Celebrating business and culture in Ipswich

Supporting Local Business: Becky Ames, Larking Gowen

Ipswich is gathering pace as a vibrant cultural, retail and experience-based destination, and a recent event at St Stephen’s Church – hosted by Larking Gowen – was an opportunity for local business and cultural leaders to network with a focus on supporting retail, leisure, hospitality and tourism in both the town and across the region.

It was great to see the business community come together to help create a lively and attractive environment through activities that will encourage more visitors.

Leading from the front

Our guest speakers at the event were Steve Flory (MD of Hudson Group), Marcus Neal (Director of Brighten The Corners) and Cathy Frost (Owner of Loveone gift shop in St Peter’s Street, Director of the Saints Community Ipswich and Borough Councillor of Holywells Ward).

Steve Flory has recently taken over as Chair of Ipswich Central, which has 407 business members around the town, all working to attract more visitors and shoppers by making it more welcoming and dynamic. Speaking at the event, he said: “We want to create and promote activities in the town for the benefit of the business and wider community. Our legacy is to make this happen. We’ll get this town back to where it should be.”

Highlights currently underway and lined up for the rest of the year include the ‘Sip’Swich’ pub trail, ‘Fork Night’ – a two-week food festival, ‘Summer in the Square’ which involves local bands and charities, and the ‘Brighten The Corners’ music festival.

Marcus Neal is Co-Director of Brighten The Corners, a not-for-profit business which runs three venues in the town, along with training and education programmes for young people. The organisation is working to transform the cultural heartbeat of the centre of Ipswich, providing opportunities for young people in the town and making it more vibrant as a destination.

He said the music festival, which launched in 2023, was going from strength to strength, and it was encouraging to see that 62% of ticket sales were to visitors from outside Suffolk.

Finally, Cathy Frost describes herself as “Ipswich’s number one fan”. She started The Saints street markets in St Peter’s Street and St Nicholas Street 14 years ago and she believes that, with The Regent, Christchurch Mansion, a museum soon to reopen, three cinemas and a music day, Ipswich has much to offer, and her markets form part of that growing scene.

Cathy says: “Ipswich needs all our support now. It can’t be done in isolation; we have got to work with the community and the council. It’s about a new high street centred around experiences.”

Stronger together

Thank you to everyone who attended the event. It was an evening full of laughter, inspiration, good vibes and delicious canapes!

All these business leaders are passionate about building a strong local community and we look forward to working with all of them to ensure a bright future for our county town.