Could Aberdeen Become Scotland’s Next Tech Hub?

Looking back now, this post captured a moment when Aberdeen was starting to think seriously about what might come after oil and gas.

At the time, Scotland’s tech industry felt exciting, fast-growing, and heavily concentrated around Edinburgh, Dundee, and Glasgow.

I remember wondering whether Aberdeen could reinvent itself as part of that technology shift.

So is Aberdeen missing out on the tech industry boom?

Scotland’s Growing Tech Industry

The tech industry in Scotland is reported to be worth £5 Billion! The bulk of this is scooped up by Edinburgh, Dundee, and Glasgow... Skyscanner, FanDuel, and FreeAgent plus more in Edinburgh, the Thriving Games industry in Dundee, and a new Tech hub in Glasgow.

There is a real buzz right now around tech companies and startups.

Is Aberdeen being left behind and missing out? Aberdeen could do with a boost at this time. In 2016 Scotland employed 84,000 people in tech. And this year there is even more demand. There was huge demand for developers and digital skills at the time, especially around web and mobile technologies.

Could Aberdeen Compete?

What does Aberdeen need to do to get more of a share? It doesn't need any natural resources (sorry oil!) it doesn't need to be geographically located anywhere. It doesn't need a huge investment, It doesn't even need good weather and sun.

It needs clever people, space, and ideas. We have the people, We have plenty of space (the shiny new Aberdeen International Business Park is two-thirds empty), And ideas that are free.

So what is being done in Aberdeen to get more into this tech boom.

We have the Business Gateway and its elevator program. A brilliant scheme. There is also talk of a Grey Matters program to get business folk together and identify and create new businesses. There are tech meetups including the Entrepreneurs Club.

CodeClan, Startups, and New Opportunities

I met this week with the guys from CodeClan who were up north on a jolly to Aberdeen to see if there is a demand for people wanting to learn to code. They met with potential employee partners (who need coding graduates) and potential students (skilled people let down by oil looking to retrain). Putting the two together makes so much sense.

I mentioned CivTech North, something I'm eagerly awaiting to find out more about and what the 8 tech challenges will be from the public sector.

Early Signs of Digital Transformation

I mentioned in my blog last week I have started with Aberdeen City Council. And two weeks in and there is lots of talk of tech there. ACC seems very tech-savvy. I've been in meetings and presentations where Artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, 3D printing, and even robots have been discussed. (Count me in...)

ACC also rolled out last week its new (free) city wifi which covers Union Street and other parts of the city center. A real boost for tech buzz and I am happily uploading this free via the city center scheme as I type.

Imagining a Different Future for Aberdeen

So it would be good to see a CodeClan office opening in Aberdeen city, and possibly a CodeBase like Edinburgh. CodeBase Edinburgh is an old council building filled with tech startups. Aberdeens Code Base needs to be in the center of the city rather than the outskirts. It will give the pubs, restaurants, and shops an added boost of more people in the center, and as the startups flourish (Skyscanner-like) additional premises in the city center can be occupied boosting business further.

I think Aberdeen needs more though.

So come on Aberdeen let's bring some of the £5 billion to the northeast and give Aberdeen an additional business beyond oil and tourism. I for one am trying to be part of it.

Looking Back at Those Predictions

Reading this back now is interesting because many of the themes discussed here did gradually become reality.

Aberdeen has continued investing in digital services, technology, innovation, and diversification beyond oil and gas, although probably more slowly and unevenly than many people hoped in 2017.

What stands out most to me now is the optimism around technology, learning, and the idea that entirely new industries could emerge from periods of uncertainty.

In other news, the first website I created through Udny Solutions went live that week. It was bright, colourful, and aimed at a local playgroup, and at the time I was incredibly proud simply to have built something real for a client.

Another week and ACC's newest Web Developer is finishing his second week and is settling in well

This was all happening shortly after my own decision to retrain and change career through CodeClan.

At the same time I was also rediscovering how much I enjoyed meaningful technical work again in From Meetings Back to Meaningful Work.

Looking back, I was fascinated by how technology, digital services, and new ideas could reshape both careers and entire cities.

Nearly a decade later, I still find myself thinking about many of the same themes — civic technology, digital transformation, automation, accessibility, and how systems can genuinely improve people’s lives.

You can explore more of those reflections and projects throughout the blog here.

Starting My New Life as a Web Developer at Aberdeen City Council

Looking back now, this was one of the moments where my entire career direction genuinely started to change.

