Month: April 2023

• Velvet Food & Drink Awards

Please find attached details of the Velvet Food & Drink Awards 2023, and the link to the website is below:

https://www.iliffemediapromotions.co.uk/velvet-food-drink-awards/

There are 8 categories and – it would be great if some of our BID members entered. It’s a public vote where the 3 businesses, with the most votes, in each category, get short-listed and judged by a panel of experts, entries close on 31st May. So it might be worthwhile asking your customers to nominate your business for one or more of the categories. The geographical area covered by the awards is: West Suffolk, Cambridge and North Essex.

 

• Make Music Day – 21^st June

You may have seen in the local media that we are working with the arc and the District Council on providing some places for performers on the above date, which is also Suffolk Day, to celebrate International Music Day. Attached is a flyer about the day and if you know any musicians and/or singers who you think would like to perform in the town on this date please pass on my contact details and ask them to get in touch.

 

• Our new website will be with us soon

I just wanted to make you aware that we are approaching the final testing stage of our new website and we will be contacting you shortly with further details about this and explaining how you can access & update your business listing, add offers and jobs for the public to see. We are very pleased with how things are going, what it looks like and its functionality and the better service it will provide to your current and potential customers. So watch this space for further updates over the next couple of weeks or so.

• Coronation shop front and/or products

Its only just over a week to the Coronation and I know that many of you are getting into the spirit so if you have any window displays or products which are Coronation linked please let Grace know at pr@ourburystedmunds.com and she can spread the word to our social media followers.

 

• Defibrillators Save Lives – Used printer cartridges.

You may be aware that we support a scheme that includes the provision of used printer ink / toner cartridges collections bins in the Apex as part of the national Keeping Hearts Beating campaign. These recycled cartridges are turned into cash which is then used to fund additional defibrillators including numerous ones in our town centre. Most recently (being officially launched this week) this includes a publicly accessible 24/7 defibrillator fixed to the external wall of Verve Bar & Restaurant in response to a request linked to our night-time economy.

You may also be aware that a defibrillator session is included in our free first aid courses.

So if you have printer cartridges that you would like to recycle then please make use of these collection bins and your contributions will be gratefully received. If you require any further information, contact mike.kirkham@ourburystedmunds.com

Celebrate Suffolk Day by making music with Our Bury St Edmunds

Live music is coming to Bury St Edmunds town centre in a special event to celebrate Suffolk Day on June 21.

Our Bury St Edmunds, which runs the Business Improvement District (BID), has teamed up with the organisers of Make Music Day – an international event which takes place annually in 125 countries on 21 June. As this is also the day when the county of Suffolk is celebrated, the team at the BID have combined both to fill the town centre with music and celebrate the talented artists from Bury St Edmunds and around Suffolk.

Chief Executive of Our Bury St Edmunds, Mark Cordell said: “The town has a long established reputation for music – the annual competition BurySound which has brought a number of musicians to national acclaim has just celebrated 25 years and I congratulate BlueFeed on their win last week and Bury-based Outbound who took the rising star award. We have some fantastic venues in the town centre such as The Grapes, Hunter Club, Market Cross, Theatre Royal and The Apex and we’d love to see established acts from the local music scene as well as up and coming artists perform on Make Music Day.”

Two performance spaces in the market area and arc Shopping Centre will see local talented musicians perform between 10.30am and 4.30pm.

The event coincides with Suffolk County Music Service’s annual WCET Festival at The Apex. Primary schools in the county are invited to take part in Whole Class Ensemble Tuition and form a large orchestra for the day culminating in a concert for an invited audience. More than 2,000 children from 64 different schools will be involved in events in Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich and Lowestoft across two weeks. In addition to the day’s live music events, regular market trader vinyl record dealer MistyMountainMusic also plans to be involved.

Mark Cordell added: “We look forward to hearing an eclectic mix to celebrate both Suffolk Day and Make Music Day.”

Further information is available at Making Music in Bury St Edmunds on Suffolk Day! – Make Music Day.

• Spring Fayre

Next month (28^th & 29^th May) will see our first significant town centre event for 2023, the Spring Fayre (previously The Whitsun Fayre). Our events bring in significant additional footfall which ensure more people discover the town centre and BID businesses. Also, as a Free Entry event with many Free Activities and Free Games visitors will hopefully be more inclined to spend locally and boost the town centre economy. Marketing for this event has already begun and will ramp up as we approach the date so in support of this it would be great if you could display the attached A4 Event Poster in your business window. It is also available in A3 and if you would prefer us to deliver a hard copy to you just email mike.kirkham@ourburystedmunds.com

• Free Training Courses

You will be aware that we continue to provide a range of free training courses for BID Businesses including the popular Emergency First Aid at Work (with defibrillator element), Fire Marshal and Mental Health Awareness.

There is now an opportunity to add a Neurodiversity Awareness (3 hours) course but before doing so we would like to gauge the level of interest for this. This course would help attendees understand a range of neurodiverse conditions including dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, ADHD, and autism.

Attendees would develop a better appreciation of the challenges that can be faced by neurodivergent individuals and explore steps that can be taken to make interactions and environments more accommodating for those with neurodiverse conditions. If this course would be of interest, then please email mike.kirkham@ourburystedmunds.com

 

• Free Google Digital Training – 26^th April

The New Anglia LEP have organised the above for a half day session from 9am to 1pm at Ashlar House, in town, on the Eastern Way Industrial Estate.

