Place Magazine Issue #7 2016 - Revive and Thrive

WWW.REVIVEANDTHRIVE.CO.UK REVIVEANDTHRIVE @REVIVE_THRIVE

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PLACE FOR TOWNS AND CITIES The finest eloquence is that which gets things done

#7

Bumper 55-page issue! ALSO THIS MONTH Blachere Competition Winners Announced Full report from Revive & Thrive’s Annual Conference and Exhibition Stories from all around the UK UK Markets Index

REVIVE & THRIVE’S 2

PLACE FOR TOWNS AND CITIES 3

INSIDE Edition #7

FROM THE EDITOR

p35, Revive and Thrive does Community

p44. Pop up Musuem

P4.

The Local Legends Campaign

P6.

Ceating a Digital High Street

P7. Free conference to address employability skills of young people P9.

Mo Aswat’s Blog

P10.

SpacesForChange Fund Offers Young People The Chance To Unlock Potential

P11. Alison Bowcott-McGrath’s Blog P12.

A thoroughly unique regeneration event

P14.

Kirkby: The home of independent traders

P17.

The World’s largest Illumination Company

P18.

Revive & Thrive Town Solutions Challenge Winners

P19.

Blachere 2016 Christmas Light Competition Final

P24.

UK Markets Index June

P25.

Sven Latham’s Blog

P32.

Huge thanks from Colchester

P34.

Breakfast with a conscience

P35.

Revive and Thrive does community

p40.

10 ways in which a Visa- based Gift Card Programme can be used to lock in spend for a town

P44.

‘Pop-Up Museum’

P45.

Performance Management for Partnership Boards

P46.

Head Out Not Home

P49.

Bridging the Digital Divide

I’m back. Personal vanity means that I am annoyed that Matt took the limelight last month in the first printed edition of our Place for Towns and Cities Magazine. Let me know if you want a copy posted out to you, it’s even more impressive in print despite Matt’s face instead of mine! So our Annual Conference is now over. We’ve had excellent feedback which is going to help us to develop bigger and better events in 2017. As well as our regional workshops we are now going to have two conferences next year, such is the support and demand for our events. Expect a huge and bold refresh of our activities next year. The Colchester event couldn’t have happened without the support of, mainly, Karen Taylor of Colchestersoup and her ability to motivate and rally the community to work with her to get things done. We are so grateful to all of them and they know who they are. We are also grateful for the support of Colchester Borough Council who were (are) passionate about bringing people to the town and we are pleased to hear that some of the delegates stayed for the weekend and explored the town further. Colchester is full of stakeholders all of whom are keen to ensure the survival and success of their much loved town. From the outside looking in and without detailed knowledge or experience of Colchester, it appears that Colchester suffers from the same issue as 90% of UK’s places – a difficulty in bringing the various sectors of the community together. Now beyond being eternally grateful

to Colchester and loving the place to bits, this intro to Place is not about Colchester. In this edition we start to discuss a two-year campaign that we will be launching early November to encourage residents and businesses to work more closely with Councils, BIDs, Town Teams, Partnerships and other groups delivering great work in a place. This will be the hardest piece of work that we have ever undertaken. For years there has been frustration at the difficulty in engaging with businesses in a place and on the other side there is also much Council and / or BID bashing from the community. But why? There are loads of reasons but we all know that bigger and better results can be achieved if we at least communicate better even if we can’t all work together. Elsewhere in Place we start to discuss this in more detail and the work starts with some case studies to inspire but to end this intro we will make the case for more engagement and harmony. In the meantime, ‘all we need is a great big melting pot’. Have a great month. Mark Barnes, Managing Director and Founder Revive & Thrive Ltd [email protected]

Revive and Thrive is a national network that connects people, places and solutions so that they can work together to make where we live great.

PLACE MAGAZINE Editor in Chief Mark Barnes Assistant Editor Matthew Powell Creative & Design Stephen Blackwell WWW.REVIVEANDTHRIVE.CO.UK

REVIVEANDTHRIVE @REVIVE_THRIVE Tel: 03330 124285

© 2016 Revive & Thrive


I am on the look-out for The UK’s number 1 Local legend. Here at Revive & Thrive we are looking for Local Legends: people, groups, businesses who get up and just do it and make where they live great. I have been given the job to head this campaign and I am really excited. Local legends may be an individual or a group of passionate people, a local business, BID, Council or Town Team. Who, with imagination, energy and a big dose of motivation have made their place remarkable. It may be an event, an experience, service

or solution. These are the things that are improving the places we live; attracting footfall, spend and engagement, and increasing the quality of lives for the people who live in our towns, cities and villages everywhere around the UK. We will follow your journey, hear about your struggles and successes, help to connect you to experts and gain insight and advice from others. We will share your stories and knowledge in our monthly online magazine, on social media and via our website so that these can be replicated nationwide. In Spring 2017 we will gather to award one of you with the “Inspiring Local

Legend Award” and your town will be in with a chance of winning a huge package of prizes to support your work in your community. Who is your Local Legend? Or perhaps you are a Local Legend? Send me a brief description of what you have done or are doing - feel free to include photos, videos and logos - and I will be in touch to find out more. Thank you, you Legends Imogen McIntosh Director of Commercial and Membership Services [email protected] 03330 124285

What’s in the Local Legend Campaign for BIDs, Councils, and other established partnerships? As a practitioner or custodian of places you might think that our two-year Local Legend Campaign is just noise or fluff. It’s a fear of mine too. We’ve all been in this space a long time and we’ve seen campaigns come and go with varied success and often with very few tangible outcomes. Why will this be any different? The campaign will have four six-month elements to it – • Inspire • Do • Deliver • Achieve During this inspirational period, we will be sharing successful projects from other places to encourage retailers and residents all around the UK to consider what they could do where they live and work to create the place that they aspire to be in.

Still sounds scary from a BID or Council perspective doesn’t it? We are always ambitious at Revive & Thrive Towers, so we are setting out our intent to crack the Holy Grail of place management – successful, active and ongoing retailer and resident engagement. So often, we have conversations that include the sentence ‘our retailers won’t engage’ or ‘we hold these meetings but no one turns up’. One could argue that it’s because we are not delivering the projects that businesses or residents want, but it could still be a project that they or the wider centre needs. This is a discussion for later in the campaign. We want to encourage people to become more involved and even create their own projects but working with BIDs, Councils, Town Partnerships and other Stakeholders, rather than in isolation.

We will encourage via promoting successful case studies (please send them in if you have any) and by coaching on the essential need to engage and work in partnership with exiting local stakeholder groups. This will be one of our loudest messages. We know what working in a BID and Council is like and we are committed to inspiring people to work with them rather than propagating the real or perceived notion that things get done in spite of these organisations. Of course we would love you to be involved when the campaign goes live in early November. If you want to discuss, please get in touch. Mark Barnes, [email protected] 03330 124285

Prize Package No entry process, no application form just be inspirational. This package is part of our Local legend campaign to help you deliver your visions. More to follow.

Town Centre Insight Data. Package of reports for your place which will include as examples reports on retail spend bubbles, dominant lifestyle groups and retail footprint graphs.

Free treasure trail for your Place in Global Treasure Apps plus 12 months marketing support material.


A Digital Toolkit getting ALL of your town or BID businesses online with all the tools needed in one package.

Win one of the largest Advent Calendars in the UK for your Place. This prize is from 2007 world record holder for World’ Largest Advent Calendar, City Dressing

Two half-day workshops to help the place make the most of its data. Noggin will help the place collect data more effectively and use it to support growth in the local area.

eCommerce offering includes full use of our Apps for mCommerce and Click’n’Collect, Notifications, and Location Alerts and GPS navigation.

1 x free of charge single count, fully managed, footfall system for 12 months with the option to continue the service element after 12 months, on a paid basis (optional)

Feasibility study to assess your place’s potential for introducing a Business Improvement District.

Win a wayfinding review for your place. With an optional £1000 voucher towards a full Wayfinding Audit & Strategy.

A set of Distance Learning Manuals. One half day workshop on how to run a Pop-Up.

Show how to run a Customer Service Awards programme. Carry out Mystery Shops on the top ten shortlisted business message which can be used as a key part of the final judging. Each will get a dedicated review of how their business has performed giving management an invaluable tool. Place Magazine special promoting every element of your place nationwide. Show off about all that is great about your community, town, city or destination.

A full days visual display training for your retailers

Blachere are separately offering prizes worth £20,000 in the Blachere Christmas Light Competition but also wish to offer a year’s subscription to the Blachere Digital Pathway.


Prior to joining ElephantWiFi, I was the BID Manager of Hinckley BID for 9 years. During my time with Hinckley BID I identified the importance of embracing technology to help us support our local business community and to allow us to gather data about and communicate with our visitors. Having done some research into the technology available, I decide my first priority was to look for a public access WiFi solution. There seemed little point in provide free public access WiFi to our visitors without getting something in return, I want a solution that could provide the following: • • • • • •

Town centre wide public access WiFi to my visitors Allow us to gather data about the users Allow us to market directly to these visitors live or post visit Help us collate an email data base of visitors Help drive our social media platforms And importantly provide us with a wireless network to help future proof our Town Centre

Creating a Digital High Street After receiving quotes from a number of suppliers, I opted for a solution supplied by my current employers ElephantWiFi, after all they were one of our BID Members! The solution provided us with public access WiFi covering over 80% of our town centre and almost immediately we began to reap the benefits not only in the form of some very positive local publicity but in in capturing that vital visitor data. Within 12 of the system going live we had gather inexcess 6500 visitor contact details and our facebook and twitter following had increased by more than 300%! Because of the way the solution had been set up, we also now owned a wireless infrastructure, an infrastructure that would allow us to bolt on other digital high street tools, such as state of the art footfall counting solutions, digital information points, CCTV and much more, hence future proofing our town centre. At this point Hinckley Town Centre was undergoing some major redevelopment with the development of a new shopping centre and leisure complex, our existing members were understandably concerned about the impact of these new developments on the existing town centre and their businesses. As such it was important that we were able to understand and map the impact of movement between the new sites and the core of our existing town centre. While we already had static footfall counters throughout the area, we want to understand not just numbers of visitors but importantly how these visitors moved around our town centre. The ElephantWiFi infrastructure

allowed us to bolt on their Geo-sense footfall counting and movement tracking solution. The system provided us with the ability to understand better how our visitors were moving from one location to another, determine between new and repeat visitors and record unique visitor number, providing us with all the data we need to better understand the impact of these new developments on the town centre. We now had the ability to not only better understand how our visitors used our town centre but the ability to communicate directly with a large proportion of these visitors keeping them informed of local news, promotions and events. The final element of our plans to create a fully Digital High Street was to help our visitors find their way around our new town centre and locate with easy the goods and services they required. This was done by installing 2 state of the art digital touch screen information points, providing full business listings, event calendars, feeds to local transport, social media and providing revenue opportunities via down time advertising. Again this system seamlessly bolted on to the existing infrastructure to allow for remote access and updates. We believe that Hinckley is now one of the UK’s first truly digital town centres and that we are better able to make future decisions about our town centre based upon the data we are able to capture and that our community are now more engaged than ever before. Jonathan White, Regional Director, ElephantWiFi and Board Director of Hinckley BID