After years in engineering and oil and gas, walking into a completely new environment as a web developer felt both exciting and slightly surreal.

At the time, I had no idea how much this role would eventually shape the next decade of my life.

I started on Tuesday at the Marischal College office in the center of Aberdeen. Wow, what a nice place to be. I thought working at the new AIBP office in Dyce would be hard to beat. But I think Marischal College has it by a nose. Super new, clean, open, wired for tech, has great architecture, and is right in the center of town.

The First Morning Felt Like the First Day of School

My first day was a quick drive into the park and ride in Bridge of Don and jump on a bus. I had to laugh as on the bus was a mate from Udny also off to his first morning in his new job. We both had a report time of 9:30, we both had our smart new clothes on, and had our packed lunches and play pieces in our school bags. It was good to pass the time on the first bus ride for a while.

Starting Again in a New Career

It's official, I'm a Web Developer I have signed a year's contract and it says it on my shiny new badge.

I use it to swipe in and out every day and the system automatically tracks my time. Hooray, no more time sheets! no more chasing someone for a cost code! No more having my cost code shut down mid-job! No more justifying to a PM that I need to book a couple of hours on their project having done the work they asked for. It's like a shackle has been removed.

Discovering a Different Working Culture

So what does Web Developer mean in reality? The first couple of days were getting settled in reading and working through presentations, core values, HSE, and the eLearning tutorials. I met hundreds of new people in the department. (all super nice). It's a Hot Desking environment (working from home is encouraged) so it's sitting where you fancy that is free when you come in. Plugin your laptop, log into your phone (I have a real phone again… no more stupid Madonna headphones!). So far so good as you can be sitting with a group of different people every day.

Learning New Technology and Systems

I had been given a new Windows laptop and was quickly readjusting to a different environment after spending a lot of time using Macs during CodeClan.  I need to get the hang of the mouse scrolling in the wrong direction and have the @ symbol in a different location on the keyboard again.

I also have a few interesting applications installed as default which I am keen to see if I get to use. These include Visual Studio 2015, Android SDK tools, and Java Development Kit.

Oh, and one more that made me chuckle is PaintShop Pro... Oh, PaintShop Pro how I have missed you. It was key to drawing graphics for Master Control Station screens many many moons ago. Many an hour I would be there drawing lines in a .BMP files frustrated knowing there were vector graphics packages out there. But hey I may laugh, I have used it already to resize a graphic file.

I have also noticed quite a few of my new colleagues are Trello converts and have a number of Trello boards on the go to manage their tasks and workflows.

So I'm back to using Outlook to organize my work email and calendar.

It's quite refreshing to start with an empty, inbox, empty calendar, and no overdue tasks. I was hoping to set up the same rules linked to developer buttons that I had set up in my last job to manage my inbox. So far I've failed and I think it's because some of Outlook has been locked down. I like a button that runs a rule that moves any read mail that I have not specifically flagged into my archive folder. That way all that is in my inbox is something that is unread or flagged and I need to do something about it. All the rest can go to the archive. I will have another try to set up the rule.

From Engineering Into Web Development

I can’t give specifics on what I'm going to be doing (I'm still figuring it out myself) but I will be helping develop a new website in a team of about 6.

It will be based on Drupal, which is similar to WordPress. I had some experience with WordPress when I created the Hill of Fiddes website a few years ago. It is a CMS which is one of my new TLA or buzzwords I need to remember… Content Management System. It is based on the language PHP (another TLA… Three Letter Acronym), and it will be hosted on Amazon Web services.

I have run through the Code Academy Tutorial on PHP which is a scripting language with similarities to HTML. It runs on the server side of the web interface rather than being in the browser like JavaScript. Oh, and it needs a semicolon at the end of every line. Don’t forget that semicolon!

The new website seems quite a big ask with lots of parts that need to be done. It does however have an MVP for its first release. Thanks, CodeClan if I don’t use the languages you taught me at least you made me aware of the Minimal Viable Product.

Looking Back at the Beginning

Reading this back now is strange because so many of the systems, technologies, and ideas mentioned here eventually became a huge part of my later career.

At the time though, I was simply excited to be learning again, building things again, and working in technology for the first time professionally.

What started as a one-year contract gradually became the foundation for years of work around digital services, accessibility, workflows, automation, and civic technology.

