Winchester BID recently joined the exclusive club of Business Improvement Districts that have been accredited by British BIDs, the body which represents the interests of BIDs nationwide and promotes best practise in the industry. Catherine, Amy and I attended the national conference back on Thursday November 5th. During the day we met with fellow BID professionals from across the country and, by a happy accident of date, managed to view fireworks over London from the heady heights of Canary Wharf. It was at the formal dinner that closed the evening that Catherine was invited to the stage to collect the accreditation award, which is a thing of some beauty.
Achieving this accreditation was incredibly important to the BID team. The rigorous process required large volumes of evidence demonstrating the high standard of our operations in a variety of key areas including governance, financials and communication. Holding this accreditation demonstrates the fact that Winchester BID continues to deliver an excellent service to levy payers. The accreditation award will now sit proudly in the BID office as a testament to our commitment to running a top quality business improvement district. Being able to take home this accreditation was a lovely end to a day of networking, information sharing, and ideas creation, with the rest of our industry. As Catherine demonstrates in this photo it was all smiles from the team as we collected the accolade.
The Winchester Business Centre was also short-listed for a Proud Project Award on the day. These awards recognise the most innovative and exciting projects being offered by any BID nationwide and as 2015 was the first year that we have chosen to submit a project for consideration it was a real honour to be short-listed. I was particularly pleased to have made the short-list for this trophy as the Winchester Business Centre was my first project here with the BID team and the continued success of the centre is something that I am truly proud of. Unfortunately on the evening we were pipped to the post by an excellent project delivered by the Smarter Giving Partnership run by Baker Street Quarter – a project which allows businesses to easily donate to vital charities in the area of their BID.
Now that we have proven ourselves to the industry we are pleased to be getting on with our day to day work of ensuring that Winchester remains a safe, clean, green and well promoted business destination that thrives. The year ahead has a whole host of exciting events planned, from new additions to the calendar such as Winchester Cocktail Week to returning celebrations such as the thirteenth annual Winchester Business Excellence Awards. Of course we will also continue to provide our range of additional services such as the Winchester Business Crime Reduction Partnership – moving into the next year of the Winchester BID we are determined to make sure that the work we do is our best yet.
