The brief from Wellington City Council

We have partnered with Wellington City Council on the establishment of three Business Improvement Districts (BIDs). At the time of writing in early 2019, we’re working with the Karori business community on a proposed expanded BID.

Wellington City Council's BID programme has been in place since 2013. In 2017, they engaged Business Lab to assess its successes and identify areas for continued improvement.

Our Solution: Engaging Wellington’s BID community to identify opportunities for improvement

We interviewed 17 individuals involved in Wellington BIDs, plus other regional stakeholders and national and international experts.

The Council and the established BIDs then hosted Dr Julie Grail, the UK's leading BID expert at the inaugural Wellington BID Summit on 13 July 2017. 

The Summit provided an excellent opportunity to learn from the success of BIDs in the UK and nationally here in New Zealand. Discussions centered on how Wellington City's BID programme could be strengthened through improved inter-BID collaboration, council support and adoption of best practice principles from overseas and here in New Zealand. 

The Results

We formulated the outputs from interviews and the Summit into a recommendations report. These recommendations included the opportunity for further council commitment, more centralised communications and resource development, tailored training in governance and management for BID members and alignment of strategic planning activities.

As a result, Wellington City Council has expanded their BID team to ensure early engagement with BIDs on Council activities that are relevant to them, and a new expanded BID establishment project is being undertaken in Karori.

Get your business community humming

Forget the old-boys clubs of yesteryear. We can help you engage your business community to work together on a shared vision for your community. We’re experts in Business Improvement Districts, a model that creates a financially sustainable way of working together.