This all came shortly after my decision to retrain and completely change career through CodeClan.

A few weeks later I also reflected on how refreshing it felt to be hands-on and building things again.

Looking back, many of the same themes around digital services, workflows, automation, and civic technology still shape much of the work I do today.

Looking back, this was the beginning of a completely new chapter in my life and career.

What started as excitement about web development gradually evolved into years of work around digital services, workflows, accessibility, automation, and civic technology.

You can explore more of that journey and the projects that followed here.

Building Wooden Robots With Kids Across Aberdeenshire

So I'm starting my new job on Tuesday next week. I'm super excited to move into a new career and see what it's like to be a full-time Web Developer. I need to figure out how to get to the center of Aberdeen from out in the sticks of Udny Station each day. It's either bus all the way or park and rides part of the way. I might have to get my old mountain bike running again and take up cycling part of the way too. Anyway, that's next week.

Looking back now, this post feels like one of the earliest examples of how much I enjoyed combining creativity, making, teaching, and technology.

At the time it simply felt like a fun Udny Designs project with Jamie. But it also reflected something deeper about learning through building things with your hands.

Building Robot Kits in the Shed

Jamie and I have been busy with Udny Designs over the past couple of weeks. We have been bombing around Aberdeenshire building robots with kid's holiday clubs. We had made simple-to-construct kits in the shed along with small wooden hammers and put all the parts in little zip-lock bags. We made 50 in total and had a good production line going on in the house.

Teaching Kids Through Making

Tuesday and Wednesday last week we found ourselves in Banff and Peterhead in local schools. The classes had about 8 to 10 kids, and we would step by step take them through the construction of their individual robots. Starting with adding the googly eyes to the head, then with the hammer and lots of noise, banging adding the neck to the head, and then to the body. A pair of legs and feet had them standing up, then shoulders and arms had them waving or impersonating Superman. We had printed off some stickers and each kit included a couple of body, arms, and head stickers. We had even made little stickers for the kits which made the whole thing feel very official.

Then this week we did another 3 classes in Inverurie, Stonehaven, and Fraserburgh. 

Why the Workshops Felt So Rewarding

I have to say that every class was great fun and left me with a real sense of achievement. All the kids had additional needs so being able to let them build and take home a robot that they had made them selfs felt great. 

Creativity and Confidence

There were lots of questions from the kids about what else they could make when we came back. I look forward to doing some more classes later in the year. Possibly reindeer kits nearer Christmas.

Discovering CivTech and Startups

In other news, I went to a meet-up of the Aberdeen Entrepreneur Club at The Hub in Bridge of Don. There were two presentations. The first is some dragon's den-like pitches from some of the current cohorts running through the Elevator program at the hub. There were 5 of the 15 currently taking part. It's a 12-week program and they are now in week 6. It was great to see interesting new businesses in the making. And for me, they all needed tech and software to help them get fully started.

The other presentation was on CivTech North. I attended a CivTech meet-up last year in Edinburgh so am familiar with the concept. Basically, the public sector has come up with problems that need creative input to resolve. 8 problems in total are selected and made public. People and businesses are invited to try to solve the problems by submitting a description of how they plan to solve the problem. If selected they are given £3000 and given 3 weeks to explore their idea and create a demo. If successful they get through to the next stage and are given £17,000 and an additional 15 weeks to create something that meets its MVP (Minimal Viable Product). If all goes well and the solution is selected to go to the product stage, additional funding ( I wrote down £100K but am not sure about this) and time is provided to create a full product.

The only catch I can see is that the public sector gets to use the product royalty-free (covering material costs) but you are free to keep the product and sell it to the public.

The one I remember from the Edinburgh meet-up (I may have mentioned it before) was to help the tourism on the A9 after it is dual ed from Perth to Inverness.

The guys I met had come up with a tourist App that would suggest points of interest on the journey... restaurants, hotels, etc that people could visit on route. The last I heard of this project the guys were adapting their app to cover Route 66 in the USA.

Looking Back at the Bigger Picture

Reading this back now, it’s interesting how many themes that still matter to me today were already appearing here — creativity, learning, making, technology, entrepreneurship, and helping people build confidence through practical projects.

At the time it simply felt like a busy and exciting few weeks before starting a new career in technology.

A lot of the same themes around creativity and building things also appear in my post about having the maker’s itch.

Looking back, many of the same ideas around learning through making probably started with things like LEGO Technic.

