Event Recap: City Conversations Conference 2026
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for our City Conversations conference! We had a wonderful morning of engaging discussions about how we can work together to shape a better Norwich.
We welcomed representatives from businesses, cultural organisations, partner organisations and stakeholders from across the city, all coming together to reflect on Norwich’s progress and contribute to the conversations that will help shape its future.
The conference provided an opportunity to look back at what Norwich Business Improvement District has delivered during the current BID term, understand the impact of that work and, importantly, hear from those in the room about what comes next.
During the morning, we looked in detail at each of Norwich BID’s three key workstrands: Experience, Invest and VisitNorwich. We then opened up the discussion to the room, asking three key questions:
- What work do you value most?
- What has perhaps run its course or could be done differently?
- What opportunities have not yet been explored?
The roundtable discussions throughout the morning generated some brilliant ideas and thoughtful suggestions from people with a wide range of perspectives and experiences of Norwich. We’ll be taking these ideas away with us, and using them to inform our planning for future years and the next BID term.
As part of this ongoing conversation, we’ve also launched a new survey to hear from businesses across the city about the priorities you would like us to focus on. Whether or not you were able to join us at City Conversations, we’d really value your input as we look ahead to the future of Norwich city centre. The survey takes approximately 7 minutes to complete, and we’d hugely appreciate your input.
What makes a City Distinctive?
We ended the morning with a conversation between our compere, Nina Nanaar, and journalist and travel writer Ben Aitken, exploring what makes places distinctive and why people choose to live, work and visit them.
With Norwich recently named The Sunday Times Best Place to Live in the UK 2026, alongside its status as a UNESCO City of Literature and its identity as a City of Stories, the conversation offered an opportunity to look at the city from a fresh perspective.
Two themes in particular stood out from Ben’s reflections on Norwich and other cities across the UK…
It’s the People that make a Place
For Ben, one of Norwich’s greatest strengths is its warmth. Beyond its buildings, history and heritage, it is the people he encountered during his time in the city that helped make Norwich memorable.
From conversations with people in the city’s pubs to encounters with Norwich’s welcoming City Hosts, Ben highlighted the friendliness and openness he experienced here.
It is a quality that is also captured in What is a Norwich?, the poem written and performed by poet Piers Harrison-Reid for VisitNorwich, which explores the character of the city and the people who make it what it is.
Don’t be Afraid to have Fun
Ben also highlighted the importance of cities continuing to evolve and challenge expectations. While history and heritage are hugely important parts of Norwich’s identity, he argued that cities should not rely solely on their past.
There is also a need to have fun, push boundaries and find new ways to tell the story of a place.
That means being willing to experiment with how we communicate what makes Norwich different, rather than simply repeating the same messages or resting on the city’s existing strengths.