Free conference to address employability skills of young people in Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Places still remain at a free conference which seeks to address the important issue of young people’s employability skills in Chesterfield and North Derbyshire. Event organisers, the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership and Destination Chesterfield are appealing to representatives from education and businesses to attend the free conference, which is being held at Ringwood Hall on Wednesday 19 October 2016 from 8.00am – 10.00am. The conference follows the launch of the D2N2 Employability Framework at last year’s (2015) Annual Conference of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership; a private sector-led body which promotes economic growth and jobs creation across Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. The Employability Framework – which is being delivered (with £300,000 in support) through the Governmentbacked Careers & Enterprise Company Enterprise Adviser Network, and D2N2 – seeks to address the mismatch

between the employability skills that young people are leaving school with or picking up through post-16 training programmes, against those needed by employers. While apprenticeship opportunities in the area have increased, a recent D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership study suggested more could be done by schools to promote apprenticeships to students, and work with local providers and employers struggling to fill apprenticeship vacancies” The increase in apprenticeship opportunities in the area and less young people to fill them, coupled with the opening of the new University of Derby’s St. Helena campus in Chesterfield, has pushed employability skills to the top of the local agenda. The conference on October 19 will aim to build stronger links between schools and employers in the area, and help young people better realise their career potential. Gail Widerman, Director of Placing Futures Ltd, who is helping deliver D2N2’s Employability Framework said: “We work with both schools and businesses and more and more

employers are telling us that they want work ready young people. I am delighted that so many schools and businesses have come on board with Chesterfield’s first Employability Skills Conference and are taking a joint approach to finding a solution and giving young people a very real future in industry.” Dom Stevens, Destination Chesterfield Manager commented: “With more than £1billion of investment happening in Chesterfield over the next 10 years it is vital that our young people are work ready and have the skills that employers want. Having a pool of work ready employees is one of the key reasons businesses invest in an area and create jobs. The conference is designed to bring together the education and business communities and address the perceived and real skills gaps before they become an issue.” To attend the free Chesterfield Employability Conference visit http:// www.chesterfield.co.uk/events/ chesterfield-employabilityconference/ Or, to find out more about the D2N2 Employability Framework go to: http://www.d2n2lep.org/skills/ employability-framework


steeped in operational expertise and security management. With a deep understanding and passion for the work, the level of detail and good practice evident in their work is second to none.

Aswat BLOG Mo Mosaic

The Mosaic team have been a busy bunch over the last month and since my last blog, visiting our client locations, new locations and inviting our colleagues from overseas to a UK study tour showcasing our varied partnerships and BIDs across the UK, in addition to attending industry exhibitions and events in the UK & Ireland. Going to all these various events and meeting people, you have some time to think and reflect and for me one of the most satisfying elements of this work is to see people develop over time and how this impacts on the place they work in. From individual staff to Boards who develop their knowledge and leadership to ensure that their business plan becomes a reality. We work with many locations that have exceptional leaders and have thus become trailblazers in aspects of place management. Whilst we don’t have the monopoly on good place management organisations there is great interest in it from around the world in this. We have had the pleasure of hosting our international colleagues from Singapore who have been in the UK to look at exemplary BID organisations, to inspire them in their own efforts ahead of setting up their BID and in particular looking at the leadership within these organisations. We have a long term relationship with Rugby, having taken them through 3 BID ballots. It started as a National Pilot in 2003. With one of the highest levy’s in the UK it has needed more than any other to demonstrate capability and return. Two renewal ballots with significantly higher turnouts and yes majorities are testament to its success. Rugby First is built on providing a safe and clean environment with highly trained rangers. The leadership here comes from a team who are

A very different type of operation can be seen down the M6 at the Colmore Business District (CBD). Now in its second term in an area dominated by commercial rather than retail operations, it has concentrated its effort on longer term public realm projects. The Snow Hill project, developed and led by CBD is an ambitious £10m scheme to renovate a key transport node. With their confidence and credibility enhanced by successfully delivering some smaller schemes this project will provide a very different environment, creating more usable, interesting and attractive public spaces that are activated, and add vitality. It creates a more valuable area in terms of the end user experience, and of course in terms of return for the property owners. The property background, drive and determination of the Chair in collaboration with the Executive Director and Project Managers who are tenacious to say the least, as well as embracing and putting into action, the lessons learned from previous ventures. This will ensure a level of delivery that will not only get some rightly deserved accolades but also attract further significant investment. We also took our international colleagues to Camden, where advocacy, lobbying and influence have been the major focus of the leadership of the Camden Collective organization. With a charismatic, highly experienced and politically astute Director at the helm, it has concentrated on the creation of creative business start ups as well as lobbying successfully to retain the soul and character of Camden by ensuring appropriate development in a pressurized and demanding London market. So influential has the place management organization become that they were subject to the threat of a multi million pound lawsuit for an opinion piece it had written! Our final visit was to the Heart of London whose ambition is nothing less than to be a ‘World Class Destination’. Heart of London was the first place to introduce Property owner BIDs in the UK, alongside its occupier BIDs, allowing for the ability to develop a cohesive longer term strategy. A highly influential

PLACE FOR TOWNS AND CITIES

and senior level board steers the 9 work of an experienced and long serving executive team. This level of leadership, knowledge and stability will allow it to achieve its stated aim, to compete with the best in the world.

There is a lot of discussion about leadership. It is clear that there is no ‘silver bullet’ Effective leadership requires different skill sets at different times, and it will be dependent on the varying needs of an organization at any given time. The skill is not necessarily in identifying an individual or model but understanding the cycle of things, for example knowing perhaps when to have a more transformational set up that inspires and leads to a more transactional one that provides order and delivers. Setting up new place organisations requires conventional skills at the table, financial, marketing, human resources but it also requires people with experience, passion, integrity, tenacity and courage. There are some lessons that can be drawn from the places we visited, where success is clearly demonstrated and they are regarded as leaders in their field. Some may be surprising, others not but what they provide is food for thought: • Experienced and well remunerated delivery teams. • Passionate and pro-active Chairs • Robust financial management but also the courage to be creative and take risks • Boards that are selected not elected. Does this perhaps make them less transparent and less accountable, or more focused and successful in delivery? • Interestingly, each of the locations have actively stopped referring to themselves as BIDs – Rugby First, Camden Unlimited, Colmore Business District & the Heart of London Business Alliance. They see themselves as Place Management organisations in a much wider context with ambitions beyond their business plan. The reality, even if obvious is that no two place organisations are the same and that leadership has many faces. We at The Mosaic Partnership will be delving deeper over the coming year on various themes around leadership so please look out. Mo Aswat http://themosaicpartnership.co.uk/


SpacesForChange Fund Offers Young People The Chance To Unlock Potential There’s great news for young people looking to make improve unused or underused spaces in their community – with the launch of a big new fund from UnLtd. The UK’s leading organisation for social entrepreneurs is behind a new fund called Spaces for Change that is aiming to find, fund, support and connect young people aged between 16 and 24-yearsold. Spaces for Change is an opportunity for young leaders around England to really make a difference to their local community. And there’s lots of

opportunities to get involved too. There are 100 awards available, of up to £5,000 in project funding. Each win will include a dedicated award manager providing tailored support, cohort support, peer-to-peer networking opportunities and much more. So, there’s a chance to learn and grow, as well as regenerate a place or space. Young people will also have opportunity to crowdfund alongside their award, with support from innovative online portal Spacehive. This further support will enable the young person to demonstrate tangible support from their community for the idea, learn valuable skills, as well as increasing the chances of sustainability of the social venture.

So, if you are or know any young people with a big idea for a social venture that will unlock the potential benefits of unused or under-utilised spaces for the local community, especially other young people then now is the right time to apply. The full details on the funding opportunities are here: http:// youngunltd.org.uk/looking-for-support/ spaces-4-change/ And we have a link to a really special launch event in Birmingham too:http:// events.unltd.org.uk/event/20161027spaces-for-change-s4c-launch-partyimpact-hub-birmingham

Spaces4Change, c/o UnLtd


Revenue Jump For Pinpointer UK Managed Venues BLOG

Alison BowcottMcGrath Pinpointer

THE UK’s leading place agency has announced a huge leap in revenues at its managed venues. PinPointer UK revealed a 28% increase in revenues in the last year at the 70 sites the company exclusively manages. PinPointer UK puts it’s success down to three key factors: •

•

The key relationship between the town centre manager and the account manager The generation of income

•

A good mix of promoters and brands

The company, based at Exchange Quay in Salford, works with a mix of locations across UK wide. From seaside towns such as Blackpool, Eastbourne and Weston-Super-Mare, to inner city New Bailey in Manchester and market towns including Stockport and Morley. Alison Bowcott-McGrath, the company’s founder and managing director said that the insight the company had gained in the last twelve years since it started had proved crucial. “We’re passionate about helping brands reach the customers they need. “The study of people’s shopping habits is becoming increasingly scientific. Over those we have researched footfall

timelines to ensure that the promotions run at the most effective time to attract customers. “Alongside that, we pro-actively market the location – attracting exciting brands, promote the venue on social media, remove the red tape by doing all the paperwork including the risk assessments, licensing and permits and obtaining payment. We generate a weekly and monthly revenue report along with data on promoter mix ” PinPointer UK has worked with major brands on recent promotions including, MacDonald’s McFlurry ice cream, Coke Zero and Belvita Breakfast Biscuits. For a free evaluation on your location please contact Alison Bowcott-McGrath on 07870 176949 or email [email protected]


REPORT

Imogen McIntosh

A thoroughly unique regeneration event A huge thank you to everyone who attended the Revive & Thrive conference 2016 in Colchester last month. We were given a warm welcomed by the Mercury Theatre staff and the wonderful Karen Taylor of Colchester Soup (http://www.colchestersoup.co.uk) who gave up three days of her week to help with the event and to making the day such a success. Over the two days we enjoyed competitions, workshops, presentations, networking and tours of historical Colchester. We were very lucky to have the honour of The Right Reverend Roger Morris, Bishop of Colchester coming along and kicking of the second day with an upbeat light-hearted comparison of Colchester past and present as that relates to community, regeneration and

the high street …………a great way to start the day. A special thank you to our team of impartial judges who had the most difficult job in judging this year’s Town Solution challenge winners, we have such a varied group of members with outstanding products, a very difficult task to judge. The overall winner was Jeremy Rucker of City Dressing for the second year running. I am not sure how Ronnie Brown of Blachere illuminations and Alison Bowcott-McGrath of Pinpointer were able to make a decision on the winner of the Christmas light competition where Weymouth BID won £10,000 of Christmas lights. All the finalists gave remarkable pitches about why their town should win one even moved us all to tears. As always it was great to see our business group members give their creative and informative workshops and presentations to potential customers. We hope that the town teams, BIDs and

council members found this useful and that this knowledge will go on to create some exciting new projects in your towns. The Revive & Thrive team left feeling happy in the knowledge that everyone left the event with either a prize, a new business opportunity or a new idea to take back and implement, which is precisely what we undertook to deliver. It is always such a pleasure to work with such inspiring people and to see connections made between businesses and places And once again thanks to PFM Footfall, The Mosaic Partnership and Blachere Illumination for sponsoring this event. We are looking for a town to hold next year’s Revive & Thrive conference. Please do let us know if you would like to showcase your town? Imogen McIntosh Director of Commercial and Membership Services Revive & Thrive Ltd

Winners of the Blachere Christmas light Competition Weymouth BID and the runners up who all went home with £1000 of Christmas lights

