North of Ordinary

Oxen Sports was born in a Hull meeting room out of adversity, and seven years on, you'll find the brand in kit bags, dressing rooms and locker rooms across the country and around the world. In this episode of North of Ordinary, host Tina Swann sits down with Lee Jenkinson, CEO of Oxen Sports and Elite Pro Sports, to unpack how a brand created beneath C4DI's feet became Hull City's Premier League k...

Ian Ashbee captained Hull City through one of the most remarkable journeys in English football: three consecutive promotions from the third tier to the Premier League. It's a feat that may never be matched. But in this episode of North of Ordinary, we're less interested in the trophies and more interested in what came after. Ian opens up about the reality of retiring from professional football; th...

What is it really like to run a hospitality business in the UK today? In this episode of North of Ordinary, Anna Lamb, founder of Nibble, Next Door, and The Makery, shares an honest, unfiltered look at the realities of operating in the hospitality industry. From launching a café with limited resources to building a recognised food brand, this conversation explores the true highs and lows of owning...

What really goes into Humber Business Week? In this episode of North of Ordinary, we sit down with Pat Coyle, Chair of Humber Business Week, to explore how one of the region’s biggest business events is brought to life. From its early beginnings with just a handful of events to a now packed calendar of nearly 50, this is a story of collaboration, community and momentum. We go behind the scenes of...

He left school with almost no qualifications and no clear idea what his future would look like. Today, Ray Chapman is a specialist paramedic with more than 25 years of experience on the frontline of emergency medicine. In this episode of North of Ordinary, Ray shares the remarkable journey that took him from a working-class upbringing in Hull to a career saving lives across the region. His path wa...

In this episode of North of Ordinary, we go behind the scenes with the team from Tigers Trust, the official charity associated with Hull City Football Club, to uncover the full scale of the life-changing work they deliver across Hull and East Yorkshire. While football is part of the story, it’s only a small piece. The Tigers Trust team works across education, health, employment, wellbeing and comm...

This week, we sit down with Jade Wildbore, who reflects on her journey from freelance creative to Marketing Director at Mattix Design in Hull, and how the ability to connect with people, both online and offline, helped shape her path. Jade shares honest, practical advice for people who find networking daunting, and reveals what it really takes to build a personal brand that’s true to who you are....

In this episode of  North of Ordinary , Tina Swann talks to Ben McLintock, data-focused project manager and founder of Data Compass, about how businesses can better manage and use their data. They explore how many companies jump into collecting data without a clear goal, how to align data with real business problems, and how even small businesses and start-ups can use data to drive...

In this first episode of North of Ordinary, host Tina Swann sits down with Rob Lewis, R&D specialist, long-time member of C4DI, and CEO and founder of FLX Health. The conversation explores the importance of musculoskeletal health and what it really means to add life to your years, not just years to your life . Rob discusses how business leaders, employees and entrepreneurs can protect their he...

North of Ordinary is here. This brand-new podcast from Hull’s Centre for Digital Innovation (C4DI) dives into the real stories of business across Hull, East Yorkshire and the Humber. Hosted by Tina Swann, the show will explore what it truly takes to run and grow a business, from the bold start-ups and ambitious scale-ups to the established companies powering through change. We’ll talk about the wi...