Plymouth - back to the future

I was thrilled to be asked to return to Plymouth this morning to speak at the launch of the City Centre BID Company's renewal ballot.

We started with a 'guess the year' quiz and it was the turn of the film 'Back To The Future'. One chap in the near back row shouted out the answer correctly - "1985" - and I shall remain convinced that he must either have been discretely using Google on his phone or that he had the same question in a game of Trivial Pursuit over Christmas.

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower setting sail from Plymouth. What an amazing year to be renewing your BID when hundreds of thousands of extra visitors will come into the City and millions more will monitor events on-line. A year-long celebration of a place's history and reason for being.

400 was a recurring theme as it is also the number of millions of pounds (￡400 million) being invested by the local authority and development partners in transforming the city centre around a masterplan which the BID Company helped to create. Without the BID, there would have been no masterplan.

I unveiled an image of my emerging consumer; someone who is time-limited, experiential, brand-savvy, environmentally-conscious and, most of all, craving something more than they can get from sitting on the internet at home. Places cannot rely upon their custom, they will need to earn it. But, give them something different and inspiring, a reason to be there, something they can tell their network of friends about, and they will come.

Plymouth is doing just that. The ￡400 million is being spent on moving away from an over-reliance on retail and creating new and unique experiences that cannot be avoided or replicated elsewhere. It’s back to a modern-day Greek agora (trust me!)

Given all of this, the BID's renewal is almost certain isn't it? Well, only if businesses assure it by voting in favour of an ambitious business plan that has place-making at its very core. Businesses can either remain as the key actors behind the amazing changes within Plymouth City Centre, or choose to 'leave the stage' at the climax and moment of greatest opportunity. 

I wish Nigel Godefroy (Chair), Steve Hughes (CEO) and the BID team well and look forward with optimism to another 5-years of amazing transformation for 'Britain's Ocean City'.