Creating Tech for Good in Norwich

From leading international calls with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF to launching the Norwich Tech for Good Meetup, Isabelle, a digital consultant, has worked at a global level. She chose to stay in Norwich, where cutting-edge innovation and an enviable work-life balance coexist.

I spent my childhood in rural France, but as a teenager I was desperate to live in a big city and reconnect with my English roots. I moved to London when I finished school, and ended up living there, as well as in Bristol and Brighton. I loved my time in all those places, but always yearned for easier access to some sort of wilderness along with the energy of a city. When my daughter was born in 2022, that pull suddenly became a non-negotiable.

We finally listened to some Norfolk-based friends and went up to Norwich to look around.

Despite a cranky 6 month old, an ill-timed bug and our visit coinciding with the heatwave, Norwich immediately felt like home. A green, walkable city with beautiful architecture, accessible culture, great food, and amazing countryside and beaches to explore on our doorstep. Moving to a completely new place and building a life from scratch is a gamble, but we’re so happy we took the leap (and honestly a bit smug).

I loved how easily we were able to build a community in a way I’ve never experienced before.
Isabelle

Norwich: voted best place to live

There’s an openness to chat, share tips and to help out which is so important when you’ve got a young kid, and in my case, when trying to get back on my feet after maternity leave.

Norwich is a bit like one of those antique music boxes.

Go into the city on a Friday night and you might be forgiven for thinking not much is going on (which to be honest can be a relief having experienced life in a party city like Brighton!). But push open the door and there’s a thriving scene of independent businesses, restaurants and bars, co-working spaces, live music, cultural events, and of course, a pub for every night of the year. I love that duality.

I work at the intersection of digital technology and social impact.

As a consultant for multilateral bodies like the WHO and UNICEF, as well as philanthropies like the Gates Foundation, my job is to cut through the AI hype. I help these organisations responsibly leverage tech—from chatbots to SMS campaigns—to support communities in contexts where even basic electricity or healthcare can be a luxury.

While my background is actually in Oral History (I’ll always be a pen-and-paper person at heart!), I use that human-centric lens to design sustainable tools for education and health. For me, it’s never about the tech for tech’s sake; it’s about what makes real people tick and how we can support them.

The truth is, Norwich supports my international workflow better than any major hub I’ve lived in.

Fly from Norwich

Beth Moseley Photography

How that works:

The 80/20 Balance

I work remotely about 80% of the time. My days are spent on calls with colleagues in India, Africa, or the USA, enjoying the quiet focus of home.

The Schiphol Gateway

When I do need to travel, I skip the London commute entirely. I can fly from Norwich Airport to Amsterdam and connect anywhere in the world. Whether I’m heading to San Francisco, Nairobi, or Prague, my “door-to-door” travel time is incredibly efficient.

The 15-Minute Homecoming

There is no better feeling than landing after an intense week away and being just a 15-minute drive from my front door.

Living here means I don’t have to choose between a high-level international career and a grounded, local lifestyle. I get the best of both worlds.

Local Networks

My goal for this year, though, is to shift my consultancy closer to home and start building a network here in Norwich.

I’ve just launched the Norwich Tech for Good Meetup.

It’s a community of Norwich people who use Tech & Digital to make positive individual and social change. I’m excited to see who else is doing similar work, and what opportunities for local projects might come up.

Bigger cities like London or Bristol definitely offer more variety of pretty much everything, but in practice I often ended up having choice-paralysis and FOMO a lot of the time. Even a casual trip to visit a friend often took 45 minutes on a busy tube or bus and I often felt exhausted.

Living in Norwich just makes everything feel…easier.

Having so much in walking distance means we’re spending a lot more time outdoors, our daily ‘commute’ to nursery is only 10 mins, and when things feel too much we hop in the car for a blustery walk at Waxham. We genuinely pinch ourselves. See, I told you – smug!