I had an interesting start to my Marketing journey! I originally enrolled in an Environmental Health course at University; however, I quickly realised that it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I found where my passion lies when I applied to a Marketing Course. Having thoroughly enjoyed completing a Foundation Degree in Marketing at Belfast Met, in which I received a 1:1, I completed my final year of Marketing BSc at Ulster University and graduated in June 2023.During my studies, I developed knowledge and experience in many valuable marketing topics such as Digital Marketing, Marketing Planning and Business Management. I am now a Marketing Assistant at Galvia Digital, a Belfast-based bespoke Software Development company that specialises in IoT for Digital Transformation. Through this role, I had the brilliant opportunity to be part of the delivery team for The Digital Surge Programme (funded by Invest NI, ERDF, and all local NI authorities). This programme was so important because we assisted 200 SMEs in Northern Ireland from many different industries in integrating advanced technologies into their everyday processes to scale and transform their business operations. I regularly organised exciting 4.0 technology masterclasses (IoT, AI, Big Data, and Immersive technologies, to name a few), provided mentoring on CRM systems, and oversaw the running of the one-to-one specialist mentoring for the programme. It has been extremely rewarding to assist NI SMEs across the 11 local council areas in increasing productivity and improving their efficiencies through advanced technology. We have witnessed many of our programme alumni reach extraordinary success following Digital Surge, proving that these programmes are so important for businesses!