On Friday 20th April, Colin Thody & I (Drew Harding) of Eclipse Digital Media travelled to Newcastle for a client meeting with Northumbria University. The meeting was to discuss the potential implementation of a campus wide Digital Signage Solution. As the meeting progressed, our return train time drew ever closer and eventually passed, leaving Colin & I with two options: Option A) Paying through the nose to spend over 5 hours on Trains to get back home after midnight or Option B) spend the night in Newcastle and travel back by hire car the next day. As it turns out option B was definitely the right choice.
Once we had decided to spend the night in Newcastle Colin & I contacted the meeting attendees at Northumbria University to explain our situation and asked if there was anything worth doing for the evening. Much to our delight he said yes ‘The Newcastle Eagles are playing tonight in the BBL, I can sort you some tickets if you’d like’ to which we kindly accepted, but we got a bit more than we bargained for. Not only did he sort out some tickets for us but he also upgraded us to VIP and put a few quid behind the bar for us to enjoy some drinks. At this point we were over the moon to have such amazing hospitality and we went on to sit down and enjoy the game, eventually finishing with Newcastle Eagles loosing to Cheshire Jets. Once the match had finished the team was lining up on court to have their pictures taken with their championship winning trophies. We spotted Paul Blake, owner of Newcastle Eagles, who we’d met earlier during the University tour and asked for a quick photo with him, the trophies and the team, to which he kindly obliged also asking debutant Ellory Browne to join us.
We were so impressed with the hospitality provided by Northumbria University and Newcastle Eagles that we wanted we’d share our experience with you too. This also goes to show that by spending a little extra time with people you can start to build very strong relationships. You can expect an update on our site in the coming months showcasing the work we will be carrying out for them.