Head of Commercial at Hillyer McKeown, Steve Harvey, was amongst many leading business figures in the City invited to the recent One City Plan branding workshop. The One City Plan, a 15 year development strategy for Chester, has moved to the next phase in the planning of how ‘Brand Chester’ will look.
The workshop, facilitated by Geoff Barnsley and Andrew Stothert from Brand Vista was held at the Queens Hotel, Chester.
The workshop started with some frank discussion about the recent Urban Land Institute report which commented that "Chester is a city of “immense and unrealised potential”- but trying to be “too many things to too many people”.
Some attendees voiced some concern about the implementation of change and who would manage it.
Steve Harvey commented “It became quite clear that this development will require a good mixture of private and public sector enthusiasm in order to strike the right balance. Ultimately the change will be implemented by the local people and business community which is why we need to stay close to the development of the ‘brand’ – once it is decided this is something that will help to shape and define us so it needs to be right. There have been other regions that have benefited from this type of consultation and regeneration so we know that when the effort is put in it can create opportunities on a much broader and longer term scale. The work shop went on to develop ideas of what the future ‘Brand Chester’ should look like.”
Steve continued, "Eventually five themes were worked up by various groups to such an extent that they could be roadtested by stakeholder groups.
“These are exciting times for the One City Plan” said Steve, “it’s important that the Business community get involved, stay involved and support this plan to ensure that Chester becomes a thriving hub for business and leisure once again”.
