Town Centre regeneration is a hot topic these days.

We’ve had Mary Portas of tv fame doing her version of retail led town centre regeneration. We have had the Scottish Government’s Community and Enterprise Town Centre Report followed by the Town Centre First principle and Action plan and then we have the books. The many, many books all with-yes you guessed it- ” how to save our town centres” or ,”the future of towns centres” in the title.

But over at Can Do Places we wanted to look at this from a different perspective. We wanted to look at our town centres from a completely different perspective - that of the user and the fact that you simply cannot view a town centre or high street these days unless you consider the really major battle that is going all over the world - Global versus Local.

Can Do Places was born out of a conversation about breathing new life into our town centres and how we can create a more enterprising Scotland. The starting point was that “our towns have become innovation free zones”. This was followed up by a variety of other comments including “if cheaper rates and easier parking are the solutions what was the problem in the first place?”

In the fight to regenerate our town centres we need our local communities to take the lead and create new opportunities for a new breed of entrepreneur.

So we have put together a series of Enterprise Talk Oots exploring the impact global chains and globalisation have on local economies.

In our first session we will be sharing the Can Do Places Innovation Challenge story. A story that brings together entrepreneurship, regeneration, community empowerment and mashes them all up.

Our first Enterprise Talk Oot has already sold out so here are the details of the repeat performance!

Click to BOOK (THIS EVENT HAS NOW ENDED)

Local v Global Town Centre Regeneration- the Can Do Towns Story Wednesday 3rd June 2015 The Lighthouse Glasgow

In this Enterprise Talk Oot #1 we will hear directly from some of the participants as they negotiated:

1. Their community right to buy;

2. How to convert buildings into collaborative work space;

3. How they can create new economic opportunities for their local area, and addressing the fact that both our towns and our economies need something radically different;

4. The reality of a bottom up project;

5. Creating a sustainable project that keeps the money in the local area and is there for the long term.

Can Do Places is a great opportunity to hear about the successful programme which is delivering two key Scottish Government policies in our communities and towns - Scotland Can Do and Town Centre Action Plan.

Relevant to anyone with an interest in local economic development, community empowerment, place based entrepreneurship, innovation and inclusiveness, collaborative economy, and globalisation.

#towncentres #LocalvGlobal #Scotlandcando