Past Projects

Lincoln BIG welcomed a stampede of Elmer, the much-loved patchwork elephant, and eleven friends, created by David McKee, from Saturday 13 July to Sunday 15 September across the city.

To see a recap of the Summer of Fun click here

Collaboration 4 Growth offered business support for micro, small, or medium-size businesses in Lincoln, North Kesteven, and West Lindsey

Collaboration 4 Growth was a project funded by the European Regional Development Fund and runs until 30th June 2023.

Working in partnership with the Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce, we provided up to 12 hours of business support to new and existing SME businesses who trade on a B2B (business to business) and  B2C (business to consumer) basis to enable the growth and diversification of the enterprise.

Business Advice and Workshops

Through C4G, businesses accessed 12 hours of free business support usually in the form of workshops delivered by Lincoln BIG or Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce. Topics included Social Media, Well-Being, PR, Marketing, Leadership and Management. 

Grant Scheme

The grant scheme offered revenue and capital grants between £2,000 and £15,000. It supported anything from upgrading equipment to expanding businesses SEO to promoting a newly designed website. The grants provided 60% of the total project cost. Successful applicants were required to pay for the full cost of the project upfront and reclaim from Lincoln BIG.

Let's Talk Business Growth Conference 

Collaboration 4 Growth also organised a successful ‘Let’s Talk Business Growth’ Conference in partnership with Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce. The conference focussed on Sustainability, Leadership and Investment with guest speaker Ollie Ollerton!

Many SME’s in Lincoln, North Kesteven, and West Lindsey attended the event and had the opportunity to gather useful intel from a panel of experts. The conference helped provide invaluable information and support to local businesses, allowing them to network and grow.

Piecing Us Together was a project commissioned through Lincoln Creates | Lincoln BIG, and proposed and designed by local Lincoln artist, Mel Langton.

The trail involved displaying pieces of the Piecing Us Together jigsaw puzzle in the windows of businesses across Lincoln City Centre.

In total there were 40 puzzle pieces and within these pieces is the unique ‘main character’. Businesses had the opportunity to share with Mel on how they wanted their ‘character’ to appear - to best reflect and interpret their business.

The Piecing Us Together project has had great success with both the businesses and public. Through art, this jigsaw puzzle has showcased and celebrated the quality and diversity of businesses based in Lincoln City Centre!

Buy your own Piecing Us Together jigsaw and A3 giclée art print from Mel Langton, please click here to find out more.

Our third sculpture trail which ran during the summer and spring of 2021 across Lincoln city centre. This was a mass participation public art event to celebrate Lincoln, its art, culture and heritage.

Lincoln is Britain’s best small city, and to encourage more people to visit and experience its vibrant and contemporary edge, Lincoln BIG hosted a third sculpture trail, following the success of the Barons’ Charter Trail in 2015 and the Knights’ Trail in 2017. The trail was postponed from 2020 until Summer 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic. We saw visitors from across the UK and the world visit in this Covid-secure outdoor event.

Lincoln is famous for many things, however we wanted visitors in the city to know about our IMP. The people of Lincoln resonate with the IMP, children have fun with the cheeky Chappy, Lincoln City FC has it as their emblem and the IMP resides in Lincoln Cathedral. There are many myths and legends also associated with the IMPs coming to Lincoln and with this in mind, we decided to bring the story of the Lincoln IMP to Lincoln’s High Street. The sculpture was based on the WH Goss pottery imp model that was produced by the Falcon Stoke-on-Trent pottery in the late 1800s/early 1900s. 

The key event was a fun art trail of 31 colourful IMP sculptures that were strategically placed across Lincoln’s historical city centre during the summer of 2021 for visitors to follow. To complement the main trail, the EBP recruited 60 Lincolnshire Schools to take part in the Education Programme. This programme included a number of curriculum activities and a half-size imp to design and paint. These half-size imps went on display in venues across the city for the summer and are now on display within the schools as a legacy to the trail.

During September, our IMPish friends joined together at Lincoln Castle to say farewell before moving to Lincoln Cathedral on 1st October to be auctioned in aid of St Barnabas. We are delighted that the evening raised £125,000 with all the Imps finding new homes.

We would like to thank our Partners and Sponsors for getting involved and supporting our Charity Partner, St Barnabas:

• Bailgate Guild
• Bottomley Distillers
• Branston Ltd
• Chestnut Homes
• City of Lincoln Council
• Continental Landscapes
• Daniel Charles Construction
• Denby Transport
• Duckworth Motor Group
• GAME Engineering Ltd
• Girlguiding in Lincolnshire
• New Theatre Royal
• Nicholsons Chartered Accountants
• Investors in Lincoln
• Jacksons Workwear Rental Ltd
• Just Audi VW
• Lincoln Business Club
• Lincoln Cathedral
• Lincoln City Football Club
• Lincoln College
• Lincoln Digs
• Lincs Archiving Solutions Ltd
• Lincolnshire Economic Action Partnership
• Lincolnshire Freemasons
• Lincolnshire Live
• Lincolnshire Society of Architects
• Rotary Clubs of Lincoln
• Ruddocks
• Running Imp
• St Barnabas
• St Marks Shopping Centre
• Saul Fairholm Chartered Accountants
• Stagecoach East Midlands
• The Cornhill Quarter
• The EBP
• The Lincolnite
• The Lincoln Hotel
• Waterside Shopping Centre
• Wild in Art
• University of Lincoln

This was a city-wide campaign to promote Lincoln as the place to be.

Lincoln BIG are proud of the city and the businesses within it and want to do all we can to promote it as a great place to live, work and conduct business. To celebrate our city and to share all that we know is good about it we worked in partnership with the City of Lincoln Council and Visit Lincoln to develop a campaign that we could all use. 'We' in this context means any business around the city prepared to sign up to support the campaign. 

What did businesses get out of it?

• Chance to be part of a city-wide campaign with national reach and impact at no cost to yourselves
• Free use of IN Lincoln branding for your business
• Access to free support to be COVID secure
• Access to free workshops - keep your eyes open for emails and social media posts announcing these. E.g Instagram boot camp; PR masterclasses; Making social media work for you; Email marketing - how to develop and manage campaigns; Creating and editing videos for your business etc. Any other suggestions welcomed
• Free marketing collateral - although there will be limited supplies 
• Loyalfree App and Loyalfree marketplace access

We committed to:

• Supporting your business through social media promoting the IN Lincoln campaign at every opportunity both locally and further afield providing marketing collateral as available. Organising workshops in response to demand.
• Providing business advice and support or signposting to organisations who can do so.
• Facilitating peer to peer support for those who wish to benefit.