From the minute the speaker; Stuart Patrick, Chief Executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce; started his talk I was captivated and found myself for the first time ever more or less writing down what he was saying word for word.
Stuart was keen that we spread the word of what he was saying so hopefully he will not mind me regurgitating the key points of what he said here. Don't ask me to point to the sources of the statistics he quoted (they were on the slide) but take it as a spirited provocation aimed at refocusing our perspective of our great city and clarifying what is next for Glasgow after this amazing year.
Glasgow is a global economic powerhouse was the provocation that was Stuart's starting position and he made it his job to justify that by virtue of ten key points.
By way of context he pointed to the fact that for many years we have been living with an attitude that Glasgow was and is going through a post industrial regeneration. This is indeed true but by virtue of the points he made his view is that it is time to throw off the shackles of a city trying to find itself and accept that we are a city that has not only found its place in the world but is very clear on its identity and is the envy of many.
So what are these ten points:
1. We are big - we rank number twenty eight of the forty largest cities in Europe. Within the UK we are the fourth largest behind London (which should almost be discounted as a country in its own right!!), Birmingham and Manchester. By comparison Edinburgh is the fifteenth largest UK city. We are bigger than Lyon, Turin, Amsterdam and Dusseldorf and nearly as big as Brussels. This makes us a huge player particularly in an environment where large businesses are refocusing their investment into cities rather than urban developments and also makes us a magnet for attracting talent which is a major driver of inward investment.
2. We are skilled - we are the second most skilled large city in the UK and we are pretty bright. We retain more of our talent than Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool (i.e. people stay here after they've finished their higher education here). We're only beaten by London. That said one of the step changes we make to be even more skilled and bright is to develop in the field of vocational education. 25% of those in the working population have no qualifications and many of them are out of work. Already the new super colleges are making inroads into this and if we can change this dramatically then it would revolutionise the extent of inward investment we receive. We need to match aspirations of this part of the community to education.
3. We have a reputation for strong leadership - we are very apt at bringing all stakeholders across our communities (civic, academic, business and political) together for the common weil regardless of their differences to make sure that we work together to deliver challenging projects (e.g. the Commonwealth Games) or to tender for investment. We are the only city in Scotland to have secured a First City Deal which has secured us government funding to the tune of £1.13bn to improve our infrastructure. By working across their boundaries these groups have now secured the development of the rail link from the city to the airport, the completion of the Clyde Waterfront development and to redevelop Greenock's waterfront to significantly improve cruise liner facilities to name but a few. This is an attribute which is hard to achieve, hard to prove but when you have it it is a huge benefit to you.
4. We have a diverse economy with six key industries in which we excel - low carbon; financial and business services; life sciences; engineering, design and manufacturing; higher and further education; tourism. The creative industries and the food and drink industry could also have been clear contenders as we excel in those too.
The remainder of Stuart's points of proof relate to how we take that diverse economy and excel even further - we don't need to look for another Commonwealth Games to bolster our economy; in fact the chances of getting one are very slim as they really don't come along that often.
So in terms of what we have to do next - focus on those six industries using the talent we have at our disposal.
5. Low Carbon Industry - we are the renewables capital of Scotland, have a developing new area of the city where many of the associated companies are basing themselves and focused on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of our city to act as a low carbon demonstrator and city of good practices which we can sell to the wider world. Not only that but we have secured the oil industry annual conference from Aberdeen for the next ten years.
6. Financial and business services sector - Glasgow experienced the most significant growth outside of London in this sector from 2000 to 2008 i.e. before the whole thing crashed. We rank 75th in the world leading financial service sector cities which is significant given Edinburgh (which we'd all acknowledge as being the financial services capital of Scotland) is also in the 70's. This growth and its impending post crash return has led to many physical changes taking place in the city landscape. For the first time in a very long time commercial property developers are investing in speculative city centre office development - a suggestion they think the economy will continue to flourish.
7. Life Sciences - the Glasgow Bio Corridor (from Newhouse to Irvine) houses 36% of the Scottish life sciences businesses - something we always attribute to Dundee. We have a specific strength in the field of medical device development. The growth in this area is supported with 22,000 students studying in this field with an annual graduation rate of 5,000 per annum. The opening of the South Glasgow Hospital next year (the largest critical care hospital in the UK and one of the largest in Western Europe) is attracting companies, academics and clinical research facilities to our city. Numerous clinical research projects are due to be housed out of Glasgow - bizarrely our reputation for ill health is critical in attracting these research programmes so there is a mixed message.
