Todd Babiak is the co-founder of Story Engine, a consultancy based in Vancouver that uses narrative to solve business problems and build brands. In 2011, one of his clients, the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, changed his life because he fell in love with place-branding. Many clients later, his strategy work for Tasmania turned into a job, which led to another job, possibly the best job in the world: CEO of Brand Gold Coast.

Stewart leads MMGY Global’s brand strategy efforts. He has created brands for destinations, hotel companies, attractions and sports franchises around the world, including Vancouver, Cleveland, Bermuda, Los Cabos, Homewood Suites by Hilton, The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Prior to MMGY Global, he served as international creative director at Dentsu, Inc. in Tokyo. He has received awards at the most prestigious advertising competitions, including Best of Show at the HSMAI Adrian Awards, twice.

Ieva Davydenko is Head of City Events at Go Vilnius, the city’s official tourism and business development agency. She leads the development of major city events and festivals that strengthen Vilnius’ identity and attract international attention. Her work brings together event creation, city marketing and partnerships.

At City Nation Place Global, Ieva will present Vilnius Pink Soup Fest – the flagship event she leads. Built around Lithuania’s iconic cold pink soup, the festival grew from 15,000 attendees to more than 176,000 visits in just four years, engaged over 330 city partners and generated an estimated €10 million in economic value. Her case study will show how an authentic local tradition became an internationally recognised festival and an effective place-branding tool.

Clare is the Founder and Director of City Nation Place, the global forum for the people and stories behind places.

City Nation Place creates connections and shares best practice between country brands, regional brands, and city brands around the world through articles, interviews, surveys, benchmarking reports, awards, the advisory group network, 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, the first City Nation Place Americas conference was launched and 2019 saw the first City Nation Place UK, specifically for towns, cities and regions across the UK. In 2025, the first Australasia conference was held in Sydney, and one-off events have been held in Singapore and Costa Rica.

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Dr. Keith Dinnie is a renowned authority in the field of Place Branding, with an extensive track record of academic and practical experience. He is the author of “Nation Branding: Concepts, Issues, Practice,” the first textbook on Nation Branding and a seminal work in the sector, now in its third edition (Routledge, 2022), and editor of “City Branding: Theory and Cases” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

As a global speaker, Keith has presented his work on City, Region, and Nation Branding in numerous countries across Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa. His research focuses on applying strategic brand management to drive tourism, attract investment, promote exports, and strengthen public diplomacy.

Since 2018, Keith serves as a Reader in Marketing at University of Dundee School of Business.

Steve Duncan is Managing Director of C Studios (www.c-studios.com), the marketing communications agency for places. With over two decades of expertise in place marketing, Steve has collaborated with cities, regions, countries, research parks, and real estate developments across virtually every major world region to reach executives and skilled talents.

A vocal advocate for digital place promotion, Steve has authored multiple studies on investment promotion, talent attraction and digital marketing. Those include "What Talent Wants: Capturing What Europe's Workforce Seeks in Jobs & Locations," “Winning Strategies in Investment Promotion Marketing,” and "The State of Digital Advertising in Economic Development." His speaking roles on these core topics have featured at City Nation Place Global, FDI Leaders Network, IEDC Annual & Leadership Conferences, MIPIM and various client stakeholder events.

At C Studios, Steve leads a team specializing in elevating place brands globally, focusing on strategy and implementation for international talent attraction, investment promotion, and trade promotion initiatives. Previously, he spent 19 years with Development Counsellors International (DCI), the New York-based leader in marketing places. His strategic approach and innovative thinking have made him a trusted advisor to organizations like Costa Rica's CINDE, Austrian Business Agency, Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency, Luxembourg Let's Make It Happen, EDB Singapore, Invest Alberta, and Invest Puerto Rico.

A journalism graduate from Pennsylvania State University, Steve has dedicated his entire career to place marketing, continuously adapting strategies to meet the evolving digital landscape. His experience spans lead generation, public relations and advertising, all aimed at enhancing a destination's findability, credibility and lovability among decision-makers in an increasingly online world.

When not working to put places on the map, Steve is usually trying to put himself somewhere on it. He has cycled some of the world's most famous passes and mountain roads, is a wine enthusiast that has tasted grapes on four continents, and is known to get up before dawn to capture the perfect sunrise photo.

Since 2003 Mr. Torres has been advising Countries in the field of Nation Branding and City Branding, working directly with heads of state, directors of National Tourism Organizations and Investment Promotion Agencies.

