WE rocked Digital Shoreditch

Digital Shoreditch and Waggener Edstrom, sounds like a match made in heaven, right?  It’s a tech event and we’re a tech agency: simple.

Well, yes, it is a match made in heaven…but not for that reason. In fact, for precisely the opposite reason.

It’s a match because it’s not a ‘tech event’:  that makes it sound like it’s only tech businesses or tech agencies or east London’s geekiest geeks geeking together for a geekfest.  In reality, we’ve seen Sainsbury, William Hill, Coca-Cola and a host of other brands which are most definitely not ‘tech’, gathering, talking and sharing.

And it’s a match because we’re not a ‘tech agency’.  Yes, we work for some brands in the tech sector, big, medium, small, corporate, trade and consumer.  But we also work with some of the world’s biggest healthcare brands, a global beauty retailer, the world’s biggest protector of forests, car brands and drinks brands. A lot of ‘non-tech’ brands.

The match is because what brings us together is a shared belief that technology isn’t a sector, it’s a philosophy.  A belief that the world we live in, our lives, the way we understand each other, the cool shit we do and the way we share it, is improved by using amazing technology.

That’s why we decided to get into bed with Digital Shoreditch and why they’ve described us as “their most proactive partners ever”.  We couldn’t be prouder, they couldn’t be happier.

I think pretty much the entire London office has been in Shoreditch Town Hall at some point this week, and not all just to heckle me during my session yesterday.

We’ve learned stacks from cool start-ups who are building apps, sites, tools and kit.  We’ve been impressed by some of the bigger brands, like the aforementioned Coca-Cola, Sainsbury and William Hill who are using technology to revolutionise their brands and/or the experiences their brands deliver.  We’ve been surprised by brands like Ordnance Survey who are making the most spectacular use of technology to improve their products.  We’ve had our socks knocked off by the work of some of the world’s leading comms agencies and the shizzle they’re developing for their clients.  And we’ve been inspired by all of the above.

When the team have talked to me this week about their Digital Shoreditch experience, I’ve seen the sparkle in their eyes.  When we’ve spoken to clients about it, we’ve seen their eyes open just that little bit wider as they feed off our passion.  And when we speak to friends at other agencies we can see them thinking ‘shit that sounds cool’.

To the team at WE who’ve been involved, contributed, tweeted, updated, Vined, Hyper-lapsed, blogged and networked their way across Hackney for the last five days (from our European boss to our newest intern) I say this: well done, great work, we rocked it, I love you all, come back next year and most of all – thank-you.