POOLE’S REJUVENATION
AN INTERVIEW WITH CARMEN MOORE
WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO START GATHER AND WHAT WAS THE INITIAL VISION FOR THE PLATFORM?
GATHER was originally an idea without any sense of direction. The idea was to offer the community a platform to showcase things but no idea what the outcome of the space would be and it needed streamlining, which is when they bought me in - the community manager. There was no ideas about what they wanted or how it looked, Legal&General (the landlords) just wanted charities to come in, or somewhere to do something with. I then developed this into something where events had to be held for the community to join in, get involved and learn from. Legal&General initially wanted 1000 events a year but this was just not feasible as there are 365 days a year so there would need to be at least 3 things on each day.
GATHER exists elsewhere - in Eastbourne, however, no two spaces are the same. The space is based on the community: In Poole, its very culture and art based so the unit needed a sink for cleaning up after workshops, there would be art exhibits and fun creative workshops for all ages. The Eastbourne unit has a different community manager, and she caters things to her community, so there is more charitable events than in Poole and its more education based.
WHAT PROMPTED THE SETUP OF THESE THINGS?
Legal&General realised that the high street was dying, the shops were dying and they needed to do something about it. They wanted a space that was free to use for the public, which might entice them more. They needed to regenerate a lot as the units they chose to work with had been out of action for a long time. L&G are very forward thinking, but weren’t onsite a lot, which meant the project needed to be more hands on so they could see what needed to be done exactly and how to do it. It required innovative and creative thinking which is what I had and why they wanted me to be a part of the development process, as I know the community and I’m local so can bring exactly what the people need.
HOW DO YOU DETERMINE WHICH EVENTS TO HOST? HOW DO YOU MAKE SURE THEY RESONATE WITH THE LOCALS?
Getting people to come into the space in the first place requires a lot of calls to charities, businesses, schools, people I know personally etc. It was hard to build a constant booking. When first setting it up and making the calls, I quickly realised that a lot of people wanted to book out the space weekly or very consistently. So I either gave them Mondays or Tuesdays as weekends and were for more family oriented activities. People were either booked in for the whole day or no day. Additionally, a lot of companies wanted to use the space during half term, so I had to decline a lot of people as I had to consider and prioritise who is more likely to be around that time of year and what festivities occur, and cater to that specific need, such as child friendly activities during half terms, and Christmas festivities over the Christmas period etc. Moreover, during the Christmas period, The Dolphin’s opening and closing hours are later, which means that people are typically out later - I used this to her advantage to bring in specifically catered adult only activities. Tipsy Canvas for example, came in once for a ‘paint and Prosecco’ night which was a massive hit and a lot of fun for all those involved
DO YOU GATHER FEEDBACK FROM THE COMMUNITY ABOUT EVENTS/ FUTURE IDEAS? IF SO HOW?
Yes, the community is very involved in a lot of the decisions and what they want to see come to Poole. This is typically collected through social media; Instagram comments, polls and story Q&A’s for the younger generation and Facebook for the older generation.
The customer service/ destination host - Caroline Taylor also does surveys with the public about what they want to see come to Poole, whether its events or new shops. Some things, of course, aren’t doable, but some are and when they come to life it brings more people out as they see their ideas in real life.
HAVE THERE BEEN ANY CHALLENGES IN SETTING UP THE SPACE? HOW DID YOU OVERCOME THEM?
All it was a challenge. Finding people to come in specifically, as I didn’t want any religion or politics. I had to be really selective about what went into the space and how it helps the community. For example, it’s all well and good having an art exhibition in the space but after people have walked around and viewed it all that’s it. I wanted the community to really get involved and either be able to learn something from it or create something for their own. Another issue was how they promote their company or their reason (if its a charity) - I didn’t want them just sat at a table handing out leaflets to people, I wanted them to draw people in and get them involved in whatever was going on, so it was an actual experience for them. I also experienced a lot of cancellations with companies booking out the space. As it’s a free space for them to use, they would cancel and then it would be a struggle trying to get someone to come in last minute. Getting people to come out post lockdown also posed as a struggle to me, I had to promote Poole in an exciting way to both the businesses and consumers, and give them a reason to not work from home anymore
For Street Market, I had to make sure that the businesses I was getting in weren’t selling cheap tat, that it was sustainable and not off of Temu, which a lot of businesses were doing to my surprise, so I had to turn them down. I also had to make sure any food businesses I was getting in the market had quality food and that it was somewhat reliably sourced. Additionally, for the Street Food portion of Poole, I had to call up people and make sure each space was set up right for the companies and their needs, making sure they have an alcohol licence if they needed one etc. I have no idea about building a kitchen, so a lot of calls were made in this process.
