Agenda item - Chairs Communications

14.1    The Chair gave the following communications:

Royal Pavilion & Museum

14.2    The RPM has received Festival of Learning Employer award in the London and South East region for exceptional achievement in adult learning. The award celebrates businesses that have used learning proactively to develop and utilise the skills of their workforce to improve productivity, raise morale, increase staff retention and enhance their business performance. This workforce development programme at the RPM funded as part of the Arts Council funding pays releases front line staff to undertake different roles across the RPM.

            Connected’s Arts & Creative Industries Commission

14.3    The process for developing a new arts & culture framework in partnership with Brighton & Hove Connected’s Arts & Creative Industries Commission is under way. A series of workshops is being held over coming weeks, followed by a Summit in November. The framework will articulate the shared vision for culture and creative industries in the area and identify the priorities and key actions for the partners in the coming years. This will provide a focus for seeking investment and for collaboration in the sector. The process is open, and will include some public debate. Interested parties are encouraged to get involved so that their voices can be heard.   Consultants have been appointed to develop a new Visitor Economy Strategy and will be starting work in the coming weeks. Both this piece of work and the Cultural Framework, will link to the developing Economic Strategy for the city, to ensure that Brighton & Hove punches its weight as a leading cultural city and tourism destination.

            Launches at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery

14.4    I attended two launches at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery in July, both showcasing really interesting community projects:

14.5    On Friday 14th July, I saw a display by the Photography Club, a spring-summer programme for young people run by the Royal Pavilion & Museums and Photoworks. The Club offered 14-16 year olds the opportunity to develop their camera skills, produce photographs for the two-month display and gain an Arts Award certificate. The group’s work was inspired by Brighton Museum’s ‘Constable in Brighton’ exhibition and meeting curators.

14.6    I was back on Wednesday 19 July for the exuberant opening of ‘The Museum of Transology, in the Museum’s Spotlight Gallery, open until l3 June 2018. I urge you all to see this bold, brave and profound exhibition. It shows a collection of material and stories drawn largely from members of the trans community in Brighton and explores their self-determined gender journeys.

Visit Brighton

14.7    Working with over 515 City partners engaged in tourism, in the last 3 months VisitBrighton has:

•    Launched the Save Madeira Terrace Campaign – currently £180,000 pledged towards a target of £430,000

•     Hosted journalists that has resulted in coverage in: BBC Good Food, Street Eats London, Red Magazine, The Telegraph and German national newspapers Freizeit Spass and Nürnberger Nachrichten

•           Seen 671,348 unique visits to visitbrighton.com

•           Engaged with 55k followers on Twitter, 22k friend on Facebook and 8k followers on Instagram

•     Handled 66 conference enquiries, confirming enquiries which will generate £10m on their arrival, most notably confirming:

•     British Sleep Society Biennial Conference – arriving October 2017 – 400 delegates

•           Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals Annual Conference – July 2018 – 600 delegates

•           Society of Local Authority Chief Executives Summit – arriving October 2018 – 400 delegates

•           UNISON Healthcare Conference – April 2020 – 400 delegates

•           Booked 4416 bed nights of accommodation for conference clients generating £62k commission

Brighton Centre

14.8    The following have taken place:

•    Successful delivery of Trades Union Congress (10 to 13 September 2017)

•           Currently building up for Labour Party conference (open days 24 to 27 September 2017), expecting 11,000+ registered delegates, press, contractors and exhibitors to attend the event with National and International media coverage of the conference over this weekend and next week.

•   34 concerts confirmed in the diary from the beginning of October until Christmas with a further five conferences being held.

14.9    RESOLVED – That the contents of the Chair’s Communications be received and noted.