The connection between creativity, imagination, and practical learning also links closely to my reflections on visual thinking.

Looking back, projects like this reminded me how powerful creativity and hands-on learning can be — especially when people get the chance to build something themselves.

A lot of the same curiosity around making, technology, systems, and problem solving still shapes many of the projects and ideas I continue to explore today.

You can explore more of those projects and reflections here.

Memories of Working With My Dad in the Highlands

Looking back, I can also see how many of those experiences influenced my own career. Whether it was running cables, building systems, solving problems, or helping customers, there was always a practical challenge to overcome and a sense of satisfaction when everything finally worked.

I probably didn't realise it at the time, but those weekends and holidays spent helping my Dad taught me lessons that would stay with me throughout my working life.

So my Dad had his own business when I was growing up. Tuckwell Cable Vision Enterprises. He worked for British Telecom and left to start his own business. Inspired by a cable television system he installed in our village he set up on his own to bring TV signal to other villages in the highlands.

This was back in the late 70s and many villages did not receive a Television signal. Our village North Kessock was no exception shielded from the local transmitter by the hills behind.

Bringing Television to Remote Highland Communities

Dad came up with a plan to put an Ariel on the hill with a good TV signal and through a distribution network of cables and amplifiers pipe the signal down to all the villagers. A lot of work, cables, and amplifiers gave North Kessock 3 channels to watch. My claim to fame is pulling the main feed cable under the newly built A9 dual carriageway. A small child-size pipe carried the Drumsmittal burn under the road. A lot of head-scratching on how to get the cable to the other side till I piped up “I’ll crawl through it”. Wet and muddy I appeared from the other side triumphant with cable in hand.

Dad went on to do other systems all over the highlands bringing TV to places that could not get a signal.

One of the First Satellite Dishes in the Village

Boxes of equipment would arrive at the house all the time. Mainly amplifiers and reels of cable. One package I clearly remember arrived containing what appeared to the giant metal flower petals.

I was set to work with the petals, a bag of nuts and bolts, and a spanner. The result was a 1.8-meter diameter satellite dish. Massive by today's Sky and Freesat offerings. We sunk a metal pole in the garden concreted it in and along with a polar mount, a receiver, and LNB we were one of the first to have satellite TV. The polar mount had a linear actuator that would rotate the dish and point to different satellites.

This became a new way of bringing TV to remote locations and providing much-needed extra channels. One I do remember helping to install was on the roof of a nightclub in Inverness.

The client wanted to play music videos via Music Box, a channel that I think pre-dated MTV or was the European version. This was a large parabolic dish made from fibreglass with a copper coating. The focus point for the LNB was towards the bottom rather than in the center. It looked a bit odd as it stood almost vertical to aim the signal at the LNB.

Travelling the Highlands for Work

In addition to TV, my dad also specialized in intercom and background music systems. We would travel all over the highlands bringing music to pubs, hotels, and supermarkets.

I remember not long after I passed my driving test being sent to Portree on Skye with the mission to install an intercom system in the local supermarket. Having the keys to the van and a tank of diesel gave me a new sense of freedom and we were now multitasking. I had a great day spent with a friend driving to Skye and installing the system. 2 core wires to each till and then back to the main back office.

This carried on and when Dad went on holiday I spent a few days in the Kingsmills Hotel in Inverness. We had wired in a TV system to each room the week before. What was left to do was to add a new TV to each room. My job was to un-box, add a plug (TVs came without a plug), make a coax lead add batteries to the remote, and tune in over 60 TVs before carrying them to each room and testing. It was a great little job and I was a dab hand at manually tuning in the 4 channels by the time I finished.

Working Alongside Dad and Learning New Skills

When I went off to university in Aberdeen I would carry on helping out Dad during the holidays. Although one job I remember doing during term time. Dad had won the job of putting TV signal to each unit in the new Bon Accord shopping center. Dad brought down all the bits needed including lots of cable drums, plans and explained what needed to be done. I and some University friends made quick work of running in all the cables and getting the system ready for my Dad to come back and commission it before handing it over. We were under strict instruction not to crawl along the cable trays hanging from the ceiling. Instead, use the scaffold trolley climbing up and down and moving a couple of meters at a time. This was soon abandoned in favour of crawling in the cable trays. As it was the weekend there were few people working on-site and we were skinny students. It was a great couple of weekends spent working with my friends and sharing how I worked with my Dad, They were happy for the experience and the additional beer money.


