workITgibraltar first year review
A chance meeting at a party in June 2010 hosted by Gary and Yvonne Brown in Spain raised a business idea between friends Brenda Cuby and Wendy Moody.
Social Media had started to snowball into a phenomenon first embraced by the youth followed by their parents then business.
Brenda had a self taught passion in the subject becoming an internet entrepreneur, a blogger and an expert in this rapidly developing means of communication.
Wendy`s background in sales and marketing quickly embraced Brenda`s view that here is an opportunity but what shall we do about it!
Throughout July and August a plan evolved to deliver seminars on “Discovering Social Media” followed by training workshops on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogging.
WorkITspain was launched in September to deliver a programme to the residents of Sotogrande who had a curiosity and need to know more about Social Media.
Jo Ward came on board to promote the programme through PR, an email campaign followed by a newsletter. Jo is a journalist by background and a professional writer.
The first seminar was held in the Terra Sana Restaurant to thirty attendees paying 30 euro each to “Discover Social Media”. This was promptly followed by a second seminar recorded by Sotogrande TV for broadcast on the internet.
In October, November and December well attended workshops on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter followed with specialist workshops for both beginner and advanced bloggers were held at the Maritimo Hotel.
During this period small local business engaged Brenda for specialist confidential advice on how they could best embrace social media and Anglo Wines retained our services to set up their Facebook initiative.
Business clients became the way forward and nearby Gibraltar became the target with workITgibraltar Ltd formed to commence in January 2011.
John Hodgson, Director of the Sovereign Group in Gibraltar took a personal interest in the evolution of the business in the first few months and could see a wider opportunity for his own business in the financial services sector with offices in 25 countries.
WorkITgibraltar were retained to help develop and maintain their social media strategy coordinating with the Sovereign Group head office in Hong Kong and the local office in Gibraltar.
Anglo Wines our first client are part of the Anglo Hispana Group of Gibraltar and John Isola CEO quickly retained our services to develop the social media strategy of their Pizza Hut franchise and train their team how to self manage their own programme.
Another key development was to join the Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce the interface of 281 local companies with both the Government and local community.
Ed Macquisten, CEO of the GCC immediately recognised the importance of Social Media for his members who primarily operate serving both corporate clients and many high net worth individuals.
In January the GCC hosted a seminar to their members on “Discovering Social Media” delivered to a capacity audience at The Eliott Hotel. Gibraltar Television coverage attracted more interest and the seminar was repeated two weeks later.
Social Media became the hottest topic in this period with the civil unrest throughout the Arab world accelerated by the people power use of this new medium to change their world.
In every newspaper everyday and on every television screen reference is made to this phenomena and doing nothing is not an option for business today.
A programme of specialist business workshops organised by the GCC in their offices every two weeks from February to May rapidly introduced the business members in Gibraltar on how they could best embrace social media into their marketing activities. Specialist in house training courses followed to member clients.
This further raised the profile of workITgibraltar in the business community and further projects in the financial services, legal and retail sectors quickly followed.
In April with the generous support of Mary Waterous the first office was opened at No 14/1, Bomb House Lane and the home offices reserved for evening and weekend working.
As the client base increased so did the demand on the team essentially outsourced specialist home workers delivering blogs, web design, programming, technical support and marketing services.
Helle Pedersen formally with Jyske Bank joined to manage the financial affairs.
Gillian McClafferty brought her Irish charm and dynamism as new account sales manager.
On the 4th of June workITgibraltar held a party to thank so many who have supported and contributed to the success of this new business now at the forefront of social media implementation and marketing in this region.
Many challenges and opportunities are ahead and the future is bright….
June 2011
