In 2022, we published a blog welcoming David’s move away from the public sector to what we called ‘the dark side’… a new role as a Technical GIS Consultant in our Professional Services team.
Since then, he’s worn many hats, including Consultant, Trainer, Demonstrator, Presenter, Interpreter of Policy, Decrypter of Public Sector Acronyms and Mine of Useful Information.
Those of us who’ve had the joy of working closely with David can add King of the Quick Quip, Champion of the Dad Joke and occasional Mine of Not-Quite-So-Useful Information to the list. It’s fair to say that he’s never shied away from sharing what he finds humorous with the team. Indeed, our Google chats will never be the same again.
So, as an early thank you to David, let’s honour some of his best bits and see what retirement has in store for the Renns.
Why now?
Apparently, forty-odd years of full time work is enough for David, even though the prospect of retirement is “a bit scary”. His grown-up kids have told him that he needs to get out more. He’s interpreted this – how erroneously only time will tell – into having the go-ahead to plan a few golf trips and some big bike rides.
Once retired, David plans to do lots of mundane stuff around the house and garden on weekdays, leaving his weekends gloriously free for fun. He and his wife plan to visit “some exotic places”, we presume he means going further afield than Yorkshire, and do some “exciting things” whilst catching up with family spread across the globe.
Why David joined Astun
A big part of his role in local government was in planning strategy and managing people, something David felt was, “Great during the times when budgets were available to meet ambition.” Unfortunately, austerity hit hard, budget cuts were implemented and expectations had to be adjusted. As David says, “Making decisions on what we were going to stop doing, or who we were going to let go was less fun”.
At this point, David decided to make the leap to Astun where he could stop worrying about politics, free himself up from line managing and concentrate on “helping those with the resources and desire to deliver the technology that can help their business.”
Highlights of his time at Astun
David’s a real people person and he’s enjoyed working with all his colleagues and clients, even the one making him contribute his thoughts to this blog. He says that they’re a “talented and dedicated bunch” from whom he has learnt a lot.
When David joined us, he’d already been using iShare for five years and thought his team at Stockton had been making good use of its capabilities. However, as he says, “Every day is a school day” and he’s since seen some real creativity and interesting applications. A self-confessed ‘bit of a nerd’, he particularly appreciated seeing the wonderful map-based creations produced by some of his colleagues with “such apparent ease”.
He’s also enjoyed a smile or two courtesy of AI-based meeting summaries, especially ones featuring our market-leading software, “Eye Share GIS”.
David in action
As a hybrid company with employees across the UK and further afield, we don’t get together very often. However, we do manage it a few times a year. David remembers some productive user groups, workshops and socials that have been great fun.
We’re leaving the final word to Mike, our MD:
“Working closely with David since he moved into the Sales Support realm has been an absolute pleasure. Although I have worked with Local Government as a supplier since 1997, the wealth of knowledge that David shared from his 25+ years inside Local Government has been priceless as has his humour inside Astun. As we’re both avid golfers I thought it timely to have our bi-annual get-together of Astuners at my club, Tyrrells Wood, at the end of May. This allows us to say thank you and goodbye in person. I hope to catch up with David on “the links” in the future.”
