More than five years ago now, when I was still working at Durham and involved with the North East ICT Managers’ group, we became aware of a new tech group in the region. Charlie Hoult, of Hoult’s Yard and Bob Paton from Accenture had created Dynamo, a volunteer-led group set up with the core mission to ‘Grow the North East IT Economy’ through collaboration, innovation and skills. There were others but they stuck in my mind at the time.
The welfare of the region has always been at the heart of what I want to do. It still is and so we talked about it within the NEICT group and decided to join. At the time Dynamo was nearly all private sector and we felt that it would be good to have a public sector input. The region has a very large and active public sector. Charlie came down to visit me in Durham, we had a chat and signed up. It all sounded very exciting.
It was! I was invited to join the operating group which steadily grew in size and I got involved as much as I could in various ways. When I left Durham, one of the first things I did was to sign up to Dynamo with my own company. Since then, my involvement has increased significantly; I now lead the Cyber Security cluster for example.
I am regularly asked why did I join? This is usually followed by ‘what do you get for your membership fee?’ This is what is behind me writing this blog.
In short it is very difficult to say exactly what benefits I get from being part of Dynamo. I tend not to think about it that way. Cause and effect are not easy to define but being a member has given me a large number of contacts, with like minded people, working in all sorts of guises in the same sector. It gives me some kudos and credibility and I imagine that it opens some doors that otherwise may be closed. It also adds weight to my company, in that many more have heard of Dynamo than Guerrilla Working. I carry the weight of association.
Most importantly for me though is to be part of something much bigger, a movement that truly works across the region to build up the reputation of our industry. Together we can do so much more than individuals. Collaboration and co-creation are the future of all work and this is my main driver as a member. We can all be in this together.
