At SitePodium we can look back on an eventful but fortunately also a successful year. We could express that in numbers; the number of projects, the number of downloads, the number of new customers. We will omit those numbers for the time being and will keep them for an internal evaluation meeting.
We are most proud of the people around us who in 2020 made an effort to share their knowledge and experiences with others. The people who, despite all the challenges of this year, did not give up and rolled up their sleeves. These are our Top Influencers of 2020!
Joel Fredericks
Towards the end of 2019, we were introduced to academic researcher, community engagement practitioner and urban planner Joel Fredericks. Joel has a decade of experience under his belt as a consultant on a range of community and infrastructure projects in local government, road, rail, water, telecommunications and energy sectors.
As we had just entered Australian territory with SitePodium, the importance of understanding the Community Engagement sector and the market needs of this new territory started to become eminent. In Joel we immediately found a knowledgeable partner with a really kind spirit and a great personality.
Intrigued by his Masterclass Series around Pop-up Engagement, we asked Joel if he was willing to deliver a session to our Dutch clients in January 2020. It was a huge success, especially because of the interactive parts that Joel had in store for all participants.
Jesper van der Heiden
The story of how we met the next influencer starts over 30,000 feet in the air and eventually led us to London via Slovakia.
In an airplane one of SitePodium’s founders Paul Frankenhuizen meets fellow Dutchman Jesper van der Heiden. Jesper has then been working for Slovakian developer J&T Real Estate already for some time. Paul tells Jesper about the international ambitions of SitePodium, the international version of our originally Dutch community platform “De BouwApp”. Jesper immediately sees opportunities for our platform at a large-scale complex in London that J&T Real Estate is developing.
What follows is the start of a great collaboration that leads to an interesting interview where Jesper talks extensively about Community Engagement at our neighbours on the other side of the North Sea.
Paul Browne
Our UK story continues through Jesper when he introduces us to Paul Browne. With close to 20 years of experience in communications in the built environment, Paul was chosen by J&T Real Estate to be responsible for community engagement around Triptych Bankside; the first UK project to adopt SitePodium.
Paul becomes an avid proponent of SitePodium and helps us secure another London project he is responsible for; Appleby Blue Almshouse. Paul’s exceptional networking skills and hands-on mentality are an excellent fit with our drive to expand our UK presence.
Always keen on sharing his knowledge with others, Paul agrees to an interview where he talks about the trends and developments that are shaping the industry.
Bang the Table
In 2019, during a conference in London, we have an encounter that would eventually lead to the launch of an important partnership in 2020.
At the Consultation and Stakeholder Engagement for Infrastructure Conference in London we meet Ray Scanlan. Ray has been paramount in launching Bang the Table, a leading Online Public Involvement and Consultation Platform that originated in Australia, into the UK. Through Ray we are introduced to other key players in the organization such as co-founder Matthew Crozier, CTO Karthik Reddy and Senior Product Manager – Marketplace Johannes Kresling.
Further talks, a like-mindedness in our visions and great compatibility among both our people lead to the announcement of a partnership in July 2020. A partnership we plan to extend in 2021, so stay tuned!
