Drawing a crowdTate Liverpool’s electrifying art

We built this cityLiverpool’s international profile at MIPIM

The business of the BeatlesWhy the Fab Four are the gift that keeps on giving

Rock in the dockSound City is on the move

itsliverpool.com

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Mayor Joe Anderson shares his positive vision for the city

issue 6 spring 2015

IT’S MAGAZINE I local emloyer

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Liverpool is a vibrant city with world-class culture, heritage, sport and events. Whatever you’re looking for in a city break, you’ll find it here- with a famously warm welcome.

visitliverpool.com

When you’ve a story as long and winding as Liverpool’s, it’s tempting to look back. To comb over past glories. But that’s never been the Liverpool way. We’re a restless city. Something in our DNA forces us forward, on to the next exciting chapter. It’s why, this century, the city’s changed almost beyond recognition.

Liverpool ONE has, single-handedly, re-calibrated retail, and re-energised a once neglected swathe of city centre real estate. It’s why Sound City, not content with being the most vibrant inner-city music and digital festival, is moving to a new site: taking over a huge, river-side dock. It’s a ceaseless desire to push, prod and poke: a ‘what will happen if we do it like this?’ mindset that, 300 hundred years ago this summer, saw the city open the world’s first commercial wet dock. It’s curious thinking like this that’s got us this far, and we’re not about to slow down any time soon.

That said, there are occasions when the city likes nothing better than to stop, reflect and remember where we’ve come from. To return to the river. That’s why, this summer, the once-in-a-lifetime visit of the three Cunard Queens (Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria) starts what promises to be one of those ‘where were you’ moments as One Magnificent City gets underway. Just for the record, you’ll be in Liverpool.

Max Steinberg CBE Chief Executive, Liverpool Vision

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Liverpool is a vibrant city with world-class culture, heritage, sport and events. Whatever you’re looking for in a city break, you’ll find it here- with a famously warm welcome.

visitliverpool.com

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ROCK IN THE DOCKSound City is relocating to Liverpool’s docklands, but will this unique city music festival still move us?

UNFINISHED BUSINESSMore than 1000 days after his election, Mayor Joe Anderson is radically changing the way that the future development of the city is determined, financed and delivered.

INCOMINGYour instant briefing on what’s happening in the city

GOING FOR THE ONEIt’s reimagined retail, reshaped the city and rebooted our economy - how did Liverpool ONE get it so right?

WE BUILT THIS CITYFor one week only, the world’s property market zeroes in on a single, South of France resort. But does MIPIM really offer Liverpool valuable time in the sun?16 THE BUSINESS OF THE BEATLES

They left the city over 50 years ago - but, for Liverpool’s tourist industry, the Beatles are a gift that keeps on giving.

it’s magazine is produced by

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COMMON GROUNDFull of invention and excitement, Liverpool’s gaming industry is firing on all virtual-reality cylinders at the moment, but what’s next for the industry that never sleeps?

DRAWING A CROWDTate Liverpool’s Andrea Nixon explains why they’re alive with electrifying, must-see art - keeping the cobbles of the Albert Dock busy with visitors from all points of the globe.

THE AUDITWant to know how well Liverpool is performing ? Here’s your at-a-glance guide to where we’re at. Right here, right now.

KEEp IN TOUCH:

itsliverpool.com

@itsliverpool

/itsliverpool

itsliverpool/app

Front cover: Joe Anderson OBE, Mayor of Liverpool

Editorial Team: Peter Smith, Mike Allanson.

Writers: David Lloyd, Joe Keggin and Jonathan Caswell.

Commercial: Chris Adderley.

Main Photography: Matt Thomas.

Incoming: Jackson Pollock, 1912-1956 Portrait and a Dream 1953. Oil and enamel on canvas. Overall: 58 1/2 x 134 3/4 in.Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Algur H. Meadows and the Meadows Foundation, Incorporated © Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Jackson Pollock, 1912-1956. Yellow Islands 1952 Oil paint on canvas support: 1435 x 1854 mm © The Pollock-Krasner Foundation ARS, NY and DACS, London 2015.

Published by: Liverpool Vision, The Capital, 39 Old Hall Street Liverpool L3 9PP Tel: +44 (0)151 600 2900

© Liverpool Vision 2015. All material is strictly copyright and all rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of Liverpool Vision is strictly forbidden. Care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information in this magazine at the time of going to press, but we accept no responsibility for ommissions or errors. The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Liverpool Vision.

This document is printed on Essential Velvet, FSC, ISO 14001 accredited. Sourced from fully sustainable forests. Printed using vegetable based inks.

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Want to know how well Liverpool is performing ? We’ve no shortage of stories to share. But sometimes it’s more important to show than tell. So here’s your at-a-glance guide to where we’re at. Right here, right now.

IT’S MAGAZINE I incoming

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The University of Liverpool’s Management School has entered the Financial Times European Business Schools Ranking for the first time. The ranking lists the top 80 business schools in Europe based on schools’ performance. “We are absolutely delighted to have joined the elite rank of European business schools that make the Financial Times list,” Professor Michael McKenzie, Interim Director of the Management School, said.

“This is an outstanding achievement considering the school was only formed a little over a decade ago and is testimony to the hard work of our academic and professional services staff.”

The school’s set itself the goal of establishing the Management School as a provider of world-class business and management education and this achievement clearly shows it’s on the right path.

liv.ac.uk

University of Liverpool Management School is FT Rated

Introducing the It’s Liverpool App How do you capture one singular, restless, distinct and world-class city in an app? Well, you can’t, not completely. But with the new It’s Liverpool app we’ve made the best possible introduction to the city we call home. And the best way for anyone to start their explorations. And, if the five star Apple App Store reviews are anything to go by, our visitors think so too! Crammed with insider advice, hidden gems, and historic walks, this is the app that gets to the heart and soul of this special place - swiftly, surely and honestly.

itsliverpool.com/app

A real game changer Ditch the tactics boards and flipcharts, Liverpool company Elite Sport Technologies has developed Globall Coach, an app that’s bringing professional football coaching into the 21st century.

Developed with Champions League winner Rafa Benitez, Globall Coach is the first digital tool that helps coaches at elite level clubs to manage training sessions, prepare for games and help overcome the language barrier present in every modern football dressing room.

Endorsed by Thierry Henry and Patrick Viera, it’s another game-changer developed in Liverpool.

globallcoach.com

Summer 2015 will see Liverpool’s iconic waterfront host a seven week programme of events under the title One Magnificent City. Central to the celebrations is the once-in-a-lifetime visit of all three Cunard ‘Queen’ Cruise ships, Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria who will meet in the River Mersey in an event that will make maritime history.

