Rob – what, and give the game away to the other contenders? It feels a bit impersonal, isn’t adding much and isn’t making use of what the systems offer. I’ve no idea what the plans are though, so that could all change.

Since culture in Birmingham (beyond the CBSO, Rep and Bullring) is a bottom-up, co-created thing (We Are Eastside, Project Brutal ?), the bid might do well to reflect that. The minute it stops looking like a BCC initiative and starts looking like something the people are doing (rather than having done to them), then we’ll get some buy-in.

I’ve just run (ie. helped bring together… not managed) a co-created event/process for a major national quango. You wouldn’t believe the kudos you get from just turning things over to the ppl.

BCC: be brave, act as a catalyst and a reflector of what’s going on. For starters, get a live twitter feed onto your front page, showing the world what’s happening. And don’t censore, let it self-moderate and self-organise.

I think there seems to be a trend for promoting mainstream or ‘safe stuff’ (read shopping / conference, and top end culture stuff – REP / CBSO / BRB etc….) and yes these things are good – but when it comes to the really interesting / exciting / quirky / edgy stuff that is actually what makes the city so great it’s a tad quiet…. it’s like there’s a percieved fear of the unknown…..either ‘those responible for marketing the city’ have experienced enough, or they feel that quirky is too risky to promote….

To be honest though, I think I’d just be happy if people just stopped with the Manchester / London / Liverpool / Bristol comparission game…. who says we want to be like those cities anyway?!

I’m not an original Brummie, and I’m not all that bothered whether we win or not truthfully – I choose to live here, and continue to enjoy the diverse range of stuff to do / see / experience. Birmingham rocks.

I’m not sure what the answer is. Maybe the council should be engaging more with the myriad of creative, ideas-driven people and businesses in this city to develop a far wider reaching campaign of activity that serves to sing the praises of Birmingham in the same way that Manchester’s great at.

But then I remember why this won’t happen, and my mind goes back to a Business Link suppliers register seminar I attended some time back. One of the speakers said, after completion of a great project, the best praise you could expect from a West Midlands’ company owner would be ‘it turned out alright.’ Not fantastic, amazing, or anything like that.

We need to learn to shout about our achievements as a city more. That’s the start of achieving great things like being awarded the City of Culture.