Place Management Citichat 29 February 2008

CITICHAT 8/2008 - 29 February 2008


Providing for the practical and the academic in place management.

I’m in cold London for back to back conferences of the Institute of Place Management (IPM) and the Association of Town Centre Management (ATCM). In the case of the former, it is the inaugural conference of the Institute, in the case of the latter, it is one of many conferences that the organisation holds in different parts of the country, this one being an annual Strategic Leadership Conference. So here we have a newish organisation, IPM, focusing on research and education in the urban realm and a long established organisation in city management issues, ATCM, representing a wide range of urban stakeholders and role players, meeting over a couple of days in their own disciplines, but ultimately working for the same end – making cities better places!

Over the twenty something years that I have observed the city scene here in the UK, city centre management has seen a change from the traditional local government led model to include a variety of types of city partnerships between public and private sectors as well as the emergence of town centre managers (often with a team of specialists) that are paid for through a variety of funding streams, some by business others by business and council others by various combinations “helping town and city centres realise their natural roles both as prosperous locations for business and investment, and as focal points for vibrant, inclusive communities.” ATCM members and their partnership networks add up to a national constituency of some 10,000 leading businesses, government agencies and professions. Together, they enable a uniquely comprehensive exchange of know-how and ideas spanning a range of interests and skills represented in town and city centres……………..and achieving beneficial outcomes for all the following:

Government

Building successful town and city centres contributes to the policy objectives of central government and complements the economic, social and regeneration strategies of local government and development agencies.

Retailers

Improving the quality of the public realm is synonymous with delivering a better, more popular and more profitable trading environment for businesses of all kinds.

Property owners

A better trading environment enhances the status of town centres and the demand for property, increasing both its capital worth and rentable value.

Developers

Increasing competitiveness enlarges the customer base, fuels a continuing drive for differentiation and unlocks opportunities for new facilities and attractions.

Transport providers

More attractive, accessible town centres strengthen efficient transport hubs and increases demand for higher volume, modern, integrated transport systems.

Town centre managers

Effective policy development, training and information provision enhances the status and knowledge base that underpin sustainable management structures, leading to improved services and accelerating commercial growth.

Consultants

The growth of professional management and increasing expectations drives an escalating demand for high quality information, research and specialist skills across the spectrum of environmental, physical, economic and social development.”

Over the past five years, another urban intervention that has proved to be most successful here has been the establishment of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) or what we call City Improvement Districts (CIDs). I had written some years ago about the advent of BIDs in the UK when Central Government provided funding assistance to establish some 22 pilot BIDs in various towns and cities in Britain, the local constituencies (levy payers) having the final vote. Since 2003 that appears to have grown through 67 successful ballots (only 7 that have not succeeded.) Of course, like ourselves, some cities have a number of BIDs operating within their boundaries.

Scotland introduced their enabling legislation in 2006 which came into force in 2007 with a current pilot programme supporting six BID locations.

Jacquie Reilly, ATCMs BIDs Director (‘Talking BIDs’ January 2008) says that “there is no doubt that the formal and focused process of BID development is creating far greater business engagement and producing well honed business plans in many towns large and small. ……BID projects are becoming more and more sophisticated from in-house wardens with hand-held PDA systems to innovative marketing campaigns with town vouchers and dining weeks…”

Amongst some excellent addresses at the ATCM conference I was particularly interested in a report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. This related to a sustained research programme they were commissioned to undertake over a two year period in some 21 towns, cities and areas across the country. The objective is to provide a more ambitious agenda for business engagement and Town Centre partnerships which will provide a model “universally accepted and valued by the business community” as well as increased funding sustainability, influencing local policy development contributing to success in the area and providing different models to market town, sub-regional centres, industrial areas, etc. The report will be published at the end of March and should make interesting reading.

The Institute of Place Management is very much a complementary body to ATCM. IPM is an international professional body “that supports people committed to developing, managing and making places better.” It aims to support and develop the profession of place management and to showcase the most important place management developments across the world, providing a reference point for practitioners. IPM provides place managers, academics and policy makers with access to valuable information on the topic of place management. They comment on the concept of ‘place’ as follows:

”One of the most central concepts to human existence is that of place. We spend our lives somewhere; whether we are working, relaxing or just existing - we pass our time in various locations; we may travel to a town or city centre to shop, commute to a business park to work, and return to a neighbourhood to sleep.

History tells us that successful places, or those that pass the test of time, evolve to meet the changing needs of those that use them. Increasingly, attempts are being made to manage this evolution through some type of proactive intervention process.

It may be regeneration, management, marketing, economic development or any permutation of these but the aim is the same - to improve a distinct area or destination for the benefit of its users. This is the essence of place management – the process of making places better.

Although this term is relatively new, place management has, in practice, become an established concept over the last twenty years in Europe, having existed in parts of North America for much longer. It is an emerging concept in other parts of the world such as Asia and Australia.”

There are few courses offered anywhere in the world that I know of that focus solely on the management of place. I know that the International Downtown Association (IDA) has been working on something for a number of years and is offering appropriate training in the USA, but I don’t know of anything at university level that would equip people in this rapidly emerging profession. “Two thirds of town centre managers in the UK alone have highlighted this as a problem and are keen to undertake place management specific qualifications.”

ATCM have therefore been working in partnership with the Manchester Metropolitan University to launch, through the Institute of Place Management, a range of place management specific qualifications to help people within the profession achieve their full potential. What will make the courses by IPM unique is that they will offer qualifications which reflect the true diversity of place management. Prof Cathy Parker, the Development Director of IPM says: “There is an enormous variation in what place managers actually do and how they do it. We also recognise the variety of subject disciplines that place management draws from, such as: social entrepreneurship; management; marketing; economic development; retailing; education; crime & security; planning & design; and tourism & leisure to name a few.

It is our philosophy that this diversity, merged with the experiences, opinions and beliefs of our participants, is the core strength of all the programmes we co-ordinate.”

Courses offered will include:

Introductory Diploma in Place Management

MSc in Place Management

MA Urban Regeneration

MA Place Regeneration & Marketing

IPM hopes to establish an international network of people committed to making neighbourhoods, towns, cities and retail districts the best they can possibly be. To this end they have also established a Journal of Place Management and Development which aims to provide a central repository for research into these issues pulling together theory and practice. Volume 1 2008 is due to be published shortly.

In a relatively short space of time urban management, space or place management or whatever you may call it, has come a long way.

Cheers, neil