Being a fair old way from the mtc heartlands of Scotland, it could conceivably be difficult to keep tabs on what’s been happening over the border in Bristol. That’s why I'm thrilled to write a blog, briefly covering what’s been going on at mtc’s brand new office over the last three months.

For those who are unaware, in August mtc expanded South of the border into the internationally renowned tech hub of Bristol. This was for several reasons varying from the recruitment benefits of being in a double university city with an established tech sector, to the accessible geographical benefits of both London and Cardiff. Mostly it was an mtc intervention to help our Developer in the South West, Sully, make some friends.

It feels like a lot has happened since August 2nd when an assortment of developers and Business Development executives took their seats together for the first time in the new office. To our surprise the local press provided us with some positive coverage around the office opening. Spurred on by this, we’ve gone on to make strong, early inroads into the local business community, ably assisted by organisations such as Invest Bristol Bath who have made the process much easier.

Our local Chamber of Commerce Business West (an amalgamation of seven chambers), accepted our membership application and we’ve already been involved in three networking events that have generated several business enquiries, all of which are currently ongoing. We’ve also been accepted as a member of TechSpark, a digital tech hub for The West of England that organise tech-themed events aimed at sharing knowledge and expertise amongst the local business community. We’re particularly interested in participating in one of their roundtables somewhere down the line.

Our first attended event was hosted by TechSpark. ‘The Sparkies’ are an annual awards night that showcases the very best of tech talent that the West has to offer. The Sparkies affirmed my beliefs that there is unlimited potential in terms of what mtc can achieve in Bristol, this was very much underlined by the amount of talent that’s right on our doorstep. Needless to say, there’s several nominees and winners who I hope to be following up with sooner rather than later. I rather like the idea of going back to that awards ceremony as a nominee instead of a guest in the not-too-distant future.

Corporate shoulder-rubbing aside, we’ve also made inroads into other area’s of the local community, specifically with regards to building relationships with local education institutions. Dialogue has been established with at least one of the cities universities. Conversations are also underway with Weston College to see how mtc can support the next generation of local tech talent. Hopefully, it won’t be long until we will be able to impart some of the expertise of our Bristol developers on to the city’s students, who in turn may get inspired to start a career in design & developent and start careers with mtc.

In September we welcomed our first visitors from the mothership, in the form of Creative Director Euan ‘EJ’ Johnstone and Business Development Director Anthony Brennan. This was the first time many of us had physically met any of our Scottish colleagues due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it helped grow the feeling of being an interconnected office. We enjoyed taking them out to see some of the sites of Bristol, not to mention a raft of food and drink hotspots in the city. It was also great to be able to see their reaction to both the office itself and the work we’ve been putting in down here, in terms of building a friendly, professional workspace. We’d love to welcome more of our Scottish colleagues down to Bristol, hopefully, that will happening again soon.

In October, the first Bristol hire was made since our opening. Jess Speirs will be the new Account Manager in Team Phoenix. Jess is someone I knew from my previous job and I’m thrilled to be reunited with her. She’s a very driven, compassionate person who is also laugh-out-loud funny. I don’t doubt she will make a great addition to the Bristol crew. Notably, Jess will go down in history as the first female to step foot in the Bristol office! On the subject of firsts, we also saw our first promotion from within the Bristol team, congratulations Sully on becoming a Senior Frontend Developer, very well deserved.

From a business perspective, we’re hoping to add to the regional business that’s already been won since we opened our doors, particularly by converting the Chamber enquiries we’re getting and turning them into live projects. We’re also going to be further exploring how we increase our presence in Bristol, with an exciting media partnership potentially in the works. Finally, we’re hoping it won't be long until our Head of Creative, Kurt, implements our exciting new office redesign, which will let us turn a generic workspace into something far more in line with mtc’s brand and personality.

Round Up

Overall it’s been a positive start to our Bristol operation which is a big testament to the team down here who have had to navigate everything from remote inductions to establishing office camaraderie via instant messaging. It’s not been easy, but that’s why I’m so optimistic. If we can successfully open an office in a new country, in the middle of a pandemic… just imagine what we can achieve when normal times are upon us once again.