Clare Dewhirst Director City Nation Place +447455 232830

Clare is the founder and director of City Nation Place, the global forum for place branding and place marketing.  City Nation Place creates connections and shares best practice between country brands, regional brands, and city brands around the world through articles, interviews, surveys, white papers, a membership group, and conferences.  

Clare’s interest in the complex area of place branding was sparked whilst working on a series of Nation Branding Masterclass events, led by Simon Anholt, one of the first thought-leaders to speak about and promote the concept of place branding.  Having listened to Simon address audiences in Accra, Delhi, Dubai, London and Singapore on how policy, governance, and symbolic actions need to combine with branding and marketing to create a competitive identity and drive economic growth, she continued to follow the growth in this sector.  Clare launched the first City Nation Place Global conference in London in 2015: CityNationPlace.com has been steadily building followers and in 2017, she launched the first City Nation Place Americas conference, in 2018 City Nation Place Asia Pacific took place in Singapore, and 2019 saw the first City Nation Place UK, specifically for towns, cities and regions across the UK, and the launch of the first City Nation Place LatAm & Caribbean event.  Clare manages the small team at City Nation Place alongside providing event consultancy and management for a number of clients in the publishing and trade association sector, including running the World Media Awards for the World Media Group  and event consultancy for the UK Association for Online Publishers.

Maria Manion CEO Cambridge BID

Maria recently took up the position of Chief Executive at Cambridge BID after nine years in Watford, seven of those as Chief Executive of Watford BID. Before returning to the south Maria worked for Newcastle City as a Senior Regeneration Manager and in Northumberland as a Head of Service responsible for Tourism, Economic Development, Town Centre regeneration, Arts & Culture and Sports Development. She led on and managed a number of capital and revenue projects, including managing a regeneration programme across the rural coalfield, development of a long distance walk route, a new build Tourist Information Centre, car park and toilet block and the restoration on ancient listed monument.

In between Northumberland and Newcastle Maria worked in Italy renovating a villa and as a business development consultant, where she identified a site and managed the development of a Youth Hostel in Alnwick, securing £500,000 grant funding for it’s development. The YH was opened by HRH Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.

In her spare time Maria enjoys swimming, cooking (and eating), trips to the theatre, travelling and painting (very badly).

Adam Bryan Director of Place Medway Council

Adam joined Medway Council on 14 August 2023, becoming the Director of Place, having been the Chief Executive at the South East Local Enterprise Partnership, overseeing significant regeneration projects across the region.

Adam has previous experience working in regional development and in Local Government, having held a number of roles at Essex County Council, including the Head of Place Partnership Integration.

Adam studied a degree in German at University of Nottingham, has a Masters in Management from the Nottingham Business School and is a committed Nottingham Forest fan. Adam also enjoys cricket and exploring the UK on family holidays with their dog.

As Director of Place, Adam Bryan has responsibility for Frontline Services, Culture and Community and Regeneration.

• The Frontline Services division provides essential services for our customers and residents, such as Waste, Safer Communities, Highways and Transport
• The Culture and Community division is responsible for a variety of service areas including Medway’s cultural offer, libraries and community hubs, planning, housing, sport, leisure, tourism, heritage and building control
• Regeneration this division is responsible for leading our ambitious programme of physical regeneration across Medway as well as our developing our 5 main town centres into vibrant hubs for our communities. Our Skills agenda also falls within this division, including our Adult Education offer and our established skills hub based in Gillingham Town Centre.

The Directorate’s aim is to establish Medway as a great place to live, to work, to learn and to visit, drawing on our rich heritage to deliver a great future for Medway.

Adam is a Board Member for Locate in Kent, Visit Kent, Kent Chamber of Commerce and Medway Place Board.

Louisa Shaw Head of Place Marketing We Are Staffordshire

Louisa Shaw is the Place Brand Manager at We Are Staffordshire, a new approach to promoting and marketing the county, funded by Staffordshire County Council.

Louisa is working with Staffordshire’s Place Board of business leaders and partners to develop and promote a vibrant new place brand and narrative for Staffordshire, maximising opportunities to promote inward investment, support visitor economy, and generate economic growth across the county.

With over a decade's experience in destination marketing, Louisa has led complex marketing and community engagement programmes for major infrastructure and regeneration developments in the Midlands and wider UK.

John Till Founding Director thinkingplace

As founding Director of thinkingplace, John has directed the development of over 80 place brands over the last 16 years across the UK. He is active in promoting and implementing this best practice approach of creating a shared place story, widening place leadership and creating active collaboration as a key part of growing a place’s economy and promoting local pride. He has led projects for places as diverse as Hampshire, Nottingham, Torbay, Harrogate, North Cambridgeshire, Newhaven, Medway, Lancashire, Staffordshire, Harrogate, Perth and all three UK Cities of Culture.

