Ian Sandison, CEO of Cambridge BID, considers the post-pandemic future of the city.
Ian Sandison speaking at the Cambridge BID AGM 2022
Connections matter. Much of the knowledge economy that drives Cambridge is born out of serendipitous opportunities that arise in a social setting. Watson and Crick, for example, first announced their discovery of the structure of DNA in The Eagle pub on Bene’t Street, because it was a popular lunch destination for their colleagues from the nearby Cavendish Laboratory.
Yet despite the importance of connection, the pandemic made us all feel somewhat disconnected – from one another, from our workplaces, from our high street and from our city.
For many, where we live is now also where we work. There are tangible benefits to this, and smaller towns with a commuting population have welcomed the increase they’ve experienced in their day-to-day discretionary spend. Cities such as Cambridge, however, have lost out from this shift – both in financial and social terms. This is why, as we re-establish normal living, Cambridge BID is seeking to increase the sense of reconnection with one another and with our city.
Engaging residents
Anecdotal evidence suggests that, even before Covid, there were a surprisingly high number of Cambridge residents who had relatively little interaction with the city centre, and whose awareness of the cultural, heritage and hospitality offer could be better. We’d like to change this, not least because it supports our eateries, pubs and retailers by keeping spend local.
You don’t have to go further afield in order to treat yourself! I’d like to encourage local people to consider booking an overnight stay in a city centre hotel, following a theatre visit or meal out with friends. I stayed in the University Arms after the Sparkle & Shine Ball, for example, so I didn’t need to find a taxi home and I enjoyed a fabulous, cooked breakfast the next day.
Engaging workers
As many thousands of city employees return to the workplace in greater numbers, perhaps for two or three days per week, we want to encourage them to dwell longer in order to reconnect. If 10% more employees (or students or residents) spent an extra hour in the city per week, our volume and value data suggest that this would translate into an additional £5m spend for local businesses. Everyone stands to win when the city centre thrives.
Our ‘Wonderful Wednesdays’ midweek campaign is helping to facilitate this by promoting wellbeing, music and food & drink opportunities. This isn’t about bringing people in from outside the city, but helping those already here to make the most of it. Employees, for example, may choose to meet for cocktails or drinks after work and soak up the atmosphere rather than heading straight home.
We’re also looking at taking the cultural offer of the city to businesses by sponsoring cultural events that take place in alternative venues. We sponsored a free Cambridge film festival event in the offices of Mill & Reeve, for instance, and promoted it mainly within the office sector; around 70 people attended.
We also plan to work with the colleges and universities to help the 40,000-strong student population engage more with the city, recognising that opportunities need to be presented in a way that resonates with their life stage.
Engaging visitors
Close to 90% of visitors to Cambridge come for less than a day, in part because our city is an easy train journey from London. However, if an additional 10% of visitors were to stay overnight in Cambridge, this would generate £34m of revenue for the local economy. Hospitality, leisure and the arts would all enjoy a much-needed boost.
For this reason, Cambridge BID, under the Visit Cambridge brand, is working to promote Cambridge as a destination for a three-to-four-night mid-week stay, a long weekend or even a full week’s break. We see the city as the gateway to the East of England, and an ideal location for a two-centre holiday in combination with the more rural attractions of Norfolk. It’s a bit like viewing Oxford as the gateway to the Cotswolds.
Building career connections
A more everyday but critically important element of reconnection involves helping local businesses to rebuild their staff teams after the double-whammy of Brexit and Covid and ensuring that local people are aware of the career opportunities available to them locally. We recently held our first job fair in the city centre, focusing on retail, hospitality and leisure. More than 25 employers participated, advertising close to 200 jobs. Positive feedback from attendees and exhibitors alike suggests that we should develop this as a regular event.
Animating our attractive city
City animation is an important aspect of our work - because inspirational surroundings cause people to want to dwell and gather, whether locals or visitors. Building on our hugely successful Cows about Cambridge art trail, which engaged more than 533,000 people, we are developing a similar event for Spring 2024. We’ve already chosen a new sculpture, though it’s firmly under wraps for the time being! Not only do public art projects engage residents and visitors, but our corporate sponsors for Cows about Cambridge used the trail as a great tool for employee engagement, which is particularly important in this era of hybrid working. Our smaller Book Benches trail also added interest to the city streets for ten weeks this summer.
We’ll also be commissioning a brand-new Christmas lights display from Winter 2023 and we’re excited to continue our programme of outdoor film nights in the city, as well as screening Wimbledon and other sporting events in the CB1 office district. We will continue to support the vibrancy of the arts and cultural sector by using our grant fund to sponsor events such as Bonfire Night, Cambridge Literary Festival, Cambridge Film Festival, Cambridge Pride, Open Cambridge, Cambridge Jazz Festival and Cambridge Summer Music concerts.
Here at Cambridge BID, we were delighted to receive overwhelming support from local businesses in our recent ballot. As a result, we look forward to extending our work for another five-year term and adding exciting new initiatives to an extensive list of proven, ongoing projects. Our priorities will coalesce around the theme of engagement, as we take a lead in providing the mechanisms that will bring people back together once again.