His clients include Countries, Regions and Cities such as Australia, Brazil, Cleveland, Costa Rica, Finland, Jamaica, Oman, Poland, Riyadh, South Africa, Stockholm and many others spread across all five continents.

Mr. Torres collaborates directly with the World Economic Forum in the matters of Nation Branding and is a guest speaker in some of the most prestigious universities in USA and Europe, such as NYU, HARVARD, the London School of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics and many others, being interviewed by The Economist, BBC, Guardian and CNN.

He is the co-author of the recently published textbook Nation and Place Branding: An Applied Approach to Building the Image of Countries, Regions, and Cities, author of the Nation Brand Builders and co-author of several academic papers covering Nation and City Branding.

Bloom Consulting lead manager on the first-ever study on the impact of Nation Brands and City Brands on local and global economies.

Find out more on Bloom Consulting website: www.bloom-consulting.com

PATRICK HARRISON is Chief Marketing Officer for Visit Tampa Bay.  Through an innovative and aggressive approach he has spearheaded the DMOs marketing transformation. His campaigns have been honored with over 30 US and International marketing and PR awards, including multiple Adrian Awards and he was named a Top 25 Extraordinary Mind by HSMAI in 2019.

Before joining Visit Tampa Bay, he spent 25+ years at agencies in the U.S. and U.K. He holds a Master’s Degree in Communications, with an emphasis in Propaganda, from the University of Leeds.

Patrick currently serves on several boards including Destination International’s Global Leadership and Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committees as well as PR & Communications Task Force and Equity, US Travel Marketing committee among others.

Stefan Hawes is Resonance's Chief AI Officer. He works with destinations, cities and developers on how they show up when AI platforms recommend places, how to bring AI into the way their organizations work, and what AI will mean for their business as it changes how people choose where to travel, invest and live.

He arrived here through 30 years of brand building. He ran creative and digital agencies in Vancouver, Amsterdam, San Francisco and Shanghai for brands from Nike to Michelin, then crossed into destination marketing as Vice President, Global Marketing at Destination Vancouver. There he led a full brand transformation and the organization's move into AI, from AI-powered visitor servicing to AI visibility to adoption across the whole organization.

He writes and speaks internationally on AI and the future of place marketing.

Stefan lives in Berlin.

Lene Lyck Fasting is Head of Communications & Branding at Oslo&Co. Oslo&Co is the official business development and promotion agency, owned and funded by the City of Oslo. It attracts investors, talent and visitors, and manages the Oslo brand and its international outreach.

She joined in 2025 after almost 30 years in strategic communications, working across reputation management, positioning, PR, employer branding and campaign development for public sector, NGO and commercial clients, earning multiple international awards along the way. Before Oslo&Co, she spent over a decade on the leadership team of one of Norway's leading communications agencies (Trigger), responsible for client development and contributing to the agency's strategy and growth. She now leads communications and branding for Oslo&Co.

Maria is a strategic communication and nation branding expert.

With over ten years of professional experience in both public and international sectors, Maria has expertise in global PR and communications, public administration, and nation branding. Maria has managed international projects and communication activities for Vice-Prime-Minister’s Office on European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

As a Strategic Communications Advisor to the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Maria provides policy advice on public diplomacy and country promotion. Over the last three years, she has set up an official digital ecosystem of Ukraine Ukraine.ua that has reached unprecedented global audiences of 700 mln, developed the Public Diplomacy Strategy of Ukraine, and launched a range of successful country promotion campaigns.

Currently, as the Head of BRAND UKRAINE, Maria is responsible for Ukraine’s brand development.

Maria holds a Master in International Relations from Kyiv Taras Shevchenko National University, Ukraine, and Master in Communication for Development from Malmo University, Sweden.

As Embratur’s Business Development Manager for Europe, Lilas Nascimento drives strategic growth across 9 priority markets on the continent, specialising in unlocking high-value opportunities and connecting European business networks, investors, and partners to Brazil’s dynamic commercial and tourism ecosystem. Having successfully led Embratur’s UK office for 5 years, she has developed solid market intelligence and established deep ties with key British stakeholders. Today, Lilas bridges her local and continental expertise with the innovative national management team, celebrated for breaking the global growth record for international tourist arrivals in 2025. Operating under the strategic framework of the Plano Brasis (2025-2028), her work focuses on market expansion, multi-regional brand governance, and strategic decentralisation — offering practical benchmarks on how national organisations navigate global competitiveness, balance macro-destination brands with local micro-identities, and transform complex assets, such as the multi-state Amazon brand, into powerful, authentic travel products for discerning travellers.