8. Engineering, Design and Manufacturing - we want engineering back at the heart of Glasgow - currently we have 800 businesses employing 22,000 people in Glasgow and we are still the biggest contributors of Gross Value Add to the Scottish economy. We have 9,000 students in this field and a new city centre Technology Innovation Centre opening next year which will bring together all parties (academia, research, business etc). Strathclyde University has set itself a highly ambitious agenda on the world stage and has been awarded the contract to run the strategy for the National Physical Laboratory on behalf of the UK.
9. Higher and Further Education - we have the largest student population in Scotland (130,000 students). Our universities and colleges are reinventing themselves and Glasgow Caledonian University is acknowledged as a great example of how to turn a polytechnic into a modern university distinctive for its inclusivity and its expansion to having campuses in London and New York. The challenge for this sector is that mentioned earlier - especially for the 'super colleges' - to determine how to match the aspirations of that 25% of the workforce who have no qualifications with courses that can aide their development and our ability to attract inward investment. We also have a couple of jewels in our crown - the Royal Conservatoire and the Glasgow School of Art which in the coming months will pull on our strength of working together to rebuild itself. Not only is the education aspect important but education is a business in its own right - the development of great quality student accommodation has contributed to our economy significantly in the last few years.
10. Tourism - business tourism is one of our strengths - outside of London we attract the most conferences in the UK and even then we only come slightly second to London which is a huge achievement. Leisure tourism is the one we need to crack to make a step change to our success. The Commonwealth Games have been huge in this - not least as the most entrenched views of what Glasgow is and what you'll experience when you get here are in the South East of England. Forced to come here if they wanted to enjoy the Games (and they did come) then perceptions of what Glasgow is has notably changed and our challenge now is to capitalise on that and secure these visitors from England in revisiting our city. An increase of 300/400K visitors to Glasgow per annum would represent success in this field. We are continuing to see great investment in this area with the Burrell Collection due to receive £40m of investment, Kelvinhall being redeveloped, the success of the SSE Hydro which is now the third busiest concert venue in the world, the associated regeneration of Finnieston which now houses two Bib Gourmand establishments (Ox and Finch and The Gannet) - and lest we forget a couple of years ago you wouldn't have gone out your way to visit Finnieston. We are a UNESCO city of music with 130 music events per week to choose from. We are in the top ten sporting cities and have the European Swimming Championships, World Gymnastic Championships and the football coming this way. Hotels are reporting the highest occupancy rates ever and Glasgow airport has seen increasing footfall month on month for the last 18 months. Buchanan Galleries is about to go through another £300m investment and Queen Street station is being redeveloped.
So that was Stuart's justification for why he considers us to now be an economic powerhouse. As for the question of 'what next?' well two things which roll of the tongue but are no doubt difficult to achieve and certainly a long term challenge - improve the vocational skills of that 25% of the workforce and exploit those six industries at which we excel.
It was a great talk - really making you lift your head to think about your city on a world stage and also enlightening about what is going on or planned for our development. These sorts of insights always fascinate me.
Whilst marvelling at the economic powerhouse that I call home I...
...POPPED UP at Glasgow GinFest and Section 33. The Glasgow GinFest was run by the Gin Factory in the Barra's Art and Design Centre and brought a range of twenty seven different gins to try including some more unusual versions (see GINNED ON below).
Section 33 is a company which caters at street food events, weddings etc and has taken on the challenge over the next few months of hosting six pop up restaurant events in six iconic locations throughout Glasgow with profits going to the food banks. The first of these events was in the Southside and, despite having been launched a month or so ago, we only found out on Thursday where the venue was - The Govanhill Baths - yes we actually had our dinner last night in the swimming pool (shallow end if you were wondering). I'm going to cover the Govanhill Baths in next weeks blog as we were given a rare treat on the way out last night - more to follow...
...GINNED ON...my favourites at the ginfest were Rock Rose (for the bottle as much as anything ) described as berry sweetness with juniper undertones, zesty yet full of berry sweetness, long and smooth and best served with orange; Jensen's Old Tom - huge root hit, ample musk and spice, sweetness on the nose yet a dry palate, best served with rosemary; and my favourite of the night was Warner Edwards Victoria's Rhubarb - smooth and earthy with an exquisite fruity balance of sweet and sour. It was yum and really did taste of rhubarb...
..DINED ON...one of everything on the menu in the picture below at Section 33 - no I'm not that much of a glutton - we all shared!! It was all beautiful tasty slow cooked food. Stand outs were the Venison Mole Empanadas and the Basil and Olive Oil cake with Strawberry Ice Cream.
What an amazing couple of events - testament to how brilliant, energetic and edgy my city is - can't wait for the next Section 33 event.