Following this spectacular once in a lifetime event, the International Mersey River Festival and On the Waterfront concerts will take place on the Pier Head and Albert Dock

sites in June for all ages to enjoy. Ending the spectacular maritime theme is a vintage inspired July celebration of the first transatlantic crossing as Cunard’s flagship Queen Mary 2 sails from Liverpool during a weekend of events curated by designer Wayne Hemingway.

onemagnificentcity.co.uk

The final frontierThe flagship event for space in the UK is landing at ACC Liverpool. Held every two years, the UK Space Conference will focus on positioning the UK as a global leader in this fast growing sector.

The UK Space Conference enables cross-fertilisation of ideas and communities, bringing together organisations that are involved in, or benefit from space research, services and technology.

The two-day conference is a vital staging post in the 20-year strategy for the UK to capture 10 per cent of the global space market, which is forecast to be worth at least £400bn by 2030.

accliverpool.com/whats-on

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The city’s biggest music festival is upping sticks. But, don’t fear, it’s not travelling too far. Sound City is relocating to Liverpool’s docklands, but will this unique city festival still move us?

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IT’S MAGAZINE I sound city

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For the past seven years, Liverpool’s marked the arrival of spring with a festival that celebrates - and builds on - its musical muscle. Taking over the city’s warehouses, bars, car parks and cathedrals, the event has grown into a city-wide exploration of the places where music, digital, gaming and fashion meet.

With a tightly curated programme of gigs, talks, exhibitions and seminars, Sound City showcases the most exciting emerging voices in the city, and beyond. From must-see new bands such as The Hold Steady and Everything Everything, to must-hear in-conversation sessions with the likes of Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, and the Velvet Underground’s John Cale.

But, so successful has its freewheeling formula been that, this year, CEO Dave Pichilingi has orchestrated the festival’s biggest-ever shake up: transporting his itinerant circus of stages, salons and seminars to a new, slightly-out-of-town venue in the city’s north docks.

It’s a natural progression,” he tells It’s , in his frenetic Baltic Triangle HQ. “I’d thought about it for a number of years. I almost did it last year and lost my bottle. ”

Physically, and emotionally, it’s a brave move. Sound City seemed to grow out of the very fabric of the city’s Ropewalks region: a tightly packed lattice of streets housing lock-ups, subterranean lairs and famous clubs such as Cream and Kazimier. It seemed to be of the city, rather than a parachuted in intervention.

“I get that,” Pichilingi says, “But I’ve been going to these events for years, and it’s time for a change.”

If anyone knows which way the wind’s blowing, it’s Pichilingi. Together with the city’s tireless music promoter, Steve Miller, his knack of booking, this year, the bands that we’ll all be talking about next year, has given the Sound City faithful a sneak peek at the sound of things to come.

So we’re not betting against this shift northwards - to the city’s Bramley Moore dock. Especially when we hear of how Pichilingi’s basing his model on Spain’s thrilling city’s edge festivals such as Primavera and Sonar. “I’m bored with the black box venues,” he says of the more traditional, sticky-carpet music sheds that scatter our city centres.

Photograph: mattthomas.co.uk

IT’S MAGAZINE I sound city

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“The customer experience is woeful. Tepid lager, poor sound, no wonder they’re dying on their feet.”

Sound City 2.0, Pichilingi promises, will offer more theatre, more of an immersive experience. More opportunities to stage manage the whole experience - with huge warehouses, tiny structures, secret nooks and crannies. An after-dark dockside wonderland where anything might happen. Already, word is that it will be ‘an industrial Festival No 6’ (the boutique festival held in Portmeirion - winning plaudits for its rule book-ripping attention to detail) and, within its orbit, offer the chance for festival-goers to truly lose themselves in the music.

“We’ll give people the best art and music from around the world, and a spectacle to end each day,” Pichilingi promises.

But, while the festival’s already attracted the likes of Flaming Lips and Belle and Sebastian, the move is not without risk...

“We’ve doubled our costs to put this on. That said, the sponsors are coming in, now they can see the breadth of our ambition. And the music agents are sitting up and taking notice. There’s something about Liverpool’s waterfront that just engages people’s imagination. It’s about time we returned to it…”

To succeed, Pichilingi knows that Sound City needs to broadcast its message way beyond our city limits. “We need to pull people from Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle...tell them this is a world class event.”

“It’s a big leap, but I really feel like, now, we’ve found our distinctiveness.”

In moving to the river’s edge, what’s the betting Sound City is about to make its biggest splash ever?

liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk

We’ll give people the best art and music from around the world, and a spectacle to end each day

Joe Anderson OBE has been the elected Mayor of Liverpool for more than 1000 days, reaching that milestone on 29 January this year. A lot has happened since 3 May 2012 when he was elected with one of the largest mandates of any politician in the UK. In May 2012, Liverpool moved to a different model of city governance becoming the first major UK city to have an elected mayor with the aim of delivering swifter change and to create growth by strengthening leadership and providing a clearer, more targeted long-term vision.

More than 1000 days on, this approach is now radically changing the way that the future development of the city is determined, financed and delivered.

Liverpool had been on the rise for more than a decade by the time Joe Anderson was elected Council leader in 2010, but his taking office coincided with the new age of austerity and the fear was that the gains Liverpool had made would be lost as the new government’s fiscal policies took hold.

However, it was pedal-to-the-metal as soon as he was handed the keys to the Town Hall: “I was determined that Liverpool would build on its burgeoning reputation while protecting our citizens and making our growth sustainable for future generations.”

In the years before he became mayor, much was achieved to keep the city’s profile high. He led the city’s award-winning six month mission to Shanghai

BusinessUnfinished

IT’S MAGAZINE I mayor of liverpool

DECEMBER 2012Work begins on Edge Lane Retail Park, a £200m development creating up to 1,000 jobs after Mayor ended long-running dispute between city and owners Derwent Holdings.

OCTOBER 2012Plans announced for a turnaround Cruise Liner terminal. Liverpool would go on to win best UK Port of Call 2013 & 2014 and welcome more than 50 ships in 2015.

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OCTOBER 2012Liverpool City Council, Liverpool FC and Your Housing announce partnership which will result in a £260m regeneration plan for the football club and surrounding area, creating more than 750 jobs.

NOVEMBER 2012Mayor reveals huge 15-year development plans at launch of City Centre Strategic Investment Framework to supercharge Liverpool’s redevelopment and economic progress.

World Expo 2010; established a Liverpool ‘business embassy’ in London in 2011; and in 2012 secured the Giants of Royale de Luxe to roam Liverpool’s streets in the UK’s biggest street theatre spectacular, which was reprised in 2014.

“We made good progress in the first two years,” he says, “But it was being diluted by the severe cuts of austerity. I had increasingly felt we needed a new way which would grant more powers and funding to make an even bigger impact, freeing us up to be more innovative at a critical time.”

