Dear Business ColleagueAs Chairman of Inverness BID I have pleasure in enclosing the papers

and accounts for our AGM which is being held on Thursday 15th January at 6pm at the Mercure Hotel.

This meeting is open to all businesses in the BID area and I do hope you will be able to join me and the other BID directors at this meeting.

I take this opportunity of updating you on some of BID’s recent initiatives.

BID Annual General Meeting

BID Chairman, Craig Duncan

Christmas Marketing As part of BID’s marketing remit we have been running a generic corporate marketing campaign in support of the city centre focused on attracting people from the wider Highlands to come and spend time in Inverness. The campaign which started in mid-November also encourages local residents to use our city centre. “SHOP-STAY-EAT-PLAY IN INVERNESS CITY CENTRE” are this year’s campaign themes which are being delivered through:• Moray Firth Radio – Extensive broadcasting of a rotating series of three adverts – each promoting one of the campaign elements.• Regional Newspapers – the radio coverage has been backed up with half and full page adverts in nine Highland Region Newspapers – as illustrated.• Competitions - these adverts have been supported in the papers with a Highland wide competition to win “A Weekend Break for Two in Inverness City Centre”. We had an excellent response from the public with the large number of entries received - and our competition winner is Mr P Griffiths of Lossiemouth.

SHOPSTAYPLAY

EATSHOPSTAY

PLAYEAT

do join us to . . .

invernessbid.co.uk

This Christmas

. . . in Inverness

Social Media Workshop The next FREE BID Social Media Workshop for city centre businesses

will be held on Monday 26th January (5.30-8pm). Topics to be covered:• Facebook: getting customer reviews & ratings; reaching your target audience• Twitter: reaching potential customers, Twitter lingo/ Hashtags• Pinterest: How can Pinterest drive traffic to your website • Hootsuite social media management toolTo book your place email Margaret - margaret@inverness.uk.com

The BID Task Team operates throughout December and into the New Year (11am-6pm daily except Sundays). The Task Team deliver high visibility patrols thus reducing crime and disorder and improving public reassurance in Inverness city centre by responding to any security issues or challenges. Because of their high visibility the Task Team also act in an ambassadorial role and offer information to the public.

They can be contacted by businesses on 07807286403 or by Shopsafe Radio - Call Sign ‘Task Team 1’

BID Security Task Team

Operation Respect Festive 2014-15Operation Respect is the multi-agency initiative aimed at promoting a safe, secure & clean environment

throughout the festive period between 5th December and 4th January for all the users of the city centre. The Task Team is a major part of this initiative together with:

• Police Scotland providing additional dedicated Police patrols both with high visibility and plain clothed officers. These are programmed to cover both the day time and night time economies.• BID Taxi Marshals deployed at the Academy Street & Castle Wynd taxi ranks each Friday & Saturday ‘til 4am.• Inverness Street Pastors who will be patrolling both night time and day time to provide a practical and visible presence offering a listening ear, care, help and guidance to city centre users.• A Safe Zone manned by the Red Cross & Inverness Street Pastors at the top of Church Street (outside the HC Service Point) and used as a public triage/refuge centre on 19th, 20th, 26th, 27th & 31st December.• Highland Council through its services departments in the city centre

Inverness BID Ltd, 111 Academy Street, Inverness IV1 1LX. tel: 01463 714550 email: info@inverness.uk.com

Inverness Castle Working GroupI was very pleased to accept the invitation from Scottish Minister

Fergus Ewing and Highland Council Leader Drew Hendry to represent BID and the city centre businesses on this working group. The Group’s brief is to consider the best future use to which the Castle (including the main Castle and North Tower) should in future be put for the purposes the promotion of tourism.

It is obvious that there is now significant momentum to get the Castle open for public use which will be a major boost for the city centre economy as will the moving of the existing courts elsewhere.

VisitScotland’s Offer to BusinessesVisitScotland are introducing a “Business Extender” e-mail scheme to encourage visiting conference

delegates to extend their stay and experience different aspects of what the Highlands has to offer. They would like to create an “Exclusive Offers” section featuring offers from local businesses encouraging

delegates to come, stay and dine in Inverness. These offers would cover a range of businesses including retailers. Each company would supply a code to

be quoted when booking their service. If you are interested in reaching new visitors to the area and would like to learn more please contact Heather on 01463 244114 or email heather.mcnee@visitscotland.com

Inverness Best Bar None AwardsThe Best Bar None Scheme focuses on customer care and safety in the

vital licensed trade in Inverness city centre. It is organised locally by BID within the framework set down by the Scottish Business Resilience Centre as part of the Safer Cities Initiative.

An outstanding 15 licensed premises this year received the Gold Award at a black tie evening ceremony jointly hosted by Inverness Provost Alex Graham, BID Chairman Craig Duncan and Don Lawson Chair of Inverness Pubwatch.

BID Business Events The last BID Business Evening of the year was on “River Connections” a series of major arts projects to be

installed riverside on completion of the flood works. The evening was well attended to hear our speaker Cllr Ken Gowans, Chairman of ICArts Working Group talking about these arts projects & the £750K funding raised.

The second skills workshop on Retail Visual Display took place in mid-November and was deemed a great success by those who attended in offering new ideas & concepts for retailers’ window displays. Thanks to RVD Trainer Jo Murray from Debenhams who presented the workshop.

Inverness Street Festival The fifth Inverness Street Festival organised by BID was the most successful to date with a range of

talented Street Performers being enjoyed by the public. It attracted the largest crowds ever at the static performance venues in High Street, Falcon Square and the Victorian Market as well as for the acts roam-ing in the city centre.

The sensational Balloonarama in the Victorian Market was well received by the public and businesses alike. The creations of International Balloon Modeller POP and his two artistic helpers featured themed balloon models on display outside each of the businesses. Visiting children also received their own spe-cial balloon models.

Staged as part of our remit to increase footfall BID were delighted that the market research over the 3 day festival showed that 77% of those interviewed were attracted to the city centre specifically for the Street Festival (up 20% on 2013) and the figure for Saturday rose to an unprecedented 87%!