Agreement for Event Planning Services

Tender description

Background Each year the city’s universities celebrate the achievements of over 15,000 final year students who gather in and around Hope Street to commemorate their graduation. For two weeks in the summer, university life plays out on the streets with graduates and staff dressed in their academic caps and gowns. Graduation is one of the big events in life, it is a rite of passage, a day of celebration and festivity; it is a day on which a thousand photographs are taken and sent around the world. With the focus on ceremonies at Liverpool Cathedral and the Philharmonic Hall, Hope Street becomes the backdrop for generations of graduates and their families to parade and celebrate in style on one of the city’s great iconic streets. In many ways, graduation is reminiscent of the great civic days of the 1920s when the city opened its doors to celebrate all that was exceptional about Liverpool and this is how the universities wish to mark the summer ceremonies by making Hope Street the gateway to Graduation. In 2016, working through the Hope Street CIC, the Mayor’s Office and Liverpool John Moores University, Hope Street was closed for one week of graduation to enable LJMU students to walk the length of the street in safety and to create a sense of occasion on behalf of the city. The following week, the police forced a closure of the street when graduating students spilled out into Hope Street following their ceremonies at the Philharmonic Hall. Tender Overview The two Universities now wish to develop the Hope Street festival as the focus for the summer celebrations for Graduation therefore require an Event Management Company to facilitate. The aim is for the two Universities to work together to extend the road closure of Hope Street across both weeks of Graduation (10th – 21st July 2017) and also add to the experience provided to students and their families. The core elements of the 2016 event were: • Road closure at both ends of Hope Street (Mount Pleasant to Hardman St/Myrtle St and then to upper Duke St). • Hardman Street remained open throughout. The closure was in place from 0600-2000 for all five days • Banners, Flags and 3D Furniture. • An engagement programme with local businesses communicated via LJMU to provide offers & incentives to graduates and their families • Encouragement of businesses to provide additional on street catering and covers • Animation consisting of street entertainers Graduation 2016 was organised by the Visit Hope Street Community Interest Company (CIC) with the support of LJMU as lead member of the CIC with logistical and financial support from the city council and the Mayor’s Fund. The two Universities are now seeking to develop the event further whilst retaining the involvement of the CIC. Across the two weeks over 25,000 people come to Liverpool for Graduation, the objective of the partners involved in Graduation 2017 is to develop it into quite si...