Nona — 2017 Year in Review
It’s hard to believe that yet another year has come and gone. 2017 was one of many changes and challenges — around the world, and in our ever-expanding Nona universe too. But we approached it as we have every other year before, by focusing on constantly improving ourselves and our work, and ultimately the value that we have to offer our clients. Here’s a look at some of the moments that made this year a great one for Nona.
Leading the way in the age of blockchain and bitcoin
Nona has been researching blockchain for quite some time, and now offers blockchain consulting and development services. Having full confidence in the technology and its limitless potential, the Nona directors recently took a bold step, buying out a significant shareholder entirely in Bitcoin, in a transaction that may very well be the first of its kind in South Africa. As a result, we were featured on a number of platforms, including BusinessTech, Ventureburn, BitcoinAfrica.io, and CapeTalk.
This is only the beginning of our journey with blockchain and cryptocurrency — we plan on further exploring this technology in a variety of ways that include offering talks and workshops in the near future.
Doing remarkable work, with remarkable clients
Following months of hard work — and a few tears here and there, 2017 saw the various Nona teams successfully launching some exciting projects. These included:
- A website rebuild for Go2Africa
- English Word Power — an educational web application for Rekindle Learning
- “Should I Buy That?” — an integrated engagement campaign for Old Mutual
- A new mobile app and website for OrderIn
We have every intention of producing even more great work in the new year, and are already busy with an assortment of clients, from local startups and companies to internationally recognised brands, and we are very excited to have landed our first blockchain clients.
What our clients have been saying…
A culture of learning and knowledge sharing
To encourage interaction, we launched monthly Nona Demo Days earlier this year. These started out as opportunities for teams to highlight projects and the related challenges and wins, but have evolved to include presentations on topics ranging from development and UX/UI, to blockchain and cryptocurrency.
There’s been great internal feedback, and as a result we’ve decided to open these sessions to the public, who are welcome to attend or give talks and presentations of their own. We’re very excited about the learning and networking potential that this will bring, and look forward to having many of you join us. Sign up to our Demo Day mailing list here.
Growing our team
With the continued growth of Nona, we’ve had to expand our pool of talent, and are happy to say that the last year has seen a number of exceptional individuals join our ranks. Most recently, we welcomed Adrian Bunge, who joins us as an Android Developer, and in January 2018, Petrus Hanekom will step into a Product Owner role.
A fond farewell
2017 also saw us saying goodbye to one of our founding partners, Paul Van Zyl, who has been instrumental in shaping Nona over the last few years. We support his desire to pursue other interests and passions, and our relationship remains a positive one. His energy will be missed and we have every intention of collaborating on projects going forward.
The 2017 highlight reel
Nona received 4 nominations in this year’s IAB Bookmarks Awards, and walked away with a silver pixel for Innovative use of Media, and a gold pixel for Digital Installations and Activations for our “Do You Even Dev?” campaign. A few months later, our client, OrderIn, was named Best Consumer Solution at the MTN Business App of the Year Awards.
Our CEO, Mike Scott spoke about our unique culture at Grindstone and at the Entrepreneurs’ Organisation in London, and hosted blockchain discussions with various blue chip companies in SA. Along with David O’Reilly, Mike was also invited to be a mentor in the Techstars Barclays Accelerator Programme, while Ed O’Reilly presented a Masterclass in Digital Marketing and SEO for the network.
Nona was represented at WordCamp Cape Town 2017, by Ed and Red Team developer Roy Scheeren, who hosted a workshop on Vue.js as a frontend to a WP backend.
We celebrated our 5th birthday, and along with a brand new office space, the milestone was accompanied by a merger with Outlandium — a boutique development house run by David O’Reilly, specialising in mobile, with a focus on research and development.
Our hopes and plans for 2018
This has definitely been an eventful year for us, and we’re immensely proud of the connections we’ve made, the work we’ve done, and the overall growth that Nona has experienced. In 2018, we plan to continue on this trajectory, with an increased focus on establishing Nona firmly in the blockchain technology space, creating learning programs to encourage upskilling, and sharing our brand and expertise through various conferences and talks.
A massive thank you to all the clients and friends of Nona who made 2017 incredible, we’re looking forward to discovering and enabling great ideas with you in the New Year!
