We were totally impressed with how many of our speakers had looked up what pizzazz meant!
An attractive combination of vitality and glamour, the quality of noticeable and energetic excitement, fun to be with and sparkling!
Well, our day at Staffordshire University in the global capital of ceramics, Stoke on Trent, had all that and more; a fantastic venue, leading thinkers and practitioners in the world of place, and an audience that was eager to learn.
We considered the future of place through the prism of Salford with Tom Stannard, CEO of Salford City Council and Chair of the Institute of Economic Development; the role of the private sector in place marketing with Josie Morris MBE DLL MD of Woolcool and We Are Staffordshire Board Member; the future of town centres from very different perspectives with Mark Robinson Chair, High Streets Task Force and Co-Founder of Ellandi, Stephanie Kerr, Executive Director BID Leamington, Rhian Davitt Jones Director of Planning and Development CBRE; the new role of Homes England in creating great places with Tamsin Hart-Jones Head of Cities and Major Connurbations for Homes England; visualising your place story, Peter Anderson Creative Director, thinkingplace and Owner of Peter Anderson Studio; how to mobilise stakeholders with Rachel Bayley Burnley Place Brand Manager and Angela Brockbank Head of New Business and Growth at Thirteen Housing and Chair of Redcar and Cleveland Place Board; considering if culture is the X factor for place Paul Williams Chair, Stoke on Trent’s Cultural Destinations Partnership and We Are Staffordshire Place Board Member; driving change by figuring out the funding Corinne Day Newhaven Enterprise Zone Chair, Mike Denby Director of Inward Investment and Place Marketing at Leicester City Council and places doing things differently with our Founder John Till ending with a place therapy session … wow what a line up, what a day!
Everyone learnt new terms and approaches ‘travel to play’, ‘fuzzy geography’, ‘place layering’, ‘culture 3.0’ … we pushed the boundaries of place thinking.
Building on the event we held in Coventry at the end of last year (at the fifth attempt!) this was everything we hoped it would be and the room was packed. At thinkingplace we want to promote best practice, encourage fresh thinking and bring people in the often quite lonely world of place together. Some of the most exciting and rewarding aspects of the day was watching different places engaging with and learning from each other, just brilliant!
Pizzazz gets nowhere near!
