Sunderland Software City, the organisation that exists to generate and promote a sustainable, world class software industry in the North East of England, is moving to a brand new, state-of-the-art building next to Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens called ‘Software City’.
Just a few minutes walk from Sunderland Metro station and the main shopping streets, Software City is a stunning new building situated on the corner between Toward Road and Tavistock Place, overlooking the beautiful Mowbray Park Victorian gardens.
The new building is really impressive, with several ground floor event spaces (including one with a reinforced floor designed with car launches by nearby Nissan in mind), a range of different sized offices and a co-working space for freelancers and startups to use on a drop-in or membership basis.
The large atrium and reception area will have wi-fi throughout making it an inviting place to work and hold informal meetings with clients, but there are also private meeting rooms available including one with ‘white board walls’ that will record what you wrote on them and allow you to load it back up again at a later date! There’s also a small cinema room, a breakout room complete with beanbags and another with a one-way mirror for businesses to use to watch and film focus groups of people using their products or services.
The large, open plan room in the far left hand corner of the ground floor is to be a co-working space that will provide easy access, low-cost deskspace for individuals or teams with innovative new ideas for a startup. Inspired by places like TechHub, Google Campus and White Bear Yard in London, it’s expected that this will be available to use on a daily (pay-on-the-door), monthly or annual membership basis.
I’ve been extremely impressed with Sunderland Software City in the short time I’ve known them (particularly their Chief Executive, David Dunn who is full of ideas and enthusiasm for the North East tech scene). So if you’re an individual, new startup or existing software business looking for world class support to help you grow, I recommend you contact the team at info@sunderlandsoftwarecity.com, call them on 0845 872 8575 and/or Follow them on Twitter @SunSoftCity
You can also see more photos of Software City and listen to short interviews with David Dunn on the new Betarocket website at http://www.betarocket.co.uk/2012/08/26/who-would-live-in-a-house-like-this/