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10 . Glasgow Business April/May 2016


Bureau wins ten in a row S


» Scott Taylor steps down as Chief Executive of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau


cot Taylor stepped down from his role as Chief Executive of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau


just as it was named the UK’s Best Convention Bureau for a remarkable 10th year in a row. Te fact that the Glasgow bureau


was voted number one in the poll for influential UK industry magazine Meeting & Incentive Travel was a suitable testament to the quality of Scot Taylor’s leadership. Glasgow is the first city ever to


win the award 10 years in a row, with this year’s win beating off strong challenges from Convention Bureau of London & Partners, Liverpool Convention Bureau, NewcastleGateshead Convention Bureau and Staffordshire and Stock-on-Trent Convention Bureau. Over the decade, the Bureau has


secured more than 3,000 domestic and international conferences in partnership with the SECC, Glasgow’s hotels and venues, academic institutions and city partners. More than 1.2m conference delegates have spent 3.8m nights in the city’s hotels during this time with delegates accounting for up to one in five hotel beds sold in Glasgow; underscoring the importance of conventions business in driving local economic growth. Stuart Patrick, Chief Executive of


Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, said: “Te record of GCMB under


Scot’s leadership really does speak for itself. It’s part of the reason why hotel occupancy rates have been high; having risen from the 60s to the high 80s over that period. Clearly the demand that was being generated by conventions led to Te SSE Hydro.” Mr Patrick also highlighted the


2000 Ambassadors from the academic community, who were key to securing conventions for the city, the support for Glasgow Airport in atracting airlines and the rebranding from Glasgow: Scotland with style


into People Make Glasgow. He said: “We know from our


hoteliers, the retail community, the restaurateurs and our academics that the Marketing Bureau is regarded as one of the beacons of Glasgow’s economic development. It is one of the most professional agencies in the country and Scot has been at the heart of that over the past 10 years. “Te number of conferences won


and delivered by the Marketing Bureau and city partners over the last decade has been a key factor in Glasgow’s economic success.”


New life for Glasgow City Marketing Bureau


The Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, the highly successful Council-owned marketing agency, is merging with Glasgow Life. It will bring the Marketing Bureau with its track record of attracting conferences and exhibitions and tens of thousands of visitors and multi-million pound revenues together with the body that runs the city’s museums and sports facilities.


Glasgow leads the way on skills


Glasgow is the most skilled city in the UK outside of London with the greatest percentage of the working population having qualifications above NVQ4 level, according to the Centre for Cities: Cities Outlook 2015. The city has 41.4 per cent


of the workforce at this level compared to 34.2 per cent in Manchester, 25.6 per cent in Liverpool and 25.2 per cent in Birmingham. Glasgow has the largest


student population in Scotland with five colleges and five higher education institutions, which attract more than 133,000 students from 135 countries. It has the second largest


number of higher education students (undergraduate and postgraduate) in the UK compared to other major university cities with nearly 67,000 higher education students and more than 66,000 in the further education sector. In addition, Scottish


universities have a higher proportion of leavers going into employment or further study at 94.1 per cent compared to the other UK nations, according to research by Oxford Economics. Glasgow’s largest institutions,


the University of Glasgow and the University of Strathclyde, ranked 12th and 17th respectively in terms of the same employability indicator.


New economic strategy and name change to focus City Deal


The City Deal Cabinet is to commission a new economic strategy for the whole of the Glasgow city region. The move, along with a decision


to rebrand the £1.3 bn programme as Glasgow City Region City Deal, is aimed at integrating more closely the eight council areas covered by the City Deal. The change of name from ‘Glasgow and Clyde Valley City Deal’ reflects the fact that Glasgow has a high-level of recognition and positive profile domestically and internationally. The creation of a specific brand will


make it easier to promote the benefits of the City Deal to inward investors and


domestic businesses. This is an approach that has been


successfully adopted by the city region’s major domestic competitors such as Manchester, which has created a single brand covering the whole of Greater Manchester. The Regional Economic Strategy


will run from summer 2016 to summer 2030 and aims to set out a clear vision for the economic future of the region. Councillor Mark MacMillan, the


Cabinet’s Enterprise Portfolio Lead and Leader of Renfrewshire Council, said: “The City Deal recognises the fact that the economies of the Glasgow City


Region local authorities are completely interlinked. None of us can succeed without every part of the region working together. “The decisions we have taken are


a big step towards the creation of a single regional economy and no one should underestimate how significant this is. In the next few years these eight councils, which will retain their own identities, will be working towards growing the regional economy.” Since its first meeting in August 2015, the Glasgow City Region City Deal Cabinet has approved £82m of funding towards projects with


a total value of £1.09 bn. The City Deal will bring tens of thousands of jobs to the Glasgow city region over the next few decades through 20 major infrastructure projects; drive innovation and growth through the support of key sectors such as life sciences; and address challenges in the labour market. The eight local authorities are: East Dunbartonshire Council; East Renfrewshire Council; Glasgow City Council; Inverclyde Council; North Lanarkshire Council; Renfrewshire Council; South Lanarkshire Council and West Dunbartonshire Council.


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