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City Nation Place Australasia X Mainstreet Australia

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On August 6–7th, 2026, two great conferences are joining forces in The Gold Coast to create one amazing event experience guaranteed to inspire and provide you with actionable ideas to support your own place economy.


City Nation Place Australasia joins the dots between place branding, place marketing, civic pride, economic development, and tourism. 

Mainstreet Australia works to make main streets, high streets, town centres, and all the places in between everything they can be – for the betterment of everyone, both now and into the future.
 
For place leaders working across the Australasia region working to build and manage the attractiveness and reputation of your town, city, or region, it makes sense for us to come together for two days of collaborative forward thinking.
 
Who should attend?
Strategic place leadership teams, and heads of tourism, economic development, investment attraction, engagement, activation, and community.
 
Why join us?
You’ll hear speakers from across Australasia share their experience and learnings, join peer-to-peer discussions, learn from place shaping tours, and have the option to join workshop sessions. You’ll leave the conference buzzing with ideas and connections that will boost the effectiveness of your own strategy.
 
What’s the agenda?
We’re currently building an agenda with inspirational case studies and the latest strategic thinking across a range of essential topics, including…

  • Place identity – how to define your “why here”
  • Ensuring the interplay between place shaping, tourism, and economic development delivers for your community
  • Building your place brand through great experiences
  • Building place resilience and reputation through citizen and business engagement
  • Valuing the layered impact of a place brand
  • Demonstrating impact and securing support for your long-term vision



Join us in The Gold Coast

City Nation Place acknowledges and pays our respects to the Traditional Owners, the Aboriginal people of these lands and waters and we acknowledge all their descendants. 

We’re delighted to be in The Gold Coast for our second Australasia Conference – a vibrant coastal city in southeastern Queensland, stretching along golden beaches near the New South Wales border, framed by lush hinterland rainforests, renowned for its thriving tourism and entertainment scene, one of Australia’s most culturally diverse urban centres, and a dynamic economy.

The conference programme will provide the opportunity to learn more about the city, with place making tours and networking events providing new perspectives.

With thanks to our host partner

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with City Nation Place to deliver the 2026 City Nation Place Australasia X Main Street Australia Conference. This collaboration brings together global expertise and grassroots impact – local precinct leaders, economic developers, place makers and branding professionals to explore the future of our cities, towns, and main streets. We can’t wait to deliver something special for our main street community – stay tuned for the location reveal."

Elizabeth Joldeski, Executive Officer, Mainstreet Australia

"CNP Australasia x Mainstreet Australia is a huge opportunity to bring place leaders together, to share ideas, and meet others who are going through the wonderful pain of building their place brands. The Gold Coast is one of Australasia’s most fun and dynamic cities, with a unique culture, and we’re so excited to show people from around Australasia and around the world what makes the Gold Coast so special to us — both as a city and as a place-branding and place-making case study."

Todd Babiak, Chief Executive Officer, Brand Gold Coast

2025 Testimonials

City Nation Place

"This has been the best conference I’ve ever been to! Loved the walking tour and getting to physically see this destination.  Learnt so much that I can take back home."


"Fantastic, engaging and practical presenters and concepts."

"Collaborative community; opportunity to learn, share, network; challenged thinking, motivated next wave of activity."

"City Nation Place Australasia was a stimulating and inspiring event, featuring a brilliant breadth of speakers covering every facet of great place branding and placemaking from around the world. It was fantastic to connect with like-minded people who share a passion for capturing and advancing the essence of place. The site tour was a standout—providing in-depth, inside information that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. I highly recommend attending any event organised by City Nation Place!”

"Very informative and inspiring presentations and Q&A"

Mainstreet Australia

“Loved the perspectives and depth of experience in the room. This one felt different, and I learned a lot from my peers in the space, but the conversations I had with colleagues even in the 24hrs since have been inspired, productive and compelling.”

“The speakers were all excellent and relevant and I can’t wait to put into practice in my centre."

"Congratulations on a very successful Mainstreet Australia conference. The event was well-run, thoughtfully structured and an excellent opportunity to meet with a range of place professionals from across Australia and around the world... The discussions and questions received were thoughtful and informative and will be of considerable value as we continue to develop place governance policy"

 
“Mainstreet Australia play a critical role in bringing businesses, Government and community together as we collectively seek to enliven and enhance the performance of our places and precincts. The annual conference brought together exceptional talent, insight and debate and not one to be missed in future years."


City Nation Place 2025
Mainstreet Australia 2024

Thank you to our 2026 Partners...

Partner with us

If your organisation offers place brand strategic and marketing solutions to place leadership teams, destination marketing organizations, and economic development teams, and you would like to build your presence in this community, you can find out more here.

 
There are a limited number of opportunities to speak at the conference, have one-to-one meetings, and build your profile.
Or get in touch with our Head of Partnerships, Liz, to explore further ways of getting involved.