C4DI Northallerton
C4DI Northallerton is an exciting new digital hub focused on helping tech companies grow and traditional businesses innovate within the agriculture, food processing and digital sectors.
Unique to C4DI’s model is the way in which traditional business is brought together with fast tech startups and scaleups through custom innovation programmes and startup incubation. This gives the traditional business access to skills and expertise it never knew it needed and gives tech companies unrivalled supply chain and mentor access.
One of the best things about the C4DI is the community of talented people it creates. From designers to hardware specialists, technologists, marketeers and developers, everyone works together to help businesses become more successful.
It is based on the district council’s new Treadmills development where the former Northallerton prison is being redeveloped into a centre for retail, business and leisure.
What is C4di? What does it do?
Since C4DI was established in Hull the team has worked with local businesses across the city and the UK delivering value-packed results.
C4DI’s work is focused on three main areas:
-
Growing a Thriving Tech Community
Our community contains specialists, digital technology experts, cutting edge freelancers and startups as well as companies that are keen to stay abreast of digital trends and access skills and expertise they would not normally come across.
Our iconic new building sits at the heart of what we hope will be an ecosystem being used weekly by a growing community for its co-working, meeting, and collaboration space.
-
Helping Traditional Organisations Innovate
We help traditional organisations innovate by helping to re-orientate client’s thinking and providing wide-ranging technical input as required. We have a track record of helping clients deliver projects that have accelerated and grown their businesses by using the skills and expertise of other C4DI members.
-
Helping Startups and Scaleups Grow
Our startup incubation helps a small, focused group of fast-track high-growth startups through a process that develops robust and globally connected businesses, bringing together funding, supply chain access and mentorship from experienced tech entrepreneurs.
Central to the work of the C4DI team is helping businesses and organisations innovate and grow by using technology more effectively. This can be through a number of different areas - and they thrive on being presented with a challenge
Our success stories include:
- Advising on any aspect of technology including data, applications, communication, software and hardware to ensure innovation is at the heart of business.
- Identifying emerging technologies that will affect your future as a company, either in creating new opportunities or by your competitors - adopting tools which could take some of your market.
- Carrying out a technology audit of your business, looking at strengths and areas for focus and improvement.
- Developing business intelligence tools and dashboards giving you insight into how to make better decisions
- Exploring potential for technology orientated solutions with rapid-prototyping, testing, reiteration and deployment.
- Providing access to a pool of experts across all areas of technology when you need specialist advice for a one-off project or a short period of time, exploring new uses of technology to strengthen your position in the market.
C4DI Northallerton
There is no question that technology and innovation lie at the heart of every business. C4DI membership allows access to a unique community of talented businesses - and people who can accelerate the innovation within their business - as well as providing a perfect environment for team members to work and collaborate.
Membership brings a wealth of benefits, not least working alongside technology professionals and startups which encourage that entrepreneurial way of working - fast prototyping, identifying disruptive opportunities and always looking ahead of the mainstream markets to ensure companies can innovate and not get left behind.
C4DI Northallerton, offers many benefits including:
- Developing connections to help you learn more about tech and to help you innovate and grow
- Developing relationships with experts who can help solve business problems using tech
- Regular meetups which provide an opportunity to learn about tech innovation and how you might use it to help your businesses
- Ability to tap into a wealth of connections to services, partners and talented individuals
- A range of unique memberships from individual to corporate
- High speed fibre and connectivity
- Being part of a digital community
- Mentoring
- Working from an amazing space, designed to give you inspiration
Digital skills and services are key to the future of North Yorkshire’s market towns – which is recognised in the recently released York and North Yorkshire LEP Future Towns report. We are grateful that the digital hub was granted £1.8m from the Local Growth Fund, awarded by the LEP to assist with the refurbishment and fit out of the former female wing of the prison. This has enabled this historic building to find a fresh, vibrant and productive role in the future of the town.
Treadmills
The Treadmills site is an xciting project and one that Hambleton District Council is extremely proud of. The Central Northallerton Development Company - of which Hambleton District Council is a partner - is determined to deliver a high quality mixed use development of retail, restaurants, cinema, cafés, C4DI Northallerton and an E-Campus.
Leader of Hambleton District Council, Councillor Mark Robson, said seeing Treadmills taking shape so quickly is exciting not just for Northallerton but the whole of the Hambleton district. “We are creating new leisure and workspaces – people will come here not just to work but to socialise and shop, boosting the economy of our district,” he said.
“C4DI will keep our tech talent local and stem the brain drain from the area. It will also create a cluster of digital expertise to support local economic growth, especially through the development of agri-tech products, services and applications.”
This is once in a multi-generation opportunity to deliver what the population of Northallerton and the wider Hambleton District want but also to help safeguard the future prosperity of the town, which includes an E-Campus on the site.
The one-of-a-kind Treadmills project represents a £17 million investment in the site, including the refurbishment of five, 200-year-old buildings in the heart of North Yorkshire by leading Yorkshire developer Wykeland.
Jonathan Stubbs, development director of Wykeland commented: “This new C4DI space will foster creativity and innovation for many local businesses; it’s therefore critical to create a working environment that is agile, collaborative and inspiring. Chameleon Business Interiors is delivering interior design, office fit-out and furnishing services to redevelop the original 1820 prison into a workspace that tells the story of the buildings’ unique history. Chameleon understands our vision and having worked with them many times before, we know the new C4DI will have the wow factor that growing, ambitious businesses are looking for.” The scheme is due to complete by the end of the year.
