Only In Leicester

Networking, innovation and why we all need to get out a bit more often

2011-07-30T07:02:00.000-07:00

I attended the Knowledge Economy Summit last week at my alma mater the University of Leicester. Holding the event was pledge number 85 in the new City Mayor's 100 days programme.

Attended by a mixture of academics and businesspeople, the principle aim of the meeting was to discuss how the relationship between the two could be enhanced so that Leicester can develop a real innovation culture in the same way that it has in the creative and cultural arena.

It was a constructive and friendly event but what was apparent from this is just how fragmented the connections between various organisations, sectors and individuals are. Yesterday's event is not the first time I have witnessed this. I recall the early days of the City Centre Management Board where it transpired that some of the different retail traders groups barely new each other - not a great place to start for promoting the city's retail offering. I've also seen it with the heritage bodies who, for a long time had very little communication despite overwhelming overlaps in their aims.

I don't see this as necessarily a bad reflection on Leicester people, I have no reason to believe they are inherently more parochial or tribal than anywhere else. However, I do think that a variety of factors including political leadership problems, old boy networks, recent immigration, high turnover of residents have probably all played their part in keeping people in little pockets rather than working together.

What I have seen is when people do get together and the ice breaks then the results can be striking. The successes of city centre management are a case in point as are the increasing collaboration of the heritage groups to put heritage and history firmly back on the agenda.

The diversity of people in Leicester can stop being just a 'raw material' and instead be a major asset if people are willing to cross boundaries and trust each other. The more networking and mixing opportunities such as last week's event the better. As I said in the meeting, it's important to remember that the 'soft' networking is just as important as specific goal-orientated meetings between say academics and businesses. All of the major cultural and industrial movements from the Renaissance to Silicon Valley happened when large groups of people from different disciplines got the opportunity to mingle.

Here are some off-the-cuff ideas for kick-starting an innovation culture in Leicester:-

Take the "build networks not destinations" mantra and apply it to the innovative people in the city. If we build the network we will also become the destination. (hat tip also to Dr Alan Cann of University of Leicester)
Hold, encourage or promote regular events which include 'soft networking' like Cafe Scientifique, Creative Coffee Club or Skeptics in the Pub and don't try to take over what existing groups already do well.
Host lectures and seminars by world class speakers from innovative businesses, organisations and universities a bit like Amplified Leicester or TED (could we tempt TED into running a conference in Leicester?).
Create a newspaper, newsletter, blog or blogroll of innovative projects, products and research happening in Leicester a bit like Leicester Shire Promotions' Big It Up campaign or even my little city PR project Leicester On The Map.
Celebrate successful Leicester innovators and encourage them to stay and invest in the city.
Get participants used to sharing ideas rather than hoarding them, unnecessary non-disclosure agreements and patents can stiffle innovation.
Discourage non-competition clauses in employment contracts as per Californian law
If money is to be spent on new buildings and facilties, build networking, collaboration and serendipitous encounters into the fabric of the building (compare New Walk Centre with LCB Depot!).
Create open LinkedIn, Facebook or Google groups for people interested in promoting innovation to keep the conversation and connections going after face-to-face meetings.
Smash the separation between science and arts - have scientists and technology people in the LCB Depot and artists in the forthcoming Leicester Innovation Centre (and stop calling areas names like 'Science Park' or 'Cultural Quarter'). Scientists and artists are both creative and innovative - think like Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci.
Get help from outside. Bring in people who have personal experience of places that have succeeded and remember that sometimes 'stakeholders' can be handbrakes.
Read this book: Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steve Johnson which stresses how innovation comes when people interact in 'coral reef' communities rather than from the genius of solitary individuals.

Leicester is a bit like a party with bunch of really interesting and different people who don't yet know each other very well. Whether this is a crying shame or a wonderful opportunity for innovation depends on whether your glass is half full or half empty!

Critical Mass Cycle Rides

2011-05-09T06:55:00.000-07:00

I went to my first Critical Mass Cycle Ride in Leicester a couple of weeks ago. These are held on the last Friday of the month and a lot of fun as well as a great way for cyclists to own the streets. Despite being smaller, these are arguably better events than SkyRide as they are entirely grass roots events on the open road.

