2024 – looking back at an incredible year
This year seems to have flown by. It was a really busy one at Annertech. We sponsored and attended at least three conferences, launched an incredible number of websites, won several awards, and were named one of the best places to work in Ireland.
Recognition
We are really proud of the work we do at Annertech, and we love making our clients happy. It’s also quite fulfilling when the digital industry acknowledges it too.
We’re still on a high after the 2024 Spider Awards – we won the coveted Grand Prix as well as Best Universal Design awards for the National Library of Ireland website!
Annertech itself was shortlisted for Large Agency of the Year at the Digital Media Awards, and many of our projects were recognised at various awards ceremonies this year. Here’s the full list:
National Library of Ireland
- Won the “Grand Prix” award at the Spiders Won “Best in Universal Design” at the Spiders
- Shortlisted for “Best Website (SME)” at the Spiders
- Shortlisted for “Best Cultural Driver” at the Spiders
- Won “Best in Multilingual & Internationalisation” at the Ireland eGovernment Awards
- Shortlisted for “Promoting Ireland Overseas” at the Ireland eGovernment Awards
- Runner-up in the “Digital Accessibility” category at the National Digital Awards
Inland Fisheries Ireland
- Won “Best in Environmental, Sustainability & Green Technologies” at the Ireland eGovernment Awards
- Shortlisted for “Best in Universal Design & Inclusion” at the Ireland eGovernment Awards
Director of Delivery Mike King and Managing Director Stella Power at the eGovernment Awards, where NLI and Inland Fisheries websites won awards.
Qualifax
- Shortlisted for “Best in Education” at the Ireland eGovernment Awards
- Shortlisted for “General Award” at the Ireland eGovernment Awards
- Shortlisted for “Best in Government & Not-for-Profit” at the Digital Media Awards
- Won “Education Site of the Year” at the National Digital Awards
Director of Managing Services Anthony Lindsay and managing Director Stella Power attended the 2024 PTSB National Digital Awards, where the Qualifax website won the Education Website of the Year award, and the National Library of Ireland website was the runner-up in the Digital Accessibility category.
Carlow County Council
- Shortlisted for “Best in Local Government” at the Ireland eGovernment Awards
Oxfam
- Shortlisted for “Best in Government & Not-for-Profit” at the Digital Media Awards
- Shortlisted for “Best in Universal Design” at the Spiders
Tipperary County Council
- Shortlisted for “Cross-Organisation Collaboration” at the Ireland eGovernment Awards
- Shortlisted for “Best in Local Government” at the Ireland eGovernment Awards
Innovation excellence
Annertech won the Innovation Excellence award at Platform.sh’s Partners Award Ceremony during the Evolve Partner Summit 2024, held in Paris in October. Platform.sh is a platform as a service (PaaS) provider, and is one of our main partners when it comes to building, deploying, and hosting websites.
One of the Best Places to Work
We also made it onto the Sunday Times Best Places to Work Ireland 2024 list! The Sunday Times Best Places to Work Ireland awards are powered by data company WorkL’s employment engagement survey, which monitors employees’ commitment, well-being and discretionary effort.
We got accepted onto G-Cloud 14
Earlier this year, Annertech was appointed by the UK’s Crown Commercial Service as a supplier on its G-Cloud 14 digital marketplace framework. The G-Cloud 14 framework has numerous benefits for both suppliers and those public sector players who need to find reliable suppliers and cloud services. Not only does the framework afford them access to suppliers who offer these services, but it also offers a quick and easy route to market and access to the latest cloud technology and innovation.
Annertech is a Drupal Certified Platinum Partner
Annertech was awarded platinum status in the Drupal Association’s Certified Partner programme. The promotion in the levels – up from gold – came as a result of our work on the Drupal project, in particular our contribution to LocalGov Drupal – the CMS for councils.
Conferences
DrupalCon and Annertech Days
DrupalCon Barcelona took place from 24 to 27 September. It was one of our busiest DrupalCons yet. We were a platinum sponsor, sponsored the contribution room, had numerous social activities (including Trivia Night), and Annertechies took to the mic at least seven times.
The Annertech booth at DrupalCon Europe 2024.
Director of Technology Alan Burke presented two sessions (on the Qualifax and Brand Orange projects); Managed Services Director Anthony Lindsay spoke about the Love Essex microsite; Account manager Karen Leech took us through movements we can do at our desks; and Frontend developer Tony Barker was part of the Initiative Leads keynote address.
Meanwhile, our Managing Director Stella Power joined Platform.sh at their booth to chat about how Annertech leverages Platform.sh to integrate its dev tools and get the best performance for clients’ websites.