Testimonials We were thrilled to attend the event and represent our lovely market town of Whitchurch, Shropshire. We would like to thank Revive and Thrive, as well as Blachere Illumination UK for such a worthwhile event and great networking opportunity. The competition provided us with a fantastic platform to show what our town has to offer and how hard we are all working to make it a visitor destination of choice as well as a thriving place to live and work. Zoë Dean Acting Town Clerk Town Centre Manager/ Assistant Town Clerk Whitchurch Town Council The conference in Colchester was a motivational event with the opportunity to talk to some very knowledgeable and positive people. We have plenty of food for thought and hope to incorporate some of the ideas into the day to day work of the Council. Lynette Gill Bognor Regis Town Council The long journey was made easier by the wonderful hospitality of all the staff at the Revive and Thrive Conference, in the historical city of Colchester. Winning a prize made the day even better! Katherine Noble Town Clerk Newent Town Council

Just a note to thank you all for bringing such a great event to Colchester last week…I really feel that the event was a great success; there was a very warm vibe in The Mercury. It was a privilege to welcome delegates from all over the country and a real pleasure to hear how many chose to extend their stay into the weekend. This is just what we had hoped for. It was good to see some old faces and to learn more about community involvement and how they work with Town Centre Managers and BIDs as well as Councils elsewhere. Karen Turnbull Economic Growth Development Manager Colchester Borough Council


Southwater Parish Council 13 were delighted to be placed second! “We loved taking part and are delighted to have done so well. We need to show residents and visitors that Southwater is a place to visit, shop and to experience all that we have here. Attending the competition was also a chance to talk to the other finalists and find out what they were doing in their towns and parishes. We came away with some great ideas.” Thanks to the Revive and Thrive / Blachere Christmas Light Competition 2016 Southwater can really look ahead to a bright future. Cllr Graham Watkins, Chairman of Southwater Parish Council

A well organised and enjoyable conference. It was good to meet others engaged in town revival and promotion and I made a number of useful contacts. Thank you for the opportunity to present Kidsgrove. Thank you. Josephine Locke Go Kidsgrove

Sailesh Chauhan of Streetcloud

Judging the Revive & Thrive Town Solution Challenge


Kirkby: The home of independent traders Traders in Kirkby were recently invited to attend a meeting with Ashfield District Council to discuss ways of attracting more shoppers and visitors to the town. Sixteen traders, including national and local businesses, attended the meeting which was hosted at Ribbons Tea Rooms on Kingsway. The aim of the meeting was to provide a networking opportunity for traders and for them to discuss their ideas to improve the shopping, leisure and visitor offer of the town centre.

Ashfield District Council recognises the importance of the area’s town centres and local shopping streets to the local economy and has a popular Retail Improvement Scheme which offers grants to independent retailers to help them improve or repair the fabric and appearance of properties. Owner of Ribbons Tea Room, Tara Edwards, who recently won third prize in a regional tea rooms competition run by Trip Advisor said: “It was a privilege to hold the meeting at Ribbons, which involved so many local businesses. It was encouraging to see so many people working towards a shared goal of improving the town centre, I’m excited to see what the future holds for Kirkby”.

Claire Lilley, whose Artful Buttoner business has recently relocated into a new unit in Kirkby, also commented: “The support the Council is giving to independent businesses in the area will be a huge boost for local trade so can only be seen as a positive”. Cllr. Don Davis, Deputy Leader of the Council echoed the traders’ views: “I was delighted to see such a wide range of businesses represented at this meeting and that they were able to come forward with such good, positive ideas which we are currently analysing to see if we can take them forward quickly.”


Cardiff City Centre Ambassadors (up to 10 posts) and Ambassador Team Leader (1 post)

Cardiff Business Improvement District (BID) is a brand new business led initiative for Cardiff City Centre, with a £7.5m budget over five years to deliver improvements that make the city more welcoming and vibrant whilst also ensuring businesses have greater influence on how the centre is managed. The Ambassadors scheme is one of the BID’s flagship projects and we are recruiting a new team to provide a high profile presence through patrolling the BID area daily, liaising directly with businesses, local authorities, agencies, city centre workers and visitors. Your role is to ensure that businesses receive the best services in terms of cleanliness & maintenance contracts, security, marketing and promotion, business support and other communications. Ambassadors will also be the eyes and ears on the street with the ultimate aim being to improve the visitor experience through providing a helpful, welcoming and informative source of information. The successful candidate will be passionate about Cardiff with a high degree of self-motivation and excellent interpersonal, communication and organisational skills. Effective listening and observational skills will be required with an ability to deal with sensitive, testing and confidential matters on occasion. Confidence will be required in recording information and producing written reports/responses as required using Microsoft Office and other systems provided. This position will require outdoor work in all-weather conditions.

The Post will be a fixed term contract until 30th September 2021. (with potential to renew for a further 5 years). For the full job description please go to www.cardiffbid.com

For further information about the role please contact Owen Davies, The Mosaic Partnership on 07809 594524 or email [email protected]. CV applications and one page supporting statement identifying your suitability for the role should be sent to the email address by Friday 28th October 2016. Further information about Cardiff BID including the business plan and the job description can be downloaded from www.cardiffbid.com.

hEArtflOOd tOWn & CIty CEntrE MAnAgEMEnt • Advisory and Consultancy Work • Event & Project Management • Outsourced or Interim Place Management

www.heartflood.co.uk


The World’s largest Illumination Company supporting the World’s most famous Illuminations show We have been working with Blackpool Illuminations for over 20 years. It started off small, just 2 sets of low voltage tree lights. As time went on we became a trusted supplier. This year we revamped the iconic arches at either end of the 5 miles of illuminations. The product can be controlled to give different effects even text. The team at Blachere put in a great effort to get the job completed by the Illuminations big switch on, even work the Bank holiday

to make sure everything was in place and ready to go when the switch was thrown. Richard Ryan, Head of the Illuminations had this to say: “ Love the look of these and I must congratulate you on a thoroughly professional job executed both how you said and when you said. They look fabulous and will hopefully be a credit to us all. Sincere thanks for your work on this over an extended period including all your design/test and R and D. Kind regards and thanks to all of you.” Well done to everyone involved in this project. See you in Blackpool! Ronnie Brown Managing Director Blachere Illumination UK Ltd.


Revive & Thrive Town Solutions Challenge Winners 2016 Revive & Thrive’s Annual Conference in Colchester brought the shutter down on the Revive & Thrive Town Solutions Challenge for 2016. Another year of Revive and Thrive Town Solutions Challenge presentations in front a panel of expert judges ended with nine categories being won by six businesses. The criteria for entry was for businesses to present how their products and services could provide meaningful results and outcomes for towns, cities, high streets, communities and centres around the UK. Lead judge was Martin Blackwell, well known all around the UK as a place management expert and previous CEO of the Association of Town and City Management.

The rest of the judging panel consisted of respected place management professionals and practitioners on the ground working in their communities. Judge Lisa Sharp, of Sharp Business Insights Ltd said “I was very impressed with the standard and innovation within the entries to the Revive & Thrive Town Centre Solutions Challenge and it was particularly difficult to decide between a number of the winners. The dedication to finding solutions for town centres that will make real measurable differences was impressive. Working across small and larger towns in London I could see how these solutions would work in practice. Which of course is what the competition and the conference was all about.

country and with City Dressing who created innovative and meaningful ways to draw in the crowds engage with people across towns. And of course Blachere and their Christmas lights!” Matthew Powell, COO Revive & Thrive, said “As always the businesses inspired everyone in the room. Each year they keep enhancing their offers to stay inline with the ever changing needs of UK’s places. However, the standout element of this event was the passion and determination of the businesses to create the the right outcomes for our towns, cities and communities. Congratulations to all the winners and well done to the rest for excellent products and presentations.”

I was particularly impressed with Made You Look who got right to the hub of the needs of small retailers across our

See the full list of winners here


Blachere 2016 Christmas Light Competition Final to all be winners!’’ The Blachere competition was one of the highlights of the Revive & Thrive Annual Conference in Colchester which also saw the final of the Revive & Thrive Town Solutions Challenge. And so for another year, the Blachere Illumination Christmas Light Competition has come to an end. And, as has become the norm each year, the ever generous Blachere Illumination MD, Ronnie Brown gave away far more than he publicised or promised by inviting 13, not 10, finalists to the final all guaranteed to leave with a minimum prize of £1000 of Christmas Lights. Ronnie Brown said “I really enjoyed judging again this year. All of the entrants were as enthusiastic about their towns as they were about Christmas, which is the perfect mix for this competition” Fellow judge, Alison Bowcott-McGrath, Director of PinPointer said “‘’I was honoured to judge the annual Blachere Christmas Light Competition, I was amazed by the hard work that is put into many fantastic events planned in our towns both large and small across the UK. I was humbled by the community spirit and the time given by many volunteers to make their town Blachere Christmas Light Competition Winners 2016 the best it can possibly be – well done everyone you should be very proud

First Place winning £10,000 of Christmas Lights – Weymouth Weymouth BID Blachere Christmas Light CompetitionNigel Reed, Weymouth BID Manager, said “Thank you to Revive & Thrive for another great conference and the chance to win this amazing opportunity from Blachere Illuminations. We had some stiff competition but this is a fantastic reward for the BID team but more importantly an incredible win for Weymouth. Winning £10,000 worth of lightning will allow us to enhance Weymouth’s BIG Christmas lighting and really create something special for 2016.” Ilfracombe Testimonial Firstly, thank you so much for allowing us to be a part of Blachere’s fabulous competition and in turn your Revive and Thrive event! To win £1000 worth of Christmas lights is such a huge deal to us we are an entirely voluntary committee and all of our funding comes from the community. As you can tell from our video presentation we aren’t a rich community by any means but people are raiding their loose change jars and donating what they can to our cause and

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that is inspirational, so to be given £1000 worth of lights is such a boost for us! After we recieved the news on Friday that we were unsuccessful in winning the big prize, we uploaded our video presentation to Facebook to show our town just how proud we are of them and we set up a JustGiving Page thinking that we would get a couple of hundred pounds to help boost the coffers. We are now sat here open mouthed in astonishment as since Friday we have received £2050 in donations! The local businesses are being hugely generous (we only have independent businesses in town with the exception of a Superdrug and Lloyds who unfortunately do not support local charities and go for National ones instead) so we are currently in a state of shock! We still have tens of thousands to raise to get the lights anywhere near a decent state, but we’ve made a great start and the community is behind us so that is all that matters :) There is a link to our JustGiving Page here - www.justgiving.com/ crowdfunding/combe-christmas The local paper also went with this http://www.northdevonjournal. co.uk/video-ilfracombe-wins-christmaslights-worth-1-000-in-nationalcompetition/story-29773564-detail/ story.html


Advertise in Place Magazine Advert Full price Full page £200.00 1/2 page £100.00 1/4 page £50.00 1/8 page £25.00 Advertorial Full price Full page £150.00 1/2 page £75.00 Special Full price Front page banner ad £130.00 Inside front cover- full £220.00 Inside front cover-1/2 page* £110.00 Inside front cover-1/4 page* £55.00 Inside front cover-1/8 page* £27.50

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Light up the JQ: Save the date!

At a stone’s throw away from Birmingham City Centre, make the Jewellery Quarter the place to kick-start your festive season. On Friday 18th November from 5 – 7pm, the Golden Square in the heart of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter will be the stage for this year’s Christmas Light Switch On. Each year the Jewellery

Quarter BID install bespoke Christmas Lights across the Quarter. The design of these lights are inspired the area’s rich heritage in the Jewellery and manufacturing industries, sporting motifs such as the renowned Assay Office Anchor, rings and jewellery boxes. The scheme expands year-on-year to incorporate more streets into it for the enjoyment of more local businesses. The Switch On event will feature food and winter drinks, live entertainment, a special guest to flip the switch and fireworks from the roof of the Big Peg, one of the largest buildings in the Quarter. For more information, please visit the

official website: http://jewelleryquarter. net/event/lightjq/ The Jewellery Quarter is easy to get to with a 7-minute tram ride from the city centre (£1 adult single or 0.90p using a Swift Card). You can also catch a bus, walk or drive here. For more information, please see www.jewelleryquarter.net/ getting-here Accessibility Both squares are accessible to wheelchair users but some venues may not be. Businesses on the Open Studios trail with wheelchair access will be marked on the official Open Studios Map which will be release soon. For further information, please visit the Festival webpage.


