Wednesday 27 June 2012

Where

Chipping Sodbury Town Hall, Chipping Sodbury, South Gloucestershire.

Action for Market Towns and Hidden Britain are working together to help our small towns and rural parishes understand how they can increase visibility and footfall through improved marketing. Thanks to sponsorship by South Gloucestershire District Council we will be repeating the popular ‘Marketing Your Town’ workshop in Chipping Sodbury on 27 June.

This workshop will help you to think about how you, as a town council, community group or other interest group, can improve the profile of your town and do it at low cost!

The Programme

The workshop will provide delegates with a practical introduction to the principles of destination marketing, helping them to establish what their town or village has to offer to both visitors and residents and to understand how to ‘sell’ this better.

Delegates will be introduced to new and traditional methods of getting the word out, from old-fashioned leaflets to new-fangled Twitter.

Sessions will be led by rural tourism and marketing experts from AMT’s partner ‘Hidden Britain’ and illustrated with case studies of communities who have already been through this process.  As well as participating in fact-filled plenary sessions, delegates will work through the key marketing tools in smaller groups, helping them develop a strategy applicable to their own town or village.

Attendees should go home feeling enthused, excited and not just clear about what they have to do next to improve their marketing – they’ll have already started it before the end of the day!

Download the Event Programme here

Book Now

The cost of attending this event is subsidised, with attendance fees starting at just £35 including lunch for AMT members.

We also have an introductory offer for non-AMT members of £75, which includes three months trial membership.

See the bookings form for more information on all rates.

Click here to complete an on line bookings form

Venue:

The seminar will be held at  Chipping Sodbury Town Hall 57-59 Broad Street, Chipping Sodbury South Glos BS37 6AD. Full joining instructions will be sent to booked delegates and uploaded here nearer the time of the event.

Any Questions?

If you have any questions about the event please contact Dawn Dowds on 01284 756567 or email dawn.dowds@towns.org.uk.

Thursday 21 June 2012

Where

Diss Corn Hall, St. Nicholas Street, Diss IP22 4LB

Action for Market Towns and Hidden Britain are working together to help our small towns and rural parishes understand how they can increase visibility and footfall through improved marketing.

This workshop will help you to think about how you, as a town council, community group or other interest group, can improve the profile of your town and do it at low cost!

The Programme

The workshop will provide delegates with a practical introduction to the principles of destination marketing, helping them to establish what their town or village has to offer to both visitors and residents and to understand how to ‘sell’ this better.

Delegates will be introduced to new and traditional methods of getting the word out, from old-fashioned leaflets to new-fangled Twitter.

Sessions will be led by rural tourism and marketing experts from AMT’s partner ‘Hidden Britain’ and illustrated with case studies of communities who have already been through this process.  As well as participating in fact-filled plenary sessions, delegates will work through the key marketing tools in smaller groups, helping them develop a strategy applicable to their own town or village.

Attendees should go home feeling enthused, excited and not just clear about what they have to do next to improve their marketing – they’ll have already started it before the end of the day!

Download the Event Programme here

Book Now

The cost of attending this event is subsidised, with attendance fees starting at just £35 including lunch for AMT members.

We also have an introductory offer for non-AMT members of £75, which includes three months trial membership.

See the bookings form for more information on all rates.

Click here to download an on line Bookings Form

Venue:

The seminar will be held at The Corn Hall in Diss, East Anglia. Full joining instructions will be sent to booked delegates and uploaded here nearer the time of the event.

Any Questions?

If you have any questions about the event please contact Dawn Dowds on 01284 756567 or email dawn.dowds@towns.org.uk.

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Where

Cedar Court Hotel, Harrogate, North Yorkshire

With current Government and media spotlight focussing on the health and long term future of traditional High Streets and Town Centres, Action for Market Towns (AMT) invites you to attend the next ‘Town Centre Solutions’ workshop.

Following the success of our previous Town Centres events and the popularity of our 21st Century Town Centres Report  we are pleased to announce that we intend to replicate the Town Centre Solutions workshop in other regions. Thanks to sponsorship by North Yorkshire County Council and Harrogate Borough Council, the next Town Centre Solutions workshop is now scheduled for Wednesday 13 June, in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

This full day workshop offers a unique opportunity for those who work in and on behalf of town centres to learn about an innovative set of solutions, services and ideas which help deliver economic vibrancy.

The workshop is vital for all those wanting to

• UNDERSTAND THEIR TOWN CENTRE
• MEASURE THE SUCCESS OF THEIR TOWN CENTRE
• ENGAGE AND TRAIN INDEPENDENT RETAILERS
• CREATE A TOWN CENTRE ACTION PLAN
• DEVELOP LOYALTY SCHEMES

Four specialist organisations will deliver the workshop:

amt-i will provide an insight into the importance of understanding your town centre from a customer perspective, outlining an array of tools and techniques such as footfall counts, town centre surveys, mystery shopping and car parking and signage audits. The need to measure the success of town centre performance will be outlined via the AMT Town Benchmarking system.

