‘It’s vital we celebrate the Humber at its best’
CORE VALUES: Dr Diana Taylor revealing the new Humber Place Brand at Biz Week
EXCLUSIVE by Rick Lyon, Co-Editor
A rallying call has been issued for the region to unite under the new “Humber Place Brand” values.
The place brand – described as “a call for collective action to shape the very fabric of our community” – was unveiled to a packed audience of business leaders at the MKM Stadium to launch Humber Business Week.
Place promotion organisation Future Humber consulted over months with hundreds of private and public sector organisations, charities and community groups across the region to develop the brand.
It encompasses the following values:
Revolutionary: Embracing the spirit of the estuary – bold, dynamic, and ever-evolving.
Resourceful: Redefining what it means to be an industrial powerhouse – resourceful, reliable, radical, working together for change.
Real: Unapologetic industrialists and enthusiastic environmentalists – responsible, sincere, and vital.
Remarkable: Self-starting and standing as a beacon of industrial modernity – leading with a community-focused, creative and can-do attitude.
Dr Diana Taylor, managing director of Future Humber, revealed the brand at Biz Week and has now urged organisations to embrace its values to help drive the region towards a prosperous future.
PACKED: Delegates at the Humber Place Brand unveiling
She told The Hull Story: “We set out on this journey because of the window of opportunity we currently have here on the Humber, linked to decarbonisation, regeneration, levelling up and devolution. These are all rolling in at once.
“There’s a necessity for the pan regional narrative to stitch all these opportunities together. That’s the only chance we have of delivering on them.
“That narrative hasn’t really significantly changed since we introduced the offshore wind opportunity. We’ve had so much growth, but it all needs to be linked together, and it’s about how we make the lived experience for everybody here in the Humber the best it can be.
“We chose to develop the brand with as much collaboration and consultation as we possibly could. It enabled us to get to the absolute core of who we are, what we believe in and what we dream of, and it made sure we started the engagement really early.
“Now that we’ve launched it, the momentum is incredibly important. The shared set of values enables us to test if we’re really being the best we can be, and that’s the only way we’re going to make significant change.”
Following the launch, Dr Taylor and her team at Future Humber are now working with organisations across the region to help them adopt the values.
She said: “The brand values have been received really, really well, because everyone can see themselves in them. I’m really thankful for that, because it’s the voices of everyone who took part in the consultation that have got us to this point.
“These are the foundations that we’re all going to build on, but they aren’t replacing the values of individual organisations. Those live on, and we’ll be reiterating that.
“We want organisations to let us know about their projects and the impact they have, and we want them to get in touch if they want our help and support.
“We want to celebrate and shout about the Humber at its best, and that will start to change the perception from outside – which in turn will change the lived experience for everyone here.”
Businesses and other organisations can download the Humber Place Brand Toolkit, which includes guidance on how to live to the brand values, from the Future Humber website. Visit futurehumber.com/humber-place-brand.