Modern History launches

Modern History promotes the industrial heritage attractions in Manchester and the North West

Key venues in the Manchester area include MOSI, People’s History Museum, Salford Museum & Art Gallery, Portland Basin Museum, Hat Works, East Lancashire Railway and Bolton Museum.

LAUNCH OF DISCOVERY PASS AND TOP TRUMPS
A Modern History Discovery Pass has been developed to encourage repeat / multiple museum visits and disperse visitors around the venues. The current marketing leaflet has been extended to include the Discovery Pass which has been distributed to tourist information centres, museums and attractions and some hotels throughout the North West.

Copies of the pass can be downloaded here.

Visitors are prompted to collect a DP from a venue or download from the website and to have the Pass stamped on every visit. By showing the Pass, the customer is entitled to money saving offers at venues including discounts on entrance fees and in cafés and gift shops. After receiving 3 stamps the customer sends in their Pass to claim their free gift.

The free gift is a pack of Top Trumps ‘Modern History Greats’, which are all the key people and inventions from the North West. The playing cards provide a fun way for children to engage with history and give more ideas for days out.

The cards have been developed in collaboration with the venues, so each card links directly to a museum or attraction in the North West.

MEDIA CAMPAIGN
The scheme is being promoted through a significant media campaign delivered by Mediacom North. Advertising focuses around pre-holiday planning and during school holidays. Activity includes radio advertising and a ‘schools out’ promotion with Real Radio, outdoor on Metrolink trams and 6 sheets in key regional stations including Manchester, Leeds, Chester and Preston, print inserts in the Daily Mail and online on Kids Confidential, Facebook, Mumsnet and Yahoo. Start date 1 April.

The advertising message focuses around the questions children ask about every day life and how these questions are answered in museums and attractions around the North West; highlighting how the region was instrumental in shaping our modern world.

WEBSITE
A landing page has been developed for www.modernhistory.co.uk to create consistent messaging across all channels and the customer can see the connection between the advertising and the website.

The Discovery Pass can be downloaded from the website and the special offer details are also included.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP
If you can display copies of our leaflets and you do not have supplies please let us know. Please contact Susan Weeks or call 0161 237 1010.

Please ensure your welcome team are aware of the scheme so they can promote this to visitors who are looking for ideas on things to do in the city and Greater Manchester.

Thank you for your support.

If you need any further information please contact Lisa Houghton on 0161 237 1010

New Managing Director at World Class Service

World Class Service is delighted to announce that Andrew Glester will be their new Managing Director. Andrew started the company with Howard Raynor in January 2006 and has been part of the team driving it forward ever since.

“We’ve come a long way in those 5 years and I’m delighted to be able to continue to develop the outstanding work we’ve been involved in.

At the very core of World Class Service, we help organisations to raise the standard of their customer service. We do that because we’re passionate about service excellence. More importantly, we know that good customer service makes the difference for customers and informs their purchases. Ultimately, if you delight your customers, you increase your revenue. We could sit and talk all day about the altruistic benefits of good customer service but we’d rather help you to deliver world class service because we know it makes a difference in the bottom right hand corner of the balance sheet.

I’d like to thank the community of businesses that we work with across the UK and Ireland including Bruntwood, Dublin National Concert Hall, Manchester City Football Club, National Museums of Science and Industry, Birmingham Hippodrome, Manchester Hoteliers Association, Manchester Airport Group, HQ Theatre Group and Milton Keynes Theatre. We are proud of them all for their commitment and hard work in delivering high standards of service to their customers.

For our CSR programme, we do something a little bit different. We live in the real world and it’s a fascinating and very beautiful one. We believe it’s worth protecting and celebrating. See www.polarconcert.com”

To get in touch with World Class Service and to find out how we can help you, call 0161 235 0894 or email Andrew Glester

Tourism Plan Launched

"An action plan to help the British tourism industry achieve its potential as part of Britain’s growth strategy has been unveiled by Tourism Minister John Penrose.

The strategy aims to exploit the opportunities of next year’s Olympics and Diamond Jubilee to help attract an extra four million overseas visitors over the next four years, bringing in an extra £2 billion of spending and creating thousands of jobs.

Proposals include simplifying the process of getting tourist visas, helping to improve staff skills in the tourism sector and consulting on whether to lengthen the tourism season by moving the May Day bank holiday."

Read more on the DCMS website

Howard Raynor

It is with great sadness that we must announce that Howard Raynor passed away on the morning of February 16th 2011. Howard had been battling cancer.

In 1998 Howard moved to Manchester as CEO of the Bridgewater Hall. His passion for Manchester always shone through as he lit up the lives of anyone he met and countless others who attended concerts and events during his time at the Hall.

Leaving the Hall in 2005 to set up his own business, World Class Service, Howard’s passions burned ever brighter as his company inspired venues across the British Isles to deliver outstanding customer service.

Howard never left the cultural world and, promoting the BBC’s The Blue Planet Live! tours in 2006 and 2008, he and the team at WCS went onto produce Polar, a celebration of life at the ends of the earth through film and classical music. In January 2011, Howard could be seen beaming away in the audience at the World Premiere in Liverpool.

Just 7 days before his untimely death, Howard was inspiring the management of Manchester Airport at the Lowry Hotel.

Howard will always be fondly remembered as a wonderful man, colleague, inspiration, mentor and friend.

If you would like to send condolences, please email Andrew Glester or Louise Hargreaves at World Class Service and who will ensure that the family receive all your messages.

Manchester Core Strategy Consultation.

The Core Strategy is the key document in Manchester's Local Development Framework and covers a period of 15 years from 2012 to 2027. It describes Manchester today and outlines the council's vision for Manchester in 2027 along with the planning policies which will be used to deliver that vision.

You can view and comment on it here