Designing a digital front door for Liverpool's business, innovation and community ecosystem.

Not another directory. Not another events website. Not another funding database. And not another organisation trying to own the ecosystem. Something more useful: a connected digital layer across it.

OneDock was not a client brief — GoodShip* created the concept from scratch. That meant thinking simultaneously about purpose, audience, product, data, technology, brand, content, partnerships, user journeys, governance, automation, sustainability, future commercial models and long-term usefulness.

The project began with the idea of a Dock. Liverpool's docks were places where people, ideas, commerce, cultures and opportunity met and moved. OneDock takes that function and reinterprets it digitally. Things arrive. Things connect. Things move somewhere next.

One ecosystem. Different doors.

OneDock is the master brand for a connected family of digital products. Each Dock addresses a different navigation problem. Rather than forcing everything into one enormous portal, the architecture lets individual products solve specific needs while sharing data, design principles, taxonomy, content, relationships, technology and common purpose.

• OneDock — the ecosystem layer.
• EventsDock — what's happening.
• SupportDock — who and what can help.
• OpportunityDock — what can I act on.
• CommonDock — purpose, community and social impact.

The brand

OneDock needed an identity that felt like Liverpool without falling into predictable Liverpool symbolism. We deliberately avoided ships, anchors, waves, historic dock illustrations, Liver Birds and heritage nostalgia, and focused instead on the function of a dock — somewhere things arrive, leave, connect, move, change hands and travel onwards.

The brief was: less Silicon Valley, more modern Liverpool. Confident, creative, useful, contemporary, digital-first, accessible, connected and culturally aware. A product people want to use, not an institutional programme they have been told they should use.

OneDock is about moving someone from I don't know where to look to I know what I can do next.

EventsDock — what's happening

EventsDock helps people discover relevant activity across Liverpool City Region: business events, technology meet-ups, creative-industry sessions, workshops, masterclasses, networking, funding briefings, accelerator sessions, university events, community activity, knowledge sharing, conferences and pitch events. The problem is not a lack of events — it is fragmentation across Eventbrite, individual websites, LinkedIn, newsletters, universities, venues, business networks, community platforms and social media. GoodShip* developed the product concept, event taxonomy, data model, capture workflows, categorisation, CMS, curation, search and filter concepts and editorial structure. EventsDock helps people find event organisers; it is not intended to replace them.

SupportDock — who and what can help

SupportDock is designed around how users actually think — I need help recruiting, advice on IP, an understanding of investment, support exporting, a specialist accountant — rather than around programme names, funding codes and delivery-body terminology. It connects people with business advisers, professional services, specialist expertise, innovation and university support, skills support, finance and investment organisations, export and IP expertise, commercial services, accelerators and ongoing support programmes.

OpportunityDock — what can I act on

OpportunityDock surfaces live, actionable opportunities. Information is not the same as opportunity: a press release announcing a funding programme is information, while a structured record showing what is available, who is eligible, how much, when it closes, where to apply, what geography and which sectors it covers is something a user can act on. It covers grants, funding calls, innovation funding, accelerators, competitions, procurement and tenders, investment, university and research opportunities, calls for collaboration, support programmes, sector programmes and business-growth opportunities.

SupportDock and OpportunityDock are closely connected but deliberately distinct, and they cross-link: someone discovers funding through OpportunityDock, then finds the expertise to act on it through SupportDock.

CommonDock — purpose, community and social impact

CommonDock brings the same connective thinking into the region's charity, social-enterprise, voluntary, civic and community ecosystem — connecting organisations, people, funding, opportunities, knowledge, volunteers, shared challenges, partnerships and stories. The aim is not to centralise the community sector, but to make it easier to see and connect.

Product and data architecture

The work goes well beyond naming and identity. GoodShip* has been building shared taxonomies, content types, tagging, user roles, admin systems, CMS workflows, search, filtering, categorisation, related-content logic, automated data discovery, editorial review, data validation, content enrichment, SEO and cross-Dock relationships.

Opportunity records are structured around title, type, provider, summary, eligibility, funding value, geography, sectors, audience, opening date, deadline, application route, source and status. The workflow is Discover → Extract → Structure → Classify → Validate → Publish → Update → Expire.

AI and automation

AI and automation help discover events and opportunities, extract and summarise information, classify records, suggest tags, identify duplicates and expiry dates, support SEO and maintain datasets. But this is not a fully automated content system. Human judgement decides whether something is genuinely useful, credible, current and relevant to Liverpool City Region. The model is automation + editorial judgement, not one instead of the other.

Data as infrastructure

Sources include government, councils, universities, Innovate UK, funders, accelerators, investors, business networks, Eventbrite, community organisations, professional bodies, partners, venues and procurement portals. The broader workflow is Discover → Gather → Structure → Classify → Validate → Publish → Maintain, and that data becomes shared infrastructure across the Dock products.

Storytelling and professional-services mapping

The editorial layer is part of the product: articles, interviews, guides, explainers, case studies, thought leadership, video, downloads and resources, so OneDock can answer both find me something and help me understand something. Alongside that, we are mapping the region's professional-services ecosystem — accountancy, legal, investment, insurance, HR, marketing, technology, R&D tax, IP, commercial property, finance and international trade — to connect business need → relevant capability → local provider.

What has been created

OneDock master brand, EventsDock, SupportDock, OpportunityDock and CommonDock, brand architecture, visual identity system, product architecture, shared taxonomy, data models, CMS functionality, content framework, editorial model, automated discovery workflows, opportunity classification, professional-services mapping, cross-platform navigation, partner proposition and ecosystem storytelling.

The journey is Question → Idea → Brand → Product Family → Data → Opportunities → Technology → Storytelling → Ecosystem Infrastructure.

Liverpool City Region already has extraordinary assets. The challenge is often discovering and connecting them.

Information usually mirrors the organisation that publishes it — and users do not think like organisations. A founder does not necessarily care which institution funds a programme; they care whether they are eligible. A business does not want to understand an entire professional-services landscape; it wants to know who can solve its problem. A person does not want to search 20 websites to find out what is happening next Thursday. A community organisation does not want to learn every funding body before discovering a live opportunity.

OneDock is designed around those real questions. It also connects to our work on Navigate, which asks how we make Liverpool's growth ecosystem easier to navigate, and to KinShip, which creates physical opportunities for people to meet, share, learn, question and connect. Separate projects, one shared principle: strong ecosystems become more valuable when people can see and navigate them.

The challenge is not collecting more information — there is already too much information.

The real challenge is turning fragmented information into useful next actions. And that requires more than technology. It requires data + design + judgement + storytelling + community working together.