Dr Natasha Norman is the Director of Institute for Identity (INSTID), which she co-founded in London in 2012. She is a proponent of the people-focused approach to place branding that upholds place’s way of life rather than infrastructure. Trained in national identity (a Lord Dahrendorf Scholar at LSE), Natasha leads INSTID’s qualitative research and speaks at conferences and in the media from the anthropological angle of the place branding field. She has been both a recipient and a judge at City Nation Place awards, and is a longstanding member of The Place Brand Observer Expert panel. Natasha has run projects across 3 continents with the combined population of 20+ million people.

Fernando Prado is one of the most recognised international experts in reputation and brand management. He is co-creator of cutting-edge reputation measurement tools such as RepTrak^® and RepCore^®. His branding and communication strategies, as well as his research projects on reputation and sustainability have won several national and international awards for their effectiveness and innovation.

Fernando has helped many of the largest companies in Spain and Latin America, as well as relevant multinational companies, in their reputation management. He is also an expert in the reputation of nations and has helped different governments in the management of their country brand.

Before joining Reputation Lab, he headed Reputation Institute (a world leader in corporate reputation measurement and management) in Spain and Latin America for 13 years. During his time at Reputation Institute, Fernando also led the company's global place reputation practice.

Previously, he worked for 10 years at WPP Group in positions related to brand strategy: CEO of Kantya Brand Strategies (Spain), Head of Strategic Planning at JWT Spain, Global BRANDZ Coordinator at Millward Brown Chicago and Strategic Planner at Ogilvy New York.

Fernando Prado holds a BA (Hons.) in International Business Management from ICADE (Madrid) and Middlesex University (London), and an MBA from IESE (Barcelona).

Claire Prentice co-leads the Scottish Government's central Brand, Marketing & Campaigns team, with Brand Scotland and the nation's international reputation at the heart of her remit to drive economic growth. Her team leads the development and cross-sector delivery of Scotland's nation brand strategy, building a distinctive, coherent brand identity and story across trade and investment, tourism, culture, education and talent through a partnership-led, collaborative approach to international marketing.

Brand Scotland won Best Communications Strategy, Place Brand at the City Nation Place Global Awards in 2022 and 2024, and was highly commended in the same category in 2023. Brand Scotland is also part of the City Nation Place Advisory Forum.

Beyond Brand Scotland, Claire is also responsible for the delivery of multiple award-winning behaviour change and public information campaigns across a wide range of Scottish Government priorities, including climate action, economy, health, road safety and equality.

Claire was Chair of the Marketing Society Scotland Advisory Board from 2023 to 2025. Prior to joining the Scottish Government, she spent 5 years as an Account Director at one of Scotland's leading advertising agencies, the Union.

Constanza Rojas Bravo is a Chilean international affairs professional specialising in strategic alliances, international relations, and nation branding. She currently serves as Strategic Alliances Manager for Chile’s Country Brand, Marca Chile, where she leads the foundation's international relations, manages strategic partnerships with public and private actors, and oversees Chile's positioning in key international spaces.

With experience in political and strategic analysis, Constanza has built an extensive career working with international organisations, including IOM and UNHCR, as well as the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, developing expertise in multilateral negotiation, network building, and the design of international strategies. Her work at Marca Chile places her at the intersection of diplomacy, civic identity, and the authentic projection of Chile to the world.

Rose Wangen-Jones is the Managing Director, Marketing, Destinations & Commercial at London & Partners, the official promotional agency for London. Working with the Mayor of London and a network of partners, she promotes London as a leading world city in which to study, invest, work, and visit. Previously, she was the CEO of The Writer, a global brand language consultancy. Before joining The Writer, she was Global Business Director at WPP, responsible for the communications and marketing of one of the group’s largest global accounts. She has spent most of her career in the private sector, leading the development of marketing communications for top national and multi-national brands in the US, Latin America and Europe. Rose holds a BA in Economics and an MBA (Marketing).

Richard Wike is Director of Global Attitudes Research at Pew Research Center in Washington, DC. He manages the Center’s international survey research and writes about public opinion around the world on a variety of topics, such as democracy, international cooperation, technology, and attitudes toward the United States and China.

He is an author of numerous Pew Research Center reports and has written for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, The Financial Times, The Guardian, Nikkei Asia, Politico, Journal of Democracy, Journal of Politics and other publications. Wike has been interviewed by a variety of U.S. and non-U.S. news organizations.

Prior to joining Pew Research, Wike was a Senior Associate for international and corporate clients at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. Wike got his start in public opinion research with Schapiro Research Group, an Atlanta-based polling firm. He received his PhD in Political Science from Emory University.