: https://leeds.tech/digital-solutions-provider-uk-global-uxg-appoints-head-of-sales-and-marketing/
An innovative technology business based in Leeds has been chosen to advise the Government on a new code of practice to regulate competition in the industry.
Beacon, which has offices on Dock Street, has become part of the Digital Markets Taskforce [DMT], put together by the Competitions and Market Authority [CMA] to advise the government on regulating the behaviour of platforms that currently dominate digital markets, such as Google and Facebook.
This comes following growing concerns in the government and across the digital marketing industry about the unfair advantage of tech giants and will see the dedicated Digital Markets Unit work closely with regulators including Ofcom and the Information Commissioner’s Office to introduce and enforce a new code.
Read more: https://leeds.tech/beacon-chosen-to-advise-government-on-industry-regulation/
The digital divide has been exacerbated by coronavirus, with many school children lacking the means to join online lessons. With Leeds now under Tier 3 restrictions and thousands of pupils likely to be self-isolating in the months ahead, there is an urgent need for those from more challenging social backgrounds to be properly equipped to learn remotely.
More information about Leeds Tech Angels, including how to donate tech kit, can be found at tech-angels.net
Wolfenden strengthens board and makes two senior hires
Digital marketing agency Wolfenden has appointed Meghan Burton as Operations Director and Emma Barnes as Senior Data & Insights Strategist, in two senior appointments which have seen the agency widen and strengthen its offering.
Meghan Burton joins from Epiphany (now Jaywing) where she was most recently Production Director, having also been the agency’s Director of SEO for over four years.
Emma Barnes also joins the now 31-strong agency from her previous role as Senior Analytics Strategist at Edit.
Photograph is Ben and Daisy Wolfenden.
BUILD is a new entrepreneurship programme from Leeds City Region's MIT REAP (Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program), and we've just opened applications for early stage founders within Leeds City Region with business ideas that mix profit and purpose.
We're on the lookout for people who have brilliant business ideas to solve the big problems that matter to our community and to our world. Successful BUILD applicants will benefit from the shared knowledge of, and connections to, world class experts and over 30 of Leeds City Region’s most successful entrepreneurs. Read more on our News page here.
Starts 18 January 2021.
Duke Studios are offering students who are desk-based creatives 50% off co-working space, which means the cost is only £57.50 per month.
Working alongside like-minded folk in a safe yet inspiring space is crucial to creative learning, and some students will have missed that so far this year.
The contract on offer is a rolling monthly one and includes free meeting space as well as discounts at Sheaf St Bar & Cafe.
Any student who is a 'clean-use, desk-based creative' is warmly welcomed to contact hello@duke-studios.com to find out more and/or book a tour of the premises.
The re-branding and change of name of this Leeds agency pays tribute to its Founder Ben Wolfenden. When Ben started the company in 2011, he had already built and sold an agency to WPP in South East Asia. Wife Daisy joined him in the business in 2015, since when the company has doubled in size and now has a team of 26.
Wolfenden's main specialism is search marketing, which has produced strong financial growth this year and surpassed £1m in turnover, with revenue in recent months having increased by 45%. Quite and achievement in a year which is exceptional by other standards, too! Clients include Seasalt Cornwall, Kiddies Kingdom, Terrys Fabrics and Lakelovers.
Founded by Joshua Atkins in 2008 at the age of 15 after working on Messenger Plus Live! plugins and skins, Jublo has since grown into a digital technology company and expanded into global language translations in 2016. As a certified UK translation and digital technology company, we work with over 160 people across 39 countries and several time zones.Joshua previously worked as Head of Technology at Force24, before joining Sky Betting and Gaming as a Senior Engineer & Solutions Architect and moved into the full time role of Managing Director from April 2019. The company recently welcomed Laura Kenny on board to head up the marketing team at Jublo, as well as moving into Bruntwood’s SciTech Platform. Exciting times.Jublo is looking forward to getting more involved in the Leeds Tech community.
Previous visitors will notice we've been busy making a few improvements. We would love to know what you think and as we continue to develop the platform we welcome any suggestions you may have. Start the conversation with hello@leeds.tech
Kane Fulton of Tech Nation reveals how the Leeds Digital Festival team is a leading example of the resourcefulness, resilience and dynamism of the tech community in the Leeds City Region. You can read the details over at Tech Nation.
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Nic Redfern, Finance Director of Know Your Money, has identified Leeds' rising status as a Fintech hub, recognising the City as a viable alternative to London for those companies established in the sector or starting up.
With the uncertainties which remain post-Brexit, Nic recognises that, in the right location, tenacious tech companies can survive the initial years and thrive in the longer term.