Turn-outs at the Leicester rides are growing and are approaching the 200 riders mark which is amazing. Here are some ideas for making it even bigger and better:-

Invite newly elected mayor Peter Soulsby to attend
Break a record for largest critical mass or most riders in costumes.
Get a celebrity along
Do a charity fund raiser
Give it a blog and get that auto-posted on Facebook & Twitter (I can help with that!)
Do a recruitment prize/bounty for whoever brings the most newbies.
Buy all newbies a drink at the end
Run a weekend ride to attract more families with kids.
Run a Critical Mass ride in conjuction with another event

The next ride is on 27th May 2011, meeting at 6pm at Orton Square beside Curve.

Questions for Mayor Candidates

2011-04-18T03:18:00.000-07:00

I'm going to tonight's mayoral 'Big Debate' at DMU which will hopefully be more enlightening than the damp squib put on by the BBC at Curve last week.

Below are some of my ideas for questions.

Which one(s) shall I ask if I get the opportunity? Does anyone have any other suggestions?

1. People in the county look down on Leicester and outsiders don't even know where it is. What will you do to solve Leicester's public relations problem?

2. Why did it take an EDL riot to bounce us into celebrating what we all have in common?

3. Why do we invest so much time and money on new stuff whilst letting our existing stuff decay?

4. Decisions are made largely behind closed doors and public consultations happen after the deal is done. What would you do to end the cult of secrecy in Leicester local government?

5. Mixed raced children are the third largest birth group in Leicester. Do you think Leicester's cultural agenda reflects this properly?

6. Why is civic pride so lacking in Leicester and what will you do about it?

7. What would you do to encourage equality for all road users rather than priority for cars?

8. Do you think faith schools lead to more or less social harmony?

9. What will you do to end the "yes to anything" approach to urban planning?

10. Leicester aspires to retain graduates from our two universities. Why then are we allowing undergraduates to become increasingly isolated in 'student ghettos' surrounding the universities?

How to Rate a Mayor?

2011-03-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

I've just been following an interesting Twitter conversation thread between local politicians and Leicester Mercury reporters about how the elected Mayor's salary should be set. It struck me that almost any salary figure you pluck out of thin air will seem arbitrary because there aren't many comparable roles and being a politician is just altogether 'different' from other jobs.

What seems right to me is that the Mayor should give value for money and one way of assessing this would be some fundamental Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure against.

So class, for your homework I would like you to suggest suitable KPIs for the Mayor of a large diverse city. You have until May 5th to hand in your work. Here are some suggestions:-

School results
Rates/tax receipts
Life expectancy of citizens
Average travel time to work

Turning Off Traffic Lights

2011-01-13T13:22:00.000-08:00

A chap called Martin Cassini is trying to convince councils that the secret to saving our roads from pollution, gridlock and accidents is to turn off traffic lights. Sounds crazy? Have a look at his piece on BBC Newsnight from a couple of years ago:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7187165.stm
(watch the report video clip)

After a small but successful pilot at a junction in Portishead he came within a whisker of getting Bristol City Council to trial this but they lost their nerve yet this sort of thing has been shown to work in a number of European towns and cities.

This idea may not be a panacea but any potential reduction in congestion, pollution, accidents, fuel consumption, roadside paraphernalia and daft cycle lanes has got to be worth exploring. What's particularly compelling about this is that it avoids the knee-jerk and hypocritical 'war on motorists' which much of current green transport rhetoric seems to involve. Instead, all road users are treated as equals.

Could 'Environment City' Leicester be the place to properly pioneer this, perhaps under the auspices of a bold new elected Mayor?

More details of Martin Cassini's campaign here:-
http://www.fitroads.com/
http://www.facebook.com/#!/FiTRoads
http://twitter.com/FiTRoads

Leicester Webcams

2010-10-31T05:48:00.000-07:00

Search for Leicester webcams and the only thing you'll find are the Jamcams on the BBC website (click on the dots on the map to launch them - exciting stuff I'm sure everyone would agree!)

Surely we can do better than this? It doesn't exactly help disabuse outsiders' perceptions of a drab featureless city where nothing happens.

Here's some suggestions for better locations:-

Clocktower
Highcross
Castle Yard
Orton Square
Guildhall
Town Hall Square
New Walk
Whole City (from Bradgate Park maybe?)
Grand Union Canal
DMU/UoL Campuses
Belgrave Road

Any other suggestions?

