Skills Matter, the London-based developer conference and training organiser, has found a new investor four months after being forced to call in administrators.
It is set to relaunch this month, with an “increased focus on skills transfer”, in welcome news for the UK’s burgeoning developer community.
The company previously put on nearly 2,000 talks, tech meetups, hackathons, workshops and conferences every year, many at its “CodeNode” near Moorgate.
Despite a membership base of over 160,000 and previous sponsorship by Google and IBM, among others, it was unable to meet its commitments late last year.
ReSolve Advisory Limited appointed Mark Supperstone and Ben Woodthorpe on October 28 to try and find a buyer for the company. October 28, 2019.
New Skills Matter CEO Frank Rodorigo
Skills Matter: A Frank Intervention
A new venture, the Quad4 Group, led by Frank Rodorigo — the co-founder of Valtech USA, a digital agency — has stepped in to revive the company.
The group has support from Scott Conley, former CSO of ThoughtWorks and fellow Valtech USA co-founder, Chris Tarr, who previously co-founded and was CTO of Expede, Inc., a software consulting and training firm.
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A separate sale of the CodeNode division of the business took place on Wednesday 29th January, ReSolve confirmed.
“This includes a transfer of the lease to the CodeNode conference venue — the largest specialist tech conference venue in London — and sale of selected IT and AV equipment to CodeNode Space & Events, a Trifork Group company. Trifork is one of the original investors in CodeNode”
“The new company will have an increased focus on skills transfer and will be shepherded by a core team of familiar faces — including Wendy Devolder, who will serve as Skills Matter’s Chief Community Officer”, Skills Matter said.
I am very happy to share that @skillsmatter has found new owners in @Quad4Group, who aim to relaunch Skills Matter soon, to provide continuous learning for and with its community of technology creators and adopters. https://t.co/ZPwQFpyUal
— 𝚠𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚢 𝚍𝚎𝚟𝚘𝚕𝚍𝚎𝚛 (@wendydevolder) February 5, 2020
Devolder said: “We have always believed in the power of community, and never more so than over these past two months. We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from the community and cannot wait to reconnect so we can thank everyone in person. We have some big announcements in the works so please stay tuned in the coming weeks as we embark on this next stage of our adventure.”
She added: Our first priority is to get SkillsCast videos and skillsmatter.com back online, and aim to relaunch many of the Skills Matter community events, expert-led talks, meetups, courses and conferences soon after.”