If you like our Place Magazine you can now inspire your customers, retailers and residents with local stories and also inspirational articles from around the UK with your own branded Place Magazine?

Rebrand our Place with your Place Own your very own Place magazine to inspire your residents and businesses whilst sharing all the activities that you are delivering locally. We are offering town, cities and communities the opportunity to have their own edition of Place Magazine full of your content and branding and as many stories as you want about what is going on in your place. Be a guest editor. You can write the intro and choose the stories that will promote and support your work locally. We will enable you to have a quality publication built with you and around your needs with very little effort or cost but with huge effect. Contact Mark Barnes on 03330 124285 or email [email protected] if you want more information.

Put your Business in the right Place Now we can help you to put your business in front of more potential clients by rebranding Place Magazine with your corporate branding. Fill our Place Magazine with all the details about your business and as much promotion as you want to include. Be a guest editor and speak freely about the news that is important to your business. Our content will offer more reasons for your clients to read through the whole magazine exposing your products and services to many more eyeballs than a corporate publication of your own. As per the offer above, using a successful template and existing resource will enable you to have a quality publication built with you and around your needs with very little effort and very little cost and with huge effect. So make our Place your Place and share your corporate message all around the UK. Contact Mark Barnes on 03330 124285 or email [email protected] if you want more information.

Appreciating the 5 High Street Truths: Truth 5 - the DNA of Towns Differs The long term downward trend in high street footfall across the UK, first recognised and since then tracked by Springboard, has been well documented. Having monitored the performance of high streets since our inception in 2002, and with published indices from January 2009 we have been able to identify the sometimes very subtle changes that have been occurring in high streets and deliver these insights to clients to bring understanding of and context behind the trends.

What our experience has enabled us to do is to establish Five High Street Truths – five key principles that sit behind town centre performance. An appreciation of each is critical if town centre performance is to be fully understood, however, for this article I will focus on Truth 5, that the DNA of towns differs. So how have we reached this conclusion?

A significant finding of the study was that around 50% of all towns do not have a clear discernible signature, and the study identified that these were likely to be centres that are changing from one type (usually comparison) to another, not usually through choice but due to a reducing retail offer which – given the enduring obsession of town centres to focus on offering a strong comparison retail offer – is at least in part inevitable.

In its seminal research project on high streets, HS2020, MMU and the IPM analysed Springboard’s footfall data to ”50% of all towns do not have establish that there are four key types of a clear discernible signature” town - comparison towns, convenience Long downward trend in High 1 towns, speciality towns and holiday Street footfall So what are the key lessons to be towns - with each having a unique learned from this by town centres? Vacancies are lagged & footfall signature or DNA. And it is by Firstly, that whilst benchmarking a 2 sticky indicator of High Street towns recognising their own DNA and town’s footfall against town centres is performance implementing appropriate strategies beneficial as it delivers the context for and interventions that Customer usage of High Streets is Footfall Data Footfall byperformance KeyData Townbycan Types Key performance, Town Typesbenchmarking delivers 3 be maximised. changing Footfall Data by Key Footfall Town Data Typesby Key Town Typessuper-benefits if that comparison is made with the relevant town type. The A key conclusion of the project was High Streets are Adapting 4 other key lesson for towns is that – like that towns with a clearer signature us all as individuals – they need to be perform best; footfall fell by -1.8% over 5 The DNA of towns differs true to themselves and implement a two years in towns with a discernible vision and strategy that enables them signature while in towns without a to be as best as they can be rather than Our raison d’etre is the delivery to discernible signature footfall fell by be a less than perfect near replica of towns and cities a real understanding -3.8% over two years. So why is a clear others. of their performance so they have the signature important? Well, a clearer ammunition and evidence required signature means a clearer and more Please get in touch with Springboard for to enhance their performance. With cohesive offer for consumers. more information on the HS2020 project, this in mind, Springboard expanded its and the latest collaborative project between Footfall by Data byKey Key Town Footfall Data by Town TypesTypes portfolio to embrace sales tracking and MMU/IPM and Springboard, Bringing Big so that the relationship between footfall Data to Small Users, a £1 million project funded by the UK Innovation Agency. and pounds in the till - the end game for occupiers – is understood and the most appropriate interventions can be implemented. And we also developed Milestone, enabling towns and cities to benefit from the broad range of performance indicators centres January December September January town February January March February April March May April June May July June August July August October September November October DecemberNovember December had long been seeking but were unable Holiday Town Speciality HolidayTown Town Convenience/Community Speciality Town Convenience/Community Town Comparison Town Shopping Town Comparison Shopping Town anuary February January April May March June April July August May September June October July November August September December October November December to acquire in March a useable andFebruary affordable Holiday Town Speciality Town HolidayConvenience/Community Town Speciality Town Comparison Convenience/Community Shopping Town Town Comparison Shopping Town format. Holiday Town

Speciality Town

Convenience/Community Town

Comparison Shopping Town


Powered by

SEPTEMBER 2016 106

MARKETS FOOTFALL INDEX (AUGUST)

RETAIL SALES VALUE INDEX (AUGUST) 106

105.2

104

105

102

104

100

103

99.2

98 96 94

102 101

96.0

100.8

100

92

99

90

98

Aug-16

Jul-16

Aug-15

-3.3%

-8.8%

Aug-16

Jul-16

Aug-15

-0.6%

MARKETS ANNUAL FOOTFALL TREND

+3.4%

ANNUAL RETAIL SALES TREND 140

140 120

104.8

104.2

2015

2016

2015

120

100

100

80

80

60

60

40

40

20

20

0

2016

0

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

1st to 8th Aug 2016

Wet and Windy

Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

9th to 16th Aug 2016

17th to 24th Aug 2016

Strong Winds

Dry and Windy

Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

25th to 31st Aug 2016

Sunny & Warm

UK Retail Markets and town centres almost matched each other with a decline in footfall between July and August 2016. For the markets sector the YoY footfall deficit is now close to 10% - increasing the challenge for traders to maintain healthy sales. Retail sales are still strong on a YoY view. But Month on Month they show a decline of 0.6%, continuing the drift since the start of 2016. Announcing their figures for the 6 months to end of July, sector ikon John Lewis reported profits down by almost 15%. Sales actually grew by 3.1%, but profits were hit by price competition, rising pay awards, and burgeoning online sales. The retailer talks prophetically of ‘far-reaching changes taking place in society, in retail, and in the workplace.’

Sponsored by NABMA – The Voice of Local Authority Markets


to bring an 11-12% increase; instead it dropped by 3%. This is, of course, not to deny the countless times when forecasting gets it right. Day-to-day patterns are usually pretty consistent. It does however demonstrate that, despite our collective best efforts, forecasting major events is still a tricky task. Latham BLOG Sven Noggin

Imagine for a moment if we could tell with certainty how many people will visit our towns. We could tell retailers exactly what to expect, so they can plan staff levels and promotions. Car parking could be better managed; events held for maximum impact. If we know what lies ahead, we can prepare and spend more effectively. Across a town, this is likely to have a net benefit. In a retail-heavy city centre, a misjudgement could be costly. It is little surprise then that retail experts rush to set out predictions for bank holidays, seasons and events. Expectations are set, and in the hope that our high streets will recover, positive forecasts are worthy of attention and hope. Sadly, hope can lead to disappointment. Despite forecasts of a decent August bank holiday (6-7% up year-on-year), actual footfall figures were reported down 4%. Black Friday was expected

The reason for this is two-fold. First, we’re still short on good data. This is rapidly changing, and there are several initiatives running now to get decent, long-term and detailed data in the hands of researchers and practitioners who can learn from this and develop our understandings.

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will be hard to predict. We’ve had three years of this event on the High Street, and each one has been wildly different. This year, we could see retailers embrace the idea once again, or consumers continuing to favour online deals to avoid busy streets. There are no real benchmarks. Likewise, throughout the year we might well see another shift in our town centres. With Brexit we could well see retail sales taking a hit, but could this be helped by an increase in ‘staycation’ and inbound tourism helped by the exchange rate?

Second, town centres are incredibly dynamic. The lessons learnt from a few years ago don’t necessarily apply in the same way today, as shoppers’ preferences change and initiatives from BIDs make big changes.

As ever, to be able to understand what is going on we need to measure and understand the figures, and importantly to share our insights. Regional meetings of BIDs and town centre managers are a great way to exchange lessons learnt, and understand what is on the horizon. Suppliers and researchers working together for mutual benefit.

Back to the Black Friday example, and why it’s so tricky. In the UK, Black Friday has only really existed for a few years, and began with Amazon online in 2010. It began to pick up in bricks-and-mortar stores in 2013, and the following year saw scenes of fighting and surging crowds in our supermarkets.

In the case of shopping events, it means talking with retailers to find out what they plan – particularly as many of these chains have their own sophisticated forecasting in place. Confidentiality is always an issue, but engagement at any level gives us clues about what to expect.

In 2015, we saw a rather more sober approach take hold. Asda – one of the early adopters of the phenomenon – stepped away from Black Friday altogether. Other retailers spread their offers over the entire weekend into the following ‘Cyber’ Monday.

With this kind of collaborative thinking we can hope both for better, more accurate forecasting and – with unknowns like Black Friday – being more prepared for all eventualities.

From a forecaster’s perspective 2016

Sven Latham https://www.noggin.bi/


Much more than mint cake Kendal is renowned for its mint cake but there is so much more to Kendal than meets the eye. It was voted as one of the best places to live in the UK which comes as no surprise as it nestles a few miles from the Lake District National Park, has the main west coast mainline connecting it to London under 3 hours and the M6 within a 10-minute drive. Couple that with intricate cobbled streets, over 200 independent shops that sit alongside a plethora of cafes, restaurants, coffee shops and big name stores, its very own ancient castle, numerous museums and a beautiful picturesque river walk teaming with wildlife.

