During the week I was at a junket in the Stormont Hotel (yep, the dreary misery of my life continues), along with some of the gang from The Dock, to find out more about the plans for the big Titanic anniversary next year.  Oh my word – the plans are HUGE – MTV concerts on the slipways, lightshows at the new Visitor Centre, a proms concert, commemorations, new plays, re-enactments, festivals… click here to find out more (and especially check out the links to Titanic Belfast Festival and Land Of Giants).

It was great being in a roomful of people who just exuded excitement, hope and confidence for the big year that lies ahead.  The message kept coming through again and again – this is our year.  A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – a cliché maybe, but now, at this point in our history, it could be genuinely true.  To grasp that opportunity, we need to stop grumbling, worrying, or waiting for someone else to do something, and just go for it.

It’s time to start a movement – a word-of-mouth revolution, changing the way we talk about Belfast.  It sometimes boggles my mind that I still encounter so many people who are default-negative, “it’ll never happen” naysayers about the potential for the TQ and the city.  We need a tribe of people who think that Belfast CAN change, that it can be huge and vibrant and shine brightly at the centre of the Titanic anniversary next year.

Negative people sometimes sound very smart because, hey, it’s a dark world out there and so they often turn out to be right.  But sometimes a default-negative attitude is cynicism disguised as wisdom.  And it frequently becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So we need to change the conversation.  On the Dock Walk today, standing under Samson and Goliath in beautiful Autumn sunshine, looking back towards Titanic Belfast shimmering in the sunlight, we spoke and prayed hope, life, success, momentum, energy, good over our city with all its potential.  We’re not the only ones – all sorts of people are working, dreaming and preparing for an amazing year for Belfast in 2012.  I think it’s a God-thing, and a good thing.

Are you in?

Check out this vid for a sense of the excitement and vision from the team at NITB: