Bringing towns to life through events is about creativity and connections to place. That is the message that shone through to me at this year’s Association of Town Centre Management (ATCM) Summer School hosted in Hull.
In putting on this ‘event about events’, ATCM did what it does best: bringing members together to share experiences and learn about pertinent policy and practice. As Ojay McDonald, ATCM’s new Chief Executive and ringmaster for the day, explained in his opening remarks, well-organised events boost the viability and vitality of places, “Events are something nearly all our members are involved in. They have become essential for driving footfall in our towns and cities and getting people to reconnect with place.”
Learning from the City of Culture
What better place to talk about the transformative power of events, than in a Hull: a city that has faced its challenges and which responded in force as the City of Culture 2017 which delivered 365 days of activities and events. In her scene-setting introduction to the discussions, Katy Fuller, Joint CEO and Creative Director of Hull’s Absolutely Fabulous, spoke with authority based on Hull’s extensive experiences as City of Culture. Through telling the story of events created to celebrate Hull’s untold stories; to attract national attention; to spark the imagination through local folk lore; and provoke thought about the future, Katy demonstrated the twin need to underpin events with creative flare and an authentic connection to place.
Kathryn Shillito, City Centre Manager of Hull BID, told us about animating streets through urban food markets and how her and her team had to show creativity in engaging with local businesses and adapting to success. A first street food night was expected to attract 1,500 visitors and instead had 10,000 hungry customers! The street food nights have grown in to a regular monthly event that lives on beyond 2017, regularly attracts 8,000 customers and has helped to strengthen Hull’s culinary culture. Throughout its delivery and in future planning, Hull BID and its partners ensure a continued connection to place by meeting the objectives of local business involvement; growth of the hospitality sector; showcasing the city and delivering quality.
What, where, how
The importance of a strong connection to place defined in the what, where, how and impacts of events was emphasised in a workshop hosted by Dan Coombs and Luke Baldock of Elephant Wifi along with Jackie Mulligan of Shopappy.com. Their joint message was that in running events, like all aspects of town centre revitalisation, it is important to constantly think about the impacts you are seeking and how to measure them; whether that be increased footfall, business growth, community cohesion or place marketing. Technology including wifi activity and social media content can provide tangible ways to capture and measure the ‘buzz’ from events.
Delivering goose bumps
Alison Bowcott-McGrath and colleagues from Maynineteen put on a circus-based performance that demonstrated the importance of creative inspiration as well as the need to join-up the phases of event planning and management by juggling, spinning plates and accommodating fire-eaters! Successful event organisation needs to engage the so-called logical left-side and creative right-side of the brain. It is important to have the bravery to pursue “twenty seconds of creativity” with months of steadfast planning. Events that “deliver goose bumps” will deliver results it was proposed.
Adrian Watson, CEO of Aberdeen Inspired, gave us a tour de force of Scottish understatement when he talked us through how they “hadn’t done bad” to develop an internationally-renowned NuArt festival that is now in its second year. The inspiration of sharing experiences with Aberdeen’s sister town in Norway was converted in recruiting artists, seeking landlords’ consents. This enabled them to put together a programme that connected to the physical fabric and identity of Aberdeen in a way that fitted with the wider re-invention of this “capitol of the real North East”. NuArt Aberdeen delivers goose bumps and like many successful town and city centre events, it appeals to regular customers and a new audience that needs to be enticed to re-connect with place.
At the People and Places Partnership we will be re-visiting some of these events both virtually and in the real world to add to our body of good practice on revitalising town and city centres. Perhaps more than anything, running successful events draws on the creative talents of town centre practitioners combined with their continuous connection to place. Get that right and the aspiration reflected in Ojay McDonald’s opening comments, to drive footfall and reconnect with place, will be achieved. And goose bumps will be duly delivered along the way!
