I’m a Manchester-based former tech reporter who has swapped writing stories for writing code.
Inspired by interviewing digital leaders and working as part of the Digital City Festival team, I decided to retrain as a software developer and transition towards a tech career.
I’m passionate about harnessing new technologies to improve processes, sales, and empower learning through interaction. As new problems arise, for any business or body, I believe tech will be a fundamental part of the right solution.
The same desire that drew me towards reporting - the ability to make a real difference - has now taken me towards wanting to build useful software and web apps. On this site, I will profile the different projects I’ve worked on and share anything else of note.
Outside of the text editor, I’m an avid basketball fan, vinyl enthusiast, and have been fortunate enough to travel all over the United States and elsewhere. My most exciting journey still lies ahead of me - continuous learning and development in the tech space…
For a final group project on my coding bootcamp, three others and I collaborated on a mobile app that allows friends to form digital activity clubs where they can share and discuss their work. It's an online, pandemic-proof, version of a photography club where people can partake in a variety of photography challenges as a group.
A password-protected web app for my friends and I to use for our weekly album listening club. Built with React, the platform uses Firebase for a database and password auth, and Cypress for testing. This app is in use by my friends who take turns suggesting albums that we all listen to, and then submit reviews for. Further developments planned.
A shared passion for the NBA led myself and one other Northcoders student to create a working NBA General Manager game which requires the user to sign a certain number of players to a roster without breaching the salary cap. Built using React, every in-game decision automatically updates the user's financial statistics. Many more improvements planned.
Focusing on Object-Oriented Programming, I recreated the beginning of one of my childhood's most epic adventures. This homage to the first Pokemon Games can be run through the command line (Inquirer.js) and allows the user to personalise their game experience in various ways.
Here you can find interviews that I've conducted with icons of Manchester's tech scene. Some were written when promoting Manchester's first ever Digital City Festival - a week-long gathering of tech, e-commerce, marketing and media businesses.
I plan to continue creating written content to compliment my technical development learning, and hopefully to help others. Please feel free to give any feedback in the form at the bottom of this page.
MediaCityUK rose to fame as a content-production complex when the BBC moved staff and programmes up North in order to diversify back in 2011. But now, as a cornerstone for the tech-focused Salford region, it’s emerging as the country’s exemplar smart city.
Social Chain is one of the biggest social-tech companies in the country, joining the likes of Unilad and LADbible as the country’s online media giants. “It’s amazing to see that these companies started here in Manchester,” according to Katy Leeson.
Growing a company can be tricky business. Áine McTiernan, who heads up PwC’s Scale programmes in the North of England, talks about her love for fast-moving startup culture, working with founders, and the right conditions needed for startups to thrive…
Northern cities are growing in confidence and what we need now is a concerted effort to collaborate effectively, says Stuart Clarke, Director of Leeds Digital. He talks about the beauty of community events, and why ‘Northern exiles’ living in London should consider moving back.
But what about you? Feel free to reach out for whatever reason by filling out the form below.
