Building on the success of last year’s event, Business Link is once again hosting Marketing: the art of. The must attend marketing event of the year is taking place on the 11th November at The Sage Gateshead.

This event has been designed to appeal to North East businesses and anyone with a marketing remit to help your business gain a competitive advantage and help maintain your position in the market.

We will be showcasing modern marketing methods which will provide you with ideas to inject new direction and creativity into your marketing plans. A mix of high-profile speakers, engaging workshops, presentations, and exhibitors from both local and national organisations will provide the perfect platform to share marketing knowledge and best practice.

For more information go to event website.

Set up by North Shields-based Ben Dures and Alistair Sutherland, reliabletradespeople.co.uk uses a strict evaluation system to help consumers find reputable tradesmen based on their location and area of expertise.

The site was set up after research revealed the North East to be the top region for rogue tradesmen.

Ben Dures said:  “I met up with Alistair at Christmas last year, we’ve known each other for years, and we started talking about dodgy builders and sloppy workmanship and came up with the idea for Reliable Tradespeople On-line.

“What is so distinctive about www.reliabletradespeople.co.uk is that it sets such high standards for contractors and service providers who wish to register with us. This is important to me because I’m very interested in ethical trading, the use of local labour and protecting the public.”

Following their success, the company is planning to expand. New markets are already in production and the plans to expand reach even beyond UK borders.

We are working with an award winning, highly creative, design and digital agency in Newcastle to help them find a junior Project Manager. It’s a fantastic opportunity for a rising star in the digital arena. You’ll be tasked with project managing a variety of digital campaigns, whether this is full web projects – from initial scope through to launch, social media, print or online advertising campaigns.

You will work closely with their Account Managers to deliver Clients’ web projects and marketing campaigns on time, to the expected high standards and within budget.

Main tasks and responsibilities will include:

* Project management
* Developing online strategies
* Web user experience planning with designers
* Writing proposals and project specifications
* Social media management and fulfilment

Skills and experience required:

The right candidate will be passionate about digital and have a relevant Marketing or Multimedia degree and ideally some work placements with outstanding references and examples of tasks undertaken, whether this has been gained in an agency or an in-house team. We are looking for someone who is ambitious, obsessive with their attention to detail, has a creative spark but also a commercial awareness.

If you are interested in the advertised position please apply by contacting Sharpe Recruitment.

Sharpe Recruitment is a North East based consultancy, dedicated to placing professionals in rewarding jobs throughout the North of England across a variety of disciplines including Digital Media, Creative Advertising, Sales & Marketing, PR, IT and Business Operations.

We have a Client based on the outskirts of Newcastle looking for a C# Web Developer to join their expanding team of creative digital developers, producing extraordinary websites and web based applications for a wide variety of interesting Clients across the UK.

In this role you will be responsible for the development of code and software solutions suitable to client demand in line with company practices.

Duties:

* Maintaining existing applications and developing new web based applications in C#
* Integrating with large SQL databases to create and store reports
* Producing and updating documentation for projects you are involved with
* Authoring functional and technical specifications
* Testing your own work and that of colleagues as requested
* Working alone or as part of a team as needs dictate
* Maintaining relevant databases

Skills, Experience and Qualifications:

* Experience of windows application programming using C#
* Development experience using C# and object oriented programming
* Strong GUI skills
* Knowledge of accessibility issues
* Experience with SQL Server and data replication
* Ability to produce reports and also to work with XML
* Experience of creating reports to save in Word, Excel and PDF format, incorporating graphs as necessary
* Qualified to NVQ Level 4 or equivalent or hold of a recognised Computing/programming qualification

If you are interested in the advertised position please apply by contacting Sharpe Recruitment.

Sharpe Recruitment is a North East based consultancy, dedicated to placing professionals in rewarding jobs throughout the North of England across a variety of disciplines including Digital Media, Creative Advertising, Sales & Marketing, PR, IT and Business Operations.

Flemming Arnott; Jill Heslop; Richard Myers (managing director); Hanna Miettinen

Digital media agency Industrial Strength has recruited three new staff members on the back of a series of client wins as it pushes for growth.

The Gateshead-based company specialises in website design and development, multimedia and online marketing for a client base including Sage, Tommee Tippee and Gentoo. It also works as a digital partner to top advertising and design companies in the North East, London and Geneva.

The new recruits had all proved themselves by working with the company before their appointment, having being part of a pool of talented freelancers from which Industrial Strength handpicks a team for each client project.

The move doubles the core team of staff to six, who are supported by up to eight freelancers during busy periods.

Former journalist Hanna Miettinen joins as editor of the company’s digital news platform New Media Monthly, an open forum for the digital community to share news, views and ideas. Born in Finland, Hanna previously worked as a journalist on several titles in her home country before settling in the North East last year, after completing her Masters degree in multimedia journalism at Newcastle University.