And before I go - a big Happy 40th Birthday to my cousin Claire in New Zealand - hope you enjoyed your wonderful surprise of all of our ugly mugs popping up on your screen on Saturday morning - what a treat (haha).
Until next time - have a good week.
Glasgow is a global economic powerhouse was the provocation that was Stuart's starting position and he made it his job to justify that by virtue of ten key points.
By way of context he pointed to the fact that for many years we have been living with an attitude that Glasgow was and is going through a post industrial regeneration. This is indeed true but by virtue of the points he made his view is that it is time to throw off the shackles of a city trying to find itself and accept that we are a city that has not only found its place in the world but is very clear on its identity and is the envy of many.
So what are these ten points:
1. We are big - we rank number twenty eight of the forty largest cities in Europe. Within the UK we are the fourth largest behind London (which should almost be discounted as a country in its own right!!), Birmingham and Manchester. By comparison Edinburgh is the fifteenth largest UK city. We are bigger than Lyon, Turin, Amsterdam and Dusseldorf and nearly as big as Brussels. This makes us a huge player particularly in an environment where large businesses are refocusing their investment into cities rather than urban developments and also makes us a magnet for attracting talent which is a major driver of inward investment.
2. We are skilled - we are the second most skilled large city in the UK and we are pretty bright. We retain more of our talent than Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool (i.e. people stay here after they've finished their higher education here). We're only beaten by London. That said one of the step changes we make to be even more skilled and bright is to develop in the field of vocational education. 25% of those in the working population have no qualifications and many of them are out of work. Already the new super colleges are making inroads into this and if we can change this dramatically then it would revolutionise the extent of inward investment we receive. We need to match aspirations of this part of the community to education.
3. We have a reputation for strong leadership - we are very apt at bringing all stakeholders across our communities (civic, academic, business and political) together for the common weil regardless of their differences to make sure that we work together to deliver challenging projects (e.g. the Commonwealth Games) or to tender for investment. We are the only city in Scotland to have secured a First City Deal which has secured us government funding to the tune of £1.13bn to improve our infrastructure. By working across their boundaries these groups have now secured the development of the rail link from the city to the airport, the completion of the Clyde Waterfront development and to redevelop Greenock's waterfront to significantly improve cruise liner facilities to name but a few. This is an attribute which is hard to achieve, hard to prove but when you have it it is a huge benefit to you.
4. We have a diverse economy with six key industries in which we excel - low carbon; financial and business services; life sciences; engineering, design and manufacturing; higher and further education; tourism. The creative industries and the food and drink industry could also have been clear contenders as we excel in those too.
The remainder of Stuart's points of proof relate to how we take that diverse economy and excel even further - we don't need to look for another Commonwealth Games to bolster our economy; in fact the chances of getting one are very slim as they really don't come along that often.
So in terms of what we have to do next - focus on those six industries using the talent we have at our disposal.
5. Low Carbon Industry - we are the renewables capital of Scotland, have a developing new area of the city where many of the associated companies are basing themselves and focused on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of our city to act as a low carbon demonstrator and city of good practices which we can sell to the wider world. Not only that but we have secured the oil industry annual conference from Aberdeen for the next ten years.
6. Financial and business services sector - Glasgow experienced the most significant growth outside of London in this sector from 2000 to 2008 i.e. before the whole thing crashed. We rank 75th in the world leading financial service sector cities which is significant given Edinburgh (which we'd all acknowledge as being the financial services capital of Scotland) is also in the 70's. This growth and its impending post crash return has led to many physical changes taking place in the city landscape. For the first time in a very long time commercial property developers are investing in speculative city centre office development - a suggestion they think the economy will continue to flourish.
7. Life Sciences - the Glasgow Bio Corridor (from Newhouse to Irvine) houses 36% of the Scottish life sciences businesses - something we always attribute to Dundee. We have a specific strength in the field of medical device development. The growth in this area is supported with 22,000 students studying in this field with an annual graduation rate of 5,000 per annum. The opening of the South Glasgow Hospital next year (the largest critical care hospital in the UK and one of the largest in Western Europe) is attracting companies, academics and clinical research facilities to our city. Numerous clinical research projects are due to be housed out of Glasgow - bizarrely our reputation for ill health is critical in attracting these research programmes so there is a mixed message.
8. Engineering, Design and Manufacturing - we want engineering back at the heart of Glasgow - currently we have 800 businesses employing 22,000 people in Glasgow and we are still the biggest contributors of Gross Value Add to the Scottish economy. We have 9,000 students in this field and a new city centre Technology Innovation Centre opening next year which will bring together all parties (academia, research, business etc). Strathclyde University has set itself a highly ambitious agenda on the world stage and has been awarded the contract to run the strategy for the National Physical Laboratory on behalf of the UK.
