At City Nation Place, we were able to talk to both Tony Attard, Chairman at Panaz Limited and Rachel McQueen, Chief Executive, Marketing Lancashire to share their views on brand vision, tourism and engagement within the UK.

With just three weeks to go until Brexit D-Day and few signs of a deal being agreed upon by the parliament, it’s clear that, whatever the outcome, the Brexit story will have an impact on international perceptions of Britain. Ahead of our inaugural City Nation Place UK forum, we surveyed a select snapshot of place branders and marketers from across the UK to find out how coverage of Brexit and the actual exit of the UK from the European Union is likely to impact on place branding strategy, and on the flow of tourism and investment to the UK.

We were lucky enough to be able to catch up with Kian Kamas, Chief of Economic Development at the Mayor's Office in the City of Tulsa to discuss her views on the latest trends impacting on the landscape of economic development in Canada and the USA.

We asked Victor Hoskins, Director at Arlington Economic Development, to share his thoughts on some of the key trends affecting place branding in the USA and Canada, such as pro-active advocacy, positive citizen engagement and the challenge of reacting to negative publicity and policy.

Ahead of the inaugural City Nation Place UK conference, we asked Conrad Bird, Director of the GREAT Britain campaign, why he believed it was important for the key decision makers in UK place branding to share their insights and learn from each other's experiences, as well as what he considers to be the international perception of Brand Britain.

We were fortunate enough to be able to catch up with Doug McLean, Director at Edmonton Events, to discover how culture can be leveraged to drive your place brand strategy.

We’ve often talked about engaging citizens, politicians, and the private sector in the process of place branding – working together to understand your place’s assets, creating a plan to grow and leverage your assets, and implementing that strategy with the consensus and contribution of all stakeholders.  However, in our research for future agendas, a new word is appearing in the conversations we are having with place branding practitioners around the world: “advocacy”.

David Aboulkheir is an expert in place branding and is currently in charge of attractiveness at Lille Metropolis development and urban planning agency (ADULM). This article draws on the learnings of a workshop organised for the 39th national meeting of French urban planning agencies, which focused on design and innovation. It took place in Lille and Dunkerque, November 2018.

To make sure we’re on the right track at City Nation Place, we’ve been talking to place branding leaders around the world – those responsible for place making strategy, for tourism promotion, for economic development, for nation branding, for regional development and for city marketing strategy. There are come clear themes emerging around the common challenges, and perceived opportunities and so, as a preview of the topics we will be building into the Forum agendas, here’s our list of the eight key place branding trends for 2019…

City Nation Place UK will provide a new Forum to bring national, city and regional teams together to focus on how strategic place branding and marketing can drive economic development. 

Join us in Birmingham on 14th May 2019

Learn about Visit Philadelphia's Best Use of Social Media strategy.

Learn more about Alphabet Creative's Best Communication strategy.

Learn more about Visit Faroe Island's Best Communication Strategy. 

Learn more about Cape Town Tourism's Best Communication strategy.

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