Case study
Backing regional tech growth
England’s North East region is home to a vibrant and growing tech business community – with innovative start-ups, scale-ups and large anchor firms like Sage and Accenture, as well as digital centres for large government departments like HMRC and DWP. It has world-class universities and outstanding schools.
But it’s also one of the UK’s most deprived regions, with more than 50,000 unemployed. There’s also a skill shortage for businesses looking to attract new tech talent.
Opencast contributes to the growth of the UK’s regional tech economy – including in the North East where the company was first established and still provides employment for most of our people.
Dynamo founders
Opencast's co-founders, Charlie Hoult and Mike O’Brien, were also co-founders of the non-profit Dynamo North East network, which was established in 2013. Our Chief People Officer Cate Kalson is now a Dynamo director.
Dynamo brings together tech businesses, educators, supporters and government to champion growth in the region. Dynamo is now led by Sunderland Software City CEO David Dunn.
Among Dynamo’s big regional successes have been helping to secure £30m in funding for a new National Institute for Smart Data Innovation in Newcastle and supporting the creation of a new North East Futures University Technical College specialising in health science and IT. Dynamo’s annual Dynamites Awards celebrate the region’s tech success – and in 2023 it launched the annual TechNExt festival of technology for the North East.
Meeting the tech talent challenge
One of the biggest single challenges affecting technology businesses across the UK is the shortage of tech talent – and North East businesses face this challenge too.
To help fill the 4000 vacancies that exist and which represent 21% of all jobs in the region, Opencast has given strong backing to Dynamo's new tech talent engine. We also support Dynamo’s annual Tech Talent Live jobs fair, and the new TechNExt schools challenge, which encourages STEM learning.
