GuyKat CEO Named in List of Top Techies
GuyKat founder Guy McEvoy has been named as one of the 25 most influential tech people in the Midlands. The list was compiled for publication in the newly released December issue of Insider Magazine. Guy said; "To see me listed with the leaders of companies such as Bet365 and Codemasters or an original investor in Candy Crush is a mark of how far we've come. The recognition is nice. But only if we continue to do what we're doing - disrupting the learning technology market, maybe in a couple of years I'll feel like I've really earned my place."
GuyKat at Dublin WebSummit
GuyKat was represented at this year’s WebSummit in Dublin, attending with a number of other companies from the Birmingham area. The event gathers over 30,000 attendees from across the tech industry. It’s an eclectic mixture of start-ups, established companies and investors. GuyKat’s CEO Guy McEvoy said; “There’s always a buzz around these events, and it’s easy to get swept up in the hype about the ‘next big thing’. For me though, it was disappointing there wasn’t more innovation in learning technology on show. Our industry should be a poster child for this kind of event, but to me it felt under represented. Next time, I hope GuyKat will take a lead in changing that. We’ve a couple of side projects ready to kick-off and we may well be showing them off at next years event in Lisbon.” Watch this space.
GuyKat WIN Digital Technology Award!
The GuyKat team took centre stage last night as they scooped the Digital Technology prize at the Insider Midlands International Trade Awards 2015. Managing Director, Guy McEvoy, said; “We're thrilled to get this recognition that our growth is being driven by heavy-weight global clients. I'm chuffed for the whole team who've put in a lot of work. I can only sell our work overseas because their work is truly of international standard".
BBC correspondent, Dave Harvey, kicked off the event at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole, which showcased some of the excellent work undertaken by businesses in the Midlands area. We also offer congratulations to our friends at Ultraseal and Portmeirion who were named as the region's leading exporters in their respective fields.
GuyKat Secures £200k For 2016 Growth
GuyKat's founder today outlined a £200,000 plan to grow the business through 2016. CEO Guy McEvoy said; "This investment allows us to accelerate our phased recruitment plans and build on last year's success. We are creating roles for instructional design, creative media, web technologies and our first apprentices. We've already brought on board David Brannon who is an experienced instructional designer to bolster our team as the first hire under this plan. We're also going to be far more aggressive in our marketing in the coming year. Our clients can expect to see an increased presence at the major learning technology events. Additionally, we are exploring a speculative project in the healthcare sector that we hope to kick-off in Q4."
The investment includes £50,000 pounds of funding from HM Government's Regional Growth Fund through the Birmingham Post Growth Fund in Partnership with Bournville College. The remainder of the funds are from retained profit and Director loans.
GuyKat Supports Veterans Football
For the second year GuyKat Solutions was proud to lend support to the 'Everton Veterans' football team playing at the 'Worldnet Big Tam Veterans Tournament' at Weetwood near Leeds. The tournament attracts teams from across the UK and some international entries. This year Everton had a great showing in the league on the Saturday coming second in their group, but lost out to 'Arsenal Nigeria' one-nil in the first round of the knockout stages on the Sunday. Well done to those who took part and all the other supporters who made the journey to Leeds to lend support.
GuyKat Posts Record Results
The GuyKat team have filed their annual accounts for 2014 and are pleased to report a increase in revenues of 119% year on year. Operating profits were also up by more than double. Full details are available upon request to our key financial stakeholders.
Managing Director, Guy McEvoy, said; "Last year's great results gave us the means to invest in the new office space. Our challenge now into 2015/16 is to keep the momentum, and grow our team without any sacrifice to quality to our existing clients. We aim to reinvest this profit in our ambitious growth plan and bring more jobs to Birmingham."
Aston University Awards Fellowship to GuyKat Founder
GuyKat founder Guy McEvoy is proud to have been awarded a Visiting Industrial Fellowship by Aston University. Guy was one of a small number of Alumni of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Programme recognised for the contribution made across the university to the understanding, experience and awareness of business growth and entrepreneurship. The award was made at a dinner event held at Opus Restaurant, Cornwall Street, Birmingham on 3rd June, 2015, attended by Professor Mark Hart, Professor of Small Business and Entrepreneurship and Programme Director of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Midlands programme and Professor George Feiger, Executive Dean, Aston Business School.
Professor George Feiger said: “These entrepreneurial business leaders are making a great contribution to the work of Aston Business School and in fostering relationships between the small business community and Aston University”.
Guy McEvoy said: "I'm chuffed with this award. I gained a lot from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program and feel I've made a real connection with Aston University and Business School. Our offices literally border the University Campus so it's nice to have this formal connection. We've been lucky to recruit some great grads from Aston and look forward to developing our relationship going forward."
Office Expansion Signals Growth For GuyKat
GuyKat Solutions has moved into a larger office at the Innovation Birmingham Campus in order to double the size of the team in 2015.
The rapid expansion is being driven by new contracts from four blue-chip multinationals. Guy McEvoy, Managing Director of GuyKat Solutions said: “We popped up on people’s radar when our work with Mondelez’ European marketing team was shortlisted for ‘best eLearning Project in The Private Sector’ at our industry’s awards. The timing was great, online training delivery is booming. More and more global companies are seeing how our technology can slash L&D budgets, compress roll-out schedules and free-up employee time without any compromise to people development objectives. We’re trying to redefine people’s reaction to eLearning. The learner feedback is great. People enjoy our training.”
“Many of our programmes are being rolled out across Europe and beyond – to a total of 42 countries in the last year. Without seeking to be so, we have become a small ‘multi-national’. More than 50 per cent of our revenue comes from overseas. As well as continuing to expand our portfolio of global customers, we’d love to win some work closer to home. We’re actively seeking interested Midlands based companies. Most companies probably grow the other way around.”
GuyKat’s approach to all projects is to work as an instructional design and technology partner with the in-house subject experts. The company focus is on rapid production and deployment of content without compromise to quality.
The job opportunities that will be created before the end of 2015 are in digital media, Web technology and instructional design.
GuyKat Founder Speaking at US Conference
GuyKat will be represented at this year's Learning Solutions Conference and Expo in Orlando, Florida (Mar 23-26). Our Founder, Guy McEvoy will be speaking at the conference on the subject of building animation in eLearning using Adobe Captivate. The talk is at 1pm on Thursday. If you're at the conference please drop-by. Alternatively, if you want a dedicated discussion then please feel free to reach out directly, easiest ways to connect are either to email info@guykat.com else DM @guykat on Twitter. You can find out more about the event by clicking here
GuyKat and Docebo at Learning Technologies
A big thank you to everybody who stopped by to say hello at the 2015 Learning Technologies show at Olympia in London. Over the two days we met with around 150 representatives of organisations from across the world. We're only sorry that due to the sheer volume of interest we weren't able to spend all the time showcasing the brilliant Docebo LMS product that we would have liked to with everyone who attended. If anyone we met, or anyone who missed the show, would like to find out more about our offering please do feel free to get in touch by emailing docebo@guykat.com and we'll be very happy to arrange a follow-up call.