Anderson brokered a City Deal for Liverpool with Government that would see both happen, and on the back of pledges to build 12 new schools, 5,000 new homes, create 20,000 jobs, make Liverpool more business friendly and a cleaner greener city, he was elected Mayor with one of the biggest mandates of any UK politician.

He has also been prepared to open the ‘too hard to do drawer’ – those issues and schemes deemed too contentious, problematic or time-consuming and locked away for a tomorrow that might never come.

These are already bringing, or set to bring, massive benefits to the city – an award-winning turn-around cruise liner terminal that in 2015 will welcome 54 of the world’s biggest ships; progress on a new stadium for Liverpool FC as part of a £260m wider regeneration scheme; start of work on a £200m retail scheme on one of the city’s main arterial routes, following his offering the olive branch to the billionaire land owner who had long been in dispute with the City Council; and a £40m Exhibition Centre that will compete with the best in Europe for the biggest trade shows.

He is also on course to meet his pledges by the end of his first term. In short, there have been big changes which reflect Liverpool’s need to raise its game, but also reflect lessons about what’s worked best elsewhere in the world and provide a platform for Government to devolve powers and funding to the city to enable it to be in charge of its own future.

“I won’t tire of saying that even though progress has been made, Liverpool’s best days lie ahead. My pitch to Government, which is shared by all of the UK’s major cities, is simple, ‘We can help to deliver the prosperity that this country needs’”, he says.

3 MAY 2012Cllr Joe Anderson, leader of Liverpool City Council elected as Mayor of Liverpool.

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OCTOBER 2014English Heritage praises Liverpool’s approach to buildings at risk having taken 20 off list in Four years including refurbishment of former Royal Insurance building and Rum Warehouse at Stanley Dock.

DECEMBER 2014First home for a pound completed in Toxteth, the first of 20 planned as part of a mix of housing regeneration schemes.

29 JANUARY 2015Joe Anderson is Mayor of Liverpool for 1,000 days.

AUGUST 2013Inaugural Liverpool International Music Festival opens for 250 performances across 35 days.

MARCH 2014City Bike launches with an initial 100 bikes at 10 city centre stations rising to 1,000 bikes at 100+ stations by March 2015.

JUNE 2014Championed by the Mayor, the 50-day Inaugural International Festival for Business is opened by Prime Minister David Cameron.

MAY 2013Central Library opens its doors after £50m restoration project and wins national building excellence award beating London’s Shard.

SEPTEMBER 2013Notre Dame school is the first new build to open under Mayor’s £169m Schools improvement programme.

MAY 2014Announcement that regeneration schemes totaling £1.5bn are being planned for Liverpool bringing 12,000 construction jobs, 4,000 permanent jobs and safeguarding a further 3,000.

JULY 2014The Giants of Royal de Luxe return to the city after a two-year break to lead national commemorations of World War I, generating a multi-million pound economic boost to the city.

SEPTEMBER 2014Work starts on brand new park in north of city, Liverpool’s 48th, following £1.5m of environmental work - set to open in March 2015.

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“To deliver growth though we need new powers to commission work programmes locally, to regulate transport, to reshape local services and to retain property taxes.

“Given what we have achieved with purse strings so tightly bound, imagine what could be possible if they were loosened.

“We know what’s right for economic development in Liverpool and that might be different from what’s right for Newcastle or Bristol, but that’s localism and it makes real sense.”

During his tenure, independent reports support his conviction. PwC’s 2014 Good Growth for Cities study showed that Liverpool is one of the top five performing cities for good growth in the post-recession period, 2011-13. Centre for Cities Monitor 2015 reported that the number of businesses in Liverpool is at a five-year high with a sharp increase in start-ups. Meanwhile FT’s fDi magazine 2014-15 names Liverpool as one of the top 25 European Cities of the Future and second only to Edinburgh for FDI strategy for mid-sized cities.

And the cranes have returned - a sure indication of a confident place, with developments worth £1.74bn since 2012 and a further £1.86bn currently on site.

He has also refocused the successful work of Liverpool Vision, the city’s economic development company which, under chief executive Max Steinberg, is the lead organisation for investment and which also incorporates Marketing Liverpool.

In 2014 Liverpool Vision was responsible for delivering the hugely successful International Festival for Business on behalf of the UK. Not only did it shine a light on Liverpool’s business excellence, but also £200m in UK investment deals are expected from it.

Mayor Anderson adds: “Vision has been a key player in Liverpool’s physical and economic regeneration and events and initiatives they have led on like IFB and Liverpool in London have helped show to international audiences that Liverpool has a global perspective and is a city of exceptional economic strengths.”

He says there is much to look forward to in the near future: “Alongside more completed development schemes, this year we have more major conferences coming to the city, an exceptional cultural programme, including the visit of the three Cunard Queens and our Exhibition Centre opens in autumn. And Liverpool Vision is again leading on the International Festival for Business 2016, when like last year we will show that this city is one of the UK’s leading business destinations.

“For me my biggest achievements are the partnerships and the innovation we are introducing to move this city on, despite the economic climate.”

And in his remaining time as Mayor? “More of the same.”

liverpool.gov.uk/mayor

Mayor Anderson with Neil and Ian Briggs, founders of the Briggs Automotive Company, at launch of the BAC Mono supercar

IT’S MAGAZINE I mayor of liverpool

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Construction of Exhibition Centre Liverpool, opening September 2015Construction of Royal Liverpool Hospital

New stadium for Liverpool FC is part of a £260m wider regeneration scheme

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They left the city over 50 years ago - but, for Liverpool’s tourist industry,

the Beatles are a gift that keeps on giving.

The business of

IT’S MAGAZINE I the business of the beatles

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The business of

The week after Paul McCartney announced - on April 10 1970 - that he was quitting The Beatles, the NME ran an editorial. The Beatles, it said, had been a great band. Of that there was no question.

“But now they’ve broken up, the world will find out very soon what their place in history really is,” the editorial ruminated, darkly.

For his money, the editor suggested that he very much doubted there’d still be interest in the Fab Four in three years’ time.

It’s probably safe to say, as predictions go, we can chalk that one down to one of the NME’s less palpable hits.

It’s is enjoying a morning coffee in the subterranean vaults of the Beatles Story Museum in Liverpool’s Albert Dock. As we chat to Marketing Manager, Diane Glover, a gaggle of German schoolchildren muster excitedly ahead of their guided tour. Upstairs, in the gift shop, mid-winter tourists size up Beatles hoodies in every shade and style while

the Magical Mystery Tour bus keeps the engine running, on the Albert Dock cobbles outside.

It is, as Paul McCartney said in his first post-Beatles single, just Another Day.

Gloomy music press predictions aside, for the past quarter century, The Beatles Story has been writing the next chapter of Liverpool’s singular musical story. Last year, the award-winning walk-through attraction welcomed nearly a quarter of a million visitors.

They come from Brazil. From Korea. From Kansas and, yes, from Knotty Ash. But, mostly, says Glover, they’ve come a very long way to be here.