I did help out Dad with other jobs on and off after I graduated up till he retired a few years ago. It was good fun and he loved his job, he got to travel all over the highlands and islands and met so many interesting people.

Looking back I am glad I had the opportunity to work with him. At the time I probably did not appreciate it enough having other plans for my working life. I realize now loving your job is something to aspire to.

Anyway, Dad wrote a book about his experiences. It's full of pictures and stories of all the places he worked, so if you want to know more check out his book here. A massive fanfare goes off back in North Kessock every time a copy of his book is sold.

I have had some positive comments about my ramblings this week and I really appreciate it. I started this blog as part of my CodeClan Journey and now that has finished for some reason I feel the need to keep it going. I really enjoy spending the week planning and thinking of something (this week especially) to write about so I'm keeping going. Thanks for reading and your support. Big Thumbs up!

The Year I Took Back Control and Changed Career

THE TARZAN METHOD

So I have a new contract and a new job title. For the next 12 to 18 months I'm going to be a Web Developer for Aberdeen City Council. Well chuffed. It makes my time at CodeClan a worthwhile leap of faith to change my career from oil and gas into something less industry-specific.

I had a brilliant interview with some lovely people. A few difficult questions about languages I'm not familiar with, but with my recent learning experience, I am happy I will be able to pick up anything new quickly. I mean in the past 6 months I have learned the bones of Ruby, Java, and Javascript, it can only be a hop, skip, and jump to C#. If I can find time I'll try a few tutorials with Code Academy before I start.

Speaking of a leap of faith. I watched an interesting clip on YouTube this week describing the Tarzan method. It rang true to me on a number of levels. It seems to be what I have been doing over the last few months.

Imagine you are Tarzan navigating your way through a jungle. Your destination is your dreams and aspirations. To get to your destination there is a mythical straight line through the jungle that would take you there. Because of the jungle trees and bushes, it is not possible to go in a straight line. So as Tarzan would, you grab hold of the nearest vine and swing with all your might in whatever direction that vine will take you. It's not in the direction of your dreams and aspirations but it is just a little bit closer to your goal. You then grab hold of another vine and swing in another direction. This time again it's not exactly where you want to go but it has moved you closer to your goal.



The cool part of this is that grabbing hold of a vine with an open mind will take you to places that you would never have gone if you had planned it out in a straight line. And it is in those unknowns that you can discover what your dreams and aspirations really are.

It is in the process of committing yourself 100% to whatever you are doing at that point in time that gives you the skills experiences and knowledge to make it to your goal.

For me, it started with redundancy last year. I had become stagnant in a job I had been in for over 20 years. I was forced to do something about it. I was presented with a Vine to go to a Pace careers event at Robert Gordon's University.

I grabbed hold and went for it. Another Vine was presented and I met with a career advisor and Business Gateway. Again I grabbed hold and swung. The suggestion was made to go to CodeClan, I grabbed hold and went for it and had the best time. More recently I have set up Udny Solutions and gained a job to create a website. Now my new Vine has been the opportunity to become a full-time web developer. So I am grabbing hold of this vine and will swing in whatever direction it takes me and will give it 100% as Tarzan would. It will give me real-world Web Development and Coding experience and give me and Udny Solutions a boost forward.

My contract starts in a couple of weeks and I am super excited about it, I'm just waiting for the paperwork to come through.

In the meantime, I am busy with Udny Designs. Over the next couple of weeks, I have been asked to do some simple woodworking classes with kids with additional needs. Jamie and I did a few last year and it was really fun. We made robot kits with all the parts that needed to be collected in individual little zip-lock bags. Kids will open the bag sort the bits then have fun bashing them together with a wooden hammer. When finished they add color with stickers and felt pens.

We have 5 classes to do... Peterhead, Fraserburgh. Banff, Inverurie, and Stonehaven. I have 50 kits to create. Lots of parts, 50 bodies, 50 heads, 100 legs, shoes, etc. It's a lot of parts to cut, drill, and sand. I'm looking forward to seeing what's created.

So hopefully my Web Developer contract will arrive in the post this week.

Something that did arrive in the post this week was my official certificate from the Scottish Qualification Authority for my Professional Development Award in Software Development. It came in a "please don't bend" envelope and on the finest paper with holograms. It will be pinned to the fridge for a couple of weeks before it gets filed away.

Thanks for reading, and happy easter.