Inga Hlin Palsdottir, Director of Visit Iceland at Promote Iceland outlined how your place brand can address this holy trinity and ensure your strategy is sustainable.

When countries are trying to create a Country Brand strategy, they frequently do it without a strategic approach in mind and often lack a proven methodology or model for doing so. In practice, these countries learn the process as they progress and consequentially make unforeseen mistakes. As they lack comprehension of this task’s complex nature, they don't manage the process effectively.

A central facet of our ongoing age of uncertainty is the increasing overlap of political and commercial behaviours. Identities and spaces that were a generation ago seen as separate have increasingly overlapped, leading to new challenges in shepherding organizational reputations. Nowhere is this trend more apparent than when chaotic political environments impact how people view the health of nations. The United Kingdom's ongoing struggle with the implications of Brexit and the responses from the rest of the world provide a fascinating case study.

With just two weeks to go until City Nation Place Global 2019 kicks off in London, we gathered some of the best quotes from our speakers to give you a little preview of the wonderful work that destinations around the world have been undertaking...

The effect of a country’s national image on its home-grown brands and the economy as a whole is now widely acknowledged. But how exactly do place brands boost corporate brands?

From a new brand, to an innovative and sustainable funding model, Travel Manitoba has undergone massive change. Colin Ferguson, CEO at Travel Manitoba, outlined how they put Manitoba on the map and the thought processes behind some of their decisions.

Digital presence, search results and online reputation. In today’s fast-paced world there’s no way around the growing importance of this correlated pyramid. Countries, regions and cities already know that their Place Brand needs to be strategically managed in terms of having a strong digital presence to achieve great search results, based on a positive online reputation.

Eindhoven have taken the world stage by storm, winning the 2018 City Nation Place Award for Place Brand of the Year. Peter Kentie, Managing Director at Eindhoven 365, took the time to share the thinking behind their repositioning, and to explore their innovative approaches to funding and stakeholder engagement.

Among the many tantalizing tropes trotted out by diplomats and China watchers is one popularized in the late fifties by John F. Kennedy: that the Chinese word for “crisis” 危机 weiji is a combination of two characters for “danger” and “opportunity.''

Weiji sure does seem timely. Global turmoil inspires caution and deliberation, but also resolve and visionary action.

With new challenges around funding and data, place brands are having to become more innovative in their approaches. Malcolm Allan, President at Bloom Consulting, shares some of his thoughts on the opportunities arising for place brands.

Doing good by the world whilst simultaneously improving brand image is a win-win for everyone involved. A sustainability agenda is no longer an optional extra for companies that want to maintain or improve the support they receive from customers, employees, investors and beyond; it is an essential part of doing good business in an open and transparent manner.

So what can cities, regions and nations do to improve their approach to sustainability and encourage more efficient output from the companies that reside there?

Following the terrorist attacks of 2015, the Paris Convention & Visitors Bureau had to add to its usual B2B marketing focus with communications to reassure the consumer audience. Alice Rampelberg, Marketing B2C and E-Commerce Director at the Paris Convention & Visitors Bureau, explained how Paris have reinforced their global tourism brand as well as how collaboration with London is opening the door to more American tourists.

For the first time, the City Nation Place Global conference will be in Shoreditch, London’s ‘Silicon Roundabout’ and the third largest hub for tech start-ups in the world. With talent attraction a major focus for much of the world, we began to wonder what makes a destination the perfect incubator for successful tech start-ups. What are the magic ingredients you need in place?

New research has revealed that people are increasingly less willing to follow the money to big economic and urban centers and are instead choosing to live, work and invest in places that give them better quality of life – and in turn the money is following them.

There are just a few short days left until the City Nation Place Awards shortlist is announced for 2020! We took the opportunity to ask one of our jurors, Adam Joyce, VP of Acceleration, Calgary TELUS Convention Centre, to share a few of his thoughts around the key challenges facing place branders as we head in to the new decade.