Before moving too far into 2018, let's take a quick look back.
After an exciting year, I’d like to thank everyone — our clients, our peers, the Drupal community, and the hard workers at Bluespark — for making it awesome. As a digital agency, we’re successful when we produce high caliber work and our clients are happy. And we really truly want our clients to be happy.
So, I appreciate all of our clients who trusted us with their businesses and projects and allowed us to become part of their teams. I hope that many — if not all — of these long-term relationships will remain and that new ones will form.
From Austin, Texas (where I'm currently living) — and together with all the Bluespark members from around the world — I raise a glass to everyone who made the year so much fun. Thank you.
Here are some highlights from 2017:
We Were Named a Global Leader by Clutch
It was such an honor to receive this. In addition to being named a 2017 Clutch Global Leader, we were also ranked as a top 100 web development firm, a top 15 Drupal development firm, and top 15 PHP development firm. “Working with a reliable development team is necessary to bring any tech project from a vision to reality,” said Katie Chambers, Business Analyst at Clutch. “The companies recognized today excel in the industry by not only demonstrating expertise and skill through their development capabilities but also providing phenomenal customer service.”
We Earned a Spot on the Inc. 5000 List of Fastest Growing Companies
This was another exciting accolade for us. Not much else to say except, wow, this one made us proud.
We Held a Team Retreat in Morocco
Since we're spread between California and Hungary, getting together is fun and important. We used to just congregate at DrupalCons; Morroco was the first time we planned a trip simply to retreat, collaborate, plan, and have fun. Check out some of the pics and what we learned here.
We Presented at Important Industry Events
Ashleigh Thevenet and Mark Dodgson presented about our ecommerce work with Obermeyer at the Outdoor Retailer Winter Show in Salt Lake City. It was a blast. We met a number of incredible outdoor companies and the great people working for them. We learned a lot there, too, and look forward to attending for our third Show in a couple of weeks.
In March, Mark Dodgson and Alodia Cano gave an important talk about increasing library engagement at Cleveland Public Library.
And then in April, we had a strong showing at DrupalCon Baltimore. Mark Dodgson (yep, we make him do a lot of work) presented about B2B user experience solutions for Obermeyer, Ashleigh Thevenet talked about her specialty -- finding better ways to more accurately manage projects, and
And lastly, in September, where Salva Molina presented at DrupalCon Viennaabout what it really means to be a rockstar developer.
We Supported Drupal Events
Drupal and our relationship with the Drupal community is incredibly important to us. Baltimore was ... a ... blast! So was DrupalCamp Austin and Drupal Developer Days Seville.
We Worked with Repeat Clients
We are so grateful for our well-established relationships. Some of these partnerships with clients (like UCLA and Indiana University) have existed for many years, and we really treasure them for both the people they are and the interesting project work that we collaborate on with them. Our relationships with these teams are deep and we have become more efficient in working together. And it’s fun for all of us.
We Had Two Bluespark Babies
Well, technically Drupal engineer Pedro Lozano and his wife had the first baby. Greta was born in November.
In December, project Manager Alodia Cano and her husband welcomed their third child, a daughter. We're really excited for all the parents!
Now bring on 2018. We've got three more babies coming!!
Thank you and happy 2018. We hope you have the best year possible!
