The ESTAS

The project was more complex than its initial framing suggested, and required more than frontend development to keep it on course:

• Scope expansion post-sale: The project was originally positioned as a template-based build but the client's real needs, and the involvement of multiple external parties, pushed it into significantly more bespoke territory once work began.
• Multi-party alignment: Three organisations were involved, each with different working methods, technical capabilities, and client relationships. Getting them working in the same direction required someone to own the technical narrative.
• Integration complexity: The ESTAS' previous technology supplier managed the existing awards and ticketing platform. The question of how the new site would connect with, replace, or extend that system needed a careful, informed answer, one that had significant cost and timeline implications.
• High-profile stakes: The ESTAS operates on a fixed annual event calendar. A failed or delayed website launch isn't just embarrassing, it has real consequences for a client whose reputation depends on running a seamless, professional awards programme.
• Accountability gap: With project management not providing the technical direction the project needed, someone had to step up to fill that role across internal and external stakeholders alike. Me.

I moved beyond the frontend brief and took on the technical leadership the project needed:

• Technical lead across all parties: Took over the regular client-facing meetings with the new agency, becoming the primary technical point of contact between Nurtur and the external agency, ensuring decisions were grounded in what was actually buildable and maintainable.
• Brokered the integration decision: Facilitated direct conversations with the previous technology supplier to properly understand the existing awards and ticketing infrastructure. Made the call, and convinced all parties that repurposing the existing platform was the right move, rather than commissioning a costly rebuild from scratch at such a late stage in the project. This was the single most impactful decision on the project's timeline and budget.
• Prevented unnecessary rework: By getting in the room with the previous supplier early and asking the right questions, I closed down a direction that would have consumed significant time and money for no meaningful gain to the client.
• Stabilised delivery: At the point where the project was at its most uncertain, taking ownership of the technical account, internal and external, gave the project the clarity and momentum it needed to reach launch.
• Built for reliability: The frontend was built with the event-critical nature of the platform front of mind, clean, stable, and straightforward to update ahead of each awards cycle.

The ESTAS website launched and continues to operate as the authoritative home of one of the UK property industry's most recognised awards:

• Successful launch: The site went live on the clients schedule, ahead of the awards cycle, with all integrations and content in place.
• Integration preserved and extended: Added the existing awards and ticketing infrastructure, no rebuild, no data loss, no disruption to the client's ongoing operations.
• Reliable year-on-year: The site continues to serve The ESTAS across its annual event cycle, handling nomination periods, ceremony promotion, and results, exactly the kind of quiet, dependable delivery a high-profile client needs.
• Multi-party relationship managed: Both technology suppliers, and Nurtur, came out of the project with a functional working relationship and a clear handoff, which was far from guaranteed at the project's midpoint.