❝ Around seventy percent of our visitors are from overseas, and we’re seeing visitors from new countries every year ❞

IT’S MAGAZINE I the business of the beatles

“Around seventy percent of our visitors are from overseas,” she says, “and we’re seeing visitors from new countries every year.”

With the celebration, last year, of the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ seminal appearance on the Ed Sullivan show (and the Merseybeat-led ‘British Invasion’ that followed in its wake), the attraction’s seen a spike in US visitors. But the really interesting story is elsewhere...

“Brazil and China are showing real growth,” Glover says, adding that, in 2016 - the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ Japanese concert tour, the Asian travel market is set to skyrocket.

“The hunger is still so incredible,” Glover says, adding that the typical visitor isn’t the nostalgic 60’s music lover, keen to rekindle the heady days of youth. Far from it, as today’s animated bustle of teens proves.

All of which means, far from seeing a law of diminishing returns, The Beatles’ gift to the city looks set to run and run: “So many of our younger visitors have a story of a mum, or grandma who saw them play. There’s no band like them.”

When the tour’s over, says Diane, the visitors head into the city. Shop in our shops, eat in our restaurants and drink in our bars. And it’s a good chance one of the first bars will

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be another venue that never sees the Merseyside summer sun - Mathew Street’s Cavern.

Every day of the week, the basement-level bar thrums to the sound of the Fab Four, and their peers. Local musicians given a chance to showcase their talent to the world. But, if the then city elders would have had their way, they could have been rattling through a version of the Buzzy Bee song….

“In the mid 70’s there was a move to put a Beatles statue in the city, and the council refused, saying they’d rather have one of Arthur Askey,” laughs Cavern City Tours’ Bill Heckle. “They thought the Beatles were something we shouldn’t be boasting about.”

Undaunted, Heckle ploughed on with his plans to give Beatles fan visiting the city something of substance. Something that firmly brought the Beatles back home. To where they once belonged.

By 1984, Heckle had launched Cavern City Tours - which, to this day, operates the annual Beatles Week hootenanny, owns and programmes the re-invigorated Cavern Club, and runs the hugely popular Magical Mystery Tour fleet of psychedelic coach tours, scuttling their way around a Fab Four-centric map of the city. At time of press, It’s can confirm: there’s no Arthur Askey statue to be spotted en route. Yet this doesn’t seem to faze the 50,000 or so passengers every year. Nor the hundreds of thousands of fans who come to see Beatles-inspired acts every year on Mathew Street.

In all, Heckle’s Beatles-related products employ 85 people, and contact many more musicians and guides in the city’s wider tourism offer. “The city’s changed,” Heckle says, “and we’re part of that. When we travel to global festivals, we’re not selling Cavern City Tours. We’re selling Liverpool.”

Heckle sites the city’s re-invigorated cruise industry (there’s a Cavern Club recently installed on a Norwegian Cruise Liner), the work it does with travel partners from London to Beijing, and the city’s stronger ties with the Beatles’ Apple Corps as the

Diane Glover, Beatles StoryPhotograph: m

attthomas.co.uk

Somewhere in the world, now, a 15 year old is discovering the Beatles for the first time

Bill Heckle, Cavern City Tours

Nearly one million day

visitors stated that

The Beatles were the

main reason for

visiting Liverpool

In 2014 the Beatles

Story attracted

visitors from around

the globe, including

13,000+ from USA,

9,000+ from China and

8,000+ from Brazil.

Arctic Monkeys,

Adele, Jessie J, The

Wanted and most

recently Jake Bugg

have all played at the

Cavern Club

Nearly 50,000

passengers rolled up

for a ride on

the Magical Mystery

Tour in 2014

Opening in 2008, the Hard Days Night hotel, was a hard-to-ignore

statement of intent. A four star boutique hotel in the heart of the

Cavern Quarter, replete with stylish Beatles-related memorabilia.

A Beatles hotel for a new millenium.

“We could have made more money giving tours of the hotel than

selling the beds,” recalls Christine Whittle. “It was global from day

one. And not just with tourists reminiscing about the 60s. It was

right across all age barriers.”

“It’s like no other hotel I’ve worked in,” adds Marian Cotter. “We

ripped up the rule book and created an entirely new segment.”

Part loving homage, part sleek boutique hotel, Hard Days

Night eschewed the temptation to turn the experience into

a Disneyfied theme park. Its restraint mirroring the city’s

newfound tourism swagger. A deft touch that’s seen occupancy

rates running at over 85 percent.

“We’ve had entire families from Brazil, Norway and Korea stay

here to celebrate major family milestones,” Christine says.

“Along with the Beatles Story and the Cavern Club and

Marketing LIverpool, we’re the new Fab Four. We work

together, to promote the complete offer. People come for the

Beatles, but come back because they discover how beautiful

Liverpool is.”

It’s a fact underlined by Liverpool Hoteliers’ Association’s

James Rush: “Whilst hotel supply has substantially

increased over recent years (from 3,896 bedrooms

in 2008, to 6,741 in 2014), so too has leisure visitors,

which undoubtedly has economic benefits along with

recognition value, and gives Liverpool the edge over most

UK cities,” he says.

harddaysnighthotel.com

SLEEPIN’ LIKE A LOG

most significant indicators of how the city’s taking its musical legacy seriously.

“We’ve raised the bar. Liverpool is a mature, professional and world-class tourist destination these days. And the story is out.”

And who’s coming?

“We’ve stopped analysing the market. The demographic is... there is no demographic. Somewhere in the world, now, a 15 year old is discovering the Beatles for the first time. It’s up to us to preserve that story and, when they make a pilgrimage here, give them an experience of a lifetime.”

beatlesstory.comcavernclub.org

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Photograph: mattthom

as.co.uk

THE GRAMMY INVASIONWhen Bob Santelli and his team at the Grammy Museum in LA hatched the idea of an exhibition focussing on The British Invasion, they took the unusual step of branching out into another site. In fact, they went to another continent altogether.

Santelli, director of the world-famous museum in LA, was already very familiar with Liverpool. “In a previous life I was a music journalist,” he tells It’s.

“I came to Liverpool for the first time in 1984, to write a feature on The Beatles. As a massive fan, it was thrilling just to be walking around the streets and seeing places like Penny Lane and Strawberry Field. I instantly fell in love with Liverpool, and in fact came back on a holiday with my young family the next year.”

Having seen the city as a tourist 30 years ago, how does he feel it has changed?

“Although I loved my visit, the city hadn’t really harnessed the power of The Beatles at that time. There was nothing at all like The Beatles Story or the Magical Mystery Tour when I first came.

“If you say ‘Liverpool’ to the average American, their first thought will be ‘The Beatles’. It’s tremendous to have that power of association, but I think what’s also important is that the sites in the city are top quality.

