#DoncasterIsGreat??

This market town is heaving..!!  You may be surprised to hear such news during times when people speak of a double-dip recession and power moving from West to East, but Doncaster is literally humming; and if you’re a tech company it’s a great place to be based.  Just ask my neighbour Amazon.

In fact, I know of several companies who are at early stages of moving operations to Doncaster.  Yes, it has a lower operating cost, there’s also a plentiful supply of labour too, but there’s exciting things that are being planned as we speak and that’s in post 16 education.

Let’s me share with you what’s so wonderful.!

1.  #LearnPod11

Ever wondered about how Social Media technology can literally change lives for the better?  Well, that’s what Doncaster College is doing.  They are holding an unconference called #learnpod11, looking at how social media technology can be used to improve education in post 16 education.  Sounds a bit normal doesn’t it?  Well, no.  This is un-normal.

There are approximately 120+ people arriving at Doncaster college tomorrow, who are all learning practitioners.  Some are educators, other private sector practitioners, all coming together in Doncaster to share ideas and share their “thought leading” best practice.

This event is so, so exciting as it preps this town up for forward thinking and labour ready for the next half a decade.  Great news for this town.

http://learnpod.org.uk/

2. RadioShow called “DoncasterIsGreat”

Now, this is funny.!  A Twitter hashtag come radio show, hosted by the Head of the Law Society, Andrew Isaacs who is a fellow member of Doncaster Chamber.  Haha.  Go get’em Andrew.  I saw Andrew mention this hashtag first on LinkedIn.  I had to say “Great.  Do it.”  I like backing positive things.  I had only met Andrew once in person at Doncaster Rovers football club evening, I liked him, he’s enterprising.

6 months on, he invited me to be his first guest on the radio show.   Andrew is no fool, he a solicitor; and now he’s a talk show host.  If only every town had an Andrew Isaacs.!

Tune in on Tuesday’s @sinefm 102.6 FM at 6pm-8pm

3. YorkshireMafia coming to Doncaster

I love it.  YorkshireMafia.  Yorkshire has so many similarities to Sicily landscape it’s quite unreal.  I mentioned Yorkshire Mafia in a previous blog post.  I think as a “come together”, Yorkshire Mafia do something very special and I’m very pleased that they are coming to Doncaster to host a Drinks Evening.  Everytime I’ve been to a Yorkshire Mafia event, I’ve been astonished by the presentation, behaviour and slick approach they have to putting things on.

I have to say, that had their been little momentum online, I feel Yorkshire Mafia would have overlooked Doncaster.  The fact is, Doncaster is humming, Yorkshire Mafia is humming and the Don is coming to Doncaster on 25^th July.

If you want a great evening amongst like minded people, come along a join in a pleasant evening inn Doncaster with other Mafioso.

See: The First YM Evening I went to >> @mafiayorkshire

4. Doncaster Market – Best 2011

This is one of the things I like about Doncaster.  Fresh food at the centre of the town.  It’s a real market town with a living breathing market, voted best market 2011.  That’s quite an accolade!   There’s about 15-20 butchers, a separate fish section, fruit, an indoor market and of course a flea market.  If you’re fed up of the high street, you’ll love it here.

I do.

5. Superfast Broadband – Digital Region

At the moment, we are seeing the convergence of “digital” and “creative” in to a single sector; I’ve described it as a car crash for some, but for others it spells new opportunities.  In Doncaster, plans were put in to place a number of years ago to ensure that the town would be at the forefront of digital service delivery with superfast broadband.

This is becoming generally available right now and makes Doncaster a fantastic place to be.

http://www.digitalregion.co.uk/

The Star – Doncaster is Heaving.!!

>> Well, read yourself.  The Star has titled it’s article “Boom Town – Doncaster”.  I say, listen out for #CreativeBoom c/c @KNCreative, it’s coming.!

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/business/boom_town_doncaster_despite_economic_downturn_1_3558064

Changing perceptions in 2 years

When I arrived in Doncaster only two years ago, all I could see online was a company called Free Press (local Newspaper, reporting violence, crimes as headlines) and on television coincidently there was a high profile national news item about  two young boys who became over night super villains.

I had friends phoning me asking why on earth I felt Doncaster was a great place to be based.  Everyone who visits thinks the same as I do:  it’s humming.  It takes time, I’ve vetoed  Doncaster Chamber of Commerce for their lack of ability to embrace modern social communications channels. In fact, listening to admin departments tell decision makers how to “do business” and then sit on their policies is far too slow and political for me.   Outside of these ‘big fish, little pond’ approaches, business is taking place at a fast rate.

Doncaster is Great.  In fact, Doncaster is humming.

For the people who have said to me “Doncaster has no economy” and “Doncaster Creative sector is not a proper sector”, I say:  swivel on this.!

And to that “stupid” Newspaper that profits on bad news

It may be time to start talking about the “good things” rather than strangling your own town.  Take it from me, bad news might sell papers, but it’s a dwindling market…  #notw???

So, if you were wondering who @andrewisaacs is and why it is that I retweet him, you’ll know.   He’s one of about five people I’ve found who are outwardly positive about doing business here and not at all concerned what ‘the powers’ think.  In fact, he said to me “I want to make Doncaster the new Silicon Valley”. What can I say:  “Go get’em Mr Isaacs..!!”

Moving Forward >> #DoncasterCreative

There’s some noises being made locally at a grass roots level about the creative sector and I hope to be coming back and writing something about #DoncasterCreative in months to come.

Go Doncaster.