Agenda item - Chairs Communications

53.1    The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and noted that it was International Women’s Day.

53.2    “Arts - Brighton Festival

I spoke at the launch of this year's Brighton Festival, at the Dome on 15th February, drawing attention to the importance of the festival to the city, in raising our national and international reputation as a city and attracting visitors through home grown and international arts of the highest quality.  I welcomed the fact that the Festival is making even more commitment to our local communities.  ‘Your Place’ is back for a second year in Hangleton and East Brighton, building on last year’s success and Without Walls is also returning to East Hill Park.  In addition, 'pay it forward’ (which was generously supported by 1500 people in 2017)is returning this year, and this is a model which I know has real potential to make a difference to people who would find accessing the festival difficult and there is a commitment to developing it further in the emerging Cultural Framework.  The continued support of Arts Council England, our key stakeholder partner in funding cultural activities across the city, is vital to enabling the festival to happen and I was joined on the stage by their Area Director, Hedley Swain, who made reference to Brighton & Hove's high level of cultural engagement amongst residents.  The event was well attended, with many people keen to hear about the plans of David Shrigley, who is this year's Guest Director - an internationally renowned artist who has made his home here.  I am really looking forward to attending as much as possible of the festival, and I hope I will see many of the members of the committee at the events.

53.3    “Tourism

In the last 3 months Visit Brighton and its partners have:

•      Hosted journalists that has resulted in coverage in: Olive; i News; Good Things; The Gentleman’s Journal and Vegetarian Living.

•      Hosted 20 press trips for journalists notably including: Olive Magazine (UK), West Jet Airline (Canada); Marie Claire (UK); Scandinavian Influencers Group and National Geographic (China)

Visit Brighton has seen 300,000 page views to visitbrighton.com and engaged with 58k followers on Twitter, 24.5k friends on Facebook and 10k followers on Instagram Since the start of the financial year, VisitBrighton Convention Bureau handled 165 conference enquiries, confirming 54 enquiries, estimated to generate £39m in economic benefit.  These include:

·                National HIV Nurses Assoc Annual Congress – Oct 2018 – 400 delegates

·                Institute of Translating and Interpreting Annual Conference – May 2019 – 400 delegates

·                British Society of Immunology Annual Conference – Dec 2020  -100 delegates

·                British Medical Association Annual Conference –June 2020 – 800 delegates

·                SOLACE Summit - October 2018 – 400 delegates

Looking ahead to English Tourism Week, 17-25 March 2018, this will start in dramatic fashion with a charity abseil down the i360, in aid of Rockinghorse, for the neo-natal baby unit.  Our partners will be promoting a range of events during the week, including the opening of the new Palm Court Restaurant on the Palace Pier, and the week will conclude with events on Madeira Drive.”