At City Nation Place, we talk about creating and implementing nation branding strategies that engage all stakeholders. The Brand Summit South Africa is a working example of an initiative to bring together all the key voices of a nation to focus on how to develop and promote the brand to the world. Ahead of the second Summit, taking place on 6 & 7 June in Johannesburg, we caught up with Solly Moeng, the convenor of the Summit, to find out more.

We were fortunate enough to be able to discuss some of the key challenges facing Los Angeles with Ernest Wooden Jr, President & CEO at Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Bureau, and our closing keynote. LA is now planning for the Olympics in 2028, and Ernest will be joining us to explore how they are developing a strategic plan to engage citizens, develop infrastructure to support sustainable development in tourism and its economy and secure collaboration between the key stakeholders to build a unified vision for the future of LA.

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.

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 caught up with Colin Ferguson, President & CEO at Travel Manitoba to discuss some of the key areas affecting place branding.

Following several fantastic place branding campaigns, we caught up with our judge Guðrið Højgaard,  Director of Tourism - CEO at Visit Faroe Islands