In 2014, the businesses in Kendal voted in the Business Improvement District and over the course of 2 years and a lot of hard work we have celebrated the diverse range of businesses by creating opportunities for both independents and corporates, believing in the fundamental principal that every town needs a mixture of both big and little businesses and they feed off of each other to the benefit of our vibrant community. With this in mind we launched the Kendal gift card, shaped as a mint cake (obviously) but our card is the first of a kind, it is aimed at any business including corporates. We also gained Healthy Highstreets Status and using this

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network have managed to engage and sign up some of the biggest names on the high street; Mountain Warehouse, Trespass, Pizza Express, Boots, Booths Supermarkets to name but a few, we also have over 100 other businesses and another VERY major international business that have also all but confirmed their support. Every day we are signing up more! This isn’t bad for a town that 10 months ago was languishing in the aftermaths of unprecedented rain fall and half of its town under water. Sarah Williams BID Manager Kendal


Chippenham’s Classic Christmas brought to you by Chippenham BID Celebrating Chippenham’s official start to Christmas is a time honoured tradition, which of course begins with the illumination of the town adorned in magical Christmas lights, showcasing a selection of well-loved festive activities and experiences for all the family to enjoy! Enter Chippenham BID’s second Light Switch On, which is all set to take place on Friday 25th November. Situated at Chippenham’s beautiful Market Place, this year’s event will welcome back some of the traditional activities of Chippenham’s Christmases past, including Santa himself abseiling over the beautiful Angel Hotel...yet the piece de résistance are our fabulous special guests who will be joining us fresh from rehearsals for Cinderella at The Bristol Hippodrome this Christmas – Britain’s most beloved sporting heroes, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean. Live entertainment will fill the town centre from 4pm, where visitors can enjoy festive performances which include live music, festive walk-about characters, choirs, dance troupes, creation stations at Emery Gate Shopping Centre, festive story-telling at The Neeld Community and Arts Centre and more – plus a few surprises throughout the crowd during the evening… The main stage at the Market Place will be live from 5:45pm, hosted by the energetic Ben and Mel from Heart FM and will see a whole selection of quality performances from our local community and beyond; including aerial hoopists, musical performances, a fabulous show courtesy of Chippenham’s Dancing Academy and more. Santa will

then be welcomed into Chippenham as he departs his sleigh and begins his descent down The Angel Hotel, where he will join Olympic Gold Medallists and sporting legends Torvill & Dean on stage to officially begin the countdown and illuminate the town centre. If that’s not enough sparkle for you, the evening will culminate in a breath-taking firework display, dancing across the rooftops of Chippenham’s lively hub of businesses. Matthew Powell, Interim BID Manager of Chippenham BID, said: “Of course, the BID is funded by the businesses within the Chippenham BID area, as well as Chippenham Town Council –so by working in partnership, we are delighted to bring these events to the town together to begin the festive season. Chippenham has a great deal to offer and we know the town has already started to get into the spirit. We look forward to celebrating yet another great year”. Nicole Johnston, Chippenham BID Director and Chair of the BID’s Events Sub-Committee, said: “We are thrilled to have the fantastic Christmas celebrations in Chippenham back at the Market Place. This year’s event is going to have a great deal of ‘wow’ factor with new and exciting acts and surprises, yet I think there will be elements that Chippenham residents know and love to bring that extra bit of sparkle” The team are also extremely excited to be welcoming such legendary sporting heroes to the town to officially switch on the lights. Steve Jones, Marketing Manager at The Bristol Hippodrome said: “We are delighted to be working with Chippenham again this year for what we know will be a fun filled fantastic Christmas light switch on event. We know that Torvill & Dean will enjoy visiting the town whilst helping them to

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start the festive season!” From 2006 to 2014, Torvill and Dean became prime time TV favourites as coaches, choreographers and performers in ITV’s Dancing on Ice also taking the show on the road in their national UK tours. In 2014, Torvill and Dean returned to Sarajevo to dance the Bolero one more time, celebrating the 30 year anniversary of their Olympics performance. Torvill and Dean will now be swapping their usual ice skates for inline skates to perform the classic tale of Cinderella in a breath-taking family extravaganza with glittering sets, gorgeous costumes, big song and dance numbers, bags of audience participation, real Shetland ponies and jaw-dropping skating sequences! Of course, the magic doesn’t stop there. Each and every Saturday in Chippenham leading up to Christmas, Chippenham BID will be bringing you more fun and free events suitable for the whole family alongside other town centre businesses, including magical winter creatures, festive attractions, competitions and giveaways. The best part? All of these events and activities are completely FREE to enjoy – so you can focus on taking a little time out of the busy Christmas period to have a little fun in your local town! Keep up to date with all things Christmas by checking out our website at: www.chippenhamconnected.com For further details on Cinderella please visit www.atgtickets.com/bristol We can’t wait to see you there!


Revive & Thrive Town Solutions Challenge – The People’s Vote We need your help to see which place solution provider will win the People’s Vote. Revive & Thrive’s challenge to businesses, is to demonstrate how their product, services or solutions are the best ones to pull together those elements of Colchester’s community, to interpret the heritage of the town in a way that meets the needs of locals and visitors, young and old, and to support the infrastructure of this place to help it develop and grow in an ever more competitive 21st Century marketplace. Don’t worry if you are not an expert in regeneration. Just look at the applicants and consider what will best improve where you live or work. We’ve used our conference host Colchester as an example but just apply the scenario to your town, city or community.

The Challenge As an example town, Colchester is the UK’s oldest recorded town, with heritage and architecture dating back to Roman times. From medieval shopfronts and castles, to a unique Victorian water tower, the town boasts over 2,000 years of history, setting it apart from many other places in the country. Today, the town benefits from both a stable resident community, a young and dynamic demographic, thanks to the university, and a strong visitor offer. With a forward-thinking council, a strong resident-led voluntary sector and an energetic new town team, Colchester is well-placed to take advantage of local, regional, national and international visitors.

This Challenge is supported by Colchestersoup and Colchester Town Team

However, as with any town or city across the country, Colchester has both opportunities to improve and challenges to face. We want you to tell us which of our competitors offers the best solutions to these challenges - who should win The People’s Vote in the Best Solution for Towns and Cities? Please vote below. As a reminder the solution needs to meet the needs of the your community, but should also demonstrate how it is transferable to other UK towns and cities. If you want to be updated when new entries are posted online, email [email protected]

Best Overall Winner 2015 – City Dressing


1. Space-Qube

4. Blachere

2. miconex

5. City Dressing

3. Streetcloud

6. OurLocal Town

7. Pinpointer

8. Madeyoulook

Click here to vote now >



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hEArtflOOd tOWn & CIty CEntrE MAnAgEMEnt • Advisory and Consultancy Work • Event & Project Management • Outsourced or Interim Place Management

www.heartflood.co.uk

The Digital Toolkit

Get all your town online

OurLocal.Town's Digital Toolkit puts all the tools you need in one affordable package. • We have an Interactive Calendar that is very easy to update, that looks how you want it to look. • A Dynamic Directory that lists every business in the Town Team area not just retail! • Businesses can talk to each other via Town Connect • Town Teams and businesses can engage with their customers via the Town Crier. • Deals & Coupons. We can make sure everyone knows who is offering what and where and the deals in the high street. If you want any further information on what we can do to help you please don't hesitate to get in touch [email protected] 07796 950624 www.OurLocal.Town


Charity calendar to go on sale courtesy of the Northwich BID Northwich is blessed with many beautiful historic buildings and breath-taking environments but not everybody knows about them. As such, in late 2015, the Northwich Business Improvement District set out on a quest to find the best images of the town and surrounding areas as captured by the people of Northwich. As a result, the Visit Northwich Photo of the Month competition was born. Since then, the BID have been completely blown away by the sheer numbers of amazing images that have been sent in; they’ve been a brilliant advert for Northwich and have helped enlighten people as to the wonderful places in the town that are just waiting to be explored. Proceeds from the calendar will be divided between the BID and The Joshua Tree, an amazing children’s cancer charity that helps support families

across the North West living with the life-changing experience of childhood cancer. All money the BID receives from the calendar will be reinvested on projects and services in the town to continue to help businesses going forward. The calendar for 2017 features the town’s waterways, shots of unique projects and installations and also shines a spotlight on unique buildings, both and old new, that help make Northwich the town it is today. Currently in the initial design phase, the calendar will be ready for sale at the beginning of November and will be available to buy through the Joshua Tree and a number of businesses and locations within the town including Northwich Library and Weaver Hall Museum and Workhouse. A full list of stockists will be announced on the Visit Northwich Website towards the end of October. Northwich BID Manager Jane Hough loves how the calendar has come

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together and has been blown away by the sheer quality of the images. She’s also hopeful that the calendar will help raise plenty of money for the Joshua Tree. “When we first launched the competition back in December 2015 we never anticipated to have such a positive reaction from the people of Northwich – so many people have got involved and it’s great to see.” “I think some people have actually been surprised by the environments captured on many of the photographs and have gone out to explore as a result which is fantastic.” “I can’t wait for the calendar to go on sale later this year and hopefully it will generate plenty of money for the Joshua Tree which does such fantastic work here in the North West.” For more information on Visit Northwich’s Photo of the Month Competition and to see images entered so far this month, head to the POTM Page on the Visit Northwich Website.


Huge thanks from Colchester This card was received at Revive & Thrive towers after the Colchester conference. This is typical of the warmth and informal discussions that Revive & Thrive cultivates amongst its membership and we are so grateful to be able to do what we do.

Actually, our thanks should be to Colchester and its people for making our conference delegates so welcome. A special thank goes out to Karen Taylor of Colchestersoup who’s passion for where she lives brought us to Colchester as a venue initially. She also attracted the support of a number of Colchester residents who helped out both before and at the Conference. Thanks also goes to Colchester Borough Council for their support. Now back to the card – [Dear Revive & Thrive] “This is the biggest card I could find for the massive thank you

from Colchester. The two days were absolutely top notch and I really hope some of the ideas come to fruition. Thank you so much for all of your efforts to ensure the success of the event. I do hope to see you again in Colchester one day and in the meantime will continue spreading your word on Twitter. #awesomepeople” Karen @ Colchestersoup


We show traders just how important their shop fronts & window displays are for attracting business First impressions count if you want customers to stop and stay! displays can help your traders raise their profiles potentially increasing sales. If the high street is looking dull, grey and dusty where is the appeal? Who will visit? However with colourful, exciting shop fronts and window displays visitors will stop, explore and possibly stay - the whole community will benefit.

Presentations and Taster Days We have something to suit you! We show traders just how important their shop fronts & window displays are for attracting business Presentation Be inspired! Invite us along to your town and we will talk about why first impressions are crucial for any business - not just retailers, and how eye-catching window and interior

Accompanied by an inspirational PowerPoint presentation we will show your traders the basic points and principles of display and the importance of planning ahead. We also show how upcycling old props means they can still create fabulous displays with little or no budget. It’s full of many exciting photographs of both good and bad examples - a real wake-up call for some! They’ll be amazed how a couple of simple, inexpensive changes can make all the difference to their businesses! Taster Day Create a small display too If you have more time with us we expand upon the fundamental rules and

guidelines of display…and once delegates have a clear understanding of the display rules, we will practise basic grouping techniques using simple shapes. If time allows we will do a couple of other simple projects too which they’ll find invaluable for most displays, sometimes working with a small selection of their own merchandise delegates have been invited to bring along with them. We can scale this down into our ‘Mini Taster-Day’ where half a day is all the time available - twilight sessions an option too. These short workshops will be the perfect springboard from which they’ll gain inspiration and enthusiasm in order to move their businesses forward to the next level. There is no limit to numbers for our Presentation but our Taster Days are limited to 10 delegates per trainer. www.madeyoulookmadeyoustare.co.uk


