We are excited to announce that WeAreWaterloo’s Chief Executive, Natalie Raben, published a research paper in the Journal of Place Management and Development. Analysing the response of Business Improvement Districts to the pandemic, Natalie and her co-writer Nikos Ntounis discuss how BIDs shifted their operations when faced with COVID-19 to become integral facilitators of place management initiatives in their local areas.

The paper draws upon both interview and survey data from a wide variety of BID Managers to understand how their organisation’s business plans responded to the pandemic, before proposing a disaster management framework to help inform the localised response of place managers to future large-scale disruptions. The research paper suggests that a greater emphasis on communication strategies, partnerships, resilience and public safety during the lockdown periods has led to an elevated positioning of the UK BID role in coordinated disaster management through place leadership. 

Read the full research paper: Carving a place for UK business improvement districts through COVID

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