Retail specialists, Metamorphosis , will guide delegates in approaches to engage with independent retailers to help create a ‘town centre vision’ and ensure customers’ experiences are positive.

AMT will use research from its Local Loyalty report to consider how towns can use loyalty schemes to benefit overall economic performance, using the new My Card  scheme as a case study.

Meanwhile, Totally Locally will show how loyalty and footfall can be increased through the way you promote and brand your town’s offer.

Delegates will leave the event with a template to ensure the vibrancy of their town.

Click here to download the event programme

To Book:

Attendance fees start at just £35 for AMT members or for any organisations based in North Yorkshire.

We also have an introductory offer for non-AMT members of £75, which includes three months trial membership of AMT.

Please see bookings form for more information

Click here to complete an on line bookings form

Venue:

The workshop is being held at The Cedar Court Hotel, Park Parade, Harrogate HG1 5AH. Full joining instructions will be sent to booked delegates and uploaded here nearer the time of the event.

If you have any questions about the event please contact Dawn Dowds on 01284 756567 or email: dawn.dowds@towns.org.uk

What next?

• Download AMT’s 21st Century Town Centres Report {opens pdf}
• Read reports from past AMT seminars here
• Share your thoughts or ask questions on how to save our town centres in the AMT Forum
• See more upcoming AMT events

This workshop helped delegates from towns across the North think about how they could improve the profile of their towns and do it at low cost!

Click here to download the Programme:

The workshop provided delegates with a practical introduction to the principles of destination marketing, helping them to establish what their town or village has to offer to both visitors and residents and to understand how to ‘sell’ this better.

Delegates were introduced to new and traditional methods of getting the word out, from old-fashioned leaflets to new-fangled Twitter.

Sessions were led by rural tourism and marketing experts from AMT’s partner ‘Hidden Britain’ and illustrated with case studies of communities who have already been through this process.  As well as participating in fact-filled plenary sessions, delegates also worked through key marketing tools in smaller groups, helping them develop a strategy applicable to their own town or village.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THE MORNING PRESENTATION

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THE AFTERNOON PRESENTATION

Any Questions?

If you have any questions about any of our events please contact Dawn Dowds on 01284 756567 or email dawn.dowds@towns.org.uk.

This workshop considered the Localism Act, specifically focussing on aspects related to planning, land use and development, looking at what these new rights and opportunities mean in reality to communities living in and around small towns and parishes.

Through a mixture of presentations, case studies and discussion, delegates were provided with the information required to help them decide how best to apply localism in their own area.

The programme

The day began with an update on the Localism Act and an explanation of its different elements but with a focus on Neighbourhood Development Plans.  Click here to download a copy of the Localism presentation.

The process was then illustrated by a presentation from Madeley Parish Council who described their experience and the success and challenges they had faced so far. Click here to download a copy of the case study presentataion from Madeley Parish Council.

The afternoon was an opportunity to for delegates to discuss key questions and issues which had been identified before and during the initial stages of the event, following which delegates also had the opportunity to speak one-to-one with a member of the AMT team about the specific needs of their community.

Download the event programme here

Any questions?

If you have any questions about this event or would like to host a similar event in your town/District please contact Susannah Maxwell on 01284 756567 or at susannah.maxwell@towns.org.uk

What next?

• Read our localism guide and find out about our localism advisory service
• See our guide to Neighbourhood Planning
• Download localism resources

Using a mixture of presentation and Q&A, the workshop specifically focused on aspects related to planning, land use and development, looking at what these new rights and opportunities mean in reality to communities living in and around small towns and parishes.

After an update on the Localism Act and an explanation of its different elements, the workshop focused on Neighbourhood Development Plans, including how they relate to any existing Community Led Plans.

View the Localism Act presentation here.

One of the reasons for choosing Dawlish as the location for the event is that Dawlish is itself a Neighbourhood Planning Front Runner. A team from the Dawlish Neighbourhood Plan group and Teignbridge District Council, presented their experience to date, including lessons learnt and tips for other towns now embarking on a plan.

View the Dawlish/Teignbridge District Council presentation here.

Given the recent launch of the Coastal Communities Fund and the fact that several of the delegates were either from coastal towns or were Local Authorities with coastal towns in their area, we adapted the standard ‘Getting to Grips’ programme to include an additional session highlighting the particular issues surrounding small coastal towns. Alex Midlen from CoastNet gave an overview of the issues faced by coastal towns, showing that the process of using community planning and the opportunities presented by the Localism Act to address such issues is of relevance to all towns, wishing to play a greater part in shaping where they live, whether coastal or rural.

View the CoastNet presentation here.

If you have any questions about this event or any other AMT events, please contact Susannah Maxwell on 01284 756567 or at susannah.maxwell@towns.org.uk

What next?

• Read our localism guide and find out about our localism advisory service
• See our guide to Neighbourhood Planning
• Download localism resources