Last month, to celebrate NB's 14th anniversary, we published a blog post highlighting how we've benefitted growing up in a remote location. However, by now, many of you will be aware that at the start of this year, we opened a second office in Edinburgh. It's not quite the same as 14 years, but here's some reflection on the benefits we've seen since Matthew, our Account Executive relocated and opened the new office six months ago...
Ease of Travel
Being based in a city in the centre of the country has given us much more freedom to travel about and meet clients and prospects from all over. It's been possible to travel to Aberdeen, Glasgow and London regularly for key meetings and events that we otherwise probably wouldn't have been able to justify had we needed to travel down from Shetland. Over the coming months, we're looking forward to sharing some exciting new launches for clients in all of the aforementioned cities, so keep an eye on our portfolio!
Being Part of the Scene
Being based only in Shetland, NB never really had a proper opportunity to integrate itself with the wider 'digital and marketing scene' that exists in the larger cities around the United Kingdom. We opted to base our Edinburgh operation in Codebase, which has given us the chance to rectify that. Codebase is home to 80+ growing businesses in the digital sector and gave us immediate access to a wide network of like-minded and talented people that we can interact with on a daily basis. The knowledge that our peers in Codebase and their understanding of the more technical side of our work is an incredible resource and their advice and feedback on the work we produce has so far proven valuable. Furthermore, the Codebase team do a great job of arranging regular networking events around the city, making our integration into the scene even easier.
Agency Partnerships
As well as being able to work on projects for our own clients, we've also been able to work with other agencies who specialise in things like design, brand and social media by assisting them with the digital requirements of their customers that they previously didn't have the capabilities of delivering. By being able to meet regularly with agencies around the country, we've been able to build constructive relationships that are mutually beneficial.
Building Our Team
While our team in Shetland are extremely skilled at what they do, the Island's small population does put a limit on the talent we can hire. With three universities in Edinburgh, the student/graduate landscape is something we can look to tap into and indeed already have. With our Edinburgh workload increasing faster than expected, we've already hired a part-time member of staff to assist Matthew five mornings a week with project delivery work. With the way things are going, we're likely to have further opportunities available in the future, so if you're interested in working for NB in Edinburgh - watch this space!
Shetland Collaboration
Despite our team now being split over two locations, it's never been a problem. The bulk of our work is still for our Shetland-based clients, so at busy times, the Edinburgh staff need to help out. We can do this easily by using a great range of collaborative tools to post messages back and forth, share files and have meetings via video conferencing. Furthermore, the implementation last year of an industry-recognised job costing and project management platform has allowed everyone on our team to be aware of what we're all currently working on and whats in the pipeline for the foreseeable future.