John has also been working with places to help them develop their response to the Towns Deal, Future High Streets Fund, Levelling Up Funding and Shared Prosperity Fund and is a Mentor to the High Streets Task Force helping to support local authorities and communities to transform their places.

Dr Martin Reeves Chief Executive Oxfordshire County Council

Martin has been Chief Executive of Oxfordshire County Council since March 2023. He was previously Chief Executive of Coventry City Council for over 14 years and was also the Chief Executive of the West Midlands Combined Authority from March 2016 to September 2017. He had previously been with Bedfordshire County Council for three and a half years as Assistant Chief Executive and Chief Executive.  

Martin has held strategic leadership roles in a District and an outer London Borough and was Programme Director for Work Smart, Westminster City Council’s flagship transformation programme.

Martin spent much of his early career as a lecturer and researcher and has a PhD in applied economics.

He has an Honorary Doctorate from Coventry University in recognition of his service and commitment to the City of Coventry and is the first Honorary President of LARIA (Local Area Research and Intelligence Association).

He is a former President of SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives & Senior Managers) and is the current Local Government Association (LGA) National Procurement Champion.

Alex Harvie Head of Marketing Communications & Destination Marketing Glasgow Life

Alex Harvie is Head of Marketing, Communications and Destination Marketing at Glasgow Life.

As one of Scotland’s largest charities, Glasgow Life is dedicated to improving people’s lives through culture and sport, operating the city’s cultural venues, sports centres and events; as well as supporting the city’s economy by running destination, tourism, and conferences.

Alex is passionate about Glasgow’s marketing, brand and place, and recognises its important role at the heart of Scotland’s economy.

Formerly Head of Communications at Wembley, Alex has thirty years’ experience delivering complex communications projects, from creating the first definitive cultural study of Iran to setting the UK Government’s language of mourning after 9/11.

Carolyn Brownell CEO For Cardiff

Carolyn has worked in the BID industry for 14 years beginning her career in the Midlands, moving into UK wide consultancy, then management of a town BID and now heading up FOR Cardiff the UKs 5th largest BID after working there for the last 7 years. She is also the Vice Chair of ATCM Wales, recently taking part in meetings with Welsh Government about business rate reform and a member of the Leadership Board for The BID Foundation. In her spare time is passionate about empowering women and does this via volunteering as a trustee for Wales’s leading gender equality charity Chwarae Teg, creating and leading the Cardiff Women’s Safety Network and mentoring young women looking to move into the world of business.

Daniel Bates Executive Director Bradford City of Culture

Dan was appointed the Executive Director of Bradford City of Culture 2025 in December 2022. It marked a return to West Yorkshire, following 13 years as the Chief Executive of Sheffield Theatres, the UK’s largest regional theatre complex, with 2,500 seats across three theatres, producing extraordinary theatre in Sheffield and across the UK.  

After his formal training at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, he worked across a number of organisations including Theatre Royal in Windsor, Leeds Playhouse and York Theatre Royal before joining Sheffield Theatres in 2009. 

At Sheffield he led the organisation to many accolades, such as the UK’s Regional Theatre of the Year for 4 years, with work transferred to London, New York and touring the UK.  Work that he produced in Sheffield includes the World Premiere of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Life of Pi (now touring the UK ) and, most recently, Standing at the Sky’s Edge, which will open next year in London after a sell out run at the National Theatre. In 2022, he was ranked #16 in the Stage 100 list of most influential people in theatre. 

He is well connected across the industry and was until recently a Board member of English Touring Theatre, a Director of the Sheffield BID Company, Sheffield’s Culture Consortium and Sheffield’s Culture Collective. He has recently been appointed to the Board of the Bradford BID. 

Dan is the Executive Director of Bradford 2025, and works alongside Shanaz Gulzar, Creative Director, as they build the delivery team, create the programme and ensure that Bradford 2025 is the most incredible year for everyone in Bradford and across the world. 

Kate Taylor Tett Director GREAT Britain & Northern Ireland Campaign

Kate is Director of the GREAT Programme, the UK government's flagship marketing campaign, designed to encourage an international audience to visit, study, trade, invest, live and work in the UK. In FY22/23, the GREAT programme returned on average £15 to the UK economy for every £1 spent.

Kate joined government in 2020 and within 6 months led the successful refresh of the GREAT brand, which has since been rolled out to over 150 markets, promoting everything from UK science and technology to the arts and values.

Prior to joining Government Kate held a variety of marketing and leadership roles in the private sector, developing award-winning marketing for Heinz, Mars, Sainsbury’s, House of Fraser and The Metropolitan Police Service among others.