The main focus for the Culture Mile BID is business and visitors, but the draft strategy document also makes this commitment:“Collaboration sits at the heart of the BID model. Understanding the value that each member of our community can contribute to projects is vital. We want to harness the potential of all the communities that make up the Culture Mile area, unlocking new opportunities for all”.
In practice collaboration is likely to be offered through a community forum and participation in steering groups, together with various communication channels. The existing Culture Mile Explore page features a guide for visitors, developed as a demonstration for the BID. This note explores how to build on that, and develop a complementary guide for residents.
Guides for different users
Users of guides and other communication channels might include:
Visitors exploring various attractions and activities: the focus for the current demonstration
Businesses looking for opportunities, suppliers, collaborations: a business directory is promised
Residents, businesses, visitors and Council members interested in Culture Mile BID background, plans and offers: what is the BID, and how will it operate
Residents actively seeking to develop projects and collaborations: what are the local assets and opportunities
Other BIDs in the City and elsewhere have a variety of maps, guides, information pages and publications - so based on and extending those models there is the opportunity to do something really useful here for all interests.
Guides, collaboration and the forum
BIDs generally aim to add additional layers of resources and innovation to existing programmes - more here. The Culture Mile BID has another dimension because, as a report to the City’s Culture, Heritage and Libraries committee in July 2022 explained, it will be taking over some strategic functions of the Culture Mile programme as it enters its second phase from March 2023. As a quote on the Culture Mile website says“A BID for the Culture Mile will place businesses in the driving seat”.
Points 1 and 2 above are potentially covered by the current demonstration and further plans in the draft strategy.
Points 3 and 4 are particularly important for this BID because of its additional strategic dimension, and the aim to“harness the potential of all the communities”. These could be addressed by:
An explanation of Culture Mile developments described in the committee report. What will this mean in practice for the programmes set up in the first phase phase of Culture Mile - both in terms of their content, and governance
A community guide demonstration which parallels and links with the Explore page guide, showing more places, projects and groups of relevance to local communities.
Developing these two strands before the BID ballot in January would have two benefits: it would help businesses understand what it will mean to be“in the driving seat”; and it would inform residents on the role of the forum, and how they may benefit from the BID.
Community guide demonstration
The Communities and Neighbourhoods team, until recently associated with Culture Mile, planned to develop a community information hub at the Barbican Centre, and supported work I did to demonstrate how that might work. Three relevant blog posts here and a set of slides.
The hub plan has been delayed, the team has moved to the Barbican Centre, and staff changes are in prospect. However, my ideas were based on the Exploring EC1 project and an information and mapping system that can be developed for a Culture Mile community guide. More below on that.
Culture Mile Explore page
The Explore Culture Mile page says:“We’ve curated this guide to help you get the most out of your time here. You can find us in the City of London, as part of the north-west corner of the Square Mile. Stretching from Farringdon in the west to Finsbury Circus in the east. Use the filters to show businesses, attractions and places of interest by category or location and use the accompanying map further down the page to find your way around Culture Mile”.
Guides for different users
Culture Mile Explore page