This is an opportunity for small businesses to access expert advice and guidance for free.

Click on this link Google is coming to Bury St Edmunds – Google Digital Garage Tickets, Wed 26 Apr 2023 at 09:00 | Eventbrite to find out more about the session and how you can book your spot.

• Coronation Weekend

With the above taking place in early May you may well be planning to commemorate this with events, products or services to celebrate the Coronation of the King.

If this is the case please let us know and we will be very happy to spread the word to all of our social media followers to raise the profile of what you are doing. Just contact Mike Kirkham at mike.kirkham@ourburystedmunds.com and he’ll arrange this promotional activity for you.

• BID AGM

Here’s a date for your diary, our AGM will be held at The Guildhall from 6pm on Thursday 15^th June. This is an opportunity for BID businesses to meet our Board members and our staff and hear about what we have achieved during the financial year 22/23.

Additionally our priorities for the forthcoming financial year, will be outlined.

In order to make the necessary logistical arrangements, if you would like to come along can you let my colleague Jackie Regan at jackie.regan@ourburystedmunds.com know and also if you have any dietary requirements can you make her aware as we will be providing refreshments for those attending.

 

Updates, events, and news for our Bid Members with regard to Bury St Edmunds this week. This week includes free training & courses, free map holders, and loyal free app trails.

• Opportunities to reduce your operating costs for Free

Last autumn we worked with Place Support Partnership who provided an opportunity for them to work on your behalf to reduce your operating costs. They visited the town in November and held a clinic and I also accompanied their owner Rishi, to a meet a number of you, at your place of work.

This BID membership benefit was then extended to you all until the end of last year.

Rishi has contacted me recently and has once again extended this offer for our members until the end of this year.

If you are interested is asking PSP to investigate your potential cost savings (the cost of any transfer of contracts will not rest with you) then have a look at the attached pdf document where details of there offer and their contact details are present.

• Level 3 Mental Health First Aid Course

Three Eggs (BID Member) is offering a 20% discounted virtual Mental Health First Aid course for BID members.

This is a Level 3 RQF Mental Health First Aid course, taught live by a trainer across an online platform.

The content and trainer are the same as their in-person courses but the online format is across 3 sessions (with some independent learning in between) rather than 2 full days and might be a more flexible option for some members and your staff.

Dates and times for the sessions are:

• Tuesday 18th April (10am-12pm) session 1
• Tuesday 25th April (10am-12pm) session 2
• Tuesday 2nd May (10am-12pm) session 3

Full details of the course can be found here.

The course usually costs £200+VAT so BID members cost will be reduced to £160+VAT per delegate.

If you are interested in this training, please email Three Eggs direct to achieve this discount at hello@threeeggs.co.uk

• NHS, Blue Light and Military Discounts –  Loyal Free App Trail

Thanks to our free app with LoyalFree www.loyalfree.co.uk  we create a variety of business listing style trails to make it easier for visitors to discover businesses on these trails and hopefully increase footfall. Depending on the nature of your business you may appear on multiple trails. For example, you could be a dog friendly, Bury St Edmunds gift card, vegan, gluten free café business and be listed on all these individual trails. We have extended our original discount trail to include the NHS, Blue Light and Military community as many of our businesses offer discounts for all or some of these customers.

If you would like your business to be included on this trail, please email mike.kirkham@ourburystedmunds.com highlighting what you offer, who can access your discount and any terms & conditions. It maybe you already accept a variety of discount cards for this community such as the Defence Discount Service Card, Blue Light Card, Armed Forces Veteran’s Discount Card, and others.

• Disability Confident Committed Employer

At the recent Iliffe Jobs Fair, which we attended to promote BID businesses job vacancies, we met the local Department for Work & Pensions lead for the Disability Confident Committed Employer Scheme www.gov.uk/disability-confident .

This scheme is about encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain, and develop disabled employees.

Quoting from their leaflet, “employing disabled staff could help you access the spending power of disabled people and their families estimated to be £249 billion.”

The scheme, which has three levels, gives employers free access to guidance and support, information about potential funding, webinars, workshops and an accreditation certificate and the Disability Confident logo for their website and recruitment ads.

If you would like to find out more, please email Richard Cox richard.cox@dwp.gov.uk or phone 0739 228 0584.

• FREE Town Centre Map  / Map Holders

We recently started to distribute Issue 30 of our popular FREE Town Centre Map which lists all BID businesses and a range of helpful visitor place markers and information.

Supported by the Bury St Edmunds Rickshaw we have already distributed to the large map holders at the tourist information points and other high footfall areas.

If you would like one of our small A6 map holders (see attached image) or just need a top up of maps, then please email mike.kirkham@ourburystedmunds.com and we will deliver to you.

Our Bury St Edmunds and The Arc Shopping Centre have partnered up to bring you a synthetic Ice Skating Rink!

Between the 14th of December and the 3rd of January,  this synthetic Ice Skating Rink will be taking centre stage on Charter Square. With a capacity of up to 25 people, this advanced rink will provide icy entertainment no matter the weather!

As it stands, sessions for the rink will be free of charge.

The rink is just one of the fabulous activities Bury St Edmunds has in store for you this Christmas…