Interfaith Sport: Leicester's Boat Race?

2010-09-20T16:08:00.000-07:00

With an English Defense League 'protest' looming, everyone in Leicester is talking about how to challenge the confused and often xenophobic ramblings of this rabble. It's a bit of a shame that we have to wait for something like this to set the agenda and jolt us into celebrating the community cohesion that Leicester is supposed to be famous for.

For years there have been many fantastic inter-faith football and cricket matches organised by the St Phillips Centre and also the Community Football Academy. Most 'famous' of these events was the Imams vs Christian Clerics charity cricket match at Grace Road on September 11th (sic) 2006. I was lucky enough to make it along to the match and the friendliness of the whole event was fantastic to witness. As well as the congenial atmosphere between the faith leaders (you could tell they all knew each other well) there was even some good-humoured sledging (Singing of "Kum by Yah" countered by cries of "Allahu Akbar"!).

(photos: Muslim & Christian clerics cricket match Sept 11th 2006, Grace Road, Leicester)

The frustrating thing about these events is that whilst they give us a deserved international reputation for community cohesion they get scant serious coverage in Leicester itself. This is a wasted opportunity. Knowing Leicester's love of sport, a regular high-profile inter-faith cricket or football match has the potential to become Leicester's equivalent to the University Boat Race.

For this to happen both the organisers and city officialdom need to have the imagination and inspiration to capitalise upon it properly. Now would be a good time!

Idea for Citywide Dress-Down / Mufti Day

2010-09-03T06:49:00.000-07:00

Why not hold a citywide charity mufti/dress-down/casual-clothes day where citizens wear at least one article of clothing associated with Leicester (e.g. LCFC, Tigers, LCCC sports tops, club/association/society shirts, ties or badges, etc).

It would be loads of fun, would encourage civic pride and could raise a lot of money for charity (LOROS? Pakistan flood victims? Children In Need?)

Skyride: Great fun but now what?

2010-08-29T17:10:00.000-07:00

I had a great time taking my daughter twice round the Leicester Skyride circuit today in her newly installed front child seat.

Despite inspiring me to dust off my bike, I was left slightly wondering what the whole event was about. Having registered a few days ago and despite a lot of publicity from Leicester officialdom it felt slightly unclear where we should go and what we were supposed to actually do. Just turn up and start peddling seemed to be about it.

On the day we happily meandered between the various stopping off points via various barricaded and marshalled routes (some better showcases of the city than others).

Having only recently realised that the 'Sky' in Skyride is none other than everybody's favourite satellite TV broadcaster I was anticipating a bit of 'corporate' gloss on the event. I've got no problem with sponsorship of good causes though in actual fact there was precious little visibilty of the company other than their brand name (which seemed strangely neutered within the 'Skyride' brand).

When companies do this sort of PR it usually means they are attempting to change perceptions rather than drive immediate sales. I would guess that Sky wish to appeal to the cycling types who are probably a bit more middle class than their traditional customers. A bit of digging revealed the actual brief (page 4) from Sky's PR firm RPM: "To drive perception and awareness of Sky’s sponsorship of British Cycling, whilst encouraging 1 million more Brits to start cycling by 2013." Again I don't have a problem with this provided we the punters get something measurable in return.

My gut impression though was a deal along the lines of "Let's let Sky use our city for a mass PR stunt and hope that it encourages more people to cycle more regularly".

What I would like to see are more measurable results (i.e. what is the true legacy of Skyride on cycling numbers? How many less cars are on the road as a result? etc, etc). All that RPM's document could tell us was that for the London event "37% said they would cycle more regularly" - a statistic which is probably more exciting to a PR firm client than an urban transport planner!

I'd also like to see Leicester capitalise on this event better. The city should be able to get access to the Skyride registrations database and do some serious follow-up marketing to all the people who took part. It should also be measuring cycle usage before and after the event to see if it has any lasting effect.

As one of the original Skyride cities I'd also like to see if Leicester has the guts to be the first to run this on a busier day such as a Saturday. It's a big leap from a fenced-off course on a Sunday to a full-on weekday rush hour but we have to head in that direction if we're to achieve the critical mass of cyclists which will start to really affect traffic and exercise levels. Research I've read seems to suggest it only takes a small percentage reduction in car usage to substantially unclog roads - something which benefits cyclists and car drivers alike.

