Directors and management of Hull Business Improvement District (BID) are looking to build on the success of their inaugural awards event with more entries and a wider audience as they plan a repeat next year.
HullBID is also committed to capitalising on a Fashion Week which businesses and public hailed as the best yet, and which is recognised as having found a natural home following the move to Hull City Hall.
Kathryn Shillito, the HullBID City Centre Manager, reviewed both events in her report to the latest meeting of the BID Board, which comprises a cross-section of city centre business leaders.
Kathryn said: “The awards were a first for HullBID and they were a great success. We partnered with the Hull Daily Mail to organise the event, with Hull Truck Theatre for an excellent venue and with businesses throughout the city centre who supported us as sponsors and entrants.
“Fashion Week was also a fantastic event with so many highlights. Hull City Hall is a beautiful building and the grand finale really found its home there. Our ‘Make Fashion Your Business’ networking event demonstrated that HullBID has really found its niche when it comes to giving businesses the chance to get together informally.”
The HullBID Awards were launched in February with a campaign in the Hull Daily Mail and were presented early in May at a ceremony hosted by Kathryn alongside Mail Editor Neil Hodgkinson. The Mail and Hull Truck Theatre each sponsored a category, as did Princes Quay Shopping Centre, the Prospect Centre and St Stephen’s Shopping Centre. The Mercure Hull Royal Hotel, First TransPennine Express and Bridge McFarland Solicitors also sponsored awards.
Categories reflected HullBID’s commitment to safety and cleanliness in the city centre as well as the community spirit and customer service demonstrated by businesses.
Kathryn said: “We received more than 250 nominations covering 88 different businesses and the awards were presented in front of a full house. Our aim from the outset was to make sure we engaged with businesses and we certainly achieved that.
“There was no cost to businesses to enter the awards or to attend the presentation and the feedback we received indicated that everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We are extremely grateful to our sponsors who made it all happen, and their support makes us confident that we can deliver another excellent event next year.”
Alana Ennis, HullBID Projects and Events Manager, said headline figures for Fashion Week included footfall of 218,000 people visiting St Stephen’s Shopping Centre during the week of April 28 – up almost 17 per cent on the previous year. The total number of visitors to the Prospect Centre was 148,000, an increase of 21 per cent on the previous year and city centre football on May 3 for the grand finale was up by nearly 24,000.
Alana said: “A lot of city centre businesses were more involved this year than they have been in the past and the public responded very positively. Fashion Week definitely went up a couple of levels this year.”
Jim Harris, Centre Manager of St Stephen’s Shopping Centre and Chairman of HullBID, told his fellow directors that BID is gaining recognition as a result of the high quality of events coupled with the enthusiastic response from business and the public.
He said: “The thing that really shone through from Fashion Week was the professionalism of the whole event and the buzz it created all week throughout the city centre. “And while we have a lot of awards for businesses in the Humber area the BID awards were unique because they put the spotlight on our city centre businesses. They are the BID awards for the BID businesses and they ensured that the Hull BID brand really hit the spot.”
Pictured: HullBID City Centre Manager Kathryn Shillito (left) with BID Chairman Jim Harris, Hull Daily Mail Editor Neil Hodgkinson and Pauline Speed, Manager of the Love You 2 Appeal.