Plus we were involved in other ways too, Juanluis Lozano was a DrupalCon Barcelona track chair, John Cook was the DrupalCon Barcelona volunteer coordinator, and Stella was on the DrupalCon Europe Advisory Board again.
DrupalCon Barcelona: Our highlights
DrupalCon Barcelona 2024! What a blast! There was so much happening that the week flew by. But these are our highlights from an epic Drupal conference.
Prior to DrupalCon, we held a two-day in-person Annertech gathering on the Sunday and Monday (22 and 23 September).
These “Annertech Days“ usually happen around DrupalCon, because we work remotely and this is the time when many of us are physically in the same place.
This year was no exception, and we made a beautiful coworking space in the heart of Barcelona our base for the days preceding DrupalCon Europe. Team Annertech spent two days talking, learning, brainstorming and putting new plans into action.
Annertech Days culminated in a fantastic teambuilding exercise – a “paella off“ (which we thoroughly enjoyed taste-testing afterwards).
The Annertechies who gathered at Born to Cook in Barcelona for a teambuilding evening of food and fun.
Digital Government Conference
We attended the Digital Government Conference in February. It was a positive experience, with lots of interaction and interest in LocalGov Drupal.
LocalGov Drupal camp
The first-ever LocalGov Drupal Camp took place in Birmingham, in April, and Annertech was the main sponsor of this exciting addition to the LGD events calendar.
Our Director of Delivery, Mike King, spoke about Annertech and our involvement with LocalGov Drupal.
It was a fantastic platform for engaged participants from various stages of LGD implementation to share their experiences, challenges, and solutions, and also provided an opportunity for networking and building connections within the LocalGov Drupal community. We are looking forward to the next one.
Mike King speaking at LocalGov Drupal Camp 2024.
Drupal News
Drupal CMS
The big Drupal news for 2024 was the launch of a new product, Drupal CMS, which aims to broaden Drupal's appeal to marketers and a wider range of project budgets, allowing marketers and content managers to launch brilliant websites quickly and easily.
The first version of Drupal CMS is expected to be launched on 15 January 2025, and we believe it is going to be a game-changer – putting the power of Drupal into so many more hands.
Annertech’s Frontend Specialist Tony Barker was selected for a leadership role in the development of the Drupal CMS.
Tony headed up the Media Management track, which covered how images, documents, videos and audio will be handled in this new version of Drupal.
And Stella was appointed to the Starshot Advisory Committee, which provides strategic input and feedback to help ensure Drupal Starshot meets the needs of key stakeholders and end-users.
Annertechies also played a role in the marketing and content areas of the new product, writing content for and working on new Drupal.org website pages.
Drupal 7 reaches end-of-life
It’s finally happened. After 14 years of powering websites around the world, and at least three stays of execution, Drupal 7 will officially reach its end-of-life (EOL), 14 years to the day since it was released: on 5 January 2011.
For many organisations and developers, this marks the end of an era and the beginning of an important transition. Once Drupal 7 reaches end-of-life the Drupal community will officially stop supporting it, so it is important for websites to be upgraded as soon as possible.
Projects launched
2024 was a bumper year for project launches. We are really proud of these websites, and we are happy to have been given the opportunity to work on them.
Carlow County Council
We launched our first website for 2024 on 12 January 2024 and Carlow County Council officially joined the LocalGov Drupal club. This website was a finalist in the Local Government category in the Ireland eGovernment Awards.
Brand Orange
The new, multilingual Brand Orange project went live in February. This was a complicated project involving API integration with a Digital Asset Management (DAM) software called Mastermedia. But Brand Orange was well received by the wider community, and our Director of Technology Alan Burke presented the technical details of the project at DrupalCon Europe in September.
Haringey Council
Even though the site was available to the public in “beta“ since mid-2023, the London Borough of Haringey officially launched their LocalGov Drupal website in April. It’s a stunning website which puts the users first and ensures that their needs are met.
The European Corporate Governance Institute
The European Corporate Governance Institute’s Drupal 7 website was replaced with an elegant, efficient Drupal 10 site. Intricate tagging and search capabilities ensure the new website is easy to manage and it is simple to interlink large amounts of content.
Local Government Ireland
The brand new home of Local Government Ireland is not just a sleek, elegant website that directs users to the information they need. It has laid the foundation for an ambitious plan – that in the future, all shared services will be built as a subdomain of LocalGov.ie.
The Love Essex microsite
We are so proud of this microsite, which is dedicated to dealing with waste in a responsible and environmentally friendly manner. The end user was at the very core of the creation process for this unique approach to functionality, education, and guidance.
