Sponsor: Elementary Digital
Package: Gold
Website: http://www.elementarydigital.co.uk
Who We Are
Elementary Digital is a Leeds and London based digital agency with a focus on WordPress solutions. Infact, we would describe ourselves as a dedicated WordPress agency and we’re pretty obsessed with building, developing and innovating in the platform.
Elementary Digital was formed in 2012 with a remit to follow a new way of working. Not only picking a platform to specialise in rather than being a jack of all trades and master of none, but also in pushing the idea of a location agnostic model for employees. Give us an Internet connection, a nice chair and a pot of coffee and we’re good to go anywhere!
This allows us to be flexible in how, when and where we work. Sure we still need to answer the phone 9-5, but if a developer gets on to a roll in pursuit of fixing a particularly difficult issue they can keep going and have a lie-in as a reward the next day. Cutting the commute out and letting our staff work in familiar environments has done wonders for stress, motivation & productivity. We maintain presence with our clients via regular stand ups – again we just need a decent Internet connection and a suitable space and we can connect via Skype.
We keep a cohesive team feel with weekly meetings and ad-hoc nights out, usually centred around good food and good beer!
Why We Chose WordPress
After a lifetime of stress dealing with homebrew CMSs of varying abilities it was time for a change. Even the better ones tend to resemble a Frankenstein’s monster of code as feature creep over the years takes its toll. Clients will keep wanting to add just one more feature to a system that is often not designed to be particularly extensive.
Then there’s the ‘passability’ of the site – with a system like WordPress we can (and often do) pick up someone else’s project and deliver it to completion. There’s a major time overhead when trying to do that with a custom system. This type of CMS can often resemble an attempt to lock someone in with the original agency. Not always, of course, but often enough.
We also love the flexibility of WordPress. Often derided as being a platform ‘just for bloggers’ we know that infact some of the world’s most popular sites are either running WordPress or integrating it as part of a wider solution. We understand that this is down to the perceived ease of the platform, but it’s not like that puts any of us out of business. It’s great for beginners to jump into and half an hour later they have a website! But we chose it because it’s powerful enough to go far beyond that.
WordCamp Manchester 2015
For us, sponsoring WordCamp Manchester 2015 is about finding a way to contribute to the community of a system that was a revelation to us when we found it and it’s part of our duty as a dedicated WordPress agency.
We believe that by being a part of fostering the community we all gain. We want to contribute what we know; our experiences, our techniques. There’s no point in trying to hoard all the knowledge – new ideas can be born in isolation, it’s true, but the best results come from a group of fired up peers bouncing ideas off each other. It sounds like an awful piece of business-speak, but it’s true, the group dynamic often creates something more. As a forward-thinking agency we want to be part of that.
It’s also about learning for ourselves. Between us we’ve years of experience in WordPress, but we never claim to know it all. We want to keep learning and growing. Keep going or be left behind!
So that’s why we’ve decided to sponsor Wordcamp 2015. We can’t wait to get involved, watch the talks and get to meet you all!
Website: http://www.elementarydigital.co.uk