“Let’s say a massive Beatles fan is coming to Liverpool. There is now enough to keep them occupied for a couple of days, and that’s before they even look at the history, the culture, the sport and everything else you have here.

“I’m a huge believer in cultural tourism. I was one of the first curators of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in Cincinnati, Ohio. When it was first announced that it would be housed in Cincinnati, a lot of people’s reaction was ‘why there?’ But Cincinnati realised that this would be a huge draw for its lagging tourism industry, and so invested in bringing it there.

“Liverpool is a little different, as it already has a lot to offer, but I think the way that everything to do with The Beatles is handled tastefully and intelligently. This makes a huge difference, and is the reason we wanted to work with The Beatles Story.”

So how did the exhibition come to be premiered on the banks of the Mersey?

“The Grammy Museum had been planning an exhibition around the British Invasion for a while. It was one of the major cultural movements in American history, having ramifications right up until today.

“Then, with perfect timing, we got a call from The Beatles Story about collaborating on an exhibition. Straight away, we thought it was an excellent opportunity. How interesting, to tell the story of the British Invasion from an American point of view, but here in one of the UK’s most influential cities. The Grammy Museum is quite unconventional with its exhibitions, so we were honoured to curate this exhibition and premiere it here in Liverpool. The fact it’s right on the waterfront, from where so many people left for the US, is the cherry on top.

“Though the Beatles are central to the concept, we also have exhibits from names like The Rolling Stones, The Zombies, The Supremes and Jimi Hendrix – all of whom are part of the story. We feel honoured to be showing this exhibition for the first time here in Liverpool.”

beatlesstory.com/british-invasion

IT’S MAGAZINE I the business of the beatles

20Bob Santelli

❝ If you say ‘Liverpool’ to the average American, their first thought will be The Beatles ❞

it’s liverpool

Invest

Discover

Pioneer

Ambition

If you say ‘Liverpool’ to the average American, their first association will be ‘The Beatles’

2121

DISCOVER THE STORY OF FOUR

BOYS THAT CHANGED THE

WORLD

Visit the award-winning Beatles Story,

the world’s largest permanent exhibition

purely devoted to The Beatles.

Located on the stunning UNESCO

World heritage site at the Albert

Dock, the Beatles Story takes visitors

on an atmospheric journey through

the lives and times of The Beatles.

‘Living History’ audio guides are available

in ten different languages and beautifully

narrated by John Lennon’s sister, Julia.

beatlesstory.com • Tel +44 (0) 151 709 1963

IT’S MAGAZINE I MIPIM 2015

22

For one week only, the world’s property market zeroes in on a single, South of France resort. But does MIpIM really offer Liverpool valuable time in the sun?

Once a year, as the first warmth of spring sees the Bougainvilleas bloom along the Boulevard de la Croisette, Cannes’ world-famous promenade, the temperature inside the town’s Palais des Festivals et des Congrès is enough to put a tropical hothouse in the shade.

Within its sleek shell, for four days, the world’s most influential players from the international property arena do battle. Hammer out deals. Market their wares, and forge connections that will reshape the cities we call home in the years to come.

With its deals brokered over breakfast, schemes set in motion at trade stands, its handshakes and contracts, MIPIM is a property event unlike any other. A super-charged networking event that really does have the power to shift the ground beneath our feet. That ground? In a few years’ time, it could be a new mall, a swish new apartment block or, maybe, a new airport.

When it comes to thinking big, anything is possible at MIPIM.

And, last year, Liverpool rejoined the fray. With a new story to tell, a reinvigorated private sector, and a booming property marketplace, the time was right for us to show the world what we had to offer.

Leading the charge, two of the city’s strongest, most passionate private-sector advocates - Deloitte’s Sean Beech and Bruntwood’s Colin Sinclair: together, they set up a steering committee with a simple brief: Let’s get Liverpool centre stage again.

“If you want to get the property market really moving, and encourage inward investment, you have to be at MIPIM,” Sinclair says, of his drive to reposition Liverpool as a city that thinks, in property terms (and creative terms, too) out of the box.

“Bruntwood wanted to raise the game,” he says. “We wanted to show Liverpool as a flexible, start-up friendly city. A city that’s reinvented itself as a place where things happen.”

Sean Beech Colin Sinclair

2323IT’S MAGAZINE I MIPIM 2015

which, he admits, was the catalyst for his engineering of Liverpool’s South of France return.

“The way that Liverpool’s MIPIM presence is private-sector funded is quite unique,” he admits. “It shows a strong collaboration in the city. It’s about us uniting, with the city leaders, to share a unified message: Liverpool is open for business.”

With the support of Mayor Anderson and the city’s investment team at Liverpool Vision, Beech and Sinclair curate a tightly-packed diary of meetings, lunches, dinners and networking events crowding out four dawn-til-dusk Riviera days.

Put the hours in, says Beech, and the potential rewards are there for the taking.

With a track record of re-purposing long-vacated office developments into funky, fit-for-purpose new office suites, Bruntwood offer a refreshing 21st century alternative to the one-size-fits-all grey boxes of old.

“Liverpool is a creative force,” he says. “So, at MIPIM, it’s important that we stand out, and show our differences.”

The aim? To show Liverpool as a bullish, confident and inspiring European city. A city that lives up to its heritage.

“People were always asking about Liverpool - we were always an incredibly strong brand. Now we’re capitalising on it.”

Sinclair talks of how, in the past 12 months, Bruntwood’s secured as many deals in Liverpool as it has in neighbouring Manchester: yet with a portfolio of 11 buildings here, compared to 50 in Manchester.

“That shows you how strong the demand is from companies looking to do business here,” he says.

It’s a story that Deloittes’ Sean Beech shares. And one

palais des Festivals, Cannes

If you want to get the property market really moving, and encourage inward investment, you have to be at MIpIM

IT’S MAGAZINE I MIPIM 2015

24

“Everyone from the UK property sector is there. We don’t want other cities to steal a march on us. Historically, Liverpool is a strong name. But what’s less well known is what’s happening in the city, in terms of real estate, now. The way the city’s changing. That’s the story we need to get out.”

Last year, the city debuted with the BAC Mono sports car at its stand - a real crowd pleaser: “You’d be surprised how much business is made simply by catching the attention of an investor walking past,” Beech reveals.

A market hall for cities? Liverpool’s fresh approach is sure to stop people in their tracks again this spring.

“We want to get Liverpool on the radar, with Russian, Middle Eastern and Chinese investors,” Beech says. “MIPIM is the best possible way of inviting the world to come and take a closer look at the real story.”

liverpoolvision.co.uk/mipim

MIpIM 2014 Stand featuring the BAC Mono sports car

Visualisation of the MIpIM 2015 Stand

MIpIM in numbers

19,400M2 exhibition space

4,400 investors

21,000 individual participants

2,225 exhibiting companies

430 journalists

Exhibitors from 93 countries

3,000 senior executives

25

Thanks to our MIPIM 2015 partners

Come and see us at stand R7.G2

IT’S MAGAZINE I liverpool ONE

26

It’s reimagined retail, reshaped the city and rebooted our economy - how did Liverpool ONE get it so right?