Our Director of Managed Services, Anthony Lindsay presented on this project at both DrupalCon Barcelona and at LocalGov Drupal Week 2024.
Galway City Council
This LocalGov Drupal website was launched in October. It’s a gorgeous website that has collaboration, accessibility and the digital citizen at its heart.
Laois County Council
Another LocalGov Drupal website, Laois County Council’s new website was also launched in October. Putting services at the centre of the website ensures that users can find what they are looking for quickly and easily.
National Building Control Office
The NBCO promotes a culture of compliance in an industry marked by rapid changes in technology and processes. Their new microsite is centred around the five pillars of the NBCO which are inspections, education and training, market surveillance, compliance & support and IS-BCMS.
National Market Surveillance Office
Market surveillance of construction products in Ireland is led by the National Market Surveillance Office. A new microsite focusing on their activities was launched in March 2024.
Team news
Although we are a distributed team most, but not all, of us managed to get together in Barcelona in September for Annertech Days and DrupalCon Europe. However, the camaraderie was well under way virtually. We had a number of social events and games happening throughout 2024.
A highlight is a weekly Truth or Lie game, which sees team members taking turns to serve up three statements and colleagues guess which one is true or untrue. It is a great way to get to know each other – we really have a fantastic team.
Another popular game is Friday Dingbats, which has become increasingly popular (and competitive). People are given a set of images, each of which depicts a phrase or idiom. The trick is to guess the correct phrase or idiom first. There’s a score board – and it’s not easy to get to the top of it.
Changes to the team
We said goodbye to some team members this year, including one of our directors, Mark Conroy, who left to pursue other interests; frontend developer Keith Jay, who wanted to focus on another project; and another developer, Phil Bicking, who returned to the United States.
But on the flip side we welcomed a few new Annertechies into the family: Delivery Manager Sav Monzac, Developer John Durance, Client Success Manager Ilana Doubell, and Developer Daniel Oszi, and welcomed back three Annertechies: developers John Albin Wilkins, Jessie Lock and John Cook.
Stella was elected to the Drupal Association board
Our Managing Director Stella Power was elected to the Drupal Association board.
She's excited about the opportunity to give back in a different way – being on the board will allow her to step back and focus on the big picture, not just on a piece of code or a project.
The Drupal Association interviewed about her new role:
Petr spoke at the Czech Open Source Policy Forum
Frontend Developer Petr Ilek was a panellist at the Czech Open Source Policy Forum 2024 in April. He was talking about "Sustainability of Public Sector and Academic Open Source project through communities".
The conference celebrated the official foundation of the Czech National Open Source Programme Office (Czech OSPO) which is part of the network of European OSPOs. This office supports communities gathered around Open Source projects mainly in public and academic sectors.
“I had to step out of my comfortable circle to talk and discuss before people, but it was a nice and valuable experience. I’ve met interesting people and made some new connections outside the usual Drupal bubble,” Petr said.
Erik Erskine talks about automated testing at Drupal Dev Days Bulgaria
Are you keen to start running automated tests but don’t know where to start? Senior developer Erik Erskine went to Drupal Developer Days in Bulgaria in June, and presented on automated testing and the knowledge you need to take the first steps.
Stella EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women Class
Stella was selected for the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women Class of 2023, and 2024 brought with it so many opportunities, including a trip to Turkey for an instalment of the EY entrepreneurial programme. She had a great time networking and learning, and returned to Annertech invigorated. Stella joins other high-potential entrepreneurs on this prestigious programme, which aims to empower women to scale and grow their businesses globally.
John Albin presented at DrupalCon Asia in Singapore
But Drupal can already render your website on the server! Why would you want to decouple your frontend and have it render your website in JavaScript on the server?
At DrupalCon Singapore, John discussed how the differences between JavaScript's import statement and PHP's include statement affect the way we need to build and route our application.
And he got into specifics of reducing bundle size and how to weave interactive features with server-rendered content.
The year ahead
The outlook for Annertech in 2025 is looking positive. We are looking forward to the release of Drupal CMS, and exploring all the opportunities that a new product brings with it.
Our LocalGov Drupal work will continue. We love helping councils deliver the best digital experiences possible for their constituents, and we’ll continue to help grow this platform in 2025.
We will also focus on growing our UK branch and the number of clients we have in the UK.
Happy New Year, from all of us at Annertech
May 2025 be a very special year for all of us. We look forward to spending it in your company.
Alison Visser Head of Content
After more than two decades in journalism, Alison now collaborates with Annertech's clients to ensure that their content is the best it possibly can be.