Finally, here is a thought-provoking little clip of what is possible (though read this and weep!):-

Tidying up: A cheaper form of regeneration

2010-08-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

Much is made of Leicester's 'trophy' regeneration successes such as Highcross and St Georges. Great those these are (and I visit both a lot), the sheer contrast with some of the more shabby parts of the city it stark.

As a city, we turn up to the interview in jeans and a t-shirt. The thinking seems to be that if we wear a nice tie that the rest of the outfit will be ignored.

Now that the big money has evaporated, isn't it time for a proper clean-up? I don't mean just a temporary scattering of banners and petunias. Putting up banners on a shabby street doesn't smarten it up - it just draws even more attention to the shabbiness.

I'm talking about a long-term sustained city-wide effort to reduce the levels of grime, graffiti, dereliction, litter, street clutter, etc - the things that everyone rightly moans about and which harm civic pride. I don't just mean city council controlled spaces either. A sharper stick needs to be used to prod private land owners to tidy up derelict areas, maintain heritage buildings, prevent fly tipping and remove rubbish. There are legal instruments such as Urgent Works Notices, Amenity Notices and even ASBOs at the council's disposal if they have the nerve to use them. There are also more gentle approaches such as community litter-picks and community reporting of issues.

Reading the city council's One Clean Leicester scheme I remain hopeful that we might see more than just a few cosmetic improvements. To quote this page: "A new website will launch later this year so you can post photographs and details of environmental blights in your area. It'll also include live progress reports as our teams respond and tackle problems". When will this materialise? Wouldn't it be more economical and effective to use the existing independent Fix My Street site instead?

Yes this would all cost money, but it would still be the cheapest bit of regeneration we could ever do. Crucially, it would also involve and benefit Leicester residents as well as potential investors & developers. Waiting for white knight developers to revitalise everywhere is not realistic in the current climate and developers don't always have our best interests at heart anyway.

Update 30/06/2011: One Clean Leicester was launched earlier in the year with smartphone apps to allow citizens to report problems

Making Leicester a Food Destination

2010-08-15T12:11:00.000-07:00

Leicestershire has strong reputation for producing food including EU 'Protected Geographical Status' items like Stilton and Pork Pies as well having all sorts of farm shops, organic food, vineyards, microbreweries, food festivals, etc. How come the county town Leicester is now rarely recommended for anything other than curry?

Business leaders are complaining that there is a "lack of quality restaurants" in the city and the forthcoming Leicester & Leicestershire Food Fortnight features very few city events. For a historic county town with such huge ethnic diversity surrounded by a foodie county, how come we're not capitalising on food as an attraction? Shouldn't Leicester be the focal point for regional food fortnights, food festivals and farmers markets? We manage a decent food festival at the market once in a while plus and the travelling Continental Market (which always seems a bit too expensive and uninspiring to be honest).

Melting pot cities like Leicester are where new dishes and even entirely new styles of cooking pop-up. If we can find innovative ways to combine the city's diversity with the county's tradition and quality then there is great potential. I'm not sure expensive restaurants are actually the place to start - Leicester isn't a particularly affluent place and I think value and diversity of choice are more important to most people here. Here are some suggestions:-

Uncover all the amazing multicultural home cooking happening behind closed doors (does any one fancy crowd-sourcing recipes for a Leicester Recipe Book? I bet there are loads of great fusion cuisine recipes out there as well as traditional ones)
Hold more food festivals and try to bring in the county audience (could we try to bag a regional event?).
Diversify the offering at Leicester Market (it's crying out for a revamp)
Do more to develop and promote the city as a centre for world cuisine rather than just curry.
Open a multicultural food court in the city (sorry to keen banging on about it!)

My final thought is for my wife who once dreamt that she saw a Malaysian restaurant on the Aylestone Road. And why shouldn't there be one?!

A circular bus route on the ring road

2010-07-25T09:56:00.000-07:00

A lot of Leicester attractions and car parks are situated on or near the ring road. A lot of cars use the ring road and it is often congested. It's quite a long walk from one side of the ring road to the other and the transport hubs aren't in great locations. Why not have a circular bus route?

