Client
Gloucester Heritage Urban Regeneration Company

Brief
We are responsible for bringing about regeneration in Gloucester.  A central plank of our work is to improve the economic prospects of this once thriving city. To make this happen, we need to work closely with local businesses. A Business Forum has been created to guide and participate in regeneration. We have identified an initial shortlist of members, based on our own contacts. But we want to ensure that all key business sectors and interests - not just the 'usual suspects' - are represented.

Approach
First, we mapped the many overlapping business communities in Gloucester, both formal and informal; bearing in mind not only current patterns but also future trends and ambitions for the city. By mapping the business community, we were able to identify 'hotspots' which were already well-represented on the Forum, and 'grey areas' which had been overlooked. We then used 'snowball' research techniques to identify suitable new business champions. This involved a series of interviews with local business 'connectors', cascaded out to reach the less obvious (but equally interesting!) candidates.  Having contacted each candidate directly to gauge their interest (and to sell the idea of the Forum) we selected ten potential new Forum members.

Outcome
Of the ten candidates identified, six agreed to join the Forum.Communicating Change - I