NI Tourism Conference 2024 - George Clarke
and I'm going to use it actually so I've typed in the prompt for our next speaker and I'm actually going to use it to uh sing a song so let's see so cool and then we're going to try have a let's see if this [Music] works GE found from the RO to ground it's touchs life across the land tour conference George fo still hearts with delight restoration man still so key brings build is [Music] Twist of Fai him to TV stage where his expertise Shines on every page from building new life to aming spaces his journey through architecture and braces touris nor Islands conference George Fox still hearts with delight restoration man still so keeping building is life side see on see let's give it up the Geor star in our VI this Legacy lasting and true is all George cling the way a tourism long and Islands evented day George fo Vision [Music] [Applause] [Music] Way have a seat George I I don't know what to say about that well do you know I I had the exact same feeling last Friday where Kieran and I hopped on the um on the computer to to record the intro and it was sort of terrifying today to see my you know when were doing the languages they actually had actually the words and phrase I'm delighted to know that AI has not yet beaten yri accents and then we still H be it was one of the prompts to make that annoyingly catchy and who wants the copyright I can see you us it get paid for that do I get any vites or anything no well it depends on the paid or not PID you're very very welcome you were in a Bea last night not raving not partying so isn't that interesting that you started off with that so when we're talking about tourism jealous tourism and brand like everyone just automatically goes vaa clubbing raving getting wasted we in a quiet little corner but it's but I think that's really really fascinating about the perception of a place or the brand of a place and what makes it so distinctive it's when you actually get so it's interesting I've been in AA never until 2015 and I went with my kids and for about I've been asked probably for about 10 years by friends of mine you have you been it would be there no oh you've got to go it's brilliant it's bring parties I just thought it' be my worst nightmare right so I never went ever as a tourist for no reason whatsoever never went and I was kind of forced to go and I took my kids and by the end of I would say the Eighth Day I'd put an offer on a house because your perception of it had completely changed I never well I never went to a club I didn't go Raven I didn't do any of that and I just discovered this beautiful island where you've got really creative people it's just two hours away from London where I live in West London so really easy flight um small airport when you got there really accessible it was just you know food amazing and be is known as the global village I don't if you know that they call it the global village because it really is kind of an invasion of people from all over the world I think the population of a there's like 360,000 7 million people go through the airport um and I just think it's fascinating that you picked up on that you're oh yeah but you weren't Raven were you no I wasn't and the reality is completely different to the perception yeah absolutely um and that and that applies to to so many different places when I was listening to Adrian and speak so powerfully about his dad and kind of Life sort of TR of fed I was thinking about how you came to to to your own Journey because your dad passed away when you were very very young but your grandfathers they were the inspiration for you isn't it in terms of the builders like that was it in the blood I mean it's I think um you most of us have strong connections with our grandparents I think you know you might have tricky relationships with your parents but I think being slightly removed from your grandparents means you've got a bigger connection if that makes any sense um my granddad was a builder um big influence on me told me to kind of see the world around me look at buildings more used to take me to building sites when I was a kid before the days of health and safety I think honestly I think I was eight years old the first time he took me on site it was a school holiday and I was like in diggers and bulldozers and stuff which that kind of opened up really the the joy of building stuff that's what made me really excited about it the idea that you can design something you know draw it hand drawings over to a builder and then see someone physically build something that could hopefully last 7500 years and it's really interesting because you didn't obviously you eventually did but you left school at 16 you know um so I I didn't do my a levels or anything I got a job working for an ARX yeah um without AI or anything um well I'm sure that's changing as well I mean that just shows progress really I mean that the the quick story is that I want to see a careers officer and um you know you get to see a careers officer When You're 15 16 and um I I selected my gcses and I was obviously doing them I was I think I had a year left and he said what do you want to be I said I want to be an architect and he just had this one book in front of him which must have had every career in there and he went straight to architect and he said well you need to do math a level science a level possibly English a level and maybe one of the creative arts and I was like that's amazing isn't it that architecture which is all about the creative art you've just told me to do one subject out of three or four um and I was terrible at Matts like me I still am um and he just said well if you don't do mat a level you will never be an architect he said so why don't you just forget about that and he looked at the bottom of the page and he said um so Tess alter out of jobs for people who kind of want to be an architect but will never be one didn't quite say that but that's what I meant and it went why don't you be a graphic designer like I've got nothing against Graphics designers but I didn't want to be a graphic designer I wanted to do buildings um if I met him today I'd probably shake his hand because he annoyed me so much I was so angry when I walked out I just thought I'm not going to have him put me off um and again before the days of the internet or AI I got the Yellow Pages out and handw wrote um 46 47 letters to architects in Sunland and Newcastle and Washington New Town saying can I have