Web developer Flemming Arnott brings with him a 12-year background in the digital sector. A former creative himself, he works within the development team to apply technology that brings the concept to life and delivers the results that clients want. His former roles included a spell with Kitbag, the first online sports retailer, and a web development role at the Centre for Advanced Industry in North Shields.

The third member of the trio is Jill Heslop, who is responsible for providing accounts, admin and business support to the directors and staff.  Jill moved to the region four years ago from the West coast of Scotland, and outside work she sings with and promotes North East band and independent record label The Shipbuilders.

Managing director Richard Myers said:  “We are delighted to welcome Hanna, Flemming and Jill to the permanent staff team.

“The digital world is constantly growing and developing and to make sure we continue to come up with fresh and innovative ideas to help clients get the best from their marketing budgets, we need to make sure we choose the right fit for our staff team.

“Based on our experience working with all three on a freelance basis, we were confident that our new recruits would quickly prove to be valuable additions to the team, and we are very pleased to have them on board.”

You’ll be tasked with managing a variety of digital campaigns, whether this is full web projects – from initial scope through to launch, SEO, social media, PPC or online advertising. You will work closely with their Account Manager to deliver Clients’ web projects and marketing campaigns on time, to the expected high standards and within budget.

Main tasks and responsibilities will include:

* Project management
* Developing online strategies
* Web user experience planning with designers
* Writing proposals and project specifications
* Social media management and fulfilment
* SEO implementation, planning and analysis
* PPC implementation, planning and analysis

Skills and experience required:

The right candidate will be passionate about digital and have at least two years demonstrable experience in the digital marketing and website development field, whether this has been gained in an agency or an in-house team. We are looking for someone who is ambitious, obsessive with their attention to detail, has a creative spark but also a commercial awareness.

If you are interested in the advertised position please apply by contacting Sharpe Recruitment.

Sharpe Recruitment is a North East based consultancy, dedicated to placing professionals in rewarding jobs throughout the North of England across a variety of disciplines including Digital Media, Creative Advertising, Sales & Marketing, PR, IT and Business Operations.

Teenagers are being encouraged to pursue a career in software through a cartoon film that tackles some of the false perceptions of the industry.

The six-minute animation, released by Sunderland Software City, is trying to shake the image of dull people cooped in a dark basement staring at a computer screen, and show what a career in software is really like.

Aimed at 11-17 year-olds, the YouTube film features a pair of teenagers discovering how a career in software can take them places they’d never imagined – like music, fashion, computer games, films and sport – and that people who work in the industry aren’t really geeks at all.

“A brilliant place to work”

Kat Pattison from local company Sonodrome is one of the film’s stars.

“There’s a load of misconceptions about what it’s like working in software and even what the people who work in software are like, and we were really excited about getting involved in a project which would get young people thinking differently about the sector and even about making a career here,” she said.

“Software is a brilliant place to work, and we’re glad to get the chance to tell the world”

The film is designed to be shown in schools, where it can be accompanied by interactive workshops and visits from local companies like those shown in the film, including Mere Mortals, 4Projects, Isherwoods and Sonodrome.

New talent needed

According to Sunderland Software City Chief Executive Officer Bernie Callaghan building a talented workforce in the region is key to continuing the growth of the local software sector.

“The North East is increasingly a location of choice for the software industry and one of the things which makes our region so attractive is the talented and inventive workforce”, he said.

“If the local software industry is going to continue its recent expansion we’re going to have to keep growing that talent pool, but we know a lot of young people are put off even thinking about a career in software because they think it has nothing to do with the things that interest them and it’s not somewhere people like them work.

“That couldn’t be further from the truth. A career in software can take you wherever your interests lie and all you need is to be creative, able to work in a team and good at solving problems. Any technical skills you can pick up really easily right here in the North East”.

The animation was produced by Gateshead-based animation studio Kuro Dragon, in partnership with film-makers Yourfilm and sound specialists Mudshark Audio.

Sunderland Software City is the regional initiative supporting the growth of the software industry in the North East.

Our Client is based in Sunderland in the North East of England. They are developing projects aimed at the multi-touch market, both specific contracts for individual installations and developing a new product in-house which they are looking to sell directly to specific markets.

They have developed a prototype platform and some sample applications and are now looking to take the solutions to market. If you were to join them now, you would be joining at the ground level with a small and dynamic team.

This is an excellent opportunity for a hard worker to skip a few rungs on the career ladder as well as play with some cool new technology and have your ideas heard.