When other cities were still pawing over blueprints of air conditioned malls, Liverpool blew the roof off retail. In doing so, it brought out of town shopping back home. Its blue sky thinking gave frazzled families fresh air and fun. Gave them grassy lawns, children’s shows, leisurely lunches and lively evenings.

Liverpool ONE showed the retail world that the only way to survive, and thrive, in the 21st century (and in doing so give the online stores a run for their money) was to do what no broadband connection could ever offer - life.

Together with developers Grosvenor, Liverpool saw something what few other cities saw - shoppers wanted to do more than shop. They wanted catwalks and flashmobs. Open air piano recitals and cookery demos. And they wanted to see local traders given a chance to show their goods alongside anchor department stores.

Seven years in, and it’s hard to imagine quite what Liverpool was like without it - so successfully has the 42 acre plan settled into the city.

Against a UK-wide retail flatline, last year’s figures saw footfall rise of five percent on 2013 and, more encouragingly still, a spending hike of seven percent. On average, visitors are spending twice as long here, and more money too.

It’s safe to say, Liverpool ONE is looking good.

“Shopping is part of it, but it’s by far from being the only part,” says Grosvenor’s Head of Asset Management, Miles Dunnett.

It’s a view that’s echoed elegantly in the bustle of cinema goers, the snaking queue of early evening diners on the leisure terrace, and the general hubbub of day trippers and locals strolling between the scheme and the attractions of Albert Dock.

Going for the ONE

Phot

ogra

ph: m

attt

hom

as.c

o.uk

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IT’S MAGAZINE I liverpool ONE

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Liverpool ONE feels less like some parachuted-in solution, more like the final, pivotal piece of a complex, city-wide jigsaw. Connecting the city’s traditional high street with the tourist hub of the Albert Dock. The boho stretch of Bold Street with the hipster quarter of the Baltic, holistic, joined up thinking that means everyone stands to benefit.

Now, borne no doubt from its industry-busting performance figures, there’s a maturity and confidence to the scheme. Always an eye-catching masterplan, Liverpool ONE has grown into itself. Feels settled. Confident. But there have been changes along the way.

“We’ve fifty percent more food and beverage offers than we had in 2008,” Dunnett reveals, adding that Hanover Street is set to become the scheme’s latest food hub.

“We’ve listened to our consumers, watched how they use the development, and adapted accordingly,” he says. “This is a living thing. Yes, we have a strong management plan, and vision, but part of our strength is our willingness, and our ability, to adapt to what our visitors want,” he says.

Yet, still, there is a sense of order to the scheme’s vast (and growing) footprint. A sense that everything is in its rightful place.

“I’ve always thought of us as a 2,500,000 sq ft department store,” he adds. “We cluster together businesses that feed off each other, and create

clearly defined districts. Zones where people will naturally get a sense of place.”

Perhaps the clearest of all these demarcated hubs, Peters Lane, is the best example of how Liverpool ONE has helped reshape the city’s retail map, and its fortunes, too. Enticing, often for the first time ever, the sort of brands any world-class city would clamour to attract.

“Year on year trade is particularly strong here,” Dunnett says, of the sleek thoroughfare that Michael Korrs, Hugo Boss, Reiss and co calls home, “This is a real destination in its own right, with a critical mass.”

As a result, when - as inevitably they do - companies downsize, Liverpool is always the city they want to keep trading in.

“Yes,” says Dunnett, “Peter’s Lane is the place that says Liverpool’s changed. We’re talking to a retailer at the moment, with flagship stores in the states and in London. Liverpool is the next city on their hit list. That would never have been the case a decade ago.”

Leisure Terrace peters Lane Gok Wan Roadshow

When we developed the masterplan, we didn’t look at other shopping schemes. We looked at how the best cities worked

Talking shop…With an occupancy rate running at around 95 percent, Liverpool ONE has no shortage of happy tenants. But it’s the two anchor stores which really root the place firmly on the retail map.

“We’re very proud to be an anchor shop at Liverpool ONE,” says John Lewis’s Head of Branch, Chris Earnshaw. “We first opened our doors for trade at our brand new site in 2008 and our store has proven to be a shopping destination of choice for locals, surrounding areas and international customers alike,” he adds.

Citing one of their most successful Christmases ever, Earnshaw points to the store’s increased animation as key. “New in-store experiences such as Tea with Father Christmas; and community choirs kindly donated their time to sing for our customers, while raising money for good causes,” he adds. “And we’ll continue to deliver exciting retail experiences to our customers this year and beyond”

It’s a view shared by Stephen Crolley, General Manager at Debenhams - at the other end of South John Street.

“Debenhams has worked closely with Liverpool ONE since opening to increase its business and customer numbers year on year,” he says. “Liverpool ONE’s communication and excellent marketing has clearly contributed to a consistent increase in customer numbers which in turn has improved our business considerably and we now regularly get visitors from all over the North West area. Debenhams has shown an uplift on the previous year for six consecutive years since opening and is looking forward to continued growth.”

Asked for his opinions on what makes Liverpool ONE the phenomenon it is, Dunnett doesn’t hesitate: “It’s open and engaging,” he says. “When we developed the masterplan, we didn’t look at other shopping schemes. We looked at how the best cities worked. Liverpool ONE has 700 apartments, two hotels, a park and six distinct zones. It’s the variety…”

And, with new pop-ups, and a year-long programme of animation, the mix is set to continue, evolve, and grow. Keeping the scheme surprising, fresh and distinctive.

“Physical activity is a key way for built environments to differentiate from online,” Dunnett says, of the scheme’s successful forays into the ‘experiential’ world of ice rinks and water slides, Christmas Coca-Cola lorry drive-bys and Gok Wan style classes. “I read an article recently about how retail schemes are bringing in more evening-based attractions, in the hope that people will make a day of it there. We’ve done that from day one,” he says.

As the scheme gets set for summer, and the Liverpool ONE gardeners reseed the lawns, Dunnet surveys the scene.

“Yes, of course we’re pleased at where we’re at. But, the best thing about Liverpool ONE? It’s a success story that’s really brought the city along with it.”

liverpool-one.com

Harvey Nichols Beauty Bazzar Warehouse

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IT’S MAGAZINE I common ground

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COMMON GROUND: THE GAME IS ON

Full of invention and excitement, Liverpool’s gaming industry is firing on all virtual-reality cylinders at the moment, with raved-about new releases, and first-to-market new technology championed by a raft of new start ups: many spun out from the city’s legendary relationship with Sony, and its still-revered WipeOut franchise. But what’s next for the industry that never sleeps (even when its thumbs are really sore?) We spoke to three of the city’s most intriguing start ups to get the skinny on all things silicon...

