North East arts venue leads the way with bespoke event planning and management.
Gosforth Civic Theatre (GCT) hosts a wide variety of personal and corporate events alongside its regular theatre programme.
Founder and CEO Rob Huggins shares how GCT is bringing people-first events to the region.
In a landscape often dominated by cookiecutter corporate settings, one North East arts venue is setting a new standard by putting empathy at the forefront of events for businesses and communities alike.
As well as being an acclaimed theatre and established charitable organisation, Gosforth Civic Theatre is a multifunctional venue that is equipped to host a wide range of events.
“GCT has a bit of everything. We have a really strong social message and charitable mission – but at the same time, we’re a really professional place,” says Gosforth Civic Theatre founder and CEO Rob Huggins. “We’ve got professional-level facilities, spaces that can cater to a vast range of requirements.”
With many organisations embracing remote and hybrid working following the pandemic, in-person meetings and events are a crucial opportunity to foster connection and spark collaboration between teams, networks and communities.
The venue was founded by disability arts charity Liberdade Community Development Trust. Founded in 2003, Liberdade began as an apprenticeship scheme to support and enable a group of young people with learning disabilities to set up and run their own theatre company.
In 2012, the company members wanted to open a theatre where everyone was welcome, they wanted to have jobs in their theatre and to provide the opportunities they’d had for other young people, so Gosforth Civic Theatre became a reality.
Due to their natural adaptability and the creativity that is a fundamental part of their DNA, cultural and charitable venues like Gosforth Civic Theatre are able to offer a level of agility and customer experience which can sometimes be lacking in traditional corporate spaces.
“We approach all relationships, whether that be with a couple that wants to get married, or an organisation that wants to have a conference here, or even if someone just wants to have a meeting in our studio, from a bespoke point of view,” Rob explains.
“It’s about hearing about someone’s needs or someone’s wishes, and endeavouring to make the time and the relationship that they have with us as great as possible.
“We don’t want everybody’s experience to be the same, we want everybody’s experience to be right for them – that’s why we spend an awful lot of time working with our clients to get events right.”
To learn more about how Gosforth Civic Theatre can support your event, go to www.gosforthcivictheatre.co.uk/ venue-hire.