First things first, ‘Think Harrogate’ is not an organisation! 

‘Think Harrogate’ is about using the Harrogate Story to help promote the district as a fantastic place to visit, meet, work, do business, live and invest.  So the more businesses and people that get involved, the better!

The Harrogate Place Leadership Group helps to look after the Think Harrogate brand as well as working closely with local businesses and organisations across the district to mobilise initiatives that support our place. Members include:

• Mark Roberts, Beer Hawk – Chair

• Sharon Canavar, Harrogate International Festivals – Vice-Chair

• Rupert Visick, Gent Visick

• Bryn Sage, Intechnology PLC

• Rachel Fellows, Bettys & Taylors Group

• Oliver Mennell, NEOM Organics

• John Pallagi, Farmisons

• Hazel Barry, H2K Skincare

• Karen Weaver, Harrogate & District Community Action

• James Cain, Harrogate Spring Water

• Wallace Sampson, Harrogate Borough Council

• Richard Webb, North Yorkshire County Council

• Danny Wild, Harrogate College

• Dave Sheridan, Ilke Homes

The group is led by the private sector businesses and organisations under the Chairmanship of Mark and Sharon with back office support from Harrogate Borough Council.

We see the purpose of this group is to help mobilise initiatives across our place, and also to act as ambassadors for our place.

When it comes to mobilising initiatives, we propose to focus on the four themes that were launched as part of the Harrogate Story. For each we need to:

1. Ensure we have total clarity for what the theme really means

2. Define our ambition for each area

3. Outline an assessment of where we really are today, to help identify gaps vs our ambition

4. Generate initial ideas for initiatives that can help close these gaps, so over time, we can help make our place better.

We see this group meeting every two months, to discuss our aims and objectives, and agree how we will measure success.  HBC is represented on the group and will share current council and local authority initiatives with the group in order to inform discussion and feedback.