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The York Roadmap to Covid-19: Response, Resilience and Recovery
June 2, 2020 @ 7:00 pm - 8:15 pm
As we adapt to a new normal and plan our recovery post COVID-19, how can York achieve inclusive economic recovery in a way that benefits everyone?
A panel of expert speakers, chaired by Greg Dyke, former BBC Director General and now Chair of Make it York, set out York’s ambition to play a key role in a national and international road to economic and societal post-Covid-19 recovery.
How has York responded and reacted to the Covid-19 crisis? How have communities helped the vulnerable and alienated? And how can we harness that community spirit and work with national government to create a resilient recovery that works for everyone?
Due to its size, economic structure, universities and geography, could York act as an ideal pilot location for positive solutions nationally as we move forward?
Speakers include Charlie Jeffery, Vice-Chancellor of the University of York, who will outline ideas for driving skills, innovation, growth, R&D capacity, inward investment and support for inclusive economic growth. Signe Jungersted, CEO of Group NAO, helped transform tourism in Copenhagen, and will discuss the future nature of travel and tourism, as well as urban centres more generally.
York-based Juliana Delaney, CEO of Continuum Attractions, will talk about the impacts of the lockdown and resilience, while Walter Boettcher, Chief Economist at Colliers International, will provide a national perspective and outline the reforms and change needed as we plan for the future.
Join in the conversation through interactive Q&As as we explore York’s vision and leadership capacity to actively and ambitiously drive societal and economic recovery.
About the speakers
Walter Boettcher is Head of Research & Economics at global property advisors Colliers International based in London. He is a research economist identifying timely research topics and directing research and forecasting outputs. He has over 25 years of UK and European property industry experience and extensive expertise across a wide range of property sectors and related industries. He participates regularly in industry panel discussions, but is focused more on direct client engagement with institutions, pension funds, property companies, banks, and private investors. Perhaps best known for his alternative take on property economics and investment, he is a keen proponent of UK regional development and infrastructure investment and has published a series of papers explaining the theoretical economic concepts behind devolution, the rise of the regional mayors and the response of cross border property investors.
Juliana Delaney, FTS (Fellow of the Tourism Society), is CEO of the Continuum Attraction Group. She has a 35-year track-record in the leadership and commercial operation of museums, venues and visitor attractions across Britain and beyond. Beginning her career in tourism brand and marketing at the outset of the Jorvik Viking Centre – she personally led the marketing and then the operation of the Museum, which attracted 1m visitors per year to, what had been, just an ‘archaeological hole in the ground’; gaining world-wide attention for York. Juliana became MD of the operational side of a multi-discipline group, primarily managing teams working on leisure and tourism business evaluation and consultancy projects. Visitor attraction, facility management contracts and marketing consultancy followed, resulting experience on over 100-tourism projects across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and China. Juliana also led investment and development of Continuum Group’s attractions.
In 2008 Juliana became the CEO of York-based Continuum Group. Juliana led the group to become a £18+m turnover SME, with annual double-digit growth and a commercial entertainment business based on excelling in visitor experiences, delivering great commercial facilities from food and beverage, through retailing and associated hospitality services. Pre Covid-19 Continuum consisted a happy team of 500 people working on portfolio of attractions across Britain as diverse as ITV’s Set and studio tours, Mary King’s Close on the Royal Mile Edinburgh, the iconic £35m Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth and a Star Wars hyper-reality pop-up in London.Facility management contracts, including the set-up, launch and front of house operations of the Emirates Airline Cable Car in London and the Royal Mint Visitor Experience in South Wales have always included playing a very proactive role in driving the destination agenda. Continuum was quoted in the The London Stock Exchange Top Growth companies in both the UK and Europe for 3-years running. She is currently on the Board of IAAPA Europe, a Merchant Adventurer of the City of York, Tourism and Hospitality Industry’s Top 100 women and a Disney Institute alumni.
Greg Dyke is Chair of Make it York and a former Chancellor of the University of York. From 2000 to 2004 he was Director-General of the BBC, and from 2013 to 2016, Chair of the Football Association. He attended the University of York as a mature student in the early 1970s graduating with a degree in Politics in 1974.
Professor Charlie Jeffery became Vice-Chancellor and President at the University of York in September 2019. He joined York from the University of Edinburgh where he had been Senior Vice-Principal since 2014. Prior to that, he was Vice-Principal (Public Policy) having been Professor of Politics at Edinburgh since 2004. His key achievements include driving interdisciplinary collaborations; like the positioning of Edinburgh’s expertise in data science to underpin a regional economic vision. He also played a pivotal role in the development of the £1.3bn Edinburgh City Deal that included a £237m Government investment in Edinburgh’s Data Science programme.