Skills Matter, the developer conference organiser, has gone into administration, CEO and founder Wendy Devolder has confirmed.
The company – which puts on nearly 2,000 talks, tech meetups, hackathons, expert workshops and conferences every year – has a membership base of over 160,000 and has been sponsored by Google and IBM, among others.
Skills Matter describes itself as “one of Europe’s largest software engineering communities”. Founded in 2003, it ran a huge range of events at its “CodeNode” venue near Moorgate: the UK’s largest venue dedicated to technology events.
Describing herself as “very sorry and very sad”, Devolder broke the news on Twitter today, to a string of shocked, regretful, and grateful (for her efforts running the community network) reactions across the developer community.
Sorry to hear that 😟@skillsmatter were the first to give room to new technologies like @ApacheGroovy and @grailsframework.
Thanks for all you've done through the years.— Guillaume Laforge (@glaforge) November 4, 2019
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Administrators ReSolve Advisory Limited appointed Mark Supperstone and Ben Woodthorpe on October 28 to try and find a buyer for the company.
They said Skills Matter “delivers a networking platform for technology creators, adopters and companies to share the latest technology insights, experience and skills to accelerate the development of new technologies.
“It also co-ordinates a variety of premium technology workshops, lectures, seminars and peer events within a dedicated venue in London.”
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Describing it as “an established brand in the market, partnering with various global organisations” ReSolve said it is “currently seeking to establish interest in purchasing the business and assets.”
Final offers are requested by 3pm, Tuesday November 5, 2019.
Digital Security Exchange Nexthash said it is investing £2.5 million of growth capital in Skills Matter and taking a minority stake in the business just six weeks ago. Computer Business Review has contacted Nexthash for comment.
Devolder said: “I’m going to need a few days and weeks to reflect and process what happened, and would need years to thank everyone, all the amazing people who made us what we were. But in the meantime I wanted everyone to know as soon as possible.
“If you are a client and need more information, Administrators ReSolve Advisory Limited will be in touch soon I believe, and I am sure will share more details soon.”
It was not immediately clear how many upcoming events are likely to be hit by the news. The company has 79 employees listed on LinkedIn. “If anyone on our team was special to you, please give them a reference on their LinkedIn” the CEO said.
ReSolve was appointed Administrators of @skillsmatter
on 31st October 2019. If you are interested in this opportunity please contact us for further information: https://t.co/Cu9VSpGMeX pic.twitter.com/ZFl5Pfncbp— ReSolve (@resolvegroupuk) November 4, 2019
Header image credit: https://www.flickr.com/people/mlcastle/