The main challenge overall has been maintaining and increasing the footfall of Poole overall.
HAVE YOU RECEIVED ANY FEEDBACK SINCE SETTING THIS UP?
Oh there has been a lot of feedback, GATHER is highly rated by all and I get very positive feedback. After each company has been there, they’re sent a feedback form to fill out with questions on it like ‘What was the event?’ ‘What was todays footfall’ ‘How much was raised (if applicable)’ ‘What improvements do you have?’ Etc.
The responses include things about how being able to provide a space to exhibit work is amazing, how the event-holders love the space, it’s bright and airy, compliments are given to the cleaning staff and to myself. Those raising funds for charity show their gratitude for the space and the opportunity to use it, and how they appreciate being in a prime position in town. All these responses make me appreciate the space even more and what I have turned it into. We have Poole College come in every year at Christmas to display and exhibit their work, this helps in their confidence as they have to sell all their art work and all funds are donated to charity.
As for community feedback, again, it’s really positive. The only negative thing I think we have ever had has been that people didn’t know about it or a particular event that was going on, for instance, one lady was really into ceramics and we had one ceramics group come in that she missed - when I got them in again, I made sure to advertise it better and she attended, loved it and became a part of a group from it.
A really popular event we held was a collaboration with Dorset Mind during mental health awareness week in May, where each day covered a different topic. The first year they did it there was such a massive queue for the free counselling as people just weren’t able to access any form of counselling without being put on a huge waiting list, so as soon as they heard about this collaboration, they came to Poole. This prompted the introduction of Access Wellbeing - a separate wellness centre opposite Wilko where people could go to for this sort of thing, but permanently. So yeah overall, community feedback is pretty positive too, people just like that they learned something new they didn’t intend to, or became part of a group, organisation or charity.
HOW DO YOU PROMOTE THE EVENTS?
We used to use a London agency that would do all our promotional work for us, but as they weren’t on site, it was hard for them to promote what was on without them seeing it first hand. But, social media is mainly used to promote things, we have @thedolphinpoole on Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook as well as a “what’s on” tab on our website. This of course only reaches a certain demographic, ones that use socials or the web, it doesn’t feel all inclusive. So, we use the Daily Echo to tell people what’s on, as well as easels with promotional posters that are dotted around the centre, there is also a large chalkboard wall outside of gather to let people know what’s on, as well as give them the creative freedom to design their own sign. There is plans to get a part on the radio, so I am hoping that this happens soon. But there is also collaboration with PIER Journal in the works which is very exciting. Things we do try and avoid with promotional touch-points are things like leaflets as due to the type of flooring we have in the centre, if people litter or drop them, they pose a great danger as they become a slipping hazard, so we rule these out completely - they are also just not very sustainable as it leads to a lot of waste eventually.
HOW DO YOU ENSURE THAT EVENTS ARE INCLUSIVE AND ACCESSIBLE TO ALL COMMUNITY MEMBERS?
All events are completely free for the community, and we don’t charge for the tenants either. It is a challenge to make sure that the space is diverse enough for everyone, but we include events such as Pride, Diwali, Black History Month, Day of the Dead etc. I do get the odd few people coming to me saying things like “why do we have this, we need blank instead” but I have to ensure that no one feels left out. I ask Caroline to gather feedback from the public about what they want to see, such as, one year Chinese New Year was requested, so we had this come in and had a large dragon going through the centre - this was really fun to see and it was fun seeing the shock on retailers faces as this huge dragon floated past their shops. As a centre, we also do a thing called ‘sensory Sunday’ where all the lights are dimmer and music is lowered or off entirely which allows people that are neurodivergent for example, to be able to come in and shop comfortably. Things like this, as well as feedback about what the community wants to see really ensures we cater for everyone.