Ticket discounts or freebies could be available to people carrying tickets from the railway, NCP or other bus routes.

The ring road carved up the city when it was built but it isn't going to go away so we might as well make the most environmentally friendly use of it.

The death (and rebirth) of a 400 year old Leicester custom

2010-07-25T06:34:00.000-07:00

Since 1636 the occupant of what was the Crown & Thistle pub (now part of O'Neill's) on Loseby Lane paid a peppercorn 'rent' of a damask rose and four old pennies to the Lord Mayor of Leicester. More details can be read here.

Why was this lovely old custom allowed to quietly die when the pub was absorbed into O'Neill's in 1997?

Update 6:30pm: Lord Mayor tweets that he'll see what he can do: https://twitter.com/LeicesterMayor/status/19498460378

Update 28/07/2010: Lord Mayor discussed this on BBC Radio Leicester (34mins in) and apparently O'Neill's are up for bringing it back: http://twitter.com/LeicesterMayor/status/19721471851

Update 15/11/2010: Leicester Mercury reports that the custom will be brought back next summer. Thanks to the Lord Mayor and O'Neill's.

Update 24/06/2011: The damask rose ceremony was held again after a 10 year absence (but were the arrears paid?!)

Food courts

2010-07-15T13:34:00.000-07:00

If you've ever been to Singapore you will have dined at the numerous and excellent value 'hawker centres' aka food courts which are dotted all over the city. These are multiple-outlet halls or open air food courts with communal seating areas and a large choice of different canteen-style kitchens surrounding. Typically there is a wide choice of ethnic foods including Chinese, Malay, South Indian, Indonesian, Western food, etc. They provide great value for money and generally very healthy food but they are also a place where people can meet up.

Lavender Food Court, Singapore. Image copyright mailer_diablo

Does this look like something that would work well in Leicester? Imagine being able to sit somewhere and have a choice of English, Indian, Caribbean, Chinese, etc food either at lunchtime, after work or in the evening. It would be a great addition to the New Business Quarter area of Leicester. In Singapore they even converted the old colonial railway station at Tanjong Pagar into a food court - worth a thought for our lovely but soon-to-be-obsolete station frontage?

Update 15/11/2010: Looks like my wish will be granted: Leicester City Council plan to include a multi-ethnic food court in their forthcoming revamp of Leicester Market (subject to planning approval). I've also been shown outline plans for a food court as part of a proposed new residential development in the Cultural Quarter.

Update 13/05/2011: Market Corner was opened today by Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby.

Welcome to Leicester - Population 32

2010-07-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here are are some scenes that confront drivers approaching Leicester from the motorways and roads into the city:-

View Larger Map

View Larger Map

View Larger Map

It would be very easy to blink and miss the UK's 10th largest city altogether if you didn't already know it was there.

Wouldn't it be great to have large welcoming signs at the approaches to the city showing pictures of what goes on here? This sort of thing is commonplace in countries like Belgium.

What positive images of Leicester would you choose to tempt people to visit? How about Guildhall, Tigers, Diwali & Highcross?

UPDATE 18/07/2010:-
The University of Leicester has just given Sir Terry Wogan an honorary degree for recognising this problem many years ago: "Sir Terry's link with Leicester began when he referred to it as 'the lost city' – one constantly mentioned in traffic reports but 'otherwise unknown to mankind'". Read the Leicester Mercury article here.

A Freshers Fair for the City

2010-06-04T04:51:00.000-07:00

The myriad clubs, associations, societies, & volunteer groups which exist in Leicester are the lifeblood of the city but they don't always get the support and membership levels they need to succeed.

In light of the massive success of the recent Food & Drink Festival at Leicester Market and the move toward a more diverse usage for the market, wouldn't it be good to see a recruitment fair event take place there?

This could follow the model of the university freshers fairs where many different clubs get to set out their pitch for new members.

UPDATE 30th June 2011: Our Leicester Day is happening! 11th September 2011

Re-open the Castle Inn

2010-06-01T16:38:00.000-07:00

Picture this: You're sipping a cold beer on a hot summers evening seated outside a bar in a beautiful cobbled medieval street surrounded by marvellous ancient buildings.

Brugge? Ghent? Vienna? Munich?

