The Creative Collective...A Creative Success

I want to start this update about the City Centre BID’s 5th collective event in the city, by saying a huge thank you to everyone who not only made the time to come along to the event, but also brought their best thinking and enthusiasm to make it the success it was. The 5th in a series of gatherings of city centre champions, the Creative Collective was designed to place creativity at the heart of conversations about collaborative opportunities for business, creative organisations, community and visitors in the city of Stoke-on-Trent. It was the busiest yet with a record number of people registering to attend.

After a welcome from Emily Whitehead, currently undertaking a project to support business & positive narrative building for the Stoke-on-Trent City Centre BID team, the collective heard from a panel of speakers about their experiences of working and collaborating in the city as well as what they can offer to those wanting to get involved and create success.

Tom Nadin from Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce, shared some of the new funding opportunities and support available in the city including the new UKSPF backed ‘Promoting Innovation Pathways Programme’ or PIP for short, which is designed to provide impartial skills advice and brokerage support to SMEs, social enterprises, and early-stage start-ups across Stoke-on-Trent to help to up-skill their workforce and support their economic growth. Tom recommended that people check out their website for latest opportunities and ways to get involved.

We heard from Olivia Thackstone of Visit Stoke & the LVEP, who was able to share the key areas of focus for the partnership. Firstly, we heard about the priority to grow Business Tourism in the city and county and ways that people could get involved & share what they have to offer with he LVEP team. Olivia also shared the other three priorities of Education & Inclusion, Marketing & Business Support & Sustainability. Olivia again invited anyone to contact the LVEP to offer their ideas, time or share what’s going on in their corner of the city that could align with these goals for growth.

Darren Washington of Centre Space Arts shared an inspiring story about how his arts organisation has gone from strength to strength as a result of its relocation to the Genr8 Smithfield Works building in the centre of the city. He described the value of being in such a central location and in such a collaborative setting which has been backed up by consistent and positive support from Adele_Marie Simmons and her team at Smithfield. Centre Space Arts have already hosted their first, highly successful collaborative working day at Smithfield and are planning their first evening event called HD1.0 on the 23rd of May. You can find out more on their website.

We heard from Sarah Thomas-Gordon, Marketing Manager at the City Centre BID who shared just some of the positive events and campaigns in the city centre itself. Most notably, Sarah reminded us to watch out on their socials for the 100 Years | 100 Faces launch coming soon in celebration of the Centenary year. Stay in touch with what’s happening by following their socials and new video Success Stories online.
 

Adele, Community Manager for Genr8, without whom the event couldn’t take place, invited everyone to explore the venue, feel free to pop by and use the space and hot desks as well as approach her with collaborative ideas to support the city centre. Her passion for the city was palpable and her support invaluable.

The panel discussion invited questions and discussion about ways to get involved in the city and the Centenary celebrations. Liz Hulse and her team from SOT100 are inviting people to volunteer for the Centenary weekend to be ‘game maker’ style volunteers as they welcome people to the city over the weekend of the 6-8 of June. Visit SOT100.org for more.

For an event that was supposed to close at 2.30pm, we were still enjoying valuable conversations at 4pm! Attendees had left a generous number of Pledges and Commitments on the boards which included pledging to be more of a personal advocate for the city in the face of negative press and offers of help and ideas for the city including the new Staffordshire Signal and the potential for a Books & Beers community book club - if a local venue want to offer their space!

What the Creative Collective event has reminded us of is that by simply taking the time to be in the same room to discover what others are planning and delivering unlocks positivity and potential. In a Centenary year and when our city holds World Craft City status, there’s eery opportunity to make 2025 the start of something very exciting.