Golden Key event
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+Destination City 
The Golden Key event was held on October 15 2022 in the City of London as a public launch of the Destination City programme. It cost about £1 million ( see below for committee discussion)

Destination City
October 15 event announcement
Corporation member John Griffiths questions cost
City Corporation committee report
Destination City implementation plan: report and detailed proposals

The report contained a section on Golden Key

13.Destination City launched its first major event, the Golden Key on October 15th. The event was created to reappraise perceptions of the City of London and act as a catalyst to drive additional footfall and spend to the Square Mile on a weekend day. It was also created to baseline future Destination City activity, acting as a pilot scheme in which to trial new ideas and approaches but also gather data and learnings. The event had several challenges to contend with - an incredibly short lead time of 3 months, the absence of the full Destination City team being in post, a stop on all marketing and communications due to the unforeseen mourning period and the wider challenges in getting hospitality businesses to open. Nevertheless, the event was remarkably successful in achieving its key aims. 

14.A fuller assessment will be made as the full information comes in. However, initial results/learnings were: 
  • a. 81 pieces were achieved across print, digital, and broadcast formats at a national, London and local level. This included the Times, Telegraph, TimeOut and Evening Standard. 
  • b. The dedicated event website achieved 491k visits in a two-week period. This was created ahead of the Destination Website which will be developed as part of the brand review, building on the learnings from the dedicated site. 
  • c. Social media acted as a major communication and influential platform, achieving a reach of 373,119 with 63,450 engagements 
  • d. Over 30,000 people attended the event, based on entrance and exists counts into activation zones and TfL data of taps into the City on the day 

15.Whilst the event was successful in driving footfall and enhancing the customer experience, it has more importantly provided us with a fantastic legacy to build upon. With a new audience, it gives us the foundations on which to develop Destination City’s narrative and programme of delivery to drive sustained growth across the Square Mile. We will use learnings and recommendations to inform future decisions and activity. As we scale up activations, it highlighted the need for more robust internal processes to be put in place to establish more effective stakeholder communication.

Desination City discussion starts here with a report from the programme director Luciana Magliocco (news of appointment here).
Response from officer The cost was around a million