City of culture chief to urge business leaders to back bid

Shona McCarthy will aim to inspire an audience of business leaders when she appears before the Hull and East Yorkshire Bondholders at a breakfast meeting on Thursday, September 5, just weeks before judges decide on Hull’s bid to become City of Culture in 2017.

Ms McCarthy will talk about Derry-Londonderry’s year in the spotlight, how becoming City of Culture could impact on Hull, what the city’s business community can do to back the bid.

She said: “From Derry’s experience, I can tell you that the potential for Hull is for it to be truly transformational.

“It’s an opportunity to put Hull on the map as a place of cultural vibrancy and to completely galvanise its citizens, across all of the sectors of the community, behind one vision.”

The bondholders business network is focused on raising the profile and improving the image of Hull and the wider region and Ms McCarthy said the City of Culture had transformed perceptions of Derry-Londonderry, externally and internally.

She said: “Externally, we have received really positive coverage in the national media which had become so accustomed to telling the same old story about Derry - a story of a troubled city with a history of political strife.

“They have come here and seen not just that we have got the year of culture right, we have got it extraordinarily right.

“Internally, people are now seriously walking tall. We are getting e-mails and messages from people who are saying they have never been so proud of their city.”

Ms McCarthy will also describe how, even part way through the year, Derry-Londonderry’s £16m cultural programme has resulted in at least a five-fold economic return.

The meeting will also hear from Hull 2017 bid director Andrew Dixon and Jon Pywell, Hull Council’s lead officer on the bid, who will give an update on its progress.

The event is at Bridghead Business Park in Hessle from 8.25am and is for bondholders only.

To book a place or find out more email [email protected].