Like Paul says it’s time we stoping looking at other places and just got on with doing good stuff.

Worst contact I had was ta the NEC.

The Manchester marketing team had they own space, videos, posters, plenty of swag to give away, and the staff were full of knowledge about their city. I had a good chat with them, and I learnt a lot about their city, and what I could do if I was to visit for a couple of days.

However, when I went to the Marketing Birmingham stand, it was the total opposite. They couldn’t think of good things to do in Birmingham. The answers were “Errr… Umm… [pause for 3 seconds with a blank stare while they think] You can go shopping!”. Not the answer I wanted. I felt totally embarrassed being near to these people because I’m from the West Midlands too.

I never know why the council wont terminate Marketing Birmingham’s contract. If I was a tourist I don’t want to know about conference facilities, which seems to be the only thing they are good at shouting about.

The Birmingham brand is still not strong enough.

It always strikes me that Birmingham is trying too hard to justify itself alongside London, Manchester et al. Why?

Birmingham should have the self-confidence to get on do whatever it thinks is right and the reaction of other people in other cities is largely irrelevant. Yes, it would be good to attract people from all over the UK to see just how far Birmingham has come and what it is capable of doing, but the “Look at us! Look at us!” pleading gets in the way of making sure the city is the best it can be. I used to think Birmingham had this self-confidence, but it seems to have slipped away badly over the last 5 years or so. Attracting people to Birmingham is important, but being the best the city can be is essential.

The irony is, of course, that the creative people in and around the city who do make things happen every day of every week have this self-confidence to get on with it and make a big impact locally, nationally and internationally in abundance. Alas, their voice is rarely (if ever) heard and the so the scenario we are left with is the one you describe.

The key part for me is: “And maybe the attitude would filter through the city.”

We should be competing with London, Manchester and the UK’s other big (and yes ‘cool’) cities. At the moment, we can’t really complain if the best of our young talent feels they have to move out of the city to mix with their contemporaries and really challenge themselves.

With Artsfest, for example, I get the impression that anyone can take part if only they ask. Sure, there should be a place where everyone gets to have a go, but not in the events we’re pushing nationally. They must only contain the absolute cream of what Birmingham has to offer, as well as bringing in the best from elsewhere to inspire us. By pushing the real talent, everyone else has something to aspire to, we can really raise the bar and not just settle for what we’ve got.

We must set our sights much, much higher than we currently are.