While much of our work continues to be in the tourism and heritage fields, we have also undertaken work in other sectors.
Ancestral Tourism
Building on our previous experience and knowledge we remain very active in helping shape the developing field of ancestral tourism (also known as genealogy tourism).
In Orkney we completed a genealogy tourism development strategy for Orkney Tourist Board. In Edinburgh, we completed production of a user friendly guide to the wealth of genealogy and family history resources in the capital. The guide can be downloaded in PDF format from www.edinburgh.org/genealogy. We also arranged a series of ‘behind-the-scenes’ evening visits for Edinburgh tourism businesses to the General Register Office of Scotland.
Reflecting his close involvement in ancestral tourism developments, Cameron went to the US twice to undertake speaking arrangements. In April in New York he organised, and gave a presentation at, a joint New York Genealogical and Biographical Society / Ancestral Scotland seminar on Scottish genealogy and family history. And in June in Washington DC he ran a day-log seminar at the invitation of the Smithsonian Institution examining aspects of Scottish history, culture, heraldry, genealogy and family history.
With the ancestral tourism focus shifting to product innovation, Seabridge has been appointed business adviser to four of the 12 projects being taken forward as part of a national programme. The projects have only just got under way so will in due course feature in our review of 2004.
Other Projects
We remain involved in the North Ronaldsay Archives project, with 2003 seeing the submission of material to SCRAN for inclusion in SCRAN’s on-line database.
In Westray, we prepared a business plan for a range of proposed new community facilities.
We also prepared business plans for Orkney Archaeological Trust’s Living Archaeology project, Orkney Herbs and Ocean Island Adventures. The latter assignment included marketing planning and the creation of a brand image for the new business (see Design Review).
We carried out development studies for a number of community organisations and business, including the Allt Beag Armadale Trust, the Skerray Historical Association, Highlander Outback Safaris, Skye Ship World and the Colbost and Giant Angus MacAskill museums.
A major development study on behalf of the Wick Society is under way at present. The Society has an outstanding but little known collection in the Wick Heritage Museum, including over 40,000 glass plate negatives documenting the history of the town, its people and the herring fishing industry. We are working towards a major Heritage Lottery application in 2004.
Also in Caithness we collaborated with colleagues on a marketing appraisal and strategy for the Scrabster Harbour Trust. In parallel with this we prepared and implemented a marketing plan for The Captain’s Galley Seafood Restaurant in Scrabster. The design work is included in our Design Review. We are delighted that the restaurant is building an excellent reputation for high quality produce.
As part of a consortium of businesses leading Highlands and Islands Enterprise’s Speak Up for Broadband campaign, we ran a series of focus groups collecting feedback from a number of locations in the Highlands and islands.
Colleagues in the Speak Up for Broadband campaign are all, as Seabridge is, members of AIMhi www.aim-hi.org the industry body for the creative content industry in the Highlands and islands. Peter is a Director of AIMhi.
Following a tender process, Seabridge was recently commissioned to undertake a training needs analysis in respect of the creative content industry in the Highlands and islands. Work on this is under way with a report due early in 2004. Finally we were engaged by Scottish Screen to facilitate a development workshop for locations network staff from Film Offices throughout Scotland.
The diverse nature of our projects in 2003 has been stimulating for us and, we hope, for clients who get the benefits of cross-sectoral thinking and experience. We expect cross-sectoral and collaborative working to characterise 2004 and beyond.