In the High Flyers spotlight this week is Damien Corr, manager of Destination Cathedral Quarter Business Improvement District (BID), which is currently working in partnership with Belfast One and Linen Quarter BID to promote a Belfast city centre gift card scheme, which features 200 participating businesses from across the BIDs locations.
What was your first job?
I spent most summers working in various family businesses including construction, manufacturing and hospitality. Memories of long hours and thin pay packets!
What qualifications do you have?
Honours degree in social anthropology and a collection of post graduate diplomas in management.
What do you attribute your success to?
My extended family is full of hard-working entrepreneurs and luckily I have inherited their ‘hard work/can do’ ethic. Their influence means I have never been afraid of risk or change!
How would you describe yourself to someone who’d never met you?
A good friend and not nearly as grumpy as I look!
Who do you look up to in business?
Most of my career has been in the social economy sector where I learned much from volunteers like Dr Vera Furness and Colum P Mullan who worked with passion to make a difference in the community. In recent years I have recognised a similar passion and drive from the entrepreneurial business people who have put so much into making the Cathedral Quarter Belfast one of the most iconic destinations in Ireland.
How do you get the best out of people who work for you?
Trust and empower people to do their job - and lead by example. And if you're going to be in the same space with people for eight hours each day, try to make it enjoyable.
If you could change one thing about doing business in Northern Ireland, what would it be?
Northern Ireland is a relatively small place and Belfast a small city, I would like to see a more tangible sense of ‘community’. Competition is healthy but if we support each other towards excellence then surely we all rise with the tide. Belfast’s three Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) work to promote our distinct areas but increasingly we work together. We are currently working in partnership on the Belfast city centre gift card, to drive footfall into each of the three areas as well as support the 200 participating and varied businesses. (retail, health and beauty, bars, restaurants, and hotels). We have a corporate Christmas gift incentive available. For a limited time only, every £1000 purchased will receive a free £100 gift card.
What website or app could you not do without?
We couldn’t market Cathedral Quarter without Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. My colleague Mark tells me that I need to do a TikTok video…watch this space!
What was the last book you read?
I have just re-read Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain by Fintan O’Toole, a very interesting treatment of Brexit and English nationalism.
What car do you drive?
I have a Citroen but most of my transport needs are served by the Bellarena to Yorkgate train.
Tell us something interesting about yourself?
To celebrate my 60th birthday this year, I rode my motorbike from Magilligan to Murcia in Spain via Scotland, England, France and the stunning Pyrenees - two weeks, 4000 miles, pure joy.
What’s your greatest passion outside work and family?
Motorcycle road racing, as a spectator. I don’t have the skills or guts to do what Michael Dunlop et al do every season.
