City Tribune

2014

Project type: words, magazines/newspapers, training/consultancy, design, branding

Print run: 50,000

The inaugural International Festival of Business took place in 2014, bringing thousands of delegates and professionals from across the world into Liverpool to see the continued growth and regeneration of the city, post 2008 Capital of Culture. All well and good, but we wanted to make sure visitors to Liverpool got a good handle on the diversity, heritage and hidden gems of the city’s business scene.

So, we rolled our sleeves up and did it ourselves.

The Liverpool Daily Post had ceased to be in 2013, leaving a huge business-paper shaped hole in the local media landscape. We wanted to do something that would continue that tradition of championing good business stories in the city. But with a fresh new look.

The Tribune gave us an opportunity to help mould the narrative of Liverpool’s business facade, injecting some warmth and intrigue into the sometimes cold and straightforward world of international business. We wanted to put something into the hands of attendees that they would gleefully tear through, coffee in one hand, chunky iPhone buzzing in their pocket (it was 2014, after all).

Our team set off to report, interview, hang around, find and tell stories, in print editions and on our website where we live-blogged the full six weeks of the festival.

The experience proved vital one as it opened up a lot of doors, creating strong links with businesses and teams in Oslo and Barcelona, amongst others. And it helped further the desire to curate a regular print publication, ideas we’ve built upon in subsequent years with the Business Tribune and Ethos.