The Job

We are looking for a user experience designer who wants to be part of the development of several Multi-touch applications. As it is such a small team, ideally you would be competent at all stages of the lifecycle. That’s including the technical skills required to produce wireframe versions of your designs which our technical team will then flesh out. You need to have an intuitive understanding of traditional and non-traditional User Interface design, but most importantly vision.

Responsibilities

* Create intuitive user interfaces for a range of multi-touch/multi-user applications
* Design attractive resources which help reinforce the “Wow” factor
* Ensure the excitement and novelty of the user interface carries on through to a consistent and satisfying user experience
* Minimizing  the amount of user training required while making the interface fun to use
* Provide insights and creative ideas to solve problems
* Design, code, test the skeleton of the interface
* Work alongside the team in order to develop the complete solution
* Provide requirements documents, functional specifications, user interface designs, testing plans and high level documentation.

Essential Requirements

* Multimedia Graphic Design skills (you will be creating user interfaces from scratch, many of the associated resources will have to be created as you go along)
* Strong knowledge of Flash and CSS
* Ability to build wireframes
* At least 2 years proven success as a User Experience Designer
* Ability to effectively communicate with the team
* Must be able to work under tight timeframes

Desirable Requirements

* Knowledge of ActionScript 3 development with Flash/Flex

Sharpe Recruitment is a North East based consultancy, dedicated to placing professionals in rewarding jobs throughout the North of England across a variety of disciplines including Digital Media, Creative Advertising, Sales & Marketing, PR, IT and Business Operations.

If you are interested in the advertised position please apply by contacting Sharpe Recruitment.

They have developed a prototype platform and some sample applications and are now looking to take the solutions to market. If you were to join them now, you would be joining at the ground level with a small and dynamic team.

This is an excellent opportunity for a hard worker to skip a few rungs on the career ladder as well as play with some cool new technology and have your ideas heard.

The Job

We are looking for a Flash/Flex Actionscript Developer who wants to be part of the development of several Multi-touch applications. As it is such a small team, ideally you would be competent at all stages of the lifecycle. That’s including the technical skills required to integrate the front end design with the backend C++ platform utilising your strong Actionscript development skills.

Responsibilities

* Assist in the development and launch of a range of multi-touch/multi-user applications
* Provide insights and creative ideas to solve problems
* Code and test the front end of the applications
* Work alongside the team in order to develop the complete solution
* Provide requirements documents, functional specifications, testing plans and high level documentation.

Essential Requirements

* Strong knowledge of ActionScript 3 and CSS with Flash/Flex Flash
* Understanding of User Experience Design and its importance within the development process
* At least 1 years proven experience as a Flash developer
* A relevant degree in Multimedia Development or Computer Science, covering Actionscript development
* Ability to effectively communicate with the team
* Must be able to work under tight timeframes

Desirable Requirements

* Multimedia Graphic Design skills
* Ability to design user interfaces
* User Experience Design skills
* Ability to build wireframes from designs
* Knowledge of Flash design as well as development

Sharpe Recruitment is a North East based consultancy, dedicated to placing professionals in rewarding jobs throughout the North of England across a variety of disciplines including Digital Media, Creative Advertising, Sales & Marketing, PR, IT and Business Operations.

If you are interested in the advertised position please apply by contacting Sharpe Recruitment.

This is a great opportunity for an ambitious Web Developer who specialises in Microsoft technologies. 
You’ll sit at the heart of a small, new technical team, which is being recruited and built from the ground up within an existing, award winning and well established creative marketing agency in the heart of Newcastle.

Required Knowledge

* ASP.Net
* C#
* CSS
* XHTML
* Ajax
* SQL
* Javascript
* jQuery

Desirable Knowledge

* Paypal API
* Wordpress implementation
* E-commerce development
* CMS development
* A clear understanding of the key principles of professional SEO within the context of highest end website development (though you will not be optimising websites)
* A clear understanding of web accessibility standards within the context of highest end website development
* AJAX / SOAP / XML
* Technical Documentation
* Flash ActionScript
* PHP and MySQL

Personal Skills

* A strong desire to learn and a passion for software development.
* The ability to not only follow direction, but to be pro-active in your attitude towards work.
* The ability to research and overcome any technical problems you may have as well as being able to teach yourself when needed.
* Good communication skills, especially when in the very rare times that things may not be going perfectly.

You must have at least 1-2 years commercial experience and a related degree.

During the interview process, you will be required to demonstrate your skills. This may also require you to do a small project at home.

Sharpe Recruitment is a North East based consultancy, dedicated to placing professionals in rewarding jobs throughout the region across a variety of disciplines including Digital Media, Creative Advertising, Sales & Marketing, PR, IT and Business Operations.

If you are interested in the advertised position please apply by emailing your CV to laura@sharperecruitment.co.uk and we will be in touch shortly with regards to your suitability for the role.