Well yes, but what if this could be in cosy old Leicester? Think it sounds ridiculous? Have a look at this picture:-

(photograph copyright Matt Ots - more here)

This is Castle View, one of Leicester's hidden gems within the boundary of the original Norman castle bailey. Around it are some of Leicester's most fabulous bits of heritage, St Mary's de Castro church where Geoffrey Chaucer was married, the Great Hall of the castle, Castle Gardens, the Newark Houses Museum and Trinity Hospital.

Now imagine once again this was full of people chatting, drinking and generally enjoying the atmosphere. What better way to breathe new life and interest into this beautiful but largely neglected corner of the city?

Not only is this not all that far-fetched, it actually used to happen:-

The above picture is the Castle Inn, next to the turret gateway as was a few decades ago. Many of the buildings on Castle View now lie empty having previously been used by De Montfort University.

None of this requires a regeneration masterplan or a millionaire developer - just a bit of imagination and a landlord who can see the potential of the location.

Better integration for new arrivals

2010-05-31T12:56:00.000-07:00

Vast amounts of media coverage are given over to the need to 'integrate' immigrants into the UK and the immigrants are usually blamed when this doesn't happen properly.

But real integration isn't to be found on the pages of the Home Office's Life In the United Kingdom book (which is now required reading for all would-be non-EU immigrants) any more than reading the Highway Code teaches us to actually drive a car.

Talk to anyone who has actually arrived in the UK from another country (whether as on a temporary basis or as a permanent settler) and the story is one of confronting a wall of British reserve and sketchy information. A common result of this is that immigrants collect in cliques of their fellow countrymen, cliques which can often become quite insular and entrenched and which do not help them fit in (let alone improve their English)

What is badly needed is practical direction for people who arrive here so that they can meet and learn from long-term residents quickly. It is ironic that if you are fleeing persecution or are an international student (both of which normally imply only temporary residence) there are helpful organisations such as Refugee Action and International Students Associations to assist you. If however you've managed to jump through all the appropriate hoops and are planning to make the UK your permanent home then you're pretty much "on your own sonny."

As a city which is generally at ease with people of different origins, shouldn't Leicester be leading the way once more by instigating some sort of pro-active integration assistance for people who move here? It doesn't even have to apply just to foreigners - arriving in a new city can be just as daunting for British citizens.

My suggestion is that we need some sort of 'Arrivals Club', perhaps loosely based on the International Students Association model. This would welcome newcomers wherever they are from but also strive to make sure that they are influenced by people who have lived here for years instead of disappearing into the cocoon of cliques. As well as benefiting immigrants this would also give Leicester people an opportunity to show off their city which wouldn't do civic pride any harm either.

A survey earlier in the year found Leicester to be the "third unhappiest place in Britain" and suggested a reason being "people in Leicester were less likely to live near family and less likely to have close friends to call on in an emergency". What then could be more important for the well-being of the city than making sure newcomers integrate well, make good local connections and put down local roots?

Learning to love pound shops

2010-05-31T12:34:00.000-07:00

The recent recession has fuelled a big increase in the number of pound shops in Leicester, particularly in areas such as Belgrave Gate and Granby Street.

The typical reaction to these is one of embarrassment and barely-disguised snobbery as if only wall-to-wall fashion and department stores are acceptable in the city.

Given that they've been around for hundreds of years and we all use them, can't we find a way to celebrate discount stores and turn their presence into a positive feature of the city's retail mix?

Roll on Leicester's Discount Quarter!

The Cinquefoil: Rediscovering Leicester's Ancient Emblem

2010-05-03T07:47:00.000-07:00

When you think of British floral emblems examples such as the Tudor rose (merger of the Lancastrian and Yorkshire roses), the Scottish thistle and the Welsh daffodil spring to mind:-

Tudor Rose

Yorkshire Rose

Lancashire Rose

Welsh Daffodil

Scottish Thistle

But how many people know that Leicester's 'Cinquefoil' is one of the oldest of them all?:-

The cinquefoil ("five leaves") is the emblem of the Beaumont family, Norman Earls of Leicester from the 11th century which makes it one of the oldest floral emblems. The cinquefoil can be spotted all over Leicester and is used by many different organisations (most well known of which is the city council.) Here are some examples (click thumbnails to visit the sites or full photos):-

(images clickable - copyrights are with target page owners)

This simple, yet attractive emblem has the flexibility to be worked into modern brand designs yet has a historical continuity that gives it a credibility far beyond the fickle 'reinvention' spasms that cities often go through. The cinquefoil needs to be recognised as more than just the city council logo and many more Leicester organisations should be encouraged to fly the flag by incorporating it into their livery.

