Multi award-winning PR agency, EAST VILLAGE. has welcomed two new team members to bolster its expertise in line with a fresh focus for the business. Demi Swingler and Connor Kirton join the agency just ahead of its 10th anniversary and as the business announces a move into delivering PR for emerging tech brands.
EAST VILLAGE., which launched in Birmingham in 2013, has welcomed back its first employee – Demi Swingler – as Account Director. Demi will be the driving force behind the agency’s client delivery team: leading on strategy, team productivity, and driving stellar results. Connor Kirton joins from a fellow Birmingham agency and brings both B2B and B2C experience to the EAST VILLAGE. client team.
Commenting on her return, Demi said:
“What a full-circle moment – it’s great to be back where it all began, bringing new perspective and experience. I’m looking forward to honing the skills of the team and building on a decade of success.
We’ve got some big plans over the coming 12 months, and I cannot wait to help the agency achieve its ambitious goals, which in typical EAST VILLAGE. fashion are about so much more than just PR. Collectively, we want to play our part in making the landscape more inclusive for founders and brands looking to scale-up.”
Ahead of the agency’s 10th anniversary in September, this team growth comes as EAST VILLAGE. also announces a dedicated focus on delivering PR for progressive tech brands. Having worked across the industry for a number of years, the agency is concentrating its efforts on supporting tech that empowers people, platforms that promote a healthy tech/life balance, and organisations that feed the ecosystem.
Founder and Managing Director, Tara Attfield-Tomes, adds:
“This is such an exciting moment for EAST VILLAGE. Ten years is a massive milestone for any agency, but for us it gave us a great opportunity to look at what we love to do and what we’re truly brilliant at. Our sweet spot has always been supporting businesses through their growth journey, showcasing the true value of PR to passionate and hard-working founders and teams.
Over the past year, we’ve really uncovered emerging tech as our speciality: those exciting femtech, healthtech, and tech for good brands that are making moves and genuinely changing the world. Niching down certainly feels like a bold move – even more so in the current challenging climate – but it’s the right time for us to really make an impact as part of the thriving tech ecosystem in the Midlands, and beyond!”
EAST VILLAGE. is specifically looking to engage underrepresented founders to create a more equitable and inclusive landscape. This comes on the back of the recent Rose Review, an independent review of female entrepreneurship, which states that less than 1% of UK funding goes to all-female teams. Similarly, recent research by Extend Ventures uncovered that all-ethnic teams receive an average of just 1.7% of the venture capital investments at seed, early, and late-stage.
“We’ve witnessed the inequality across the tech industry for the past couple of years – with bias, lack of funding, and a sparsity of role models in the media being just a few of the hurdles that need to be overcome. The Midlands, in particular, is really addressing these issues and we’re proud to work alongside pioneers like our client Tech West Mids – which runs the annual Birmingham Tech Week – to ensure that we’re playing our part in helping businesses to thrive,” Tara concludes.