HOW DO YOU ENVISION THE FUTURE OF GATHER AND ITS ROLE IN THE COMMUNITY? DO YOU SEE POOLE EVOLVING FURTHER?
I think GATHER is a very integral part of the community and The Dolphin, it has helped build a community. I would, however, like to be able to reach out further to those who haven’t heard of it, I want it to be the first place people think of in the town, and for it to become the place people want to go and use. We can’t expand it without removing tenants of other stores, which isn’t doable, so reaching out is the best we can do to expand socially rather than physically.
CAN YOU SHARE ANY SPECIFIC GOALS OR OUTCOMES THAT YOU HOPE TO ACHIVE WITH GATHER?
To be honest, I want to keep it as it is. I want to keep it as the community platform that its become. A lot of people are interested in buying it out but I don’t want to let them. GATHER does what it says on the tin and its become an integral part of the community.
HOW DO YOU MEASURE THE SUCCESS RATE OF THE EVENTS AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE LOCAL COMMUNITY?
Everything is measured through footfall. I have installed a little counter above each entrance on the sides that measures the footfall for each day/ event. We also measure by how long people stay in the centre - more time equals more money. It used to be an average of £10 spent per head, now it’s £17. Doesn’t seem like much but if you think that’s just an average and how many people are in the centre at one moment, it adds up.
Since setting up gather in 2021, footfall has increased quite a lot: in quarter 3 (so July - October 2021) the quarterly footfall was 2,468,000. The same quarter but in 2024, the footfall was 3,067,003. Everything new implemented into Poole has helped this increase though - NHS clinic above Beales, they have increased the footfall massively, Access Wellbeing, FOUNDRY, KINGLAND, Street Market and now the Street Food.
Community feedback is also a massive way that we measure the success as well as the feedback from the people hosting the events. As I mentioned before, we don’t get any negative feedback from anyone, so we’re obviously doing something right.
ARE THERE ANY PARTNERSHIPS WITH LOCAL BUSINESSES OR ORGANISATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN PARTICULARLY BENEFICIAL?
GATHER has worked with so many partners, Access Wellbeing, Pramacare, NHS, Poole Bid, Dorset Chambers, BCP, Poole Museum, The Lighthouse, RNLI, AUB, Dorset Mind… the list really goes on. All these partnerships were built through GATHER itself. Really shows how it brings not only people together, but businesses and charities. They have all been beneficial though really, I love having students come in from AUB and Poole College, but Dorset Mind collaboration was super successful and beneficial to the community.
IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE COME TO POOLE?
Constant regeneration.
Obviously the people want big brands like Zara, TKMaxx, Urban Outfitters, but it just isn’t doable.. yet. I would like to see them come in too, but the only way these things can happen is if units free up. The outdoor bit in KINGLAND is for local businesses only, and every unit elsewhere is filled currently. Additionally, three of the retailers that gained the most footfall along KINGLAND have now expanded into double units. So Wild Roots, Restored Retro, and Grounded Coffee are now all in double units. There have been a few people that left after the 2 years rent and business rates free, so I had to get in new people, most of whom I knew. For instance, Lavender Moon used to be down in Old Town by the Quay, but I got her in and now her footfall is through the roof. Millets has recently gone from KINGLAND, so we will be using this space to rent out throughout Christmas for part of the Christmas market that will be happening this year which is exciting, but people can rent it out to display their stuff or hold a workshop for a week or so at a time.
There are big plans in the works for where Argos used to be, and the row of shops that follow behind, but there is a lot of work required to fix these up. They are in such disarray. If a big company or retailer wanted the space, we can expand backwards and up by knocking down the offices above and removing a few shops behind but we’re just waiting at the moment, so keep your eyes peeled
