What inspired me to choose my case study route

At first when I began my case study module research on the Boscombe Regeneration Project, I felt I had bitten more than I could chew. I wanted to research into the events industry (or lack of!) in Boscombe since the Boscombe Regeneration Project. As one of the Boscombe Regeneration Projects key aims was for ‘nurturing creative industries’ and implementing and ‘events and activities’ hub for Bournemouth, I couldn’t quite get my head round why there were no events.

As I have always lived at maximum twenty minutes from Boscombe, I have always been aware of its reputation. Despite statistics showing that Boscombe is, to be honest, a pretty god awful area, I have however always had a couple of friends who live there and its reputation appears to be worse than its reality.  Therefore when I decided to embark on this case study, I felt that I would obviously be completely factual with all my data, but also give Boscombe a chance.

Mark Cribb is one of my references within the essay. Mark and his wife renovated a beaten down hotel in Boscombe, in a bid to try and bring up the area in the shadow of the Boscombe Regeneration Project. They later, on the success of the Urban Reef Hotel, opened up Urban Beach Restaurant on Boscombe beach. Through my research I learnt that they had a little literature in each room, ‘We know that the Urban Beach is not perfect yet, but we have been frantically renovating since January 2006. We are … just a couple in our early thirties who have borrowed more money than we can afford and will invest every penny back into the business until it is finished.’

Not only does this inspire me in itself, but upon further research I realised that they weren’t just renovating a hotel and building a restaurant. Mark Cribb is heavily involved in the regeneration of Boscombe. He has a vision for Boscombe, he wants to inspire change for the people that live there, so not only was the investment for himself and his wife, but he wanted to help make a difference. It was this research that inspired me to not give up on my case study on the ‘events industry in Boscombe’, because there wasn’t one. But re direct the research on what effect an events industry would have for the community of Boscombe, and whether I myself could do my part in researching if events could help change the lives of people who live there.