Breakfast with a conscience GO4 Enterprises origins lie in homelessness, an experience fortunately most of us never have to even contemplate yet experience. A roof over our head, food in the fridge, warm bed are things we probably all take for granted. In our Market Café in Holy Trinity Church, Trinity Street, we often have homeless drop in and we help them out whenever we can, having recently initiated a Breakfast Payforward for anyone unable to afford a hot breakfast, hot drink, we have been amazed and humbled by our customers response, so hopefully we can sustain this with continued customer support, no grinding grant making applications, simple human response to another humans need. The scheme relies on customers buying a breakfast in advance for someone down on their luck. It costs £5. Its an adaptation of an idea out of Naples, where customers of a coffee shop were invited to buy coffee in advance for people in need. The first day we went “live” Wednesday 14th September, our very first customer of the day was a lad I knew to be on the streets, coincidentally he had come to us because he had no money – his benefits had been stopped, no place to stay – he was sleeping rough on the Hythe Quay, and hadn’t eaten. He looked emaciated,

to how I remembered him before, his face was bruised and his arms and legs lacerated from being beaten up. He had been denied a tent from a local charity working with the homeless. The reason being was that they wanted to “see him around” for a longer period of time before giving him a tent. He didn’t have the money to get into the night shelter, and in any event had been banned for a previous misdemeanour. £3 though for a night in the shelter buys a lot, and is only the price of a coffee, almost, but is a kings ransom to some people He had come to us because he had been going round all the charity shops asking if they had a tent they could give him. He found one but they wanted £6, so that’s why he came to us, hobbling on crutches, his foot in a cast, he wanted to know if we could give him a job for the day so he could go and buy the tent and a pillow, which had been put aside for him. He wasn’t seeking charity from us, he didn’t know about our Payforward Breakfast scheme, he was clutching at straws, desperate for a tent. We couldn’t give him a paid job for the day, but were able to give him a hot cooked breakfast and drinks. We went to the charity shop to confirm that his story was true, and it was, so we

bought the tent for him out of our petty cash float – explaining why we need a tent in our catering operation will be tricky with our bookkeeper!!. Some people have a problem accepting Social Enterprises as “proper businesses”. Some would rather the issues that surround homelessness, poor, not be seen in High Street settings where image is paramount. We counter those views with positive action. In re-viving our High Street areas we want to embrace those that are less fortunate, help them eat, work with other agencies that support them, but also serve our own customer base, whose amazing response to our scheme is a big vote in favour of what we are doing. In every High Street, retail area, there are empty lifeless shops, we brought an empty lifeless Church back into being again……a contemporary re-surrection. If we can do it, anyone can do it. Colchester Borough Council extended us an opportunity, how long we can remain is unknown, our future tenure in doubt. The principle worked here and can work anywhere. The challenge to the council is to continue supporting “edgy” initiatives, because they bring life and diversity, as well as commercial activity in dis-used buildings.


Revive & Thrive Brings the Community Together At the end of September Revive & Thrive came to Colchester, with the culmination of months of planning, for the annual conference. Following a submission from Colchestersoup when snow was just melting the conference took place just at the end of a fantastic summer. Ahead of the day companies had submitted ideas for town solutions, some great ideas in the mix and some we hope will eventually come to fruition. Earlier in the year SpaceQube had visited the town in advance of compiling their entry for a pop up to suit the town and had produced video of how a community, business and council could pull together for the good of the town. With a strap line of “be vocal about local” they had clearly understood the town. Another idea was miconex town gift card - with the advantage of compatibility with existing payment card machines. Forcing spend within independent

businesses it reinforced the idea of “spend your money where your house is” Judges were in place to decide the winners and judging took place over the entire two day event alongside the Xmas lights competition. Local events and speakers entertained alongside workshops from visiting businesses and the whole event had a balanced amount of business, community and council, clearly giving voice to the ethos of a coherent society. Having heard about go4market cafe on the first day it was rewarding that some attendees took the trouble to search it out...and even better the following day when the owner walked in and greeted his new friends of the day before.... connections made across 200 miles in a day. A small group visited a local restaurant ‘the cells’ in the evening, although that may not have been the only hostelry they visited! Overheard the following day “you should have come with us last night, we were in the padded cell, you’d have loved

it!” - possibly not a common conference comment but a great time had been had by all. Another couple of attendees stayed an extra night and visited a local village Wivenhoe - for fish and chips- because the Bishop recommended it. With talks on bringing the community together, helping the community start in business, issuing community shares and a talk from the council alongside other town presentations Revive and Thrive showed with an exemplar performance just how completely the various aspects of a town could gel perfectly. A roaring success, now to build on relationships forged, hope for some of the ideas to come to fruition and make sure Colchester stays firmly in touch with Revive and Thrive. Karen Taylor Www.colchestersoup.co.uk


Taxi Marshals Set to Return to Chippenham In support of Chippenham’s thriving night time economy, the Chippenham BID will be bringing back Taxi Marshals to the town centre to help maintain an enjoyable evening for visitors and ensure a safe journey home. This has arisen from an initiative the BID have been working on within the Welcoming, Safe and Clean project area, which launched on Saturday 17th September. Ben Gregory, Chair of the Chippenham BID Board, said:

“We are really pleased to be bringing back the Taxi Marshals to Chippenham after working on this initiative with members of the Welcoming, Safe and Clean Sub-Committee. They will add an extra element of visitor wellbeing within the vibrant evening scene in Chippenham, working closely with security and the Street Pastors to ensure revellers are safe on their night out” Marshals have proven to be highly effective in other towns and cities in reducing illegal ‘pick ups’, controlling taxi queues, improving the safety of vulnerable persons and dealing with confrontational situations. Chippenham’s Taxi Marshals will be in post on Saturday nights, plus during

busier periods throughout the year such as events and special occasions. They will work at peak times to ensure the safety of visitors to Chippenham’s restaurants, clubs and bars. Chippenham has already been recognised as an entertaining, safe and enjoyable night out after achieving Purple Flag accreditation back in February. The Taxi Marshals further reinforce how important safety is to the businesses in Chippenham and will look to maintain its high standards within the welcoming and safe sector. To find out more, please email: [email protected]

Carlisle Ambassadors Find Innovation At Eden Golf Club Carlisle Ambassadors’ latest meeting showcased the wealth of innovation in Carlisle and beyond. Over 200 people attended the event at Eden Golf Club, and had an opportunity to visit stands and chat to teams from Pirelli, Innovia, Forth Engineering, Tech 4 Office, Cumbria Police and more. The Quality Director of Pirelli, Tony di Gravio, talked about the innovative “Pirelli Noise Cancelling System” used on the P Zero tyre which is manufactured locally. “750 people do this work in Carlisle on a daily basis. They are very proud and so am I”. He reminded the audience that “when driving home, all that comes between you and the asphalt is four tyres” and explained that it involved more than “just pouring rubber

into a mould” as has been suggested to him on numerous occasions. The other key speaker at the event was Oliver Viney of Atlantic Geomatics, who showed why Innovus had supported their development of cutting edge surveying equipment, which is now being looked at globally for a variety of applications. The event was also hosted by Adrian Davis-Johnston of Innovus, an organisation that seeks to commercialise innovative technologies in Cumbria. He reminded the audience that the county punches above its weight in this area, and that it is vital to ask for help and support in order to turn ideas into reality. He was proud to cite Atlantic Geomatics as one of their many success stories, and also the fact that his organisation has strong links with various companies exhibiting at the

meeting. Colin Glover of Carlisle City Council said that “Carlisle and Cumbria has so much innovation going on and it is really good to showcase it”. The Carlisle Ambassadors continue to nurture an effective mix of public and private sector collaboration, which has resulted in projects that have made a difference both to business and community. The clearest example of this is the success of the Give a Day project, now in its second year. At this meeting, there was a clear call to action from Chris Graham of Carlisle Eden Mind, and an excellent response to his offer of free workplace training to reduce mental health issues at work. Collette McQueen of Bespoke Minds also managed to light a spark in the attendees and get volunteers for her “Hotstepping for Floods” fire walk.

www.ourlocal.town | [email protected] | 020 8133 8654 STOP PRESS! We are very pleased to have won REVIVE & THRIVE Challenge in two categories.

- Best Solution for Supporting Business - Best Digital Solution Thank you to all the judges and those who attended the excellent event in Colchester.

Pick which tools you want, or have them all in one package - with the Digital Toolkit 

• We want to help towns • Tell customers what is going on. • Communicate with each other as businesses. • Say who and what is on in town. • Provide a platform for offers and deals. • Ensure every business in town can have their own fully responsive website. Bricks & Mortar and Online the best solution


for Places The Blachere Digital Pathway for Places is about connecting your place – the people and businesses in it – to make a real and lasting difference.

In today’s towns, cities and high streets, it is no longer sufficient to provide a passive service, assuming that businesses will thrive and visitors will come. It is not even enough to manage a well-kept and attractive environment. Visitors to your place, whether local residents or tourists, will research, document and comment on their visit so they need to be able to understand your offer before coming, have a great experience whilst there and provide positive feedback after the event. Businesses face similar challenges: they need to not only be online but use the digital world as an opportunity to showcase their brand and, importantly, attract new customers and

promote what they are doing. And what technology offers is the opportunity for all of this to be done seamlessly, connecting places with their business community, businesses with customers near and far and reengaging visitors with the places they know and love (as well as discovering new places to fall in love with). The Blachere Digital Pathway for Places is being launched as a way for you to discover where your place sits on the road to becoming a fully integrated digital town or city and how you can more easily travel along the road to connectivity. Blachere Illumination are proudly getting behind this initiative as they fully understand the wider benefits of connecting places

with their communities, not just through lights but through all experiences and how, in this digital age, the things that we see, hear, feel, taste and touch in the places we visit or work in are talked about and celebrated online. The starting point for the Digital Pathway for Places is a straightforward series of questions that will allow us to understand what you have achieved so far, what your digital aspirations are and how we can help you realise them. We will tell you if you are “aspiring,” “achieving” or “exceeding” against your own targets and against other places around the country, and will help you to promote and celebrate brilliant connected, collaborative,


innovation. Equally, this process will allow you to learn from those great initiatives happening elsewhere. And because the pathway is about connecting your community, we are encouraging users of your town or city to get involved too. Once we have begun the initial process with you, we will give you two online surveys for you to share with your businesses and your visitors. The results of these will help shape the next steps that you can take to continue moving your place forwards digitally. The Blachere Digital Pathway for Places will add to the experience that businesses and visitors receive and will enable your place to compete and enjoy at least some of the tools that large

retailers, shopping centres and online retail enjoys. The Pathway covers all aspects of “digital,” from static websites, local apps and high street marketplaces to wi-fi, augmented reality and data capture and management. All, though, as these things relate to the physical appearance, experience and infrastructure of your place – the bits that will ultimately encourage visitors to come to you. Revive & Thrive is fundamentally committed to helping places be better and do better and this invaluable tool will both reward you and make it easier for you to achieve your digital dreams. Participants will receive an accreditation certification, a benchmark of achievement and a

pathway to further development, along with support and advice to help move you up the league table of digital towns and a review of your on-going progress. Sign up to Revive & Thrive Town Leadership Membership and receive all of this for just £50. That also includes additional editorial content in Place Magazine and on the Revive & Thrive website and social media coverage to encourage your residents and businesses to participate. Standard prices for Blachere Digital Pathway for Places accreditation: Revive & Thrive Town Leadership Members can join the Blachere Digital Pathway for Places at a reduced rate of £325+ VAT. Non-members can also get involved for just £375+ VAT.


