I am going to concentrate this month on the many events that are coming up involving the Quarter.

Firstly, our involvement in the Rotary Conference which is, I am told, the World’s biggest conference and the reason we are apparently hosting it this year,  is that although we hosted it several years ago, the Koreans (this year’s hosts) could not get their act together.  I suppose that, if the Government have their way, we soon won’t be able to make even a brass widget (because the Koreans are making them), but by jove we can organise events!

The Conference has an exhibition at the NEC called the House of Friendship and we have hired a stand in Partnership with the Jewellery Quarter Marketing Initiative who will be manning the stand (as an employee of the City Council perhaps I should be saying personning) – with jewellers and giftware manufacturers.

There is also a ‘Meet the Brummies’ night although, much as I am proud of being a Brummie, it all seems a bit cheesy and conjures up the picture of visiting Rotarians having their hands vigorously shaken by local residents asking ‘owm yum gooin’

On 4th July, we have our own Festival called ‘Celebrating Birmingham’s Gem’ and we are working with the local residents, who are organising a Farmers’ Market, as part of the attractions, called 24 Carrot (!).  On that Saturday we have also got a jewellery market in St Paul’s Square, free vintage bus rides around the Quarter, Museum & Gallery Events, live Jazz and Classical Music and a Treasure Hunt using specially (locally!) minted Matthew Boulton commemorative coins.

Then a few days later, at Taste of Birmingham, we have a Jewellery Quarter stand at Cannon Hill Park.  As many of you will know, we have now got a great restaurant and bar offer in the Quarter including pubs such as The Red Lion and Lord Clifden which are traditional pubs with an arty feel, selling great beer and locally sourced food.  We also have restaurants like The Vaults, recently voted in the Top 5 ‘Restaurants in the UK’ by the Independent.  In fact, in one of my future blogs I’ll be doing a virtual pub and restaurant crawl, which will illustrate this point.

Added to all the above is our work on In Bloom with the Jewellery Quarter an important part of the City Centre Trail.

We have proposed special features at St Paul’s Square, the Pen Museum and Warstone Lane Cemetery.  On the subject of In Bloom, don’t forget to have a go at our prize competition to ‘spot the bees’ – see the News Section on our site.

Whilst this is all very enjoyable, if a little hectic, I still have to find time for the less than pleasant tasks.  One of these was the need to do something about the proliferation of banners in the Quarter, which is making the shopping area look more like Blackpool sea front than a Conservation Area.  It had reached the stage of ‘my banner is bigger than yours’ syndrome.  Consequently I had to pay a visit to all the shops but in fairness I was met with cooperation in most cases, with the exception of one shop, who shall remain nameless, but suggested there might be an alternative place to stick the banner!

Finally, I ought to mention the Golden Square Design Competition and by the time you read this blog the winner will have been announced.  Although it was not my personal favourite, it was the runner up in terms of the Public Consultation Day so I feel that the Jury decision has been vindicated.  However, it was all a bit of a strain as I think, in my humble opinion, we over did the proportion of architectural luvvies on the deciding Jury.  Having said that, the design has some very good strong points and I am sure there is enough potential to achieve a real iconic asset as a centrepiece to the Quarter.  However we will need to ensure that we work closely with the local community and stakeholders so we have a Square of which the local community are both proud and feel ownership.

Andy Munro