a job and they gave me a job when I was 16 was it began yeah we used to have a program here in Northern Ireland called jigal I don't know if anybody remembers jigal you you stuck your pencil in and then it predicted you put it in and I predicted what you would be so mine predicted I'd be a religious leader still have a some high upset can I talk to you about Sunderland and where you grew up you know because you talk about our home your home is the most powerful you know architecture um or I supposed landscape that we have and there are huge similarities um this morning at about five o'clock I went for a lovely walk right along here um right along the maritime Mile and Sunderland and Belfast are quite similar like I mean it one at its peak there would have been what hundreds of ships being built in some very I think look um you talk about people place and partnership I think people in place for me are staggeringly important of course partnershi is as well really understanding the people and really understanding the place about what makes that unique you might have common themes there might be commonalities between one place and another but having that kind of USP about what the real brand is of a place and how you sell that is unbelievably important um fully enough I I put a message out about Sunderland yesterday I've got a book um it was published in 1953 on the six 600th anniversary of ship building on the river we and Sunland um and it's a bit of a kind of all dusty book as you can imagine from 1953 but I just put a post out say I'm really proud of our industrial Heritage and obviously I'm good at it's not there now and someone put a message back on there this is a complete coincidence I just read it this morning before I got on the plane and it said funny enough I was in Belfast recently and I love the way that they celebrated their ship building Heritage and I'm angry as to why Sunland has lost all of of its Heritage and I it was just complete coincidence that someone after a second comment mentioned Belfast I've went straight about one I'm on a flight going to Belfast now to talk about architectural Heritage and that's that's I find that really fascinating that someone has just made that connection straight away between Sunland and Belfast celebrated what Belfast had and still has and what Sunderland hasn't and I hate to kind of be negative about my home City because I absolutely love it and I love the people there but it's unbelievable how much we lost and how much we don't acknowledge the history and Heritage of a place and and that we did demolish so much stuff and I'm not just talk about in the in the 50s or 60s like in the 80s and '90s we demolished so much stuff that we should never have got rid of and in some ways it ripped the heart out of the place and when I mean when I say ripped the heart out I mean physically ripped the heart out of people like really upset them because they were like hang on a minute our our City's being built on that stuff and you've just swept it away you've just got rid of it and I think it's one of the biggest regrets of my home City really because now everybody talks about the value of Heritage and history and storytelling and what that means I mean it's interesting actually when when Adent did that talk and he said put your hand up if you decided what you wanted to be at 12 and you become that today I mean I wanted to be an architect at 12 I'm still an architect I love architecture I love buildings obviously I never imagined I'd be a TV presenter I never imagined I'd be sitting on a stage like this now so yeah it's a variation of what I wanted to be but it's still genuinely what I wanted to be but actually everything I do is storytelling and I think every so many things that we do in life really is about storytelling and if you if you think about history and our place within it and what we do you know our own lives are a story what we've created or what we've done is a story or the businesses that you've built or that you run is a story the staff that you meet every day and talk to that there a story and if you think about tourism it's in some ways it's the simplest thing in the world isn't it you you want to tell a story about what your place is about and and what the people are about you're hoping to sell that story in some way kind of share that information so so that you're hoping that someone somewhere in the world you know whether it's down the road or across the sea or over a further sea goes so do you know what I'd love to experience that story and they get jump on a plane or a ship or a train can't take get a train here but you know what I mean um and and get here and experience that story really enjoy it have their own experiences go back home and share that story so that someone else gets inspired by that and comes again in some ways that's it isn't it so no matter how we do it and no disrespect whether it's AI or the internet or a phone call or meeting someone it's about sharing those experience and those stories then how do you go about instilling pride in a place about building because as you say every everyone has a story in the backstory every building has a story and a backstory so how do you go about that because it's not just bricks and mortars that's hearts and mind stuff which is a bit more yeah I think I think with all the technology in the world sorry my headset's coming off with all the for me I mean the technolog is fasc and it's absolutely brilliant I mean it but obviously AI is going to change so many things and we should absolutely you know work to the benefits of all of that but you know the internet did the same back in the day that was a massive explosion just having websites okay it was nowhere near as intelligent as AI for me they're vehicles of communicating you know Instagram is a vehicle for communicating if it's done well it's brilliant if it's done badly it's terrible you I've got loads of issues with social media I think I think there's a lot of social media that's been toxic that's been extremely damaging you know I think it's had a terrible effect on young people's mental health and well-being I sometimes think a bombardment of information is is too much you know it makes our lives kind of so staggeringly busy with so much content you can't see the wood for the trees sometimes you know so yes it provides great opportunities but I think it's going to be done in the right way you know it's really got to be structured