10 ways in which a Visa-based Gift Card Programme can be used to lock in spend for a town Miconex attended the Revive and Thrive Conference in Colchester last month and held a workshop where we explored how a Visa-based gift card programme can be used to help lock in spend for local businesses. It’s always interesting to get a different perspective and I thought it might be useful to share the outputs with those that could not attend: 1.Present for friends and family - this is an obvious one! Christmas is coming up and you need to buy 20 presents. Who do you know that would like the local town gift card? This would give them the choice of going out for a meal, shopping, hair and beauty treatments, cinema or theatre. 2.Incentive - are there local businesses or organisations that use incentives within their business? What do they use and would they be interested in

switching this to the local town gift card? 3.Wedding Present - It’s always difficult to know what to buy couples getting married. Why not give them the choice of the whole town. Maybe they just fancy a night out after the stress of getting married! Groups of friends can all pitch in for a single card to give to the lucky couple. 4.Staff reward - Recently a local council switched their long-service awards from a crystal gift to the town gift card. A better present to receive and recycles the money in the local economy. 5.Visitor pass - The local gift card could be marketed to visitors as visitors pass where they purchase a card and then receive discounted entry in local attractions. 6.Competition Prize - this is always a problem for place managers, what prize to use for a competition which doesn’t preference one business over the other? With a town centre gift card, this issue disappears once and for all. 7.Leaving Present - There is someone leaving at work and as usual a kitty is collected to buy a leaving present. A town centre gift card makes the perfect present as it gives the choice back to the

recipient. 8.Thanks for visiting - One of the towns we work with have started giving £10 gift cards to the bus tour companies that come to visit. These cards are given to the drivers so that they can grab a light bite. 9.Loyalty card - We explored lots of ideas of how the pre-paid gift card could be used as a loyalty card. The programme enables the user to load money onto the card as many times as they want - could this be used to create a loyalty programme? 10.Welcome gift - A local estate agency have started to give their home-buyers a £50 town centre gift card on completion. This helps them to stand out from the competition and is a great little gift to receive after the stress of a home move. Miconex are busy setting up gift card programmes across the company. If you would like more details, please contact Colin Munro at [email protected] 01738 444 376. Miconex will be running another workshop on Visa-based Gift Cards on Nov 1. All the details can be found here.


Revive & Thrive Recruitment Service Revive & Thrive Ltd has an unrivalled network for promoting recruitment opportunities in its specialist area of Town and City Centre Management and Business Improvement Districts. Revive & Thrive’s network reaches around 30,000 contacts with an interest in Retail and/or Place Management. We also receive enquiries from professionals looking for work or contract opportunities as well as BIDs and Councils looking for new recruits. Our daily interactions with our members and other contacts mean that we can offer a powerful, focussed and specialised recruitment service that will help you find the right professional for your BID, Partnership, Council or Town Team.

Benefits to Revive & Thrive Recruitment include – •

• •

• • •

A unique specialism in Town and City Centres and a service run by experienced TCMs and BID Practitioners Daily interaction with 30,000 relevant contacts through Twitter and LinkedIn At least three mailouts to over 5,000 relevant contacts per month all of which will include your appeal for candidates. One recruitment specific mailout per month Advert on www.reviveandthrive. co.uk for as long as required to secure the right candidate Vetting and shortlisting service available (enquire for costs)

Cost: Revive & Thrive Members – £165 + vat Non Members – £235 + vat

Revive & Thrive are also inviting professionals looking for a new position or new contract to submit CVs for Revive & Thrive to hold on record for new opportunities. This service will ensure that you are at the front of the queue and are signposted to relevant inbound calls looking for suitable candidates. Additionally, Revive & Thrive will promote 500 words and a downloadable CV about the professional through the website, 30,000 contact reach and regular mailouts. Cost: Revive & Thrive Members –£35 inc vat Non Members – £55 inc vat To find out more or to submit an advert email: [email protected] or call 03330 124285

Revive & Thrive’s New Membership Structure



Town Leadership Member This membership level is best suited for BID Managers, Town Centre Managers, Town Teams, Local Authority employees and other voluntary groups. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Connect with others, share best practice and experience in running a successful town or city Solve your local conundrums and put questions to the place professionals on the Revive & Thrive’s Expert Panel for free. Exclusive only to Revive & Thrive members. Receive Revive & Thrive’s Place for Towns and Cities Magazine direct to your inbox Unlimited opportunities to promote your place and its events via multiple blogs, thought pieces and other articles within Place Magazine. Higher profile within Place Magazine Discount on all Revive & Thrive services Participate in the Blachere Digital Pathway Enter the £70,000 Revive & Thrive Challenge Discounted entry to all Revive & Thrive Events Networking Host your own Revive & Thrive event Receive the monthly UK Markets Index Receive discounts and special offers from our Business Group members Be the first to hear about the newest and most innovative town solutions Extended deadlines within our competitions and challenges

People Passionate about their Place Membership Individual membership for people doing wonderful things in their town. Collaboration is the key to the future of the high street and where we live. • • • • • • • • • •

Submit one article per month to Revive & Thrive’s Place for Towns and Cities Magazine to promote your local projects Limited access to solve your local conundrums and put questions to the place professionals on the Revive & Thrive’s Expert Panel for free. Exclusive to Revive & Thrive members. Enter the £70,000 Revive & Thrive Challenge Participate in the Blachere Digital Pathway Sharing your voice in our newsletters and at our events Revive & Thrive Cost Reduction Services (available if you upgrade to Town Leaders membership) Discounts and special offers Discounted entry to all our Talking Town events Host one of our regional events Extended deadlines within our competitions and challenges

Annual Membership £42.50+VAT

Individual Membership £75+VAT (1 individual) Dual Membership £125+VAT (2 individuals) Full Membership only £245+VAT (5 individuals)

Memberships 2016

Business Group Membership

Revive & Thrive Associate Membership

Supporting organisations that provide town solution services and products to connect with communities UK wide. • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • •

Promote your business Come face to face with your target customer base Take part in our Talking Towns Events Discount to exhibit and take part in the Revive & Thrive Town Centre Solutions Challenge. Connect with others, share best practice and experience in running a successful town or city Put questions to the place professionals on the Revive & Thrive’s Expert Panel for free. Exclusive to Revive & Thrive members. Receive Revive & Thrive’s Place for Towns and Cities Magazine direct to your inbox Unlimited opportunities to promote your place and its events via multiple blogs, thought pieces and other articles within Place Magazine. Place has a reach in excess of 30,000 and is aimed at towns, cities, UK destinations, Councils, BIDs, Town Team, Towns Partnership and all others passionate about place. Attend our inclusive Business Group meetings Benefit from discounts and special offers Take part in our competitions showcasing best practice Revive & Thrive Cost Reduction Services Be part of our Town Solution Services Directory Receive the monthly UK Markets Index Keep updated with opportunities and news via our monthly newsletter

Annual Membership only £435+VAT. Bespoke packages available on request

Associate membership of Revive & Thrive is open to all those working in a freelance capacity with towns, cities and communities up and down the country. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• Increase your links with other high calibre professionals across the UK Benefit from both internal and external expertise Regular networking meetings Increase your earning potential Solve your local conundrums and put questions to the place professionals on the Revive & Thrive’s Expert Panel for free. Exclusive to Revive & Thrive members. Receive Revive & Thrive’s Place for Towns and Cities Magazine direct to your inbox Unlimited opportunities to promote your place and its events via multiple blogs, thought pieces and other articles within Place Magazine. Discount on all Revive & Thrive services Participate in the Blachere Digital Pathway Enter the £70,000 Revive & Thrive Challenge Raise your profile by submitting articles for our newsletters and magazine Share best practice and good news stories with our 30,000+ followers Discounted entry to Revive & Thrive events Take advantage of Revive & Thrive’s cost reduction services Discounts and special offers on our Businesses Group members’ products and services Earn commission on Revive & Thrive membership and business group sales Be part of a solution focused collaboration aimed at improving our country’s towns, cities, villages and high streets

Annual Membership £100+VAT or £10+VAT per month

Click to Apply or See More Information


‘Pop-Up Museum’ Proves People Want A Permanent Showcase! A DAZZLING one-day display of a town’s history drew in droves of visitors. Stow and District Civic Society attracted 1,200 people to a ‘pop-up museum’ – revealing over 250 artefacts donated by locals, collectors and businesses. One-off Wool, War and Wonders, at St Edward’s Hall, aimed to gauge public support for a permanent collection to celebrate Stow’s rich and colourful past. “We know we have the history and the items for a museum – now we know we also have the backing and enthusiasm of the whole community,” said antiques dealer Simon Clarke, Society member and exhibition co-collator. Locals came up trumps with glorious memorabilia linked to Stow’s main claims to fame – the popular wool markets and landmark 1646 Battle of Stow, the last major skirmish of the first English Civil War. And everything inbetween rolled in for ‘Wonders’ – from eye-catching pottery by former Tiller Girl and ex-Stow Mayor Vera Norwood to tiny 18th century rumbler bells used by horses and carts. Positive feedback filled the visitors’

book. Resident Neil Halley said: “Been and seen this exhibition – fantastic. I went for an hour and spent two-and-ahalf.” Victoria Rogers, museum manager of The Cardiff Story, said: “Happened across this – lovely to see such enthusiasm from so many local people for heritage. There was such a lovely atmosphere and a real buzz.” There was also a ringing endorsement from leading UK museum consultant Sam Hunt. He said: “The pop-up museum provided an insight into Stow’s rich history. The case for a permanent museum is a strong one and there’s clearly the enthusiasm to take it forward.” Society chairman Nigel Surman said: “With this response the Society wants to keep the momentum going to explore the idea and find suitable central and accessible facilities. A lot of people have not only just supported the idea of a permanent museum but are prepared to offer help in the future.” Simon, who catalogued all items with former museum curator and Stow resident Cynthia Duval, added: “After seeing how professionally the popup was run and what we’re trying to achieve, several people said they’d be happy to loan their items permanently. But a dedicated museum needs a lot of thought and careful planning as

it’s a major project – it won’t happen overnight. We do need to find a way to fund this project and will be seeking financial help from people and going out for grants. We would hope, from this success, we’d also have county and district council backing.” Another dimension of a future museum would be a collection of audio memories of Stow. The Society is now appealing to local families and friends who have lived in or known the town for many years to make recordings for The Story of Stow project. It will soon organise small informal group meetings and oneto-one discussions at homes or suitable venues. Mr Surman said: “We see this as an enjoyable and invaluable way to preserve the history and stories of our wonderful town.” Stow Civic Society are not wanting to reinvent the wheel. If any readers have had success forming a Heritage Centre or similar, we would be delighted to hear from you and share your experience whilst grateful of any advice you may offer. For contributions or more information on the museum project visit www.stowcivicsociety.co.uk; contact Nigel Surman on 01451 833783 or Stow Civic Society on Facebook.

David Hanks - Hall Buzzing with Locals & Visitors

Performance Management for Partnership Boards I was lucky enough recently to meet some people that I’d first come into contact almost 20 years ago through the Countryside Agency’s Market Towns Programme while at Action for Market Towns at the Revive & Thrive Conference in Colchester. There are so many unsung heroes battling away to help their special piece of the UK prosper. So, a special mention to one of them, Janet Marriott at the Coleford Partnership!

My workshop at the Revive & Thrive conference looked at how partnership boards function and how they can work most effectively. The first question is, when did you last formally ask the question, how well are we working?” For many partnerships that’s a long time ago. If you are a BID then you should do that a year out from renewal every term, which means every 5 years. Of course, if things are not going well do it more often, and probably with outside help. Let’s get over the language: I see the review as a “validation” rather than an “evaluation”. Validation asks: • • •

Is the organisation “fit for purpose”? Is it efficient? Are all appropriate stakeholders

•


engaged Is the direction right?

