A partnership between two major events organisers to share knowledge and insights and create a guide for other cities hosting events.
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LEEDS 2023’s ‘Year of Culture’ concluded just as Bradford was preparing for UK City of Culture 2025. Shared Cultural Futures was a collaborative knowledge exchange project, with the aim of strengthening evaluation and learning capabilities for two major events both taking place within West Yorkshire, under a mayor with cultural regeneration at the heart of her plans for the region. The senior leadership teams at LEEDS 2023 and Bradford 2025 were already working together informally and wanted to do more.
Spirit of 2012 awarded a grant of £249,950 to LEEDS 2023 deliver this project. The aim of this grant was to understand the value in properly funding knowledge exchange, and what opportunities and challenges this would present. Leeds had prepared a bid to be European Capital of Culture in 2023, but following the UK’s exit from the EU was no longer able to be considered. The City Council and partners decided to pursue a year of cultural activities in 2023 regardless. Bradford, meanwhile, had been awarded UK City of Culture status, a DCMS designation, taking over from Coventry 2021.
The funding supported staff with structured opportunities for learning and reflection while undertaking their roles. LEEDS 2023 staff had the chance to share insights before wrapping up, while the Bradford 2025 team gained early-stage planning insights. The funding also supported LEEDS 2023 to work with the neighbourhood groups that had run projects as part of ‘My Leeds’ to plan their next steps, provided training from Voluntary Action Leeds to community groups, and found a home for the digital resources developed as part of the programme.
At the end of the project, the team produced a report that shared insights and recommendations for major event organisers and funders. It emphasised the importance of knowledge exchange and the need to understand it within the context of each event.
The funding also supported the ‘Here Today, Gone Tomorrow? Major Events and Why We Do Them’ conference, hosted at the University of Bradford in March 2024. The conference brought together event producers, funders, and policymakers to discuss the legacies of time-limited major events. It underscored the importance of knowledge sharing and collaboration in planning and executing major cultural events, ensuring they leave lasting positive legacies for the communities involved.
Temporary organising committees are start-ups, and we often hear that they are expected to fly the plane whilst building it. Some events professionals working on Years of Culture and other similar events have advocated for a ‘blueprint’ for running such an event that they can adapt to their local context (this was Bradford 2025 and Leeds 2023’s third recommendation below).
However, a blueprint alone cannot capture the full depth of learning from a year-long programme of events. Toolkits and research reports are sometimes sanitised. You can’t ask them questions. A funded programme of knowledge exchange brings learning to life through open dialogue, anecdotal evidence, and off-the-record impressions. Finding time (and funding) for these conversations is crucial.
There are some challenges around the short life-span of delivery organisations and the limited cross-over between events. Staff reflected that there was a significant gap in the lifecycle of the organisations, with Leeds coming to the end of their year of culture at a time when Bradford was setting up. This was a busy time for both organisations, and at such an early stage it was not always clear to Bradford staff exactly what information they needed.
There was consensus across teams that knowledge exchange activities were implemented a bit too late, and it would have been beneficial for the timeline to be embedded earlier on in the year so that there was more overlap between the two organisations. Staff felt that this would have allowed more opportunities for reciprocal knowledge exchange, with Bradford sharing knowledge with Leeds before the end of their delivery year, as well as enabling the two teams to deliver knowledge sharing events collaboratively.
1. Embed knowledge exchange from the beginning;
2. Have a dedicated knowledge exchange role at Cities of Culture
3. Produce a toolkit or start up pack for major events
4. There should be a formal expectation of knowledge exchange from funders
5. Share relationships with local authorities and local funders
6. Share relevant evaluation and benchmarking data
7. Streamline systems and processes
8. Share within as well as between organisations
9. Build a fellowship or network of major event experts
10. Consider that making mistakes is part of the journey