(Un)eventful Leicester

2010-03-27T05:56:00.000-07:00

How many times have you missed an interesting event in Leicester because you hadn't heard about it, only to read about it in the paper or hear a friend raving about it afterwards?

Twice in the last few weeks I have heard tales of permanent Leicestershire residents who had never even heard of the Leicester Comedy Festival.

Yet all over the city there are myriad events happening from big festivals right down to small club and society meetings. The current provision of city event information gives the impression of a dead city with nothing to do which is wholly incorrect.

Why can't we get better, in-advance access to "what's on" information in Leicester?

I am putting this question to the City Centre Management Board because it is something we're not getting right at the moment. This blog post is based on some of the points I will be making...

I think the immediate cause of this problem is that the current provision of “What’s On” event information in Leicester is an uncoordinated patchwork of different sites each carrying their own separate, sometimes overlapping information.

Here are some examples:-

http://www.leicester.gov.uk/festivals-events.asp

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/leicester/hi/things_to_do/

http://www.goleicestershire.com/entertainment/

http://whatson.oneleicester.com/

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/goingoutguide

None of these sites are comprehensive enough to be truly useful to a visitor and the results are at best, people don’t know what is going on and at worst, perceive that little is happening.

Additionally, most of the ‘official’ sites above cater primarily for larger events and neglect the many smaller events run by clubs, societies, bars, restaurants, etc, which are just as important to the entertainment mix as the bigger events.

We need a strategy where we all pool our event information and all help promote each other’s events.

I am putting forward a proposal to use an Internet-based solution. This would comprise a single database but accept event submission from multiple sources (especially RSS feeds) and allow access to the resulting data via multiple channels (especially RSS, social media & email). By simple tagging, such a system could allow visitors or webmasters to get custom event data based on whatever they are interested and have it in a format of their choosing.

Technologically speaking, none of this is particularly difficult.

What it would require is a team effort on the part of event hosts (and particularly the larger stakeholders such as the city council, universities, etc) to agree to collaborate for the greater good of the city. It would also require a certain amount of moderation to weed out offensive or poorly written event content.

Are we smart enough to work together on something like this? If we are then I think we'd fully earn the right to call ourselves 'One Leicester'.

Civic self-harm and how to combat it

2010-03-14T15:57:00.000-07:00

Having been in the business of talking up (or constructively criticising) the city of Leicester for some years, I am trying understand the mindset of the people who quite openly dismiss it as an incorrigible shithole.

Reading comments in forums such as the Leicester Mercury website one could be forgiven for thinking that there are legions of people who are forced to live here against their will!

One's immediate reaction is to ask the question: why do you actually stay here? Another question would be: Would you describe your living room as a shithole? No? So why describe your city like that?

In actual fact I suspect that there are many people who are happy with their city and that most of the moaning is cathartic gossip rather than genuine lack of civic pride. This doesn't however deal with the glaring collective public relations self-harm which this inflicts.

What is evident is that we need to hear a lot more noise from the people who have good things to say about the city. We need a 'critical mass' (critical as in the crucial sense rather than censorious) of people to say "I like it here", "I have faith in the city's future", etc). These people need to be more than single voices, they need the confidence of being part of a movement or vibe where they know they are not alone in their views.

Although every cause needs some sort of leadership, these voices need the street cred of independence from official agencies such as the City Council.

I believe that if you got enough of the positive, independent citizen's voices in a room together you would almost certainly have the makings of grass roots movement which could drown out the moaners and make a huge difference to the way both residents and outsiders see the city. This is not to say that there aren't some big problems with aspects of life in Leicester which need to be sorted, just that we won't get anywhere by wallowing in them.

To that end, I recently launched a project called Leicester On The Map which is an attempt at a platform for the positive voices. At the time of writing, the embryonic beginnings of this are visible at www.leicesteronthemap.org.uk and I would like to invite anyone with a positive voice to join this group. You can also follow the #LeicesterOnTheMap hashtag on Twitter.