to do exactly what you want it to do and benefit your business and the people that come and visit Ireland I'm just going to go back to bricks and mortar because that's my business really I think when people turn up at a place they just want to experience the beauty of that place and the storytelling behind it and the people behind it I just made a series um that came out in January I don't know if you saw it it was all about American architecture and design I think it's called George in Americana yeah even the channel got the title wrong but let's not not talk about that with all the AI and clever stuff in the world they got the title wrong three times in all the pr which I thought was amazing um that was about getting under the skin of a place so yes there might be the obvious stuff in America you know let's so I did East Coast West Coast and I did a lot of the South right now if I went on the internet and said tell me the greatest buildings to go and see um on the east coast of America no doubt about it I would get bombarded with that information you would find it all straight away right but Americano is about getting under the skin of a place and not doing the obvious and I find that found that really interesting so if I was making an architectural program for Architects taking everything that was given to me from the research that we did before we went it would be you know go and see the Guggenheim go and see the Empire State Building you know go and see a Mis V building um got to go and see some Frank Lord r stuff because your Frank Lord WR is America's greatest architect let's go and see all that we intentionally didn't do any of that and so we went to see the stuff that was capturing American culture through design on many deeper levels and some not so deep like we'd go to a a a motel or a diner now they don't come up as like your top 10 Searchers on the internet for what the best architecture in America is but my God they really sum up what American architecture and design is about so that was a an amazing process for me to go through actually about how do you go to a place that you'd never really experienced before and really get under the skin of it to sell something different and that is so there's two things I think that you do so well which is one is really getting in under the skin of a place but the other is the fact that I don't think you've worked on a new build in or if ever like you're all about it's repurposing at a physical level but reimagining at a at a cultural or at a heart level yeah it was interesting that AI picked the word grand out and we always avoid the word Grand with my programs because that's Kevin's word Grand designs mine's amazing um so yeah I got that massively wrong but didn't didn't I'm joking this L what it got wrong is I don't really like reg music but let's not talk about it I'm joking again um yeah I've I've never done a new buil house on television ever before ever ever ever ever um I've made God knows how many programs I some I've done like 371 hour TV programs in my career never ever done a new build house ever um it's all been about repurposing old buildings understanding old buildings the story of the old buildings the sustainability of old buildings actually I mean you talk about being green there's nothing greener than building a building that can last two three 100 years and be repurposed and repurposed again the amount of embodied energy in a piece of Architecture is enormous absolutely enormous products being shipped from all over the world to build something being transported from a ship on a lorry to get the site cement mixers concrete mixers you know slate brought from China rather than being from wal and the list can go on and on and on and on all this stuff has to arrive into a place and we build it and if it just lasts 50 years that's terrible and it it genuinely worries me that a lot of the new build stuff that's created today not going to last anywhere near 100 years like nowhere near and in some ways the the buildings even built in a way that's going to make it very difficult for it to be adapted as well because a lot of them are quite flimsy you know it's just layer after layer of flimsy stuff where some of the more robust stronger buildings that have been built can kind of withstand the test of time that can withstand being knocked around a little bit and repurposed into something I mean that's that's so important in a a tourism context about building to last but also discovering or rediscovering what it is that you already have so maybe it's not necessarily as you say about going online and finding the big ticket attractions it's actually about those smaller more maybe unique projects that actually makes a place special yeah I mean it's it's comes back to what I said about it I think when you when you get under the skin of it you stting you start revealing secrets of a place that people might not have otherwise discovered and sometimes they're really small things you know slightly hidden away things that's why I'm a kind of big fan of like small independent businesses or like small boutique hotels and things that are slightly off the beat and track a little bit more because you know that they provide something I very unique and and I'm not knocking big business and and big business chains either because they serve a purpose you know I'm not knocking big buildings that are built that are new either because they serve a purpose you know if you're going to build a I don't know an enormous Arena to do gigs it's probably just going to serve that one purpose through its lifetime that's absolutely fine but the small scale kind of independent quirky stuff I don't I think you just have to look on Instagram to see how people love experiencing and finding those things you have been traveling here for a long time what are the biggest changes you've seen or what do you think it is that that makes this come on Belfast has massively changed I think the first time I came was 24 25 years ago they it's it's just unbelievably different on on so many different levels I mean you talk about the increase in tourism and the political situation and it's mindboggling I mean it's it is genuinely one of the big success stories and I'm not just saying that because I'm in Belfast with a room full of people from Belfast but it it it is amazing also we can sort of claim part of you because I know you recently did a DNA test and we've got a a little bit of you