9. Higher and Further Education - we have the largest student population in Scotland (130,000 students). Our universities and colleges are reinventing themselves and Glasgow Caledonian University is acknowledged as a great example of how to turn a polytechnic into a modern university distinctive for its inclusivity and its expansion to having campuses in London and New York. The challenge for this sector is that mentioned earlier - especially for the 'super colleges' - to determine how to match the aspirations of that 25% of the workforce who have no qualifications with courses that can aide their development and our ability to attract inward investment. We also have a couple of jewels in our crown - the Royal Conservatoire and the Glasgow School of Art which in the coming months will pull on our strength of working together to rebuild itself. Not only is the education aspect important but education is a business in its own right - the development of great quality student accommodation has contributed to our economy significantly in the last few years.
10. Tourism - business tourism is one of our strengths - outside of London we attract the most conferences in the UK and even then we only come slightly second to London which is a huge achievement. Leisure tourism is the one we need to crack to make a step change to our success. The Commonwealth Games have been huge in this - not least as the most entrenched views of what Glasgow is and what you'll experience when you get here are in the South East of England. Forced to come here if they wanted to enjoy the Games (and they did come) then perceptions of what Glasgow is has notably changed and our challenge now is to capitalise on that and secure these visitors from England in revisiting our city. An increase of 300/400K visitors to Glasgow per annum would represent success in this field. We are continuing to see great investment in this area with the Burrell Collection due to receive £40m of investment, Kelvinhall being redeveloped, the success of the SSE Hydro which is now the third busiest concert venue in the world, the associated regeneration of Finnieston which now houses two Bib Gourmand establishments (Ox and Finch and The Gannet) - and lest we forget a couple of years ago you wouldn't have gone out your way to visit Finnieston. We are a UNESCO city of music with 130 music events per week to choose from. We are in the top ten sporting cities and have the European Swimming Championships, World Gymnastic Championships and the football coming this way. Hotels are reporting the highest occupancy rates ever and Glasgow airport has seen increasing footfall month on month for the last 18 months. Buchanan Galleries is about to go through another £300m investment and Queen Street station is being redeveloped.
So that was Stuart's justification for why he considers us to now be an economic powerhouse. As for the question of 'what next?' well two things which roll of the tongue but are no doubt difficult to achieve and certainly a long term challenge - improve the vocational skills of that 25% of the workforce and exploit those six industries at which we excel.
It was a great talk - really making you lift your head to think about your city on a world stage and also enlightening about what is going on or planned for our development. These sorts of insights always fascinate me.
Whilst marvelling at the economic powerhouse that I call home I...
...POPPED UP at Glasgow GinFest and Section 33. The Glasgow GinFest was run by the Gin Factory in the Barra's Art and Design Centre and brought a range of twenty seven different gins to try including some more unusual versions (see GINNED ON below).
Section 33 is a company which caters at street food events, weddings etc and has taken on the challenge over the next few months of hosting six pop up restaurant events in six iconic locations throughout Glasgow with profits going to the food banks. The first of these events was in the Southside and, despite having been launched a month or so ago, we only found out on Thursday where the venue was - The Govanhill Baths - yes we actually had our dinner last night in the swimming pool (shallow end if you were wondering). I'm going to cover the Govanhill Baths in next weeks blog as we were given a rare treat on the way out last night - more to follow...
...GINNED ON...my favourites at the ginfest were Rock Rose (for the bottle as much as anything ) described as berry sweetness with juniper undertones, zesty yet full of berry sweetness, long and smooth and best served with orange; Jensen's Old Tom - huge root hit, ample musk and spice, sweetness on the nose yet a dry palate, best served with rosemary; and my favourite of the night was Warner Edwards Victoria's Rhubarb - smooth and earthy with an exquisite fruity balance of sweet and sour. It was yum and really did taste of rhubarb...
..DINED ON...one of everything on the menu in the picture below at Section 33 - no I'm not that much of a glutton - we all shared!! It was all beautiful tasty slow cooked food. Stand outs were the Venison Mole Empanadas and the Basil and Olive Oil cake with Strawberry Ice Cream.
What an amazing couple of events - testament to how brilliant, energetic and edgy my city is - can't wait for the next Section 33 event.
And before I go - a big Happy 40th Birthday to my cousin Claire in New Zealand - hope you enjoyed your wonderful surprise of all of our ugly mugs popping up on your screen on Saturday morning - what a treat (haha).
Until next time - have a good week.
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