Everything you need to know about Creating The Golden Thread - a guide to strengthening the infrastructure around events

By Ruth Hollis

Read 'Creating The Golden Thread' in full on the Spirit website

Earlier this week we hosted an event in the House of Lords to launch Creating the Golden Thread with partners Warwick Business School.

The report makes recommendations that will strengthen how the UK consolidates its role as a world leader in securing long term, connected impacts from the wealth of events hosted across the UK each year and is part of work Spirit is leading across the events ecosystem.

Just two weeks ago, on 5 June we came together with partners from across Scotland to reflect on the impact of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games 10 years on. Personal testimony from participants and the results of polling told us that people still feel the impact all these years later, but what was also clear was that this impact wasn’t solely from a stand-alone 2 week event. Glasgow 2014 was part of a long term journey of using events – from the Garden Festival and European Capital of Culture – to help build the city’s reputation, confidence and capability culminating in hosting a world class international sporting mega event. Arguably the hugely successful London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games just two years before also played a small part in that story. Events Scotland has recently published a refreshed Events Strategy for Scotland that clearly shows how events will play a role in showcasing Scotland on the world stage and improving national and local wellbeing and pride.

‘Creating the Golden Thread’ sets out recommendations for a national ambition building on the great work in Scotland and UK Sport’s Gold Framework. It provides a framework to strengthen the legacy of culture, sport and ceremonial major events from inception to legacy with joint responsibility across key stakeholders to maximise the long-term social impact through collaborative partnerships supporting policy, investment and destination management, as well as data to underpin learning and progression.

Underpinning the recommendations, and critical to success, are:

A National ambition: There needs to be a ten-year ambition that maximises the value impact of major events, focusing on promoting, connecting, and enabling opportunities across the UK.

An Inclusive vision: A national strategy will be built on inclusivity, celebrating the diversity and strengths of all four nations of the UK. It can thus foster pride across the UK and generate new partnerships and collaborations, while also driving economic, social, and soft power impacts.

Collaborative governance: Success depends on orchestrating the collective efforts of multiple stakeholders at destination, regional, and national levels. There needs to be a governance model that acknowledges the role of national and local government in decision making and in convening and maintaining partnerships.

A Common evaluation framework: To measure and learn from the collective impact of major events, there needs to be a common evaluation framework with standardised metrics and methods. This framework will ensure consistency and facilitate learning and improvement across the major events ecosystem. The data collected needs to be curated and made publicly accessible through the creation of a major events data observatory.

Thanks to all the partners and stakeholders who came to the launch on Monday, Spirit and WBS are calling for a wide coalition of partners across the events ecosystem to deliver this refreshed vision for events.