Clemens Wangerin,

Managing Director, StarShip Group

ivan Davies, Development

Director, CatalySt

THE GAME IS ON...

it’s liverpool

Invest

Discover

Pioneer

Ambition

Phil Gaskell, Director, RipstoneWith its grin-inducingly good Table Top Racing, Ripstone was formed by ex-Sony employees Leo Cubbin and Phil Gaskell, producing and distributing ‘the games the big players don’t want to make’. But, evidently, we all want to play.

Clemens Wangerin, Managing Director, Starship GroupThe Starship Group’s super-creative new Playworld Superheroes has been garnering five star reviews since its release last month. The group, established in 2013 by Evolution Studios and Digital Image Design founder Martin Kenwright, focuses on creating eye-poppingly addictive content for next-generation devices.

Ivan Davies, Development Director, CatalystStretching from Blur to Bond, PSVita to iPhone, Catalyst’s client sheet shows a company as innovative as it’s experienced. Ivan Davies, Development Director has developed 81 games - many during his time as Senior Producer at Sony Europe - including a BAFTA for best children’s game.

phil Gaskell, Director,

ripStone

IT’S MAGAZINE I common ground

Full of invention and excitement, Liverpool’s gaming industry is firing on all virtual-reality cylinders at the moment, with raved-about new releases, and first-to-market new technology championed by a raft of new start ups: many spun out from the city’s legendary relationship with Sony, and its still-revered Wipe Out franchise. But what’s next for the industry that never sleeps (even when its thumbs are really sore?) We spoke to three of the city’s most intriguing start ups to get the skinny on all things silicon...

THE GAME IS ON...

Photograph: mattthom

as.co.uk

31

IT’S MAGAZINE I common ground

32

What’s the most exciting thing you’re working on now?

PHIL: We’re finishing off a thoroughly British Victorian steampunk game called Ironcast (above), we’re in the final stages of completing probably the most photorealistic poker game ever, and we’re also starting work on a multi-player arcade game called Extreme Exorcism. However the project that’s getting everyone excited is our new virtual reality prototype. It’s uncanny.

CLEMENS: Playworld Superheroes (above), which we launched on iOS in over 100 countries around the world this spring. I’ve been in the industry for over 20 years, and this was by far the biggest and most important product launch I’ve been involved with. The game’s featured prominently on the App Store by Apple in scores of countries.

IVAN: We are lucky to be currently working on 10 different games for various clients across a variety of platforms; from a IP-based First-person Shooter on console to an opponent-based Facebook game. As a production company we produce multiple games simultaneously at all different stages of development - variety….it certainly keeps you busy.

Where’s the gaming industry headed? What’s the next big thing?PHIL: Gaming continues to experience massive diversification. Mobile and tablet gaming has helped to bring games to many more people than before thanks to free-to-play; console gaming is delivering the most spectacular visual experiences; and now game streaming is arriving where you don’t even need a console under your TV! As for what the next big thing will be - it’s going to virtual reality without a doubt.

CLEMENS: The biggest growth will be games delivered digitally or played online, and we’re going to see an increasing number of platforms through which people will be able to entertain themselves. The definition of “what is a game” will continue to be stretched, just as it has been for the last five years or so. I think forthcoming formats like VR and AR plus the increasing proliferation of online functionality in previously “dumb” devices will be the main drivers.

IVAN: The industry is swinging towards a more subscription focus on consoles with PlayStation Plus leading the way. Music did it with Spotify, film did it with Netflix, games are just following a similar commercial path. Luckily players are starting to pay for quality focused games on mobile, and I expect to see a growth in titles with high production values. There will always be space for blockbuster high-budget AAA games, but shorter better games get my vote.

Where’s Liverpool’s gaming industry headed - what are the opportunities here?PHIL: There’s always been a very vibrant and creative scene in Liverpool and gaming has been a part of that since the 80’s. There’s lots of small and nimble game studios opening up all the time, as the larger studios close they devolve into lots of smaller micro-studios. This is fantastic as we see an increase in the creative output, more games being made by more teams. However we still need to learn how to collaborate more.

33CLEMENS: Liverpool’s gaming industry has got to be one of the oldest in the UK, if not the oldest. We’re fortunate to have had big international companies like Sony and Activision operate fairly big development studios, and while some are gone, what’s remained is the talent which has regrouped into more independent and nimbler companies that are much more of our time.

IVAN: Upwards hopefully! It feels like we are a world-class sprinter running with our laces tied; we just need to undo our laces and we could race ahead of the competition. We have more game companies than ever in the city, but its the number of actual people employed I’d really like to see increase. We have a healthy supply of new entrants coming out of education, we just need the roles for them to progress into.

Why is Liverpool a good place for gaming?PHIL: Traditionally business clusters form in the cities that offer tangible financial support, such as Dundee, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool. Other cities have seen the benefit of attracting development and are actively trying to encourage growth. So it’s essential for Liverpool to keep supporting the sector if it wants it to remain here, and Liverpool Vision is doing a good job at keeping game development high on the agenda so that it does remain in Liverpool. The Studio school is another great opportunity, but we need to make sure there are jobs for the students and preferably in Liverpool.

CLEMENS: It’s a great place to be because the city is big, but not so big that it’s a hassle getting around. Where we are, in the Baltic Triangle, there are also an increasing number of app and games companies, so parts of the area feel like a campus where you regularly bump into people from other companies that you know as you’re out and about. I think the opportunity for Liverpool’s gaming industry is in continuing to leverage our collective experience and advanced technical skill sets as a clear differentiator and secure commercial deals, and develop strategic partnerships.

TOP

IVAN: Liverpool’s collective game experience is second to none, we have a rich heritage and a very strong game community that is seeing companies helping each other and collaborating on projects. Each dev wants other local dev to do well, because they understand strength in numbers. More importantly these devs want to see our local base grow with new entrants, cross sector collaborations and more people working in games. Currently there are 30+ local game companies employing over 500 people, with Sony QA making up 65 percent of those roles.

ripstone.com

starship-group.com

catalystos.com

PHIL: The Last Of Us,

Alien: Isolation, Conker’s

Bad Fur Day

CLEMENS: Antiriad

(C-64), GTA Vice City

(PS2), Wipeout HD

(PS3/PSN)

IVAN: Half-Life 2,

Goat Simulator and

Metal Gear Solid.

Top three games of all time?

33

Drawing a crowd

IT’S MAGAZINE I tate liverpool

34

Even in the bleak mid-winter, Tate Liverpool is alive with electrifying, must-see art - keeping the cobbles of the Albert Dock busy with visitors from all points of the globe.

