As we near the final straight for summer 2012, Creative Coast work is gathering pace!
We held our second Creative Coast Forum on March 16th at the Portland Heights Hotel, which was very well attended and received. The event focused on how the cultural sector can work better with tourism organisations to encourage a ‘complete visitor offer’ here on the Jurassic Coast.
We started the day with a talk from Susan Russell from Edinburgh Festivals about how they collaborate to ensure the best possible use of all the festival’s marketing budgets, and how this has worked to make Edinburgh a place renowned for world class arts. This was followed by our very own Marcus Dixon, who told us how the Fossil Festival was part of Lyme Regis’s town development plan, and just how much it has contributed to the local economy over the last few years.
Tables of people, each representing an area of Dorset or East Devon, then discussed how they already work together and what they might go on to do next to give a more complete visitor offer.
In numbers:
55 people attended
167 new relationships were formed
97% of people attending learnt something new
87% of people attending met someone from a different sector
80% discussed the possibility of a new collaboration
These all help us to see that we are achieving our aim “to pioneer a mechanism where partners from science, conservation, tourism, transport, and education can work with the arts sector to maximise their resources in the delivery of shared objectives”
The next Forum will be held in September 2012: How can research scientists and professional artists work together to improve the management of naturally designated Sites? If you would be interested in attending, please contact [email protected] and request to be added to our invite list.
