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We are proud to announce that we have won an award for our Derby Market Place project at the Mainframe Awards 2021. The Mainframe Awards celebrates the digital and creative community in our home city of Derby and we received the ‘Putting Derby/Derbyshire on the Map’ award for how we are ‘flying the flag for our region’.
Derby Market Place project
In 2020, when we were invited to join a Covid recovery task force to explore ways to support the city centre’s hospitality industry by creating an outdoor seating area – and instill some much needed consumer confidence.
Katapult used their expertise to devise a solution which was able to be designed, built and operated within 4 weeks – we created the ‘Al-Fresco Dining’ experience in ‘Derby Market Place’. We brought together a range of key delivery partners and managed the overall budget and installation, working alongside Derby City Council and Derby Live (who operated the experience) to ensure everything went smoothly and was Covid compliant. This provided a vibrant, safe space for visitors to enjoy and gave local restaurants the additional capacity to support their viability during a challenging period. This project became Derby Market Place.
The results
Derby Market Place was an instant hit with over 6,000 guests enjoying the experience in just two months. Weekends sold out and overall 75% of the capacity was pre-booked. 26,000 guests in total visited in 2020. There was also a huge uptake of restaurants being involved with the project, as well as local makers and performers when it transformed into a Christmas market for the winter season, with QUAD providing the winter bar. These were key metrics in supporting local industries. The project also provided work to local creative and cultural business.
Nationally, the project has also been heralded by economists and the media. In September 2020, Centre for Cities, scored Derby 93% in their Recovery Index. A regional high in the Midlands. Derby Market Place was earmarked as a key project that helped Derby’s economy recover from the first wave of the pandemic.
In January 2021, PwC’s Good Growth for Cities Report praised Derby’s economic response, placing them 10th out of 42 cities for predicted GVA growth rate. Derby also had one of the lowest rates of workers on the Job Retention scheme and take-up rate of Universal Credit in 2020.
The winner’s speech
“Collaboration was massive in this project. Typical Derby style, we came together with a plethora of organisations including the Derby City Council, Derby Live, Marketing Derby and we was able to bring together a whole host of creative talent too. The footfall and the economic boost it had of the city is huge, as is the support it gave the hospitality sector. We’re super, super excited to have won this. It was a great project to work on.” Dawn Foote, CEO & Co-Founder