Jackson Pollock, 1912-1956, Portrait and a Dream 1953Oil and enamel on canvas

It’s World Heritage status is beyond question. But even we have to admit it - when the wind blows, fresh from Siberia, on a February Tuesday morning, our waterfront can be a challenging place for a stroll.

But the fact is, no-one seems to have told the throngs of visitors milling around the Albert Dock outpost of the Tate Gallery. The Liverpool home to the national collection of contemporary art has illuminated our muted winter cityscape with a defiant blast of colour: it’s most recent show - a Warhol retrospective. A primary-colour explosion of Chairman Mao screenprints, lurid soup cans. And Marilyn. Always Marilyn.

“The audiences have been amazing for Warhol,” Andrea Nixon, Tate’s Executive Director, tells It’s, as we stroll around the latest winter-blockbuster. “This is what the Tate is about. We’re like a magazine. Warhol is our front cover, but once you flick through, you’re exposed to new artists,

new experiences. And visitors really respond to that.”

It’s a formula that only the Tate can pull off quite so convincingly. Pairing the known with the unknown. The familiar with the unfamiliar. And it’s garnering five-star reviews from the national press, and a healthy spike in visitor numbers.

“We plan three years ahead” Nixon explains, “Our Artistic Director, Francesco Manacorda always looks at our programme from the art first. Is it interesting? WIll people want to come? Then, it’s just a case planning, so that we can avoid clashes with London, and work with galleries around the world, to bring the very best to Liverpool.”

It helps when you have a collection as broad, and deep, as Tate’s.

“Only Tate Liverpool could do this,” says Nixon. “Uniquely, we’re able to leverage the Tate’s impressive collection, and say to

Jackson Pollock, 1912-1956Yellow Islands 1952Oil paint on canvas support: 1435 x 1854 mm© The Pollock-Krasner Foundation ARS, NY and DACS, London 2015.

Jackson Pollock, 1912-1956, Portrait and a Dream 1953Oil and enamel on canvas

36

collectors and galleries across the globe, we can loan you a Hockney, if we can show one of your Monets. Having a world-class gallery brand, like Tate, in Liverpool is priceless.”

It’s why over 50 percent of Tate Liverpool’s audience travels a long way to come to the blustery Albert Dock - even in midwinter. “Twenty percent of our visitors are from overseas,” Nixon reveals. “This is double what it used to be, pre-2008, and double every other gallery in the north.”

A huge 50 percent of visitors are coming to the city specifically to see a Tate show. Not hard to believe when you look at the gallery’s surefooted past shows, a roll-call of who’s who in post 1900 art. Picasso, Klimt, Mondrian and co to be joined, later this year, by Matisse...

“Our summer exhibition is important, because that’s when Liverpool’s tourist calendar really takes off, and we’re a big part of that,” says Nixon of the Tate’s plan to show the rarely-travelled Matisse masterpiece, The Snail, after the summer’s hugely-anticipated Jackson Pollock retrospective.

“It’s a major coup for Liverpool. It’s coming here from MOMA in New York, before returning to Tate Modern,” she reveals.

These days, Nixon says, we’re all cultural consumers. More and more of us tick off a gallery, a show or a landmark building when taking a weekend break: it’s the best way there is to mainline into a city’s soul, she believes.

“You’d never visit Berlin without going to a museum, would you?” Nixon asks. “I’d suggest that, these days, Liverpool is up there with the very best cultural cities.”

We look at the crowds - families, art students, locals alike - milling around the Marilyns, and we have to admit it: this place, now, is busier than Debenhams. Who’d have thought it?

Outside of the block-busting summer shows, Nixon is keen to foster deeper links with the waterfront’s booming conference offer: the ACC Arena’s new

Exhibition Centre is firmly in her sights.

“We’re always looking at how we build cultural tourism,” Nixon admits. “And if we show visiting business delegates something that surprises them, something that may make them want to come back for a weekend break, our job is done.”

“For delegates to have twenty minutes with one piece of art, what a wonderful way to add a bite sized piece of culture into their day,” she beams. “We call it a dipstick experience. Just enough to make them realise there’s, perhaps, more to this city than they think…”

tate.org.uk

Twenty percent of our visitors are from overseas. This is double what it used to be, pre-2008, and double every other gallery in the north

37

Andrea Nixon, Executive Director, Tate Liverpool

Photograph: mattthom

as.co.uk

600,000People visited the

gallery in 2014

73,000Hot meals are

served in the restaurant

every year

52,323Came to see

‘Transmitting Andy Warhol’

199,068People saw Gustav

Klimt: Painting, Design and Modern Life in Vienna, 1900

15.8mVisitors since

opening in 1988

Tate Liverpool by numbers

IT’S MAGAZINE I the audit

38

HOME TO 18 OF THE WORLD’S 20 BIGGEST AUTOMOTIVE SUPPLIERS

LIVERPOOL BIOTECH COMPANY REDx PHARMA IS SPEARHEADING A

DRIVE TO DEVELOP NEW ANTIBIOTICS TO COMBAT THE GLOBAL RISE OF RESISTANT SUPERBUGS

£70 MILLION

ACC LIVERPOOL CONTRIBUTED

TO THE LIVERPOOL ECONOMY IN 2014

£137 MILLIONBRIGGS AUTOMOTIVE COMPANY, WHICH MAKES

THE BAC MONO SUPER CARWILL USE THE RUNWAY OF LIVERPOOL JOHN LENNON AIRPORT AS ITS TEST TRACK IN 2015

NEW HOMES ARE CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION IN LIVERPOOL

2,097THERE ARE CURRENTLY

WORTH OF DEVELOPMENTS ON SITE IN LIVERPOOL

£1.8 BILLION

18CRUISE PASSENGERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD STEP WILL ASHORE TO ExPLORE LIVERPOOL IN 2015

80,000

20% SURGEIN THE NUMBER OF NEW BUSINESSES CREATED OVER THE PAST DECADE

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UNILEVER AND THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL ARE DEVELOPING PLANS FOR A

INNOVATION FACTORY TO ACCELERATE RESEARCH AND NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

£65MILLION

28,565 JOBS HAVE BEEN CREATED IN LIVERPOOL SINCE 2012

IFB 2014 SAW £15M WORTH OF GLOBAL MEDIA COVERAGE GENERATED

£15 MILLION

Want to know how well Liverpool is performing ? We’ve no shortage of stories to share. But sometimes it’s more important to show than tell. So here’s your at-a-glance guide to where we’re at. Right here, right now.

CRUISE CRITIC VOTED LIVERPOOL CRUISE TERMINAL

BEST UK PORT OF CALL 2014

WAGES IN LIVERPOOL ARE

10%LOWER THAN THE NATIONAL AVERAGE

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As you speed along in a Virgin Train, take advantage of the peace and quiet and whip your presentation into shape. Then once

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