As the UK begins to end Covid restrictions and discussion turns to ‘living with the virus’, place leaders need to understand what this means - for towns and cities, and the communities that make them.
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Leading Places: Pandemic to Endemic
IPM Webinar
Wednesday 9th February | 2pm-3.30pm
Register now (exclusive to IPM Members)
Join the Institute from £50 per year and access this webinar
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In ‘Leading Places: Pandemic to Endemic’, we invite Members of the Institute of Place Management and The BID Foundation to join us for a 90 minute webinar that will:
• Re-examine the concept/offer of high streets in an endemic context. What do accelerated trends mean for high street visitors, consumer behaviour, and the sectors that operate in our town and city centres?
• Unpack policy priorities for the endemic phase and ask more broadly how we can measure the viability of high streets.
• Discuss what you have learned from operating through the pandemic and how these lessons apply to the 'endemic' phase (and the next 36 months, in particular, as places adapt).
Speakers
- Will Thomson & James Paterson - Social Investment Business
Social Investment Business is one of the UK's first social investors and manages over £400m of loans and grants, with a focus on supporting organisations to become more resilient and sustainable. SIB recently collaborated with the Financial Times to explore data on regional high street spending and online spend during the COVID-19 pandemic (you can read the article and excellent data visualisations here). Will and James will join us to reflect on these trends and explore what patterns can be identified about our pandemic and potential endemic-phase behaviours, as well as how we might identify 'beacons of resilience' around the UK.
Will Thomson is Policy and Public Affairs Manager at SIB. He leads work on new proposals and policy responses to government, and has a background in social investment and devolution policy in the West of England.
James Paterson is Data Manager at SIB. He works to support better collection and understanding of a wide range of data on economic viability and social vitality.
- Dr Jackie Mulligan - ShopAppy
Jackie founded ShopAppy in 2016, a digital platform to provide digital resilience to high streets by enabling customers to shop locally. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jackie and her team have been providing free support to businesses and locations to use ShopAppy, and to continue the flow of money around local retail even when premises have been shuttered and people locked-down. Before ShopAppy, Jackie work in place management and events in London, working across a market and 5 centres.
Jackie will be sharing with us her reflections on the pandemic and how it has changed behaviours amongst businesses and consumers. She'll also reflect on which changes are here to stay and how we should think about shop local - as consumers, businesses and policy makers.
- Christian Spence - Head of Future Economies Analytics, Manchester Metropolitan University
Christian is a Reader at Manchester Metropolitan University and Head of Future Economies Analytics, a dedicated unit focused on data analysis and visualisation, forecasting and modelling. He sat as a member of the Expert Panel to design the Yorkshire Local Industrial Strategy, and has a background in economic and urban policy and devolution, at Manchester City Council, Core Cities UK, and GM Chamber of Commerce.
Christian will help us reflect on the recent Levelling Up White Paper and some of the structural and economic issues relating to devolution and regional growth.
- IPM Research Team - 'Medium and Longer-Term Viability of the High Street'
We'll be joined by a number of the IPM research team to discuss a new report, produced for the High Streets Task Force by IPM, that examines the factors that create the long-term viability of places. The research, about to be published, uses an index of information on various economic and social factors to conceptualise adaptable and resilient high streets. This tool can be used by place leaders and managers to assess their local area or high street and begin to understand where future priorities for development may lie.
Join us for reflection and peer learning, and to consolidate your experiences and achievements over the past 24 months in a way that looks forwards and doesn't dwell on 'crisis'.
Register
Register now (exclusive to IPM Members)
Leading Places: Pandemic to Endemic
IPM Webinar
Wednesday 9th February | 2pm-3.30pm
About the author
Formed in 2006, the Institute of Place Management is the international professional body that supports people committed to developing, managing and making places better.