On 16th March we welcomed eight Lancaster Business Improvement District (BID) partner companies to the Campus to meet the students learn about their lifestyle, their relationship with the city centre and their motivation or barriers to spend more time in the city. The students who joined our event were equally curious about what companies we have in town and how they run their businesses. Simply an excellent learning opportunity for both parties!
But why bother? You may just give students some leaflets or point the to an FB page with what’s on in town. Equally, companies can just promote student discounts and wait for the youngsters to walk through the door of their business, or not, … Well, as good innovators we know there is more to it. We were keen to get that empathy talk going and live the aha moments together to learn about each other’s perspectives.
The University Campus can feel a bit like a city in its own right with shops, bars, social spaces and cafes making it far too comfortable to stay in and hang out with friends without ever venturing to our beautiful town of Lancaster. So what motivates students to step over the parameter road? From our journey mapping exercise we learnt so much! Did you know that the main barrier is the cost of transport? We were surprised that none of the students go to the theatre! We confirmed that Facebook is not the channel to communicate with your students anymore…. And we learnt that the city is simply invisible most of the time, perceived as a focus for grocery shopping and clubbing and rarely a place to have fun with friends and hang out…
Our companies were keen to figure out how to change their value proposition to make it more attractive to our students. The round table debates opened up many innovative ideas for the business managers who were frantically writing up action points to improve their communications channels.
So what did the companies make of it?
“Wonderful opportunity to speak to the students to find out what they want but also to let them know what was available on their own doorstep!”
“t’s great to actually get in the mind of students in 2022, what they want, need and expect from the city they are studying in”
And our students? Well, they loved it!
“It was a fun event. I enjoyed talking to the business owners and giving my ideas on how they can improve their business reach. ”
“It was a huge honor to be part of this event organized by Lancaster BID. Chatting with local businesses to look for improvements, expand their customer base and enhance their business development was a very valuable experience.”
And at the end, the magic happens! Co-created proposal was put on the table to pilot a student advocate scheme that would be affiliated to the town centre businesses and act as a bridge between the town community and Campus. Let’s see what happens!
As good innovators, we believe empathy is a muscle that needs to go through a few training sessions….We have certainly exercised a great deal and the result are very rewarding!
If you have an appetite to run an engagement session like this, check out our resources where you can find the session engagement tools free to download.
Be good and keep flexing!