Opening a London office was an important milestone for us, so we wanted to celebrate it in the best way possible to mark our continuous growth. For the occasion, we held a gala presentation in the ever-bustling British metropolis and opened the door for other Croatian companies to enter the robust UK tech market worth over $1 trillion.
Q’s New Office in London
Q’s new office in London is situated at The Office Group (TOG) in London’s Borough Yards. With things returning to normal in the UK post-Covid-19 restrictions, we weren’t able to celebrate it the proper way until recently. Now that the masks had fallen, it was time to throw the party not just anywhere, and not just in any location, but in the heart of London and the tallest building in the United Kingdom and one of the tallest skyscrapers in Europe — The Shard.
Since it’s one of the most iconic buildings in London and situated in the same neighborhood as our office, Southwark, we decided that no other location for the event would be better than The Shard. This 300+ meter tower of glass and steel was the perfect place for us to hold a gathering for our clients and friends, as it, with its size and symbolism, represents the modern era of a modern city, which London certainly is.
Over 100 people attended the event, and among them were the representatives of UK companies with whom we’ve been collaborating for a while now. To name a few, we had guests from BBC, The Times, Smart Pension, RVU, and Money.co.uk.
In addition to our existing partners and their representatives, the event was attended by guests from other companies, whether global or UK, to which we wanted to present Q. For example, IBS Software, State Street, OysterVP, Pathfinder VP, and Lloyds Bank, to name a few.
Journalists from the UK and Croatia also attended the whole event. Two of the finest Croatian tech analysts and journalists, Bojan Muscet and Dragan Petric (Executive Editor at Bug), flew to London from Croatia, whereas regarding British journalists, we had the honor to host journalists such as Jasmine Birtles, BBC’s finance journalist, and Alice Dogruyol, Daily Mail’s columnist and PR Executive, as well as journalists from the Drum.
Event Programme
The distinguished guest who opened our Office Launch was the Croatian Ambassador to the UK, Igor Pokaz, who introduced us to the fantastic evening ahead with his speech.
The Launch started at 6 pm, and after the welcome drink and canapés, our founders Filip, Vedran, and Dalibor gave speeches about how they founded the company, what Q is, how we work, and what our culture is like.
Vedran Tolic, one of our Founders and Chief Business Officer, followed by presenting who we and our customers are, what we do, our core strengths, and the recognition and awards we’ve been awarded.
Themed ‘Why Here Why Now‘? I explained how Q is poised to take advantage of the market opportunity presented by this $1trillion valuation.
I presented why I joined Q. More importantly, I explained how we want to combine our exceptional nearshore talent and capability with onshore talent in the UK to help our customers and prospects alike achieve better business outcomes using our Q Symphony Methodology to deliver new products and services.
Too many agencies focus on just building software. That’s a race to the bottom we’re not interested in being part of. Instead, we’re passionate about being long-term innovation partners in partnership with our customers. Therefore, the position and impact we want to accomplish are specifically to help our customers overachieve in every way possible.
“The Shard Event was amazing, a fabulous array of people with different views on Technology. I’m really enjoying working with an Agency with a similar culture to ourselves, who strive to work hard and play hard and achieve the best outcomes for their clients.”
Rai Eastham, The Times
Following my presentation, Filip Ljubic, our CEO gave a very personal account of how he, Dalibor and Vedran came together to found Q and why the name Q.
He also went into some detail about why Croatia is a great place to source digital talent from a location perspective. UK companies can take advantage of Croatia’s engineering skills, western culture and mindset, English proficiency, and the fact that the country is a top tourist destination with great connectivity. He concluded by asserting that Croatia is the best thing since sliced bread. We think Game of Thrones and the Dalmatian Coast is a definite proof of that!
After the Founders’ Story, our longtime partners held their client testimonials. The representative of Money.co.uk was their CEO, Bojan Radlovic, whereas Smart Pension was represented by their Engineering Manager, Karina Kajelova.
On behalf of The Times spoke Lewis Buttress, their Product Director. We would also like to use this opportunity to thank our esteemed guests and partners who shared with over 100 people what it’s like to work with us.
The star of the most famous Wimbledon final in history, Goran Ivanisevic, was the special guest of the evening. Initially, Goran was supposed to talk in person, but unfortunately, he couldn’t attend the Launch — being the official coach of Novak Djokovic, he had to go to Monaco instead. He did, however, connect via video call and hold a speech, and even that was enough for Goran to make us laugh and entertain us with his charisma and inspiring stories that he’s so well-known for around the globe.
Throughout the evening, we had our sommelier Matt who was in charge of wines and wine tasting. Since Croatia abounds in beautiful hills and delicious wines, we did not miss the opportunity to present them either. So we were toasting all evening with Croatian wines Alba and Grimalda by the Matosevic winery.
To keep the party going, we put Old Pilots Gin into action! The gin, just like the wines — also made in Croatia, was more than successful in keeping the atmosphere warm, but that doesn’t surprise us considering that it was awarded a Gold Medal in San Francisco World’s Spirits Competition last year. We continued the after-party at Redwood Sports Pub and Kitchen opposite the Shard. Even with the change of venue, a lot of our guests stayed and partied with us until Redwood closed.
We’re Open for Business in London
In summary, this event served the following purpose. Officially launching our London Office, this was an informal evening to thank our customers and an opportunity for customers, prospects, business partners, and the press to get to meet the founders and our team.
For a lot of businesses, the pandemic mandated us to work remotely and greatly reduced social interactions that are time-proven ways of building deeper business relationships. We’re proud that in spite of the pandemic, our customers and Q have achieved impressive growth and delivered new products and services together.
With the opening of our London office, we expect to grow our footprint in the UK and continue to deliver innovative products and services that deliver business outcomes for our UK Clients.
Feel free to reach out to us at hello@q.agency if you’re looking for an agency that will help you reach your business outcomes faster.
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ABOUT AUTHOR
Michael Fasosin