I'm only about 3% Irish I can't I can't really kind of Bang the Drum at the highest Lev if I was like 80% I might get away with it but yeah about three or 4% Irish but who isn't you know who isn't it's but I you know and again I'm not just saying I love coming to Ireland I love coming to Northern Ireland it's it's it's it's a the people are fantastic really positive I mean you can't shut them up it's amazing yeah and God when it comes to St storytelling they're brilliant as well and the love of yarn and you know the cracks always really good it's I just find it a really really vibrant place to be it's in some ways I do it does remind me of the northeast of England and it's not just about Sunland my mate will kill me if you say there but I live Newcastle I went to University there it's a great City the architecture's amazing but when you when you meet the people back in the Northeast they've just got this there's a warm to them there's a friendliness to them and there's a real passion for where they live and I think I great you as a tourist what really gets they go what what's what what creates you what a noise you as a tourist what I didn't know you can ask me that um do you know what and maybe it's it comes back to something that Adrien touched on a bit actually that um I hate bad customer service right and and what's really I'm going to apologize for this but really pisses me off is that in particular in hospitality and lot of hospitality and this isn't everywhere but what I've experienced a lot particularly in the postco world it's been very very hard for Hospitality which got battered obviously got absolutely battered a lot of people left and a lot of people with experience and knowledge left and I get the difficulties of trying to recruit and get people back but I've definitely you know I've I've been staying in hotels and traveled relentlessly for the last 20 OD years and I do genuinely live out of a suitcase which is not ideal but it's amazing that I find I don't know it's as if I'm a pain in the backside people working in Hospitality rather than a customer and I'm not really an annoying customer you know I'm not just like whatever you know I'm kind of quite chilled about it I was in New York the other week with my daughter and I went to this place for a um just to get a coffee and a juice on the morning and I I picked this orange juice off the shelf and while my daughter was waiting for her drink I would paid and I thought right I I'll just drink the juice while I'm in the the shop even though we were getting takeaway and when I opened it it exploded everywhere it was all over me right I was covered in it and um and I looked I thought God I'm an idiot I've picked sparkling I must have picked sparkling juice and I've shook it thinking it was a natural juice and it's exploded everywhere turns out it wasn't it was a natural juice but it had gone off and when the juice goes off it fizzes inside so I went up to the counter and I said to the guy said I'm sorry but the juice has gone off and this is such it sounds like such a pathetic story but it's kind of symptomatic of of what goes on and rather than just saying to me oh my God I'm really sorry and you know can be click because I was covered absolutely covered in Orange as you could see it everywhere um he kind of looked at me and he said what you mean it off and I went well taste it and then he looked back at me went I'm not going to drink that if it's off I'm not tasting it and I'm like why am I having this conversation with you like we shouldn't even be going there just just say to me I'm really sorry and we'll replace your drink and come your cloths and you know the attitude was so bad if I'm honest I kind of scarred my trip now that's probably me sound like right Victor meldrew because we obviously had loads of positive experiences on the trip as well but it's that classy thing isn't it that most customers always remember the bad stuff and don't necessarily always remember the good stuff because the bad stuff really jars with you and I was a bit upset about it I was like thinking why have I just got attitude for that I've come into a shop to buy something and then he's given me for it like I'm you know and I'm not saying the customer is always right I've never really believed that phrase to be honest because you can get some right miserable customers around who just complain about anything no matter what I did see one on the flight this morning actually I hope he's not here what a miserable Sor he was everything was a problem and so I I get that you get that as well but I think the Knack of of train and I suppose this is what I'm coming longwinded answer but um I do feel I feel sorry for for the hospitality industry bit and being able to recruit and then retain them because I think there's a lot of young people just think it's a temporary job um I said to my son recently um he's at University I said you need to get a job and earn some money and it's you know it's about him grafting and the first thing he said was don't send me into the hell Hall of hospitality Dad yeah that was his phrase straight away to me and he's he's 21 today and he just didn't want to do it and I think he's heard about experiences of where you know young people have maybe not been Tre so well in Hospitality but on the flip side I've spoke to hoteliers who have said you know we get kids turning up who just don't want to learn so I think there's a big issue that that's happened in a PO and a big what we were hearing earlier really to lean into the skills and the training and especially I I just and again I'm not part of the industry so I'm just talking about this as a kind of customer really but you know that when the certain parts of the world that I go to when I see people working in Hospitality you can see it's an absolute professional and they stay in it for many years and they love it and they you know they want to do a great job and they want to be part of it and I think if we can have as much of that as possible it would be great it's great for everybody isn't it it's good for your business it's great for the young people that are working there they feel like they're really proud of their job and what they're doing and then it's great for the people who have got to experience Hospitality as well you're going to stay with us George um for our panel discussion but thank you very very much today there do not go you are your aiers thank you so much
2024-05-13 07:54
