Annual General Meeting 8 April 2025
Our 2025 AGM will be held on Tuesday 8 April at Spalding Baptist Church, Swan Street, Spalding, PE11 1BT.
All are welcome to attend from 7.30pm, although only members of the Society will be entitled to vote for officer positions.This is your opportunity to ask questions about the Society, suggest ideas and volunteer to join our committee. Following the AGM, there will be a refreshment interval. If anyone would be interested in being on our committee next year, please contact the Society.
There will then be an illustrated talk by High Street champion, Graham Soult commencing at 8.00pm
Reinventing Spalding Together
Graham Soult is a high-street champion, digital marketing expert, and respected media commentator, who founded the retail consultancy business CannyInsights.com in 2010.
Based in Gateshead, but operating UK wide, CannyInsights.com works with independent and multiple retailers on the high street and online, as well as with related organisations such as landlords, local authorities, business associations and Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), to help them improve their insight, offer and messaging. Graham regularly travels around the UK, and has visited around 600 retail centres across the country over the last decade picking up best practice at the same time as sharing his own advice and insights.
Graham latest visit to Spalding was during the last three weeks to prepare for his talk by seeing how the town has changed since his previous visit in February 2023.
Graham holds a BA (Hons) in Architecture and an MA in Architecture and Town & Regional Planning from the University of Sheffield, and has been a Fellow of the Institute of Place Management (IPM) since 2018. He also served as an Expert within the High Streets Task Force, a government initiative, managed by IPM, that supported communities and local authorities in England in transforming their high streets and strengthening local place leadership.
As well as having family connections with Spalding, Graham has worked extensively across Lincolnshire in recent years, and knows the area well. He has regularly worked with Dransfield Properties, the company that owns and manages Marshall’s Yard in Gainsborough, and in 2022 led the delivery of High Streets Task Force expert support in Horncastle. During 2022 and 2023, South Holland District Council commissioned him to provide external, expert input as part of the Council-led Town Centre Access Task Group, set up to investigate sentiment and perceptions around current access arrangements to Spalding Market Place and the surrounding area.
Described on BBC Look North as “the region’s best-known retail expert”, and by ITV as “a North East Mary Portas”, Graham is often named as being among the most influential retail people on Twitter/X, where he has more than 16,000 followers. He has appeared regularly on TV, on radio, and in the press, including BBC’s The One Show, BBC News, Netflix, Channel 5, LBC, The Guardian and Retail Week, and is a frequent keynote speaker on retail and high-street issues at conferences and seminars. More locally, Graham has been quoted regularly in the Spalding Guardian and LincsOnline, offering insights on important high-street topics.
A passionate advocate for building strong networks and partnerships between businesses and places, Graham is also the chairman of Durham-based networking organisation Durham Business Group.
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