The Cutting Room Experiment

With a population of just over 2.5 million people, Greater Manchester is one of the busiest, hustling and bustling counties in England. With much of this mass of peoples centered within the city of Manchester, the built up and industrial metropolitan has been developed from the centre outwards. However much of the city, particularly the southern strip, and the northern quarter, have long been crying out for regeneration as the decline of heavy industry has left many areas depleted over the years. Things are changing however. A regeneration project in Ancoats, just north of the city centre, will incorporate a clever mix of social media and tactically prepared flash mobs to bring a much needed new lease of life to the district.

Implemented by The Cutting Room Experiment, Ancoats will be subjected to a variety of organized mass participation events centered around twelve different themes including architecture, music and craft. By facilitating the influence of social media as an effective tool of WOM to spread the message of the initiative, the team behind the £72 million regeneration scheme hope to get as many people involved as possible both online and offline.

With other activities including a swap shop, a congo line and an organized scheme to see how many people can write a single book, excitement is certainly building to what could potentially be ‘the biggest user-generated event in the world’ according to Lesley Lomax, head of marketing for New East Manchester.

The 20th of June will see the event take place in the new Cutting Room Square kicking starting excitement around the development program designed to ‘completely transform’ the face of Ancoats, whilst announcing it’s arrival to the world. Sweet.

Image taken from here, of Ancoats in it’s current pre regenerative state.