So it’s, forward looking. Whereas, Evaluation is: • • •

Looking at specific objectives Delivery of the Business Plan Funding objectives

In other words, “Have we done what we said we would do?” i.e. backward looking. The first step in getting board members to think about this might be to do a Partnership Skills Audit[ Email consult@ martinblackwell.co.uk if you’d like a copy]. Doing this you will find out things you didn’t know about people you may have know for a while, things they did and skills acquired before joining the board. It’s also good for identifying gaps. If you have no board members with, say, finance or marketing experience you but want to target people. An excellent tool by R. Lesirge & R. Oakley at the Cass Business School is the Board Appraisal Toolkit: the selfassessment grid. It’s designed for charities but so much of it applies. It asks, of a series of issues that impact on boards, such as, Understanding or Energy, is it a) Cause for concern?, b) Needs attention or c) Still room for improvement? I think there should be d). Everything is just fine! Getting people to open up is a challenge. To do this in a non-threatening way is simple. Tie a length of string across the room, say 2m long. One end is the starting point, to the left say, the situation partnership found at the beginning. The string represents the progress you have made compared to

where you wanted to be 5 years (or how ever long) later. Ask board members to tie a piece of twine or ribbon to the line to represent the progress made against what you set out to achieve. If you have achieved everything, and more, everyone will tie there ribbon at the right hand end. I have to tell you that this is unlikely to happen! You will get a range of options, but by illustrating it graphically like this it opens it up for discuss; why some thinks that way. And with that opportunity you can move on from there. To be a really high performing partnership there are many factors that come together, most important of which is the people. If you can get the right people around the table all willing to be flexible, with energy and commitment by all the parties involved you’ve got a good chance. I have run many Partnership Governance Reviews over the years, and talking to each other in an open way is the most important ingredient for success. Martin Blackwell www.martinblackwell.co.uk


Head Out Not Home CH1ChesterBID has hailed the support of the city for its ‘Head Out Not Home’ campaign, after new figures revealed that city centre footfall on Thursday evenings was up by 22 per cent this summer. Launched in July, the Head Out Not Home campaign was designed to help bridge the gap between the city’s daytime and evening economies. More than 40 retailers including Primark, Next, Debenhams and many inside the Grosvenor Shopping Centre agreed to keep their doors open late every Thursday and a range of special events and activities were organised to attract more high street visitors. According to independent data, more than 141,000 people visited Chester city centre between 4pm and 9pm on Thursdays across a nine-week period between July and the end of August – an

increase of more than 25,000 people against comparative Thursday night footfall figures in 2015. Newly released August footfall figures have also shown a significant increase in the total number of city centre visitors during the month. A new report1 produced for CH1ChesterBID showed that city visitors were up by almost 20 per cent year-on-year to just under two million – well above the UK average, which was up by just 1.1 per cent. The figures follow a similarly busy July for Chester, where footfall was up by 13 per cent. Carl Critchlow, BID Manager at CH1ChesterBID, said: “It’s been a fantastic summer in Chester city centre and the latest footfall figures for Thursday evenings and for August are extremely positive. “Our Head Out Not Home campaign has had some amazing support – from our city partners, from residents and from visitors – and we’re delighted to see it has helped contribute towards bridging that important gap between the daytime

and evening economies. August’s footfall figures are also welcome news and come off the back of a very strong July for us in terms of visitor numbers.” A range of music and street entertainment was organised by CH1ChesterBID during the summer, as well as two dinosaur-themed trails, which proved hugely popular among couples, friend groups and families. Carl added: “Seeing the city centre booming this summer has been fantastic and we’re looking forward to carrying that momentum forward in the months ahead. We’re already focused on the build-up to Christmas and we’ve got some wonderful events and activities in the pipeline and of course, late night shopping will be back throughout the city centre on Thursdays from late November.” For more information about events, activities and festivals taking place in Chester city centre, visit www. experiencechester.co.uk

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intrigue inspire illuminate


Bridging the digital divide Colchester Revive & Thrive event. High street practitioners were able to come together meet each other, share ideas, learn and discuss how to help town centres over two informative and interesting days. Meeting in person is the best way to share ideas. Why it is important….. As Mary Portas’s paper said, ‘Our High Streets Still Matter’. We need to imagine the High Street in 20 years from now and build on that goal. This will involve both a high street and online presence. High Streets need to tell people what

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is going on, communicate with each other. 68% of adults have a smart phone and over half the internet traffic is via a mobile device. However just under half of small businesses have NO website and nearly all have no online shop. Most customers want to shop locally so it is vital to tell them what is going on and available. This is best done by bridging the digital divide and making sure high streets communicate effectively in person and online reaching out to as wide an audience as possible. For any further information, help or advice please contact: [email protected] 02081338654

“Give your town the run around” Give your town the run around is more than a run, it’s about community & supporting what matters locally. Brought to life in Hoddesdon Town in the Borough of Broxbourne in September 2014 we have brought an energy to town which has brought the community together through fitness & wellbeing. We have 2k 5k & 8k running routes to choose from so something for everyone. Being specific to the town we run in with who we showcase, who we support & who supports us we promote all things

local & provide a stage for the town to be the best it can be. We have an official music single with a video supporting local artists, commercials all filmed around the town & more. We have even launched “Give your school the run around” which is centred around fitness, the importance of TOWNS & the part they play in the communities that surround them. Towns are changing & we have big plans to play our part in the change. “I have been overwhelmed with the support so far, a few weeks ago we had

our 4th town running event, we have also had Give your town the RIDE around & Give your town the WALK around, we have opened a street office in town called YOUR TOWN & are working hard on other projects including a unquote walk, run, ride series! The belief & support of businesses, Broxbourne council, local retailers, volunteers, sports clubs, schools, charities and general public has been overwhelming... let’s see where the future takes us.” Mark White (founder of the event)


Remembrance Sunday artwork project coming to Northwich

The Northwich Business Improvement District (BID) and ArtWork Studios & Gallery are teaming up to create a poppy visual on the side of Hinchliffe Holmes in Pocket Park; a great way to honour those who gave their lives for us.

A range of other organisations will be taking part in the design process too, ensuring a complete realisation of partnership working to help bring an impactful creative project to fruition. During the design process, ArtWork Studios & Gallery will be working with Winnington Park Primary and Victoria Road Primary Schools to add creativity and they will also work with the Dementia Friends Group too who meet at the studios once a month.

Plans are still in their infancy and anyone who wants to have a go at helping design the artwork can.

It is also hoped that the Royal British Legion will come on board with the project too.

On Thursday 6th October and Saturday 8th October, ArtWork Studios & Gallery hosted two Poppy Team meet ups where anyone could drop in to the studio and chat about how to get involved.

Installation of the artwork is set for the week commencing Monday 24th October and will stay up throughout the entire month of November.

Northwich is gearing up to commemorate Remembrance Sunday like never before after a special artwork proposal was approved.

Northwich BID Manager Jane Hough is thrilled with the proposal and can’t wait

to see the artwork installed. “It’s always brilliant when we’re able to team up with one of the town’s businesses to help create a wonderful community project such as this.” “Pocket Park has been a revelation since it’s redevelopment and I think an emotive poppy display will look amazing on the wall next to it.” “Those who gave their lives for us during combat deserve the utmost respect and recognition and this will be a fitting way to honour and commemorate them.” To keep up-to-date with the project, please visit ArtWork Studios and Gallery’s Website and make sure you keep checking the Visit Northwich Facebook page.


The next three issues of Place will all have a theme and we would love for you to get involved. As well as the usual content we would like you to work with us to inspire others with our three special editions:

Issue 8: Christmas Lights Switch on and other festive events and projects Please tell us your plans for the peak trading period and your plans for light switch on events, markets, late night shopping and other festive experiences and we will promote them for you. We intend that others will learn from you and deliver similar projects locally. Deadline for submission: Midday 10th November 2016

Issue 9: How did your festive shopping launch go? Send in your photos and stories about your festive projects. Deadline for submission: Midday 7th December 2016

Issue 10: Projects for 2017 What are your plans for your place and community in 2017? Let us know your headline projects and we will share with others. Use this edition to appeal for ideas for the New Year. If you have an idea but need support or suggestions from other places, this is the edition for you. Deadline for submission: 10am 6th January 2017 Email your stories and pictures to [email protected] and call 03330 124285 for more information.


Revive & Thrive’s

Expert Panel With Revive & Thrive you are never far away from a solution to a problem and finding the answers that you are looking for is now easier than ever, thanks to Revive & Thrive’s Expert Panel. Whether you want a simple answer to a straightforward question or an opinion on policy change the Revive & Thrive Expert Panel is here to help. Our panel of highly experienced professionals, passionate about their areas of expertise, are offering to share their knowledge at no cost to all Revive & Thrive members. The panel will grow over time and if you don’t think any of them are suited to answering your question, contact us anyway and we will find an expert who can. We all look forward to hearing from you.

Mo Aswat The Place Management and BIDs Expert Jean Ball

Ronnie Brown

Steph James

The Experiences and Lighting Expert

The Community Engagement Expert

Jeff Caplan

Alison John

The Mystery Shopper Expert

The Pop Up Shops Expert

Sailesh Chauhan

Sven Latham

The Digital Ecosystems Expert Jonathan Docksey

The Data and KPIs Expert

Matthew Powell

The Wayfinding Expert

The Business Engagement Expert

Mark Barnes

Helen Goodwin

David Snelders

The Place Solutions Expert

The Visual Displays Expert

The Retail Training Expert

Mark Brodermann

Chris Gregory

David Sturdy

The Town Centre Partnerships Expert

The Footfall Expert

Noel James

UK Engage

The Historic Towns Expert

The BID Ballot Experts

The Events Expert

The Digital Comms Expert Alison BowcottMcGrath The Use of Space Expert

If you are a member and you want to submit a query, simply email asktheexpert@ reviveandthrive.co.uk or call 03330 124285 to find out more.

R Join

ive

From residents and volunteers to councils and BIDs to providers of town and city solutions, joining us offers you a wealth of opportunities to improve the place you work in and are passionate about, to recoup your

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As the UK’s only membership organisation for everyone passionate about Place –

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investment and to learn from others as well as share your own stories of innovation and success. With membership prices starting from just £42/year, Revive & Thrive also offers an affordable route to becoming part of the UK’s most solution-focused network of communities, businesses and place activists.

Full membership benefits can be found on the Revive & Thrive website and include: • Free unlimited access to Revive & Thrive’s Expert Panel • Discounted entry to all Revive & Thrive events • Access to cost saving opportunities on expenses from insurance and utilities to merchant fees and recycling • Exclusive discounts from Revive & Thrive Business Group members – save on Christmas lights, place dressing, digital solutions, data management solutions and more • Free editorial space in Place Magazine to showcase any aspect of your town or city that you want to tell the world about as well as 50% discounts on advertising to promote your forthcoming events • Promotion of your place through the magazine (5,000 subscribers) and via associated social media marketing (30,000+ reach) • Extended deadlines on all competitions and challenges such as Revive & Thrive Challenge for Places

Joining us couldn’t be simpler – just fill in the form on our website and start taking advantage of these great member benefits today!


Presenting Revive & Thrive’s Corporate Advocates All of Revive & Thrive membership subscriptions help to fund Revive & Thrive’s activities including the valuable yearly challenges, the Talking Towns Events and Annual Conference, Place Magazine and promotion of the Expert Panel. We are very grateful for the ongoing and fast growing support of the membership. However, our Corporate Advocates take support to the next level. Their sponsorship and support enables us to keep our charges low or free across every service that we offer. Our Corporate Advocates ensure that support and solutions are available to communities and places of all sizes whatever opportunities and challenge they are experiencing and whatever budget they possess. Thank you for your support and we are proud to introduce our current Advocates and Sponsors.

We want to hear stories about your place! Submission deadline for articles for the November Issue of Place Magazine:

10th November

Contact us at [email protected]

Memberships 2016

PLACE MAGAZINE WWW.REVIVEANDTHRIVE.CO.UK REVIVEANDTHRIVE @REVIVE_THRIVE Tel: 03330 124285 © 2016 Revive & Thrive