Agenda item

To receive the report of the Executive Director, Innovation & Growth

The Committee received the report of the Executive Director, Innovation & Growth, noting the update on the development of the new destination brand identity and destination website ahead of its launch.

The Committee made the following points:

- It would be helpful to get a clear understanding of the overall vision and purpose of Destination City (DC) encompassing its overarching strategy (over and above events) that clearly referenced the City of London’s unique assets, cultural offering and website, noting that part of DC’s remit was to amplify the CoL offering

- More comprehensive information on the website would be welcome

- Five BIDs are in place, and these are answerable to levy-payers: it is reasonable to expect the City of London to co-ordinate and oversee those BIDs to ensure consistent and coherent messaging in line with any DC and CoL vision, and provide more detail on DC’s position above those five BIDs

- There is a general sense of ‘working in silos’

- Clarity on what BIDs are supposed to be doing around support for SMEs and micro-businesses would be welcome (and where support for such entities should be sourced if the scope is not covered by BIDs)

The meeting noted the DC roll-out was currently in line with a presentation given to the Committee at its November 2022 meeting that had included key timelines and strategic projects, and that stakeholder engagement was ongoing.

A formal presentation on DC was requested that would cover the remit and strategy of the organisation (see action point 1) together with information on DC’s implementation plan and an overall framework of the DC offering and approach, noting the cohesive and coherent element of recent Coronation events in the City.

A Member asked how the website’s success would be measured, and how that might differ from measuring the success of the strategy. The meeting heard that KPIs were being defined in line with industry best practice together with measurement metrics.

A Member sought clarification on cyber security measures. The meeting heard that an A+ score had been received for the website on security standards.

A Member asked for an update on the appointment of a new consumer-facing communications agency referenced in section 18 of the report and on its budgetary implications. The meeting heard that the Four Agency had been appointed and was working with CoL communications teams.

A Member sought reassurance that the P&R Committee was not receiving additional material on Culture that was not being submitted to the Committee. The meeting heard that cultural papers were submitted to both Committees, though the timings of the Committees sometimes impacted on the sequence of the submissions.

The meeting heard that SME and/or micro-business support was provided by the City of London in a range of ways, including via the strategic BID steering group.

A Member sought clarification on whether embassies were involved in the CoL’s cultural strategy around stakeholder engagement. The meeting heard that a strong proposition was being developed and sequenced, with further information expected on timings and key points.

The Chairman expressed a wish to put together a City of London cultural calendar as an engagement tool, and the Committee expressed its support for the initiative (see action point 2) to include annual events.

A Member asked how people would be referred to any DC website, and the meeting heard that the a new brand was being created to message the CoL offering that was separate from the DC brand that would include curated film content.