We kick off 2018 with a fantastic guest on episode 8 of the Sheffield Digital Podcast. David Richards is the CEO of the hugely successful WANdisco, which specialises in big data and has offices in Silicon Valley and Sheffield.

It was absolutely fascinating to hear David talk through his own and WANdisco’s journey so far, from starting out to successfully floating the company on the stock market. I think there is lots to learn here for anyone who owns a business or is in the process of starting up.

The second half of our conversation with David is all about his new foundation, which aims to improve the way computer skills are taught in schools. He wants to change the education system and it’s great to get a first-hand account of how the foundation plans to do it.

Of course, this episode also contains some general updates. Mel provides a brief overview on the work Sheffield companies are doing to help The Sheffield College build a new software development apprenticeship. We also go through a range of events that are coming up in the city.

Finally, me, Mel and Chris all share some goals for 2018, most of which feature Sheffield, digital, technology and that type of thing. No surprises there. Go grab your headphones. This is a good one.

Notes and links

Every episode comes with a list of links to all of the various people, companies and topics that we reference. Here is that list for episode eight.

• David Richards (@davidrichards) on Twitter
• WANdisco
• About Us | WANdisco
• WANdisco on Twitter
• Investors scramble for a share as WANdisco float a big success | Yorkshire Post
• WANdisco expands management team to facilitate growth | WAN disco
• The David and Jane Richards Family Foundation
• Sheffield tech tycoon donates £1.1m for computer skills in schools | The Star
• Businesses work with Sheffield College on new apprenticeship | Sheffield Digital
• Company spotlight: TribePad | Sheffield Digital
• Meet our members | Sheffield Digital
• Become a member of Sheffield Digital

Did I miss something you’re looking for? Just get in touch and let me know.

Upcoming events

We also go through a list of upcoming events and meetups in Sheffield. Here is that list too, including links for more information and to book your place.

• Equal Experts
• FrontEndNorth 2018
• AWRC Winter Networking Meeting
• Open Day – Home Office Digital User Research Internship Programme
• Riverside Games Night 2.0
• Agile Sheffield / Sheffield DevOps #MeetupMashup
• Front End Sheffield: First meetup
• Open Day – Home Office Digital Interaction Design Internship Programme
• UX Sheffield: UX, Psychology and the Power of 100
• Open Day – Home Office Digital Content Design Internship Programme

And don’t forget, you can check out the full calendar of upcoming events in Sheffield.

Join the conversation

We’re really keen to get your feedback on the podcast. You can share your thoughts with us on Twitter or on the #-podcast channel in the Sheffield Digital Slack community.

Thank you for the music

Thanks again to Alex Mclean – aka Yaxu – for the show’s intro music, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.