The long and winding road
The positive media coverage of Macca's
concert at Anfield at the weekend illustrated a timely point about
the value of the positive PR which Capital of Culture status is
delivering to Liverpool.
And if there is one legacy which 2008 really ought to deliver,
it's in a shift of attitude towards the city and its people.
The enduring irony, of course, is that Liverpool's reputation
improves the further away from the place you travel. Go anywhere in
the world and mention Liverpool and you tend to get positive
reactions. Go anywhere in the UK, and you are still likely to get a
crack about hubcaps and Scallies.
There's no doubt this situation is changing, driven in part by
the acres of positive coverage which Culture and the city's
regeneration is getting.
But regenerating a reputation is, in some ways, just as challenging
as regenerating bricks and mortar. And, undoubtedly, any
improvement in perceptions will inevitably lag behind the economic
and physical improvements which we can all witness here in
Liverpool.
So it's incumbent on all of us, I guess, to make hay while the
sun shines during 2008 and do our best to alter perceptions of
Liverpool.
We used Macca's gig, for instance, as the hook to get a party
of national regeneration journalists in town: come to the gig; take
a look at Liverpool One while you're here; understand how the
cityscape is changing.
Seeing is believing, if you like.
It was a hectic but enjoyable weekend by all accounts (yours truly
was busy playing in a Dads & Lads footie tournament at Centre
Parcs) and demonstrated that, as a city, we're actually getting
pretty good at working together towards the same end.
That's why the trip didn't just involve introducing said
journos to Paver Smith clients; instead we lined up the best
people, in our view, to talk with eloquence and honesty (which
always helps) about the city's achievements and challenges.
People like Jim Gill at Liverpool Vision, Colin Hilton at the city
council and Joanne Jennings at Liverpool One.
Hopefully, our visitors went away with a real sense of Liverpool as
a city in transition. Hopefully, their impressions and reporting
will be another step on the road towards reputational
rehabilitation.
It's a long road, admittedly, but one that can be
travelled… one step at a time.
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