Why a tech community matters

We live in an ultra-connected world where video calls can be made from one side of the world to the other in seconds, and in theory software development could be done almost anywhere: so why do some places have more success stories than others? Silicon Valley in San Francisco is perhaps the most famous example, but New York, Shoreditch in London and Bangalore are also well-known for their vibrant software dev scenes.

In turns out that even when online collaboration is almost as easy as face-to-face conversations, community and location still matters. Paul Graham has some ideas on why, and why being in Silicon Valley still matters, but you could apply the same lessons to other places too — the right mix of people, an absence of bureaucrats and even decent weather can all help a startup scene to flourish.

Our home city of Birmingham isn't quite Silicon Valley (there's not quite as much sunshine for a start), but it too has a vibrant tech community. The community boasts a multitude of tech meetups and events, including HydraHack, Tech Wednesday, the wonderfully named Silicon Canal Meetup and the annual Canvas Conference. The online Birmingham.IO community is another sign of the flourishing tech scene here in the heart of the Midlands.

As well as having the advantages of several local universities, some major engineering firms and several big online players here in Birmingham, the city is also home to a growing number of tech startups and sits only an hour away from both London and Manchester, two other big tech hubs — all of these ingredients feed in to create a tech community to be proud of, and one that can act as a catalyst for top-class software development businesses and projects.

For us, being here at the centre of it all is important for several reasons. While we can spread out when we need to get our heads down and focus. Taking part in the community is an important part of staying up to date on industry best practice, technology trends and tools, keeping us as productive as we can be. Being at the centre of it all also helps to attract (and retain) the very best software development talent. Running a software development project well takes years of experience, finding good developers is hard, and staying in touch with the latest technology is a constant learning process — Birmingham helps us with all that.

In a nutshell, that's ultimately the service we offer: we bring the process, the people and the tech know-how to the table. And being a part of a tech community is a vital part of that. If you're contemplating a software project and want the benefit of our process, people and technology, then get in touch.