When I returned home to Dorset from London eight years ago to begin life as a freelancer I was interested to see what the digital industry was like in the South West. I  wanted to get an impression of its maturity and to understand which agencies I might like to work with if the opportunity arose.

On a recent train journey I was playing around on my laptop and came across the original agency list I made back in 2002. It was really interesting not only to see how the list has changed over the years, which companies are still around and how they have matured, but also to see how much the local industry as a whole has evolved and how many more businesses have sprung up over the years.

Local agency list 2002

Local agency list 2010

At the time I was surprised by how many agencies there were in the area but the same time puzzled by the lack of community surrounding it, something completely alien to me having started my career in London. It seemed to be a view shared by others too. With the aid of Wayne Medhurst at Intunet and others we came close to setting something up but alas it never materialised.

In retrospect, I doubt the industry was strong enough at the time to support a regular event and without social tools such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin it would have been almost impossible to spread the word.

With the fifth Meetdraw less than a month away (18th March) It’s great to see how much stronger the local industry now is. Hopefully Meetdraw will continue to grow this year and along with other events such as Bournemouth Barcamp, OpenWeb Southampton, and Dorset Design Forum it’ll help to sustain the community for the forseeable future.

If you represent a local agency and I’ve missed you off the list feel free to add a comment below

Meetdraw 5: So Meety is being held at Bar So on Thursday 18th March from 6:30pm. Everyone is welcome whether you work for an agency, in-house team, freelance or currently studying so please join us for a drink.